Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-22
CONSUMERS MAY Benefit
Decline Expected to Follow Disrup-
tion of Price-Fixing Body.
CHICAGO TO CONTROL MARKET
Factiona1 Fight Among the Barons"
Promises Relief for the Bur-
dened Householder.

Cheer up. consumers of butter, for
there is hope ahead!
The butter barons of Elgin, ILL.,, who
for many years have controlled the price
of the great combined necessity and
luxury of life, are fighting among them
selves The Elgin Board of Trade-known
the country over as the butter board
is split into factions. Its very existence
is threatened. The consumer is due to
get his due.
Dispatches received by The Star from
Chicago this morning should make pleas
ant reading for the burdened household
er. They indicate that the butter board
is split into warning factions-the pro-
ducers against the distributers-and that
no sign of a reconciliation is in sight. The
demand for changes in the methods OF
the butter board. coming as direct re-
suit of the investigation of Elgin meth
ods last summer by the Senate committee
on the high cost of living, has been re-
fused by the producers. But the dis
tributers most of them Chicago men,,
and, for the time being, reformers. are
insiStent.
May Result in Dissolution.
The probable result will be, the Chicago
dispatches indicate and local butter
wholesalers verify, that the butter barons
will be shorn of their power over prices,
the butter board dissolved and Elgin, ILL.,,
returned to its proper place on the map
Of national economics.
Then, with the distributors and not the
producers in control of the situation, with
Chicago and not Elgin as the fixing point
of prices to the wholesaler, and, hence
to the consumer, and with the law of
supply and demand returned to it's proper
place as the controlling factor in the but
ter chance, all things indicate. to secure
the product all the year round at the
fair and logical selling price.
The row in the Elgin board of trade
was precipitated yesterday when Presi-
dent John Newman arbitrarily. it is
claimed. declared out of order set of
resolutions presented by J. p. Younger
of Chicago providing for a number of
sweeping reforms.
At present the board elects five directors
who select the president and other OFF,
GERS. Younger wants the present secre-
tary, treasurer and six directors selected
by direct vote.
Five Men Now Fix Price.
At present the president of the board,
who is i'm fact the uncrowned king of the
butter market, arbitrarily appoints five
members who constitute the quotation
committee" of the board. Those five men
tell every householder in the land. on
certain day each week, what he shall pay
for butter for the ensuing seven days.
Younger proposes to have the president of
the board appoint this quotation commit
tee subject to the approval of the
board
That's what the row is about. That's
what in all probability, will result in the
dissolution of the board That's what, it
now appears, would help the butter con-
sumner a little bit
Elgin. once the center of the greatest
butter producing section in the United
States no longer enjoys that distinction
in fact. although it still does in name.
But the dairymen in all that great graz
ing section around Elgin and Whereabouts
are no longer turning their milk into
butter. They are selling the raw product
in Chicago at fancy prices And they are
satisfied.
What dairyman will make butter when
he can get from % to 2S cents a gallon
for his milk The price of milk Is going
UP from one end of the country to the
other. More stringent health laws regu-
lating the conduct of dairies and the
handling and distribution of milk, with
the consequent increased expense for ma
chinery and all attendant necessities, are
in a measure responsible. But while the
increased cost Of guaranteed pure milk is
not generally regretted, when the increase
in the health ratio is at the same time
considered, yet this advance has had its
effect everywhere, but particularly in the
vicinity of the once great butter center OF
Elgin which has the vast market of Chi
cago offering fancy prices for its raw
product
Enlarging the Zone of Control.
So the Chicago men on the EIgin board
of trade who are butter distributors
plan to move the price fixing machinery
from the small town to the great city.
Besides. as they point out. 1t is an estab-
lished fact that all OF Wisconsin and a
portion of Minnesota and Nebraska, now
make up the territory which may fairly
be called the center of butter production
And this being the case. why in the
world. they ask, should the price be con-
trolled from Elgin?
1t has long been known to the butter
trade. local butter wholesalers say, that
the fixing of butter prices at Elgin is a
joke. Not joke to the wholesaler, who
must pay the price fixed by the butter
board. Not joke to the retailer who
must pay the wholesaler that fixed price
plus freight. plus profit. Not joke to the
consumer, who must pay the boards
price. plus all Incidental charges plus
profit twice taken. But a joke so far
as the relation of cause to effect and
the adjustment of demand to supply is
concerned.
Listen! Suppose you. Mr.. Householder,
have been buying butter from your re-
taller on the basis of wholesale price
of 81 cents. You've got an idea that this
is high enough and you're hoping for
no upward slant of prices--if anything
for a reduction.
But you've forgotten Elgin, its butter
barons and its butter board.
How the Price Is Fixed.
| The board meets. A member gets up.
He may be little producer He may
| have no more than twelve tubs of butter
to his name But he offers the twelve
tubs at "a cents Another member-eOod-