Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-11
A General Public Demand for a Good
Loaf at a Reduced Price.
HHEBAKERS MAKESHIFT NOT APPROVED
The Logic of the Figures Demands
a Reduction.
WHAT "STAR" READERS SAY

lS.G-Flour, wholesale. $500; bread, cents.
lSa-Flour, wholesale, $3.50; bread, 8 cents.
The citizens who are demanding a reduc-
ton in the price of bread without conse-
quent lowering of the quality now call at
tention to the fact that the bakers them
selves admitted that under present condi-
tons they might reduce the price of bread
one-half cent a loaf. They argued, however,
that to do this would not benefit the con-
sumner. as the grocer would profit by the
half-penny decrease.
Since the publication in The Star yester-
day of the law bearing upon the weight
of bread and the interview with the Dis
trict officials, in which Ii was intimated that
the law would be construed so that no
baker would be prosecuted for making over
weight bread, the question is being asked
why should not the bakers furnish TWEEN
ty-ounce or twenty-two-ounce loaf for five
cents. They could thus divide with the
people. 1t Is claimed, at least a portion of
the profit which now accrues to them by
the reduced price of flour.
The attempt Of the bakers to evade the
cry for cheaper bread by palming off an
inferior quality at a reduced price has al
ready received the stamp of public disap-
prevail although the new scheme has been
in operation only two days. Investigation
discloSeS the fact that there is COMPARE
lively no sale at all for the new four-cent
loaf. The bakers themselves admitted to-
day thai there is no demand for this quail
Ity of bread.
One explanation of this situation is that
the people who have wanted to buy the
poorer quality of bread have been getting
II heretofore from the smaller bakeries
Consequently, the innovation of the whole
sale bakers was nothing new to them, and
they probably continued to purchase their
four-cent loaf ut the old stand The peo-
pie who bought the new loaf, therefore,
were doubtless those who had previously
been getting the best bread. One days ex-
II. MID n yyL n fnr hnn md
a decided reputation of the shoddy leaf
has been the result.
How Bakers View 1t.
Strange to say. the bakers profess to view
with complacency this public avowal of dis
like for the new scheme. They claim that
1t shows that the people are satisfied with
the bread they are now getting and don't
want a different kind. 1t is probably true that
the people are. as rule, toleraby well
satisfied with the quality of the present
loaf. but there is a general denial of the
claim-set up by the bakers that Washington
gets better bread than other cities. Thou
sands of people will be found here to testify
that the same class of citizens in other
cities, with those who buy the best bread
here. get quality equally as good, and in
many cases better, as well as cheaper.
The point which the citizens maintain,
and which the bakers try to obscure in
tfeir arguments, is that the bakers were
making the same quality of bread three
years ago when -four was $3.50 per barrel
higher than it is now, and wages were the
same. The contention set UP by the bakers
of excessively high wages mas been contro-
Vrted by the Workmen themselves. Mr.
Louis Rudlon. secretary of the Bakers AS
sembly, has fatty contradicted the claims
Of the employers He demonstrated at a
meeting OF the Federation of Labor that in
one of the large bakeries instead of the
wages running from sl3 to $40 per week.
with an average of SIT, as represented by
the employer. the scale was from $40 to SIS
with an average of Si4. The ma jority of the
Journeymen bakers in the city get $I3 per
week. and this is what they received years
ago, before the price of flour began to fall.
The Workmen have not received increases
of wages in proportion to the decline in the
price OF -four.
The journeymen bakers also deny that
Washington Is an exception to other cities
in the respect of possessing a strong bakers
union tending to keep up the scale of wages
j. was shown that there are 1S7 cities in the
Union where bakers labor unions flourish
Every fact brought out in The Star thus
far has tended to prove conclusyely that
the bakers are now making their bread at
cost OF from twenty-five to thirty per cent
cheaper than they could two or three years
ago, and yet they will not sell their bread
at a reduced price.
Mathematics Applied to Bread
To the Editor of The Evening Star:
The question Of the Accent loaf of bread is
matter of very easy solution. The bakers
sell the same kind of bread, made. as
cents, and make one-fifth Of a cent more
than they have been making.
The 5-cent loaf Here it is:
One barrel flour ............... $3.50
Expenses per barrel. ...... 800
1850
or go loaves, at 5 cents
no IL,