Republican farmer., 1919-06-27

cut waters last season nearly three- quarters of it's usual supply to the entire state. This takes no account or the harvest of 136,0 900 tons on Conga- mond Lake, Massachusetts, nor of the considerable output of their various artificial plants. MT. Walker quite frankly told the committee that ne did not consider himself bound to give the Connecticut market any prefer ence over New York, even though his entire supply is produced in Connect cut and at Congamcnd Lake, which for the purpose of the trade may be considered as practically in this state. One of the things your committee IS l lnot. able to understand is why the Berkshire Ice Company feels called | upon to sell ice in New York at $4 less a ton than in Connecticut and 1 this, too, in spite of the alleged short | age in this state The nearest explain lation the committee has been able to arrive at is the supposition that the devotion ito the New York market at | s4 less a ton on all ice shipped. may have some bearing on the apportion- ment of territory.
 Prices Being Charged
 l The price of natural ice on the plat form in New Haven since 1917 and to April 1st of this year was $4 a ton. Since Aprist list, it has been SS and ] s1O a. ton For family consumption the prices charged during this period have been the same for artificial ice | as for natural ice It should be added 1 that in the judgment of your commit | tee artificial ice could not have been manufactured in New Haven during l the past three years for an average cost of less than s3.50 per ton on the platform. Your committee has no hes itation in saying result of its in vestigation that there is absolutely no justification for the present prices at which ice is being sold in New Ha- lven. MT. Walker admitted on the witness stand that the actual increase | in cost of natural ice loaded on the cars this season will not exceed the cost of last year by 50 per cent In our judgment, it is considerably less;
 but taking his own figures, the cost per ton is still under S2, yet the price was jumped from S4 a ton to $S and s1O ton. This tremendous boost in 1 the price was not attributable to eco homie causes On the contrary, the price at which ice is now being sold in the local market was arbitrarily fixed, and by one man. He arrived at ! the figure by no accepted method of
 fixing the price of comm mmodities. He ! was not influenced at all by the cost of production. With a bIandness that either does credit to unusual honesty | or else demonstrates an unusual con | tempt for the public interest, the | public interest, the Manager of the Berkshire Ice Company told the Com nittee that the present prices had | been fixed on a basis of what he could 1 get from the public. It appears that
 the Berkshire Ice Company paid a | dividend of 19 per cent. in 1917, 25 per cent. in 1918, and will pay 25 l fiscal
 There is no reason to believe that the | other affiliated and subsidiary con- | cerns are not correspondingly pros | porous. When asked to tell the Com | mittee how much less than the pres ent prices the Berkshire Ice Company could sell ice for in New Haven and yet pay 25 per cent. dividend this lyear, the General Manager declined | to state, on the ground that it was | none of the Committees or the Pub lies business.
 A profit which enables a corpor-
 ation dealing in an article of public
 necessity, the wide distribution of
 which is indispensable to public health, to pay 25 per cent. dividend,
 and more, in a single year, and de-
 rived from such practices as have
 characterized the business conduct of
 the Berkshire Ice Company, is an
 extortionate profit. Indeed, it is
 open to question whether an indi-
 vidual or corporation ever has a right
 to make a 25 per cent. profit out of
 it's dealing in so vital a necessity of
 life as ice. We are credibly informed I
 that an advance of even ter cents q
 hundred in the retail price of ice
 means the death of many infaro' in
 this city. Think of a degree of mental
 and moral obtuseness which permits
 one to proffteer in the means of pre-
 serving a baby's milk and consider it
 evidence of unusual perspicacity to
 earn a profit of 25 per cent. on the
 transaction! When asked to give the Committee the price paid for quan-
 tity of ice equal to onc-th;-d of the
 entire local consumption. which ice he contemplates selling in New Haven
 at an exorbitalt price, MT. Walker rt
 fused to give the information. 41- , assigned as his reason that the price
 charged for ice to be sold to the | New Haven public Is exclusively his
 own private business No further evi-
 dence will be required to prove that , this man possesses a mind and con- science utterly unresponsive to the i awakening sentiment of the people l touching these matters. Unless we
 misread the trend of events, those N who engage in business so vitally
 affected with the public interests as IS . the business of supplying ice, will l hereafter find that they owe an ac-
 counta bility to the people. and one
 which cannot be lightly held.
 Legal Measures Possible.
 The forces of social disorder could , desire no better brief than a comics sion that the Law is helpless to save
 the people of this City and State
 from the shameless exploitation to (which they are being subjected by the Ice Monopoly. We do not believe the Law is so helpless Your Com s mittee is clearly of the opinion tha Harry w. Walker and c. T. Brown ir ? the conduct of the business of the , Berkshire Ice Company and theil 9 subsidiary and affiliated concerns, in y.l cluding the Walker interests, have 3 committed acts which justify pros 3 ecution under State and Federal Sta. tutes. We therefore recommend tha