An instructive portent in some'of the shop-windows of London now
is the efflorescence of S.O.S. signals to the public that tailoring has become cheaper. We know not how many windows of tailors' shops have burst into challenges to Mr. Mallaby- Dooley that they can make clothes as well and as cheaply as he can. Tailoring, at all events in the shops which produce for the many, is the one retail trade in which there is a visible slump in prices. We imagine that Mr. Mallaby-Deeley, who is an able man of business, did not go into this trade for his health; we should -pay him a poor compliment if 'we did not assume that he is out to make many thousands of pounds. But the net result for the public will be 'that he will have suc- ceeded in causing people to get much cheaper clothes. The old law of supply and demand beats the regulating Act of Par- liament every time and makes a fool of it. High prices are a signal to the trader ; " Here's your opportunity. Good money can be made in this trade because there is scarcity." The shrewd trader rushes in and .by producing heavily ultimately causes prices to fall.
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