The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-07-03
FOOD PRICES
SHOW SIGNS OF.
STERILIZATION
Flour May Go Higher-Sugar
and Coffee Prices May Have
Reached Level.
BY WILLIAM r. SANBORN

In the year 1914 Kansas produced
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 $50 millions of
bushels, including 100000 bushels of
spring varieties.
At 50 per bushel on the farm this
would mean $3.50, 100000 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, it 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
governments price guarantee goes of
watch.
Wholesalers are paying s13 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 it will pretty close to 81 per sack,
you may be sure.
Bakers, however, never use these
advertised fancy family flours, nor do
they buy in small sacks. Bakers flour
is 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 s11.50 to
S12, and Kansas Straights at s11.60
to SIP. What is known as Winter
Straight flour is ranging at $11.00 to
$1125 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 flour 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
-four 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
mund, a town surrounded with ten
million bushels of wheat in harvest
right now.
World is Sugar Hungry. 4
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 refneries are now taking no ex-
port orders for delivery at the
wharves before September.
Two national boards are interested
in the sugar problem--the Shipping
Board and the Sugar Equalization
Board, and we are mighty lucky that
these boards are still in action. If
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
price of cane and beet sugars in the
various parts of the country accord
ing to distance and freight. 1t must
not be understood that we are ship
ping no sugar abroad, we are, about
10000 tons per week on orders taken
months ago, and orders boxed during
past two weeks are for delivery in
September and later.
The home demand for sugar is the
largest in our history, as is also the
output of the refneries now running
at over 100000 tons of refined sugar
per week. Merchants are buying
in
in supplies for fall canning, as well
as for taking care of berries, cherries,
etc This demand will slacken later.
Uncle Sam controls the sugar crop
of Porto Rico and has contracted with
the Cuban government at set price
for our needs Of Cuba, after a lot of
diplomatic work and the settle ment
of strike of Cuban sugar mill work
ers and field labor on the plantations.
California refines lot of sugar, which
is received from the Hawaiian Islands,
the first of this years crop arriving
on June 18th.
The Cost Of Coffee.
The advance in coffee seems to
have come 10 a halt, and it is high
time. Fine coffees, in cans, are sell
ing at tip top prices, higher than in
our recollection, or OF that of the old.
est inhabitant. Ordinary can and
package coffees that formerly retailed
at 25 cents per pound are now cost
ing retailers 43 to As cents per pound
and are bringing so cents and up at
retail.
A great many consumers, heads of
ordinary sized families, have been
buying from % to so pound lots Of
coffee, thinking it economical to
do so. The result of this sort of buy
ing is to force the retailer to increase
his orders far beyond the normal. and
this again plays into the hands of the
big spectators and helps to boost
prices.