Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-19
THE QUESTION: OF BREAD
More About the Bakers and their Singular
Mathematics
One Who Thinks the T-ublic Doesn't
Cnre-The Price 'Fl0ur and the
Cost of Making bread.


to comprehend the figures OF the boss bak-
ers who insist that bread cannot be sold
to the public any cheaper now than when
-four cost nearly twice as much believe
that the figures were intended to be in
comprehensive. Some of the bakers as
sumo that the general public is Indifferent
to the matter Of a cent or SO in the price
Of a loaf Of bread or an ounce or two in
weight. One of the bakers with whom a
Star reporter conversed this afternoon told
him that the public would soon expect the
bakers to make bread with slices of ham in
1t, If what he called this silly agitation on
the subject of cheaper bread was kept up.
People are not half so much interested in
the matter of heavier loaves and lighter
prices as you are trying to make everybody
believe" he said. People don't care what
a loaf weighs A loaf is a loaf to them.
For instance, 1 sell loaf with eighteen
ounces in it, and other bakers are doing
big business and giving but sixteen ounces,
and the bread Is no better than mine, and in
q number of cases 1t is. poorer. People
never stop to ask their grocer how much
the loaf weighs. / don't believe they care,
or, at least, they would not have thought
anything about 1t If you hadn't started up
prices of -four, labor and bread. We don't
want to sell bread any cheaper than we are
doing, and we don't intend to. How do you
think you can change our minds and pur-
poses and intentions by continually writ
ing your nonsense about how much the
people are in need Of cheaper bread? They
can't have it. 1 say We are making no
more out of the business than We are en-
titled to by reason of the capital invested
in it, the brains we have to use, the men
We have to employ, the wages we have to
pay. and the coal, wood, flour. lard, milk
and water that we have to use. You can
figure all yoH choose about how much it
costs to make a loaf of bread, how much
profit there is in it, and how much it can
be bought for in China of some other out
of-the-way place, but it's none of your in
fernai business. 1t makes me tired when a
newspaper reporter comes around poking
his nose into the private concerns of other
people and shouting out all over the town
that the dear people are hungering for
bread and want to buy it cheaper than
they do, and that we, the hard-worked and
oppressed bakers, are getting fabulousy fat
off the enorn GUS and unjust profits which
We are wringing from them by reason of
extravagant prices for bread and light
weight. No, sir, you cannot ask me any
more questions about wages and the num-
Der of loaves that one man will put to-
gether in a day. We are not giving away
any of the secrets of our business. No, sir
l do not intend to put any more flour in my
bread and shall not reduce the price per
loaf. will not, no. never. Get out"
The Bakers and Their Mathematics.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
The Evening Star caunot be too highly
commended for the fight it, has made for
the people against the '.bakers combine"
but the half has not yet been tod of the
shameful extortion practic ed by the Wash
ington city bakers on their customers.
These bakers say they cannot afford to
lower the price of bread. DO facts bear
them out in this statement? They sold
bread at the same price now'cnarged when
flour sold at $3.50 per barrel, and when
flour sold at 81 per barrel, and when it
sold as high as $3.50 per barrel. Is it not
the most absurd thing in the world to
claim, as these bakers do, that, with a re-
ductton of more than hah from the for
mer prices of flour. they cannot afford to
MAKE it reduction In the price OF bread?
in the cost of -four the bakers. as they
allege, cannot afford to reduce their charges
for bread, might they NOT with as much
show of reason, If a further reduction COW
erlnS the other half should be made, claim
that they must still adhere to the old-time
price?
In other words, give them the flour and
the people of Washington must continue to
pay five cents per loaf for bread.
In their efforts to justify themselves in
their unreasonable charges for bread these
bakers have made numerous Measurements
one of which is that the flour they now
use costs them $3.50 to 81 per barrel. The
writer Of this can show homemade ioaves
of bread, sWeeter, nicer and more delicious
than the average quality of the bread from
the W aSnlnStOn bakeries, made or Hour
manufactured in the District of Columbia,
and purchased at retail for $500 per bar
rel, and which can doubtless be bought by
the 80 or 100 barrels at $40 per barrel.
From barrel of this flour nearer 275
than 80 leaves of bread can be made
From this it is seen that the flour for
one-pound loaf of bread costs just about
one cent. An additional half cent will
cover cost of manufacturing and delivering
Two cents per loaf at wholesale will give
the bakers fair profit, . IL cents a large
profit, and 3 cents fully double the actual
profit.
If the foregoing be not true pray how Is
1t that flour is shipped across the ocean
from America, then transported inland to
the towns of Great Britain, adding a cost
of dollar barrel to the prices here, and
the bread made from this ftour sold for .
cents per pound? The claim of the Wash
ington bakers that they make finer bread
than Is made In the other cities of this
country is also wide of the fact as can be
atteSted by hundreds who know whereof
they testify. The assertion that the Wash
ington bakers use none but high grades of
flour is without foundation in fact.
The foreman of bakery here for long
period informs the writer that the estab-
lishment in which he was employed uni
formly used two grades of -four, one good
and the other of a Low, cheap quality. Mix
ing these, and adding alum to give the loaf
wilderness. he put his bread on the market
as of superior quality.
Not content with the outrageously ex-
cessive charges for bread prior to the
present agitation of prices thousands of
loaves were placed on the market which
were short of the weight prescribed by law.
The writer has frequently. when buying
bread for his own use, weighed loaves that
were one, two and much as three ounces
under weight. If the bakers persist in
their extortionate prices for bread, may
not long-suffering people appeal to Con-
gress at It's next session for relief from the
exactions Of these men by The enactment
or a law regulating the prices of bread with
reference to the prices of flour, which was
the case long ago? But the people, to a
large extent, have a remedy for these
bakers extortons. 1t Is to make their
own bread. A good cook can make better
bread than bakers furnish, and at a total
cost of cents or less. ;Why 50 many
housekeepers. with all the % appliances at
hand for making delicious homemade
bread, and who can do 1t at a cost of 2
cents per loaf, will pay the baker cents
for an inferior quality is an .unsolved mys-
terry. s..... r.
Unpaid Doctors Bills.
In the matter of the estate of the lat Dr