Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/124

 1 10 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

that by a judicious selection of establishments it is possible to "con- clusively" demonstrate either an increase or decrease in the average rates of wages. The same being true, to a considerable extent at least, regarding prices, there seems not a little truth in what has come to be a common saying : " You can prove anything with figures." While the methods of the Aldrich report, as we have seen, tended to minimize or conceal the fall in prices, those of the present report appear to have an opposite tendency.

That Professor Falkner is aware of errors of the former report is apparent from certain changes of method, as well as from remarks of the present report. For instance : While in the summary of the Aldrich report there were used 223 series of actual and relative-prices, the present report presents but 142 series of actual prices, and ninety-nine series of relative prices. The small number of relative-price series is owing to a change of method whereby, there being several quotations of one article, the average is taken, and one relative-price series obtained. In the former report, as we have seen, there were eight quotations of crackers, all of which constituted a price series ; in the present report, with four quotations of crackers, the average is taken, and but one series obtained. With numerous omissions of articles from the present report that were used in the Aldrich report, we find a considerable number included that were not used in the first report. It is noticeable that every article included in the present report, not in the former report, without exception is one showing more or less of a fall in price, and that in many instances the articles omitted, which were in the former report, are those that have risen in price.

It is remarked in this report :

A continuation of the prices, such as would have permitted a comparison of more recent prices with those of 1860, as given in the Aldrich report, could only be had where the articles remained identical in kind and quality, and where the same sources of information were accessible. The attempt to carry out the new investigation on the same lines as the old one revealed the fact that in many cases the firms and corporations from which the original figures were derived were no longer in existence. Newer firms which had taken their places were often unable to identify the figures quoted in the Aldrich report for the years 1890 and 1891 from material in their possession. This implied that an article of the exact grade and quality which had been quoted by the former firms was not traded in by those to whom subsequent application was made. In many cases the article was no longer in the market. Changes, as for instance in the manufacture of woolens and worsted goods, had made new standards for certain classes of commodities.