The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-12-23
THE FLOUR VAR.
The Local Market i Badly
DemOralized.
A Brief Statement of Exising Condi.
tons.

The flour war which las been in
progress for some time isresulting in
the sale of several time as much
flour by our merchants 8 is usually
the case in the same ZENITH of time
People in the city and in the sur
rounding country are sticking up re-
CARELESS of present NEEDS, and the
market will not recover rom it's pre-
sent demoralized condition for long
time. The cut in prices is undoubt-
edly resulting in the bringing Of far
mers to the city from longer distances
than heretofore.
Two or three weeks ,go, an agent
for Minneapolis flour commission
house came to the city determined to
sell some flour here. As matter OF
courtesy, the millers have refrained
from selling flour in the towns where
their competitors are located, and
Mankato flour has been the only flour
on the Mankato market from period
to which the memory of the old in
habitants runneth not back. Hub
bard's SuperlatiVe and Pillsbury's
Best have been in competition all
over the world for years, however,
except In Minneapolis and Mankato
One flour is as good as the other, as
the same quality of wheat and the
same processes are used. So, when
the flour agent from Minneapolis
stepped off the train he found but
one make Of flour sold here, and that
was Mankato -four.
The day the agent arrived, Manka
to flour was selling in the stores
of Mankato for forty cents
barrel less than Pillsbury's Best was
selling in the stores of Minneapolis.
The merchants Of Mankato were
making twenty cents barrel more
on the Hubbard -four than the mer
chants of Minneapolis were making
on the Pillsbury flour. The big mill
was receiving sixty cents barrel less
for it's flour sold in Mankato than the
Pillsbury mill was receiving for it's
flour sold in Minneapolis. The mer-
chants, with one exception, consider
ed themselves we'll treated, especially
as the big mill had Withdrawn it's
retail delivery wagon from the
streets, allowing the entire local
business to be handled by the mer-
chants.
big mill had withdrawn its retail de-
livery wagon from the streets, allowing
the entire local business to be handled
by the merchants.
The Minneapolis agent visited the
different merchants and tried to pur-
suade them to buy Minneapolis flour of
his firm in carload lots, but his price
WAS eighteen cents a barrel more than
the merchants were paying for the
Hubbard -four Only one merchant
did business with him, but the agent
said to the other merchants:
neapolis -four now, but in
two months from now every one will
be handling it," This was nothing
less than threat to drive our mer-
chants to handle Minneapolis flour by
cutting prices. An endeaVor has
been made to carry this threat out,
and Pillsbury's Best is retailing TO-
day at 80 cents a ffty-pound sack
in Mankato, while it is re-
failing in Minneapolis at 81 10 sack.
The big mill has met each successive
cut and thus enabled the merchants
who have stood by local -four to con
time to handle it, although the mer
chants no longer have a profit. The
third carload of Minneapolis -four is
now being disposed OF in the city.
The price of flour in Mankato be
fore foreign flour came on the market
averaged less than in the surrounding
markets. Now that fight is being
made in its own town, the big mill is
taking care Of it's patrons, both
dealers and consumers.