The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-16
HIGH PRICES WORLD WIDE.


The advance of prices. of which so
much is now heard, is not confined
to the United States or to the coun-
tries which participated in the war.
II has been world wide. Nor has 1t
taken place exclusively in the products
required for war purposes. nor for the
use Of the millions engaged in the war.
Practically every article entering in
ternational trade has advanced in
price in the country in which pro-
duced, Irrespective of its proximity
to the war area. Nor have prices been
reduced to a perceptible degree in any
part of the world since the close of
the war. There are, of course, a few
exceptions TO this general rule, but
they are so few and so plainly due to
peculiar conditions that they prove
the rule that the advance has been
world wide and that the termination
OF the war has not reversed the move
ment or at least caused any material
decline in any considerable proper
ton of the important articles OF world
production and world consumption.
The extent of the increases in world
prices and their distribution to all
parts OF the globe irrespective of reia-
ton to the war area is illustrated by
compilation by the National City bank
of New York showing the 1919 prices
in the country OF production OF the
principal articles forming the inter-
national trade of the world and COM
pairing these 1919 prices with those
of the month preceding the war. In
the distant Orient, in the tropical
world, in the interior of Africa, Aus
tralia and South America, and in the
islands OF the Pacific, the prices de-
manded for the articles offered for ex-
portation have been and still continue
to be far above those of the pre-war
period, the advances ranging from so
per cent to 100 per cent, and some
times $50 per cent.
Rice, Ior example. OF which the
United States imported about AGO.
100000 pounds from China and Japan
in 1918, cost in the country of produce
ton 10 cents per pound for that i'm
ported in December, 1918, as against
2.6 cents per pound for that imported
in the month preceding the war, July,
1914. Raw silk, of which we obtain
our entire supply from China and ia
pan, cost in those countries an average
of $6.12 per pound for the imports of
the closing month of the war, and
1884 per pound in the month preced-
ing the war. Goat skins imported
from China, India, Mexico and South
America cost in those countries an av-
erage of 62.S cents per pound for
those reaching the United States in
May. 1919. against 24.5 cents per
pound for those imported from the
same countries in the month preced-
ing the war. Mattings for floors, i'm
ported chiefly from Japan and China,
cost in the countries of production
26.4 cents per square yard for the
quantities reaching the United States
in May. 1919, against 81 cents per
square yard for the quantities which
reached US in July, 1914.
Curlously. too, the prices of many
articles continue to advance without
reference to the fact that the war has
terminated. or the seventy-five arti-
cles named by the department of COM
merce as Principal Articles Import
ed" more than one-half of those en-
tering the United States in May, 1919,
actually\showed higher prices in the
country of production than the prices
Of the same articles imported in the
closing month of the war. and coming
from the same country