The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-09-01
COM MISS ON ROW
NOTES FROM THE MARKET

from the producer to the consumer"
scheme work out when the producer
doesn't show up?
To show how quickly prices adjust
themselves to conditions and how in
evitable the law of supply and demand
is on a public market or anywhere
else, a dealer drove into the market
about nine o'clock in the morning with
load of green corn. He commenced
selling it at Is cents a dozen, an I'M
heard of price which brought the
crowd flocking. In five minutes he
decided he could get twenty cents just
as we'll as fifteen, and in another five
minutes the price was twenty-five and
before long the price reached thirty
cents a dozen. That is faster than
prices go up on Western avenue.
Certain Seattle daily newspapers,
chagrined that their pet scheme which
they have fostered for public market,
has not proved the success that they
anticipated, have very illogically and
falsely blamed the failure of the
scheme on the Western avenue COM
mission merchants. They stated that
the commission men intercepted far
mers on the road and brought their
produce up before they could get to
market; that they sent hired teams to
the market to undersell the farmers
produce in order to discourage their
patronage of it. These allegations are
absurd on the face of them. In the
first place there were virtually no
farmers at the market on the opening
day for the other wagons to undersell.
In the second place, the majority of
dealers at the market were well-known
peddlers and hucksters about town who
have been running their own individual
business for years and were selling
on their own hook at the market. In
the third place these dealers did not
cut prices, but on the other hand were
asking prices as great, if not greater,
than those asked by one or two truck
gardeners who were present, and get
ting these prices from the buyers. j.
B. Powles states that any allegations
made by the newspapers to the effect
that the commission men were opposed
to the public market and were working
against it in any way, either in the
manipulation of receipts, by using their
business influence or by lending their
presence in the market square, are alb
solutely false, and he stands ready to
back this statement. He says that
there is no class of men who would be
so generally benefited by public
market as will the commission mer-
chants
This is the time when the last ship
ments of farm produce to Alaska are
being prepared by the Western avenue
dealers who handle northern ship
ments. In regard to the date of the
last shipments which can be made to
the north, H. S. Emerson states: Ship
ments to the Fairbanks and the Tan
ana district, going by way OF st.
Michaels and the river route, must
leave Seattle not later than August
10Th. Through bills of lading on ship
ments to the Tanana, via the White
Pass & Yukon railroad, can be made
as late as September LIST. Last through
bills of lading on shipments to Dawson
are accepted not later than September
18th, and to Nome not later than Octo-
Der 1st." Mr.. Emerson states that
while the early trade with the north
in fruit and farm produce was light,
yet the business has increased as the
season progressed, and the late ship
ments are heavier than ever before.
Seattle Chamber of Commerce Report
on Western Avenue.
BY the adoption of an exhaustive re-
port by it's committee on mercantile
affairs, the Seattle Chamber of Com
merce discredited the charges of a
combination of commission men to
limit the supply and control the price
of farm produce on Western avenue,
to the detriment both of producer and
consumer. The report, drawn up by
Chairman J. s. Goldsmith, of the COM