COST OF LIVING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1004, 8 February 1912, Page 4

COST OF LIVING.

AN INTERNATIONAL, COMMISSION.

At a meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce a resolution was introduced calling for the formation of an International Commission to investigate the high cost of living throughout the world and the changes in wages. The resolution, which owes its primary initiative to Professor Fisher of Yale, will be acted upon at a later meeting of the Chamber, It calls upon the United States Government to summon an International Commission, which will probably require two or three years to conclude its investigations. Economists believe that such an investigation will give highly valuable data, tracing the cause of the advances in prices and wage standards. For instance, American wages are increasing more rapidly than the cost ot living, while the reverse is the case in England. The International Commission would take up this subject and endeavour to find out a basic reason. There is no doubt (writes the New York correspondent of the London Standard) that cold storage is one of the leading factors in America’s advancing prices, as it permits dealers practically to effect corners in the market by permitting only limited supplies oi commodities to be offered for sale, and the rest to be retained indefinitely. Thus, instead of low prices ranging while commodities are in season, and naturally plentiful, their suppyl is artificially regulated by cold storage. They are made to last longer and command excessive prices. One of the subjects which such an International Commission would probably be called upon to give much attention to would be how Governments can regulate cold storage manipulations in the interests of consumers.