The Connecticut labor news., 1924-05-24
LOW WHEAT PRICES OF LITTLE BENEFIT TO BREAD BUYERS, SAYS FEDERAL TRADE
 BOARD IN REPORT ON MILLING INDUSTRY
Bread Has Not Come Down in Proportion to Flour and Wheat Prices, Despite Big Drop in Cost of Flour Production, Study Shows. @

The average rate of milling profit for individual companies showed wide range iii each year of the period. Thus in 1920 when the average for all companies was l4.9 per cent, the rate for individual com panies ranged from loss of 51.4 4 per cent hand, in 1921, when the average rate of profit for all companies was only 1.o per cent. the range was from a loss of 72.6 per cent to profit of Al per cent. Talk | ing the average rate of profit for the four year period 1o19-1o22, for each indivi- ] dual company, the range was from loss of 10.6 per cent to profit of 40 per cent 28 BIG COMPANIES ....
 MAKE LARGE PROFITS
 The profits for 28 identical companies, producing about % per cent of the total wheat flour production for the entire country, which were secured for the ten year period, 1o13-1o22, averaged l85 per cent on the milling investment for the entire period. For the four-year period, 19lo-lo22, the average rate of profits of these 28 companies was 13.o per cent, as compared with 106 per cent for the 1O8 companies. The range in annual average rate of profit for the ten-year period for the 28 companies was from 20 per cent in 1921 to 36.5 per cent in 1917. On the company investment the rate of profit for these 28 companies for the ten-year period, 1o13-1o22, averaged 1oo per cent These 28 companies in cluded most of the very large wheat flour milling concerns.
 During the four-year period, fo1o-1o22 the average cost of the wheat constituted almost % per cent of the cost of flour and its by-products, cost of packages nearly per cent of this total cost, labor about 2.5 per cent, and general expenses and depreciation about 2.5 per cent.
 The average cost of wheat ranged from S1l57 per barrel >, of -four in 1920 to $S.4 per barrel in 1922.
 This marked decline in the cost of wheat per barrel of -four does not fully reflect, of course, the disastrous decline in the prices of wheat from 1920 to 1922. The purchase prices of wheat at the mills for these 108 companies, averaged SIPS per bushel in 1919; $25O in 1920, $182 in 1921, and SIPS in 1922. The decrease in this average delivered price of wheat from, 1920 to 1922 was almost so per cent. If the prices of wheat were reckoned at the farm, the percentage of decline would be, of course. still greater.
 BREAD PRICES DON'T
 REFLECT WHEAT DROP
 Monthly average quoted prices for hard spring wheat flour in the North western district (rst family patent) fl based upon millers' quotations, f o. b. mill, increased from $10.31 per barrel in January 1919, to $15.6o per barrel in May 1920, an increase of g per cent, and then declined to $o88 per barrel in Sep tember 1922, or B per cent below the January, 1919, average price. The monthly average quotation for the same grade of hard winter wheat flour in the Southwestern district increased from $1008 per barrel in January, 1919, to $13.32 per barrel in May, 1920, an in grease of 3 per cent and then declined to $57o per barrel in September, 1922, or 43 per cent below the January, 1919, average price.
 The monthly average price of No. 1 Northern hard spring wheat at Mime apolis increased from $2.21 per bushel ill January, 1919, to $3Oo per bushel in May, 1920, an increase of 40 per cent, and then fell to $1.10 per bushel in September, 1922, or 50 per cent below the average price in January. 1919.
 ata collected and published by the United States Bureau of Labor statis- tics show that bread prices have not de creased in like degree with the prices ot wheat and four For example, in Mlnne- apo1is, the retail price of one-pound loaf of bread was o.2 cents in January, 1919, and cents in September, 1922; In Kansas City it was o.3 cents in January. 1919, and 7.o cents in September, 1922; in Boston, o.l cents in January. 1919, and 85 cents in September, 1922, and i'll New Worm C;tv 10 cents in January. 1919, and