The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-09-27
WAGON PRICES GO HIGHER
Manufacturers Compelled 10 Order
Another Advance.
MAKE THREE RAISES WITHIN 4 YEAR
CAUSED BY ADVANCE IN PRICES
OF ALL KINDS OF RAW
MATERIAL.
MAKE THREE RAISES WITHIN 4 YEAR

Dealers who will place their orders
for farm wagons this month will pay
higher prices than those who bought
in July, for the reason that there has
been another advance ordered by the
manufacturers, says the Weekly I'm
plement Trade Journal, published al
Kansas City.
In some cases the advance went into
effect August 1. Jobbers of some
makes have been instructed to raise
the price on the 10th and still others
on the goth. This makes three ad-
vances within a year on some makes
of wagons, particularly the old, best
known brands, and several advances
within the past four years.
Raw Material Advanced.
There has been a good deal of COM
plant among the dealers about the
advance in wagons, and some have
claimed that the advances have been
made arbitrarily by the manufacture
ers for the sole purpose of holding
the dealers up" for more money be-
cause times were good. Facts, how.
ever. do not bear out this assertion
Everyone who reads and who has kept
at all posted, knows that in the pas
few years there has been a great ad.
vance in the cost of the raw materials
entering into the construction Of waS-
the cost Of labor. AS to the cause of
these advances in material and labor
some of them may be legitimate and
some not; but the fact remains that
the manufacturers have been compel
led to pay the advance.
One thing is claimed by the man
ufacturers, and we believe it is true,
and that is that the advances in price
to the dealers have not been in pro-
portion to the advance in cost of man.
ufacture; the manufacturers have alb
sorbed a portion of the advance.
Farmers Get Off Easy.
Coming down to the dealers, very
few dealers have advanced their prices
to the farmers; they have absorbed
the advance, with the result that there
is no profit worth speaking about in
handling any of the standard high
grade wagons at the prices generally
charged by retailers today.
The time has come when dealers
must advance their prices on farm
wagons. Many say they can't do it
that they can't get over $40 for a wag-
on. A few years ago, when wagons
were the lowest ever known, and the
usual retail price on standard wagons
was $50, dealers said then that they
couldn't get more than $50 for farm
wagon, but when materials advanced
so that the wagons cost them more
than $50 they had to advance the
price; and that is what they are "up
against" at the present time.
OF course, farmers complain, when
asked to pay higher price for any
thing than they have been in the habit
of paying. That is only natural; YET
when the conditions of the market
justify a sharp advance in the price
of wheat, corn or livestock, there are
no farmers who are willing to sell al
lower than the market price.
There are many dealers in the West
today who can remember when farm
wagons cost them from $40 to $50 each
in car lots, and they sold them to the
farmers at from $S5 to $500. The
farmers were not in as good financial
condition in those days as they are al
the present time, by any means, an6
when they had to borrow money they
paid from II per cent to "a percent in
terest
Compared with other farm machin-
cry, wagons are not high. A farmer
pays SITS for a binder, which he uses
perhaps two weeks in the year and
seldom for more than five or six years
whereas he uses his wagon almost
every day, and a first-class farm wa
gon lasts from ten to twenty years
without repairs. 1t is generally con-
coded that farm wagons will never be
i any cheaper than they are at the
present time.