AMERICAN PRICE SLUMP.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3494, 24 May 1920, Page 5

AMERICAN PRICE SLUMP.

OVER-SPECULATION THE CAUSE; WELLINGTON, May :31. Opinions collected'herc from leadingf trades, and a lady recently rm';urneJ3 from America, suggests that the pricei slump in clothing throughout the Uniim ed States is the result of panic due‘ to ovel‘-speculafion, as instance spccu«' lative buying in the United States’ drapery trades.

A lady who was interviewed stated.‘ that goods usualy available for trade in November and December were all .ahsorbed by"lapeeul2.t.o:x-s in Ocrtober last 7 When bona -.fide traders went to buy them they found almost every thing they wanted taken by speculators, from whom they would have to buy, of course, at a. high premium. It was undiluted gambling, not fail‘. trading. Supply and demand were -factors -that could .not be ignored, but" the manipulation of markets by specu—lators had a. great influence upon the prices of goods. It seemed anomalous, but it was true, “that manufacturers were sometimes only too eager to buy back -their own goodsfrom speculators at a high premium. They had had to‘ buy goods made in America and shipped to London to meef American demands.

‘Mr. S. Kirkcaldie, principal of one of the leading‘ drapery and clothing establishm-e-nts, eosrroborated this statement, declaring that goods often passed -through the hands of half a dozen speculators who never saw them, and intruded: their operations from legitimate circles and the manu-,‘ facturer, selling agent, jobber (or warehousemian), to the retailer. The textile and clothing tradesliave -their speculators. It is evident from the cable messages they are frantic to sell. They have been caught. It‘ does not‘ -follow at all there has been a genuine fall in prices. of that the present collapse of the speculafor heralds a general reduction. On the contrary, everything is against it, adds Mr. Kirkcaldie, who says that advices from Manchester stated that raw cotton, which on the 7th of March was 16d per pound,’ advanced. on the 16th of March to 29€_§—d per pound. Scottiish woollen manufaetirez};._-i§ntinlate-they are already so<:booked"”nl3"fvith' orders that they “cannot look at new business for 1921. ¢Advices from Not:-1 tinghnm hosiery rn?l.nufactn.re-rs are to the same efl-‘eat. The whole iwoi-Id» is short. of clothing, and untilthat short-. age‘ is"=l-elieved there will -be no moderation in prices. They_ m‘-fiy, ‘indeed, go :l§ighel*. The British. domestic rlemanid itself is enormous, and at present insatiable, and there is a great and insistent denTand_ from the Continent, and during the past: few months from the’ United States also.