The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1913-02-26

on the cattle he dresses, the big pack
ers would be making 100000, 900 a
year, or more than a billion dollars
every decade, and, of course, no one
claims that they have made that
much.
After the beef is dressed, there is
the shipping charge for transportation
and icing, which adds about another
cent to the cost. Then it goes to the
retail butcher. If the beef has cost
the packer six cents on the hoof it
will cost the retail butcher around ten
cents a pound wholesale. A cent a
pound more on the hoof will increase
the price of the dressed beef about a
cent and a half a pound. Out; of he
12-cent a pound carcass the retailer
will probably cut the consumers roast
at something under 80 cents.
Inquiry among Retailers shows that
one of their main expenses is that of
delivery. A manager of a big chain
of stores, which sell for cash and leave
the matter of delivery to the con-
sumer, declares that the reason their
prices are about 90 per cent under
those of the other grocers is because
they effect that saving on delivery
alone. For steak that an ordinary
grocer sells at % cents a pound, these
stores charge 20 cents. From this it
will be seen that the delivery wagon
probably figures more than middle
mems profits in the sales of produce
to the Based on the as
sumption that the farm produce sold
in this country does represent 1 3,O0O,-
600, 900 to the consumer, and the fur
Their assumption of this manager that
the retailers delivery wagons are re-
sponsiblc for 20 per cent of the con-
sumer's grocery bill, that scandalous
institution, the delivery wagon, costs
the American consumer annually
enough to build the Panama canal,
deepen the Mississippi river, construct
leave enough to pay for the mighticst
fleet of dreadnoughts that ever cut the
waves of any sea.
Nor are the g~rocerNmcn and the
other middlemen, who buy and sell
farm produce, the only middlemen who
are charged with having a hand. either
in the shape of profits or of necessary
expenses in the things the consumer
has to buy. The American Wooden
and Cotton Reporter puts the high
price of clothing upon the men who
handle it from the time it leaves the
producing manufacturer until it
reaches the wearing consumer. 1t
states that a certain New England
manufactures, whose brand of under
wear is known throughout the coun-
tr,t--, n rny nd uliah ,ntoilS of from,
$1.5O to $500 the garment makes
only 80 cents a dozen when he sells
them. 1t is claimed that it costs $4.20
a dozen to manufacture garments that
retail for so cents, and that the man
ufacturer is satisfied with as much
profit on a half dozen garments as
the retailer is on a single suit.
The claim is made by this journal
that dress goods for which a woman
pay the retailer $3.50 a yard, cost
him $1.5O, and that the suit she buys
for $25, costs him $13.75. A 40-inch
lawn, retailing for 80 cents, was sold
by the manufacturer for 16 IL cents.
IN imported linen Fabric which cost
the retailer IS cents, the Reporter as
scrts, is being sold for 80 cents a
/ Sdi'. ~ 10 tlnlillcd lilul llSultS ~
these without end might be produced,
and that they prove beyond question
that the manufacturer has no hand
in the high price era that exists to-
day. ,
B. +. Yoakum, the big Western rail-
road president, pins the blame for
high prices onto the middleman in al
most every field. He says it is a
matter of the high cost of selling"
and cites some striking figures to
prove it, among them the financial
history of a carload of Watermelons
raised in Oklahoma. The farmer who
loaded the car said that the melons
We're sold by him at five cents each,
or $3.50 for the carload of 1850 mel
ons. 1t cost the buyer SIS to haul
these melons 600 miles to st. Paul.
The retail price of those melons in st.
Paul ranged around 60 cents each, 50
that the carload would bring about
$500 at consumers prices. OF course,
it is reasonable to suppose that the
case cited by Mr.. Yoakum is an I'M
usual one, but tho fact does remain
that there are practically three or four
people who must levy their living and
their profits on the goods and produce
that pass through their hands while
travelling from the producer to the
consumer.
With farm produce the commission
merchant says he is not to blame, be-
cause his commission is five cents on
the dollar, as a rule, and that it is nc
more today than it was before the
present era Of high prices. The whole
salcr says he is not the culprit, fol
his margin is very small on each item
ne handles, and that he can make
more money in the end by makine
large sales on short margins than by
making small sales on long margins
The retailer says that he is not the