Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-12-26
HIGH PRICES FOR
THE FISH WASTE
CONTINUED from First pase)

along the New Jersey coast was mad
to New York and followed later By
The Star representative who located
the fish and placing a secret mark OF
several packages, later saw then
brought to this city on a truck Will
Newark dealers sign on the Side
| It didn't take any skilled detectlVf
work to learn the price of the hst
| to the local dealer as salesman
readily quoted the price, but refused
| to talk at that time of selling hsh
to a, proposed competitor of the New
ark dealer until finding out II II
meant opposition.
The price for three kinds Of fish
averaged eight and one-half cents a
pound to the Newark dealer, making
profit for the middleman or trust
agent of six cents a pound, and today
! the people of Newark are paying sew
enteen cents a pound on an average
for 1t, or, when the entrails and head
are removed, thirty-four cents a
pound. AS everybody knows, this Is
equal to the amount paid for the best
beef in our markets and cannot COM
pare with the latter as far as nutri-
ton is concerned. It also accounts
for the small amount of fish con-
sumed in this city. People VIII not
pay such rates for fish as part of their
daily diet and there is absolutely no
reason why they should.
1t costs money to breed cattle, feed
them and watch over them until they
are sold, but not a penny is paid
toward the breeding, feeding or care
of the fish of the sea. They are
trapped, boxed and shipped by the
fishermen, and the only cost is that
of labor ice and shipment. There Is
no question In the minds of some OF
the fishermen but what they would
be better off If 1t was not for the MD
dleman, who is and has always been
responsible for the agitations that
arise against the nets, but the net
men say that they are powerless TO
mend matters. The middlemen can
and do regulate the markets. They
are experts at cornering the market.
They can announce a shortage in fish
with the cold storage plants full, and
get away with it, and then add
few pennies a pound, which increase
does not go to the fishermen, or any
part of 1t, but which goes into the
Golfers of the men that simply handle
the fish, and, since the recent stories
in The Star, call themselves jobbers
and not commission men.
Several of these jobbers when talked
to on the subject Of New York
being -the headquarters of the East
for all New Jersey fish emphatic
ally declared that it made no differ
ence to them, as they also controlled
the fish that were caught in the pound
nets off Rhode Island and other
waters. They decried any attempt to
call in the Federal Government when
The Star representative suggested
that such might be the outcome, and
then he had to listen to some pointed
opinions of this paper, to say nothing
of what was thought of any net man
that would even discuss the situation.
During the conversation several
barrels of butter fish were moved to-
ward a truck, and when The Star
representative ( said that they were
good sellers in certain neighbor-
hood, the information was vouchsafed
that they were only chicken feed, as
the net men only got about a cent and
a half pound for them, but later
they were on sale In this city at IL
cents a pound. While the middle
mans sympathy was with the fisher
men who caught the fish he didn't
hesitate to add 5 cents for his ow-
profit.
The hardened middleman, a spoke in
the wheel that sets the price to every
body, admits that the public would be
better off if he didn't see the fish, and
it will be the earnest endeaVor of The
Star between now and the meeting of
the Legislature in January to prove
that his admission Is correct by a
series of articles gathered by its staff.