Evening journal., 1920-10-26

o son H5uresi l513f,oUO pairs and the
prlce 0I ordinary Overalls, which had
Deen ot5z cents, wholesale, in 1913,
ana Si.Si12 in 1919. went TO s3.12h a
pair by May, 1920.
Ihere Is a cotton goods house on
ioWer broadway whose mills, in the
ran hiVer district, were closed for
eiSnteen weeks this last spring by a
sUrike. Of course, the workers lost
nllI'ons OF dollars in wages. The
urn ITSELF lost other millions OF dol
lsrs IN various ways. The officers OF
sne.Hrm rate as their biggest loss the
iaot mat Their big body Of skilled
MVr,kimen. which they .had carefully
Duiit up over long period Of years
and to whom they ncognize thalI
tney owe a large part Of the success
OF lhelr business. became so inocu-
lateu Win the strike mania that the
contluatlon OF their employment be-
came impossible But there is one
loss from this strike which has a
| direct bearing on the public.
rms company has a large corps OF
sdiesmen which IL wants TO keep 10
gelher as an organization. Each of
snese salesmen has a large body OF
customers who regularly depended
on this company TO supply them with
certain classes OF cotton goods. To
keep their statesmen working. their
customers supplied, and in general TO
lSuiier as little loss as possible, the
company went into the open market
10 Bury the kind Of goods they usually
| produce. Because OF shortage they
/ had TO pay Just S2,0OOOOO more for
these goods than it would have cost
= 10 produce them, which S2,OOO.OOO
must, OF course, ultimately be passed
on 70 the public.
This case ic in ganaraI ,..o,, t..,i
cal OF the roundabout and expensive
ways. that many concerns are forced
Dy strikes to resort to in order 10
supply the public with the goods it
wants. II Is Just one way strikes pile
up the high cost Of living for YOU.
Ihere are many other ways. And
there were 1000 strikes last year.
The strike on the Clyde, Mallory
and Old Dominion lines which made
people in New York and the New
England states pay 100 per cent more
for all their fruit and vegetables this
| spring, also stopped. or seriously in
terfered with, the transportation OF
the unbleached or gray goods from
Southern cotton mills.
The NJ. C. D. Borden Company nor
mally handles 4,OOOOOO yards of such
goods a week. During a large part
OF this boat strike, and entirely due
to the strike, the shortage in these
goods and the extra expense OF get
ting what goods they did obtain
added about > cents a yard TO the
factory cost. And there arc 100 other
similar firms handling the same kind
Of goods.
In making cotton goods one mill
: Will spin the thread. another will
weave 10 into cloth, another will print
ii, etc. Such different mills are some
/, times under the control OF one man
agement and sometimes separately
b controlled. But in either case a
strike in one mill seriously interferes
-lwiih or stops production OF the
others. II they are not to stop pro-
, duoing, these other mills must go out
in the open market and compete
} against each other for The limited
supply Of the particular product the
striking mill usually produces
Strikes last spring. around Providence
! alone in this way advanced the mil
cost Of scores NJ millions OF yards oil
b. cotton goods 100 per cent.
5 Cotton goods are finished up int
I hundreds OF different kinds OF cloth
- which are sold through factors anC
Y iobbers and many d fferent kinds Of
2 retailers TO The public, each of which
5 adds a definite percentage FOR han
ding and profit to the price they pay
p This means that the price the publ'l
S pays is not merely the 100 per cen
r more, but the 100 per cent added Il
I in geometric ratio.
a In other words, a strike works lik
: a stone thrown into the water. I
q the stone is small the sixth or sew
r enih succeeding circle. which repre-
r sens the price 10 you. the ultimat
d consumer, is only so b g. II the ston
y is 100 per cent bigger, each succeed
u ing circle may be only the same pro
portion greater than the one before
IT but there is a tremendous differenc
G in the size OF the sixth or seventh
e circle.
y II you want to get a real idea o
the high cost OF strikes TO you tr
4, this experiment with such differen
y sized stones.