The Oklahoma City times. [volume] (Oklahoma City, Okla.) 1908-1984, 1917-11-03
CHEAPER WHEAT
DOES NOT mean
CHEAPER BREAD
Gov, Capper Of Kansas Raps
Food Prices 10 Hoover

| TOPEKA, Nov J.--Gov Arthur
Capper has made an appeal TO Herbert
Hoover national food administrator
charging that millcrs, bakers and other
dealers in food products are profiteer-
ing at the expense OF the farmers and
asking that state food administration
boards be established at once. The
governor was moved to make the ap-
peal by the hundreds OF letters that
have been coming to him from working.
men, chiefly complaining OF the high
prices Of flour and bread and other
foods II is asserted the prices nov
being charged for flour and for bread
are unwarranted when compared with
the prices Of wheat
Sacrifice In Vain.
In his letter the governor said
THE price OF the farmers wheat was
reduced, taking practically $4,000 600
out of the pockets of the Kansas farm
ers in twenty-iour hours. But the
farmers sacrifice apparently has been
made in vain The millers, the bakers
and the retailers have not reduced their
prices accordingly, and they show nc
disposition to reduce them. The farmer
who still Is paying as much, or more
Tor his flour and everything he buys, is
losing confidence in the power of thu
government to enforce the square deal
and the general effect Of the situation
as II stands is dcplorable. There car
be no defense Of a system that takc'
profit away from the producer through
government authority and yet fails Il
give the consumer the benefit Of tina
saving
He Doesn't Net $40.
"A species OF sharp practice perpe
trated on the wheat grower adds great
ly to this feeling among the farmers
The food commissions price OF $40 1
bushel for wheat becomes s. a bushc
at the little country shipping stations
But the wheat grower doesn't alway,
get that To illustrate what general,
happens, let me cite an instance: A
farmer took sample of his wheat tC
his local buyer I shall have to TAX,
I off percent for small grain and 2 per
4 cent for dockage, said the buyer.
This 5 percent reduction at tn,
" hands OF the buyer makes an additiona
loss to the farmer Of about fifty bush
els Tor every 1000 bushels he sells TN
buyer. He has to take that or shin hi
wheat himself, and when he does tha
!. he places himself at the mercy OF IN
= distant elevator man.
"Ot the 90O00OO acres Of whea
- sown last fall 1000 600 acres were
total failure. Many growers on IN
jWoOO acres harvested are giving ii
J every cent of profit at the govern
ments liked price as administered ,
ID them. Their yield was low and the
& expenses heavy, Then to be 'trimme,
5 percent in the grading process seen
:. the last straw OF injustice.
But the Farmer Is Forgotten
:, The coal operators who mine thi
veins OF coal were granted a conside
able advance on the governments fixt
=, prices. These wheat grower, with
thin crop were not taken care Of, AZ
when they see the local grain buy,
;. lining his pockets and the millers al
the bakers making more money tn,
y they ever have made beiore--absor
:, inG also what has been taken fro
J their hard-won earnings instead
passina even this much TO the consu-,
7 they conclude Uncle Sam either do
not know whs, Is going on or that
doesn't care
4. For the farmer to sec his prof
: going 70 the middlemen instead Of hel