Show l Paying the Price W-I W II cg egg prices r reaching hing rec record rd heights beigh the United States food administration is 15 preparing to wage a campaign n to stop tho the advance Current prices are at attributed attributed at- at to profiteering placing the entire burden on the dealers Maiers N No doubt it is true there thero has been some effort t ward ard reaping gre greAt great t profits but it finds some defense se in the thin law of supply and demand There is a noticeable noticeable noticeable notice notice- able sh shortage of eggs in the United States According to all aU natural market rules higher prices are ore the tit na natural natural nat nat- ural result The food administration itself is authority for the statement nt that 85 p per r cent of the eggs in storage in the United Unite l States wore were consumed before January L JL I It t nat nat- follows that this is an admission that our Morale supply was far below normal 0 t rh The production of oi las t A no da det was wa as great t 1 as it was before We V c cannot blame the producer for the shortage e When wo we consider the conditions conditions' which confronted confronted confronted con con- fronted the distributors last summer we arc are no not inclined to blame them for their failure to store eggs on ml the same scale as ns before I Last summer the future of the middleman m was un un- certain He did not know whether ho was going goin to be put out of business or not Can Call wo we blame hi him for protecting protecting pro pro- himself in tempering his operations with an nn eye to tho the possibilities of the tho future 7 The Tho fact of the matter mattor mattor mat mat- tor ter is that eggs which under ordinary circumstances would have gone one into storage never left tho the farms Egg production by no no o means is confined to certain localities Successful distribution of e eggs must be he preceded preceded pre pre- ceded by br efficient gathering When the tho middlemen were placed on the anxious seat our egg gathering tm was u upset ct Farmers Farmer with eg eggs eggs- 5 lost their connection with tho the mobilizing forces the middlemen The Tho net ic- ic suIt sult was less eggs egg'S in storage and more spoiling spelling g on the hands of the producers The shortage is ia beyond redemption notwithstanding the tho fact that it is more mora aggravated than production war war- rants Profiteering probably enters into tho the problem but the way was paved last summer when the middleman middleman middle middle- man was portrayed to the public mind as an au unnecessary evil 1 II a In tel lm |