San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-06-07

Why Does IL Cost So Much TO Liver
Philadelphia Press.
This problem never pressed so hard
on two classes of people as today.
For the farmel the past ten or twelve
wears have seen a permanent reduc-
ton of one-third or more in all he
gets for grain;of from one-half to one
third in the price of the meat he
raises of an equal reduction in his
milk, and in this state, Delaware and
Pennsylvania an almost complete
loss of the market for the first early
vegetables, and with it the best pro-
| fl is of the year.
The farmers loss has not been the
househOider's gain. Bread, meat and
milk are as high as they ever we're.
Cheap transportation has reduced the
price of a barrel of -four to from s. &c
to 81 so a barrel-quotiDg this week s
prices. But the 800 pounds of bread
which barrel will make sells for SIG
| to $40, if the bread be bought by the
| loaf. If steers can be bought from &c
to &c a pound, the householder goes
on paying lSc to SOC pound for all he
BUYS. If he is wise enough and his
wife is skillful enough to make
a round steak at 12c q pound
| or chuck ribs at l0c q pound as
| palatable as better cuts he is still
| paying twice the cost of the original
article for the poorest cuts. The
| farmer can only get sc to l2c a
quart for his milk, but the customer
pays Sc quart for the best milk, &c
and &c for fair article and sc for a
poor one.
We doubt if there is a single article
which is currently used for food, ex-
elusive of sugar, which is not dOu bled
in value before it reaches the con-
sumner. One-half of the average in
come up to s., 600 or even 81 900 year
is spent on food and its preparation,
and fully one-fifth on food direct.
AS nearly all of the food doubles in
value after it leaves the farm, for the
great mass of the community 81 in IS
of the total wages goes to the middle
man who handles food.
"The railroads, the great corp-are
tions?" shout q great chorus of ObjctO-
Ors in explanation. Oh, no, not all.
The railroad charges only 40c from
Chicago and Csc from Minneapolis on
the barrel for flour. The meat has
cost about 1-2c pound to bring 1t
from places where it costs, alive,
from &c to &c a pound. The milk is
delivered to the dealer in most cities
at from lac to 1-2c quart for all
charges of transportation. If every
thing else were as cheap and econOm-
ical as the railroads, food would cost
only a trifle over half what it does
now, say two-thirds the present
charge.
The real pinch is in our wasteful
system of retail delivery. Watch a
milkman delivering milk along a
long route-here few quarts and
there few, crossing his track, skip
ping houses, and travelling miles by a
devious route to serve few families.
II his houses were punched together
it would not take half the time or
half the cost. A Brooklyn Butcher
has Just published his sales for jan
uary and February. He sold 1914
at cross profit of 121 81, out of which
the expenses of the store took
$49.76, and delivery $l490. This
brought the profit to $57.95
or s per cent on the over
turn for interest on capital and risk.
To do this he had to sell steer which
cost l-2c pound at an average OF
lie, and it cost as much to deliver the
meat in Brooklyn as to bring the steer
from Chicago. 1t is just 80 with
bread. After the railroad has
brought barrel here for 40c, it costs
$14 to SIS to make it and deliver it.
The result is that flour is cheaper
here than in London. and bread near
ly twice as dear per loaf.
1t will never cost any less to live
until the same vast organization is
applied to retail delivery which has
revolutIonized wholesale transporta-
ton. Three great roads bring
everything to Philadelphia, six or
seven do the same. tor New York, four
or five do it for Boston. They do il
cheaply and do it we'll. When retail
ing is done on the same vast scale,
living will be cheap. 1t will not be
until then. .
We have changed all else in trans
portation and manufacture, but we
buy cur household supplies just as
our fathers did, in small quantities
and with no system, and it costs us
half our outlay on food.