60 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



$1,000,000, with the prospect of a still higher exten- 

 sion the following week unless the power of price- 

 fixing was taken out of the hands of the speculators. 



Control of cold-storage plants is the key to the 

 food situation, say food ex-perts of New York. Be- 

 cause of private control speculators corner the supply 

 of fresh foods and charge all they can get. At the 

 time of the investigation practically all the available 

 cold-storage plants in Greater New York and Jersey 

 City were filled with eggs and other farm produce, 

 purchased by the speculators during the months 

 when prices were lowest. Eggs bought at 17 cents 

 to 19 cents a dozen, says Mr. Dillon, were sold on 

 November 17 at 60 cents to 70 cents a dozen, 

 with even higher prices in prospect. The city 

 consumes 100,000 cases of eggs so stored each 

 week, which is the basis on which the profits of the 

 speculators were calculated, Mr. Dillon says: "It 

 costs only 2 cents a dozen for holding eggs for ten 

 months. On that basis it is easy to see just how 

 much is being made out of the manipulation of egg 

 prices in the city. I estimate that the citizens of 

 New York City would save from $7,000,000 to 

 $10,000,000 annually by the establishment of such 

 [municipal] cold-storage plants." 



"The present cold-storage facihties," says Mr. 

 Dillon, "ai'e not sufficient for New York City. In 

 consequence, a large part of the storage goods 

 consumed in the city are held in Chicago, Buffalo, 



