The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1920-01-14
THE CLOTHING MANS CLAIM
REGARDING PRESENT PRICES
Says Clothing is Not As High As
Farm Commodities In Proportion
To prc-War Prices

Most people seem TO think that
clothes prices are high Measured
in the number of dollars it takes to
purchase suit they are. But meas
ured in the prices OF things which
the producer has To sell, or in the
wages paid for service performed
they are no higher than they were
before the war. In many instances,
as matter of fact. they are not so
high
Compare clothes prices, for in
stance, with that of corn, the great
American money crop. In 1914 the
Iowa farmer had to haul fifty bush
els of corn TO market IN order to get
the money to pay for $25 suit of
clothes. Now he can get a $50 suit
and a $40 pair of shoes for his fifty
bushels of corn.
Ii may be that he doesn't haul
corn to market but feeds it to his
hogs. On December seth, 1914, he
had to sell four hundred pounds of
hogs at the top price of the Chicago
market to get the money to pay for
a s25 suit and a $500 hat On De-
cember both. 1913. if he sold four
hundred pounds of hogs at the top
price of the Chicago market he came
within $500 of receiving the money
to buy a $50 suit and there have
been long periods in the last two
years when he would have got from
$50 to S92 for his four hundred
pounds of hogs.
If, ON December 30th, 1914, he
marketed a thousand pound eorn-fed
steer at the top price of the Chicago
market he got s91.50 for it. If he
marketed it on December 30th, 1919,
for the top price. he got s195 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 gov
ernment reports tell us that the ay-
erage farm value of wheat on No
vember 1st, 1914. was TIC bushel.
The farmer who sold fifty bushels
of it got $3.50, or Just about Enough
to buy a $25 suit, SIS pair of shoes,
SO hat, two or three good shirts,
and then some handkerchiefs. The
farm value of wheat on November
1st, 1919, was s2.13 bushel and
the farmer who sold fifty bushels at
his home station received s106.5o,
or enough TO buy him a fine $50
suit and a big thick overcoat. II
farmer happens to live In the North
west and to have held his wheat un-
III now he can get somewhere near
SO a bushel for grain of good quality.
While we are talking about the
Northwest, 1t may be well to mention
the farmer who raises fiaxseed. The
government tells US that on the first
of November, 1914, he received an
average of S1.1S7 per bushel at the
farm stations for his seed. For 25
bushels he got just about enough
money for his s25 suit and a hat. If
he marketed his flaxseed on Nevem-
Der lst, 1919, he got on an average
of S3.S2 bushel at the home sta
tion. For twenty-five bushels he got
s95.5O-enough to pay for his $50
suit and leave $3.50 for hat, shoes,
and furnishings for the winter.
You may think the Northwest is
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 bale
of cotton" campaign was on to save
the producer from ruin.
The price of cotton in the fall of
1914 was down to six cents a pound
for a time. but that's hardly fair
comparison. Let's go back to No
vember 1. 1918, when the average
farm price was 13c a pound. The
xn-..t.a1J ~ mann five /