CRUMBS OF COMFORT. A Crusty Combine Checkmated.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 141, 14 March 1903, Page 8

CRUMBS OF COMFORT. A Crusty Combine Checkmated.

WHEN the ' jolly" millers decided a w hile ago that the breakers of daily bread had money that might belong to them, if it could be successfully captured, they bethought them 01 that gentle Yankee notion, the trust. Despite the very general indignation of the people, the combination that raised the price of the loaf, like their great dollai -raising prototypes in America, basked for a while in the sunshine of success. The millers who dared to dispute the will of this corporation, perhaps from a sense of moral obligation, to the people, were frowned at horribly by the dread combination, and the combine winked the other eye, gave its baker debtors the "tip," and the period of rum for the Uitlanders was timed to start right then.

11l this small country, with its perfect legislation, a little war was commenced between the free millers and bond millers, and the mam who buys the bread bore the brunt.- Not, of course, because there was less wheat in the country, or anything \\ke that, but because a few gentlemen, with a penchant 'for lucre, wanted to swell their banking*" accounts quickly. Those free * millers have thrown down the gauntlet, the fight of figures is the consequence,, and for once the bread-winner scores as a result of the fight. * * * Bread is down. A half -penny, or even a penny, a loaf does not sound much to a bachelor wath a thousand a year, but to the 10s a day man, with a youngster for every shilling, the decrease in price means an increase in joy. It is a curious thing that the price of commodities can be raised by the will of a few men, but it is a balm to the heart of the toiler to find that the fight of two capitalistic opponents is lightening his burden. It seems possible that in the race for wealth the gentlemen of the trust have bumped with some force against a pretty solid obstacle, and no one but themselves is particularly grieved. * ■* * Bakers are boycotting the free millers. Of course they are. Did you ever hear of a hotel licensee who refused point blank to sell the beer supplied him by the owner of his house? We expect the bakers who were forced by the trust to raise the price of bread felt keenly for the buyers, but When the loaf rose higher and higher the baker dare not quarrel with his bread and butter. It is unnecessary to call thie bond millers hard names. Like threefourths of their fellow-men, they are out after the almighty dollar, and made a big bid to capture the flour industry. * * * Another body also anxious, in a more exemplary way, to get some of the crumbs, call a halt by under-selling, and the buyer masticates his cheaper crust, and feels grateful. There is reasonable hope that the footing of trusts in this country will become more and more insecure, although, in the face of the success and stability of the gorgeous constellation of beer trust magnates, a trade of lesser importance might have been hopeful of a larger expansion. The onward march of the flour combine is at least checked for the present, amd the man who scores }>y the little war is glad