The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-05-06
For the Good of
 the Community
WHO is the great American consqm-
 W CT, of whose woes so much has been spoken and written?

According to census forecasts there are about 11O,O00O00 of them in the country, that being the number of esti- mated citizens and each citizen being himself or herself one of the bunch"
 What is the mental attitude of these consumers with regard to high prices? How do they judge values? This may be gathered from actual occurrences. to wit: :.
 A financial and civic expert writing in the Saturday Evening Post several months ago spoke of the continued dis :! position of the plethoric purse of the rich to empty itself. In particular he men, toned the case of a fashionable ieweler. ]! who admitted that the higher the price the quicker things moved. But this ieweler had a pearl necklace in his window bear ing S3, 900 price mark. This was a very reasonable figure and the jeweler could not conceive why it was not purchased The expert, who had been up and down the thoroughfare noting just such things told him to mark the necklace up to S7,O00, and left A few days later he re- turned. The jeweler had marked the necklace ID to S1O,O00 and sold it right off the bat"
 In Birmingham a few weeks ago young man, whose savings prior to 1914 had gone into residences for rent, had gotten about all the experience he desired of vacancies, taxes and the like during a series of years and, wishing to change his investment, offered one residence at S5,O0O, a very moderate figure. People came, saw and left. There was no sale. Three real estate agents were consulted. They agreed that houses of that char acter similarly situated were selling for S6,O0O to S6, 300. The house was marked up to S6,500 and sold within a few days thereafter for S6,25O, which was $1,250 over the modest first offering.
 Last week one of the steadiest and oldest negro miners in the employ. of a Jefferson county concern entered the commlSsary and inquired for a pair of shoes. The manager, wishing to do kind turn by the negro showed him an S8 pair, which he declared was the best value for service in the store. "Got anything bet ter?'' tsked the negro. Successively he was shown shoes at S10, S125O and S14. Each time he asked for 'better" until the Sl4 pair, the highest-pricedti the store, was presented. Then he bought He paid absolutely no attention to the make, the appearance or other characteristics of the shoes offered below S14. The top price and the 'best" were synonymus with the negro, the alpha and omega of his purchasing psychology.
 few days ago the proprietor of Birmingham hotel dispatched of his negro elevator boys to the theatre to stand in line and secure two tickets for the opera for an out-of-town customer The boy was gone half hour and returned without the tickets. Asked why he did not stay in line until he reached the box office his mild reply was No money in that for me- Did the proprietor discharge this elevator boy? He did not, because the next one would be just like him. His suc- cessor would be as unwilling to let even half hour of the elevator customer tips pass him by while serving the man paying him his salary
 So, the New York necklace could not sell until rich New York woman saw it marked to $1O,O0O; the Birmingham residence was under suspicion at S5,OOO, but sold at S6,25O; the negro miner overlooked all shoes until they showed him apair costing the most; the elevator boy had high and mighty ideas of finance that prevented serv- ing his employer in the form and manner provid- ed for in the unwritten terms of employment contract.
 Let the consumer ponder these items covering