﻿THE PRICE LEVEL

175

prices of the finished products seems, on the other
hand, not to have been very great. Of the ten
groups of commodities whose prices are carried by
the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the largest increases
in price from August, 1917, to August, 1918, are
found in the cloths and clothing, and housefurnish-
ings’ groups. In both groups, finished products pre-
dominate. Some of these finished products, how-
ever, were made of raw materials which were them-
selves not regulated, so that the rise in the price of
the fabricated goods was due partly to the rise in the
price of the raw material.

The analysis of fluctuations of controlled and un-
controlled prices, to which reference has already
been made, may be profitably examined in this con-
nection:

1918	Controlled Uncontrolled All

Jan................. 106	128	119

Feb................. 107	129	ng

Mar. ............... 107	129	120

Apr................. 108	133	122

May ................ 109	133	122

June ............... 109	135	123

July ................ in	140	128

Aug.................. no	145	130

Sept................ 112	151	134

It appears, in striking contrast to the preceding
period, that the prices of controlled commodities
not only showed no decline but actually registered
an increase — traceable as far back as October,
1917. This rise was, however, much less pro-
nounced than in the case of the uncontrolled group,
and to that extent the upward course of the “ all