The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-01-07
NEA Service Writer

Washington-Amid the world | wide depression, the ostriches of South Africa and the rabbits of Aus
 tralia have had cause to rejoice. Styles changes have hit the export trade of those countries but have benefited the animals.
 South Africa's export trade in ostrich plumes has been almost de- stroy-d and Australian rabbit skin exports dropped off from more than $4,O00,000 in value to about $1,OOO,- 900 from the first half of 1929 to
 the first half of 1880, according to J. J. Kral, head of the department of commerce's division of statistical
 research. Men have come to prefer light shades in hats and light-tinted hats can't be made from rabbit fur.
 The hat trade is threatened by the spreading habit of going bare
 headed, both in this country and
 Europe; 40 per cent fewer hats were exported from Italy, the big hat
 country, in 1930.
 Meanwhile, women appear to be wearing less clothes than ever, MT Kral suspects, and that seems to be | one cause for continued decrease Of turnover in textiles in the last years | international trade.
 Also, the Ethiopian trade in wax has been nearly destroyed, thanks to the Russian revolution, because
 large wax candles are no longer lighted in Russian churches.
 Reduces World Trade Value These facts are sidelights in an analytical study just completed by
 Kral which shows how the decline in commodity prices has reduced the value of world trade along with the decline in volume caused by that and other factors Kral has classi- fled the type of countries which have been the greatest losers Tn world trade and has undertaken to estimate the relative decline in vol ume and value.
 In value. foreign trade of 62
 countries for the first six months
 of 1880 fell from the $31, 100000 of the first half of 1929 to $27,281,- ! 900, ,0O0-or IA per cent.
 Data available" Kral says, Gin dicate that only about one-half Of | the decline in the value of interna- tional trade was due to a reduction
 in volume. It would also seem that prices of commodities entering in- ternational trade, as distinguished from local prices. prevailing in the first half of 1880 averaged approXi-
 mately z to 8 per cent below the prices for the corresponding period | of 1929. That would indicate de-
 cline of only about 7 per cent of the
 volume of international trade. Too Much Efficiency
 | "The present fall of prices diff ] fers somewhat from the decline that
 occurred a decade ago. In 1920-2l
 the sudden fall in prices was nat
 ural reaction from the imitation pro- duced by the abnormal conditions of war and postwar time. The pres
 ent fall of prices appears to have
 been caused in part by increased ef-
 ficiency and greater intensity of pro-
 duction, and in part by the failure of
 various attempts to maintain mon- opoly prices and by other factors" | Price declines have been most
 marked in crude foodstuffs and in
 dustrial raw materials, Kral points
 out, with only slight declines in
 prices of finished manufactured products ready for consumption
 Modern, intensified methods of pro-
 duction of agricultural commodities has developed far beyond the de-
 mand wheat. coffee and rubber l have suffered hardest from such
 overproduction. Metals such as cop per and silver. overproduced, are
 cheaper than at any time in this
 century.
 l The United States has benefited to the extent that it's imports consist l largely of foodstuffs and raw ma
 terials-it has bought cheaper cof-
 fee. silk. rubber and so on and
 hardly any such imports at in-