As Egyptian cotton now costs eight shillings a pound instead
of me shilling, as it used to do, and as the cost of labour has trebled, the price of sewing-cotton has advanced. No doubt the apparently huge profits made by the firm stagger the public, and the plaints of the hard-pressed housewife are no cause for wonder. Possibly the firm might find it politic in the long run to devote a proportion of profits to keeping prices below a certain level. But the main fact remains that Messrs. Coats are to be heartily commended, instead of being abused, for the foresight and thrift that have enabled them to sell for tenpenoe a reel that no one else could put on the market for leas than a shilling. If this is " profiteering," we should do better with more of it. It is the same story again with the Imperial Tobacco Company, who, though they have made great profits, have, as the Committee of Inquiry report, kept prices comparatively low.
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