El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-12-16

! for several years past The public
! grumbled as it paid, without lowering
! in the least the cost of eggs or of any
| other foOdstuff. But the accustomed
! flight skyward, mOnotonOus by now,
/ has been varied by an egg boycott in
| New York, Philadelphia, Washington,
| Chicago, Kansas City, Detroit and
other cities.
The commotion stirred up by the Ma
/ tiOnal Anti Food Trust league with its
10000 members, and enterprising
housewives organizations in the vari-
Gus cities, also has resulted IN the in
| PRODUCTION of an egg trust bill' in
congress by representative Mcclellan,
| of Tennessee, the beginning of a for
! nal investigation by the federal de-
partment OF justice, and the bringing
Of an indictment by federal attorneys
against the Chicago Butter and Egg
board on the charge of violation Of
the Sherman antitrust act. The con-
troVerSy has served the further pur-
pose of prOdding producers, cOnsum-
ers, government experts and econo-
mists in general to fresh consideration
of ways and means to reduce the high
cost of eggs and other articles of pop
ular consumption.
Claim Widespread Egg Trust.
The cry of the egg boycott leaders
is that there is gigantic egg trust,
manipulated throughout the great pro-
ducing and distributing centers by the
cold storage interests, or, that at any
rate, such a combination exists and
operates in each large city. The reason
for the public outcry this year, mark
| ing a distinct advance over the inef-
| fectual grumbling of consumers who
were not organized in previous years,
| is the strong popular suspicion that
| the alleged egg trust, not content with
exacting for cold storage eggs a price
within three, five or seven cents Of
that demanded for strictly fresh eggs,
! has been palming off, as strictly fresh
eggs, those that obviously were cold
storage holdings, in some instances
odOriferous and musty in their obvious
ness.
Public Gets At the Facts.
The public is scrutinizing all factors
concerned in the selling of eggs. They
are the producers. the cold storage
men, the commission merchants, the
wholesalers and the retail grocers. The
producers, who are individual farmers,
as a rule, may be eliminated at a
glance in the search for the sOcalled
egg trust The same is true, with few
exceptions, of the retail grOcers, as
they seldom can afford to own storage
houses or to tie up large sums in stOr-
age rental This leaves the storage
house owners, the wholesale merchants
and the commission merchants, whose
interests are identical, in the case at
issue, to answer public suspicion.
They admit, Of course, that they store
millions and millions of eggs for their
own personal profit, but they deny the
existence of either small local cOmbi-
nations or of a nationwide egg trust.
Just before Thanksgiving day nearly
5OO.00O,000 eggs were in cold storage
in New York city, and a report of the
Massachusetts state board of health
showed that the number held up in
Boston on October 1 was 1S1, 200,22S, of
which only 37,7SO.200 had been stored
within three months. Of the whole. an
amount described as 1910 pounds, was
condemned as unfit for food. The boy
cotters Of eggs regard the Boston
figures as typical of the whole cOun-
try.
The socaHed cold storage interests
contend that the steady rise in the
price of eggs throughout recent years
IS due to natural conditions over
which no human being has control, and
they point to the farm itself, where 80
percent Of the eggs are produced.
First, the uninterrupted drift of pop
ulation to urban centers, and the met
amorphosis Of many rural site into
an urban one, with the natural with
drawal Of land available for farming,
dalrying and memories, operates au-
tomatically to push Up the cost of eggs
and all other necessities Of life.
Farmers Eat More Eggs Now.
Another factor is the fact that the
farmer and his family eat more of
their own products. Twenty and 80
years ago the farmer got eight and
ten cents dozen for his eggs and took
IN exchange expensive necessities such
as coffee, tea and sugar, cloth. med
icines and nicknacks. Nowadays the
farmer can afford to eat a dozen OF
eggs and still get more for his other
dozen than his father did for three
Also. the price Of grain to feed the
chickens has doubled in ten years.
Further, the average city dwelIer in
slStS upon having eggs regardless Of
price, and if fresh eggs ultimately 90
to one dollar a dozen a large per-
centage of the American urban pop
ulation would still demand omelets and
cakes and pies.
This leads inevitably to the cold
storage factor. The practice Of stor-
ing eggs by the millions in cold stor-
age warehouses is general among
wholesale houses and commits siOn mer-
chants. and has been so for over a
decade. 1t is claimed that their meth
DDS operate to eQualize the price OF
eggs rather than to increase it. Pur-
chaSeS are made in carload lots in the
months of heaviest production, which
are April, May and June. The average
wholesale price ranges from 16 to Is
cents. These heavy purchases tie up
large sums of interest bearing money
for five or six months, plus the storage
charge Of about ten cents per case per
month.
The moulting period OF the hens
dragS along through late summer and
early fall. During this time they lay
very few eggs. When mOulting is over
cold weather is beginning to set in,
and the monthly egg laying average
Is much lower than it is in the spring
and summer. The supply of fresh eggs
falls oft but the public demand does
not. The price goes up, and finally
doubles. Then the cold storage product
goes upon the market in its various
grades, ranging from firsts, all through
the grades to technically known as
seconds, thirds. culls dirties and
cracks, with prices accordingly. First
grade storage eggs bring almost as
much as dotthe strictly fresh variety.
Arguments of Cold Storage Men.
Now. the advocates of cold storage
point out, if the heavy production of
April, May and June were not con-
served, the price would be exceedingly
low during that short period. It might
drop to ten cents 2 dozen in the cities
and next to nothing in the country
Eggs would become drug on the mar
ket. and the individual farmer and
small poultry raiser would suffer. In
the late summer and early fall the
production would drop somewhat but
it would be sufficient to supply the
ordinary demands of the market with
a noticeable Tightening which would
cause a natural rise in price. both
wholesale and retail With the adj
vent of the mOulting season would
come a sharp slump in production,
prices jumping in proportion. Even
at that the supply would be limited,
for a man cannot sell what he has
not got. It is claimed that a dozen
eggs would cost from 81 to $3.50 retail
throughout the winter under such con-
ditions of unequal distribution. This
would work a great hardship on the