The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-27
THIRSTS MAY
 COME HIGHER Secretary of U. s. Brewers Fore casts Rise in Price of Beer, as Cost of Material
 is High

New Haven, Nov. 27.-Hugh F.
 Fox, who is secretary of the. United
 States Brewers association and who
 attended gathering of state brew
 CTS here, on Friday, made @ state
 ment of much interest before he left
 New Haven, in which he forecasts an
 increase shortly in the wholesale
 MT Fox says that while brewers,
 by reason of the increasing price of hops and barley and the lessening
 production, will be obliged to in-
 ultimate consumers 1t is not ex-
 pected, will have to pay any higher
 price for beer which he buys over
 the counter, although there may be
 some slight increase in the cost per case in bottled beers. MT. Fox, in a statement made to
 the brewers, said that conditions were
 without precedent in the history of
 the trade. It confronts the brewers
 the world over. Said he:
 While the consumption of beer
 has been steadily increasing, the pro- duction of barley and hops has been decreasine. so that even under nor
 mai crop conditions the worlds sup ply would amount to little more than actual requirements."
 | MT. Fox said that droughts in Eng land and northern Europe has com t PCtACo A1ASlAoh VI OWOAS SO SCOh tAAS
 crop of our own Pacific coast, and the activity of the barley malt mar ket has driven the price from ar average of 70 cents a bushel to about $1.40, while hops have gone from It
 and 20 cents to about 5O. The labor | On this point MT. Fox said: Tt is | well known that labor Is one of the principal items of expense in the
 manufacture of beer. The result is that it costs fully dollar a barre more to make beer than in previous than the average profit that the brew. CTS have been making. Under these conditions brewers in many import. ant. centers have advanced the price l of beer 50 cents a barrel and such action soon will become general.
 said: "Tne brewers feel that the in tegrity of their product must be | maintained at any cost, and that it is only fairs@that the additional cost
 should be shared by the retailer"
 While the New Haven brewers vii ate possibility of the thirsty one be 1 ing compelled to pay more than five cents for his schooner of beer. they grant that if the conditions whicE are mentioned by MT. Fox continue to prevail this fall, they will bt | IOTCGQ to False LuS QTlCc O1 IAC OCv' craze, and the ultimate consumel cannot fail to be affected. While MT. Fox's statement cannot be taker as indicative of the attitude of Con. necticut brewers in the matter. yet | if the trade throughout the .country should be compelled to raise the price of beer the brewers here would do likewise. The drift of opinion o1 those interviewed on the subject seemed to be that the increase would come within month or two, any way, perhaps sooner.
 Fred Orr, secretary of the con Inecticut Brewers association, said there had been no formal conference of the trade here. At a social meet ing held at the home of one of the
 members of the Connecticut assOcia- ton, here in New Haven, trade con
 ditions in general had been discussed, and Mir. Fox, who was on the way to Boston, had been invited to attend merely as social guest, not in his official capacity. He said 1t IS quite natural, that if the price of raw pro- ducts continues as high as 1t now IS beer throughout the United States will take a rise. Already 1t has been boosted in the west. Under the pres ent conditions, MT. Orr said. the brewers are making nothing. There will be no immediate rise in Connec- ticut, however, and am not so sure | that it will come at all. As an as sociation local brewers have not con- sidered the matter at all"