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Show I: BMEBSlje I -Price Slashing Movement Is I Gaining Ground Among the ' Mew York Retailers. HUNTING DOWN THE PROFITEERS Merchants' Talk of Patriotism ' as Motive For Price Cutting I Pure Buncoinb. i NEW YORK, Ma' 20 The bankers' j war on high prices, declared at the I hehest of the federal reserve board to-i ' day brought anothor wave of liquidation liquida-tion in the securities niarkeL Primarily induced by the countrywide country-wide stringent credit conditions this wave caused many stocks and bonds to fall to still lower quotations for the f current movement, r , Support of a substantial character was forthcoming, however, and bnr-l. bnr-l. 'gain hunters also were active in the ) moro popular Issues. As a result prices jj rallied vigorously before the close, lib-It lib-It erty bonds and victory notes sharing t largely in the recovery From every responsible authority 1 came assurances that basic financial conditions all over the country offer no occasion for apprehension. In the words of a leading -financier, the pres- ent movement is largely in the nature of a "necessary readjustment of values, including commercial and industrial inventories." I The price slashing movement seem- ed to be gaining ground among New j 'York retailers, who continued to ad-j ad-j vertise their wares at reductions. I.H Hunting Down Profiteers. : j WASHINGTON, May 20 Regardless Regard-less of the spreading wave of price re-; (' ductlons, Assistnnt Attorney General l i Garvan announced tonight that the y government's efforts at hunting down profiteering merchants through investi- gation of profits made by individual stores had been extended to more than a score of cities. Tactics employed by the "flying squadron" of tho depart- !r I ment of justice in New York were being be-ing employed, he said, in the larger i cities, from coast to coast While Mr. Garvan declared he was , gratified at the price drop reported In I nearly every community and did not believe tho department "deserved too j much of the credit" ho would not en- I dorse criticism of some merchants Ij that they were actuated by patriotic I motives. Patriotism Talk Pure Buncombe. If "That stuff is the purest buncombe," n Mr. Garvan said. "If they are patrio- tic now, where was their patriotism a year ago when prices .were going up y ' and incidentally, those fellows wero I making more and more money? I Three Reasons For Price Drop, j "There are three things responsible I for this clamor of merchants to get on the band wagon of falling prices: The I women of the country have stopped I buying articles at exorbitant prices; I the market has broken, something which could not be avoided, and a lot I of people saw indictments for profi- teering coming. I say that few, if any, P, of tho merchants wero sure that the department's agents were not at the moment gathering evidence in their I store. They simply saw the light." t Peak KaB Beon PaGsed. ij Mr. Garvan Baid the women and tho press of the country had formed a I, "combination" to break the power of I i the profiteer and believed they had I : succeeded. While the' downward I, ' trend may not continue as rapidly as 1 ; it now appears, Mr. Garvan said he I I believed the peak had been passed and I that "a general recession had set in I ; which might go a long way toward ro- li establishing a normal condition." But, he explained, "normal" must II not bo construed to mean pre-war 1 1' prico levels. |