The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-07-25

1920-here and there a business or
manufacturing failure. They were
chiefly concerns manufa curing luxur
les or manufacturers of staple COM
modities that had organized during the
war and had not yet got a footing.
People were ceasirg to buy; firms of
this character were first to go to the
wall. Soon failures became more gen.
eral. That meant something to u.s. 1t
raised a question: When will the
country curtail or cease buying staple
ommodities-when will they cease
buying Ford cars?
Eve didn't have long to wait. By
June sales were falling off at great
rate. Everything began to slow down.
Yet in the face of that, do you think
the suppliers of raw materials would
cut their price or that labor would
give more for unparalleled wages
Not for second. Material men de-
manded more and labor seemed to
turing went soaring.
at was up to us to do something
| So, in September, we cut the price of
| the car. On the face of things the
| cut wasn't justified We still had
large supplies of stock bought at high
prices. The cut brought the price be
| low the cost of manufacture. All over
the country we were condemned; 9th.
er manufacturers said we were crazy
But the whole country was on an in
flated, distorted basis and we felt
that, if we cut the price of the car
we could demand that material sup
pliers cut their prices to us. That
would tend to stop the price-raisine
orgy, other prices would slump of
and the readjustment would come with
a minimum discomfort to everybody
ITO an extent the cut brought the
desired result. Sales took a bound
A few other manufacturers cut But
| soon, sales fell off again and, as &
whole, the artificial conditions con
tinued. We soon saw that more dras
tic treatment was needed
I'VE made up our minds that oul
next step toward lowering prices mus
be more powerful and decisive. Dur
i ing the fal lone plant after another
the country over, had been closins
| down and, as winter set in, cessation
of industry became general. But We
kept right on, full tilt. Sales did no
justify our large production, but W,
kept on making 10000 to 100000 car.
month because, when the halt came
We wished to have as much as posi-
BILE OF our stock manufactured int
i. cars. We wanted the next bump
when it came, to be one that no on
selling us supplies could fail to under
stand.
$50 1000, 900 Per Month.
Now, to see what happened, yo
must understand that our compan
, buys in tremendous quantities. RICH
: now we're buying s50,000000 worth O
, materials month. There are hur
) dreds of concerns from which we TAX
) the major part of their output. BAG
) of them are other firms who sell tn
|, greater part of their output to the SUI
) pliers from whom we buy. So, whe
, we pull the switches in the For
: plant, and stop our machinery, tn
{ same thing happens in thousands c
: smaller plants the country over It
r just like when you stand dominoe
3 close together in a row-if you knoc
over the first one, the whole line fall:
? AS long as we kept on buying, thes
r plants would continue to hold price
!, up. Some of them did cut, but, O
i the part of most of them, we felt,
9 was only a bluff to make it appea
l. that they had reached the new To-
j. basic price for peace times.
g I'VE saw that if the lowering pr
: cess was TO be FASTENED at all, W
must do something drastic. SO, lat
q in December, we closed down, resol
t, ed not to resume production until W
b could buy materials at peace-tim
e prices and, in the meantime, to hay
: a thorough housekeeping. We though