THE COST OF LIVING IN TWELVE 
INDUSTRIAL CITIES 
CHAPTER I 
SCOPE AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 
LTHOUGH in recent years considerable attention has 
been devoted to studying the changes in living costs 
and the causes of differences in those costs in various 
sections of the country, a great deal of confusion still exists 
in the popular mind regarding the basis and general nature 
of cost of living figures. Instances of excessively high cost 
of individual articles in a certain locality are frequently 
cited and accepted as evidence that the entire price scale 
in that section is proportionately high. Travelers areproneto 
warn acquaintances of the prohibitive cost of a commodity 
in some city, as compared with home-town prices, without 
considering it necessary to explain the differences in the 
merchandise purchased or the circumstances of store loca- 
tion and sales conditions in the two localities. There has, 
therefore, grown up the settled belief that living costs vary 
widely in different geographical divisions of the country, al- 
though, as a rule, little evidence is produced to substantiate 
the belief. And it is assumed, though rarely stated, that 
these differences apply to comparable standards of living. 
ReLaTioN of Living CosTs To STANDARDS oF LIVING 
So general has become the confusion between differences 
in living costs and the differences in the cost of maintaining 
a certain standard of living that an explanation of their dis- 
similarity seems advisable. A cost of living study deals with 
retail prices for a similar set of commodities and services,