The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-06
MORE PRODUCTION. ONLY THING TO
 LOWER PRICES.

 anxfously inquiring when, if ever, prices are coming down. The wish is father to the thought, and it Is easy for the housewife to accept any state ment that prices are slated for a fall in the near future.
 If prices are to be lowered. the causes operating to boost prices must be attacked. The amount of money and checks in circulation must be- appreciably reduced and the quanu- ties of necessary goods must be in crea sed in amount. The stocks of comm odities manufactured on gov- ernment account must, so far as pos- sibIe be salvaged and thrown upon the market The extraordinary de- mands for goods new and old must either be curtailed or production of these goods expanded fo meet the needs
 The financing of the war has made two dollars grow where but one dol lar grew before This coupled with the fact that there has been an enor- nous destruction of economic goods and of the farms, mines, forests and factories supplying these goods eN- plains the enormous and worldwide decrease in the purchasing power (va1ue) of money, which causes in creased prices.
 As long as the people have twice as many dollars with which to buy a smaller number of commodities, prices are bound to/remain high. It will take a long time to deflate the worlds inflated currencies or to in fIate the worlds defIated supply of goods.
 The profiteer is being blamed on all hands for the increase in prices. Undoubtedly, profiteering of a most reprehensible sort has existed and does exist today, but the profiteer is a result of ever increasing prices rather than a cause thereof. His in- fuence in boosting prices is negli- gible. If all the profiteers in the world could be apprehended and thrown into jail or lined up and shot, it would have no appreciable in- huence upon prices.
 It has been suggested that the ab- normally high prices are psycho- logical in origin and thet prices will fall just as soon as the people can be made to think falling prices. Of course, psychology is involved in every price, but the larger quantities of currency and the smaller amounts of commodities are physical facts that no psychic legerdemain can overcome.
 I see no prospect of any consider able fall in prices for several years to come. It will be impossible for the governments of the world to pay off their debts very rapidly. On the con- trary there is every reason to appre- hend that credits must De issued to foreign governments, foreign manu- lecturers, and foreign business men, in order to rehabilitate the broken and shattered industries of Europe. This being the case we may expect that larger volumes of checks and credit instruments will be thrown into circulation, thus boosting prices still higher If it is impossible to re- duce the volume of the worlds in debtedness suddenly, it is even more impossible to increase the quantity of the worlds goods suddenly.
 Of course, the worlds productive forces are being marshalled as rap idly as possible in order to increase the production from farms, forests, mines, and factories, but this is neces- sarily a slow process, especially in these times of great business lnsta- bility and labor unrest.
 The 1919 farm crops have practi- cally all been marketed. The only way that prices can be brought down before next years crops begin to find their way to market is through de- flatiOn of the currency. As pointed out above, still further inflations are inevitable if Europe is to rehabilitate her industries so that she can in crease her supply of material goods and thus bring about lower prices by increasing goods and decreasing debts.
 Some business men are apprehen- siye that the United States will be flooded with European made goods which will bring prices down tumbl- ing The price of foreign exchange at the present moment is such as to make it highly profitable for American business men to buy large quantities of goods in Europe, es- pecially in Germany and Austria, if European countries only had the goods to sell Not until Europe has reha bilItate1 it's industries may we expect to have our markets flooded with European goods. That puts off the tumble in prices several years. The normal seasonal drop in, prices may be expected in 1920 This sea- scnal drop comes much earlier than is generally supposed. In normal times the low price level for all commodities combined comes in March, April or May. These sea sona1 price changes are relatively small and will have but little effec: upon the housewives expenditures. No great and sudden fall in prices seems possible for a long time.
 People generally are yearning 50 intently for lower prices that they have not thought much about the re- suits of falling prices The prices we kicked about in 1913 have come to be regarded as ideal. Untold dls- tress has been caused by the rapid price increases of-the past four years The sufferines already endured by 1he people through rising prices will be multiplied tenfoId if prices drop within the next seven years to the 1913 level A period of falling prices is always a time of business depression, failures, and unemploy. IGent
 Production should be speeded up to the limit and debts should be paid not with more debts but with economic goods and services. These processes should be set in motion without delay It will require several years to readjust industry and trade