The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-07
TOPEKA FACES A
tcoatlnnea from Pace one,

(COnftnued from rage One.l
soft drinks, and hundreds of-others of
the so-called necessities, OF life" will
be in the same category. The house
holder will have to revert to the Gus
toms of his pioneer forefatheFs with
out even the ame1ioration OF the old
time spring house in which to keep
his products fresh for a few hours.
To the business houses of the city
the fee famine will mean millions of
dollars of actual loss. Thousands of
pounds of butter. and meats. and eggs,
and poultry, fresh fruits and vegeta-
bles, and any one of the hundred and
one Things which are kept fresh thru
refrigeration will become almost to-
tai loss.
At the Wolff packing plant the
amount of coal on hand will barely
tide that concern over for the next
forty-eight hours And even tho half
of the company's refrigeration boilers
are run with oil. yet the railroad sitpa-
ton is such that fuel oil Is as upob-
tainable as coal.
Much Meat in Storage.
Charles Wolff. president of the
Wolff Packing company, said today
that more than 100000 pounds of
meats are kept in storage at the plant
on a day to day average. Within
forty-eight hours of cessation of re-
frigeration the spoilage of this meat
or the biggest percentage of it-would
begin. Within another forty-elght
hours 1000, 900 pounds of meat, rep
resenting a money value OF $1,000, 900,
would be a total loss. And this even
tho big quantity of II was thrown on
the market Topeka could not under
any circumstances consume such a
quantity of flesh food within so short
a space of time.
At the Beatrice Creamery company
where more than one million pounds
of butter, rs, 900 cases of eggs, and TO-
| 900 pounds of poultry are held in stor-
age, the supply of fuel is sufficient
only to guarantee the refrigeration of
the storage rooms for a period of
thirty-six hours at the outside. State
| fnents from officials of the company
today were to the effect that in the
event of the company being unable to
find fuel to maintain refrigeration this
| immense amount of food would of
necessity become almost a total loss
| Spoilatfon of most of the products
would, begin within twelve hours after
cessation of refrigeration. tho unless
| the ice famine was protra cted q great
deal of it would suffer only a loss in
quality. 1t was estimated that the loss
| in the event OF a protracted famine
would amount to more than one and a
half million dollars to this company
alone.
The Topeka State Journal was un-
able to get in touch with the Seymour
Packing company today but 1t is esti-
mated that the loss there would mount
to a figure above a million dollars II
the ice famine comes. .1-
Affect Farmers, TOO. Oh
So far as the storage of produce i!
concerned the loss would not be sc
great. If spoilage threatened the com.
mission men of the city would OF
course withdraw their stocks from
4 storage and place them on the marke
instead of putting the new stock GU
for sale. But this too would mean &
| loss. 1t is here that the ice shortags
would hit the farmer and hit him hard
without facility for preserving fruit
and vegetables the commission meT
would not purchase these commodities
And as the average farmer does no
usually possess an individual refriger
alton plant of sufficient capacity 4
protect all of his products, he wouik
be forced to stand the loss.
On the whole the ice famine whtea
threatens Topeka promises to touel
every single man. woman and child III
the country. And 1t promises to toucl
them in their pockets s well as ii
| mere discomfort