Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 268, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1911 — Indianapolis Has a Municipal Market [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Indianapolis Has a Municipal Market

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.—Believing that 1 Indianapolis commission firms combined, to maintain high prices by keeping down the supply of farm products. Mayor Shank brought a car load of.potatoes from Wisconsin and sold them at cost, plus a small sum for bbying, handling and delivering. In less tban a week the price of potatoes dropped 50 per cent as a result The mayor has now proposed to the council that it authorize the employment of a municipal buyer to follow the sale prices of the dealers and, the prices charged by producers. •“I am convinced,” the mayor said, “that if 25 of our leading cities would do this the combines that maintain high prices could be_ broken. There are thousands and thousands of bushels of pears and apples going to waste in the' orchards of Indiana because the commission firms plan to keep* the visible supply down and keep up the prices. The same conditions exist in bther states and cities.” < The mayor had charge of the first car load of potatoes, and there was a remarkable scene at the city market when the first car was Sold. It had been announced that any one person could buy as much as a bushel for 75 cents, a peck at 20 cents or half a peck for a dime. As early as three o’clock the crowds

began gathering. Customers went there on foot, horseback, in carriages and automobiles. When the first wagon load arrived and the mayor announced the sale was on, there was a continual clamor for potatoes until ten o’clock, when the car load had been sold. The potatoes were . sold by weight and not by measure. There are 60 pounds to a bushel and it was found that 60 pounds always heaped high a bushel measure. So with the measures of less denomination. One man remarked he could buy potatoes at 75 cents by weight, sell them at 75 cents by measure and make money. Following his first experiment in selling direct to the consumer, the mayor sent expert buyers into the potato and fruit districts of Michigan. Wisconsin and Minnesota. He says the buyers found that there are large crops of potatoes and apples and other fruits, although it has been maintained by the dealers that the potato crop is a failure.