ABSTRACT
The index numbers for all commodities showing the general level of prices are composed. The chief characteristics of the prices of all commodities are extreme fluctuations and long periods of rise or decline. An index number for American farm food products was prepared. This group does not include hay, grass seeds, cotton, wool, flax were included in the farm product group. The discovery of better mines, cheaper transportation, and better methods of production has reduced prices of metals in comparison with all commodities. For the five years before the World War, lumber was worth about four times the prices of 130 years ago, although the prices of all commodities had declined. Much is said about the substitution of other materials for lumber. Such substitution has to be made, but prices of lumber show no inclination to discontinue their steady rise as compared with all commodities.
