Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 300, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1919 — WILL WALLOP THE H.C.L? [ARTICLE]

WILL WALLOP THE H.C.L?

CHICAGO MERCHANTS LOWER prices—Association BOOSTS THEM. . There <\seems to be considerable confusion as to the price the buying public will have to pay for clothing and many other articles of merchandise. In Friday’s Indianapolis News there was a Chicago dispatch in which Charles E. Wry, secretary of the National Association of Retail said that clothing prices must advance. The article reads as ■ follows: Chicago, December 11.—Clothing prices-tHU continue upward next spring, Charles E. Wry, secretary of the National Association of Retail Clothfers, announced today in explaining steps taken* by the association to assist Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer in combatting the high cost of wearing apparel. The causes of high prices were beyond the control of the retail dealers, Wry declared, but members of the association were preparing to hold further price advances to the minimum at the sacrifice of their own profits. Popular priced suits, which sold "before the war at $25 and now retail at SSO, will bring S6O or more’ next spring, Wry said. Demoralization of the industry incident to the army demand for uniforms during the war greatly increased labor costs, and shortage of labor due to the stoppage of wholesale immigration were responsible, Wry added. Piece workers in Chicago clothing factories are earning as high as $135 weekly, he said. From one of the poorest paid industries the needle trades have become one of the best paid, he said. Wage increases since 1914 average 175 per cent, Wry said, while government reports fix the increase in the cost of living during the same period at 131 per cent.” As against this opinion and in contradiction thereto, we have the following article quoted from the Chicago Daily News of Friday evening: x . The hardest wallop that has hit “old high cost of living” in many months was that delivered today by the retail” clothing, hat and shoe merchants of the city, when they agreed to establish prices on substantial lines of goods that parallel the prices of five years or more ago. They agreed to sell good, wearable men’s suits and overcoats at $24.50, women’s suits at $25 and women’s coats at $18.90. Men’s shoes are to bring $5.95 and women’s shoes $4.95. Other items of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel are priced proportionately. These prices, of course, are neither maximum nor minimum for entire lines in any stores, but they set a standard from which the retail I dealers are expecting to work. Those 1 stores which are not now carrying.! lines at these prices are expected ! to put, them in, according to the statement of the members of the committee which established the price list. It is the subcommittee

on clothing, hats and shoes, of the Illinois fair price committee, and the action of its members commit* the retail dealers of the crty to observe its recommendations. , The move is a voluntary one on the part of the retail merchants and represents their contribution to the concerted drive to cut the cost of living. John T. Pirie, of Carson, Pirie Scott & Co., is chairman of the subcommittee and represents the loop department stores; George Lytton, of the Hub, represents the men’s furnishings Istores; John O’Connor, of O’Connor & Goldberg, represents the shoe dealers; Dudley Palmer, of Percival B. Palmer & C 0.,. represents hat dealers, and Irving T. Klein, of the L. Klein store, Weat 14th and South Halstead streets, the out of the. loop retailers. The committee’s statement and price list follows: “An investigation of Chicago stocks discloses rhe fact that dependable merchandise can be purchased at prices < noted as long as present stocks remain. Replacement orders at present market prices will increase these figures. By carefully observing the special sales advertised from time to time in the public fress serviceable merchandise may requently be purchased at even lower prices than here listed. “The attached list must not be taken as being maximum prices, but fair prices for serviceable articles in the various lines mentioned. Men’s suits __524.50 Men’s overcoats 24.50 Men’s shoes 5.95 Men’s hosiery .25 Men’s underwear 1.35 Women’s suits 25.00 Women’s dresses 15.25 Women’s coats 18.90 Women’s shoes —: 4.95 Women’s hosiery .25 Women’s underwear 1.25 Boys’ suits 5.90 Boys’ overcoats 8.50 Children’s hosiery .40 Children’s underwear .75 Children’s shoes 3.95 Putting good, pure wheat flour on the market at sl2 a barrel was expected to develop as the result of a meeting of wholesale grocers and flour jobbers scheduled for this afternoon at the United States Grain Corporation office, Quincy and South LaSalle street. It was called by Howard B. Jackson and V. J. Petersen, of* the grain corporation. “We hope that the wholesale grocers ana flour jobbers will agree to handle the United States Grain corporation’s standard pure wheat flour,” said Mr. Petersen today, “as it can be sold for sl2 a barrel, where flour usually now is bringing sl6 a barrel. The department stores and the Atlantic and Pacific stores have agreed to handle it. It is a perfectly wholesome, appetizing brand that can be sold at a lower price. We are not running in competition with private concerns, but we want to give the public the chance for lower prices if it wants them.” Major A. A. Sprague, of the Illinois fair price committee, advised the continued use of best quality storage eggs in the hope that the rewould be a bigger supply and lower market of fresh eggs. The buck should be included in that list of things passed at the special session of congress.—lndiana polls Star.