The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-09-17
Food RIOTS, Prices Soar
And Middlemen Prosper

Recent compilations by the fed
cral bureau Of labor statistics convey
the discouraging information chat
during July the average price of
twenty-five food staples increased
two per cent They are higher now
than any time since 1913. In seven
years prices have increased from 121
to 1879 per cent, and the prediction is
made that the tendency is still up
wards. Now high levels are indicated
for the fall and winter.
Coincidently with this statement
comes a report from official sources
that throughout the country great
quantities Of food products are rot
ting in the fields because the farmer
cannot afford to gather them at the
prices offered. The tieup of trans
portation is a material factor in this
situation, but is not solely response
Bile for the exploitation of the con-
sumer and the ruin of producers.
The profiteering middleman, as usual,
shows his hand, and where it is pres
ent the public is bound to get the
worst Of it.
Farmers complain that commission
men and distributors offer them
prices at which it is impossible to
operate. They are offered 81 for a
barrel of beans that cost S1.25 to
pick. The same beans are sold to
the public at prices as high as So.
Cabbage brings 80 cents a barrel and
is rCtailed at prices hanging up to
$3.50. At loading markets farmers
get 10 cents peck for tomatoes that
are retailed for 20 cents per quar-
ter peck. And similar discrimina-
tory prices prevail up and down the
line
There is something radically wrong
with system that starves both
producers and consumers. Unless it
lis remedied the farmer will be com
PEELED to. produce just enough for his
own needs and leave the city folks
shift for themselves. They cannot
lin reason be expected to give then
capital and their toll to losing bus
mess, and yet that is just what they
,are now doing.
Inability to get transportation is
/ given as one reason why there is .
glut Of food in some sections anc
scarity elsewhere. Shippers are
compelled to dump their products al
Immediately accessible points, anC
the ensuing accumulation invokes the
law of supply and demand, with ad
verse results to the farmer, but witt
no appreciate effect so far as The
consumer is concerned.
Were it possible to secure an in
tellgent distribution Of food, there
would be plenty for every distric
and there would ensue stabiliza
ton of prices that would benefit
both producer and consumer. But the
railroads are in bad shape and there
is no prospect that there will be i'm
provement during the present year
The natural result is that during The
non-productive months the nation vii
be crying for food that is now be
ing wasted, and the profiteer viii
step up prices and be in his glory
, There is not a domestic problem
that does not run directly back t.
inefficient private railroad operation
Theoretically the railroads are in
tended to serve the public, but it i!
just the other way around. Nov
the people are compelled to serv'
the railroads, and their demands ar
Unsuitable. All of which directs at
tention anew to the shameless betray
al of the national welfare by con
gressmen who supported the Cum
Minis sch bill. They knew, or SHOULD
; have known--it amounts to the sam
thing-that any effort to reorganiz
,, transportation that left out of con
sideration the public interest woul
certainly and with crushing effec
bring about conditions similar t.
those the nation is now experiencing