The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-10-01
PRICECUTTINC
WAVE SWEEPING
ENTIRE COUNTRY
Financial Expert Tells
of Conditions-Pre-
diets Better Times
for Future
By BRoADAN WALL

NEW YORK.-Next to the price
cutting wave that is sweeping over
the United States the most important
development vi the past few weeks
from stock market point of view
is the postponement of the British
coal miners strike. Both are mat
tiers of congratulation. Both mean
revival of industry and better
times. ~,
If the strike really is made eff
fective it's consequences may be ter
rible.
The whole financial world is
watching the British coal situation.
Every investor and little trader in
Wall Street is as much interested
in the British labor situation as he
is in price cutting in this country.
While the price cutting wave in
augurated by Henry Ford alarmed a
good many patriots it is considered
by bankers to be one of the most
constructive developments since the
war ended Everybody knew that
prices must come down. Little
people could not cut them because
that would simply mean personal
ruin and no public benefit. 1t had
to be some person of nationwide in
fluence who could afford to stand a
great loss. Henry Ford will lose,
it is estimated, about twenty mil
lion dollars through this cut He is
going to write it off to patriotism
and advertising and he can we'll af-
ford to do so. He has forced other
big men to follow his example. The
fact that it is good business is
proved by the sale of 500 Ford cars
in one day by one New York agent.
The people stood in line to sign up.
The copper industry is following
Ford's example and the steel indus
try must follow it. Then will come
all the building trades and finally
prices will be on respectable basis
again although probably it will be
years before they reach the pre-war
level.
With prices down there will be
revival of business. Careless observ-
ers have been talking about the Or
gy of buying in the stores at high
prices but the store-keepers know
better. People have been buying
little less than they needed all the
time. People have been eating less
than necessary to maintain vigor-
GUS health and they have been wear
ing their old clothes to such an ex-
tent that the general public in Amer
lea never looked so shabby as today.
This condition is so general that it
has escaped observation. The man
with the new suit of clothes sticks
out in crowd as if he had roses
on it. His friends all ask what it
cost and how he managed to get
the money. -..
Public vitality was being lowered
and those economists who preached
the doctrine of less food and more
health were getting a great follow
ing among the restaurant-keepers.
With lower prices the people will
have more energy and there will be
more business done. 1t will be pos
sible to sell American goods abroad
and it will check the sales here of
foreign goods. The situation as it
is developing vindicates the opti-
mistic and justifies their profession.
1t has been made painfully ap-
parent in the past week that the
prices of steel and copper must be
reduced. The independent
ire selling some lines of steel as
much as $2S ton higher than the
United States Steel Corporation
The prices charged by the corpora
ion are too high, the consumers
hink. So radical change must be
made soon.