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About The news-review. (Roseburg, Or.) 1948-1994 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1950)
o oo o o o O 14 The News-Review, Roscburg, Ore, Sot., Sept. 16, 1950 Important Cost Of Living Index Explained; Here Is What It Can Mean To You: By JAMES MARLOW WASHINGTON (JP The cost ol living index, put together by the government every month, is going to mean a lot to everyone. It already meani a great deal to hundreds o( thousands of work era. For example; The hie auto makers and the CIO Aulo Workers' union have contracts directly lied up with the living cost index. If the index goes up, the woik ers get a little higher pay. If it goes down, they get a lit tie less. But now the living cost index, which has always been an impor tant economic weathervane, will have an effect on everyone. If people atart to scramble around for goods that get scarce during re-arming, thus boosting prices, or if business men unnec essarily raise prices, those price increases will show up in the in dex. And if they jump up too much, the government will slap on price and wage controls. The government's Bureau of Labor Statistics put the index together. It's done this way ; The bureau has a number of people working for it in cities around the country. They have to do their job over and over every month. They go into stores checking on prices charged for food, clothing, furniture. They check on the rents people have to pay, and they check on services: such as doc tors' fees and electric light hills. On food prices a check is made in M cities. Thirty-four of these cities are checked for food plus all the other things. These prices are sent into the bureau's Washington office where a ataff goes over them. The prices are averaged out and thus show the average cost of living in large cities. The bur eau doesn't claim that the index is a complete measure of living costs. It calls the index the "con sumers' orice index" and says it measures the prices paid by mod erate-income families in large cities. j The averaging out is not quite i as simple as it sounds, for the figures aren't simply bounded to gether and an average struck. "Weighted" items and 200 itema altogether are checked have to be figured in deciding average living costs. For example: People buy more butter than cheese.. So butler has more importance' in a family's living costs every month. Therefore, butter is "weighted" in arriving at an average. The price paid for butler is more im portant than the price paid for cheese and allowance is made for that in assembling the index. A question comes to mind here: In deciding whether living costs are going up or down, what does the government use as a starting ! point? The so-callea nase period is me average cost of living in the 1935 39 period. So if living costs are greater now than in 1935 39. they're up. If they are lower than in that period, they're away down. The 193539 period ia taken as 100. The last index or July showed living costs at 172 5. Which means: Living costs in July were 72'-i percent higher than in the 1935 19 base period. They have risen from 170.2 in June, when the Korean fighting started, to that 172 S in July, when I some panic buying started. It was this unnecessary buying Votes For GOP In Washington Are Surprising SEATTLE (.f) Washington state political observers are study ing Tuesday's primary election relums for possible November omens while leaders of both major parties voiced optimism over the results. A big question was: What ia the significance of the heavy Republican vote? Scattered overnight additions to the vote counts failed to affect any major state contest. 1 The major statewide results ! were: W. Walter Williams, Seattle businessman, was nominated at the Republican candidate to op. i pose Senator Warren G Magnuson in the general election. ! Robert C. Finley, with labor support, defeated Justice George B. Simpson in the latter'i attempt to win reelection to the state su preme court. The 45-year-old Se attle attorney had a 20.0u0-vote lead on the basis of 3,694 out of I the state's 4.2.'2 precincts. His clear majority in the two-man race assured him of election. A run-off is in the offing for the other contested supreme court seat. Justice Frederick Hamley, a Governor Langlie appointee to the bench, will be opposed by Superior Judge Hugh Rosellini of Tacoma. Rosellini, a former leg islator, showed surprising strength in leading Hamley by more than 25,000 votes in the primary. East Germany's Premier Evidently Like? By Reds " i HoiJSewif e's Lot O" Lot Better Now 1 BERLIN V E a a t Ger many's Premier Otto Grotewohl appears to have finally gotten him self in solid with bis government's Communist masters, the Red-controlled press ga v Grotewohl announced Thursday his candidacy for reelection and the Red-controlled press gave his bid a favorable nod. The way the whole affair was handled indicated that he was bark in the Party's good graces, especially those of party boss Walter Ulbncht. The former Socialist has been reported ai being in and out of hot water with the Communist bosses for the past several years. Some western political circles had believed Grotewohl