Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1915, the second straight year of near-flat inflation before the wartime price surges of 1916 through 1918. The year’s defining event had nothing to do with prices directly: a German submarine sank the British liner Lusitania off the Irish coast on May 7, killing 128 Americans and hardening U.S. opinion against Germany two years before the country entered the war. Economically, 1915 was a turning point of a different kind. A recession that had dragged on since 1913 began lifting as Britain and France placed growing orders for steel, munitions, and other war materiel with American manufacturers, and U.S. exports to the Allied powers climbed sharply through the year. That demand would keep building through 1916, eventually pulling prices up with it. On the regulatory side, the Federal Trade Commission opened for business in March, taking on enforcement of the Clayton Antitrust Act that Congress had passed the previous fall. A first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, unchanged since 1885 and still two years from its first wartime increase.
Year in review
Inflation in 1915
The U.S. inflation rate in 1915 was 1.0% (CPI: 10.1). Convert 1915 dollars to today →
1.0% 1915 inflation rate
10.0% 1910s average
2.0% peak month (Apr)
-1.0% lowest month (Aug)
What things cost in 1915
| First-class stamp | $0.02 |
|---|
What $100 from 1915 was worth later
| In 1920 | $198 |
|---|---|
| In 1930 | $165 |
| In 1940 | $139 |
| In 1950 | $239 |
| In 1960 | $293 |
| In 1970 | $384 |
| In 1980 | $816 |
| In 1990 | $1,294 |
| In 2000 | $1,705 |
| In 2010 | $2,159 |
| In 2020 | $2,562 |
| In 2026 | $3,284 |
Inflation in 1915, month by month
| Month | CPI-U | 12-month rate |
|---|---|---|
| January | 10.1 | 1.0% |
| February | 10 | 1.0% |
| March | 9.9 | 0.0% |
| April | 10 | 2.0% |
| May | 10.1 | 2.0% |
| June | 10.1 | 2.0% |
| July | 10.1 | 1.0% |
| August | 10.1 | -1.0% |
| September | 10.1 | -1.0% |
| October | 10.2 | 1.0% |
| November | 10.3 | 1.0% |
| December | 10.3 | 2.0% |
Economic events of 1915
- A German U-boat sinks the Lusitania The British liner went down off the Irish coast on May 7, 1915, killing 1,198 people, 128 of them Americans. The attack turned much of U.S. public opinion against Germany and became one of the events that pulled the country toward entering World War I two years later.
- War orders from Britain and France pull the economy out of recession A downturn that had started in 1913 was still weighing on factories in early 1915. Allied governments' orders for steel, munitions, and other war supplies picked up through the year, and U.S. exports to Britain and France roughly tripled between 1914 and 1916, lifting industrial output well before the U.S. itself joined the fighting.
- The Federal Trade Commission begins operating Congress had created the FTC in September 1914 to police unfair competition; the commission organized and started enforcing the law, including the Clayton Antitrust Act signed that same October, in March 1915.
Sources: USPS historical postage rates; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index history.
Inflation figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U annual averages. See the methodology.