The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-08
DOWN GO PRICES.
Financial FURRY Being Felt by
the Dealers.
Nearly All FOodstuffs Are More
or Less Affected.
BIG DROP in CHICKENS
May Now Be Bought for Five
Cents Per Pound.
Flour Goes Down Ten Cents
Per Hundred.
BIG DROP IN CHICKENS

|
! Retail prices of food are going down
to the prices that obtained five years
| ago, is the prediction freely voiced by
| wholesalers and retailers alike in To-
peka.
A little avalanche has already started
| and rumors of a still further far reaching
landslide has reached the ears of the
consumer, who is scarcely disheartened
at the news.
The wholesalers and retailers of To-
peka are exceedingly frank gentlemen,
they said that the poor plug of a con-
sumner has been getting the gaf in
generous fashion. They made this con-
fession without any prompting too. 1t
was something of a revelation to the re-
porter who is consumer. Though the
consumers have been aware generally
that others were -fattening off of them
at their expense still to find man IN
trade confess that this was true sound
ed rather refreshing. Il
Its about time that a tumble was
coming to these prices said one large
wholesaler. There has never" been
time in the history of the country whan
prices were so high. / think that prices
will go back to what they were four
and five years ago. There is no rea-
son why they should be so high ex-
cept an attempt to get all that can be
gotten out of the food products from
the consumer. There is no question
but the consumer has been getting the
worst of it. have been in the bust
ness a long time and don't remember
time when things were so high. 1t Is
right and proper that a reduction should
come. 1 look for prices to stiffen up
little after the present crisis has ter
minated but food products will never
go back to the figures that they were
before this financial panic came upon
u.s."
Butter, eggs and poultry have borne |
the brunt of the decline in prices, meat
has not fallen to any extent as yet with |
the exception of pork Inside of the |
next two weeks, however, meats, 1T is |
freely predicted will have felt the coli |
lapse of the market and will be sold NJ |
considerably less than what they arc |
bringing now. Chickens are selling all
the way from Az to cents pound
cheaper today than four weeks ago. The |
price is five cents per pound. Creamery |
butter that brought 35 cents a pound /
can now be purchased for 30 cents, a |
reduction of four cents per pound in |
the wholesale price and one cent |
pound in the retail.
Fresh country eggs remain fairly firm |
at 25 cents a dozen, but those that are
packed by the commission houses and |
cannot be termed strictly fresh, have
fallen off seven cents dozen.
All Of this is due to the stringency of I
the money market, directly attributa-
BILE to it.
Packing houses which have carried
STOCKS OF poultry, eggs anu pullcI al
not buying up to replace the stocks
which are being daily diminished by |
the steady demand placed upon them In
the usual course of trade. The cessa-
ton of buying is caused by the refusal 7
of the farmer to sell at reduced prices
and the commission man and packer re-
fuses to continue to purchase at the firm
prices that have been because he fore
sees that the market is demoralized and
will not go back to the stiff prices that
prevailed. Reasoning thus he believes
it would be folly to purchase at high
rates what later he will have to sell
on weak market.
Just to illustrate how widespread the
effect of the present condition of the
money market has affected the price of
food products: poultry is being priced
at San Francisco at cents a pound.
Anyone who has had an acquaintance
with conditions near and about San
Francisco will realize what q reduction
this price represents.
Seymour & Co. of Topeka, firm
which does an immense wholesale bus I
mess all over the United States from i
Alaska to New York, in poultry, eggs
ion that 1t would be unnecessary to
ship poultry to the Pacific coast be-
cause poultry was selling there at 5 {
cents. I
The commission men and packers en-
gagged in the poultry, egg and butter {
rade are accustomed to buying their {
;tocks in the summer and fall for the !
winter market. This takes a large <
amount of money, and the sinking In 2
If money into an investment that can c
lot be realized on for from two to six s
months To get the money with which :
o do business the scale necessary, !