would be shelved after the Oct. 15 elections by panicky people together with unnecessary price increases by greedy businessmen w h 1 c h kicked up the cost of living. The government puts out its index for any given month about 20 days after the end of that month. F'or example: The bureau is now working on the index which will show the cost of living in August but the index won't be ready until about Sept. 20. Liquor Office Says Candidate Can See Records PORTLAND (JT The Stale Liquor Control commission has told Austin Flegel that because he I is a candidate for governor its records are open to his inspection, j Flegel. Democratic candidate, i wrote the commission on Sept. 7 I saying that he wanted his private auditor, William F. Meyer, to check records of sales and pur ' chases of bulk whiskey, operating i costs, enforcement costs, and ex i penditures for the biennium in i comparison with the budget. The commission's letter in re ply said that "as a former at torney of the liquor control com mission for several years you can appreciate that good business would not permit the commission to disrupt normal operations. . . at the whim of individuals. "An exception can be justified only by a request from a regu- j larly nominated candidate for I governor. I . . .the commission has ap I ropved your request and 'directed ; that members of the staff furnish i every possible assistance to your 1 auditor." in the Soviet lone. Allied political analysts said this view probably can be discarded now. They pointed out that party leader L'l brict never would have permitted Grotewohl to be an open candidate with press Qind radio backing if his reelection ever was in doubt. In recent months, Grotewohl has been even more violent than Ll bricht in bis anti-West declar ations. He as been leading the propaganda fight for open resist ance to the western allies and in nationalistic appeals intended to woo the Germans to the East. Eastern sources 1 1 1 d Grote woht $ activitiei on this score have allayed any doubts of his loyaljy to the Kremlin. State Building 4ctivity Less SAN FARNCISCO'-J) Build ing activity in western states rose to a new seasonal highs in August, the daily Pacific Builder, western I construction paper, reports. I The seven states reportin; showed increases up to 216 2 per cent over August of last year and all except Oregon showed in I creases in August over July of 1 this year. In Oregon, building ac i tivity decreased 2.9 percent for the month. I The seven stale total for August. the Builder said, was $186,828,614. j which was 68.9 percent more than August, 1949, and 5.2 percent more I than the previous month. Two states, Idaho and Utah, al I ready have exceeded the total i building volume of 1949, and the others will do so this month, the paper said. PHILADELPHIA .P The housewife's lot is not a hap'ajnone women doctors said Thursday. &e conclusion was voiced at the sixth congMs of the Medical Women'i International association meeting here this week at the women's medical college of Penn sylvania. The women doctors presented the results of a questionaire sent t(Pl3 countries around the world at a forum on the pathology and hygiene of housework. Replies fiom four continents all reported such troubles as dishpan hands, aching barks, sore feet, that tired feeling and frazzled nerves. Dr. Helen Slourzh-Anderle of Austraia, declared that housework ia grossly under-estimated. "Other members of the house hold often do not discover that there is a housewife until the day something goes wrong," she said. Judgment By Default Is Granted By Wimberly A default judgment in favor of the United Petroleum Corp. has been issued by Circuit Judge Carl E. Wimberly against the A 1 c a n Lumber Co. for $1,667.10. The money allegedly still remains ts be paid for goods and merchan dise delivered. The plaintiffs were also awarded court costa and at torney's fees. SOUTH END FUEL CO. Phone 1 1 95- 207 Rica St. NORTH JACKSON SAW SHOP 444 N. Jackson Street Going Out of Business All Mwt uncalled for by October 1 will bo fold. JOHN YANTIS Preprittor in The News Review- READ WHAT MAKES YOUIR IREAT? NEWSPAPER G O You may take only 15 minutes to one-half hour to read your newspaper... but do vou realize the manv hours and diversified talents it takes to assemble a newspaper into a finished product? Wendell Webb, editor of .The Oregon Statesman, at Salem, takes you behind the scenes in a series of articles starting in Monday's News-Review. Read about your newspaper. .. its reporting staff. ..the advertising department... how the "back shop" operates, how you receive world news, the comics, special features and pictures. O O o o o ROSEBURG, OREGON SHOP TONIGHT TILL 9 P. 5:30 to 9 Specials 81 x 108 Longwear SHEETS 2.39 Limit 2 to a Customer SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY GHxTOGISailBQIB 70 x 80 PLAID COTTON BLANKETS 1.69 Limit 2 to a Customer SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY BOYS' 11 -OI. SADDLE JEANS 2.69 Sizes 12 to U SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY MEN'S FLANNEL SHIRTS 1.98 Siiet 14' to 17 SATURDAY NIGHT ONLY MEN'S LOGGER BOOTS o o 19.99 o Caulked 1 2" RAA -n r- : . . Ao I SATURDAY NIGHT ON LYD o 0