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per cent for bacon. Ten of the 15 articles advanced in price more than 50 per cent.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN RETAIL PRICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD: PRICE ON MARCH 15 AND APRIL 15, 1913, COMPARED WITH THE AVERAGE PRICE FOR THE 10-YEAR PERIOD, 1890 TO 1899, BY ARTICLES.

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The next table compares for each of the principal articles of food the retail price on March 15 and April 15, 1913, with the price on March 15 and April 15, 1912, within each of the 5 geographical divisions.

The table shows, for example, that prices for sirloin steak on April 15, 1913, compared with prices on April 15, 1912, advanced 20.9 per cent in the North Atlantic division, 16.5 per cent in the South Atlantic division, 19.1 per cent in the North Central division, 14.5 per cent in the South Central division, and 12.1 per cent in the Western division.

PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN RETAIL PRICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD: PRICE ON MARCH 15, AND APRIL 15, 1913, COMPARED WITH PRICE ON THE CORRESPONDING DATE IN 1912, BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS.

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In order that the course of prices of each of the various articles through a series of years may be studied, relative prices have been computed for each of 15 articles included in this investigation. These relative prices have also been combined so that the course of prices as a whole may be seen. No relative prices were computed for three articles for which actual prices are quoted in General Table I of this report. These articles are chuck roast, leg of lamb (yearling), and "fresh" eggs, and the reasons for their omission from the table of relative prices are shown in Bulletin No. 115, page 28.

A relative price, or index number, as it is technically called, of any article is the per cent which the price of that article at any certain date is of the price of the same article at a date or period which has been selected as the base or standard. The value of the relative price is that it enables the reader to follow more readily the course of prices of a single article, and, when these relative prices or index numbers are combined, also to follow the course of prices of groups. of articles. The base selected for the compilation of retail prices of food in this report is the average price for the 10-year period 1890 to 1899. This base period is the same as was used by the Bureau in previous reports on retail prices.1

The next table shows for each of the five geographical divisions and for the United States as a whole the relative retail prices of food for each year from 1890 to 1912 and also for each month from January, 1911, to April, 1913. In the first section of the table is shown for each of the five geographical divisions and for the United States as a whole the simple average of the relative prices of the 15 articles. In computing the relative prices shown in the second section of the table for each of the five geographical divisions and for the United States the relative price for each of the 15 articles was weighted according to average consumption in workingmen's families in the particular division or in the United States as a whole. The 15 articles represent approximately two-thirds of the average expenditure for food in workingmen's families, according to the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor. The percentage of total expenditures represented by the 15 articles in each geographical division and in the United States as a whole, as shown by the Eighteenth Annual Report, was as follows:

North Atlantic division...
South Atlantic division..

North Central division..

South Central division.

Western division.......

United States...........

Per cent.
64. 11

The table of simple and weighted relative prices follows.

66.43

63. 10

67.95

57.79

63.97

1 Eighteenth Annual Report and Bulletins Nos. 59, 65, 71, 77, 105, 106, 108, 110, 113, and 115; in reports on wholesale prices (Bulletins Nos. 39, 45, 51, 57, 63, 69, 75, 81, 87, 93, 99, and 114); and in reports on wages and hours of labor (Nineteenth Annual Report and Bulletins Nos. 59, 65, 71, and 77).

RELATIVE RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD: SIMPLE AND WEIGHTED AVERAGES, 1890 TO APRIL, 1913, BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS.

[Average price for 1890-1899-100.0. The relative prices shown in this report for 1890 to 1997 do not exactly agree with those shown in Bulletin 77 for the reason that a smaller number of cities and a smaller number of articles are included.]

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The last column of the above table shows that the relative price computed by giving to each of the articles its weight according to average consumption in workingmen's families was in 1890, 101.9 per cent of the average price for the 10-year period 1890 to 1899. In 1891 prices advanced to 103.4; in 1892 there was a slight decline to 101.6, in 1893 an advance to 104.1. After this there was a gradual decline until the lowest price (95.2) in the 23 years and 4 months covered by this report was reached in 1896. From that time each year showed an advance until 144.1 was reached in 1910. The price (143.0) in 1911 showed a slight decline from 1910, but the price (154.2) in 1912 was far above that of any other year during the 23-year period. The monthly relative price in January, 1911, was 145.0. There was a decline until 135.3 was reached in April; then an advance each month until January, 1912, when the relative price was 153.5; a decline during each of the next two months; then an advance until 154.6 was reached in May; then a slight decline to 154.1 in June, a further decline to 151.8 in July, then an advance each month to 159.3 in November, then a decline each month to 155.8 in February, and then an advance to 156.7 in March and to 158.9 in April, 1913.

The column of the above table which gives for the United States the relative price computed as a simple average of the 15 principal articles of food shows that the course of the simple average yearly prices is the same as the course of the weighted, but the simple relative goes lower during the period of low prices and higher during the period of high prices.

The lowest price during the 23 years and 4 months was reached in each of the geographical divisions and in the United States as a whole in 1896, both for the simple averages and for the weighted averages. The highest price during the 23 years and 4 months was

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