The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-01-26
FOOD PRICES STILL
 FAR AWAY
Law of Supply in Saddle Says Patterson = Ameri- can Dollars Parity Re tards Foreign Trade By Millions.


 Prices = they are not going to show any tremendous drop for some time to come" said Charles W. Pat terson, President of Austin, Nichols & Co.,, Inc, the worlds largest whole sale grocery firm, Saturday, when in teryiewed regarding the outlook for the grocery business for 1920. Pro f1teering must stop. The agitation against this form of exploitation of the public is splendid and deserves the hearty support of every thought ful merchant, whether wholesale or retail
 "Prof1teering is an evil that must be renedied and it will be, but with that aside from the question, prices are at their present level for funda,- mental reasons. The price of wheat. for example, rules the cost of living. The farmer has been getting and is getting a good price for wheat. Nat ura1ly, if he IS a good businessman he cannot afford to allow any other part of his acreage to be less profit able to him than his wheat fields. His orchards, his tomato field, his corn field, his food crops of all sorts, are automatically brought up to the wheat level.
 With this condition obtaining and with labor costs where they are the manufacturer of grocery products, who also is confronted by increased labor costs, supply cannot produce canned or packaged foods or any other variety of grocery products on the pre-war basis. Barring the pro- fiteer, therefore, the wholesaler or re- taller simply cannot sell for lower prices until his first costs are re- duced.
 "It resolves itself to the basic law of supply and demand. Today demand exceeds supply. Eventually the cycIe will come around to the place where supply drags the market; then we will see prices drop.
 America is literally the market of the world today. The trouble is that Europe is not on a dollar credit basis We have orders for millions of dol lars worth of foodstuffs for Europe which cannot be filled until the prop CT basis of payment is provided. The best thing that can happen for Amer ica, without regard to high wages or high prices, is the re-esta blishment of foreign credits, which will restore the movement of American goods to for eign countries and the inflow of for eign money to America.
 We will never get back on the old basis, to my mind. The huge prob lens of supply which were met and solved during the war taught us too much about the benefits of economi- cal distribution. The economic con- ditions of today will force the suc- cessful wholesale or retail grocer to adopt modern methods. He must get and hold volume of business to re- ic by extend the benefit to the ultimate consumer.
 Modern system is the thing that will benefit wholesaler and retailer alike.
 'The grocery business outlook for 1920 is the brightest ever known, just as it seems to be in all lines Of busi- ness. This is evidenced by the way people are buying goods of all kinds every day.
 ''The grocery business, however, is one that supplies necessities and not luxurtes. About the first place people economfze is in foods-t1at is, they buy and eat less, or at least they make what they buy go farther by avoiding waste. For this reason the successful wholesale or retail grocery dealer knows that his continued suc- CSaSS rests upon HIS p0iIlS aDle 10 place foodstuffs in the home of the consumer at the lowest possible price That is a law of business and that price is regulated by the cost of th, raw material and the cost of labor. For this reason, to reach a lower price level we must begin at the be- ginning.
 ''The grocer cannot do it all, be- cause he is simply an economic agent of the public; he stands between pro- ducer and consumer and his small profit represents the service he ren- ders, just as the profit of the whole saler represents his service to the re- taller. The only possible way for either wholesaler or retailer to be able to make lower prices is to in crease his volume of business so that his overhead expenses are reduced to an extent that will enable him to apply the reduction to his margin of profit