The Pascagoula chronicle. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1905-1920, 1919-03-15
HIGH PRICES NOT
TO CONE down
Governors and Mayors Get Behind
Campaign to Stimulate Business
Through Construction Works.

The Governors and; Mayors in a
tendance on the recent Washingto
conference appear to have been cor
vinced, pretty generally, of two things
There is to be no immediate or marke
reduction in the price OF building ma
terials and labor wages, and. an i'm
mediate resumption df building an
and construction activities Throughout
the country, more tiiail any other cIi
thing, is essential il hQsiaess is to go
back to the "as usaaH oasis of peace
or the better than usaal'' possibilitiel
of the present and fouire
Some went to the Conference believ
ing lower prices misht be had if tht
Federal Government would "just dc
something" Othersewere convinced
that the situation would take care o.
itself if the Government would dc
nothing but keep its hands off business
and let the law Of supply and demand
run its course. These latter were dis
| posed to believe prices in the building
and construction industries were toe
high.
| For this reason a statement by Prof
Irving Fisher Of Yale University, ar
acknowledged authority on price and
market conditions, in whio he says
the United States has reacheS new
price level and it is doubtful if prices
ever again will go back to the pre-war
level, was read with interest Prof
Fisher says that one certain way tn
bring about business stagnation is for
everybody to wait for BUSINESS to get
better, Prof. Fisher states it this
way:
"The fundamental practical question
confronting business men is whether
the general level of prices is going to
fall, In my opinion. it is not going to
fall much, if at all We are on a
permanently higher price level and the
sooner the business men Of the country
take this view and adjust themselves
to it, the sooner will they save them
selves and the nation from the mis-
fortune which will come, if we persist
in our present false hope"
This international authority on
prices show there haY--acaa timec il
history when new price levels were
established. He says:
"1he general level of prices depends
upon the volume and rapidity of turn
over of the circulating medium in re-
iation to the business to be transacted
thereby. If the number of dollars
circulated by cash and by check
doubles, while the number of goods
and services exchanged thereby re-
main constant, prices will double.
"The great price changes in history
have come about in just this manner.
The Price revolution of the sixteenth
century came upon Europe as g result
of the great influx of gold and silver
from the mines of the New World.
Europe was flooded with new money
More counters were used than before
N effecting exchanges, and prices be-
came high People talked then of
imitation" just as they
talk of it now But it was not tempor-
ary; ii was new price level. following
the discovery of the rich gold fields of
South Africa Cripple Creek and
Alaska, the invention of the cyanide
process in mining, and the vast extern
sion OF the use OF bank credit"
After analyzing our gold supply and
credits and pointing out that prices |
n Europe are higher than in America,
Prof Fisher arrives at this conclusion;
Business men should face the fact
TO talk reverently of 1894 prices is
o speak dead language today. The
buyers of the coutry, since the armis-
ice, have made an unexampled attack
N prices through their waiting atti-
ude, and yet price recessions have
leen insignificant The reason is that
We are on a new high price level,
which will be found a stubhon reality.
BUSINESS men are going to find out that
he clever man is not the man who
waits, but the one who finds out the
ew price facts, and acts accordingly"
At the same time Prof. Fishers
onclusions were made known there
ame from the Division of Public
Works and Construction Development
t the U. S. Department of Labor a
esume of the work of ten or twelve
xperts on price and market con-
itions Here again it was made plain
here is no evidence justifying the en-
ectation of a general, material reduc
on in the price level. This report |
lakes these statements:
"The fact is that cost of construction |
not high today, 1t is low compared II
ith food, clothing and commodities |
general Although some readjust- s
ents in the wages of individual trades /
nd in the prices of individual classes |
building materials may take place, q
ie cost of construction will not come 7
,wn to such an extent as to endanger I
judicius investment made today in Il
e erection of new building"
The Washington conference was I
He'd to discuss ways and means of S