Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-07-07
Price fCIothing
Is Being Reduced
BY w. S. MANN.
Copyright. 1920, by The washing
ton Start

WASHINGTON, July THE higl
price of clothing, especially wooden
clothes, is coming down.
This is not the stereotyped an
nouncement of a fair-price commits.
sioner. intent upon holding his job.
its a cold-blooded deduction from
undisputed facts which on their face
carry conviction.
The high price of clothing is com
ing down on account of the only
certain way to reduce prices, and
THAT reduction Is being caused by the
people of the country who have reg
istered their protest in no uncertain
but very effective manner. II you
have been wearing your old as a pro-
test against the high costs of new
clothes. take heart, for your self
denial has won the victory and you
are soon to be rewarded.
It seems like a far cry from a
western wool grower to the Federal
Reserve Board, and folks generally
will wonder what either has to do
with reduction In prices of cloth
ing. A meeting of the western wool
growers with the Federal Reserve
Board which has just been held in
Washington, has given the assurance
that prices of wool clothing are
coming down"
Members of congress were recent
ly bombarded with kilograms from
western wool growers. who reported
that agents of the big eastern wool
buyers had been called home and
had had refused even to make an
offer for the big wool clip usually
sold at this time of the year. The
will growers appealed for relief in
some such as was afforded
the cotton growers In 1917, and
came to Washington to meet rep
resentatives of the Federal Reserve
Board to talk the matter w
The meeting was attended by rep
resentatives Of each of the federal
reserve banks, many private bank
ers, wool buyers and wool growers.
AS a result of that conference the
following facts were brought out,
upon which is based the prediction
that your clothes may soon be pur-
chased at a fraction of the amount
now written in the price tags.
Merchants, finding their shelves
burdened with the clothing that the
public could not or would not buy
at the prices asked, stopped ordering
from the manufacturers and can
celled future orders wherever pos
sible.
Manufacturers, on receipt of these
cancellations, in turn cancelled flu
ture orders placed with the wool
merchants.
Big wool buyers of the East, who
supply raw wool to the manufac-
turers, and who at this season have
agents in all the western wool states
buying this years clip. simply wired
their agents in the field to make no
more offers for wool and to come
home.
That's the whole story. Mr.. Ulti-
mate Consumers persistence in wear
ing his old clothes, either because he
could not or would not pay the
price asked for new ones, left the re-
taller without a market. and with a
big wool stock on hand. Sooner or
later, the retailer must move these
stock-and having had unmistak-
able evidence hat he cannot move
them at the prices asked, he will be
forced to take less for them.
Leaders in congress reconnize this
and are gratihed that the consumers
have so effectively taken the reins
in their own hands and curbed the
high prices. House Leader Mondell,
who was active in arranging the
Washington conference and who act
ed as spokesman for the western
wool growers before the Federal
Reserve Board, said of this phase of
the meeting:
This is the first concrete case
brought to my attention, in which
the voluntary ~self-denial of our peo-I
pie appears likely to be rewarded by
a reduction in the price of an abso-
lutely necessary commodity. 1t
should be encouraging to those OF
us who have tried to get along with
our old clothes, and should inspire
us to practice the same spirit of self
denial along other lines.
I'VE must refuse to pay exorbitant
prices, and return to normal and
simpler conditions of living, before
the country generally shall settle
back 70 pre-war conditions. In my
opinion the facts brought out at the
recent Washington conference, as at
fecting the clothing market. will re-
suit in very considerable reductions
on wooden clothing.
my observation leads me to be-
lieve that the clothing manufacturer
is largely to blame for the present
high prices. The retailer in many
lines, we have discovered, has been
compelled to ask prices which have
been fixed by the manufacturer for
various articles. 1t is fair to pre-
sumo thta retailers of clothing in
many cases may De similarly Dounu'
Clothing manufacturers usually
blame the high cost of the raw ma
terial for the increased prices asked
for clothing. When it is known that
three pounds of wool only are used
in the average suit, it will at once be
evident how little there really is to
such an argument. Even granting
the truth of the manufacturers CON-
tention, the fact that wool has been
on the tobaggan' for months and is
likely to go still lower. knocks the
props out of their argument.
1T am not sufficiently familiar with
the matter to qualify as an expert,
but it is my belief that the average
retailer is anxious to turn over his
stocks at reasonable profit. and that
in the case of clothing he would do
so were it not for excessive prices
demanded by the manufacturer or