The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1911-01-19
MILLIONS OF POUNDS OF BUT
TER, EGGS AND POULTRY
FOR MARKET.
SOME OF 1T is FIVE YEARS OLD
Cold Storage Firms in Chicago Forced
Into a Sacrifice Of
Their Immense
Stocks.

ON@
pounds of cold storage butter, eggs,
and poultry, some Of it five years old,
according to estimates of dealers, are
about to be thrown on the market and
sacrificed at whatever price it will
bring as the result of the collapse
within the last few days of the food
trust" which by steady a%ggressions
has piled prices of provisions up to
their present figures.
Chicago, as the center of the cold
storage industry of the country, is to
be the vortex of the wholesale unload
ing.
Chicago wholesalers admit the bot
tom has fallen out of prices for dairy
products and poultry and that a big
slump is due as soon as the contents
Of the cold storage warehouses car be
put on the market. They say an at
tempt is being made by retailers to
keep prices UP to an abnormal level by
buying small stocks at low figures and
selling them to the public at the old
high levels.
Unload in Large Cities.
Although the collapse of the cor
ner" is likely to be felt most keenly
by the cold storage men of Chicago,
the pinch will be felt in many of the
important shipping centers of the
East and middle West. Chicago, New
York, Philadelphia, Omaha, Kansas
City, st. Louis and Minneapolis are
spoken Of as the points where most of
the unloading probably would be done.
Prices for dairy products, it is said,
will drop to a reasonable figure.
Chickens, turkeys, geese and domestic
fowls of all sorts are expected to be-
come cheap enough for the poor mans
table. The collapse has been due to
natural causes.
The present troubles of the cold
storage people have been brought
about by their own m~anipulations at
the expense Of the public. Five years
ago a large number of them get to-
gether in more or less informal agree.
ments and proceeded to put artificial
prices on butter, eggs, cheese, fowls
and everything else that could be kept
in cold storage. They are able to do
this by the simple method of putting
goods in storage instead of delivering
them Immediately to the market.
Their combined storage facilities gave
them a position of supremacy which
not only enabled them to limit the
supply to the public and thus keep
prices up, but control nearly absolute
ly the prices paid to producers. Thus,
while producers were getting little
enough for their butter, Eggs and
poultry, the public was paying extor-
tionate prices.
Burned Own Bridges.
In putting up prices to the high fig
ures attained during the last two
years, the cold storage men cut the
ground from under their own feet.
People who could not afford to pay 80
and 40 cents a dozen for eggs stopped
eating them. Families hat found but
ter too expensive ate oleomargarine.
The result was that after this had
gone on for a year or two the whole
salers found themselves with full
warehouses and no demand.
General uneasiness was followed by
a downward trend in prices. Then
came a more pronounced drop. Now
the wholesalers find themselves under
the imperative necessity of unloading
or going out of business.
Just how much food is in storage
in and around Chicago there is no
means of as%certaining. Only the
wholesalers know, and they will not
tell. A few days ago one firm con-
trolling 80 warehouses admitted it had
in storage 1900, 900 pounds Of butter
that must be got rid Of before May 1
at the latest. 1t cost from 81 to 20
cents a pound to store this butter and
it will cost 2 or 3 cents more a pound
to market 1t. The normal price for
f%irst-class butter at the present time is
given by the wholesalers themselves
at about Is cents a pound.
Butter Mart Hit Hard.
The situation in the butter market
is more aggravated than that in the
egg, cheese and poultry markets, for
the reason that the high prices opened
a wide market for the oleomargarine
makers.
Even with the tax Of 10 cents a
pound which the government demands,
the oleo people were able to sell their
output at a good profit.
CHILDREN DIE IN HOUSE FIRE.