64 COST OF LIVING IN THE UNITED STATES
costs in December, 191451 second, in 13 cities costs in
December, 1917 form the base;? and third, a series for the
country as a whole is made by combining the first two and
relating them to average prices in 1913 by estimating the
increase from 1913 to December, 1914.2 In the present
analysis, the series for the separate cities will not be discussed
in detail except as may be necessary to secure 2 clear picture
of the construction of the index numbers for the country as
awhole. They are given, however, in Table B,*and it should
be understood that the index numbers for the separate
cities are a more important part of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics series than the index for the country as a whole,
in that the series for the latter is merely a combination of
+he series for the separate cities.’
The Bureau of Labor Statistics index number series of the
cost of living for the country as a whole had its beginning
in an estimate published in the Monthly Labor Review of
October, 1919. For this, the author had comparable data
from the 18 shipbuilding centers, running back to December,
(914, and usable data from 13 other important cities, as well
as from 66 less important places, running back to De-
cember, 1917. From these it was concluded that, up to
and including 1916, the cost of living in the shipbuilding
centers and in the non-shipbuilding centers had risen at
approximately the same rate, since excessive activity in the
former did not start until 1917; it was estimated that between
1917 and 1919 the cost of living in the cities outside the ship-
building centers advanced 12% less rapidly than in the ship-
building centers. On the basis of retail food price changes
and wholesale commodity indexes, it was estimated that a
liberal allowance for the change in the cost of living level
between July, 1914 and December, 1914 was 29,. Com-
bining all of these data, the following table resulted:
1 Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville,
Los Angeles, Mobile, New York, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Portland, Me., Portland,
Ore., San Francisco and Oakland, Savannah, Seattle, Washington.
2 Atlanta, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Mo,
Memphis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Richmond, St. Louis, Scranton.
8 Monthly Labor Review, January, 1920, p. 97. 4 See pp. 168-181.
5 Except that for food, 51 cities are included, instead of 32 where the complete
cost of living survey is made.
$ Monthly Labor Review, October, 1919, pp. 4, 7.
