The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1918-05-24
BIG BUSINESS HIT
BY FOOD EXPERT.
"Hindering the Big lob" for Priv
ate Profits, Says DR..
Wiley.

Declaring that I'VE should include
all commodities in the price-fxing
scheme" DR. Harvey W. Wiley, the
best known food expert OF the United
States. gives emphatic Endorsement of
the position of the organized farm
ers. in the current issue of Good
Housekeeping. Those who oppose
general price fixing, he says, are
"Hindering the Big job"
"As an illustration of how not to
do things in accordance with this
formula" says DR.. Wiley, II may call
attention to the fact that congress
authorized the fixing of the price of
wheat, but did not authorize the fix
ing of the price of -four or bread.
Nor did it authorize the fixing of the
price of anything the farmer employs
in cutiyating his crop.
THUS. as the president says. the
farmer Justly complains Of an artifi-
cial price fixing which limits his in
come and does not in any way pro-
tect him against the greed OF those
feels that he is entitled to this pro-
lection. He also feels that the con-
sumner of the bread made from his
wheat is entitled to protection"
DR.. Wiley says that on his way to
the office recently he stopped at one
of the best retail grocery stores in
Washington to ask the price of a five
pound package of whole-wheat flour.
1t was so cents, or 10 cents a pound.
The farmer got II cents at the most
for the wheat needed to make it, leav
ing a margin of 33 cents. Il pay
at a mill near my farm 10 cents
bushel for grinding wheat For grind
ing five pounds of wheat the charge
would be not quite one cent. which
leaves 30 cents for the container,t
the cost of transportation and the
profit of dealers"
AS the Nonpartisan league has fire.
quently shown, this proportion OF one
third for the farmer and about two
thirds for the middlemen is almost
universal. 1t represents an ineffi-
cheney in marketing which no nation,
even the rich United States, can long
endure This is what DR.. Wiley
means by Hindering the Big Job
We cannot prosecute the war to
best advantage with such wretched
means OF marketing the food for our
people and the Allies. Who is him
dering? Not the farmers, but the
big interests who are making money
from this inefficiency According to
DR.. Wiley. they are using congress
to do it. Il think" he says, that
congress should without any delay au-
thorize the president to correct the
inequities of which he so justly
speaks
Mr. Alfred Mccain. another we'll
known expert. fearless i'm the fight
for the people, declared last fall that
the misery and deaths in Belgium"
were due solely to the fact that our
grain gamblers palmed off some
spoiled grain on the Belgian Relief
commission for full market prices.
Few people know also that the
wheat which we set apart for the
Allies must, through the influence OF
the milling interests, be ground here
1T is well to remember" declares
Wiley, that if the 90,000,000 bushels
Of wheat were to be sent to England
in the berry and milled there, they
would makS' 100000 pounds of
-four more than will be made here.
1t is true that this would keep some
millions of dollars out of the pockets
of the millers here, but it is common
" supposed that we are in this war
to win it in the most expeditions
manner possible, not to enrich any.
body or any corporation"