Kansas Academy of Science. 313 



THE HIGH COST OF FOOD. 



LkoN" a. CONtiDON. 



OF great importance to the people of this country is the 

 high cost of food. It is common knowledge that the retail 

 price which we pay for fuel energy and bodily growth is 

 steadily advancing. This has not come about in the last year 

 or two, as so many would have us believe, basing their claims 

 on retail prices for the past four years. It is true that the 

 fifteen principal articles of food alone have increased one- 

 seventh in the last four years. The fifteen foods to which 

 reference is made are sirloin steak, round steak, rib roast, pork 

 chops, smoked bacon, smoked ham, lard, eggs, butter, milk, 

 wheat ilour, corn meal, Irish potatoes, and sugar. 



It has been estimated that, starting with 100 as the basis for 

 1912, the percentage for 1916 was 114, or an increase of 14 per- 

 cent in the cost of these combined foodstuffs in the four years 

 just passed. The figures for the various foods in question in 

 1916 were: Sirloin steak, 120; round steak, 128; rib roast, 115; 

 pork chops, 121; smoked bacon, 119; smoked ham, 120; lard, 

 116; eggs, 113; butter, 109; milk, 103; wheat flour, 107; corn 

 meal, 104 ; Irish potatoes, 98 ; and sugar, 138. It will be seen 

 that the greatest increases have been in the meats and in 

 sugar, while in the case of Irish potatoes there was a slight de- 

 crease in cost in the early part of 1916, and an enormous in- 

 crease in the latter part of 1916. 



To any one who has been studying the subject of the high 

 cost of food, these figures do not tell the whole story. The 

 more one gets into the subject the less he seems to know as to 

 the real cause of these prices. The speaker has obtained from 

 a large number of sources the retail price of the fifteen prin- 

 cipal articles of food for the past twenty-seven years. The 

 most reliable sources found were government statistics. From 

 1890 to 1896, inclusive, a period of the first seven years of these 

 twenty-seven, the tendency of the retail food prices was to go 

 down, as shown by the curve in the accompanying chart. In 

 fact, retail prices of foodstuffs were lowest in 1896. Then a 

 change took place, and for the twenty years prices of food- 

 stuffs have had a tendency to increase, the year 1916 showing 

 the high-water price mark of the principal foodstuffs. 



