Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1911 — Blame Middlemen for the High Prices [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Blame Middlemen for the High Prices

INDIANAPOLIS, IND.—An experiment to determine how far a city can go in reducing the cost of living is to *be made in Indianapolis under the of Mayor Shank. Following a suggestion of James Wilson, secretary of the department of agriculture, that municipalities take up the question, the maypr appointed a commission to make an Investigation. These men will spend' the next few weeks investigating conditions that are supposed to be responsible for the high cost of farm and garden products. On their report will depend the city’s action. Several years ago Indianapolis established a market place for the purpose of giving the people a chance to deal direct with producers and in that manner to keep prices as low as possible. Preliminary inquiry Indicates unscrupulous middlemen* have been

bartering the market, buying up farm’ produce at wholesale prices and them selling at whatever prices they could extort, thus forcing all prices on the market upward. Some have even gone so far as to disguise their employes as farmers and have them take their places in the market with what were supposed to be farm wagons with’ fresh produce. It developed that middlemen control the prices of four-fifths of the produce handled on the Indianapolis market and that they have advanced the prices to suit themselves. Comparisons made between the prices of a few farmers not taken in by the middlemen with the prices fixed at the market stands show that the farmers have been and are selling food stuff at an average of less than onehalf the amount fixed by the middlemen. Tomatoes, apples, potatoes and other staples have been sold 50 per cent, lower by the farmers than by the parket stand proprietors in spite of the city’s regulation#. The city government hopes to get at the bottom of the situation soon and to devise means by which the middlemen will not be able- to grab the fMtn products and force the people to pay their prices.