FORTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION 85 



such as we have experienced during the last year or two in the 

 dairy business, owing to the European war, fine quahty has not 

 been as important as formerly; that is, there has not been the 

 same spread in prices between the extreme fancy goods and the 

 medium poor. 



The importation of foreign butter has been entirely cut off, 

 and instead of an import trade in butter we have had an ex- 

 tensive export trade. Or, in other words, we are trying to sup- 

 ply the world with butter instead of only supplying our own 

 markets. Yet some of our good city people, honest in their 

 opinions, but apparently ignorant concerning the high price of 

 butter, attribute it to a combination of some kind. Our Federal 

 Government has actually been investigating the high prices of 

 butter and eggs. 



When there is an unusual demand for steel and other pro- 

 ducts and prices advance rapidly, due to this cause, there is no 

 investigation as every one seems to realize that prices are reg- 

 ulated by supply and demand. Possibly the reason why the ad- 

 vance on food products claims the attention of the public more 

 quickly than the advance on some other commodity, is due to 

 the fact that food is necessary to sustain life and it is some- 

 thing that we must have and are constantly buying. 



Cause of High Prices 



It was my privilege to appear before the Committee on 

 Agriculture at Washington a few years ago, in opposition to a 

 bill that was before the Committee for the purpose of reducing 

 the tax on colored oleomargarine. I was asked by a prominent 

 congressman from an agricultural district in one of our western 

 states, why it was that butter was retailing at between 35 and 

 40 cents per pound, when it formerly sold at 25 cents per pound. 

 He wanted to know if this advance was not due to a combina- 

 tion of some kind. My answer was that when hnd was cheip 

 and oats sold for 20 to 25 cents per bushel ; corn from 20 to 25 ; 

 hay $6 and $7 per ton, and help could be procured at about half 

 what we pay at the present time, the farmer could afford to sell 

 butter at 25 cents and would then make a bigger profit than he 

 does at the present time. 



