Valdez daily prospector., 1916-05-19
PRICE RAISING.

The WORLD must TCouJuSt us scare
of values. There have been tremen-
Idous advances in the price Of thou
sands OF things owing to the war,
end many OF these articles vii! re-
main high long after peace returns.
We never shall get back to the old
average. Great commissions such as
the European conflict disturb the
whole fabric of the worlds domestic
organization, increase the debt OF ma
lions, and make the cost of living
more expensive.
A decade or two hence men will
tell their children how cheaply they
could buy bread and meat, clothes
and fuel in the early part of the TWEEN
.tieth century, just. as our fathers tell
US how cheap living was generation
ago, and their grandfathers told them
how moderate prices were in the days
before the Civil War.
Naturally in the course OF civiliza-
tion, values are enhanced and prices.
whether they be of labor or commoG-
titles, once established, are hard to re.
Iduce. War aggrayates or hastens the
advance, and creates an abnormal
bulge in a great number of commodi-
ties for long time.
Few persons appreciate how the
prices OF some necessities have risen
or how much higher they may go.
Consider potash. 1t is used in ten
thousand ways-in medicines, in fer
tilizers, in the arts, the sciences, ct
cetera. Two years ago it sold in bulk
for $35 per ton. Today it sells at
$500. There have been sales at over
$1,000 ton. In it's re,ned forms, it's
values have advanced in far greater
degree. Bromide potassium, which is
used largely in photography and en-
craving has advanced 1900 per cent
in price.
The appreciation in the values OF
dyes is unbelievable, almost. Direct
black, which used to sell at eighteen
and one-half ce,.ts now sells at $12.
Green crystals, which formerly were
quoted at Csc now are hard to OBJ
tain at S22. Direct blues for cotton
colors, formerly sold at 45c. Now
the price is $3.50.
All this has had it's effect on the
cost of cotton and wooden goods. The
world will have fewer colored shirts
or dresses or general fabrics for the
next few years not only because of i'll
creased cost of colored goods but be-
cause the supply of dye is so reduced
that, regardless of price, there is not
sufficient to meet the normal demand.
White goods>will be as cheap, almost,
as before, but for gay and striking
garments, only one with a fat purse
can indulge.
All the metals-steel, copper, zinc,
tin and such-have gone up so to 100
per cent or more in value. Machin-
cry has had a far greater advance.
Rubber in every form, from a pencil
eraser to an automobile tire, has fol-
lowed suit. On the sea it is as on the
land. A ship that two years ago was
worth three hundred thousand dol
lars, now is hard to buy for seven
hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
AS for paper, everything that en-
tiers into it's making-pulp, sulphites,
rags, color matter, linen cuttings etc.,
has gone kiting. The refuse of the
collar factories and the shirt factories
and the linen mills now bring money
never dreamed of as possible to OBJ
tain.
Temporarily the world is short of
a multitude of things. This condition
has made fortunes for people out of
what had been of little or no value.
The waste of the cotton mills now
sells at a higher price than staple cot
ton sold for in the late nineties. 1t
is used for making guncotton and
smokeless powder and hundreds of
millions of pounds of it are being
used.
A prudent person will not inveigh
against the shopkeeper for what has
come to pass. Rather will be buy
only according to his needs and view
with such complacency as he can the
revolution in values that is under
way all over the world, for it is the
same in Asia, in Africa, in South
America and in Europe as it is in the
United States.-Popular Magazine.