110 TWELFTH REPORT. 



tion — fit goods from the prices of goods still iu their raw or unmanu- 

 factured state. The classificatiou of commodities into those which are 

 primary and into those which are derivative is a familiar one in our 

 economic text books and it is a useful arrangement here because it 

 enables us to go back beyond the 160 or more articles — all derivative 

 goods — whose index numbers have just been noticed and examine the 

 prices of the raw materials — vegetable, animal or mineral — out of which 

 they were made. 



The table of the bureau considers 200 derivative or manufactured 

 articles — namely the ones we have already just considered and shows a 

 rise in points of their index number from 107.8 in 1901 to 122.2 in 1908 — 

 a total of 14.1. On the other hand fifty new commodities — the primary 

 goods — or tliose which are marketed as raw materials — show a rise dur- 

 ing the same period from 111.4 in 1901 to 125.5 in 1908, an increase of 14.1 

 points. It is along this line of inquiry it may be noted that if the sta- 

 tistics were available and we wished to push our derivatives far enough, 

 the prices of natural agents and of production goods, which we re- 

 jected in an earlier part of the paper, would produce their proper effect 

 wpfm the cost of living. 



From still another standpoint the situation with regard to high prices 

 may be shown from data which the bureau of labor has collected. This 

 is from the standpoint of relative total money expenses of a family at 

 present as compared -with the preceding decade. In its study of the 

 living expenses of 2,567 families in 1901, the bureau of labor ascertained 

 a normal rule of expenditure for different household needs, and, as- 

 suming that this is typical for other families and that it has not varied 

 until the present time the information is easily at hand for showing the 

 growth in the family budget so far as food is concerned. 



In 1901 expenditures for food from one familv equalled roundly 

 $325; 1902, $345; 1903, |343; 1904, |347 ; 1905, |349; 1906, |359 ; and 

 in 1907, |375 an increase of |50 in six years. 



Again from the standpoint of the ''distance a dollar will go" in buy- 

 ing food products the labor bureau's report shows that 7 lbs. of fresh 

 beef could be secured for this sum in 1901 or 914 lbs. of salt beef; 8 lbs. 

 of fresh pork, the same of salt pork; 714 lbs. of chicken; 7 to 10 pounds 

 of fish; 5 doz. of eggs; 10% qts. of milk; 4 lbs. of butter; 6 lbs. of 

 cheese; 9 lbs. of lard; two of tea; 4Mi of coffee; 1634 sugar; 2 gal. of 

 molasses; 40 lbs. of Hour; 431/0 lbs. of corn meal; 201/3 lbs. of bread; 

 1214 lbs. of rice and 1 bush, of potatoes. At no time during the suc- 

 ceeding six years — as an average throughout the year — would a dollar 

 purchase as much of any one of these couimodities as the amount we 

 have just described save in the case for one year of lard and for all 

 years of sugar and coffee. 



Finally with regard to all prices everywhere both foreign and domes- 

 tic and of all commodities the index nund)er of the London Economist 

 shows a gradual apjireciation as follows: 1896, 61 points; 1906, 77 

 points and 1907, 80 points — exceptions being made in this instance also 

 of the prices of sugar, coffee and tea. 



More specifically it niay be interesting to note that the February re- 

 port of the Canadian Department of Labor tabulated retail price quo- 

 tations upon thirty-three articles of food collected from all the cities of 



