Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-12-16
lHE PRICE OF EGGS.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

A sharp ana steady rise IN the price OF
eggs throughout the fall and winter
months has come as regularly as the
seasons themselves for several years
past The public grumbled as il paid.
without lowering In the least the cost OF
eggs or Of any other foodstuff. But
the accustomed flight skyward. monoto-
nous by now, has been varied by an eg !
boycott Ia New York, Philadelphia,
Washington. Chicago Kansas City. De-
troit and other cities. The commotion
stirred up by the National Ant-Food
Trust League with its 10000 members.
and enterprising housewives organiza-
lions in the various cities. also has re-
suited in the introduction Of an "egg
trust bill" in Congress by Representative
Mcclellan of Tennessee, the beginning Of
formal investigation by the federal De-
partnent 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 controversy has
served the further purpose Of prodd ng
producers. consumers. government ex-
perts and economists In general to fresh
consideration of ways and means to re-
cles OF popular consumption.
The cry of the egg boycott leaders is
that there is u gigantic egg trust, manip-
ulated throughout the great producing
and distributing centers by the cold stor-
age interests. or that. at any rate. such a
combination exists and operates in each
large city. The reason for the public
outcry this year. marking a distinct ad-
vance over the Intellectual 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 stora pe
eggs price within 8. 5 or cents OF that
demanded for strictly fresh eggs, has
been palHing of. as strictly fresh eggs.
those that obviously were cold storage
holdingsin some instances odoriferous
and musty Ia their obviousness.
The public is scrutinizing all factors
concerned In the selling of eggs. They
are the producers,
Farmers Not q Part the cold storage
Of the Egg Trust. siom the commits
the wholesalers and the retail grocers
The producers. who are individual farm
ers, as rule. may be eliminated at a
glance in the search for the so-called egg
trust. The same is true with few ex-
ceptions, OF the retail grocers, as thew
seldom can afford to own storage houses
or to tie UP large sums In storage rental.
This leaves the storage house owners,
the wholesale merchants and the com.
mission 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
tions or of a nationwide egg trust. Just
before Thanksgiving day nearly OOOo, QUO
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 October 1 was
lS1, 200. 224 Of which only S7,76O, 200 had
been stored within three months. or the
whole, an amount described as 1910
pounds WAS condemned az unfit for food.
The boycotters Of eggs regard the Boston
figures as typical OF the whole country.
The so-calied cold-storage interests con-
tend 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 30 per cent of the eggs
are produced. First. the uninterrupted
drift OF population to urban centers and
the metamorphosis of many q rural stte
into an urban one, with the natural With
drawai OF land available for farming,
dairying ana hennerieA operates auto