New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-09
Selling Whiting for King
Fish and Tom Cod for
Brook Trout
Short Weight Alleged
Food Chairman Predicts Sugar
VIII Be Exhausted Jan.
and Flour by Summer

An educational campaign, teaching
New York housewives how TO market
was advocated, with further confer
ences on the subject.
Chairman Mitchell. of the Federal
Food Board, and Federal Food Admin
istrator Williams promised daily prize
lists wosld be issued soon.
Market Expert Bennett, who is 10
compile the daily price lists, announced
the lists would be issued as soon az
the various food trades had time to
confer with him.
Mr.. Mitchell and Mr.. Williams found
that the fish dealers, wholesale and re-
tail. have been practising fraud on the
public ever since the food admlnistra-
tors began advocating the SUBSTITUTION
OF FISH for meat
But no price reductions were an
nounced.
The Federal Food Board, when mas
ham given control over food dealers
of the city, met the fish conference
committee in the Office OF the state
Food Commission to discuss the SUD
den increase in pTjcess which have shot
I'D more than lCO per cent on certain
FISH varieties. Having been apprised
By s. St-aus, a fish dealer, Of Thirty
ninth Street and greensboro Bridge
that cheap fish was being sold to New
York consumers for high grade hsh,
and that retail dealers were gwen
short weight by wholesale merchants,
the Federal Food Board adjourned
with the announcement that another
conference would be held on Tuesday
or Wednesday.
No Flour by Summer
Following a luncheon in the City
Club, Mr.. Mitchell. Mr. Williams and
CITY Market Commissioner Mossowltz
talked about food and food prices.
Mr.. Williams said the United States
had been called upon 10 feed the
world, that agricultural conditions IN
France were very bad, that the food
problem in this country had become
most important, and that Mr.. Hoover
was an extraordinary man.
III. Williams expressed the hope
that New YORK City would have war
bread at : cents loaf next week. MIN.
reaooli; has had white bread at %
cents a mound loaf for several weeks.
Mr. Mitchell ia his speech deploreG
high rrices. and said he would no. De
surprised if the sugar supply in New
Vo,k City would DO entirely exhausted
nv January /, and that we might DC
short of -four next summer. both MI-
Williams and NJ. Mitchell spoke hope
fully of publishing retail and wholesale
nrices on food staples some time III inc
Chicago has been publishing daily
rrica lists since November 3, CleFe
i,nd SINCE November 20, and in some
80 ar other the Federal Food AdnnA,
ietrator of Pennsylvania has manager
"a lower prices on poultry, butter, po
tatocs and several other staple loou
PnbIisbing daily price lists in New
Work City was planned by Mr. Williams
moro than mouth ago, and 1t has Deth
tho subject of conferences almost every
dow since. George L. Bennett, matAe'
inert of the State Food CommlsS'on'
wbo is to get out the daily price lls''
said yesterday;
Price Lists Next Week
eve shall have to have setic W
,orences with various food 'rauo
examinations before We start puohsh
inc daily price lists. We hope 70 se'
ready some time next week.
IRE meeting of the Federal ROOD
ia ard the wholesale and retail
Gsb merchants was one OF the hrsI
gatberings of the kind to which the
oublic has been admitted. Chairman
MITCHELL. who presided, said that
nrofteering had been proven to exist
IL an lines of business. lie then told
,be fish merchants that he proposed 10
nut a stop TO profiteering by publish
inc price lists of staple commodities
Gsily Mr.. Williams supplemented TINS
statement by saying that the FeGeral
Food Board was preparing TO puoiISn
wholesale and retail prices OF tood
necessities in the near future.
w. IL Cornell, of the Atlantic Coast
FISHERIES. feared that such plan
would force fish merchants here TO
shin their fish elsewhere.
"But the national food admlnistra-
ton has administrators IN other
cities" said Mr.. Mitchell. 81 don't see
why the supply should be taken from
New York markets. Everything wilt BE
weighed very carefully. 1t is the pur-
nose of the food administration TO con
.ider everything very carefully before
any steps are taken. A fair price VIII
be given the wholesalers, and a fair
price to the retailers, and the con
sumer will pay a fair price"
Tells OF Tricks
The conference was going along
smoothly. like all conferences in the
mast. and plans for further confer
ences were being discussed, when
man who said his name was 5. Straus'
a FISH merchant, at Fifty-ninth street
and the Greensboro Bridge, got up and
began TO talk.
Now. there is whiting" said hr.
Strains. "The fish dealers got the FOOD
administrators to advise everybody 20
eat whiting. And what happened!
Whiting. which had ben selling at SIX
cents pound retail, jumped 20 -
cents. The fish dealers were not salts
fed. so they show their whiting 10
customers and tell them Z IS klnghSn
ard sell il 81 20 cents pound; or
thew sell tomcod. which is cheap, for
brook trout, which is expensive. There
are tricks in the FISH trade. We re-
tailers pay the wholesalers full meas
ure for a twenty-five pound box OF hsh'
and when We weigh it We find It Is
only twenty pounds"
Mr.. Straus then gave the following
wholesale and retail prices on tsh yes
terday: