The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1910-06-02
BUTTER TRUST
FIGHTS MEAT
ELGIN BROKERS BOOST
PRICES AND CONSUM-
ERS PAY BILLS.
Natural Laws Dehed and
Changed to Help Great
Combinations.

=
LOT butter have advanced this
week. There has been no
drought or epidemic among cat
tie. The farmer is now in the
midst OF the grass season when
feeding is cheap and abundant.
Milk and butter should also be
cheap and abundant, and if there
were no interference with the
law OF supply and demand the
price OF butter would be going
down instead of going up. But
there IS no great mystery about
the situation. Mr.. Z. L. Nc
Adam, Chicago butter broker.
in burst of indiscretion lets the
cat out OF the bag. Says Mr.. Nc
Adams in AM interview in a Chi
cago paper:
I'VE have enough power and
a sufficient number of votes on
the Elgin Butter Board to shove
the price OF butter to 40 cents
a pound before the last dav of
tne, and if this does not force
packers to break the contracts.
they have on hand we will
boost the price to 80 cents with
In the next FIVE weeks.
So it is quite clear why but
ter IS advancing in price ~ lie
hance OF natura. law. Tie FL
gin Butter Board and the Chita.
go PACKERS are in a fgli over
the control OF tire butter marked.
and IN the meantime the consum-
er may get what satisfaction he
can out of the situation, AMI II
he doesn't like it he can 90 to
odd Nick. The packers were
formerly wont to buy their
spring supplies OF butter from
the Elgin brokers. This year
the packers decided to save a
|half-cent pound commission and
went out into the open market
and bought their own butter.
This made the E,lgin brokers an
CRY. for they see in the action
OF the packers an entering wedge
which might mean the annihila-
ton of the Butter Trust. Wen
run the Butter Trust and You
run the Meat Trust" is virtual
ly the message sent by the but
ter brokers to the packers, with
the threat that if the packers
can't see it in that way, the,
price OF butter will be run up
70 80 cents a pound and the
packers will be made 10 sweat
IN making future purchases. But
OF course no one thinks OF the
consumer, who isn't interested in
the least as to the merits OF the
controversy between the butter
men and the packers. He can
sweat to a frazle" as far as the
IOutter men care.
| The Elgin Butter Board, an
institution with ramihcations all
over the nation, is an obstrusive
but exceedingly powerful asso-
citation OF gentlmen who meet
every week day morning in a
dingy, smoky and cigar-strewn
room in the commission house
district OF Chicago. There is a
little room off the big room. a
committee adjourns each morn
ing and evening to the small
room. Then after ten or fifteen
minutes OF patriotic communion.
the committee energies and a
benevolent old gentleman with
white whiSkers softly marks up
the butter prices for the day.
The prices are swiftly sent to all
parts OF the country by tele-
graph and dealers everywhere are
guided thereby. It's all settled.
The committee has issued its fiat
and there is nothing more to be
said. 1t is very pleasant to be
on the inside of the butter board
yansactions.-Suppose several OF
1.-THE es!timable gentlemen compos-
ing the board should need a lit
tie Oberammergua spending
money. They simply buy up
land hold a few thousand pounds
OF butter, thereby causing a
scarcity. They then mark up
the price and unload. Can YOU
blame the butter brokers for get
ting alarmed when the packers
show a desire to go into bust
ness fer themselves? Really it
isn't nice for one trust to invade
the preserves OF another. Lord
Rothschild said the secret OF
speculation was ito buy at the
bottom and sell at the top" 1t
isn't speculation with the but
ter brokers-it's a cinch.