The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-12-08
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director,
washington, ID. C.
THE RELUCTANT PRICE.

Informed on all hands that prices are
topping, but the topple is certainly a
long time in reaching the ultimate con-
sumner. few dollars saved On an
Iovereoat, gasoline a cent gallon
cheaper, and a few stable food prod
ucts perceptibly lower is about the ex-
tent of the benefits which have come
to one typical member of that harried
class.
! And a large crop of differences of
opinion can be gathered as to how far
and how fast prices are coming down
in the immediate future. Some tell US
inevitably bring all prices down a great
deal in a relatively short time. But
others assure us that as soon as the
lcurrency is stabilized and congress has
amended the tariff law SO as to keep
out imports, as it undoubtedly intends
to do, prices will tend to stick at a
high figure for long time.
The situation at present seems to be
that, before substantial price reduc-
ton can reach the ultimate consumer,
each of the factors in the production
and distribution of the necessaries of
life has got to take a loss. And each
of them, not unnaturally, is unwilling
to do so. Each of them prefers that
i the ultimate consumer should go on
taken the loss, as he has been doing
Il for the past several years.
| 1t cannot be denied that the strong
point i'll the position of the ultimate
/ consumer is that he does not buy
much. He has at last fevolted against
high prices. If he will only continue
to buy scantily and to hunt foN the
bargains which crop up here and there
in increasing numbers, prices will I'M
doubtedly continue to come down for
a while, at least. Tariff changes and
the end of deflation may check the
tendency, but prices will already have
come down a good ways, and it will be
| hard to force them up again. This
| process will be hard on the retailer for
a while, but perhaps better for all con-
cerned in the long run than con-
tinued campaign of extravagant buy
ing.
The Process.
This seems to be the present process
of price reduction: The retailer has
a hard time selling the goods on his
shelf, but he naturally hates to take
| a loss on them, or even reduced
| profit, so he holds out for the old
| price as long as he possibly can, and
advertises reduction sale only when
| forced to do so by the need of money.
| Meantime he refuses to buy new
| orders of goods from the wholesaler
and the manufacturer, even at some
! the manufe stuer, rather than pro-
| duce goods which he cannot sell at a
good price or cannot sell at all, closes
his factory for a while and throws half
| of his force out of work. These men.
| out of work cannot buy, and as their
| number grows, the demand for goods
/ which comes to the retailer decreases.
| But he must sell something in order
to pay his rent and his interest charges
and other overhead expenses. So he
is forced to reduce prices, and that
/ forces the manufacturer to reduce the
| price to him.
| There seems to be no doubt but
that this process will bring prices
! down, just as sure as stone thrown
| into the air will fall. Unemployment
is steadily increasing and prices will
come down just about in proportion to
| that increase.
| Means Suffering.
1t is a cruel process 1t means
hard struggle and some failures
among retailers and manufacturers of
the smaller and weaker sort. IT means
| already hundred of thousands of men
| out of work. And men out of work
mean hungry men, and what is worse,
hungry children and hungry mothers.
| The gist of the matter is that man,
| in his Industrial system, has created
a machine which he does not under
stand and cannot run. No one is
really happy about this process except
the ultimate consumer, and he is not
very happy because he is not only the
ultimate consumer who gets the re-
duced price, but also the shopkeeper.
| the manufacturer and the iabore,r
who lose money. The only class which
| really stands to make a clear gain is
the salaried class. OF course, salaries
| may come down, but they will not
| come down as rapidly or easily as
| wages.
| The government employe, for ex.
| ample, who got an Inadequate raise of
SO per cent during the war. and almost
| starved, may soon find himself better
off than some friend of his who runs
i - rsJeS. 1caIr
| during the war bur who is now in a
way to lose some of it.
So the salaried man. If he can resist
| a reduction, stands to gain, but every
one else stands to lose. And appar-'
emily there is no way to avoid this loss
except to pass it on to the other fellow.
| That is what everyone is trying to do.
Consider the apple for instance.
You stkl pay 5 cents apiece. or 10
cents for three. selected Ben Davis
apples at a fruit stand on a city street.
Do you know what the farmer got for
those apples? Well, farmers near here
got about So a barrel. The empty
wooden barrels ir which they pack the
apples cost them $125 each. The cos
of having the apples picked was As
fcents a barrel By the time he had
hauled the apples to a railway station
| the farmer vas lucky If he broke even.
| Many farmer left the apples hanging
| on the trees. many announcer look EneD1
to a cider mill, had the juice pressed
out, let it get hard. and tried to drown
his sorrow in 1t.
Farmer Loses.
What does this mean? 1t means
primarily that the farmer is the first
goat. He is the goat also in wheat.
Wheat that it cost him $2.1e a bushei
to raise, according to the department
of agriculture. recently brought in the
market $1.S5 a busheI. But do you
notice that bread is any cheaper or
in anything like the proportion that
wheat has declined in price? You do
not.
You, the consumer. are the goat at
| one end, and the farmer is the goat at
the other end, as is the laborer. The
farmer is really a laborer in most
cases, altho he is just beginning to