The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-04-25
TIE "H,eH PRICE. RueABoo

Wholesale grocerS, the best authCrl
ty in the world On the subject, are a
unit in denying that there has been
a substantial advance in grocery prod
ucts-in the so-called cost of living
during the last few years. AS part
of campaign to refute the exaggerat-
ed reports of increases in the cost OF
groceries banquet was recently held
in Chicago, in which many of the large
jobbers of that city and many manu-
facturers participated, and all the adj
dresses that were delivered were OF
the one strain that advances in groc-
cry prices had been exaggerated. A
published report of the affair gives the
following particulars of general in
terest:
MIR. John A. Lee, vice president of
the S. Peterson company, at the
banquet made quite hit by calling on
various authorities on grocery specials
who were at the tables to state what
advance if any had taken place. In
/ this way Henry Knuepfer of Steele
/ Wedeles company stated that the
market price of rice yoday as COM
pared with say fifteen years ago is
quoted at about two-thirds as much
as it was fifteen years ago. Richard
| Walsh of Durand & Kasper company,
an able dried fruit man, testified that
the market price of prunes and raisins
as compared with say fifteen years
ago are worth about two-thirds as
much, and California. raisins are
worth on the market about the same,
but both are greatly improved in
quality.
Mr. Kasper of Durand G Kasper
company was next asked by Mr.. Lee:
What is the present market value of
coffee as compared with that of say
fifteen years ago.
Mr.. Kasper-'No Rio is today
worth about nine cents in Chicago In
February, 1894, it was worth eighteen
and one-quarter cents. That is to say
I it is now worth about half what it was
then
How about green fruit?' some
/ one asked.
Mr.. Lee-Wholesale grocers do not
all handle green fruit, but retail
grocers do. How about oranges and
apples and bananas, Mr. Ericsson (of
c. Jevne & Cor
Mr.. Extraordinarily years ago
nearly all our oranges were imported;
now they are produced in Florida and
California and are much cheaper and
better. Apples are higher because of
! The short crop for two years in success
| sion. Bananas are about half the price
they were them
Mr.. Lee--'How about the price of
sugar, Mr.. Ericson?'
Mr.. Ericson-I sold graduated
sugar thirty years ago at retail for
about thirteen cents per pound, twenty
years ago for about nine cents per
pound, fifteen years ago for about six
cents per pound and today the price
at retail is six cents per pound
There is no need for presenting
to this meeting, continued Mr.. Lee. or
to the people long list of statistics to
show that canned goods are today
/ purchasable at retail and wholesale
much cheaper than ever before in the
history of the world. | have in my
library files of reliable trade papers
going back for thirty years, and com
parison shows that statement tc be
correct. 1t occasions me great regret
TO state that otherwise carefully and
llntelllgentiy conducted papers and
magazines seem for some incompre-
sensible reason to entirely overlook
the development, Importance and mer-
1t OF the great canning industry and to
neglect no opportunity to charge
canned goods with every illness or
death TIE physicians do not know the
cause of-from apoplexy to the sleep
ing sickness. Why this is don't know
do know, however, that the three
thousand canning establishments To-
Gated throughout the central states
are today doing splendid work toward
/ eneapenlng the cost of living. and that
the cheerful countenance of the No. 3
canned tomato now Eliminates nearly
every home in the land, being purchas-
able at retail for from eight and one
third to fifteen cents the can, ar to
quality; and that canned corn and
peas are retailed at from eight and one
third to fifteen cents the can; that
canned salmon is being sold at retail
at from ten to twenty cents for No 1
cans, containing sixteen ounces net OF
fine salmon. and that the finest fruits
the world produces can be bought at
retail from fifteen to twenty-five cents
for No. 21a cans; and that all these
products are absolutely wholesome
and preserved solely by sterilization
without the use of any chemical pre-.
sentative whatever, and that canned
: foods are in many respects the most
economical, palatable. convenient and
!, useful food resources we now have. .
; Interviews with prominent Chicago
authorities not represented at the
} banquet in question confirm the state
: ments made by the speakers quoted
5 above Among others who expressed
$ themselves to the same effect was F
Z. Let's. formerly of Marshalltown
: president of the Western Groce
I company, which operates clever
S wholesale grocery houses in Iowa an,
/ Missouri; he is also president of tn,
National Grocery company, which
q owns fifteen grocery houses in Mich
a gan and Illinois Mr.. Let's is ais
r President of the Booth Fisheries CON
II pany Vice President Chandler G
" Franklin, MacVeagh & Co. agreed wit