The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-03-17
High Prices Slowly Being Re-
duced, Department Shows.
Retail Cost of Food 3 of 1
Per Cent Lower.
WHOLESALERS GET MORE NOW
While Merchants Cut the First
MiddIemanI Is Hiking.
Milk, Fresh Eggs, Canned Foods
and 0IeO All Cheaper.

Washington, March 1.-THE high
cost of living is coming down very
slowly. The retail cost of food was
three-tenths of one per cent lower
in February than it was in January,
according to figures made public today
by the department Of labor.
While the retail figures were reach
ing this point, wholesale prices showed
distinct trend" according to the
department announcement which
showed that there were a gain of 2
per cent over the level of January.
The increase was most pronounced
among farm products and foodstuffs.
Some of the more pronounced de-
creases in retail food in February
Were evaporated milk. fresh milk.
oleomargarine. strictly fresh eggs.
bread and some canned foods.
Sixteen articles increased in prices
during the month, the most important
being onions.
During the month from January Is
to February l 5, the average family
expenditure for food decreased in
twenty-eight cities as follows; Kan
sas City. per cent; Scranton, Pa, 2
per cent; Chicago, Columbus, Dallas,
Houston, New Haven. New Orleans.
Norfolk, Peoria, Pittsburgh, Portland,
Ne, Providence. Rochester and
Springfield, Ill, 1 per cent
In Atlanta. Birmingham. Boston,
Bridgeport, Cincinnati, Jacksonville,
Louisville Mobile and New York, there
was a decrease of less than five-tenths
of per cent In twenty-five cities
there were the following increases:
Seattle, per cent; Memphis. Min
neapolis. st. Paul, Salt Lake City, 2 per
cent, Baltimore, Butte, Denver, Indian
apolis. Los Angeles, Milwaukee,
Omaha, Portland. Ore, St. Louis,
Cleveland, Detroit. Newark. Philadel-
phia, Richmond and San Francisco
there was an increase of less than five
tenths of 1 per cent
Egg receipts in Topeka are>running
less than half what they were two
weeks ago. Frank Cope. of 1.-The
Copes' said today. The falling off in
receipts. due to several factors, &C
counts for a very firm undertone on
the market, and Cope does not believe
that eggs will vary much in price for
some days.
The stiffening of the egg price in
Topeka and the curtailment of supply.
reflects closely the reports on the
market in Chicago.
The factors which have brought
down the receipts include Lent, set
ting hens and bad roads, Cope says.
More eggs are being consumed by the
producers during Lent than at other
SEASONS of the year, and there is a
SITTER demand for them than there
was before Ash Wednesday.
The farmers are setting an unusu-
ally large number of eggs this year"
Cope asserts. 1.-The number of eggs
which are going under setting hens is
actually cutting down, appreciably,
the shipments which we receive"
Bad roads are the order of the day
all over Kansas and most of the rest
of the states adjoining, and when the
roads are bad, the egg producers
don't get their eggs to town.
Cope, who has been paying IS and
eggs, says that storage concerns will
pick them up at that price. and will
not permit them to go below it.
FOR that reason. don't look for
any great variation in the prices
soon," he says. The price the Copes
are paying for eggs has varied little
during the past week, and the next
movement anticipated is stiffening.