Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-08
It Remains the Same Despite the
Cheapness of Flour.
WHAT THE BAKERS SAY ABOUT IT
The Consumer Not Benefited by
the Fall in the Price of Wheat.
THE COST OF ABOR

the retail price of bakers bread in this city
continues to be the same for a number of
years past, although the wholesale price of
| flour has been steadily falling for three
years, and has now reached a figure never
| SO low in the history of the trade. The
| families that purchase -four and bake their
own bread have benefited by the decline in
the wholesale price of flour. but large
proportion of the bread-eating population
have received no advantage whatever from
the general lowering of prices.
1t is said to be noteworthy that a great
quantity of bakers bread is sold in Wash
ington, said to be due to the fact that there
| are many families whose plans for
housekeeping are such as to prevent their
| baking their own bread, while others are
| compelled to buy their bread by the loaf,
not being able to afford the luxury of buy
| ing flour by the quantity. The main reason
| for the large consumption of bakers bread
| Is principally due, perhaps, to the manner
! of keeping house on a small scale, what is
| known as light housekeeping, where the
ella borate and laboriouS work of baking
cannot be undertaken.
Thus it is that while the decline In the
wholesale price of -four has caused a lower
ing OF the retail price of the staple by the
barrel or large sack, giving the houSekeeper
who buys by the barrel the benefit to that
extent. the poor man and the man conduct
ing his household Upon a limited scale have
|
| bread that they did when -four was very
| much higher.
The Fall in Prices.
Star reporter, who undertook an in
vestigation of this condition of affairs in
tehalf Of those whose complaints were
brought to The Star office, ascertaned that
there is undoubtedly a basis for them. 1t
is learned that flour has certainly fallen.
though the figures and statements of the
amount of the decline vary. One prom
inent flour dealer told The Star reporter
that flour had fallen 40 per cent within
three years and from 10 to ~ per cent
within the past twelve months.
He said that there is Il difference of 81 a
parrei In the price of the same flour today
from what 1t was one year ago. One baker
whose business is very large said his flour
Is ~ per cent cheaper this year than 1t was
last year. Another baker who buys his
Hour in carload lots or larger quantities
said that Hour which cost him ST a barrel
three years ago can be bought for s.. 80 to-
day.
All the bakers agree that there has been
| no reduction in the price of standard quali-
ties of bread within that time. The stand
ard bread WHOLESALERS for cents loaf and
retaiis for cents. Some bread can be
bought cheaper than this, but it is of a
poor quality. and made only for a certain
class, not being used to any extent. All
the bakers give the same reason for not
reducing the price of bread, which was that
the wages of workmen are so high, having
constantly gone up in recent years, that
they could not AFFORD to cut the price Of
bread. They said that they are not making
any more profit by reason of the decline in
the price of flour, but that the difference
goes into the pockets Of the workingmen on
account of increased wages.
The Question of Wages.
1t Is simply question Of wages and a
quality of bread" said one of the most
prominent bakers in the city to a Star re-
porter today. Il will take up the matter
OF wages first. 1t must be explained that
In Washington the bakers belong to a
| strong labor organization and have a strong
| Union of their own. This does not exist in
any other large city that 1 know, all the
bakers unions having gone to pieces The
result OF the strength of the union here is
the stinening of wages, and the constant
increase OF wages, which is further aided Iy
the almost total exclusion of bakers from
otner cities. 1t has come to pass that an
outside baker cannot get work in WASH
lrgton. although there are not enough first
class men here to do the work demanded
of them.
Wages are higher here than in any other
city know; the apprentice boy in my shop
gets $l3 a week, the lowest wages paid and
they range from that up to SO a week the
average wages being sl7 per week. These
are for the bakers. There is another class
of employees that belong to the union, name
ly, the drivers of the delivery wagons who
make from SO to $40 per week
In Baltimore the wages are from So to
IS, with board; in Buffalo and PHILADELPHIA
from IS to $l3 Moreover, the Buffalo bak-
ers work longer hours and handle thirty
barrels of flour week. while our bakers
don average over hfteen barrels per week
Our men work ten hours a day, against
thirteen and fourteen hours in other cities
1t Will be seen that the bakers In Washing
ton are In much better shape than their
brethren in any other city They have
reached condition nv
lzation and by system of exclusion Of
| outside laborers
Il will illustrate the latter phase of their
organization. Last spring II was necessary
for me to have several more bakers. L pos
| itively could not get them in this city
wanted frst-clasS men, and there were none
out OF employment. l went to New York
and told a friend there to send me several
frst-class, sober workmen. 1 explained
that they would have to pay s25 to join the
| labor union when they got here. My friend
sent me two men. l advanced them the
money to pay the fee to join the union
they made application and then went to
work. They were excellent workmen they
were satisfied with their hours and wages
ana yet the union refused to take those
men In. after months of elaboration, ard IL
was only last night that had to turn them
| away from the shop, laying them off, be-
cause the union won't take them in and
will not permit them to work without join
ing. 1 am short-handed today, and will
| simply have to bake less bread. Now II /
want to get two men to fill their places 1
have got to go to some other baker and
offer two of his workmen more wages than
he Is paying them In order to get them
away from him.
Now for the quality of bread. The
Washington public is getting a loaf Of
! bread today such as bakers never thought
of giving few years ago. Then the bread
was composed solely of -four, water, salt
and yeast; now We also put In milk lard
and sugar.
washington bakers, IS rule, use the
very best quality IF -four that can be
bought, while in other cities they use a
great deal Of what is called paker's No l.
or red dog fiouI, which is fit for nothing
but the poorer qualities of rye bread. /
bake about 1900 loaves of bread a day
In the last quarter the milk bill was Sl,216
lard 500, sugar S260, all of which adds to
the richness and quality of the bread
THE law REQUIRES us to sell loaf weigh
ing one pound. One barrel of flour will
make go loavcs. If I reduce the price Of
my bread / cent leaf 1t would make a
loss Of $3.50 on the barrel. and by actual
computation the bread would cost me at
the end of each month 1920 more than I
would get for ii, representing a cash loss
of that amount. There is only one thing
about t-this loss would have to be made
up either by reducing the wages OF the
workmen OF lowering the quality OF the