Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-12-13
ADVOCATED HIGH
PRICES FOR FOOD
Street Market Charges Approved
at a Meeting Held Last Night
as an Educator.

One dozen persons attended meet
ing held in the Levy Court room, Public
Building, last night for the purpose OF
discussing the high prices charged IN
Wilmington's street markets. Spencer III.
Foulke. a Brandvwine hundred farmer,
called the meeting and presided. The adj
dresses were brief.
MIR. Foulke spoke of trucking. IN which
he is engaged He said truckers had
bad season, dry weather delaying and
damaging crops. Market prices are reg
ulated by supply. and demand, he stated,
and eggs are high because hens wont lay
them. He declared women don't under
stand the market question and cited
instances of women of moderate means
buvng the most expensive grades of corn
and beans during The past summer and
paving therefor prices that weather.
women would not pay. If farmers are
profiteering he said. they should be
Thrown down" He alleged the street
markets are not properly regula cd and
said farmers do not receive the encour-
agement they should. He criticised the
law that requires farmers when obtaining
market spaces to swear they will sell
only what they raise and claimed it was
unjust to permit persons who never
lived on farms to sell in the street mar
farmers should be expected TO come here
and act honestly.
Colonel Weller L. Slower. by request of
Mr. Foulke, represented the city Col
onel Stoycr said some Wilmingtonians
object to the prices charged here because
they are cxorbltant in comparison with
prices charged In other communities.
He mentioned Harrisburg, Pa, and said
the prices there are considerably lower
than the prices here. In the last two
or three years Wilmingtonians had re-
ceived higher wages and were willing to
pay more for farm products. Farmers
also had to pay higher prices for the things
they bought. He said he was not going
to get Ia a fuss with farmers-thcy are
entitled to \ fair profit II farmers
charged so cents for 60-cent eggs the
charge would be Unjust if eggs arc worth
so cents per dozen farmers should prove it.
He suggested that farmers start cam
paign OF education.
Accepting an inyi: alton to agriculturists
Hervcy Walker, and cx-farmer said pro-
ducers and consumers should he brought
together. He went back" to 1856 and
1887, when he occupied the College farm,
near Newark. Butter then sold for Is
cents per pound wholesale and 20 cents
retail, eggs for II cents per dozen, corn
for 25 cents per bushel, wheat for 65 cents
per bushel and flour for .5S cents per sack
He said no farmer then ''could live as q
white man. and keep his boys on the farm.
Then 65 per cent of the people in the
United States lived on farms and 50 par
cent were consumers, now things are
reversed, and there is overconsumption
MIR Walker spoke of the shortage
and high cost of farm labor, because
e Il II n
die. He said labor is not as costly at
Harrisburg as here: therefore farm prod
uce is cheaper there. Because OF the
unrelisbiiity of labor, he said farmers
can't lay out work to produce crops;
farmers have no assurance the laborers
will remain. The cost of farm machinery
also has greatly increased.
Mr.. Walker deprecated barring from
positions in the Federal Department
Of Agriculture boys who work on farms
but are not graduates of agricultural
colleges. He said city boys who never
were on q farm, but are graduates Of
such colleges, are given positions in that
department Some cltv BOYS take the
collegiate course merely to qualify a.
lecturers for the department, MIR. Walker
said, and consequently consumers are
led astray by agricultural reports sent
from Washington.
Continuing, Mr.. Walker declared
farmers are sick, tired and disgusted
ss a result Of "hammering " The tendency
today is to 'tel George how to run the
farm" $1,000 want to tell him. Mr..
Walker said farmers get more money
and shorter hours by leaving farms
He left his farm in March, 1917, and was
SONY he did not leave sooner. He said
the farmer IS Just as much entitled to
full time, time and half time and double
time as the city man. He directed at
tention TO vacant market spaces and
said shortage of crops causes high market
prices here. He thought every law that