The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-06-25
(By United Press Associations

(By United Press ASSOciationS) Washington, June, 25-At last tn, cry of the housewife has been heard
 The government has come to her re | lief and has taken steps to see tha | the prices of groceries shall be low. cred.
 There has been much talk about the higher cost of living, and no one has appreciated 1t more than the womer
 who have noticed the Tightening o1 their pocketbooks and of their market baskets at the same time.
 It is all very well for the men that
 the government should pursue the To. bacco Trust, the Standard Oil, the Plate Glass, the Plumbers and all the other trusts but these things interest
 the women but little, when they see
 the prices of practically everything
 they want on their breakfast and din-
 her tables steadily climbing higher
 and getting out of reach.
 So now the Southern Grocery Trust
 has been brought to account and it's
 officers are to be forced to explain
 the reason for the high prices which
 1t is alleged their combination has
 maintained. It is believed that the
 effect of the action will be felt by
 other sections and will result in re-
 stricting the activity of other similar
 organizations.
 dissolve the Association itself and de-
 clare it illegal, the government asks
 that every one of it's 800 members or
 more be forever prohibited from en-
 ter1ng into any agreement among
 themselves as to the prices at which
 they should sell the necessities of life.
 The officers of the Association who
 <ay, f< 1n hv.o,1 fr,fn ,<f at
 ingham, Alabama, are:
 President Jos. H. McLaurin of Flor
 ida: Vice President L. M. Hooper, of Alabama; Second Vice President F. B.
 Hashagen, of North Carolina, Treasur-
 CT c. W. Bartleson, of Florida, and Secretary Moore of Alabama, together with nine others constituting the ad- cery concerns in Birmingham are also to be hauled to the bar.
 They are alleged to be wholesale grocers dealing in interstate commerce in sugar, flour, cakes and crackers, soap and washing powders, cereals, soda and baking powders, salt, milk products, canned goods, sirups and charged with being engaged in a con- spiracy to maintain prices. It is al- legged that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been distributed to mem- bers of the Association by its officers as a reward of maintaining prices and other sums have been assessed as fines and penalties for underselling the price list.
 The Association is a close corpor- ation and no outsider could get in without the consent of the other mem bers.
 An annual report on wholesale prices just published by the Department of Commerce and Labor, shows that wholesale prices in 1909, as measured by the 257 commodities, advanced 3 per cent over the wholesale prices in 1908, but with this advance, they were still 2.3 per cent below the average of 1907, the year of highest prices in the period of 1890 to 1909. Yet the highest record for single month is 20 years was made last March. et
 Wholesale prices in 1909 were 14:5 per cent higher than in 1900; Al per cent higher than in 1897, the year of he lowest prices in the period from 1890 to 1909; F per cent higher than in -890: and 26.5 per cent higher than he average price for the ten years 1890 to 1900.
 The highest point reached in 1907 was in October, from which month here was general decline until Aug lst, 1908. Beginning with September | -908. there was a monthly increase, without break up to March 1910, | when the prices ranged 7.5 per cent | higher than in March 1909; 10.2 per cent | higher than in August 1908; Ell per | .ent higher than the average yearly ,rice of 1900; 49.2 per cent higher than | he average yearly price of 1900; 49.2 l per cent higher than the average year. | y price of 1897 and 33.S per cent high | 1T than the average price for the ten | vears 1890 to 1899.
 Among the products showing mark | d increases in price in 1909 were | choice to extra steers" which increas- | d A per cent from February to No- | 'ember; cotton, which advanced 59.2 | Ter cent from January to December; leavy hogs, 36.7 per cent from Janu- ny to December: hops 20.4 per cent reamery butter 36.9 per cent from fay to December; dairy butter 52.9 er cent from March to December; winter wheat flour, 41.2 per cent from anuary to June: lard 37.3 per cent rom February to December; short lear bacon, 46 per cent from Febru- ry to December; milk S6.9 per cent ent from June to October: and rub- CT 71.s per cent from February to 'ctober.
 When President Taft with the gold en of Postmaster General Hitchcock nd the long eagle quill of Delegate .ndrews of New Mexico wrote ''Wil- am H. Taft upon the statehood ills he put at an end a qua0ter cen ury of worry for the holders of the onds of Pima County Arizona and yound up one of the most complicat- d financial romances that has pug led legislators here for many a day.
 Back in the early days of Arizona, he residents of Pima County were mbitious to have a railroad con- tructed from Tucson, the county seat ) Globe, Arizona, the locality of a reat mining field. Accordingly the territorial Legislature passed in 1882
 mandamus act requiring Pima 'ounty to issue county bonds to be for. railroad bonds in the obstruction of this road.
 According to the statements of the Ion. Mark Smith, former delegate rom Arizona, who appeared before ne Senate Committee on Territories uring the recent statehood hearings, he site for this railroad was graded rith a blow for 10 miles out of Tus- on. Ties were laid at intervals of