240 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



Producers are apparently getting a somewhat greater 

 portion of the consumer's dollar than they did in 1913. 

 This is indicated by Figure 21, comparing the relative 

 average prices of milk in ten cities paid to producers and 

 paid by consumers. It will be noticed that relatively the 

 wholesale prices to producers have gone up somewhat 

 more rapidly than have the retail prices. Figures 23 and 

 25 show the relative wholesale and retail prices in Pitts- 

 burg and Philadelphia respectively. In the case of 

 Philadelphia particularly it appears that the dealers' 

 margin has been growing relatively narrower. In the case 

 of New York (Figure 24) the wholesale price to producers 

 has gone up nearly as rapidly as in the case of Pittsburg. 

 In Milwaukee, however (Figure 22), the relative retail 

 and wholesale prices seem to have remained fairly close 

 together, probably because of the fact that the margin 

 during the basic period of 1913 was quite narrow in that 

 city. 



Milk is not the only commodity, however, in which the 

 spread between retail price and wholesale price has be- 

 come relatively narrower. The War Industries Board 

 reports fifteen commodities on most of which the whole- 

 sale price has gone up more rapidly than has the retail 

 price.i Table XLIII on p. 241 gives the index numbers 

 for several of these. 



In Figure 29 a comparison between average retail milk 

 prices and average retail prices of twenty- two foods shows 

 that relatively milk prices moved upward more regularly 

 and more slowly than did prices of other foods. 



' War Industries Bui. j, pp. 5Sl-S5-i. 



