"cost of living" in any restricted sense (such as the cost of food alone) could change somewhat, though not greatly. Furthermore an index number must serve not simply the purpose of stabilizing the value of money to wage earners but serve the purposes of transactions generally. For a large share of those transactions, a general wholesale index number is the best.
I have had a special index number calculated for me through Mr. Bell of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, derived from the same data and calculated by the same methods as those used by the Bureau but excluding the articles sluggishly changing, i.e. most frequently remaining unchanged in successive months. The resulting index number is, therefore, presumably more promptly responsive to any influences affecting it than any other index number of wholesale prices which has been constructed. The list of commodities on which it is based includes 75 commodities and 155 series of price quotations as follows:
| Farm Products | ||||||
| Cotton | ||||||
| Flaxseed | ||||||
| ||||||
| Hides | ||||||
Food | ||||||
| Beans | ||||||
| Butter | ||||||
| Coffee | ||||||
| Eggs | ||||||
| ||||||
| Glucose | ||||||
| Lard | ||||||
| Meal, corn | ||||||
| ||||||
| Milk | ||||||
| Molasses | ||||||
| Sugar | ||||||
| Tea | ||||||
| Vinegar | ||||||
Cloths and clothing | ||||||
| Boots and shoes | ||||||
| Carpets | ||||||
| Cotton flannels | ||||||
| Cotton yarns | ||||||
| Denims | ||||||
| Drillings | ||||||
| Ginghams | ||||||
| Leather | ||||||
| Linen shoe thread | ||||||
| Print cloths | ||||||
| Sheetings | ||||||
| Shirtings | ||||||
| Silk | ||||||
| Tickings | ||||||
| Women's dress goods | ||||||
| Wool |
