The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-09-02

A great uedi IS Delng SalQ ana written just now about the general unrest in the labor world, the signs of which are taken to be the numerous strikes and troubles reported from va rious places Especially is the great coal strike held to mark the depth of that unrest, and columns have been written of late comparing the increase of wages and the price of commodities. A recent article that excited wide at- tention pointed out that while the in- crease of wages was about 28 per cent, the increase in the cost of living was 34 per cent. over that of several years ago and the tendency was upward. Without going into the details of the subject it may be said in a general way that the law of supply and demand is to-day no longer to be regarded as an arbitrary settler of vexed questions. In a word as regards the domestic commo- dities the statement that "the increase of demand though in the beginning it may sometimes raise the price of goods never fails to lower it in the long run" hardly holds true now; certainly not to the degree it did when Adam Smith lived and wrote.
 There is no law of supply and de- mand to-day" said a wholesale dealer recently, land never again will luXuries be within the reach of those in poor or moderate circumstances as they used to be in the season when the market was glutted. Markets do not get glutted to- day. Why? Because the excess is in- mediately gobbled up for cold storage to supply the early demand of a future season. Thus prices vary very little throughAut the year and last seasons food becomes delicacy when it is placed upon your plate in advance of it's arrival from the farm, or the field, or the sea. The fish you eat to-day with such gusto may be last years fish, the eggs last years lay, the beef squab, chicken all twelve months old Thus there is no such excess as will make prices go down; no such scarcity as would make prices go up. In times of great production the poor man no bet < ter can afford to purchase luxuries or delicacies than he could in times of scarcity
 Time was when prices solely depend ed upon supply and demand; plenty of wheat meant cheap bread, and drouth meant no grazing, hence no sheep, and consequently high prices for mutton chops. The application of the princi- pIes of tIermo- -dynamics to the busi- ness of preserving food products has changed all that. The advent of cold storage has served in great degree to nullify the effects of tahe once inevora- ble law of supply and demand. As hunger suffers no noticeable fluctua- tions, the demand is also an established quantity, and perfect equilibrium is thereby established by which almost inlmutable prices in all the food pro- ducts of the world in all seasons will eventually be secured.
 Whereas, in former years, for in- stance, too bountiful supply of eggs caused the price of that necessity to sse drop to within the reach of the very poorest class, to-day there is no longer any possibility of a recurrence of the conditions which made this reduction in price possible. There are one hundred million eggs in cold storage at present awaiting the pleasure of the public. While in former years these would have
 
 from going bad, to-day the science of refrigeration permits of them being kept fresh" for months and even years. The eggs poduced in the United States during 1899 numbered 1,293, ,S19, 1S6 dozen, representing value of $144,- 286, 15S so that the importance of that one item in the food list is not to be lightly thought of.
 But while cold storage precudes over supply and thereby excessive low N prices, it must be conceded that it also prevents famines in one or another of the food necessities Eggs have fre- quently been cornered in years when the supply was smal and prices raised as high as the pubic woud stand them. To-day, there is the unknown quantity of eggs in cold storage to contend with and the yield from the poultry yards is no onger criterion. Eggs will never again be sold at ten cents a dozen, but If they ever sell at forty cents a dozen, as they have in the past, it will be be- cause the supply of the whole world has been cornered and not because of a short supply.
 The possibility of an international egg trust is too far remote to be discussed, for another effect of the development of the cold storage business has been to obliterate distance. For a number of years France has been supplying the British market with fresh eggs. The egg export from Cherbourg to the Uni ted Kingdom in 1900 aggregated three hundred and seventy-eight tons, but at present the refrigerating plants with which modern ships are equipped per- init the distant colonies of Geat Britain to compete with her next-door neigh Dors. It is only question of time when New Zealand. Australia and Egypt will supplant France as the egg supplier-inordinary to the British pub lie. Already last year the expots of eggs to Geat Britain through Cher bourg had fallen off fifty-seven tons, while the exports from Egypt had in- creased by forty-three tons. The mod ern methods of refrigeating now permit New South Wales to land it's egg pro- ducts in London in f1rst-class condition, even after travelling half way around the world. For this reason any attempt to establish a fictitious price on eggs in New York would be followed by ship