THE PURCHASING POWER OF THE DOLLAR.
The appearance last week of some of the new small-sized currency bills suggests an interesting comparison wnich has been made by the National Industrial Conference Board between the present and pre-war purchasing value of the dollar. By a coincidence the reduction in the size of the new currency bills, being about two-thirds of the size of the old ones, corresponds to the reduction in the purchasing power of the dollar since the war. Taking the pre-war dollar at face value, the present dollar, according to the monthly cost of living index, has a purchasing value of about 63 cents in buying the ordinary necessities of life. While, however, the cost of living at the end of the first quarter of the current year was approximately 60 per cent. higher than in July, 1914, the average weekly earnings per worker in the manufacturing industries were 130 per cent. higher, and hourly earnings, which show the rate of pay better than continuity work, were 138 per cent. higher. There has thus been an average net economic gain for all wage-earneis of 44 per cent. in their weekly earnings, and 49 per cent. in their hourly earnings over 1914.
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