TABLE V.-AVERAGE WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR, 1905 AND 1906, IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, BY STATES-Continued. TABLE V.-AVERAGE WAGES AND HOURS OF LABOR, 1905 AND 1906, IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, BY STATES-Concluded. WOOLEN AND WORSTED GOODS-Concluded. RETAIL PRICES OF FOOD, 1890 TO 1906. Retail prices of food during 1906 were higher than in any other year of the seventeen-year period beginning with 1890 covered by the investigations of the Bureau of Labor, being 2.9 per cent higher than in 1905. The average prices of 25 of the 30 articles included in this compilation of prices were higher in 1906 than in 1905. The articles which showed the greatest advance in prices are lard 9.8 per cent, evaporated apples 9.1 per cent, fresh pork 8.8 per cent, dry or pickled pork 8.7 per cent, bacon 8.4 per cent, ham 7.3 per cent, while the advance in fresh fish and mutton exceeded 5 per cent. The only articles which showed any material decrease are flour 9.8 per cent and sugar 5.5 per cent. The table which follows shows the per cent of increase or decrease in price for each of the 30 articles when the average price in 1906 is compared with the average price in 1905: PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN THE AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD IN 1906 COMPARED WITH THOSE IN 1905. Retail prices of food in December, 1906, were 5.1 per cent higher than in December, 1905. The average prices of 25 of the 30 articles included in this compilation were higher in December, 1906, than in the corresponding month of 1905. The articles which showed the most marked advance in prices in December, 1906, over December, 1905, are butter 15.0 per cent, lard 13.9 per cent, fresh pork 12.2 per cent, dry or pickled pork 11.9 per cent, bacon 11.1 per cent, and ham 9.8 per cent. The only articles which show any marked decline in price in December, 1906, from the price in December, 1905, are potatoes 5.8 per cent and flour 4.8 per cent. The table which follows shows the per cent of increase or decrease in price for each of the 30 articles of food when the average price in December, 1906, is compared with the average price in December, 1905: PER CENT OF INCREASE OR DECREASE IN THE AVERAGE RETAIL PRICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ARTICLES OF FOOD IN DECEMBER, 1906, COMPARED WITH THOSE IN DECEMBER, 1905. Some idea of the high prices of 1906 can be gained when it is seen that the average prices of 17 of the 30 articles were higher in 1906 than in any other year of the seventeen-year period 1890 to 1906. Compared with prices in 1896, the year of lowest prices during the period, the price of every article, except coffee and prunes, was higher in 1906 than in 1896, and in the case of 12 of the 30 articles. it was more than 25 per cent above the level of 1896. The increases in the price of some of the more important articles over the 1896 prices were as follows: Bacon, 55.5 per cent; potatoes, 48.6 per cent; fresh pork, 41.4 per cent; lard, 38.4 per cent, and chickens, 33.0 per cent. The average price in 1906 for each of the 30 articles separately and as a whole is compared with the average price during each of the years from 1890 to 1905 in the following table which shows the per cent of increase or decrease: |