The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-15
82 CENTS WAS FARMERS SHARE
 OF SIl DINNER
Delegates Who Ate It Dis close This Fact to
 President
PRESENT ARGUMENTS
 FOR THE PRODUCERS
Western Men Say Profiteer- ing, Labor Conditions and Extravaganza Cause High Prices.

Washington, Aug. 1.-The farmers
 of the nation as represented by dele
 gates of the National Federation of
 State Farm Bureaus, laid their side
 of the high cost of living problem
 before President Wilson today, as
 serting that high prices were not
 caused by the rapacity of producers
 but by a com bination of causes, in
 cluding profteering and speculation
 by the middleman, extravaganza by
 the public, strikes and stagnation in
 the production of manufactured goods
 and prepared foodstuffs.
 The delegates, from bureaus In Ohio. Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. were with the President for nearly an hour, and were apparently well satisfied with the result of their in terview. They urged the President to let wheat alone, and stated that he had said the Government was not disposed at this time to interfere with the price of wheat. He added, they said, that he was working out so- lution of the problem entirely along the lines which he had suggested in his address to Congress The farmers had prepared a state
 ment which dealt in some detail with their viewpoint, and emphasized that 1t was essential that they should know what the future held in store for them, as the time had come when they must plan for the 1920 harvest. In presenting their argument the delegates cited their dinner at what they described as a modest hote1'' in Washington to illustrate their conten- ton that profiteering is being carried on by agencies between the producer and the ultimate consumer. Five of them paid S11 for a none too elaborate dinner, exclusive of tips. Their fig | ures showed that of the s11, S2 cents had gone to the farmers who pro- duced the food.
 Food on the table costs out of all proportion to the price to the pro- ducer,' they told the President Part 1 of this is due to the short hours and l high wages of labor, part to the | orbitant prices of the several middle men between the producer and the Consumer, and a considerable part to 1 the extrava gant practices of the con sumner in purcha sing.
 l "Without going into an analysis of 1 who gets it. compare the difference in price of choice beef on the hoof at | 8 cents per pound with that of moderate meal for five at one of Washington's modest hotels. the m meal consisting of steak, potatoes, corn, bread and butter, and coffee, and l costing s11.
 of this s11. the producer of the | food, the farmer got about as fol- l lows:
 | Beef, two pounds, 36 cents; pota- l toes, 13 cents; bread, 3 cents; butter, | ' cents; coffee, cream and sugar 4 i cents; corn, 20 cents, making total l of s2 cents. This is about per cent. l of the total.
 "A 50 per cent reduction in the | price of these products to the pro- 1 ducer would have lessened the total 1 table only fl cents, smaller by half 1 than the customary 10 per cent tip, I which by the way is not included in | the above price for the meal. | This illustration shows the ex- | tremes of exorbitant profits of the | middlemen and of extravagan prac- | tices of the consumers dn. purchasing. | including probably all the evils that | arec contributing in large mea sure to l the high cost of living to the con- | sumner. A reduction to the producer | in the price of these foodstuffs to ! point which would stagnate produc- l tfon of grains and meats, would have 1 an inconsequentia1 effect upon final | prices to the consumer l The five delegates who ate the s11 | dinner were J. C. Crocker, president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau; o. E. | Bradfute president of the Ohio Bu-
 reau; J. G. Brown, president of the l Indiana Bureau; J. R. Howard,
 president of the Iowa Bureau. and D. l O. Thompson, secretary of the H. | linois Bureau.
 l