H. L. Bliss

“ Since the results for these indus- tries, represented by insufficient data, diverge so considerably from the results indicated in other industries, where the enumeration was more com- prehensive, we have a positive reason for suspecting that the establishments selected were not typical of the industries to which they belong. In the second place it is probable that the inclusion of figures based upon insuffi- cient data resulted in an exaggeration of the rate of increase of wages between 1860 and 1891, when the report computed a simple average for all industries. ”

“ A continuous series of relative prices for a long period of time, except for a very restricted number of articles, is an ideal which is impossible of realization in practice. From time to time the lists of articles must be revised because of the changing character of our consumption. ”

“ As but a small proportion of bread or flour is consumed as crackers, it seems also erroneous to take the relative prices of crackers as to any considerable extent representing the ratio of prices at which flour or wheat was consumed. ”

“ That is, the rise of 3^ per cent, is turned into the very con- siderable fall of 5 per cent. In other words, by giving four quotations out of fifty-three to codfish and mackerel, a change of eight points is made for the index number for food.
Referring to the group "Drugs and Chemicals" we find a still more striking illustration of the effect of an abnormal change in price of a single article. This group, which embraces eighteen articles, is represented for 1891 by the index number 86.3, showing a fall in prices for the group since 1860 of not quite 14 per cent. ”

“ IN the March number of the Bulletin of the Department of Labor are data of wholesale prices from January, 1890, to July, 1899, quar- terly ; with a summary by Roland P. Falkner, under whose super- vision the data were collected. ”

“ One of these industries represented by a single establishment was the manufacture of carriages and wagons, in which there is shown an increase of wages of over 100 per cent.; the index numbers being 100 in 1840, 1850, and 1860, and 202.4 i n 1891. Fortunately we have in Colonel Wright's report on the use of machinery official data which more nearly agree with the observation of persons employed in this indus- try. ”