Disquisition by Scripps, E.W., Business outlook, November 8, 1920

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!.Dai; we are due in this OOlm.try' to ..bave a very sharp fUl"t.h.el' u011_
u. business which will asStmle the preportiollB Of a pallia, 1 censia.er 1.lie"titable.
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~t is a ~e'
~a grea.t decline in bUSiness and in the prioe Of OOBlO4i ties will
be desoribed as a panic ill later times b:r all of those 'I'~ dving this periH.
$uf'ter business failures. :BJ those others whose businesses are well and
soundl.7 established and whose reserve of money, goods O~ capacities are
suffiCient, the erisis may be regarded as merely a business depression.
before _»t ma.;r '" called. normal oollCi11iions ill tra4e activity will prevail.
~jng ths priee of all sorts of thil'lgs in general, including lands,
01 ty and oountry t slt:;rScrapers, ahil?s, foodstuffs and wear iug apparel - in fact,
all things,big and lit1i1e, tha.t are bought and. sold, it will probably be
finaily d.etermined that prices have <iouoleCl.. or the purchasing power of gold.
money, has been cut in half in the United. States as a result of the World War.
Deflation.
At this present writing (llovember 8th, 1920) it appears t.ha.t ldOst
Of those co~dities which enter into living oosts, except perhaps hOUSing,
have in the matter of wll.Olesale prices fallen some thirty per cent.
!.hat would indica1i6 tAat even in these things there exists at present
.• ~t.b.i.ng like a money int'lation equal to seventy per cent. To get baok to
~ 19l4 prices i~ppears that another seventy per cent ~t be knocked off
et commodity prices.
Ohio University Libraries, E.W. Scripps Papers, MSS 117, Series 4, http://bit.ly/scripps_mss117