124 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES 
together for the country as a whole. The National Industrial 
Conference Board does not construct an index for separate 
cities, except for rents, coal prices, carfares and the cost of 
gas and electricity which are so largely local matters. Thus, 
the combination of a few reports from a large number of 
centers, of varying sizes, geographical location and indus- 
trial conditions, is to be contrasted with more reports, in 
some instances, from a lesser number of centers of more uni- 
form characteristics. 
The effect of this appears in the average for the country 
as a whole. The cities included by the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics are mostly the large industrial centers of the 
country, which were built up greatly during the war, and in 
which war-price inflation has carried over into peace times 
to a considerable extent. In Detroit, for example, the in- 
crease in the total cost of living, according to the Bureau of 
Labor Statistics figures, was 136% in June, 1920, when for 
the country as a whole, according to the same figures, it was 
110.29. In Buffalo it was 121.5%; in Cleveland, 120.3%; 
in Norfolk, 122.2%. In December, 1925 when the average 
increase for the country as a whole was 72.7%? the increases 
in eleven of the twelve cities which had been above the 
average for the country as a whole in June, 1920 were still 
above, with Los Angeles added. Among the seven below in 
December, 1925, six were below in June, 1920, with Seattle 
added. 
Among the 13 cities added to the series in December, 1917, 
not one in June, 1920, showed an increase so great as the 
average for the country as a whole, based on 18 shipbuilding 
centers only, but in December, 1925, three showed an increase 
since December, 1917, greater than for the country as a whole. 
In other words, since the Bureau of Labor Statistics index 
number up to December, 1917 was based on 18 cities where 
for the most part the increase in the cost of living was 
greater than for the country as a whole,? and the method of 
constructing the number involves a chain svstem whereby 
1 Computed by dividing the index number based on 1913 by the index number 
for December, 1914, 
t Idem. 
3 Monthly Labor Review, October, 1919, pp. 5, 6.