Norwich bulletin., 1912-01-06

7 don suppose a great many VIII
ever read the rather lengthy abstracts
which are published in some papers.
nor the Windy speeches which will be
made BY various congressman about
it.
Nevertheless, there are a few mighty
Interesting things in it,, when they are
once dug out One, especially, has at
tracted my attention, and I'm wonder
ing if some Of you wouldn't be willing
TO know just exactly where the money
goes, every individual cent Of it, when
YOU buy a suit II fancy Worsted'
wooden clothes.
That is exactly one thing the COM
mission hunted down, and has trans
ferred into figures in its report
First, they found out, from examin
alton of numerous selling sheets from
clothing stores ali over the country,
that SO was about the average price
paid by the average American for an
average suit OF fancy wOrsteds
Then they traced that suit back, step
by step, from the outside of the man
Who wore il 20 the outside Of the sheep
which gave the wool They set down
every separate item OF cost which en-
erred into the sum Of $23 which the
man finally paid for the suit, and every
workman and toll-maker along the
way who got his pay out Of ii.
Now, I'm not going to reprint that
whole table, because il looks too
formidable, not to say scarey for the
everyday reader to want TO tackle.
But ] had q day Off" during a roar
ing snow storm, last week, and put
iu jhe time aualyzing the said table
OF
first, but 1 got interested, and believe
7 can now give you the gist Of it, with
sufficient accuracy and in tolerable
readable shape.
To begin with, there's some wool in
that S23 suit If it's really a fancy
Worsted, it's practically all wool AS
suming that it is thus honest in the
cloth and honest in the making all the
way through the actual wool in that
suit cost lust 1928. That is what the
farmer got for wool in the fleece.
From such figures Of the cost Of pro-
duclng wool as are available the COM
mission made out that this was about
hN cents more than il actually cost
the farmer TO obtain the wool That
is his profit on a $23 suit Of clothes
U.s. IS cents. The wool itself, YOU see.
is worth about 0ne-ter III OF the suits
selling price
Then tho woolen mills took il and
made il into cloth AT an exact cost for
making Of S2.32. This, added to the
cost OF the wool makes S4.55. They
sold the cloth which had thus cost
.hem SA55 for SA7S. The difference
between those sums was the wooden
Mills pr0ft,-23 cents on the cloth in
a suit Of clothing
Keep those figures in mind:-farm-
lr's profit 6S cents; manufacturers
profit % cents.
From the wooden mills which wovs
Ehe cloth, it passed to the factory
where the cloth was made into suits.
Here the commission went into figures
30 the third decimal point They had
already found the cost Of the cloth,
Now they figured out the cost Of the
trimmings, and the value of the waste.
and the proportion Of freight each suit
hhOuld bear. Then they followed the
process Of turning the cloth into a
suit through every step. They got
the cost OF every minor operation
from the time a roll Of cloth
came in till it went in finished suits
70 the shipping clerk. The list in
cludes such items as "sponging, and
cutting, and trimming, and fitting, and
operating, and basting, and button
sewing, and button holing, and press
ing, and bushelling" and several more.
Altogether these items-including of
course the original price of the cloth.
bring the cost Of the made suit IN To
512H.
Then the commission added the
average cost Of selling the goods.
which they found 20 be almost Si.gl
per suit This please be careful to
observe, is the selling expense the big
factory goes to In order to get its fin
lshed suits by the packing ease fun
INTO the hands Of the retailers. IL has
nothing TO DO with the selling expenses