New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1920-12-25
HOW TO LOWER PRICES.


will be most rapid and least dis
concerning if everybody lends
hand, and everybody means, spe
officially, capital, labor, and tn,
state. This is the keynote Of ;
straight talk on business c0ndl
tons by the Auckland Weekly
News, which says that reports
from the United Kingdom Of m
employment and sIackneSs oi
trade make curious and disturb
ing reading. - Everybody knows
that unemployment Of any kind
at the present time is "artifcial
stupid, and destructive" for the
whole world is hungry for goods
We are all waiting a favorable
opportunity to repIcnish eXhaus.
ted stocks either Of business or Of
household and personal neceSsl-
tres, and this waiting attitude
prevails throughout the world,
according to this influential New
Zealand weekly, which asks:
Why, then, this folly Of idle
factories and unemployed work.
men? Why are not the factories
working overtime to replace the
resources depleted during the
war-pcriod and TO rcestablish civ
ilizatiOn on its accustomed margin
Of sufficiently The answer is
Of an aggravating familiarity.
The prices Of the goods are too
high. They are too high not only
for the countries bled and devas-
tatcd by war, but they are be-
yond the reach Of the countries
which retain their financial sta
biIity. There is a decline both in
capacity and willingness to buy,
and this unemployment in the
midst Of unfinished tasks indi-
Gates that the readjustment of
prices, however fuctuating its
course may be, has commenced. y
Reimbursement of prices is not
the exclusive responsibility oil
the manufacturer. wholesaler, or
retailer, but embraces and re-
acts on every section in the com
munity. from the government to
the poorest workman, " and this.
weekly proceeds:
For of what does price COLI
sist? Profit, indeed, but also
taxation and cost of production.
including labor. It would be a
comfortable. if it were a tenable,
theory that high prices are due
to large profits and that the
abatement of the speculative few
er would injure only the prof
teer. The contraction of trade
has certainly the initial recon-
that it helps to restore
the element of competition, and
SO diminishes the opportunities
for unconscionable gain which
have been present in every coun-
try during the past few years.
But if profits could everywhere
and Immediately be brought with
in reasonable compass, the re-
suits would gravely disappoint
those who charge all their eco
monte distresseS to the rapacity
Of capital. Many other factors
tending to maintain prices would
be disclosed, and among the chief
of these would be the high level
Of taxation.
The third principal price fac
tor is the cost and quality of
abOr, and it is averred that while
wages have properly risen in
accordance with the cost of liv-
ing, industry could have borne
this burden better eff it had not
been aSsailed by strikes, by un-
Reproduction, by go Slow and
by obstruction" We read that
"Such tactics maintain prices
against the whole community and
20 a long way toward discredit-
ng labor criticism of the cost of
living. Prices will find their own
evel in the end. but the readiust-
nent will be wonderfully stimuli
ated by a cooperative effort emf
tracing the whole communicable
moderation and fair dealing on
he part of capital, by the most
igorous economy on the part Of
he state with a view to reducingl
axation, and by conscientious
abor on the part of wage-earn-
RS. Literary Digest.