The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-25
Shoes Will Cost $2O While Ready To Wear
 Suits Will Be SlOO
SAY THERE IS NO PROFTTEERING- WILL SOAR TO DIZZY HEIGHTS
 THING IN ADVANCE.

The War Trade Board reports a general increase in the cost of 102 per cent. Salary increases have ranged from the laboring classes, 60 to so per cent, to the middle classes, 10 to 20 per cent. The H. c. of L., records show always has kept many a jump ahead of wage increases. In addition to the more than % per cent. increase in the cost of food and clothing, there has been an appreciable decrease in
 quality.
 A Fifth avenue tailor frankly ad-
 mftted yesterday that the serge suit
 he is selling today for s12O hasn't | half the quality of the suit he sold for $TO five years ago.
 Because of the cost of raising wool
 labor conditions and the expensive
 'overhead," clothing manufacturers yesterday admitted the day of the $100 ready-to-wear suit is at hand. There is a tremendous foreign de-
 mand and, strange to say, the sup
 posedly bankrupt foreigners are de
 manding high grade goods. Many
 domestic consumers are buying shoes for future use also. There is a . leather shortage and the end is not
 yet"
 Lightweight hides are selling in
 Chicago at fifty-fve cents per pound,
 an increase of almost 100 per cent.
 over last years war prices. Manu-
 lecturers are accepting orders only
 on condition that they be permitted
 to shift the price of the finished pro-
 duct with the increase in leather
 prices.
 Perhaps the greatest increase in price along the whole line is in cof- fee, now selling at 28 cents a pound,
 wholesale. This popular "prohibi-
 tion drink, 1t is predicted, will short Iy go to so cents a pound, retail.
 The story is the same with tobacco drugs, wooden goods, popun, serge. vojle, percale and everything that one cats and wears.
 Max Friedman, president of the American Clothing Manufacturers Association, No. 7GS Broadway, said: The clothing manufacturers have faced a shortage of raw materials. That has increased the price of cloth. The big item is the increased cost of labor to the manufacturer and the de- crease of production due to Iabor's shorter hours.
 We have a H-hour week against a former 4S-hour week. Formerly we had a seasonal arrangement with la Dor, now we have a 50 to 52-week year. The cost of labor has increased from 100 to 15O per cent. Producing Cost Higher. Tt now costs vastly more to breed and raise sheep, to shear wool bale and transport it, warehouse it, ship it to mills carry it from trains to fac
 tories, weave it into cloth, etc. We
 must all pay for the war for years to come---and do it with a grin" J. J. Nevins, secretary Of the Amer ican Association of Woolen and Wor- stei Manufacturers, No. 45 East Sev- enteenth street, said:
 Nobody is profiteering. Nobody would dare profiteer, from the pro- ducer of raw material to manufac- turer Of finished suits.
 The natural cost of materials and labor is so high that the masses are irritated beyond forbearance. He who would seek unusual profits would do so at his peril.'
 New York State Industrial Commis- sion figures made public yesterday show five-year increase in the wage of factory workers from June l, 1914 to June 1, 1919, of IT per cent. The average salary is now s22.51, as against S12.7O in 1914