The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1913 COST OF LIVING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 20, 24 September 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1913 COST OF LIVING.

The main conclusion of a report jusl is^vi« % cl liy the British Board of Trade with regard to the cost of living appears to be that the average increase duriny the past seven years in the cost of the British workman's rent, food, fuel and clothing, taken roundly, may lie set down at about Id per cent. The report gives the results ol an investigation of rents, prices oi I food, and rates of wages during 1912. | The inquiry dealt with the course of wholesale as weil as retail prices, and supplies valuable statistical information hearing on prices of food in foreign countries and the British Dominions Lversoa. These show that the upward movement in prices is of a uniI versa! character, and further that in most countries the rise lias been greater than in Great Britain. So far as the latter is concerned the rise in the cost of living is shown to have been very marked in the 1900-12 period, and if the comparison is extended hack to the year of lowest prices, which is given as 180 G, the increase in food prices up to 1912 would Appear to have been about 2o per cent. The report shows, however, that the level now reached in Fngland is no higher than in the early eighties, and ,n,ich below thai c\' the seventies, when prices wore exceptionally high. Wliil -1 the rate of wages In selected trade; has shown an upward movement thi < has been by no means proportionate to the rise in the general cost of living. The conclusions ar-

rived at are very much the same as those reached bv the enquiries made i„ other count rie, and dearly indicate that the movement, is a workl- \\ ido one.