The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-04
FOOD PRICES
SHOW SIGNS OF
STERILIZATION
Flour May Go Higher-Sugar
and Coffee Prices May Have
Reached Level.
BY WILLIAM r. SANBORN

III tHe year 1914 Kansas pTOQuC6Q
more wheat than any state in the
Union had ever, or has SO far, pro-
duced in any year. This year the pro-
duction of wheat in Kansas promises
to exceed the 1914 output by 48 mil
lion bushels, the latest estimate put
ting the crop at about 230 millions Of
bushels, including 100000 bushels Of
spring varieties.
At 81 per bushel on the farm this
would mean $460,000,000 to the farm
ers, and they will get more than that
at any country shipping point in the
state.
When one considers the vast har-
vest now in full tide in the northern
tier of winter wheat states, and Of
the splendid promise of the spring
wheat crop soon to follow, 1t Is hard
to reconcile ourselves to paying $13
per barrel and up for flour, with no
show for any material cut in price, pos
sibly until a year from date, when the
watch.
Wholesalers are paying $13 to 1925
per barrel for car lots Of fancy Mime
apolis patent -four, delivered in New
York. The retailer pays a profit on
this, also charges a profit for handling
SO you can do your own guessing as
to what consumers pay for 24-lb sacks,
but 1t will pretty close to 81 per sack,
you may be sure.
Bakers, however, never use these
advertised fancy family f1ours, nor do
they buy in small sacks. Bakers -four
If packed in 140-lb. jute bags, and the
name of the mill making the -four
doesn't figure with them. All they ask
is quality. Right now they can buy
first Spring Clears at $3.50 to $40 per
barrel; Spring Patents at $11.50 to
$12, and Kansas Straights at s11.60
to $12. What Is known as Winter
Straight -four is ranging at $11.00 to
SLIPS in car lots, in seaboard cities.
We speak of seaboard cities for two
reasons: First, comparatively little
milling Is done in the east, and, sec
ond, because seaboard carlot prices
are export prices, practically. Consid-
er then what this -four must sell at
in Europe to pay freight, insurance
and profit to the importers on the
other side. To this cost add railway
charges to the interior of the Cont
nent and the profit of the retailer.
You may be sure there is no cheap
flour across the ocean except possibly
In Belgium. which has been so liber-
ally fed by the generosity of the peo-
pie of America that bread in Brussels
is selling for less than it is in Rich
mond, town surrounded with ten
million bushels of wheat in harvest
right now.
World Is Sugar Hungry.
Broadly speaking the whole world
is sugar hungry. Meetings. of raw
sugar continue at capacity at all the
refneries, but such is the insistent
demand, both for home use and ex-
port, that all the refineries are sold
far ahead. The situation is such that
the refineries are now taking no ex-
port orders for delivery at the
wharves before September.
Two national boards are interested
in the sugar prOblern-the Shipping
Board and the Sugar Equalization
Board, and We are mighty lucky that
these boards are still in action. II
they were not there is no telling how
much sugar we should be able to OBJ.
tain, nor at what price. The Shipping
Board allots the vessels, and the
Equalization Board buys the raw SUI
gars which 1t allots to the refiners
at a set price, and also equaliZes the
various parts of the country, accord
ing to distance and freight. 1t mus
not be understood that we are ship
ping no sugar abroad, we are. abou
10000 tons per week, on orders taker
months ago, and orders boxed during
past two weeks are for delivery il
September and later.
The home demand for sugar Is thu
n leo HI
output of the refineries, now running
at over 100000 tons of refined suga
per week. Merchants are buyin,
heavily because consumers are layin;
in supplies for fall canning, as wei
as for taking care of berries, cherries
etc. This demand will slacken later
Uncle Sam controls the sugar cro]
of Porto Rico and has contracted witt
the Cuban government at a set pric,
for our needs Of Cuba, after a lot o
diplomatic work and the settle men
of a strike of Cuban sugar mill work
ers and field labor on the plantations
California refines lot of sugar, whicl
is received from the Hawaiian Islands
the first of this years crop arriving
on June J2th.
The Cost Of Coffee.
The advance in coffee seems t
have come 10 a halt, and it is higl
time. Fine coffees, in cans. are sell
ing at tip top prices, higher than il
our recollection, or of that of the ole
est inhabitant. Ordinary can an
package coffees that formerly retaile'
at % cents per pound are now cost
ing retailers 43 to As cents per poun
and are bringing so cents and up a
retail.
A great many consumers, heads o
ordinary sized families, have bee
buying from Is to SO pound lots o
coffee, thinking it economical t
do so. The result Of this sort of buy
ing is to force the retailer to increas
his orders far beyond the normal, an
this again plays into the hands of tn
big spectators and helps to boos
prices.
If the customer was to buy this col