The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-12-03

about five cents per pound from a. year
ago, and lower grades twice as much.
There has been no change of sentiment
in regard TO cotton goods during the past
month. Production is at a low stage.
the mills not running more than half
time. Underwear mills are generally shut
down. Reports about retail trade are
conflicting, but admitting it to be consid-
erably below normal, stocks certainly are
being steadily reduced. One of these days
the market will find itself bare, but no
anxiety upon that score is manifest yet.
Little change has occurred in the wool
situation, which waits on a revival Of
business in wooden goods. Prices are so
unsettled that it is difficult to quote the
market. Reports from foreign wool mar
kets are Indicative of weakness, although
the highest grade of wool holds its own
very well.
This slump in business conditions has
demonstrated again that the great move
mentS in the business world which make
good times or bad times are spontaneous
and beyond control They are due to mass
action and mass psychology. The business
of the country depends upon the purchases
and policies of tens of millions of individ-
uals, and when they become generally pos
sessed of a spirit of confidence, and go
ahead with their planning and spending
under its influence, we have a period of
prosperity. The difference between free
spending and careful economy by all the
people of this country means a vast diff
ference in the volume of trade and the
level of prices.
The movement has gone too far in some
directions for confidence to be restored or
buying stimulated until it has gone far
Their in other directions. The situation
as regards purchasing power is more dis
organized and out of balance than it has
been at any previous time. The farming
population has suffered a loss of purchas-
ing power amounting to somewhere be-
tween 80 and 40 per cent, or $4,000 000.-
600 to SS,O0O,000 900, as compared with
last year. 1t would be very foolish for
the people engaged in the other industries
to think that they can go On making and
selling goods as though this loss had not
occurred, enjoying also the benefit of this
reduction i'll cost of farm products.
Manufacturers, merchants, labor lead
erS. owners of stocks in railroads and in
dustrlaI c0mpanieS-everybody in business
are asking how long this depression
which is spreading over industry is likely
10 last. Nobody can ted the length of
time, but it is not difficult to name the
principal condition necessary to a revival.
The prices of what the farming popula-
ton wants to buy must come down to cor
respond with the prices of what it has to
sell. Until then the state of reciprocity
which Is necessary to the full employment
of labor and general prosperity cannot ok
lSt. The equilibrium must be restored.
Merchants are not going to buy goods
which they know their customers are un-
able to buy, railroads will not buy equip
ment TO carry goods which will not be
bought. construction work will he at a
standstill, enterprise will be dead, until
a basis of fair exchange for the products
of the industries is reached.
1t is said that organized labor is going
to stand for the present wage scale. That
Is very natural resolution to make, off
hand. Nobody likes to take the back
track, and nobody should want labor to
take the back track in any real sense. \
reduction of wages which would put the
general wage-level below the new price
level would throw tae situation out of
balance in the same way that the fall of
farm products has thrown it out Neither
the farms nor the towns can buy the prod
uctS of the other exception a basis of fair
exchange, and if the products or services
of either are unfairly valued the entire
industrial system will be diSorganized
Wages and farm products went up fairly
well together, and it is a mistake TO think
that they are not coming down together
tor they are tied together by the economic
law
Labor answers the claim that wages
should come down TO correspond with the
fall of wholesale prices. by saying that re-
tail prices which determine the cost of
living to wage-earners. have not come
down to any such extent. That is true
and on all sides ii is being said that the
situation Is up 10 the retailer. He is the
distributor and it is charged that he is
blocking the flow of goods instead of help
ing it. His excuse is that he has goods
which cost him high prices and he wants
to work them off without loss before drop
ping to the new levels.
ne cannot afford to block the process