Evening star., 1936-08-23

In 1912 the average wholesale price
Of cars was near $4,000; $50. 900 buy
ers appeared. In 1922, with the aver
age well below $1,000 and the quality
vastly improved. 2,400. 900 bought. BY
1925. with the average price near $500,
sales we're up to almost 1000, 900 cars.
Earnings Of the industry were $780,
100000 The record for 1886 will be
worth watching.
Quickest of all heavy industry to
respond to recovery, the automobile
industry has never varied from the
plan Of giving more for the money.
1t is true that good roads and other
developments have aided the growth
Of this industry, but the chief factor
has been steady adherence TO q policy
Of lower prices.
IN INDUSTRY AFTER INDUSTRY
.. MORE FOR THE MONEY.
RAYON (once $185 the pound,
now 57c).
ELECTRIC LAMPS (twice the light,
half the cost.
ELECTRICITY Tin 80 years, from
a rich mans luxury to q poor mans
necessity.
CHAIN STORES (no vicious re-
strictions could kill this better method
Of giving more for the money.
GASOLINE to-day motorists buy
roads and fuel for what they paid for
fuel alone in 1910.
The list is almost endless. Better
values. higher quality. more durability
steady improvement of goods, with
prices tending always downward or
holding to levels the public can easily
pay. This has always been the way
to the more abundant life.
BUT WHAT OF PRICE WARS?
Let no one assume that the Brook
ings economists or any thinking
persons propose destructive or ruin
GUS price cuts as a recovery measure.
Business must have profits. There Is
no place in American industry for
either prontless enterprise or wageless
labor.
To give more for the money. indus
try does more than reduce prices. 1t
increases its efficiency; it finds sound
short cuts in distribution; it pro-
crosses gradually toward better values
for its customers. 1t passes the greater
part of its savings along to the public
In many lines today prices are
already low in relation to production
costs. In some businesses they are
below production costs and need rails
ing II production costs can't be low
cred.
But this fundamental principle re-
mains: Low commodity prices. wher-
ever and whenever possible, will bring
more volume. more profits and a bet
ter standard Of living for all of US.
WHERE NOW?
Are We at the end of progress? Must
We content ourselves with the total
wealth and worth and value now in
existence in America? Must we
ration ourselves like shipwrecked SAIL
ors with no hope of replenishing sup
plies? II that be so, then there Is
nothing ahead but . bitter fight for .
share Of too little Of everything.
WHAT FACTORS WORK AGAINST
MORE FOR THE MONEY?
HUMAN GREED? Sometimes
but even the greediest know that
greater profits almost always come
from lower prices and better values.
DO HIGH WAGES work against
more for the money! In principle.
yes: In practice, no. High wages pro-
duce higher quality. more output per
dollar in industry after industry.
Wages should not and can not be
reduced except in rare instances. The
whole trend Of wages since the year
1900 has been upward. Even today,
an hours work returns the industrial
wage Garner more actual money and
more purchasing power than in 1929.
What industry should strive for IL
. larger yearly wage for a larger num-
Der Of workers. The opportunity for
given worker to produce more gives
the country more to consume and the
worker more money with which to
buy. It Is the exact reverse of re-
stricting production and restricting the
workers hours Of opportunity for
earning.
What other costs go into the things
We buy? Today the greatest of all
other costs is the cost Of government:
Taxes. In 1914 the consumers dollar
bought "a cents worth of goods and
services and 6 cents worth of gov
ernment. Twenty years later it bought
Z cents worth Of goods and % cents
worth Of government.
Today q citizen buys one car, but
pays for q second in taxes before the
car Is worn out. He buys . pair of
shoes, pays for three shoes; buys two
pork chops and pays for three.
No matter that all of national, State
and local government cost is not being
paid for as it is incurred. Govern
ment debt Is the debt Of industry, of
labor, Of agriculture-of all of Us.
One needs only to look at debt-ridden
railroads, gfoaning under fixed charges,
to see what debt and taxes do to
industry.
Only lower freight and passenger
rates. better service and new equip
ment, says the Interstate Commerce
Commission, can save the railroads.
Yet one way in which the railroads
and most Of industry and agriculture
could most surely reduce prices and
oher better values is through relief
from the ever-increastng burden Of
tazatonl