New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1916-02-23
IMPLEMENT PRICES
TO SOAR SKYWARD
- STEEL TRUST ADVANCES PRICE
OF RAW MATERIAL USED IN
MACHINES.
PIG IRON AND steel. IN DEMAND
BY EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
NOW AT WAR.

Farmers probably will be the next
victims of high prices resulting from the
advance in the price of raw materials
caused by the European war. Circular
letters received by local dealers from the
manufacturers of farm implements are
to the effect that an advance in the price
of farm machinery is to be anticipated
unless there should be sudden ending
of the conflict. Even then, it is pre-
dicted, the prices are liable to advance
somewhat on account of the shortages
already created.
AS a result of the great demand for
steel and iron for the manufacture of
implements of death and warfare and the
building of war ships, the steel trust and
other producers of iron and steel, have
raised their prices again and again on
their products, and following this raise
the manufacturers of farm implements
have come to the conclusion that they
will be forced to raise the prices on their
goods if they want to break even in the
coming season.
While the pig iron and steel may not
cost the steel trust any more than it has
heretofore, they and their allies are taking
advantage of the situation and forcing
the prices of their products up to the
highest possible notch. Manufacturers
of farm implements do not produce their
own pig iron and steel, but are obliged
to buy it, as rule, from the steel trust
at whatever price the latter may stipu-
late.
One of the local farm machinery houses
handed the Review circular which in
dicates clearly what may be expected
along the line of higher prices in the near
future. The following is taken there
from:
'The increasing consumption Of Ameri-
can factory products, particularly steel,
occasioned by growing domestic require
ments and the foreign demand due to the
European War, compels us to face the
greatest advance in the cost of materials
Ill our history.
$500 ''The following are some of the adj
vances which have occurred since we
made our prices to the trade in a few
of the products which are principally
used in the manufacture of implements:
Steel Bars & Plow Beams $14.00 per ton
Plate Steel .......... 1900 per ton
cL~1 c1..a4, 90 m mn +o,,
Foundry Pig Iron. 800 per ton
'Other materials have made proper
tionate advances, and in addition, still
greater advances have occurred in such
expense materials as oil, high speed drills
tool steel, etc. The labor cost has also
materially increased.
- "Deale~s have been selling agricul.
tural implements on such close margins
of profit that it seems quite necessary
for the dealer to add this advance in cost
to his selling price.
eve urge upon the necessity of put
ting this advance into effect Immediately
for the advance that we are putting OF
now must inevitably be followed, in thu
= very near future, should the present
market trend continue, by further adj
vances of a considerable amount"
The following are few of the prices
advances made, and which in some in
stances is only one of a series of advances
and which may be followed by other
later:
Rolling Coulters- per cent.
Riding and Walking Cultivators- II
per cent.
Steel Harrows-1O per cent.
Disc HarroWs-10 per cent.
Road Scrapers- per cent.
Tongue Scrapers- cents.
Corn Planters-10 per cent.
Manure Spreaders-
Hay Rakes- 100.