Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-05-22
BIG BUSINESS HIT
BY FOOD EXPERT
''Hindering the Big Job" for Priv.
ate Profits, Says Dr..
Wiley.

Declaring that 1--WE should include
all commodities in the price-fixing
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"
GAS an illustration Of how not tc
do things in accordance with this
formula" says Dr. Wiley, II may cal
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 cultivating 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
who have things to sell to him. He
feels that he is entitled to this pro
lection. He also feels that the con.
sumer of the bread made from his
wheat is entitled to protection"
DR.. Wiley says that on his way tc
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 80 cents. Il pay
at a mill near my farm 10 cents 8
bushel for grinding wheat. For grind
Ing five pounds of wheat the charge
would be not Quite one cent; which
leaves 81 cents for the container
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. It represents an ineffi
cheney in marketing which no nation
even the rich United States, can lone
endure. This is what DR.. Wiley
means by "Hindering the Big Job
We cannot prosecute the war tt
best advantage with such wretched
means of marketing the food for ou1
people and the Allies. Who. is hin
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 1t. II 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 well.
known expert, fearless in 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 of 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 we'll to remember" declares
Wiley, that If the 90,000,O0a bushels
of wheat were to be sent to England
in the berry and milled there, they
would mako 756,00o,000 pounds Of
flour 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
ly supposed that we are in this war
to. win it In the most expeditions
manner possible, not to enrich any
body or any corporation" z Ia. .
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