Economics and the Public Welfare. Benjamin M. Anderson
172.9
* The figures for the first three years were from Statistical Abstract of the United States (1924), p. 299, while the figures for the remaining years were from Statistical Abstract of the United States (1928), p. 317.
[print edition page 41]
with commodity prices in the postwar boom and remained far above commodity prices in the crisis and depression which followed in 1921 and 1922. The following table exhibits this.
INDEX NUMBERS OF WAGES PER HOUR AND WHOLESALE PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES*
| Year | Wages per hour (exclusive of agriculture) | Wholesale prices (all commodities) |
| 1914 | 100 | 100.0 |
| 1915 | 101 | 102.1 |
| 1916 | 109 | 125.6 |
| 1917 | 125 | 172.5 |
| 1918 | 159 | 192.8 |
| 1919 | 180 | 203.5 |
| 1920 | 229 | 226.7 |
| 1921 | 214 | 143.3 |
| 1922 | 204 | 142.0 |
* Chase Economic Bulletin, April 13, 1937, p. 30
Security Prices, 1914-18. Prices of securities, on the other hand, began to rise long before the average of commodities began to rise. The stock market broke badly in July 1914. Taking the Annalist’s list of twenty-five industrials and twenty-five rails (closing price of each month), we find it at 145 in January 1914, dropping to about 116 at the end of July when the stock exchange closed. When the stock exchange reopened in December, the opening prices (partly pegged) averaged 120, and they averaged 120 again in February 1915. Then began a very rapid rise in the boom of the “war babies,” led by Bethlehem Steel, and this average reached 185 in October 1915. The stock market was reactionary until July of the following year, 1916, when another strong upward move led up to the peak price of October 1916, this time under the leadership of General Motors. The peak price for the fifty stocks was 195 in the closing prices of September and October, though in between higher levels were reached.
This was the top of the stock market for the whole war period.