The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-25
RAW MATERIAL PRICES ABROAD
 ARE INCREASING
Cessation of War Has Made No Difference In
 Europe

| United States manufacturers are getting no encouragement from abroad 1 in attempts to reduce the cost of their products. In fact, the first anniver- sary of the Arnlistice showed that the prices of the raw materials which they are compelled to bring from tother parts of the world keeS on ad- vancing without the slightest refer ence to the cessation of hostilities. l The Egyptian cotton grower, for ex- ample, who had seen his export prices of raw cotton increase nearly 100 per cent. during the war period, could not | be persuaded that he ought to reduce his price merely because the guns had ceased to roar, and he continued the | boosting process which had character ized the war period with the result that American importers of Egyptian cotton are now paying nearly 50 per cent. more for that necessity of man. ufacture than at the close of the war. The jute growers of India are also de- manding and receiving today an ad- vance of more than 50 per cent. on | their prices at the close of the war. Producers of goatSkins in Latin Amer | ica, China, India, North Africa, and ISouthern Europe, not content with an increase of 100 per cent during the war period, insisted upon a still fur l versaI peace, and were in November, 1919, demanding and getting 50 per cent. more than at the termination of Ihostilities in 1918, and the quantity brought into the United States goes 1 on increasing irrespective of the ad- vance in price. Raw silk producers on the other side of the globe, far dis tant from the scenes of hostilities, were not satisfied with an increase of 1 +0 4Iae &aT-r oiTo1& ion, Of the war but calmly added 50 per cent. more to the already high prices in the period between November, 1918, and | November, 1919. The livestock pro ducers of South America, Australia, South Africa, and India, who have developed the habit of pushing up the prices of hides, whether of cattle, l sheep, goats, pigs, horses, or kan garoos, have continued the advance, which characterized the entire war lperiod, and the average price which American importers must now pay in the country of production is 50 per 1 cent. higher than on the day on which
 the whole world was celebrating the return to peace.
 l These figures, based upon official data, says a statement by the Ma 1 tional City Bank of New York, illus trates the difficulties under which the l dependent upon foreign as well as do- mestic products for their material have 1abored in their attempts to re- duce the high prices which existed at ! the close of the war I fact they ! have found in practically every inn portant article, abroad as we'll as at
 home, the prices. not only refusing
 to "come down. but actually advanc-
 ing since the termination of the war | The average import price of raw ! silk, for example, brought into the
 country in November 1919 was, as
 shown by official figures of the Gov
 ernment, $91O per pound as against S609 in November 1918 at the ter | imitation of the war, and $3.09 in the
 first year of the war, and yet the quantity imported in 1919 is greater i than ever before and nearly twice as 1 much as in the pre-war year.
 Goatskins imported of which the price in the countries of production, | chiefly Latin America, China, India, , North Africa, and Europe, averaged ! 26c a. pound in the year before the
 war, advancing to an average of 54c
 a pound in November 1913, and an
 average of 92c a pound in November
 1919, the increase in price per pound
 in the one year following the war
 1g actually greater than that of ii entire war period of practically fl 3 years.
 Hemp of which the import value,
 based upon cost in the country of
 production, averaged s177 a ton in l the year immediately preceding the | war, stood at S372 a ton in Nowem- 1 Der 1918, and S677 a ton in Noyem-