FOOD PROFITEERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 299, 13 September 1919, Page 2

FOOD PROFITEERS

DEMAND FOR ACTION

SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S PROTEST

"Unless.something is done quicifly, and . done thoroughly, to check rising prices in tho necc6sarics of lifi, there will bo •violenco in this country," says Sir A. C'onun Doylo in the "Times" . recently. Man must livo, and tlieso wicked prices ' uio making it a hard matter. What ara , our rulers about, and why are they tacifly t protecting a handful of proliteer's to tlio j danger of tho nation?- The men who aro I making fortunes out of the needs of tho peop'.o are not very numerous, they ara not difficult to fiud, a very little examination would establish their guilt, and if there is no flaw adequately to punish ! them, then it is a reproach to our law- . makers that such a law should not exist. Let it be 'passed and most rigorously enn6led'." A dozen cases of extreme punish- - nient \vould work a' wondrou? change." Sir Arthur gives, as an illustration of the. present monstrous condition of affairs, the prices charged for market-gar-den produce sold at Covent Garden. "Tho cabbage or lettuce which is bought from tile market gardener (who conveys it to | "Covent Garden) at Id. or lid.," lie says, "is-sold in-tho shops at an average'of ■from Bd. to Is. Occasionally it passes Is., for!there is iio Siinit to .the'conscience'less greed.••■Now,-only two-people have ' : handled' that vegetable since tho grower received- his very reasonable price,' which would be' lower were it not that every expense which he bears, from his labour to his petrol, lias greatly increased. He is guiltless in the, matter. Tho guilt lies between the wholesale dealer • who buys 'the consignment at three or four o'clock in tho morning at Covent Garden or other inarket, and the retailer who comes to buy it from the wholesale dealer at somo i later hour. Between them, although they do nothing' but handle , what-others-by their work arid care have produced,' they * increase tho price at least four—and often - six' or eight-fo?d." ■

It' the wholesalers, whoso case .is the worst, plead; that their expenses at Covent ; Garden causo this inflation, continues' Sir ' Arthur, "then Covent Garden should. , 'itself bo abolished, and a'Government market' established. A few ctean-run , British'.;oflicers, .with plenary powers, would very soon set things right." "Meanyvhile," he says, -."three matters '. press! The'firs'tiis ..to decree' heavy pun- ■ ishment for anyone who destroys food, as .'M:dono.ljt some dasfcs'iirorder to keep up- prices.' A.second is to punish in tli6 same,way anyone who sets up any ..impediment to' the circulation of'marketable goods. . . -. The third, and most im- ' portant filing, is to definq what is a'fair profit in tho ease both Of middleman and , 'of. retailer, and to, clap the offenders into gaol. ,-The recent fines of a. few shillings are rathei- an incentive to criino than a .deterrent'; ' "