32 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



wheat crop was taken from them every year by the 

 warehousemen, grain exchanges, and middlemen, 

 who controlled the market. The loss from July 1, 

 1915, to January 1, 1916, amounted to $302,832,000. 

 For every $4 received by the farmer, $3 was taken 

 from him by the middlemen, and especially by the 

 gambling grain exchanges. This much was either 

 taken from the farmers or added to the price which 

 the consumer paid. 



Speaking of speculation in flour and its cost to 

 the consumer, Mr. Herbert Hoover says: 



"The second — that is, elimination of speculation 

 and evil practices — is fundamentally the most diffi- 

 cult and must fill all concerned with the most con- 

 tinuous and deepest anxiety. How important it is 

 that we should arrive at some method of excluding 

 the legitimate' and illegitimate speculation from 

 trades may be perhaps emphasized if we consider 

 what has happened during the past year in the mat- 

 ter of flour. If we assume that the farmer last year 

 received an average of, at the highest, $1.60 per 

 bushel for his wheat, then, with the addition of the 

 normal manufactuiing cost, righteous profits of dis- 

 tribution, the wholesale price of flour should not 

 throughout the country in the larger consuming 

 centres have exceeded $9 per barrel, and yet the 

 price of flour at a great many centres during the past 

 few weeks has been as high as $15 per barrel through- 

 out the country and probably averages over $14. 

 Some one is taking $5 per barrel on 10,000,000 bar- 

 rels per month, which is marketed in this country. 

 If this situation continues, this is $50,000,000 per 

 month taken out of the American public, and since 



