Page:Stabilizing the dollar, Fisher, 1920.djvu/76

22 evidence of high prices in areas not directly affected by the war.

Mr. O. P. Austin, Statistician of the National City Bank, says:

"Raw silk, for example, for which the war made no special demand. and which was produced on the side of the globe opposite that in which the hostilities were occurring, advanced from $3.00; per pound in the country of production in 1913 to $4.50 per pound in 1917, and over $6.00 per pound in the closing months of the war. Manila hemp, also produced on the opposite side of the globe and not a war requirement, advanced in the country of production from $180 per ton in 1915 to $437 per ton in 1918. Goat-skins from China, India, Mexico and South America advanced from 25 cents per pound in 1914 to over 50 cents per pound in 1918, and yet goat-skins were in no sense a special requirement of the war. Sisal grass produced in Yucatan advanced from $100 per ton in 1914 at the place of production to nearly $400 per ton in 1918, and Egyptian cotton, a high-priced product and thus not used for war purposes, jumped from 14 cents per pound in Egypt in 1914 to 35 cents per pound in 1918. Even the product of the diamond mines of South Africa advanced from 60 to 100 per cent in price per karat when compared with prices existing in the opening months of the war.

"The prices are in all cases those in the markets of the country in which the articles were produced and in most cases at points on the globe far distant from that in which the war was being waged. They are the product of countries having a plentiful supply of cheap labor and upon which there has been no demand for men for service in the war. The advance in the prices quoted is in no sense due to the high cost of ocean transportation, since they are those demanded and obtained in the markets of the country of production.

"Why is it that the product of the labor of women and children who care for silkworms in China and Japan, of the Filipino laborer who produces the Manila hemp, the Egyptian fellah who grows the high-grade cotton, the native workman in the diamond mines of South Africa, the Mexican peon in the sisal field of Yucatan, the Chinese coolie in the tin mines of Malaya, or the goat-herd on the