The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1920-01-15
WHY WE HAVE
INCREASED PRICES
HONEST FIGURES THAT THE
PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW
BY COMPARISON
(By David Silverman)

(By David Silverman)
Most people seem to think that
clothes prices are high. Measured in
the number of dollars it takes to pur-
chase suit, they are. But measured
in the prices of things which the pro-
ducer has to SELL or in the wages paid
for service performed they are not
higher than they were before the war,
in many instances, as matter of fact
they are not as high.
Compare close prices-for in
stance, with that of corn, the great
American money crop, in 1914 the
Iowa farmer had to haul so bushels
of corn to market in order to get the
money to pay for a $500 suit of
clothes. Now he can get $4,000 suit
and a $1,000 pair of shoes for his fif-
ty bushels of corn.
"ft> may be that he doesn't haul
corn to market but feeds it to his
hogs. On December 30th, 1914, he had
to sell four hundred pounds Of hogs
at the top price of the Chicago mar
ket to get the money to pay for a
S25.00 suit and a $500 hat. On De-
cember 3Oth, 1919, if he sold four
pounds of hogs at the top price OF the
Chicago market he came within $500
of receiving the money to buy a
$4,000 suit and there have been long
periods in the last two years when he
would have gotten from $4,000 to
$1,000 for his four hundred pounds OF
hogs.
"If, on December 30th, 1914, he
marketed a thousand pounds corn-fed
steers at the top price of the Chicago
market he got $3.50 for it. If he
markeet it on December 30th, 1919,
for the top price, he got $4,000 for
it-money enough to buy pretty nice
outfit of clothes even at present
prices.
wheat is raised in very wide sec
tions of the country. Official govern
ment reports tell US the average farm
value of wheat on November 1st, 1914,
was nc bushel. The farmer who
sold fifty bushels of it got $3.50, or
just about enough to buy a $25.OO
suit, a $500 pair of shoes, a $500
hat, two OF three good shirts, and
then some handkerchiefs. The farm
value of wheat on November 1st, 1919,
was s2-13 a bushel and the farmer
who sold fifty bushe at his same sta
ton received $1O6.50, or enough to
buy him a fine $4,000 suit and big
thick oyercoat. If a farmer happens
to live in the Northwest and to have
held his wheat until now he can get
somewhere near $500 bushel for
grain OF good quality.
'ANhile we are talking about the
Northwest, it may be well to mention
the farmer who raises faxseed. The
government tells US that on the first
of November, 1914, he received an
average of S1.187 per bushel at the
farm stations for his seed. For twen-
ty-five bushels he got just about
enough money for his $500. suit and
a hat. If he marketed his flaxseed on
November 1st 1919, he got on an
average of 1882 a bushel at the same
station. For twenty-five bushels he
got $95.50-enough to pay for his
$4,000 suit and leave $3.50 for hat,
shoes, and furnishings for the winter.
"You may think the Northwest is
a particularly favored territory but
let's look at the South where they
raise cotton. We all remember how
in the fall of 1914 the "Buy a bale Of
cotton" campaign was on to save the
producer from ruin
"The price of cotton in the fall OF
1914 was down to 6 cents pound for
a time, but that's hardly a fair COM
parison. Let's go back to November
l, 1913, when the average farm price
was 13e a pound. The farmer then
had to market 1913 pounds of cotton
to pay for a $500 suit. On Novem-
ber l, 1919, the average farm price
was 36.5e a pound and the grower
could pay for a $4,000 suit by selling
only 165 pounds Of cotton.
"The average price paid to the far
mer all over the United States for
butter on November 1st, 1914, was