Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-01-24
CONSUMER GOUGED
HIGH PRICES RESULT OF CON.
SPIRACY OF MANUFACTURERS
Say GrOCcrS OF New York. They Are
Compelled to Sign Contracts That
Increase Prices 20 to 80 per Cent.
Contracts Provide for Boycott II
Retailer Sells Cheaper.


If the tariff is responsible for the
high cost of living why are prices
kept so high, and kept advancing. on
foodstuffs that are not affected by
tho tariff?
Some light on this question is shed
by a number of the wholesale grOc-
ers of New York. They have made
complaints. to the United States at
tOrney, that what amounts to a GRIM
inal conspiracy exists among good
many manufacturers to maintain
high prices to the consumer. By
virtue of this conspiracy, it is charg-
ed, they compel wholesalers to keep
up prices at an eXhorbitant figure.
The New York World has secured
copies of some of the contracts and
affidavits manufacturers have been
compelling wholesale dealers to sign,
the effect of which, the World shows,
has been to increase prices from 20
to 80 per cent to housewives on many
of the staple articles needed in every
kitchen.
Not content says the World,
with receiving their own profit, and
seeing that wholesaler and retailer
receive a profit on the goods hand
led, the manufacturers have been in
sisting on high prices to the cOnsum-
er." Those prices represent profits,
at every stage of the transit of the
article from producer to consumer,
far beyond what wholesalers and re-
tailers, if left to do business accord
ing to business principles, would
dare to exact.
The contracts cited by the World
bind the WHOLESALERS to sell at GER
tain fgure-a figure beyond 81 rea-
son. No orders are filled unless the
contract is signed. And the contract
contains this clause:
I'VE further agree that when re-
quested by the company we will re-
fuse to sell the commodity at any
price, or loan or exchange them for
other goods to any dealer who is sell
ing or has sold for less than the
contract price"
The head of the largest wholesal-
ing house in Boston is quoted in the
World as follows:
1.-The attitude of the manufacturers
is bad We do not try to dictate to
them at what price they shall sell
their foodstuffs and claim they have
no right to enforce prices on us that
affect our dealings with the pubic.
If wholesalers and retailers are salts
fled with a profit that will enable the
public to buy for seven cents an ar
ticle for which they have been COM
PEELED to pay ten cents we believe it
is our right The difference of near
ly 80 per cent is just about the aver
age difference housewives are COM
PEELED to pay on many staple articles
that they could buy cheaper if it were
not for these Objectionable con-
tracts"
What chance has the consumer?
Tariff trusts tax him for the last
penny the tariff enables them to
gouge out of him. And proprietary
concerns tax him by means of con-
tracts which refuse to allow dealers
to handle the article except under
an ironclad agreement to charge an
outrageous profit. And these manu-
facturers are combined in an organi-
Zation known as "The Speciality Man
ufacturers' Association" represent
ing a capitalization of nearly $780,
100000 and when any luckless deal
er violates his contract with any one
of them he has the entire cOmbina-
ton to fight. There is therefore no
competition, and no chance for any,
The combine fixes the price, and the
consumer must pay for it or go with
out. And the man who attempts to
fight foodstuff combine by refus-
ing to eat has heavy odds against
him.
The Sherman act is still on the
statute books. 1t has ben there for
some seventeen years. Under it's pro-
visions all such combinations as this
in restraint of trade are illegal. The
penalty is not only fine but imprison-
ment. 1t is also possible. under the
act, to compel a dissolution of the
trust. This law has been upheld in
the courts. The nation pays presi-
dent and attorney general, a depart
ment of commerce and labor and
hundreds of law officers generous sal
aries for enforcing the law. But they
don't enforce it. They don't want
to ''interfere with prosperity" They
say we must have ''peace." But the
president has told us, himself, that
he has a large fund of sympathy"
with the men in the bread line!
The consuming millions are entitl-l
ed to the kind of government they
vote for And that is the kind they
are getting. World-Herald.
The illness of some of the Elma