THE COST OF LIVING IN UNITED STATES IN 1926 5
zet, caution must be used in attempting to apply the index
for the country as a whole to the price changes in any one
locality. Table 2 reveals that the course of rents is deter-
mined by local considerations. It appears that among 178
cities which represented the average number reporting for
each month during 1926, only 28 showed increased rents,
72 showed no change whatever, while 78 recorded decreases.
During the year rent in some cities decreased as much as
10%, while in others it increased in like degree. In some
localities rents remained at the pre-war level, in other places
they were 2009, higher than in pre-war days, while in a few
cities they were even below the level of 1914.
Clothing
During the year 1926 the index number for clothing as a
whole varied within a small range from 173 as a minimum
to 176 as a maximum. The former figure was found at the
beginning of the year, the latter more frequently in the later
months. The year ended with an index of 174, representing
a decline of 1.79, from the January prices.
The prices of individual articles of clothing are shown in
Table 3, the indexes based upon them in Table 4.
An inspection of the tables shows that the reduction in
retail prices of ready to wear goods was due in part to the
declines in the yard goods. Both wool and cotton yard
goods reached levels 3.6% lower in December than in Jan-
aary. Itis to be noted in Tables 3 and 4 that the articles of
slothing made of cotton show a recession, although not to so
great an extent as the yard goods. In woolen goods this con-
dition does not hold for women’s and men’s coats, which
might be expected to follow the downward trend of wool
yard goods.
Table 5 distinguishes men’s and women’s clothing and
shows index numbers for each. It is apparent that the costs
of women’s clothing declined twice as much as did those of
men’s clothing. This fact is probably due to the lowered
zost of cotton goods, as more cotton articles are included in
the women’s budget.
