Arizona republican., 1919-09-27
FILE REPORT LIN
 PR|CESCHARCED |. FUR FOOD HERE
County Attorney Finds some Profiteering Practiced in City Will Act Against Dealers Who Do Not Charge Fair Prices

A report of the prices in food neces- saries charged by wholesale and retail dealers, compiled by George H. Smal- ley. secretary of the United States food administration and his assistants, has been placed in the hands of l.. NJ. Laney, county attorney, who ordered the investigation.
 The county prosecutor has made public the fact that there are num- Der of instances of profiteering in this city, citing examples and the manner in which the authorities will meet the situation. in the following statement to The Republican,:
 Approximately two weeks ago the county attorneys office employed q corps of trained men connected with the federal food administration for Arizona, for the purpose of making a rigid investigation of the prices charged and the margins of profit taken by merchants dealing in food stuffs of the various sorts in the city of Phoenix. We were very fortunate in obtaining the services of these men for the reason that, in the first place, they have been connected with the food administration during the war, had had wide experience in such mat ters, and in the second place, since they held commissions under the fed eral food administrator. they had the legal power and authority to examine the books, invoices, etc.. of all dealers in food stuffs.
 Investigated 1o4 Dealers
 The merchants whose places ot business were investigated consisted of four wholesale groeers, forty five retail grocers, four wholesale fruit and vegetable houses, nine retail fruit anC vegetable dealers, twenty-two whole sale and retail meat dealers, ant twenty restaurants serving meats Accordingly. a total of one hundre- and four business establishments were examined.
 | The men conducting the investiga- ton and compilation of results. wh' were headed by George H. Smalley executive secretary of the United States food administration for Ari zona. have placed in my hands a very complete tabulated report. From thii report, which have examined ans checked up to considerable extent it is disclosed that, while most of tn merchants on d majority of the mos commonly used foOdstuffs are not eX acting unreasonable profits, still in ; | considerable number of instance there are fragrant cases of charging excessive margins of profit, or, in oth CT words, profiteering
 Tn giving this statement to the news papers, I have solely in mind the mat ter of getting results in the way of tn reduction of prices wherever such re duction can reasonably be made. have given the matter considerabl 4 thought as to whether or not at thi time I should publish what migt b termed a "bawl-out'' list, stating tn names of profiteerings merchants an the commodities upon which and ex tent to which they are charging ex cessive margins. However, hay
 concluded that the most effective wa
 to get results will be by seeing to
 that all food merchants taking exces
 sive margins of profit are given an op
 portunity to reduce their prices in tn
 same cooperative spirit that wa
 sought to be obtained during the perio
 of the war. The investigators hay
 found the majority of merchants eS pressing anxiety at the time of the ir