The Washington herald., 1921-11-10

their main business-the selling Of
clothing-in the hope OF prontfng
by speculative changes In the mar
ket. The others concentrated their
attention on selling, turned their
stock rapidly. and rebought.
The year 1919 brought with II
further great price imitation, con-
sequent upon the extraordinary de-
mand created by the return to
civilian life or 1000, 900 demobillsed
soldiers and by the more rapid rise
OF wages than Of prices, at least
in many quarters. This continued
into the early months OF 1880.
On the day after Easter. how
ever. which fell on April Z, 1929,
there came throughout the country
conspicuous curtaIlment OF buy
ing. The price limit had been
reached and the almost simultane-
Gus cessation of buying which took
place in every corner of the coun-
try presented an interesting phe-
nomenon, partly psychological, and
not wholly explicable.
Tremendous Investment At Stake.
For a period of a month or six
weeks there was little activity,
pending development. The retailer
had in his store goods purchased
for the spring Of 1890, and he had
on order goods purchased for the
fall of 1890. These two seasons
represented the highest prices ever
known in the clothing industry, and
the merchant had q Tremendous in
vestment at stake.
Tha
these prices. No store can 20 long
without business its expenses
would eat II up-and this 10 doubly
true where the commodity sold is
pertshable or semi-perishable. Thus
price cutting began In an effort to
stimulate business. II became gen.
eral in May and June and continued
almost without interruption for
about a year. In many cases goods
were sold at far less than their
replacement value at the time, but
the only thing that could be done
was to sell and then attempt to
debate the price Of raw materials
and the cost OF production later.
By the end Of that year the mer-
chandise bought at peak prices had
been sold at one price or another,
the price level had changed, drop
ping approximately - per cent,
and the whole situation had become
fairly stabilized at a pice range
of about 1.7s compared to the pre-
war period.
Some manufacturers and mer-
chants went through the period Of
dedation with flying colors. Here
again the same difference in View
point which was exhibited after the
armistice was apparent The wise
merchant kept on selling-he did
not hold his goods because reI
placement values were higher than
the prices at which he could sell
his holdings. He moved his mer-
chandise at what prices he could
and kept up his value; and as a
result he sold on the drop instead
Of at the very bottom and thus
minimized his loss. In addition,
he avoided an Increased percentage
Of expense BY avoiding a dwind-
ling value.
Those who took their loss quick
ly are now on q comfortable basis.
The others suffered severely in
some cases. losing as much in one
year as had been made in the five
preceding years. 1t is, on the whole,
surprising that the mortality has
not been greater, but altogether II
can be sail that the clothing busi-
ness liquidated in a highly cred
liable manner.
Protected Against Loss.
During the period Of imitation we
made IT our rule not to engage in
any expansion without first care
fully considering the possible ef-
feet of sudden contraction Of
business. This protected US against
too great factory expansion and
fixed charges which might lat
prove excessive. We depended on
quick turnover for keeping down
our inventories, with the result
that, although We did about twice
as much business in 1890 as in