Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1902 — CORNER IN EGGS. [ARTICLE]

CORNER IN EGGS.

Prices of Hen Product Go Booming AH Over the Country. As a result of the cold weather and a “corner,” engineered, it is said, by Chi.engo packers, New York is threatened with an egg famine. Eggs sold in that market at SIO.BO a case, or at the rate of 30 ccuts a dozen wholesale. For inferior brands dealers demanded 30 and 32 cents a dozen. Egg prices have been 36 cents a dozen in Philadelphia, 34 in Chicago, 31 in St. Louis and 30 in Kansas City. According to Chicago commission merchants, two packing companies within tlie last ninety dnys have acquired and withdrawn from the market 500,000 cases of Western eggs. The result is a “corner” in the visible supply, with its inevitable accompaniments. “The two pncklng companies," said a Chicago dealer, “have in cold storage a half million cases, or 15,000,000 dozen eggs, which were purchased at an average price of about 23 cents a dozen. These supplies are held in. the storage warehouses as a speculative investment. If the whole lot should he sold now at 85 cents a dozen the ‘corner’ would yield tlie holders of the eggs gross profits amounting to $1,800,000.” The County Democracy of Chicago is making arrangements for an excursion th~'>ujLthe South February next.