The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-08-02

Whiskey Co, Rochester, New York.
the average wholesale price for the
things that you and ! eat or wear in
these same years.
That table set me to thinking how
little we common people know Of this
rate making business, concerning
which there has been such hella.
baloo for the past year or so. The more
studied it the more It strikes me that
to a fellow who is paying market bills
every day, it is a good deal of a tenn
pest in a teapot OF course that cuts
out the question of the principle in.
volved entirely That Is another story
But | find for instance, that while the
price ofwheat had increased about 60
per cent. corn 100 per cent. and oats
80 per cent, thar the actual cost of
transportation Of both wheat and corn
had been reduced. not much. but
enough so that the broker handling a
lot of it, would add quite a bit to his
income He gets a rake off but we
people who eat It, have to pay practl-
cally double for the same stuff that we
had to in 1897 Take the cost of a
barrel of flour for instance. In 81
the railroads charged 27 cents to haul
it 1000 miles-now they charge 80
cents In 81 the average price Of a
barrel Of -four at wholesale was $3.50
today 1t is SlOO That don't line up
exactly with the claim that the in
crease in cost TO the consumer is due
entirely to freight rates. 1t strikes
me that there is a Niger in the wood
pile somewhere. and that the broker
and middleman know just where to
locate him. ! know my loaf of bread
and breakfast rolls cost me just as
much now as they did in 81, and my
wife says the loaf of bread is smaller
than it was then.
/ don't come from Boston. but | like
baked beans In '97 they cost the
dealer through whom l buy them 80
cents a bushel. They cost him s2.1O
barrel now and the freight rate on
these beans from some place out West
where they are raised, is just the same
now as IL was then. AS a consumer
can not see how ! can get any the
worst of it because of these freight
rates, but know | am getting 100 per
cent the worst of it on the pr ce Of my
beans. Perhaps the farmer gets the
benefit, perhaps it is the middleman,
and my grocer tells me there is about
25 per cent. profit on the bean bust.
ness But he certainly can't charge
that increase in price up against
freight rates in face of these official
statistics.
have looked over this whole LIST of
commodities in every fsy use in every
family in the country. and | can't find
where there has been any such in.
crease in freight rates as would war.
rant the raising of the price OF these
commodities to the consumer by 4
cent a pound on anything or cent a
yard on any wearing apparel. Yet
there has been such constant in
crease in the price of these things that
the agerake price Of commodities has
advanced in this period of eight years
SO $40 per cent
Apropos OF this very matter today
newspaper tells me that there has
been cut OF % cents hundred
pounds on the freight rates on sugar
and coffee from New Orleans TO up
per Missouri river points. Now II the
argument that a reduction in freight
rates is for the benefit Of the con
sumner is true, the Western people
ought to be getting sugar and coffee
cheaper than ever. AS a matter of
fact the price of neither OF these com.
modities was reduced; you and / are
no better on for the cut. and every
dollar q that cut was saved to the
sugar and coffee trusts respectively.
When we come down to rock bottom
we will find that even II Roosevelt gets
everything he wants in the way OF leg.
islation, you and are not going to be
one BIT better on than we are at this
blessed moment
Some fellow is bound to get a BIT of
graft out OF II. Of course, else there
would not be all this agitation. To
fellow who looks out Of the fourth
story window OF back fiat and has
TO hustle like thunder TO get money
enough 10 buy beans and bread, with
little meat on the side occasionally.
Roosevelt's reform movement doesn't
seem to appeal very effectively in the
light OF these statistics have referred
a..