Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-03-01
The Sensible Era Begins
There are straws which indicate that
the sansihIa ora Of our after-the-war L.

There are straws which indicate that
the sensible era Of our after the-war re-
, construction IL about 20 SeSsz. IL vas
inevitable that some time or other il
would be necessary to call a halt on the
upward trend of prices and 1t would seem
as IL that time had come Prices of
everything have gone up naturally and a
lot of shameless profiteers have seized tho
opportunity to boost them still further
in order to line their Ows pocketbooks.
Here is an example of the way that big
business now looks at the situation. One
result of the steel strike was that there
was very little wire to be had for the
making Of nails The big steel mills
couldn't make 1t and the small mills had
to do their best to fill the demand for
wire. As a result prices went up beyond
all reason. Nails were selling on the Chi
cago market at SO a keg. Representatives
of the American Steel and Wire Com
pany, the largest nail manufacturers in
the country, called a conference of whole
salers and others who handle nails in q
big way.
Mine dollars key is entirely too much
for nails" they were told.
But 1t is the least we can charge with
out losing money" said the wholesalers
1--WE charge only $50 more than tho
nails cost US and it is worth $3.50 to get
the nails from the railroad company's
warehouse, transfer them to our own, de
liver them to our customers and collect
the bill later on. We make only a small
margin of profit as it is
THE fault is not yours so much as it
Is that of the manufacturer" agreed the
wire company representatives. But the
price of nails must be cut in two and that
at once. We are going to help you. We
can make and deliver nails to you at 50
a keg. You still can charge $50 more
than the nails cost you and at the same
time sell to your customers at one-half
what you now are charging them
And that is why Chicago contractors
find their nails costing them so much
less Only one Of thousands of things
that have been costing a great deal more
than they should, to be sure. hut the
attitude of big business men toward nails
is a healthy sign Of how they are going
TO view other things. Almost at the
same time the big lumber concerns an
nounced cut in the price OF flooring and
lumber to trim buildings and make sashes
and blinds. Another healthy sign.
Business men see the necessity Of get
ing down to earth again, Of bringing
things back to a normal level before
big blowup should come. 1t is impos-
siole to keep on at the rate we have been
going and shrewd students Of conditions
could not see any end tu the demands for
Increases in the price of labor One OF
the biggest concerns In England was com
PEELED TO close Its doors because II no
longer could meet the demands for wages
made by Its men. No big American con
Germ has done that yet. but II might very
easily happen unless we get on a sane
basis, reduce the cost OF the necessities
or life and stop the upward trend In
everything. There are many things
which point to the fact that we have
reached the turning point-W. d. Boyce
In the Saturday Blade, Chicago.