The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-07-10

Washington, July e.-(Special.) )-The wholesale merchant who received a with ering shot sometime ago at the hands of the retail merchant, is, at the present time, taking terrific fling at the manu- facturer.
 Clarence Saunders, president of the Saunders Blackburn Grocery company, the largest wholesale grocery firm in Memphis, has come to Congress with the charge that because he failed to do the bidding of the manufacturers of certain brand of soap, he is now numbered as a member of the unfair list" said to be maintained by the manufacturers.
 From the testimony of MT. Saunders, he was instructed by Colgate & Co. to advance his price on Octagon soap, which he had previously purchased. He declined. He was then, he 'testihes, declared to be an unsatisfactory customer without abil- ity again to purchase the products of Colgate & Co.
 The case is stated in the following tele- gram, copies of which practically every member of the Senate has received:
 We are wholesale grocers dealing in a general line of food products selling di- rect to the retail trade. Rrior to April l we had in our stock quantity of Oc- tagon soap. Before we had sold out this particular lot of Octagon soap Colgate & Co. of New York city, who are the man ufacturers and distributors of this par ticular brand of soap, advised us of an advance in price, naming us revised jobbing cost price and u revised retail selling price, which retail selling price tlo,r Al %ba+ ,4r even on the stock that we had in our warehouse and which was bought before the advance in price. We quote from their letter, which quotation is as fol- lows: Tt is understood that the retail prices are to apply to jobbers' present stock as well as to future purchases We believe it is to the best interests of all concerned to adhere to the above selling prices and we will consider those disre- garding them undesirable customers"
 We direct your attention in particular to the two words found in the first sen tence which we designate as present stock" which clearly indicated the de- sire of Colgate & Co. that we take for ourselves an extra profit on what stock of soap we had on hand at that time by
 
 ity with their notification of such ad- vance. Had we done this we would have received more than legitimate profit on that particular lot of soap. Also had we advanced the price on that particu- lar lot of soap the retailer having had to pay such an advance, would neces- sarily have been compelled to have added to his retail price that he might have maintained his regular margin of profit. We refused to advance our price on Oc- tagon soap until we had disposed of the stock we had on hand We were notified by the personal representative of Colgate & Co.,, MT. Roy Freeman that we would henceforth be considered undesirable cus- toners, For the reason that we had failed to put into effect immediately an advance in our reselling price on Octagon soap. We were further notified by MT. Roy Freeman of Colgate & Co.,, that he had no option whatever in the matter and was acting under orders from head quarters in notifying us that we would not receive any further shipments of soap from Colgate & Co Two words in the last sentence of the quotation that has been referred to as being part of Colgate & Co.'S letter in which they notified us of the advanced price we call special atten- tion to. Those words are undesirable customers" The preceding portion of that sentence explains on what grounds whole sale grocers will be considered by Col gate & Co. as undesirable customers. We dsregarded the notice of MT. Roy Free man, acting for Colgate & Co.,, that we would not receive any more Octagon soap and we submitted on the last day of March to Colgate & Co.,, an order for another carload of Octagon soap and washing powder. We received no definite word directly from Colgate & Co.,. until we had sent them telegram under date of April 20, this reading as follows: When are you going to ship our car of soap? Answer"
 Seven days later, and which was under date of April 27, we received in answer to our telegram of April 20 a telegram signed Colgate & Co. reading as follows: Answering your wire. have been forced to consider your account undesirable"
 We have not yet received the car of Octagon soap that we ordered from Colgate & Co.
 The purpose of this telegram is to present for your consideration some vital trade facts in your avowed en- deavor to restrain speculation and ex- orbitant profits, that you may be ad- vised of the high-handed methods that are in practice by the various manu- lecturers of the country Much talk has been made about the price of wheat. Much talk has been made about controlling the price of cotton. Much talk has been made about controlling other products. But nowhere have we seen any talk about controlling the manufacturer. Will it be fair that the man who raises cotton, that the man who produces other everyday essen tials of food be told by positive law what he shall do and what he shall not do and allow the manufacturers of the country, who deal in soap, neces- sary for cleanliness. even if it cannot be eaten. and the manufacturers Of other items just as necessary-we ask