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Show THE COMMISSION TRUST. "&M- H A MAJORITY of the seven com- fffjSJlF 1 mission houses in Salt Lake arc IllllIHr- H said to have organized a trust jTyr1 H whereby these houses, working under , H a common agreement, may buy in car - H load lots and sell at prices that they iHW H decide upon. oC B Some of the commission houses LaJiAt H have struggled along heretofore under H difficulties because or their malnte- l'iTiy'W?!.55l BS nance of competition. Some of them f6&aR' Sfl have made money while others have ;Ho33fc H merely existed, battling against a re- SMHS Ih celvership. To buy in car load lots blSSSSal H two or three houses would combine W""Mr ""T 1 and then divide the shipment, but this ' fm?t 1H has proven unsatisfactory, so much so "hl HH in fact that the larger houses have if nw WM entered into a consolidation that will rnkmrndim WM eventually freeze out the smaller fry L ' and make it possible for the combine 1 to iix prices on the local market and , coiftmand the situation so far as prod- s uce 1b concerned. Not many years ago the Butchers and Grocdrs of Salt Lake saw an op- f I portunity to join forces and control 1 prices. A price committee was named ! and this committee wont forth each H day to tell members of the combine H -what they would be expected to H x charge the consumer for butter, H - cheese, eggs and other commodi- H ties. No one in the confine dared H ''' undersell another. Final! , the peo- E pie tired of the increasing cost of H living, called a grand jury and made tit so hot for tjie Butchers and Grocers, that while no indictments was re- i turned the association went out or the price fixing business. Since that H time a number of the grocers who Hjt - thrived on the combine have, made B an utter failure at running independ- H ' ently and have gone out of business. H This is a bad year for combines. B The commission houses of Salt Lake may take warning that the people are H hardly in humor for anything that H savor, of a rate-fixing, price-control- H ling association. |