Up Again

Potatoes were cheaper, tomatoes were cheaper--in fact, nearly all food was cheaper--but no matter how it juggled the figures, the Bureau of Labor Statistics came up last week with the sad news that the Government's Consumer Price Index inched upward in September for the 13th month in a row. The new mark was one-tenth of 1% over August, for a record high of 121.1 (1947-49 = 100).

Higher prices for clothing, housing and most other major goods and services more than offset the substantial reduction in food prices, reported the bureau. Although the rate of increase was the lowest in ten months, thereby offering hope of a stable index in the months ahead, the September high will trigger a 1-c--to-5-c--an-hour wage increase for some 1,500,000 workers. It will also cause further strains on inflation-pressed family budgets across the nation; while the price index stood 3.4% higher than a year ago, another Labor Department report showed factory workers' buying power down 2% over the same period.

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