PRINCIPLES OF VALUE AND PRICE 469 



Advance from 15 cents to 20 cents per quart reduced sales 67 per 

 cent. 



This same inquiry was made by the Hon. J. A. Gaynor, of Grand 

 Rapids, Wisconsin, a prominent cranberry grower, to one hundred 

 retailers in the state of Wisconsin in 1906, with the following result: 



Advance from 10 cents to 12 J cents per quart reduced sales 49 

 per cent. 



Advance from 12^ cents to 15 cents per quart reduced sales 74 

 per cent. 



The difference in these two sets of figures may be due to an 

 increase of regular cranberry consumers by 1912. 



147. INCREASING DEMAND AND RISING PRICES 1 



The increasing urban concentration of population has been an 

 influential factor in the increase of prices of the commodities of com- 

 mon consumption. The significance of the city-ward drift of the 

 population on the side of supply, in reducing the volume of agricultural 

 production, has been pointed out elsewhere in this report. Not less 

 potent is its influence in increasing the demand. City growth has 

 unquestionably played a part in the advance of the cost of living. 

 The great bulk of the population has been transferred from the ranks 

 of food-producers in the country to the class of food-consumers in the 

 city, and this at the same time has increased enormously the difficulty 

 of distributing the food supply. The growth of the cities has also 

 contributed to advance the cost of living in other ways than merely 

 through the transfer of the population from the food-producing to the 

 food-consuming class. Everybody knows the growing practice of 

 living from hand to mouth, and buying in small quantities; extension 

 of credit buying instead of cash purchases; the generally higher scale 

 of living; and the inevitable temptations to spend and waste. 



Finer and more varied food than heretofore is now generally 

 demanded by the workingman, on account of an educated taste, and 

 also, perhaps, because of the more general publicity as to what is con- 

 sumed by the other classes. The result is an increased demand, which 

 advances prices. 



In former days garments were often worn until the color changed 

 and the cloth became threadbare; nowadays the workingman discards 



1 Adapted from the Report of the Massachusetts Commission on the Cost of 

 Living, May, 1910, pp. 491-95* 



