Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-06-30

in the newspapers as the peace conference.
Next to the question of how much Germany
ought to pay for the war they have been the
leading topic of conversation.
The French ministry of food supply began
looking into them about armstice time. 1t
found as everybody knew, that prices were all
out of proportion to what they should be.
They found that butter, for example, was
selling at retail for as high as $3.50 pound,
The cheapest butter $l.40 a pound, The
wholesale price was between so cents and 70
cents pound, or less than half the retail price.
Fresh meats we're bringing from II cents to
$l.44 the pound. In the municipal markets
frozen beef or "frigo," as they call it, could be
had at IS cents.
Fresh vegetables also received attention.
Figures showed that the humble cabbage and
the more noble caulifower had grown nine
times as dear as they were before the war.
Celery root, a favorite with the French, had
jumped nearly 20 times. New potatoes, the size
of horse chestnuts, have been as high as rs
cents pound. They are now down to Is cents
and hard to get.
For what retailers were charging for them,
staple articles like beans, rice, macaronl, prunes
condensed milk and dried fruits might as well
have been made of gold. Think of paying from
90 cents to IS cents a pound for the much
abused prune! Rice costs between Is cents and
80 cents a pound; beans 81 cents to SO cents.
ents, 80 cents; dried fruits, Sc cents to As
cents The cheapest condensed milk was re-
tailed at 54 cents the tin. Macaroni varied from
Is cents to as cents pound.
N. Vilgrain began his first attack on the
food exploiters in Marseilles. Joining with the
nous huts and stocked them with supplies
bought in New York and London through in
ter-allied purchasing boards. Special trains
provided to carry the goods to Marseiles
All prices were fixed in accord with actual
first cost and the cost Of transportation.
I.,4a Va at
the controlled foodstuffs had lowering effect
on the price of uncontrolled provisions. Dealers
in the neighborhood of the baraques and of the
stores cooperating with the food ministry soon
found that they must try honestly to meet the
competition or shut up shop
There attempt, mind you, to drive
anybody out of business. The government is
simply bringing the rapacious ones to their
senses And at the same time it is putting all
classes in more agreeable frame of mind
The hours of sale are from 9 o'clock to S
o'clock every day. At each baraque is a SOL
der who lines up the buyers and sees that too
Near the entrance is posted list of the things
on sale for that day and their cost.
You look at the list you enter, decide on
the articles you want and make your purchases.
At the far end of the baraque is the cashier
You pay, and another soldier ushers you on
yOuI way Out
Half dozen good looking girl clerks wait
on you. They have the stocks neatly arranged
in sections on a long, low counter. Their re-
serves are placed on shelves within easy reach.
You note at once the cleanliness and the order
illness of the interior.
Prices? Astoundingly low, they Take
the articles as l read them in the baraque near
the Madeline the other morning. Rice headed
the list at II cents pound instead of the Is
cents charged elsewhere. Green peas were q
cents can. Beans brought IS cents pound
and condensed milk about u cents can.
Olive oil, which has been very high, could
be had at 90 cents litre-a little less than our
quart.
The '1ife less dear" in Paris has been long
time coming. But it is slowly and surely ar
irving The Vlgrain baraque are proving their
worth. Their low prices are both attractive to
the thrifty and warning to the middlemen and
the retailers, who have made the cost of living
such burden in the last year, and especially in
the last seven months.