Evening star., 1948-02-21
Prices
Continued From First Page

Since the big break in the com.
modify markets began on Februar!
4 wheat has dropped SO cents. from
$780, to $685. for May wheat
Corn has dropped 37A cents, oat
1894 cents and cotton 2.22 cents 6
pound. Top hogs are off $2.75 q
100 pounds and top grade steers ar.
off 81 hundred pounds.
Yesterday cotton was up rs cent!
to $110 a bale on the strength O.
reports that the China aid pro-
gram calls for purchase of 10000
bales. Hogs were slightly higher
cattle prices were mostly unchanged
and lambs were down.
Butter also dropped yesterday
declining a half cent a pound Al
wholesale.
The BIS survey was in the form
of a check of 20 food items. Ot
these 20 checked, II showed de.
clines from last month, sever
showed increases and two showed
no change. .-., . ,.+a.@ 9
Lard Leads Price Declines.
The big drops were in the retail
prices of flour 70 per cent?, rounc
steak Q2 per cent, pork chops 1t
per cent?, bacon az per cent?, egg.
(16 per cent?, lettuce 90 per cent
and lard 40 per cent?. Increases
included onions (36 per cent?
oranges 10 per cent? and apples q
per cent?. Unchanged were breao
and milk prices.
These figures were weighted" tc
give an average decline of 4 pei
cent-for example. several quarts o1
milk were included since it is q
major food item in most households
but smaller quantities of less urgent
foods were counted.
If the total cost of one pound Cor
dozen or can or whatever the stand
ard measure Isl of each item is COM
puted, the change from last month
to this week is about per cent. The
Star last Saturday computed this
type of change for the entire BIS
list of commodities-48 items-and
found the change was more than 8
per cent. The Stars check was
made in a leading chain store while
the BIS used both chain and inde-
pendent store prices to obtain an
average of all retail prices in the
city for the 20 items it checked.
One Washington chain of food
stores made its own survey of price
changes for the same dates as the
BIS survey. This check showed the
decline in the chain to be IL per
cent for the 20 items. The per-
centage was an average of the
changes for the 20 items rather
than a weighted figures as that of
the BIS, however.
No Significant Changes.
In discussing the price situation
with reporters yesterday, Mr..
Clague pointed out that only the
commodity exchanges have shown
any real price decline since the
mid January peak. Through Thurs
day of this week there have been
no significant changes in the
market prices of copper, lead, steel
scrap, tin, zinc, burlap and rosin.
Price increases, on the other hand,
nave been announced or indicated
for coal and petroleum, lumber and
cement, wooden goods and steel
the latter just made public.
Mr.. Clague said there was no way
to measure the result of
steel price increases on the economy
as a whole. He said the steel, of
course, is a major commodity in the
economy and has an
effect on almost all types of prices.
Some items, connected with and
Influenced by the commodity mar
set items-hides, leather, fats and
shown declines, Mr..
Clague pointed out.
Department Store Sales Drop.
In discussing the question of
farm prices might plunge
downward as they did in a COM
parable period after World War I,
Nr. Clague pointed out that the
,rice support program enacted BY
Congress now provides floor which
lid not exist for the farmer in the
920,s. This probably would prevent
/ similar plummeting of farm prices,
le said.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve
soard reported that department
tore sales in Washington were down
per cent in the week ending last
compared with the same
week a year ago. But they were up
per cent over the previous week
his year.
The Washington decline was the
in the fifth Federal Re-
erve district. Decline in Baltimore
ver last year was 6 per cent and
or all other cities in the district
he drop was 10 per cent. Some of
he decline was due to the bad
Ieethcr rather than TO price factors.
|atioo ALLY, the drop was 3 per cent
rom 1Jear onA