BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS INDEX 65
INDEX NumBERS oF Cost oF LIVING IN SHIPBUILDING
CENTERS, AND IN OTHER CITIES AND Towns, AND
FOR THE UNITED STATES
Month and Year
uly, 1914... ...
december, 1914. ...
december, 1915... ..
december, 1916. . . . .
Jecember, 1917.
december, 1918.
june, 1919...
Eighteen Shipbuild-
ing Centers (base
changed to July,
1914)a
00.4
02.
92.5
"1
“0 bb
Other Cities and
Towns (on assump-
tion of prices therein
having increased
since 1916, 129, less
~apidly than in ship-
bmldine centere)
4
“3
A
RM
if
170 -
United States
(a mean between
columns 1 and 2)
0.0
02.0
042.5
“1
2
2
.. 2 By assuming a 29} increase between July, 1914 and December, 1914 as a
iberal estimate, based on retail food prices and wholesale commodity indexes.
From the figures in the last column interpolations were
then made for mid-year points. In November, 1919, in order
that the figures might be used in connection with some wage
indexes calculated on a 1913 base, a further estimate was
made of changes in the cost of living between 1913 and July,
1914. The series as thus constructed, showing changes in
‘he cost of living for the country as a whole, was as follows:!
Date
Average for 1913. ...
July, 1914... ...
December, 1914. .
june, 1915... ...
December, 1915. , .
une, 1916... ....
Oecember, 1916. .
june, 1917...
December, 1917... .......
June, 1918... .........
December, 1918. . .
[une. 1919
Index number
[00
11
€»
a
In June, 1920, estimates were made for the changes in
cost of the separate items on the basis of which the aggregate
change had already been computed,’ and since then the series
has been complete. The series for the separate items and
* Monthly Labor Review, November, 1919, p. 193,
? Note in the tabulation above that the original increase for December, 1915, 49,
Vas at first refined to 3.6% (Monthly Labor Review, October, 1920, p. 65); in 1921,
however, it was changed to 5.1%, the actual weighted increase. The figure in Oc.
tober, 1920, was not mathematically correct.
