Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-02
FISH TRUST FIGHT
P|DLY SPREADS

(centinued from First Paee.)
necessary to say that the people know
better. It Is not necessary to say
that any housewife will make an af-
1davit that the statement is wrong
when the bluetish price statement was
shown to chef in this city, he said
that the newspaper probably mis-
quoted the Fulton Market statement,
that it would look more like the truth
70 say that few years ago bluefsh
could be bought for and cents
pound, but today it is 20 cents.
Fish Trust Talk.
! A statement Is also made that there
Is no such thing as a fish trust
IL was so amusing that the Evening
Star Immediately started to confirm
what was already known.
A representative visited Fulton
Market In New York city. At the
mere mention there of a fish trust
everybody went up in the air" and
SAID that such things as trusts were
only known in Wall Street and that
the word trust applied to the hand
ling of money as in banking insti-
tuition. But the Fulton Market men
did not deny that there was a COM
bination formed among them, with
representatives in large Eastern cities
who might possibly have a hand in
shaping the fishing industries of the
Atlantic Coast and controlling the
market. With this admission also
went their compliments on the per-
Ison or persons who might attempt to
interfere with their plans. After an
other social hour the gathering was
ready to defy an investigation by the
Federal authorities.
The working out Of the system is a
fine proposition. and when the details
were explained to The Star repre-
entatives, who were assumed to be
nen about to engage in the fish bust
hess, and the information volunteered
hat the wholesale commission mer-
chants of several large cities, among
them Newark, had copied after their
plan 1t was plainly seen that no trust
company had anything on this or
ganization termed a combination. To
say that they fix the prices for the
week is putting it mildly but their
strong point is on the credit system.
Let a dealer fall behind in pay
ments for over one week and he can
not get pound of fish without a
mortgage on his team or business
Let the owner of a pound net sell
fish to an outside party and he would
be cut off from the New York mar
kets so quick it would make his head
swim The officers and members of
the combination would laugh at
his attempts TO get back in the fold.
AS an illustration of the workings
of the combination, there is one con-
crete example that took place just
before the storm of Christmas night
wrecked some of the pound nets off
the coast
Big Catch Is Refused.
A heavy catch of whiting was re-
ported. The telegraph wires were
l.. ...s~
one man put it, 1t looked as though
the big haul had wandered into the
nets to provide cheap food for the
poor of the cities that could not afford
poultry or beef But the big catch
was turned down by the middlemen,
DR. combination or trust, as you care
to call it. Not one pound in a thou
sand was rushed to the markets al
though the fish train came up the
line with fish from the ice plants
Thousands of pounds of fresh fish
were turned away in this manner that
could have been retailed on the fish
stands at cents pound with a
reasonable margin of profit to the
retailer and the netowner,
+ What was the result of the refusal
of the dealers to take the catch of
whiting? The fish persisted in the
nets during the storm that visited
the coast on Christmas night. This
is not fiction, but plain, cold facts.
1t shows. not only the lack of Christ
mas spirit among the middlemen, but
a case of hardened heart of the worst
kind.
1t might be asked, why should such
a thing be- The answer is simply
this: If the dealers broke rule and
allowed whiting to be retailed at such
low figure for the holiday. they
would not be able to find an excuse
for boosting it a few days later, so
1t was better to say nothing and hold
the market short.
The answer to the statement made
I by one of the middlemen Of Fulton
Market in answer to Congressman
Taylor's statement to the secretary
pr agriculture. that they did not try
DO shorten the market supply. can
pc put to u test Immediately by fol-
owing the advice of hand-line
fisherman, who has fished off the Jer-
Bey coast for living ever since 1890
This is to take the fifty-cdd-pound
lets between Sandy Hook and Barne-
yat Inlet and let them trap their fill
be ling, whiting and bake. and then
ee that every pound of them goes
into the markets of the State for sale
to the people. 1t is estimated that
ten ton of fish will be caught every
day that the weather conditions war
rant and that is every day that there
is an off-shore wind or from any
other quarter than the east. With
his quantity of fish on sale the peo
Pile would discard the daily use of
meat.
Profit for All.
This fish would bring the netman
his "a to cents a pound, and there
would be no expense but the freight,
s the weather is cold enough for
hipment without ice, and this would
How the retail dealer a profit of "a
8 cents a pound and still keep the
rice within or cents pound to
he consumer.
h There is nothing in the way of such
plan, according to the handiine fish
erman, but the middleman of New
York, and he raises the question as
to which is the greatest-the Legis-
lature of New Jersey or the fish COM
bination of Fulton Market, with its
branches in all large cities of the
East,
SAYS Jersey Is Behind the