COST OF LIVING WAR AND PRICES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 57, 9 March 1915, Page 2

COST OF LIVING WAR AND PRICES

HOW THE PINCH IS FELT IN BRITAIN A 20 PER CENT. INCREASE. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 19th January. There ""have been loud denials of economic distress in Germany, and the most that is admitted officially is a rise of from 7 to 16 per cent, in certain food prices in Berlin. The strength of the case there is no means of judging, but we can fairly assume that Germany's appreciation of food prices is greater than ours, since her means of procuring supplies are so much less than ours. In England there has been a general and steady rise of prices since the war began, -which is quite surprising to those 1 who expected normal prices trom our command of the eea. Official figures published now give a fair indication of what the increase means to the public, for most people have now, after five months of war, adapted themselves to the changed, circumstances, and made the economies in their menage. The inference from the official statistics of the Board of Trade and the Board of Agriculture is that " there has been a very definite advance of, prices all round, which must amount in the aggregate to an increase of something like 20 per cent." Following is a short table showing the prices ruling to-day as compared with those in the same week of 1914 : —

Perhaps the most remarkable of these increases is that in sugar, for it was to steady the price of this commodity that the Govemment adopted the very radical step of buying, up a season's supply at the cost of many millions' of pounds. THE DEMAND FOR MEAT. Meat shows some remarkable discrepancies between wholesale and retail prices. Apparently many people who formerly bought the best qualities are now contenting themselves with inferior cuts, and the diminished demand has kept the higher prices fairly steady at Id per 1b dearer, while for lower claas meat the rise is never less than 2d. The great contracts entered into by the British and French Governments have led to a shortage of chilled beef and increased the cost of home-killed, cattle. The country is almost denuded </f fat beaste, and a further advance in prices is to be looked for. The National Fede- . ration of Meat Traders has informed the Board of Trad© that home-killed beef need not cost more than l^d per lb higher than last July, and that Id to 2d per lb for prime and 2d to 3d for coarser parts ought to cover the rise in the price of chilled and frozen beef. But this assurance, of course, does not protect the individual housewife against the demands of her local retailer. As _ regards eggs,,, the many strange descriptions are mere trade terms. Twopence will not guarantee the housewife anything more than the generic attri- ! butes of the egg. Anything costing less than 3d is eaten timidly. Of course, the Siberian or Russian egg is off the mar- j ket altogethei 1 , and the Dutch have few now for export. Bread has risen with other things. At the moment the baker has to pay 43s for a sack of flour, so it is scarcely possible for him- to sell the quartern loaf at less than the ruling price, which is 7d. The slow increase in the price of bread I is said to be in part due to the fact that many of the bakers were Germans, and they hesitated to put up prices as flour rose for fear of being misunderstood. NEW POPULARITY. Cheese has shown a very rapid appreciation in price, largely owing to the demand for the troops, both at the front and at home, in whose menu it appears regularly. Tenpence is laid down by the Board of Trade as a fair price for colonial cheese, but this would not buy the best. Canned provisions, as lobster* and salmon, very much appreciated on the working-class supper table, are dear, says one account, and it is predicted that their prices will rise, while sardines also show an upward tendency. All sorts of tinned meats and such additions to^ the everyday" menu must be bought with consideration by the careful housekeeper, who finds, with the general advance, a difficulty in making her fixed weekly allowance meet all the domestic wants. Even the homely bloater and kipper are quite 25 per cent, dearer than they were a month ago, while the dried and smoked haddock has become a luxury that only the well-to-do may enjoy. Hence, the thrifty caterer for the family has fallen back on cheese to an extent much greater than usual. Bread and cheese has been the supper, where in more normal times fish, or even something in ihe form of meat, as cold ham or bacon, might have appeared. Moving a little outwards' in the social grade, the housekeeper has substituted a dish of macaroni and cheese for the simple entrees or a second meat dish in»the dinner menu. FISH EXPENSIVE. The rise in prices of fish is easily understood. The North Sea fisheries were closed compulsorily a couple of months ago, and for months previously had been operated under great difficulties. The Irish Sea and the Channel provide only a fraction of the usual quantity available, and to-day the quantity reaching the London market is perhaps a third of the normal. Consequently, sole 3 have bounded up from Is 4d to 2s 9d a pound, and whiting from 3d to 8d each. Even plaice is a luxury at ' 2s a pound ; turbot and halibut can hardly be obtained ; and a small smoked haddock costs Is to Is 6d. Smelts, bream, and sprats have suddenly become dainties. A Hull trawler --which returned last week from an adventurous voyage to the White Sea threw on the mai'ket a cargo which returned £3000. In the sudden bound up of food prices, poultry and game have become actually cheaper than meat. Really good fowls" can be got for 3s 9d to 4s, which would only buy a very small joint of 'meat. Turkeys are not dear, but ducks are scarce. Wild English rabbits are dear — Is 6d each. FUEL SHORTAGE. Coal has made several rises since the war broke out, partly owing to the congestion of the railways and partly to the dearth of labour since recruiting began. The householder who was able to fill liis' cellar at summer prices reaps this year something more than the mere difference in price between summer and winter scales. House coal ia now '32s a

