Norwich bulletin., 1912-01-06
AN INTERESTING REVELATION FROM FIGURES

of the latter-the clothing stores
where. you and / buy our suits. Add
ing this selling expense to the actual
cost Of the suit brings the factory
outgo for the whole thing, made, pack
ed and shipped Sl4.S2.
The average price which the whole
sale clothing manufacturer gets for
this suit which has actually cost him
Sl432, is Sl6.5q. In other words, his
profit is $2.lS.
The retailer sells it to you or me for
$23. His profit is $3.50.
Now, that wasn't so awfully hard
to wade through, was it, Yet, if you
have had the courage to Try it, you
now know just exactly how and why
your new suit of fancy worsteds cost
you $23. You know how much of that
S23 went to the farmer, and how much
to the wooden mill, and how much to
the clothing manufacturer and how
much TO the clothing dealer. Perhaps
[ ought to have gone into one detail
a little farther, and explained that the
railroads share, for freight, amounts
to exactly five cents on a suit.
The one thing that impressed me,
when l had got through summarizing
these very Informative figures, was
how blindly and blunderingly wrong is
the popular howl about causes for the
high price of clothing. There the
greedy farmer" to begin with. For
years the average consumer has been
filed with a revengeful wrath, because
the farmer was charging so much for
his stuff. We all have heard it, How
many times, when we have been ask
ed and have told the price for some
Of our produce, have We heard the
prospective buyer come back at us
with a Gee, why don't you ask for
the earth and be done with it? Say.
you farmers must be gettin' rich"
| That, or something quite like it.
Wen, here's just one illustration of
/ the "extortion" were practicing
4 Here's an ascertained fact, in unim-
peachable figures, about one of our
products:-hgures worked out, not by
some possible prejUdiced farmer, but
oy commission of price experts
which hasn't a farmer on it. We're
making SIS cents profit on every s23
suit OF clothes! That is to say, the
greedy and grasping farmer gets
almost three per cent. for furnishing
! practically all the material in that
suit Terrible, isn't il?
Then there are the railroads. How
the average consumer does paw the
ground and saw the air in his furious
denunciation OF their robbery and
( sWindling" Of the public! In the case
of this suit Of clothes, it would appear
B that they take out of the buyer less
/ than one-quarter of one per cent. II
: really doesn't look as il this was a
very stupendous crime against the
public,
But the WOODEN manufacturer,-how
I about him? He's the fellow who is
/ chiefly protected by the tariff The
farmer gets some protection through
/ the duty on raw wool, but it's the
I wooden manufacturer who is denounc-
ed as the chief beneficiary of this in
iquitous" and class legislation. He
is the fellow who is charged with de-
handing high tariff, so he can keep
the price of cloth up and stuff his
pockets with the enormous profits
wrung from those who must buy or
go naked
1t turns out that his enormous
profit is just 20 cents on the cloth in
a S23 suit,-one per cent, of the SELL
ing price Of that suit! Why, l almost
reel like walking through the snow to
~iC uCdlcS hDOleu factory L Know OF
and making an apology to the tall
brick chimney for ever having even
read some Of the speeches and edi-
torials l seem to remember
Don't never prophesy onIess ye
KNOW" was some wise mans injunc-
| zion. 1t certainly is a little fresh
bitterly to denounce whole masses Of
ones fellow citizens, without ADEQUATE
knowledge of the facts.
If the average consumer" of whom
we hear so much could knock off all
the farmers profit of IS cents, and all
the railroads charges of cents, and
all the manufacturers profit of 20
| cents: If he could make them all
work for him for nothing and board
lhemselves,-then he would save lust
GS plus 70 plus 5, which equals 96
cents. He could then buy his S23
/ suit for 22.04.
And if the farmers and the railroads
ana the wooden manufacturers would
/ turn and politely ask him. also. to
work for them for nothing and board
/ nIInself-just about what do you sup
pose he'd say?
Y et wouldn't it be as fair for the
gander as it was for the goose?