JANUAKY 31, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



167 



but also pressing problems of economic re- 

 search. 



If a complete and thorough investigation 

 should be undertaken to show the relations 

 of the price movements of the principal 

 countries, it is probable that the composite 

 result expressed in the form of an interna- 

 tional index number would not differ 

 greatly from my international index num- 

 ber in statistical significance. The inter- 

 national index number is represented by 

 diagram No. 3. 



What would this result mean? I think 

 that we should have in a well-defined form 

 an approximation to those two concepts 

 concerning which Jevons wrote, namely, 

 first, an international multiple standard of 

 value, and, second, a method of achieving 

 the use of international money by making 

 the present currency of all nations token 

 money under the new standard of value. 



Since we hold that the evidence shows 



that international causes are largely re- 

 sponsible for the advance in prices, we may 

 omit consideration of many of the remedies 

 which have been proposed from time to 

 time which, if applied, would be essentially 

 local in their operation. 



What are the international causes which 

 could have produced this common rise of 

 more than forty per cent, since 1896 in 

 three countries, and what could have been 

 the common international causes for the 

 fall in prices of the period, 1860-1896? 

 The writer believes that the international 

 causes are three in number. First, cheaper 

 transportation was responsible for a part 

 of the decline, 1880-1896, and the cessation 

 of railroad building on a large scale 

 coupled with increasing consumption re- 

 sulted in the recovery following 1896 in 

 some part. Second, extensive use of farm 

 machinery lowered the cost of production 

 throughout the world and the use of labor- 

 saving machinery on farms resulted in a 

 relative displacement of farm labor, caus- 

 ing the relative exodus from the agricul- 

 tural occupations. This caused a part of 

 the decline in food prices down to 1896. 

 This table of averages of food prices in 

 comparison with the prices of other com- 

 modities indicates what have been the 

 changes in the two groups by five-year 

 periods. Diagram No. 4 discloses the 

 trend of these averages. 



