Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/48

26 and value are stated in terms of millions both as to tons and dollars:

Value of pro- Value per Tons pro- Actual calue Value per duct at 1913 ton at 1913

Year duced of produel ton prices prices 1913 1118 $11,559 $10.34 $11,559 $10.34 1914 1059 11,184 10.56 11,835 11.17 1915 1099 11,483 10.45 12,317 11.21 1916 1170 14,650 12.52 12,327 10.54 1917 1230 21,273 17.29 12,632 10.27 1918 1215 25,134 20.68 13,180 10.84 1919 1096 27,566 25.14 12,759 11.64 1920 1237 23,950 19.36 13,850 11.20

The column “value at 1913 prices” is introduced in order to show what the annual produce would have come to at the prices prevailing in 1913. This gives a clearer idea of the changes in the physical volume of production. We might have produced 10 tons of gravel and 1 ton of copper in 1913 and 1 ton of gravel and 10 tons of copper in 1920 and by simply footing up the quantities get 11 tons in each year, obscuring the fact that the total production in 1920 was much more valuable than in 1913. Computation of all products at the prices of 1913 naturally takes into account the proportion of each commodity produced and affords a truer picture of the physical volume of production.

The above data also enable an instructive comparison of indices to be made. My own averages are truly weighted as to domestic production and the indices derived therefrom are truly quantitative. Obviously, they are neither weighted nor quantitative with respect to consumption, and obviously moreover they do not introduce prices for manufactured goods.