The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-18
REASONS FOR HIGH
 COST OF LIVING Mayor Shank Says Middle
 man Responsible CROPS MEAN NOTHING Consumers and Producers Ought to Get Closer Together-This Is Solution of Living Problem.
 History of His Campaign
CROPS MEAN NOTHING

Lewis Shank, mayor of Indianapolis, who has gained fame by his personally con- ducted cut price sales of potatoes, poul- try. mince meat and walnuts in the pub lie market at Indianapolis as a war on the middle man." delivered an address here today before the New York Agrieul- tura society. The only solution of the high cost of living problem, he said, was to bring together the producer and the consumer He had satisfied himself and the people of Indianapolis that his "mu- nicipa purchase and sales agent idea when put into operation, was effective in reducing artificially inflated prices of foodstuffs.
 Middlemen Responsible
 "Under modern commercial methods and the development of several grades of middlemen." said MT. Shank, the law of supply and demand, so far as the con sumer is concerned, has become more or less a dead letter. The consumer in large cities finds that large crops of fruits and vegetables mean little or nothing to him. He used to cheer up when he read of big apple crops, big peach crops, big potato or cabbage crops, for he knew these products would be cheap. Now news of this kind is received with derision.
 s'What difference does it make if tho cranberry crop is large? Doesn't the price always climb from $10 to SIP a barrel or 10 to b cents a quart by the time the | Thanksgiving Day demand comes? Do overloaded peach trees in Georgia, Flor ida or Michigan mean that the working man is going to have cheap iellies and | jams all the next winter? Not if the market handlers of crops know it. Though the growers may accept a low price for the peach rather than have them rot on the ground the various middlemen see to it that they get the advantage of cheap p1 oduction and not the consumer, If the ! law of supply and demand gets into op- eration. you see 1t works almost exclu- sively to the benefit of the middlemen.
 Growers Protect Themselves
 "The growers in some states found this out some time ago and have taken pro- tective measures as far as they can. by organizing associations, pooling their crops and making the middemen pay l them reasonable prices, if they hope to continue in business as distributors. But the consumers are only now organizing to look after their own interests in the food supply question. They have for years seen the distIibutive forces putting their selling agents in the large cities to see that the supplies Of foodstuffs do not overtop the demand and thus lower prices It is the business of these selling | t. tt,, f,,,tt ,... they grow rather than that they may crowd the markets and threaten the de- | thronement of high prices.
 According to reports that have In them the evidences of truth, lf for example, the selling agent in Indianapolis for the orange crop sees, after ordering ship ments to that city, that the demand has fallen off at at prevailing prices, leaving more stock on hand than he had ex- peeted. he sees to it that the cars on their way from Florida or California to Indianapolis are not allowed to get there and glut the market, bgt are switched off to other markets where there is no danger of them causing reduction of the price.
 "It Is said that the grape, lemon, strawberry, banana. pineapple, melon and other fruits and vegetable crops, anything. fin fact, grown outside of the state in which one lives. is mar keted In this way by the various dis tributing agencies and add greatly to the cost of living. We even have trouble fin getting the products of our own states at reasonable prices be- cause of the tribute first dema anded of us consumers by the middlemen.
 Permanent Plan Needed
 "To my mind, the greatest gift that