Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-05-02
RETAIL PRICES
ARE ERETARD|NC
REIMBURSEMENT
Federal Reserve Board
Finds Such to Be the
Main Sticking Point.
Unevenness in PRODUCE
ton Bad Feature of
Industrial Situation.

| Washington, May 1.-Retail prices
| appear to be the sticking point" il
the country's readjustment process. the
federal reserve board said Sunday
night, in a general review of business
and financial conditions for April
Other factors retarding readjustmen,
were said to be high Transportation
charges, wages, and coal and steel
prices.
Increasing appreciation of the nature
Of the readjustment process in business
circles and the community at large,
however, the board said is forcing at
tention upon the factors that are de-
laying business recovery and is pro-
noting discussion with a view to re-
moving obstacles and expediting recov-
cry.
Slow Business Recovery.
Complete business recovery, the
board continued, has been slower than
was predicted generally at the close
OF the past year and expectations that
this spring would see economic and
have not been realized. Nevertheless,
it added, the month of April has given
evidence Of an improved feeling devel-
outlook generally.
as to when an end of the readjustment
period may be expected and though
business and industry in some sections
of the country are still beset with diff
cultles, some of the factors of uncer-
tainty are either being eliminated on
are of diminishing Importance.
h.
been the pivotal point in the business
situation since the recession movemer
began last autumn. The fall in whole
sale prices, which has been continuous
and at times precipitate, it declared,
appears to be in process of arrest.
they having shown a greater degree of
stability during April
Some Lines Still Too Hiah.
Extreme unevenness in production,
however, the board said, is one Of the
striking features in the present indus
trial situation. While in many import
ant lines of wholesale trade pre-war
prices exist, in other lines commodities
are being sold at twice or even more
than twice the 1913 values. The same
unevenness exists. the board explained.
between raw material and the finished
product in the same industry.
Raw cotton. the board declared, is
lower than the 1913 level, and wool is
about third higher than before the
war, but cotton goods are at least 20
per cent higher than in 1913 and wooden
cloth is approximately twice as high
as the pre-war level. In the hide and
leather industry the discrepancy is even
greater. the board asserted, the present
price Of skins being one third under
pre-war levels while the prices of shoes
is twice as high as in 1913.
The Wage Rcadjustmert.
While labor has been participating in
the readjusfment process, the board
the participation has been
uneven as between different groups of
labor.
Wage readjustment.' it said. has
been greater among unskilled workers
and those not possessed Of strong
labor trade organization, and especially
in those sections of the country whose
have felt in peculiarly high
degree the effects of REIMBURSEMENT"
The agricultural situation during the
month was characterized as generally
although the fruit growing
sections suffered from cold waves.
Grain movement has increased