COST OF LIVING IN UNITED STATES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 August 1920, Page 9

COST OF LIVING IN UNITED STATES.

REMARKABLE REDUCTIONS. New York, May 20. A remarkable reduction in the retail prices of everything except food is sweeping the'country, and merelianis are falling over each other in their eagerness to attract purchases by a wholesale slashing of prices, from Kasl to West some reports of reductions anywhere between twenty and fifty per r.'-it.. and many shops are advertising 'proiitles: ? sales," in order to win back their, old customers. The country-wide, wave of economy is directly responsible for 'the turn in the high tide of the cost of living, and when merchants found they were unable to,dispose of their stocks, orders at the mills and factories were cancelled, and the manufacturer.-,. in turn, were obliged to quote lower prices, Def.pife the severe retail price reductions, the public are well 'aware that goods are still being sold at a very fair profit, and unless further reductions are made on the new stocks, the people will refrain from buying again, because it is the fashion" here now to wear old clothes and to go without everything, excepting- bare necessities. There is no disposition here to conelude that the. whole problem of the high cost of living has been solved offhand, but people are cheered by the knowledge that a. good beginning has been made, and that they have flic power to bring profiteers' to reason when the burden is made, too heavy. If is true food prices are still skv-hish, owing largely to the fact that there [v. a real shortage temporarily, and also be cause it is more difficult to persuade people to refrain from indulging in luxu ries of the palate than from the luxur; of personal adornment. Merchants arc expressing indignation at the forced re (tactions, and attribute the necessity to "a hysterica! demand for lower prices,' which they infer will not last over th» summer months. The movement, how ever, has the support of the leading bankers of the country, who assembled at Washington yesterday, and, in cooperation With 'tiie Vellfiral , Tieserve Board members, .pledged themselves to assist the movement by calling in longterm loans and habitual borrowers. Speculation, which has done sr much to inflate prices, is to be stornh discouraged, and if labour can be kepi at work and production increased, there is every promise the price decline ir. everything, including food, and even wages, will lie steady and continuous until the normal level .is reached. The credit famine and goods congestion on the railways as a result of the extensive strike, are undoubtedly contributing factors to the present remarkable turn of affairs. Manufacturers in urgent need of money began to swamp the market, with lower-priced article-, while retailers were still loaded down with unsold high-priced stocks. The largest department store in New York and Philadelphia started the ball roilinoby announcing; a, '2O per cent, reduction" All Xew York and Philadelphia rushed for the, new prices, to the exclusion of the other retailers who took several days in which fo accept the inevitable. To-day the newspapers ,are filled with display advertisements, each trying to outdo the other in price-cutting."