The Committee contrast with the disappointing results in Britain the
fact that in the United States an increase of 64 per cent. in power capacity has called forth an, almost exactly equivalent increase in output. The result here is a disproportionate and probably unnecessary expensiveness of goods. Another significant fact is that retail prices have been raised out of proportion to the price of the manufacturers. It was found in two large stores that whereas the retail price of certain goods in 1913 was only 20 per cent. above the manufacturers' price the figure had risen to 26 per cent. in 1925. The ratio between wholesale and retail prices was first upset to the disadvantage of the buyer, we believe, during the War. Nobody then knew with any accuracy what was a reason- able price for anything, and industrial wages, it must be remembered, rose in accordance with the cost of living. It was therefore easy for retailers to charge high prices. The renewed competition of the succeeding years has not altogether broken this habit, and we imagine that it will not be broken till the buyer breaks his own habit—also acquired during the War—of obligingly paying what is asked without asking questions.
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