Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-01-12
FISH FOOD COST
75PER CENT. HIGHER
Continued from First Page.)


the New York Fish and Game Com
mission. of which this particular
dealer was a member. but the latte
soon discovered that the young mar
was bright at figures and he was in
vited to come down to this meeting
where preceptor introduced him anf
remarked. "go ahead" and tell III
something. The first question fret
by the young man was. Do ann OF
you gentlemen know how much Il
costs you to handle each pound OF
fish from the time YOU buy it unit
it is handed to the consumer They
all answered NO. as they had figured
only from month to month. showing
where they had paid out so much
money and had received so much il
return, the difference being theil
profits.
In a few minutes this young mar
opened the eyes of these people an6
he was hired Immediately. The first
step he took was to plant buyers
all along the coast with their first
buyer as a captain and then they be-
gan to control the situation from all
angles. Taking the catch of weak
fish as an example which showed
great profits at six cents a pound
and greater. of course. at eight, this
young man got the cordage trust
interested and they began putting
fishermen in the business by furnish
ing them with nets and all necessary
paraphernalia, taking a mortgage on
it in return and binding the fisherman
to a contract to sell his catch to the
buyers of the young fish trust.
1t worked very well. and in this
manner the cordage trust got hold
fichf ind @f
sey that it never let 60 and which
is still strongly at work today trying
to stop this fight of the Evening Star.
The first year that the cordage people
appeared in the game there was a
run of weakfish on our coast that
was phenomenal. Every fishing sta
ton was crowded with barrels of the
sparkling beauties ready for ship
ment to the market. 1t looked like a
Godsend to the people. as at that
time beef had jumped up three cents
a pound and the big catch of weak
fish was heralded throughout the
country as the sign that the price of
beef would be forced back to where
it had been. but in some mysterious
manner tons and tons of that i'm
mense catch went bad. No one could
explain how it happened. but rail-
road cars got lost somewhere be-
tween the shipping point and the
headquarters where the bright young
man presides and they were not
found until after the fish had rotted.
No one had any idea that such a
thing could have happened under in
structions. but such was the fact.
That immense catch of weakfish
went wrong and the little that did
reach the markets went up in price
to ten cents a pound, or an advance
of two cents to the consumer, and
still the net men nor the hand-line
fishermen received penny more for
their share of the labor.
Then came the final blow to the
consumer. The cordage trust had
mortgages, suggested by the young
representative of the fast growing
fish trust, and these two got together
and conceived the idea that it would
be a wise move to compel the fisher
men to ship all their weakfish direct
to New York and distribute 1t from
them to the retail dealers of the
country. It looked good even to the
press at that time, and We find where
some of them even commended the
move, never tumbling that they were
decoyed into it by this now important
spoke in the trust wheel who had
acted as press agent.
So good did the scheme look that
when it was made public in New Jer-
sey 1t received the approval Of
State official connected with the COM