Evening star., 1913-02-27

I anna canal. deepen the Mississippi river.
construct a deep waterway to Chicago,
| and still leave enough to pay for the
| might1est fleet Of dreadnoughts that ever
| cut the waves Of any sea-
Nor are the grocerymen and the other
duce the
High Price of Clothing only mid
Laid to the Middleman. ore ] charged ~ad
with having a hand. either in the shape
of profits or of necessary expenses IN the
things the consumer has to buy. The
American Woolen and Cotton Reporter
puts the high price Of clothing upon the
men who handle it from the time it
leaves the producing manufacturer until
it reaches the wearing consumer. 1t
states that certain New England manu-
facturer, whose brand Of underwear Is
known throughout the country-a brand
which retails at from $1.5O to $500 the
garment-makes only 80 cents dozen
when he sells them 1t is claimed that 1t
costs $43 a dozen to manufacture gar
ments that retail for 50 cents. and that
the manufacturer is satisfied with as
much profit on a half dozen garments as
the retailer is on a single suit.
The claim is made by this journal that
dress goods for which a woman pays the
retailer $3.50 yard costs him $1.5O. and
that the suit she buys for S2o costs him
$3.50. A forty-inch lawn, retailing for 30
cents, was sold by the manufacturer for
161a cents. An imported linen fabric which
asserts. is being sold for 30 cents yard.
1t is claimed that figures like these with
out end might be produced, and that they
prove beyond question that the manufac-
turer has no hand in the high price era
that exists today.
B. F. Yoakum, the big western railroad
president, pins the blame for high prices
onto the
Some Startling Figures m 1ddleman
Given by B. F. Yoakum. arerr % as,d
He says 1t is matter Of ''the high cost
OF selling and cites some striking fig
ures to prove it, among them the financial
history Of a carload Of watermelons raised
in Oklahoma The farmer who loaded the
car said that the melons were sold by
him at cents each, or $3.50 for the car
load of 1850 melons. 1t cost the buyer
$75 to haul these melons 600 miles to St
Paul. The retail price of those melons in
st. Paul ranged around 60 cents, so that
the carload would bring about $3.50 at con-
sumers' prices. OF course. it is reasonable
to suppose that the case cited by Mr..
Yoakum Is an unusual one. but the fact
does remain that there are practically
three or four people who must levy their
living and their profits on the goods and
produce that pass through their hands
while travelling from the producer to the
consumer
With farm produce the commission
merchant says he Is not to blame, be-
cause his commission is cents on the
dollar, as a rule, and that 1t is no more
today than it was before the present era
of high prices. The wholesaler says he
is not the culprit, for his margin is very
small on each item he handles. and that
he can make more money in the end by
making large sales on short margins than
by making small sales OH long margins.
The retailer says that he is not the man:
that he can show beyond peradventure
of a doubt that he is not growing rich,
and that he would be satisfied If he were
making only fourth of what the public
thinks he Is.
There is evidently some truth in all
their denials. The commission merchant
does not ex-
Retailers by Thousands tract great
Fail in Business. from anv par
ticuar dozen of eggs or crate of chickens.
but on the whole he lives well and Is able
to save q competence. The wholesaler.
likewise, does not add a great deal to the
total, but he, too has those things which
show he is getting the good living that he
feels he is entitled to have. Retailers by
the thousand do go to the wall, and other
thousands do make a rather poor living
out Of 1t. But their trouble seems to be
more through the lack of business man.
agement than the lack of margin on their
sales. A small business that has to yield
enough profits to rear a family, to pay
the running expenses of the store and the
like, must levy a goodly percentage on
each dollars worth of goods sold. And
here Is where the big grocer comes in.
He can undersell the small grocer and
still keep the prices so high that his big
sales enable him to have a fine home. an
electric automobile for his wife, gaso-
line car for himself and the family and
all the things that go with them.
The same Is true with the general mer
chant. The small store may make a big
percentage on everything It sells, but
still the total is not great On the other
hand, the big department store may sell
on closer margin and still grow so rich
that apartment houses, Office buildings,
blocks of small residences become the
visible evidences of the total profits the
business yields.