ton and kitchen range coal 275, while the poor can buy off the street carts at Is lid per cwt. Consequently, coke, which has not risen, has conic into increased demand. Finally, we have a distinct advance in the price ot wood for fuel and kindling, due to the German blockade of the Baltic trade. Normally, England is simply flooded with cheap Baltic pines — very like our white pine— which is used for every variety of package, cheap furnituie, pit props, and fuel. Practically all of it came from Sweden and Norway and the Baltic coasts of Russia. Now there is none coming forward, and the housekeeper gets only four or five bundles of kindling wood for 3d. where formerly she got seven. Wooden matches, too, are likely to rise for the same reason. Pitwood usually comes in in September to the tune of 600,000 tons. This supply was cut down to 240,000 tons in September, 1914, most of which came from the Landes, in south-western France. Supplies ought to be coming from Canada in February. I have made enquiries amongst timber firms, and find that the high cost of freight is likely to stifle any effort to draw such a lowprice product from the otherwise suitable forest woods of New Zealand. Another cause of the shortage o£ fuel is the fact that 1000 tons of firewood and 100 tons of charcoal per month are sent to the troops at the front, all of whom in Che trenches are now provided with charcoal stoves. How keen" the demand is may be gauged from the fact that, since a score of ports in the Swedish Norrland have been closed by the German contraband declaration, a new and expensive route has been opened through the Norwegian port of Trond'hjem, which is now congested with timber en route for this country. THE CAUSES OF THE RISE. The two leading causes of the general rise in prices are high freights and the shortage of labour for transport purposes. For a time, as we all know, the uncertainty about insurance kept ships off the seas, despite the supremacy of our Navy, which has never really been challenged. When this was remedied it became apparent that the shortage of vessels was going to keep rates up. Not only had the Governments of the Allies taken up a great number of ships for war purposes, but the great mercantile marine of Germany, which is an important factor in the scaie of freights, in normal times, was altogether withdrawn from competition. The ships which the Allies have captured are only very slowly coming into commercial work, and the bulk of the German marine is either locked up in German ports or is interned^ for safety in those of neutral countries. Hence the. loud demand in some quarters that the Government should lose no time in making use of the captured German ships, either by selling them in the open market or by operating them as a State venture in the interests of the public. HOW THE POOR FARE. By careful and statistical study extending over some years, Mrs. Pemher Reeves has become a recognised authority on the household budgets of the London poor. Discussing the effect of the rise in prices, she says : _ "It hits the poor harder in proportion than anyone else, but it does not make just the kind of difference that some people suppose. It is suggested, for example, in times of distress that there is a danger that the children's milk will bo cut off. In ninety-nine out' of a hundred of the homes I know best there is no milk to cut off. It is an article unknown to the family budget. A tin of condensed milk is the only milk the children in such homes ever see. "The one staple food of the workingclass household is bread. It is the last thing the mother cuts down,, and the children can get bread and maigarine when everything .else has had to go. The rise here is something like 40 per cent., for the poor were getting their bread as low as 2£d for the halfquartern loaf before the war, and now they are paying 3^d. "Meat has practically vanished from the tables of the poor, and eggs, of course, have gone completely, except in those odd cases, not by any means infrequent, where a battered old hen supports itself in a backyard on nothing in particular, and gallantly succeeds somehow or other in laying two or three eggs a week. But 'here the precious egg is almost always sold, not eaten. i "I am often asked why the poor do not eat porridge," says Mrs. Reeves. "The answer is, of course, the same, that they cannot afford the gas or coal for anything that takes hours to cook. I doubt whether the children are much worse off, for the most wholesome food they normally have is bread, and bread is the last thing the mother cuts off in time of stress. They do not get school meals — unless in quite exceptional cases— if the father is not out of work, which fet -present he generally is not, though his wages have diminished most materially in purchasing power."

IUI.U. s. d. law. s. d. English beef, per cwt — Ist 73 6 2nd ... 68 10 Bacon, per cwt.— Wiltshire .., „. 92 0 'Irish .. 87 0 60 8 58 4 84 0 80 0 EggsDated ... ... 3 2 New laid „. 2 9 Cooking ... ... 1 9 Potatoes, per bushel ... 3 9 Butter— " Normandy, per lb 1 7 Cheapest 1 4£ Sugar, per lb r 0 3| 2 5 2 2 1 4 3 6 1 6 1 3 0 2|