106 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
data may differ as to (a) localities covered, (b) use of ques-
tionnaires or special agents.
Basic BupGer
The basic budgets used by the National Industrial Con-
ference Board and by the United States Bureau of Labor
Statistics in constructing their respective cost of living index
numbers in each instance represent the needs of working
class families. There is within this description, however, a
considerable latitude tor differences in standards, not only
as regards the character of the goods and services consumed,
but also as regards the proportions in which each is used.
Moreover, each index number is based on price changes of a
group of samples chosen so as to represent total consump-
tion. The choice of these naturally will to some extent affect
the results.
Period of Consumption Investigation
As noted in Chapter III, the consumption which forms the
basis of sampling and weighting in the Bureau of Labor
Statistics index number relates for the most part to some time
in the years 1918 or 1919. The items purchased, their quan-
tities and costs were perpetuated in the cost of living index
number, leaving entirely out of account possible shifting in
expenditures because of increased incomes during the war
period.! The National Industrial Conference Board budget,
on the other hand, was designed as a pre-war budget repre-
sentative of conditions in July, 1914.
A glance at Table 1% and Table 4° as well as at the charts
indicates that in 1918 and 1919 the cost of clothing and of
furniture and furnishings had increased far more than the
cost of any other major item in the budget. Rents, on the
other hand, were lagging conspicuously behind in the price
advance, and fuel and light costs also were still relatively
low. Thus. if families had maintained their pre-war stan-
! The communities where the basic budget investigation for the Bureau of Labor
Statistics series was made were shipbuilding and other industrial districts acutely
affected by the war, and in which wage increases perhaps allowed an unusual surplus
for goods not ordinarily purchased.
? See p. 30.
3 See pp. 66-67.
