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Show How the Consumer Is Milked : by the Several Food Combines. ':, m ENORMOUS PROFITS ' ARE ENRICHING TRUSTS ! i They Even Prey Upon Each' Other in Efforts to Corral Everything. The farmers' trust, which is the first one of the food combinations in Salt Lake to got a whack at- his suckor, tho consumer, struck a snag on Saturday, when it fell against iho wholesalers' trust the second of tho food combines to hold up tho consumer. And it was hit hard. Here is the story: Some time sinco a delegation from tho farmers' trust waited upon tho wholesalers' trust tho latter then buying' buy-ing' and shipping potatoos from California Cali-fornia to this citv. Tho farmers' trust informed tho wholesalers' trust that tho Kr Utah potatoes were ready for market. pnd if tho wholesalers' trust would 1 cease its California purchases, tno farmers' trust could supply tho demand. Acting upon the old maxim that thero is honor among, etc, tho wliolesalcro trust cancelled their orders for tho California Cal-ifornia tubers. Potatoes woro then selling sell-ing for 75 cents a bushel. , Ono Trust Docs Another. ! Just so soon as tho California supply was disposed of, tho farmers' trust' -jumped the prico of tho Htah product' to $1.25 per bushel and declined totlj ; bring in the spud only in small lotB, tho ; reason nlleged boing that thpy wero' too busy having and harvesting, and that only "lion Saturday could wagon loads bo brought in. It in tho season" of tho year 311st bo-foro bo-foro the canneries opon, lienco tho' farmers' trust is glutted with tomatoes; d which soil for 75 cents per bushel nt tho maximum to tho wholesalers' trust,, although tho canneries got thorn for 30 cents per bushel. Tomatoes had to bo' unloaded, honco when tho farmers' trust' brought m potatoes in small quantities1 they brought tomatoes in large quanti-. ties. Then tho wholesalers' trust as. also tho retailers' truBt, wero informed, by the farmers' trust that thoyjcould, 011I3 havo a few potatoes at $1.25, but.j to securo theso tho purchaser must tako three or four bushola of tomatoes at; $1 per buahel. It was a. hold-up of ouoj trust by another, but tho consumer, tho1 sucker, paid tho bill. Wholesalers Wrought Up. f Tho wholesale trust became angTy' A. conferenco was held, orders for Cali-t fornia potatoes woro wired and on Fri-, day night tho wholesalers' trust had; several carloads of spuds. Saturday; morning tho farmers' trust learnodi something. California spuds wero here. The farmers' trust dropped tho prico paid Friday of $1.25 per bushel to 7,) cents, a dropj of 50 cents in Ono day. Tho wholesalers' trust wont but tho consumer, tho suckor, still paid on Saturday Sat-urday $1.40 per bushel to the rotailer, while the wholesalers' trust received 80 cents to $1 per bushel. Thero are, however, how-ever, peoplo who say thero is no food Jf trust in Salt Lake. . How Combines Work. Perhaps tho working of the retail' dealers' food combine was never better illustrated than on Saturday. The con- v sinner is the suckor. Ho pays tho fid-dlor. fid-dlor. Possibly the wholesalers are figuring fig-uring upon a combine to root out tho smaller concerns, but if so tho prices for products bought from tho farmers' trust aud then sold to tho consumer would indicate that they had a bigger job on their hands than most peoplo j" imagine. Enormous Percentage. Saturday tho retailers' trust bought cucumbers from the farmers' trust tor threo and a half cents a dozen. Tho consumer paid thirty cents a dozen, or almost nine times as much as the retailer re-tailer paid for them from tho farmers' trust. This is si profit for tho retailor of 757 por cent. Green corn was sold by tho farmers' trust for five cents a dozen; tho consumer, con-sumer, tho sucker, paid 25 cents a dozen, a profit of rl00 per cent. Potatoes wcro sold by tho farmers' trust to the retailers' trust for 75 cents a&bushel; the consumer paid 35 coots per. peek, or $1.-10 por bushel, a profit of Sti1 per cent. Tomatoes sold by tho farmers' trust to tho retailers' trust for li cents per pound, while the consumer paid threo cents per pound. At the canneries tho prico paid the farmers' trust for tomatoes to-matoes would havo boon one-half cent jV a pound, a profit to the rotniler of 15G per cent. Still it is alleged that thoro is no trust among the retail dealers of Salt Lake. |