The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-04-24
NATIONWIDE WAR
 AGAINST PRICES
 IS NEARING END
Rock Bottom Prices Apparent Iy Have Been Reached on FoodstuffS and Everything
 Produced By the Farmer
By HARDEN COLFAX Special Correspondent of The Age-Herald Copyright, 1921, by The AgeHeraId)

uSmOnSLIaLlOu III the history or American commerce, is nearing an end For more than six months virtually the entire nation has been at war against prices. With one-third of the worlds gold in our vaults; with more money in circulation than peacea time ever knew before; with huge stocks of every kind of wares await ing purchasers, the whole country has turned away from the market, largely for the sake of a principle--that prices were too high.
 Apparently the buyer has not accom- plished much of his self-assigned task Many agencies arc reporting to the gov ernment and to the big national associa- tions centered here and in New York that the strike is breaking and that the buyer is back again in the market. Aimed at high prices the buyers strike has toppled them effectively from their tnfty wartime place in the sun.
 Almost everything man or woman uses has come tumbling down; and while here and there high prices of commodi-
 
 ties still remain above the surrounding they. too. are doomed to fall
 EDITION IS REACHED
 Roc&-bottom prices have been reached, apparently, on foodstuffs and nearly everything else the farmer produces. Corn Is selling today in Iowa, center of f4rn IoI+ haf the cost of production. Wheat has fallen to the dust of pre-war levels. Hogs, cattle, cotton, tobacco-the whole long list of what the farmer raises-are going at prices that would have made a sheriff Smile a year ago. And they are going, too. for the railroads tell of increased headings that show the volume of traffic is picking up nicely.
 Reports to the department of labor, the Federal reserve board, the department Of commerce and the department of agri- culture indicate clearly that the retailer has the key to the situation in his keep ing. Wholesale prices have rushed down grade like an avalanche in the most rapid decline in values ever recorded in this country. We have accomplished in less than year what we were nearly 10 years in doing after the Civil war The violence of the movement downward has swept many firms into financial straits, so that the record of commercial failures during the past few months is the highest in many years.
 ONE BRIGHT SPOT
 But-and here is a bright spot tlfat the financial authorities point to as indica- tive of the futility of comparisons of failures and their volume-hundreds of these failures should have been failures long before the firms actually failed. It Is almost automatic that nobody fails on a rising market It is almost as hard for firm to fail when the value of what he owns is going up as it is for man to fall upstairs Normally, hundreds of the failures recorded recently would have been recorded year ago. The failure simply was prepared by the rising mar ket. With the falling market, the com mercial waters purged fast, springing the proposed failures to the surface.
 Retail prices have not declined as fast, on the average, as wholesale. One of the cardinal reasons for that is that the re- taller has his shelves stocked with goods bought at high prices. That big stock has been worked off at great reduction and at great loss to the department store, the grocer, the taiior, the general shopkeeper. The retailer has taken his loss with a good face, barring certain ex- captions here and there. and is now facing the buyer largely with new goods at new values.
 Reports to the government indicate that the bargain counter stil has many wares spread upon it, more today, probably, than it will have two months hence. The writer has talked with a dozen or more high officials of the government within the past day or so and eheir composite advice shapes lip Ike this.
 OFFICIALS ADVICE
 Buy what you need. and buy it now Go into the market and hunt the bar gains. Don't stock up with far more than you win require during the next few months. for that Is not sound eco- monies, but get what you require. Read the newspapers for the advertisements of firms offering goods at low prices and patronize those firms For the most part, they are selling st just about cost in order to clear their shelves and keep business going. To the storekeepers of America, the composite advice of these officials, whose function it is to keep their fingers on the public pulse. is about like this:
 Keep on selling your goods, for time. at small profits. If possible, make still further reductions And tell the public what you are doing. If the public doesn't know you are selling goods at cost, the public isn't going to come to your store to buy. Advertise m the daily papers as hberAlly as your anticipated increase tn trade from such advertising will jus t1fy. Offer real bargains and the custo- mera will come.
 New England has been the first to adopt this policy, and the business reawakening there is the subject of, dis cussion generally here. For times are picking up appreciably in New England. in better shape than any other section of the United States, with the excersion of automobile centers. In the east the re- tailers generally are showing a strong tendency to follow the New EnglaNders' example. Here and there in the middle west and the west retailers who have been far sighted enough to take their losses, mark down their goods to cost, plus just enough profit to break even on, and to advertise what they were doing. have come through in surprisingly good condition.
 Every report received here during the past week shows that the buyer is back in the market. but that he is looking for bargains and will patronize only the man who offers them. And the reports show, also, and just as conclusively, that prices in not few lines have reached rock-bottom and are lower now than they probably will be for months to come.
 Consular Service
 By Associated Press
 Mexico City. April 23-Complete re- organization of the Mexican consular system has been ordered with Ramon