The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-23

vt is not possible to avoid the sub
iect of prices for clothes this win
ter. No woman tries to avoid it
1t has taken the place Of the war as
topic of unceasing interest. Women
compare notes, argue over the justice
and Injustice of the condition, explain
it by inside information given them
by dressmakers, and dilate on the tre-
mendous subject of industrial unrest
The end is always the same. They
shake their heads, throw up their
hands, and ask what is to become of
all of us.
The dressnnakers seem to be rather
anxious to quote big prices as an in
dication of their prestige. AS yet there
is no marked diminution in the buy
ing Of clothes because their prices have
SCARED beyond those of the De Medici,
Cleopatra and Marie Antoinette. This
era should go down in history as one
in which women paid more for their
apparel than ever before since the skin
of the wild beast was discarded.
The topic is not new. 1t started in
France last August. The Americans
who were there insisted that few people
could continue to make enough profit
to nav their rent and the prices the
French dressmakers asked for their
models But the Americans had shock
in store for them. They had no idea
what America was about to ask for
women's clothes
It might be wildly said. II one Is
careless of detailed statistics in mass,
that there is no gown in Paris COM
mensurate In price with those over
here.
What startled the Americans in
France seems to have given them an
elated sense of prosperity over here
Very few tailors and dressmakers apol-
ogize for their prices. 1t has beer
whispered that some of them initiate
the cost Of a gown They advertise
II at one price and sell 1t at another
Shrewd women have waited for reduc-
lions for this very reason. They die
not buy In October because they felt
quite sure that the Thanksgiving sea-
son would see cut In prices.
This thing has happened in the mass
of clothes, but not in those sold by
the high priced dressmakers and mil
liners. The astounding prices still con-
tinue at those places.
II is quite easy to see that the sew
ing room at home must take the place
Of the smart shop, but the woman who
tries to get good material and an ex-
cellent seamstress who knows how to
make gown finds that the task is
not so easy. When she has paid the
price of seamstress-for her wages
have gone up with all the rest-and
then paid for material which has
doubled in value. she comes to a full
realization Of the underlying truth of
the whole situation; that dollar is
no longer a dollar. 1t Ia only about
thirty cents
The pessimists feel that we are re-
verting to the condition of the South
in the Civil War; that a five-hundred-
dollar bill gets the equivalent OF fifty
dollars. All prices are artificial be-
cause the value of money is not the
same. The reason that some Ameri-
cans felt that they saved money by
buying in France was the deprecia-
ton of the franc. but we in this coun-
try are watching the ten-dollar- bill
dwindle to a few pieces of silver, as
far as Its purchasing power is con-
cerned. Every woman will have to
become used to the shock of high
prices by realizing the revolution in
money values. If one looks at 1t from
that point of view. one is not so apt
to go mad.
AS, wages go up. prices will go up
There Is no possibility of the latter
going down while the former soar
If -the working world increases sixty
J. q. -
chasing power of what it now earns
will be exactly equivalent to what II
formerly had. Nobody gains. Those
who lose most are the ones who cannot
force their wages up. When wages
go down. prices will go down with
them. say the social economists but
who is going to send wages DOWN.
All these questions are closely allied
TO fashion. Never was there a time
when women took such vital interest
in social conditions, for the selfish,
egotistical reason that they bear on
the private and personal life of each
individual
HERE ARE The writer of this
SOME PRICES. story carefully COM
piled a list of the
prices in France with the help of i'm
portant buyers, 1t was the belief that
these would be of extraordinary inter
est to the American public because
they We're so tremendous, but they
have dwindled to very little in the light
of the amounts asked in this country
Everything is so much higher in the
United states than in Europe-even