The evening herald. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1906-1942, 1920-04-20
CONSUMERS ARE
UGED FRtM
EVERY QUARTER


in the conviction OF 1o7 profiteer;
with fines ranging from $50 e
s2,500 and imprisonment from on,
day to two years, has uncovered 1
number OF surprising oommoditie,
for which dealers are said to be ask
ing exhorbitsnt prices, Complaints
of alleged "gouging" In almost ev,
erything from pickles to rouge
and from lemonade to whiskey are
being reported to Mr.. Riley by New
York consumers. One man who
had paid $1.l5 to a restauranteur
for a tiny stcsk and six small pieces
of French fried potatoes, didn't
stop to eat them hut glancing at his
check. took newspaper he had
been reading. wrapped up his
meal and brought II to the fed
eral prosecutor.
Some of the letters Of complaint
were amusing. others pathetic. All
however. showed the seriousness OF
the present era Of high prices, Ono
indignant citizen wrcte: You ought
( to investiGGte----------'s fish mar
kct in BROOKLYN. He's n modern
/ Jessie James. What do you think o;
ninety cents per round for salmon
and sixty cents for sea bass"
The chief OF the Flying Squad
ron" has received complgiut8 Of such
/ examples of alleged pror,tecying a.
follows:
Drug store whiskey Mt s. n pint
and 50 moro for doctors prsscrip-
tlon; canary birds from $50 70 S25
and SO to SIS for a cage; lemonade,
served at q hotol darc2 and SAID 10
have been weak" 81 a glass; rouge
81 to 50 u box for Imported"
brands; that fish during Lent rose
from 20 cents to 81 pound in some
OF the New York market; pruuos,
three for ten cents in q popular res
taurant; peanut Oil, sold as "oliyo
OIL" s. q quart; anthracite coal
So instead OF $3.50 a ton in Nyal',.
N. ~. because the miners were
granted a wage increase OF so cents
rer ton.
Consumers complain to Mr.. Riley
that they have to pay 80 cents
pound for the same brands Of coffee
that retalled for q cents a pound
before the war and that wholesalers
paid II cents a pound for some OF
these cotfces three years ago and
are now paying - cents. MIX they
charge costs 10 cents a glass in res
taurants which buy It for 70 cents
a quart; that they have TO pay 80
cents for linen collars costing at
wholesale S2.iO a dozen; pickles T.
cost 6 cents each; cabbage 40 cents .
a head; rs cents a bunch for aspar- ,
agus and 35 cents n head for lettuce. |
A young woman protested after
having paid SO for bag at de-
partment store bargain sale" which,
she discovered later, cost IS cents to
manufacture. She said that many
big business houses were not salts
fled with 100 per cent profit but
were making, in some cases, $50 to
200 per cent. She suggested "rem-
edy 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 it for
less. At any rate these profiteers
need to know that the public is wise
to them. A tremendous amount of
to buy would make such
realise they must stop
overcharging IL they would not pre-
oipitate general business boy ,
,ott."
Obviously the "Flying Squadron"
e working with the utmost secrecy
md names and complaints are with .
leld. Several big New York corpor-
,tions, which have been accused OF
making unjustifiable profits on food
jtuffs and clothing, are now reported
Inder investigation. According to
Mr. Riley, one convicted profiteer
planned the public for much of the
nigh prices.
tits SO easy to get what you ask
or" the merchant confided to the
,hief investigator, 'that few bus
ness men can resist the temptation
o raise prices. II put two gar
nents in my store window OF exactly
he same cut and materials, but with
] $50 tag on one and $55 tag or
he other, most persons would buy
he higher-priced one. It's a strange
reak of human nature. People now
days don't seem to concern them
elves any more about what a thing
osts.'