Evening star., 1921-05-20
Hardware Goods Feature
Trade in the Southeast
BY RALPH SMITH.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

ATLANTA. May 2o-An unprece-
dened demand for sporting goods.
accompanied by steady trade in
household conveniences. particularly
electrical appliances. are serving to
sustain the retail hardware business
IN the southeast. according TO reports
submitted by dealers attending the
annual convention of the Southeast
ern Retail Hardware and Implement
Merchants Association. Except for
| the activity in these lines, their busi-
ness is showing few signs Of revival
In the heavier wares and especially
IN implements. the retailers are doing
nothing, and they attribute this state
NOT so much to the general business
depression as to the continued main
tenance of high prices by manufac-
turers and jobbers.
Strike stiff in Effect.
The consumers strike is still in ef-
feet in so far hardware and farm
implements are concerned. and the re-
tailers protest that they are blame
less because the replacement cost of
their stocks has shown no apprecia-
BILE decline.
The views expressed by the hard
ware dealers are representative. The
convention is composed of small re-
tallers from every part of the terri
tory. and the so-called country mer-
chants predominate. The agreement
among them as to the status of their
business is as universal as il H. sig
nlncant. and the same is true also of
their impression of general conditions
, in the rural sections.
/, See Reason With Farmers.
However much it affects them di-
rectly. the merchants comment upon
their inability to sell farm implements
as an encouraging symptom. Ii con
firms their belief that the farmers
are making the cheapest crop of cot
ton and diversified products ever
j raised in the south. and prompts the
hope and belief that. in these cir
cumstances, it will be ''all profit."
and enable the farmers to meet many.
if not all, of the obligations hanging
over from last year.
The merchants do not believe that
the increased and unusual demand
F, for sporting goods indicates that the
farmers are idlinG away their time
with rod and reel and gun so much
, as ii does that these more useful and
i productive diversions have taken the
place Of joy-riding. The slogan in the
. country. the merchants remark. is
: Work and walk" whereas year ago
| 1t was Ride and loaf
! NOTES.
! NEW YORK, May 20.-Wholesalers
F, and jobbers report that there are en-
couraging signs that retailers at last
| are UTcdhlHk away tHtlT feCeul
I policy OF hand-to mouth purchases.
There appears to be confidence that
wholesale prices have about reached
rock bottom in most lines and that any
! fluctuations in the future will be the
normal changes of normal market.
! The size of present orders still is a
good deal below normal. but is vast
! improvement over the haphaZard pur-
chasing of the last five or six months.
May normally is a light month in
wholesaling, and therefore the in
creased activity of the moment is one
of the most encouraging signs of a
! situation which has been none too
bright
CHICAGO. May 20.-It seems an
| odd angle Of world affairs that Amer
| lean farmers in the great northwest
, should be studying day by day the
| exchange rates of the international
| money market. The farmers realize
at last that they are vitally interest
| ed in the buying power of world
moneys. The prospect of bumb,
| crop in the northwest this year has
| made the interest in Europes pur-
cha sing power all the more acute, 70
| Europe must take the American graii:
surplus to make prosperity in tn.
American farm communities. The re
cent rise in allied foreign exchanS,
is a most hopeful sign to the farmers
for with money nearer par than il has
been in the last year and half Eu-
rope again began buying.