10 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
living in the United States.! This relates entirely to the
requirements of workingmen’s families. Although a large
body of data exists regarding index numbers and family
budgets in other countries, these are not treated here; nor
is there included in this treatise any discussion of the uses to
which American data have been put.? After an analysis of
the problems involved in determining the actual cost of living
and the relative cost from time to time or from place to
place, the discussion proceeds to a description of the principal
index numbers by means of which changes in the cost of
living have been measured. These are then compared and
their differences noted. Finally, there is an estimate of
changes in the cost of living between July, 1914 and Decem-
ber, 1925, for the United States as a whole, as measured by
the index numbers of the National Industrial Conference
Board.
t Family budgets were so completely discussed in Research Report No. 41, 0p. cit.,
that only the briefest summary is presented here.
2 A recent publication notes many such instances. See Elma B. Carr, “The
Use of Cost of Living Figures in Wage Adjustments,” United States Bureau of
Labor Statistics, Bulletin No. 369, Washington, May, 1925.