The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1919-01-31
ALL LINES OF MERCHANDISE
ON THE TO5OGGAN SLIDE
Heavy Declines Have Already Taken
Place, Others Will Surely Follow
Corn and Corn Products Way Down

IUpiC IIOlu hOW VII 1OI Vic iiCAI low
months is the cost of living. 1t has
been high. Too high, no doubt The
housewife has found it difficult to
make the monthly allowance meet the
ends of necessity.
From a perusal of the market re-
ports for the past two weeks this
paper has concluded there is ground
for believing that by April first, pos
sibly sooner, very marked lowering
of the cost of necessities will take
place. The retailers, especially in the
interior towns, will be somewhat slow
er in following the declines than will
the same class of merchants in the
cities, where competition is sharper
and price changes follow cost more
promptly. The following, taken from
the most reliable sources, indicates
that already many commodities have
declined in price. Corn and the pro-
duets of corn have probably suffered
the greatest price lowering, tho cot
ton and cotton goods has also declined
sharply. The following indicates how
wide the price lowering movement has
ranged:
On January ID sharp declines took
place in cotton prices and were said
by the Journal of Commerce to be "the
greatest that have been made in the
textile markets since the close of the
civil war"
The writer believes that reduction
of prices in the United States is "inev-
liable if we expect to keep our ma
chinery at work and our export trade
up to normal level" Indeed, "it will
be hard to sell goods freely even at
home so long as the present schedule
of prices is maintained" Meanwhile,
prospects of quick and easy conquest
of foreign markets care already seen
to have been too hasty and are not
likely to be realized" Hence the pres
ent scale of values "is far too high and
must be lowered" While these read
iustments will bring about condition
of disturbance and may involve some
suffering, they are "a necessary part
of the process of returning to normal
conditions" Details of drastic reduc-
tions in textile prices that have al
ready been made are given by the
same paper:
Leading textiles and fibers are
falling sharply. In the cotton goods
markets two standard lines of
bleached muslins have been revised
downward six cents and nine cents
a yard, respectively, or to a basis of
twenty five and thirty per cent under
the values quoted during the last quar-
ter of last year. Print cloths, con-
vertibles, and brown sheetings had
been declining for several weeks. Mills
were closing down when government
orders ran out and no orders were in
sight to replace them. Matters of
wages and working hours are under
discussion in the mill centers. Now
that move has been made to stabilize
values on as low level as possible
under present conditions, it is expect
ed that action will follow in the nam
ing of prices on blankets, mapped cot
tons, and many lines of colored cot
tons that are usually ordered at this
time for fall distribution. Hosiery
prices have been cut twenty per cent
and underwear prices for the fall sea-
son will be made on basis that will
virtually represent actual cost OF even
lower, based upon yarns and cotton
as they are now quoted.
"That mills were abnormally pros
porous in the past three years was
indicated by tabulation of dividends
and earnings sent out from Fall River
"Burlap prices are now down to
more than fifty per cent below the
prices quoted last August and this will
have a far reaching effect upon car
pet and floor covering products. Lin
ems can not be revised downward a
great deal as flax is very scarce and
will remain so for some time, but
linens were never advanced to some of
the high levels seen in other dry
goods.
Wool goods values are declining
steadily, but for the time being the
trade is greatly unsettled because of
the government policy in fixing min
imum at which it will sell its surplus
wool at auction. Foreign wool mar
kets are now being opened up and re-
strictions removed, and it will not be
long before the trade will demand that
domestic wool shall be priced in ac-
cordance with the worlds free mar
kets, there being no duty on wool i'm
ports at the present time"