Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-11-10
WHY FOOD PRICE Is HIGH
AN EXCESS OF SUPPLY PREVENTED
BY COLD STORAGE PROCESSES.

Immense Stores of Commodities Held
for Times of Scarcity Prices Kept
| Almost Even the Year Round - Law of
Supply and demand Seems Overturned.
A great deal is being said and writ
! ten 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 various
| places. recent article that excited
wide attention pointed out that while
| the increase of wages was about %
| percent, the increase in the cost of liv-
| ing was about ga percent over that of
several years ago and the tendency
was upward. Without going into the
details of the subject it may be said
in genaral way tnat the law of sup
| ply and demand is today no longer to
| be regarded as an arbitrary settler
OF vexed questions. In word as re-
| CARDS the domestic commodities the
statement that "the increase of de-
| mand 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 today" said wholesale dealer
! recently, "and never again will luxu-
| ries 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 today. Why? Be-
cause the excess is Immediately COB
| bled up for cold ctorage to supply the
| early demand of future season. Thus
| prices vary very little throughout 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 today with such gusto may
be last years fish, the eggs last years
| lay, the beef, SQUAD, 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 better can afford to
| purchase luXuries or delicacies than ne
could in times of scarcity"
Time was when prices solely de-
pended upon supply and demand;
plenty of wheat meant cheap bread
and draught meant no grazing, hence
no sheep, and consequently high prices
for mutton chops. The application of
the principles of thermo-dynamics to
the business of preserving food prod
ucts has changed all that. The ad-
vent of cold storage has served in a
great degree to nullify the effects of
the once inexorable law of supply and
demand. AS hunger suffers no no
ticeable fluctuations, the demand is
also an established quantity, and per-
feet equilibrium is thereby established
| by which almost immutable prices in
| all the food products of the world, in
all seasons, will eventually be Sc
cured.
| Whereas in former years, for in
stance, too bountiful supply of eggs
caused the price of that necessity to
drop to within the reach of the very
poorest class, today there is no longer
any possibility of recurrence of the
conditions which made this reduction
in price possible. There are 100000
600 eggs in cold storage at present
awaiting the pleasure of the public.
| While in former years these would
have been almost given away to save
them from going bad, today the
science of refrigeration permits of
their being kept fresh" for months
and even years. The eggs produced
in the United States during 1899 num-
bered 1898, ,S19, ,1S6 dozens, represent
ing value of $144,2S6, 15S, so that the
importance of that one item in the
food list is not to be lightly thought of.
But while cold storage precludes
over-supply and thereby excessive low
prices, it must be conceded that it also
prevents famines in one or another of
the food necessities. Eggs have fire.
quently been cornered in years when
the supply was small and prices raised
as high as the public would stand
them Today there is the unknown
quantity of eggs in cold storage to
contend with and the yield from poul-
try yards is no longer a criterion. Eggs
will never again be sold at ten cents
dozen, but if they ever sell as forty
cents dozen, as they have in the past,
it will be because the supply of the
whole world has been cornered and
not because of short supply.
The possibility Of an international
egg trust is too far remote to be dis
cussed. for another effect of the devel-
opment OF the cold storage business
has been to obliterate distance. For
number of years France has been
supplying the British market with
fresh eggs. The egg exports from
Cherbourg to the United Kingdom in
1900 aggregated 373 tons, but at pres
ent the refrigerating plants with which
modern ships are equipped permit the
distant colonies of Great Britain to