The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-20
MANY ''KlCK' ON PROFITEERING TO
 D. J. AGENTS

UE Ja ROEGVIO
 New York, April 2o-A. w. Rley,d chief of the Flying Squadron" of the Department of Justice, whose cam paign so far has resulted in the con viction of 107 profteers with fines ranging from $50 to $2.500 and i'm prisonment from one day tc two years has uncovered a number of surpris- ing commodities for which dealers are said to be asking exorbitant prices. Complaints of alleged "gougings'' in almost everything from pickles to rouge and from lemonade to whiskey are being reported to MT. Riley by New York consumers. One man who had paid $1.15 to a restauranteur for a tiny steak and six small pieces of French fried potatoes, didn't stop to eat them but glancing at his cheek, took newspaper he had been read ing, wrapped up his meal and brought it to the federal prosecutor.
 Some of the letters of complaint were amusing, others pathetic All, however, showed the seriousness of the present era of high prices. One indignant citizen wrote: You ought to investigate -'s fish market in Brooklyn. He's a modern Jesse James. What do you think of 90 cents a pound for salmon and 60 cents for sea bass?"
 The chief of the Flying Squadron has received complaints of such ex- amples of alleged profteering as fol- lows:
 Drug store whiskey at s5 a pint and $2 more for doctors prescription;
 
 for a cage; lemonade, served at a hotel dance and said to have been weak, $1 a glass; rouge s1 to s3 a box for ''imported'' brands;; that fish during Lent rose from 20 cents to $1 a pound in some New York markets; prunes, three for 10 cents in a popular restaurant; peanut oil, sold as "olive oil,'' $4 a quart; anthra- cite coal $15 instead of S9.50 a ton in Nyack, N. Y., because the miners were granted a wage increase of 50 cents a ton
 Consumers complain to MT. Riley that they have to pay 50 cents pound for the same brands of coffee that retafled for 21 cents a. pound be- fore the war and that wholesalers paid Il cents a pound for some of these coffees three years ago and are now paying 15 cents. Milk they charge costs 10 cents a glass in res taurants, while they buy it for 12 cents a quart; that they have to pay S5 cents for linen collars costing at wholesale $40 a dozen; pickles cost 6 cents each; cabbage 40 cents head; 75 cents a bunch for aspara- gus and 35 cents a head for lettuce. A young woman protested after !, hoe of + ment store bargain sale'' which, she discovered later, cost 75 cents to manufacture She said that many big business houses were not satisfied with 100 per cent. profit but were making, in some eases, 150 to 200 per cent She suggested a remedy as follows:
 ''Do not buy anything in the first store you visit. Ask the price and, if it seems at all excessive, say you will not pay it and walk out. Then go next door and you may buy 1t for less. At any rate these profteers need to l know that the public is wise to them. A tremendous volume of refusals to l buy would make such merchants real fze they must stop overcharging if they would not precipitate a general business boycott"
 Obviously the Flying Squadron is working with the utmost secrecy and names of complainants are withheld. Several big New York corporations, which have been accused of making unjustffiab1e profits on foodstuffs and clothing, are now reported under in vestigation. According to MT, Riley, 1 one convicted profiteer blamed the public for much of the high prices. 'Its so, easy to get what you ask for" the merchant conf1ded to the chief investigator, 'fthat few business men can resist the temptation to raise prices. If I put two garments in my store window Of exactly the same cut and materials but with a $50 tag on | one and a $55 tag on the other. most persons would buy the higher priced l one. It's a strange freaK of human | nature, People nowadays don't seem l to concern themselves any moro about what a thing eests,''
 Protests against pfofiteeFing are re- | ported pouring into the federal build ] ing here from ali over the country. | When a complaint is received it is | indexed and forwarded to federal proseeH tors and flying squadrons' i operating in the United States judicial territory where the victim resides. In vestigation follows and. if the facts l warrant arrests are made. The cam ! paign, initiated by Attorney General 1 Palmer, will go on according to H. L.. 1 Van Sickler, in charge of the New
 York office for Mir. Riley, F'until prices l of food, clothing, fuel and feed for | livestock are brought to more normal 1 levels"