Evening star., 1924-01-12
FURNITURE PRICES
: MAY BE REDUCED
Makers and Retailers Anxious to
Cut Costs-National Sur
vey Is Desired.
SPORTING TRADE IS FINE
Pullman Company Seeks New Site
for Repair Shops.
BY j. c. ROYLE.

Special Dispatch TO The Star.
NEW YORK, January 12.-The fur
niture trade seems to have ironed out
many of the differences between its
producing and distributing ends and
is getting a splendid start on the
new Year. There were more than 500
furniture buyers who attended the
annual exposition at Grand Rapids
this week and their purchases are de-
clared to have exceeded all eXpecta-
tions of the manufacturers. The SEN
timent as to future business was
plainly indicated by the announce
ment that the Nelson Matter building
III Grand Rapids had been taken over
by furniture interests and will be re-
modelled into an exposition building
eleven stories high with 10000 feet
OF floor space, which will serve as a
permanent show place.
Price Reductions Possible.
The position of the manufacturers
Is strongly opposed to any guarantee
against price reduction. Some east
ern buyers had hoped for reductions
and held off from future commit
ments or demanded guarantees. The
makers. however. although they de-
clare furniture is now as low as it
can be and afford Il fair margin Of
pront, and there is small proba bility
OF reductions for some time to come,
were steadfast against guaranteeing
present quotations. Both makers and
retailers. however, are getting to-
gether to determine means OF elimi-
: mating waste and thus reduce the
cost of furniture survey of the in
dustry by the Department OF Com
merce has been suggested as a means
TO that end.
New Contracts Favored.
Manufacturers, for their part.
asked that orders by retailers be made
equivalent to contract which might
not be broken at the will of either
party. The National Retail Furniture
Association has consented to this pro-
poSal.
Chicago furniture stores and the fur
niture departments of the larger depart
ment stores are OH the threshold today
Of what promises to be the biggest mid
, winter season on record. Preliminary
sales. according TO the midwest deal
erS, are showing larger daily aver
age than ever before. although ad-
Nertising campaigns have just start
cd. Merchants naturally expect
much larger volume of business once
their advertising begins to have full
effect
sport a Big Business Factor.
The commercialism OF sport or
rather the effect OF sport on business
and industry is becoming more ap
parent every day. Polo. golf. fishing.
motor boating, horse racing and
aquatic sports will be responsible for
'he expenditure of more money in
the south in the next three months
than ever before In a similar period
This will react favorabIy not only to
manufacturers and dealers in sport
Ing goods, but to railroads. hotels and
clothing manufacturers.
An illustration of the trend will be
shown concluSively Sunday. when the
members OF the American Olympic
ski team viii practice at Briar Cliff.
y. \. There was no snow at Briar
Cliff. so the proprietor OF the hotel
ordered train load shipped from the
Adirondacks. The cars of the New
York Central were sprinkled to form
coating Of ice, and in this the snow
was packed down with an ice blanket
sprinkled over top. The freight rate
charged was sixty cents a hundred
pounds. 1t would have been infinitely
less expensive to send the skiiers to
the snow to practice than to bring
the snow to the skiiers, but there
were no hotels where the snow lay.
Millions In Breeding Farms.
Racing is rapidly making the Shen-
sndoah valley a rival of the Ken
lucky blue-gr region as a home
than s4.000.000 invested In eight
breeding farms in the valleys. in
which are quartered 400 brood mares
and such famous sires as Trap Rock.
Sir Barton. Superman. Sunbrfar and
Royal Canopy The high prices OBJ
taining for hurley tobacco and hemp.
il is claimed. have raised blue-gra
-alues In Kentucky to $500 an acre or
more. Newcomers in horse breeding,
therefore, are going elsewhere.
Pullman Seeking Northwestern Site.
The Pullman Company is seeking a
site in the northwest on which to
construct shops to repair and recon-
dition their cars in that territory.
The present shop system. with plants
located at Calumet, H.; Wilmington,
Del: st. Louis, Buffalo and on San
Francisco bay, leaves the northwest
without adequate repair equipment.
A report that twenty acres had been
purchased at Seattle for this purpose
has been denied.