Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-09-28
VITAL WASHINGTON NEWS.
BY CLYDE H. TAvENNER.
Especial washignton correspondent of thi
newspaper)

| Especial Washignton correspondent of this
newspaper.l
WASHINGTON, Sept. 25.-" The
farmers of Pennsylvania sold
forty-eight million dollars worth
of potatoes in New York City last
year, but they were not worth
forty-eight millions to the Penn
sylvania farmers. That is what
the people of New York City paid |
for them. The farmers got three
and three quarter millions"
This statement was made by
members of the Pennsylvania |
grange who recently went to New
York City to investigate market
conditions.
These grangers discovered that
cold storage Achicken, weighing
a pound and half, sold for a dol
lar in Madison avenue. For that
same kind of a chicken the farm
ers received twelve and half
cents a pound. The farmers paid
vendor five cents for an apple,
and told him they would let him
have barrel of apples for two
dollars. Eggs for which the farm
ers received twenty-five cents
brought forty-five cents when sold
to the consumer.
This vast difference between
what the farmers get and what the
consumers pay represents the un-
earned profits that flow into the
Golfers of the railroads, the ex-
press companies, and the food
trusts. The railroads get theirs by
charging excessive rates in order
to pay dividends on watered stock.
The express companies get theirs
by reason of the fact that one
supine Republican administration
after another has refused to sub
NIT them to decent regulation,
and the food trusts get theirs by
maintaining unnecessary storage
houses through which they mani
pulate the supply, and thus create
artificial shortages,
Nearly all the perishable food
supplies which go to the cities are
carried by the express companies,
or by the equally monopolistic re-
frigerator lines of the food trusts,
thus making the consumer pay a |
double haulage bill. AS soon as
they reach the city they are turned
over to the food trusts and placed |
in storage, where they are kept
until q "shortage" is created.
Then up 60 prices.
eff all the eggs now held in cold
storage in New York City were
thrown on the market tomorrow
the price would tumble two thirds"
said one of the grangers who in
vestigated the situation.
What is the remedy?
Democratic members of Con-
gress believe that one remedy lies
in strengthening the interstate
commerce laws to enable the gov
ernment to-reach and jail-some
of the owners of the criminal food
trusts and transportation monopo-
lies.
It is significant that the farmers,
for the first time in years, are in
vestigating the high price question.
They know that while their own
products are bringing more than
they formerly did, there still is a
tremendous gap between what
they get and what the consumer
pays. They propose to find out
where the trouble lies, and it is
more than certain that their in
vestigation will lead them straight
to the headquarters OF the unpun-
|ished trust magnates who control
the railroads, the express comp
anies, and the food monopolies.
NO WAY TO STOP THIS TRUST.
For years and years the sugar
trust is known to have stolen from
the government. By means of
false weights and tricky springs
to cheat the scales, and by bribery
of government officials, this ra-
pacious trust diverted into its own
Golfers millions of dollars that
should have gone to the govern
ment in revenue. The trust was
caught redhanded in it's thievery,
yet nobody was punished; no.
body went to Jail.
The government finally put
stop to the revenue stealing. The
doctored springs were taken away
and the corrupt customs collectors
were discharged. This forced the
trust to adopt the new methods in
order to maintain its inflated divi-
dends, SO recently it sent out
wall about a ''short crop" and now
sugar prices are almost as high as
they were during the civil war.
The sugar trust is determined to
get ''it's."
WHERE THE MONEY GOES.
What becomes of all the money
the big trusts extort annually from
the American people? Everybody
knows they exact millions in tri-
butte each year, and a stranger
from Mars, were he to read the
newspapers Of this country, would
wonder the trusts could get strong
boxes big enough to store away
all the money they take from the
people.
Recently an enterprising statisti-
clan figured it out that American
heiresses-the majority Of whom
are the daughters of American
trust magnates permit their
broken down titled foreign hus-
bands to enjoy the income from
one and three quarter millions of
dollars
| This money, if spent by parents
in America by whom it is earned,
would educate approximately q