Show I Grain Grown By ByI Farmers Makes Big I Jumps All Along Line Before Reaching You Houdini couldn't do the trick any better Take wheat for which the growers are paid as low as 25 cents a bushel make it into flour bake it into bread by machinery say say a few magic w words ros over it and and presto the price Is increased ed 10 to 20 times The big milling I companies have a little trick of their own of adding the freight both ways That's a good one too The bakers protest that the cost of wheat is only a small part of the retail price which has to be I charged for bread However the I people of France for instance buy fine made hand-made bread for as as' as low as a little over a cent a pound The strange part of it is that that fine French bread Is largely made of this same American wheat I American consumers are areto made I Ito to pay five t th 10 cents a a. pound for bread which is not as good And the French consumers have I to pay the cost of transportation thousands of miles into he bar bar- gain That's That another good trick j Can you explain it A I We read in the current issue 01 OI Je Salt Sait Tout published in Paris I that American bakers by the aid of new processes now adopted can can make bread for one cent a loaf less than by the old method Is I I the consumer getting the be benefit of the low price of wheat and the the theS the'S I Ilow S low low cost of producing bread No The farmer is expected to produce produce produce pro pro- duce grain at a loss loss but but instead of passing the benefit on to the consumer the middlemen continue to take the same rake The I Pathfinder magazin has received I thousands of letters showing up the shameful state of things which f exists A. A R. R Anderson of Sioux Pass Mont says he has to give nine bushels of wheat now to get geta I Ia a pound sack of flour at the mill mm or almost three times as I much as in 1914 The railroads the millers the wholesalers and the retailers are not expected to do business at a loss then loss then why should this be required reI required re re- re- re I qui red of the grower The French farmers are rioting right now because because be be- cause they say the profiteers are all the profits We Ve have received copies of of a broadside which shows however that the spread between the price of wheat and the price of I I bread is Js very small compared to that in some other cases This statement says Corn flakes retail retail retail re re- re- re tail at 1120 a bushel when the farmer is getting 10 cents Puffed wheat is sold for 15 cents for four ounces which is 36 a bushel hushel But puff puffed d rice is the real aristocrat as it is made of rice that cost 20 a ton tori and the price pricel is puffed up till it is S 1400 a ton Of course the cent 15 cereals are often sold for 13 cents or two for 25 in cut price stores A research man states slates that some of the big baking companies made profits of 30 per cent during during dur dur- ing the boom period and that they still have a wide margin He says that both the baking concerns and the chain stores could stand a much reduced profit and thus give the consumers the benefit of savings By their own story the bakers could pay the grower two or three times as much for the wheat and still get by We Ve read under Bright Spots in Business in the daily papers that some of I the big breakfast food companies are not only making their usual profits but that they are even declaring extra dividends About the only American workers work work- ers who can afford to indulge in those up puffed-up tic cereals would be those day a carpenters carpenters carpenters carpen carpen- in Washington In France a loaf of bread weighIng weighing weighing weigh weigh- ing over two pounds costs only two cents and a half or about one-fifth one the average American J price In both cases the bread may be made of the same American Ameri Ameri- can wheat The The Pathfinder |