Anthracite and bituminous coal and beehive coke showed small price declines, while by-product coke was stationary. Petroleum products showed a pronounced drop in price, due to radical decreases in crude petroleum, fuel oil, and gasoline. Among metals and metal products there was a slight decline in iron and steel, while nonferrous metals advanced. Other metal products were unchanged in price.

In the group of building materials, lumber and paint materials advanced, while brick was stationary and cement declined. The group as a whole showed a negligible increase.

Chemicals and drugs, including fertilizer materials and mixed fertilizers, were somewhat cheaper than in February.

No change in the price level was shown for furniture and furnishings in the group of house-furnishing goods.

In the group of miscellaneous commodities, cattle feed moved sharply upward, while paper and pulp and crude rubber weakened. No change in the price level was reported for automobile tires.

Raw materials as a whole averaged lower than in February, as did also finished products. Semimanufactured articles were only slightly lower.

In the large group of nonagricultural commodities, including all articles other than farm products, and among all commodities other than farm products and foods, March prices averaged lower than those of the month before.

INDEX NUMBERS OF WHOLESALE PRICES BY GROUPS AND SUBGROUPS OF COMMODITIES

INDEX NUMBERS OF WHOLESALE PRICES BY GROUPS AND SUBGROUPS OF COMMODITIES-Continued

A

COST OF LIVING

Argentine Measures to Reduce Cost of Living

GOVERNMENT organization (Junta de Abastecimientos) was formed recently in Argentina to investigate the high prices of foodstuffs and rents in Buenos Aires and to devise means of bringing about a reduction in the cost of living in Buenos Aires and in the Provinces, according to a report from Vice Consul Ralph Miller, at Buenos Aires, dated March 5, 1931.

This organization did not use coercive measures but confined its activities, first of all, to appeals to the dealers and landowners to make a voluntary reduction, but since few results were obtained, more direct methods were resorted to.

The municipality of Buenos Aires bought flour, bread, meat, milk. and vegetables direct from the producers and offered them to the public at the city markets and street fairs at greatly reduced prices. This measure has brought relief to the laboring classes and has induced dealers to reduce their prices accordingly.

The report states that excessive building operations in Buenos Aires during the last two years have oversupplied the market and a reduction of over 20 per cent in the rent of small apartments has taken place within the last six months. Suburban rents are still excessive, however. It is generally believed that unless there is a reduction in property taxes and in import duties on building materials, the efforts of the authorities will not be successful in bringing about a reduction in rents.

Japanese Family Budget Investigation, 1926–27

HE first family-budget inquiry on an extensive scale in Japan and the only official investigation of this kind ever made in that country was carried on by the Bureau of Statistics of the Imperial Cabinet in 1926-27. A summary of this study, by the chief statistician of the Bureau of Statistics, recently published in English, is the basis of an article in the March, 1931, issue of the International Labor Review, from which the following data are taken.

Scope and method of inquiry. The investigation covered various localities, including 11 of the largest cities. Among the householdbudgeted were those of salaried workers (officials, clerks, teachers, etc.), wage earners (factory, mine, and communication workers, and day laborers), and farmers. The period for which the budget recordwere kept was from September 1, 1926, to August 31, 1927.

In selecting the families to keep records the requirements to be met were as follows:

(a) The total income of the household per month must not exceed 200 yen [$96.40] approximately. In the case of farm households, the area cultivated nisi not exceed 2 cho approximately (cho 2.45 acres).

=

(b) More than half the family income must be derived from the earnings of

the husband.

(c) The household must not conduct any business on its own account (or in the case of farm households, no independent business other than agriculture). (d) The household should contain 2 to 7 persons.

(e) Preferably the household should have no servants, boarders, or lodgers, or any other inmates besides its own members.1

Of the 7,856 household books distributed, 6,505 were continued for the year and 5,455 family budgets were tabulated.

Table 1 shows the average monthly income and average expenditures of salaried workers' and of wage earners' households. It will be noted that the total average monthly income for salaried. workers was 137.17 yen ($66.12) as compared with 102.07 yen ($49.19) for wage earners. The salaried workers' households had a surplus of 12.83 yen ($6.19) in income over expenditures and the wage earners' households a surplus of 10.69 yen ($5.15).

The study covered 1,575 households of salaried workers and 3,210 households of wage earners. The former had an average of 4.17 persons each (3.19 consumption units) and the latter 4.21 persons (3.18 consumption units).

TABLE 1.-AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME AND EXPENDITURES OF SALARIED WORKERS' AND WAGE EARNERS' HOUSEHOLDS FOR YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1927 [Conversions into United States currency on basis of average exchange rate of yen for year covered=48.2 cents]

1 There could, however, be tenants or subtenants occupying part of the dwelling, provided they would not render the task of keeping the budget records more complicated or laborious.

The composition of the farmers' households is shown in the table following:

TABLE 2.-COMPOSITION OF FARMERS' HOUSEHOLDS

1 An "independent farmer" was defined as one who owned 90 per cent or more and leased 10 per cent or less of the total land worked; a tenant farmer as one who leased 90 per cent or more and owned 10 per cent or less, of the land worked; the remainder of the farmers were classed as "semi-independent farmers.

Table 3 gives the average monthly income and expenditures of various classes of farmers' households, the income for all farmers being only 96.16 yen ($46.35).

The income of farmers, it is pointed out, is more difficult to ascertain correctly and their budgets are more difficult to balance. The results of the study of such budgets, however, though they may not be strictly comparable with those of the investigation of salaried workers' and wage earners' budgets, do seem to indicate that the farmers' standard of living is lower than in the corresponding wageearning classes.

TABLE 3.-AVERAGE MONTHLY INCOME AND EXPENDITURE OF FARMERS' HOUSEJHOLDS FOR YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1927 [Conversions into United States currency on basis of average exchange rate of yen for year covered = 48.2

cents]

1 An "independent farmer" was defined as one who owned 90 per cent or more and leased 10 per cent or less of the total land worked; a tenant farmer as one who leased 90 per cent or more, and owned 10 per cent or less, of the land worked; the remaining farmers were classed as "semi-independent farmers."