CHAPTER VIII 



Butter Prices 



influence of a producers' exchange upon prices 



In the chapter dealing with the history and development 

 of the organized butter markets reasons for the organiza- 

 tion of the producers' exchange were given. It was then 

 said that the motives actuating the founders of the Elgin 

 Board of Trade were to secure for the producers of butter 

 higher prices and more satisfactory terms of sale than they 

 were getting. It was also pointed out in the preceding chap- 

 ter that the interests of the producers' markets and middle- 

 men's markets are opposed to one another with respect to 

 prices. Reference was also made to the federal investiga- 

 tion into the methods of quoting prices on the Elgin Board 

 of Trade and to the decree enjoining the Board from quot- 

 ing any prices other than those based on actual bona-Ude 

 sales. It was charged that the quotation committee was 

 dominated by the centralizing interests, and that these big 

 concerns bought large quantities of butter during the sum- 

 mer to be placed in cold storage and sold in the winter. 

 The quotation committee, it was therefore said, was inter- 

 ested in maintaining low prices during the early summer 

 and high prices in the winter. 



An attempt is now made to show by actual figures whether 

 these claims are borne out when the Elgin prices are com- 

 pared with the New York prices. The former are pro- 

 ducers' prices; the latter, middlemen's prices. It must be 

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