ECONOMICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 86, 15 August 1913, Page 5

ECONOMICS.

THE COST OF LIVING. PRICES RISING EVER Y W : - iER 5' [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] Times— Sydney Sun Special Cables Loudon, August 14.

The Board of Trade report, comparing the cost of living of the working classes in 1905 and 1912, indicates that the average increase is 10 per cent. in rent, fuel, food and clothing. Though tea and sugar have fallen, mutton has risen by 0 per cent., bed 9 per cent., bread and (lour 15 per cent., bacon '32 per cent., and potatoes 48 per cent.

The Times, in a leader, says that there is some consolation over the rapid rise in food since 1900 in the fact that other countries have also advanced. Austria has advanced :5-5 per cent., Belgium .'52 per cent., Germans 30 per cent,, and Italy 20 per cent.. while France and Britain have advanced only 15 per cent. The nearest to them are Australia and New Zealand, with 16 per cent, Canada head* the list with an increase of 151 per cent., though the United States and Japan, if the figures were available, would probably surpass -that. Tin fiscal argument in favor of free imports which might be drawn from the position is marred by the case ol France, which has become more selfsufficing under a deliberate policy of Protection.

RAILWAYMEN'S AGITATION. (Received S.O a.m.) London, August 11. The North Western Railwaymen at Liverpool are agitating for a living wage. They assert that twentyoni shillings to twenty-three shillings does not provide a bare subsistence. They resolved not to undertake special work until they had been granted an advance.