The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-26

thelr LOW prlces, because they haze to
 be shipped to us from pretty long distance, and we've got to consider freight rates. If you know anything
 about them now, you know thev ,re items worth very deep consideration. and they are going to affect food prices in the future as much as any thing else"
 SLIGHT INCREASE But there Is one authority who
 wouldn't be surprised to See some thing of slight increase in food prices, If anything. He is F. H Mills of the McLester-vanHorn company "We are beginning to feel" ne told
 me after the usual price question lad been put that an increase. q slignt
 one however, is bound to come. There are great number of un- employed people now and, of course.
 they do not buy like they would if they were working and got nigh wages. That is one reason why a great increase cannot be expected. We feel that there is great psv-
 chology which marks people when the
 market begins to fall like it aas in the past, Everybody stopped buying with the hope that the market wouid fall still lower. It didn't and th. people were running shorl. Now the,.
 are starting in to buy, and as volu,ne increases, it is only natural to as. sume that there will be some increosA in price.
 , There will not be any marked ad- Vances, however, and we feel that ',he iharAet IS going to be steady for good while to come the pre-war basis of charging unless labor drops, and you know what a slow process that iss'
 FREIGHT RATES The point of freight rates seemed to be good one, so l put it up to a grain man, J. c. Curry.
 You bet that freight rates are going to cut figure" he said Grain ana produce are cheaper, as everything else is cheaper, and it would be more so if 1t were possible to get stuff transported at any kind of reasonable rates, but
 where stuff has to move to you over the | railroads these days l do not think it logical to assume that it could be sold for anything like what one would term a normal figure.
 "The only thing I see that will bring prices up to any great extent, however is betterment of the general condi- tions of the conntry-everything else l that men have counted on to stop the Iduicdl HiaThet uecIlneS mas Tailed, ana that is the only thing that will do It." OPTIMISTIC VIEWS J. D. Graves of the J. D. Graves Pro- duce company was inclined to look with | optimism into the future of the produce 1 lines. He said that a great many men had lost money because of the decline 1 in the markets, but that most of them were willing to take the loss to get things more nearly normal. He said thar a decline in eggs and chickens could l not be looked for very soon. The merchandise nArket, according to leaders in the field, is quite different ln aspect. There has been radical decline | in all sorts of woolen, and she strike
 amongst clothing workers in New York,
 according to S Frankel of Frankei x
 Feldsten, wholesale clothiers, puts a pe- | culiar color on market conditions.
 The market is still falling in this line," he said, "and what the outcome is going to be no one knows We can only looS forward with optimism. But that is
 pretty hard to do when you think of the
 loss some of our retailers have taken this past fall and winter and are tak- l ing right now"
 So MT. Dale's question is answered.
 There is every evidence of marked de-
 crease in actual living costs and they ! are likely to continue.