Evening star., 1921-11-27
How Charges of the Middlemen
Hit Farmers and City Consumers

in 1913 would have cost $197.97 and
in 1921 $1,23s. and the same purchase
in wheat would have cost in 1913
$1ss.12 and in 1921 s36s.46.
X n +
At a time when the question of
railroad rates and wages has been
| brought to the attention Of the peo-
pie by a discussion of the railroad
funding bill, and by the recent threat
ened strike of employees. Representa-
| tive Parks. democrat of Arkansas,
has made some illuminating remarks
and presented interesting and valu-
able statistics. He asserts that when
| the peak of high prices was passed
| and every business was charging
off its losses and endeavoring to be-
gin anew. the railroads were the only
| concerns that refused to take their
losses along with the rest. AS
| oontributory cause of unemployment
he cites that the lumber industry in
his state, giving employment to many
thousands, has been almost destroyed
on account Of freight rates; that i:
cost as much to ship a carload of
lumber as it does to manufacture the
| lumber and get it ready for ship
| ment. He gave the following in
| stances of shipments of fruit:
A carload of cantaloupes shipped
to Pittsburgh sold for s5S6.20; freight.
$36116; after deducting drayage. COM
| mission. Grating, etc. the grower re-
| ceived $ss.17.
On a carload shipped to Chicago.
| which sold for $417.60. the freight.
commission. etc. was $S71.s6. leaving
s45.74 for the grower.
| x X X +
Representative r. Walton Moore Of
Virginia has just had another in
| stance called to his attention by
| farmer who raises registered Hol-
! stems at Orange. Va, only about
| seventy-five miles from the capital.
He shipped a milk k-fed calf to Wash
| ington. 1t took $40 worth of milk
20 raise it The Washington COM
mission merchant paid him at the
rate of 5 cents a pound. or $11.S5.
Out of this he was charged 60 cents
commission; freight. $5.5s: express
| charges at Orange. s4.54. leaving the
| producer S1.23.
| In testifying before a House COM
mittee Investigating the milk sup
| ply Of Washington, Representative
j. D. Beck of Wisconsin, himself
tdairyman, called some more specific
instances to the attention of his col
leagues He pointed out that during
the early days of the war the govern
mept appealed to the farmers Of the
northwest. to throw their potatoes on
the market. and suggested 81 a hun
dred pounds as a fair price. when
they were really bringing s1.25. The
farmers put their potatoes on the
market as fast as they could be
taken at 81, but the consumer in
Chicago. $50 miles away. paid $3.50
| for those same potatoes and the COM
mission men allowed thousands of
bushels to rot or dumped them out
along the railroad tracks to spoil.
| Representative Beck continued:
What. is the sense of a farmer in
Texas selling cabbage at $50 per
ton, that costs the consumer in
New York. &240. A cargo of
peaches shipped to a Chicago COM
mission man from a farmer in Georgia
didn't bring enough to pay the
freight. but a second cargo sent by
the same farmer to Chicago and sold
direct to the consumers on a falling
market brought $500 per car net.
What is the sense of peas packed al
most within a stones throw of the
city Of Milwaukee yielding the pack
er 5 cents per can when that same
can costs the consumer in Mil
4 waukee Is cents. What is the sense
of our. paying IS to 11e for pair of
shoes when the farmers OF my state
are throwing. away their hides for