Pueblo chieftain., 1921-10-18
WHY PRICES STAY HIGH

comment. until this Investigation has
been completed. But In the meantime
they throw out a fcw hints
In the first place. they say, don't be
too quick to blame the retailer. Retail
prices. probably arc too high. but they
Tho retailer has been facing dun
market for n long time now. His great
need Is to turn over his stock. 1t is
extremely probable that he would re-
duce prices IL he could afford to do
so, in order to stimulate trade. In
many cases. of course, he has done so.
The papers arc full of bargain sale ad-
ver:isements. Yet the average OF re-
tail prices remains high.
COST OF RETAILING HIGH
This. say tho experts. is partly bc-
cause the cost Of retailing. as a busi-
ness operation. is high. Out Of the IS
cents that you pay for pork chops, the
retailer must pay. not only the price
of the pork at Wholesale. but also the
rent of his store. tho cost OF tho leo on
which he kept the pork. the wages o,
the man who cut It and sold 1t to you.
| the paper in which II was wrapped. and
the upkccp OF the vehicle in which 1t
was delivered.
Tho experts do not seem to know c1-
actly what percentage of the cost OF
those pork chops is represented by each
! Of these clements In Its transfer. That
| Is probably one OF the things their In
vestigation will revail. But they think
| that the price paid for tho pork is less
| than hnlf OF the total cost OF getting It
| from wholesaler TO consumer. And all
/ of these factors in the operation have
risen in cost. Rent. wages. ice. paper
gasoline-no one needs to be told that
all of these things are from 10 to lo'
per cent higher than they wcrc in 1914
Remembcr, too. that with many per
sons out OF work and money tight. the
retailer 10 doing a smaller than norma
business. But he stiil pays tho same
rent and he probably has to maintain
about the same staff. His reduction
in expenses, in a word, is not in pro
portion to his reduction in business
| That means that thc cost OF making
each sale In higher than II would be q
he wcre doing big business. II th'
butcher only sold one pound OF porl
chops In n day. no would have to &C
so or SIS for 1t In order to break even
As matter of fact the profiteerins
retailer is probably a rarc bird jus
now. A few OF them are perhaps max
ing large profits by sticking to war
timc prices: but many moro OF then
are only hoping to make expenses unit
better times come along.
lies In tho fact that retail prices. wages
and farmers earnings are all on differ
ent levels. In order that our clNms.
Industrial system may work at all
they must be on about the Same level.
FARMER FELT DROP FIRST
When prices began to drop, the drol
fell on the farmer first, With unsol,
stocks of foodstuffs on hand. the buy
ers refused to give him p high price TO
what he raised. But he had to sell
80 he took low price. Wholesale
and retailer refused to follow suit. Th
cost OF their operations was high, chief
~ because wages remained high, an
by cooperation and storage. both o
which tho farmer lncked. they. wcr
able to keep up their prices to a grea
extent.
But the farmers form about 40 pc
cent Of the buying public. Having yer
littlc money. this large section of tn
buying public bought very little. Manu-
facturers OF farm implements imine
diately felt the pinch. Their eiles 4
many cases fell off more than hall