EFFECT OF COLD STORAGE ON PRICES 221 



good condition. Professor William T. Sedgwick, Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, testifying October 24, 1911, before the 

 hearings on cold storage, conducted by the Massachusetts Com- 

 mission to Investigate the Subject of Cold Storage of Food and 

 of Food Products kept in Cold Storage, spoke in part as follows: 



"So far as I am aware, there is no evidence whatever that cold storage 

 is in any way prejudicial to the public health. On the contrary, it is one of 

 the greatest aids to public health, in that it makes food more abundant, and 

 thus enables people to keep up their strength and to avoid such diseases as 

 scurvy, from which the human race formerly suffered so intolerably. Various 

 allegations, of course, have been made touching the wholesomeness of cold 

 storage materials, such as that deterioration takes place during cold storage, 

 whereby people are poisoned or otherwise badly affected, but I have yet to 

 hear of a single instance of carefully investigated and well-authenticated food 

 poisoning due to the effects of cold storage, to deterioration during proper 

 cold storage. I have myself, like everybody else, repeatedly consumed cold 

 storage materials, and while I am ready to admit that the flavor is sometimes 

 changed, and not always for the better, I do not know of any well-authenti- 

 cated, carefully investigated case of food poisoning, or other ill effects, due 

 distinctly to cold storage." 



From the above testimony, and from that of other qualified 

 persons, the conclusion seems fair that cold storage has no ill 

 effects on public health. 



Effect of Cold Storage on Prices. It is charged that cold stor- 

 age lends itself to speculation in food products. The charge con- 

 tains an element of truth. Any person who buys food products 

 and holds them for sale at a rise in price is a speculator. This 

 form of speculation is both legitimate, and, as marketing is 

 now organized, necessary and inevitable. Back of the charge, 

 however, is the implication that there is too much illegitimate 

 speculation, meaning thereby price manipulation and cornering 

 of the market. Any intentional cornering of the market is to be 

 thoroughly condemned. But looking at the actual facts of the 

 case, there seem to be fewer cases of cornering the market under 

 our present cold storage system than there were before the days 

 of cold storage. A large per cent of our present cold storage is 

 what is known as public storage. This means that the food in 

 these warehouses does not belong to the owner of the warehouse 

 but to many competing dealers. For instance, consider the case 

 of the Quincy Market Cold Storage and Warehouse Company, 

 the largest in existence. Here the number of persons storing goods 

 was found to be over 3,000, when an inquiry was recently made by 

 the Massachusetts Cold Storage Commission. A combination in 

 such a case to control prices or corner the market would be difficult. 



It is difficult to state definitely the effect of cold storage on 



