Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1911-01-18

and all that sort of thing. One of
these was Chris KautZ of Blue
Grass, who came in with 1000 cases
of comparatively fresh eggs and solo
them all at prices that made it nee
essary for commission houses to reg
lister cut prices in order TO sell off
their stock before it became unsa;i-
able. kautz is a big egg dealer and
potato grower in his section of the
country.
ADMISSION BY WHOLESALERS.
The wholesalers in the tri-cities
admit the reference made herein TO
keen competition between the !
commission houses in this commun-
ity. A prominent local commission
merchant said:
I'VE think the tri-cities one of the
cheapest butter and egg markets in
the United States. Competition
makes it so. l never saw a place
where competition was so keen and
where wholesalers sold on such mar
row margins. The tri-city wholesale
market is constantly two cents low
er on butter and eggs than in the
market in Peoria and the same is
true when Davenport and Des
Moines. Dubuque and Cedar Rapids
are compared. Because of this the
prices charged the consumer by the
retailer should be lower also"
WHOLESALE QUOTATIONS.
Tri-city wholesale prices yesterday
were:
Best grade creSmery butter.
per pound ...........s ~
First class cold storage eggs,
per dozen .... %
Figuring on a basis of these fig
ures il may be seen that local re-
tailers are selling for 30 cents eggs
that they purchase for "a cents. The
wholesaler says the retailer would be
getting fair profit if he declared
reduction TO % Y cents.
A number of local retailers do not
secure their butter by the local COM
mission house competition method.
They sell Fox river, or follow the
trend of the Elgin market. The
wholesalers claim purchase of best
grade creamery butter from the tri-
city commission houses would make
it possible for retailers to give the
consumer at 321a and 50 cents tho
same grade of butter they are now
selling for 30 and 40 cents.
EXPECTS FURTHER DECLINE.
There is a decline in the whole
sale butter market A few days ago
the best grade creamery went for 80
cents. now it is 81 Y. 1t will go still
lower. This is because of the amount
of the product now in the coolers.
I act ,ear tho amount of cold stored
butter was larger than ever before;
this year there is IA per cent gain
over last year Butter and egg mar
kets are controlled by the amounts
of those products in cold storage.
it may be seen that the
butter market, which is we'll sup
Piled. cannot be expected to do any
thing but drop. Egg quotations. on
the other hand. may be expected to
rise even higher than at present.
says the wholesaler.
This wholesaler stated that he
pays no attention to the Elgin butter
market at has been customary for
the EIgin butter market to try TO
dictate butter prices for the whole
United States. but that is the case no
longer" he said.
NEED SAME THING HERE.
II is said the wholesalers of Chi
cago are responsible for the dispatch
printed Monday morning in the Chi
cago Tribune This article pointed
out the fall in wholesale butter and
egg prices and its purpose is said to
have been to wake up the consumer
and make that still small voice" de
mand that the retailers make a re-
Huction in line with that of the
The cry had been that
the retailers maintained a stiff up
per lip" and continued to charge a
steady" price while the wholesal-
ers went to the rocks on low prices.
The local wholesalers think their fig
ures show the consumers in the tri-
cities should wake up and demand
a lower price from their retailers
in constellation of the fact that COM
petition is keeping local wholesale
DrfceS unusually low