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 |