The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-09-21
The t Higher Cost Of Bread
By FREDERIC J. HASKlN

! WASHINGTON. D. c., Sept. 18-
The rise of prices, which has carried
even the modest oyster into the class of
luxuries, is now threatening the nickle
| loaf.
| At meeting of the National Asso-
citation of Master Bakers in Chicago re-
Gently, it was proposed to abandon the
manufacture of the five cent loaf al
together, and confine the trade to the
ten-cent loaf. Now, bakers are talking
of raising the price of the five cent loaf
TO six cents.
The higher cost of bread has been
threatened ever since the beginning of
the European War. According to the
bakers, the five cent loaf of bread is no
longer practicable on account of the In
creased cost of ingredients. Flour has
increased hundred per cent, milk 40:
salt IA and.iwlapping paper 20, while
delivery costs, both in gasoline and in
feed for horses, show a tweety five per
cent. increase. Rather than lower the
standard of their output, the bakers
prefer to increase the price of their
product
The leading factor in the present
situation, however, is the scarcity of
wheat, which has sent the price of flour
soaring, 1t is particularly unfortunate
that just when the whole world is look
ing to North America for its wheat
supply, the crop should be afflicted with
plague of black rust which has crept
through the wheat belts turning the
brilliant yellow grain into mouldy
stalks. In the Northwest, farmers
who have borrowed money on their
springiWheat crop are facing large de-
ficits, while in the great wheat produc.
ing areas of Canada thousands of dollars
have been lost
incidentally, one optimistic banker
believes that, as in the case of cotton
in the South, this temporary loss of
wheat is going to be, in one sense, a
permanent gain. The farmers have
come to realize the danger of planting
and depending upon one kind of crop.
and to recognize the value of at least
one sideline to fall back upon. Mex,
year, he predicts, will see the beginning
of large live stock industry in the
wheat belt of the Northwest.
This is good advice for farmers, but
it does not help the consumer who Is
paying for the blighted crop. Natural
ly the bakers are not going to pay more
for flour without making it up on the
price of their product. Furthermore.
they are facing situation similar to
that caused by the shortage in white
paper; for they must not only pay an
enormous sum for flour. but they are
lucky if they can get it at all
When the Allies failed to open up the
DardaneIles, which would have released
Russia's wheat crop last year, it be-
came evident that North America would
have to become the granary of the
world Ihls.alone was enough to start
a rise in the wheat market. Then came
the news that great damage had been
caused to the American crops by black
rust. and the Department of Agriculture
printed a report in which it estimated
that the crop would be just half as large
as that of last year. This report has
subsequently been confirmed, the latest
figures giving 642, 600, 900 bushels this
year, including both spring and winter
wheat, as compared to l,0l2. 600, 600
bushels in 1915. From Canada the same
disastrous results haye been reported.
Already the mills have tackled a couple
of dollars on to the price of each barrel
of flour. and may add a couple
more.
The bakers were just beginning to
raise indignant voices concerning this
increase when the country was threat
ned with railrC ad strike, in which it
bakers could obtain flour enough at any
cost to carry on their business. Many
large bakeries were running on couple
of weeks supply of flour. The whole
trade was in panic. On the other hand,
the flour mills were not slow Ito realize
their advantage, and it is reported that
many mills are now holding large sup
plies of flour in storage until the strike
question is finally settled. As it is, the
whole matter is merely lying dormant
Congress has passed the eight-hour
day law in favor of the strikers, but
its consututionality is open to ques-.