FOREWORD 
“HE continued interest in measuring the cost of living 
makes it desirable to survey and sum up from time to 
time the available statistical data with respect to 
changes in the retail price level. Such a survey, however, 
requires a clear and accurate understanding of the purpose 
and method of cost of living measurements. In probably 
no other field of statistical inquiry is knowledge of the basis 
and general nature of the calculations so essential to prevent 
misinterpretation and confusion. 
In several successive investigations the National Industrial 
Conference Board has sought to determine the facts with 
respect to changes in the cost of living of American wage 
earners. In addition to ten studies of the minimum cost of 
living in separate localities, the Conference Board has pub- 
lished seventeen reports on changes in the cost of living since 
1914, based on continuing investigations, as well as an ex- 
haustive analysis of “Family Budgets of American Wage 
Earners.” 
In 1925, a volume on “The Cost of Living in the United 
States” was issued to afford an analysis and comparison of 
the more important series of index numbers of the cost of 
living in the United States, in order that the character and 
basis of these measures of variations from time to time, and 
from place to place, might be better understood and their 
intelligent use facilitated. This volume also presented a sur- 
vey of changes in the cost of living for the United States as a 
whole since 1914, summing up the outstanding results of the 
Conference Board's investigations in this field. The interest 
in this study was so great that the edition has now been com- 
pletely exhausted. It has, therefore, seemed advisable, in view 
of the continuing demand for this information, to issue the 
present volume as a thorough revision of “The Cost of Living 
in the United States.” The comparative analyses of the 
Important cost of living indices have been retained, with