The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-11-23
GERMANS PROTEST
PRICE OF FOOD
Middleman Is Blamed and Sometimes
There Is Complaint--Speculation, Not
Shortage of Food, Is Cause of the
Increase in Cost to the Public.

Berlin, Nov. 23.--From every part oi
Germany come in increasing number com
plants of the ever mounting cost of liv'
ing especially OF eating and COUPLED
with them more and more frequently the
lcnargt that the middleman is to blame
and that speculation, not shortage of
food, is responsible fer lacking up prices
to an unprecedented height.
! Scarcely day goes by but the food
question is aired in at least one OF the
newspapers. The middieman rcfutes the
charge that he is at fault quite as regu-
larly as it is made. with the result, as
The Tageblatt said, that the more car
nestly the true explanation is sought,
the more muddled becomes the whole sub
Iject.
Butter has been the latest commodity
to 90 up. 1t had reached three-mark-a-
pound US cents figure and was advanc-
ing daily when the authorities stepped
in and anchored the prise at two marks,
so pfennigs, where ii stili remains. There
is, further, a strong agitation for the
government seizure of all butter, Just
as grain and other things have been
seized and then dealt out equally and
Systematically. One reason for this agi-
tation is seen in south Germany, where
physician reports that the largest cream
cry in his district is paying the farm
ers at the rate of LAO marks for l0l
liters of milk that are necessary for one
pound of butter and is selling the prod
uct wholesale at 2.30 in Saxony; conse-
quently the creamery refused to sell any
Of its butter at honld. bu. for months
has been sending all 1t could make to the
north An additional profit came from
the butter. milk.
October is the rabbit season in Ger
many, and it had been anticipated this
year particularly, as che people were in
need OF this usually inexpensive, yet ap
oetiging, food. Wien the sea son opened,
lowever. il was found tnat rabbits were
carce instead Of plentiful, and were to
,e had only at prohibitive prices
ng from $50 TO sever. marks 1917 TO
il.75). II was charged that the middle
nen bad been holding back the supply
With intent to increase the prices, but
hat charge is met by the assertion that
he number Of hunters this year Is small
r than ever before and the number of
abbts shot is correspondingly smaller.
Ience, by the law Of supply and demand,
rices have gone up. II IS also pointed
ut that ammunition, guns and equip
ient for the hunt are dearer than ever.
The recent experience OF Berlin bank
r indicates that there may be some
ruth in the charges against the middle {
len. He purchased 4 pullet in a Berlin
anne store at 3.T5 marks Il pound, bis
rotest being met with the assertion
lat the farmers country price was so
gh that X was .sap1ssible to retail the
rd for less. Yet the next day he found
: was able to buy similar fowl in a !,
lburb for 100 He took both birds to !
le chef of big Berlin restaurant and J,
as assured that in weight, quality and !
cry other particular the two were iden. !
cal. :
In the mining country Of western Ger
any the four largest associations Of y
iners, numbering thousands Of mem :
rs, have felt il necessary to petition - =
e imperial government 10 make il inn
ssible for the weIl-to.do to buy up az =
prices all tiie available meats
d fats. Their petition readsi
"Iately the quantity of meat and fats
erred for sale 40 far as the great mass M
the poorer people Is concerned, has
eatly decreased. Partly the war is re-
onsible but il is plain also that the =.
ID is being withheld for speculative
rposes.