Excerpts from the report: No price is high or low except by comparison. If the price of product has been cut in half it does not mean that the product is necessarily cheap. One must know the general price level in order to make comparisons. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the Department of Labor publishes an index number of wholesale prices each month. Prices of 328 commodities are obtained and by comparison with previous prices an index number showing the general price level is prepared. Index numbers of wholesale prices since 1791 are shown in Table I. (See also fig. 1.) By comparing prices with the general price level one can judge them fairly accurately. Compared with the five-year average before the war, wholesale prices in 1918 had doubled, or were represented by 200. Many commodities were higher and many lower than this figure would indicate. Any product that had not doubled in price was then relatively cheap. Any product that had more than doubled was relatively high priced.