The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-10
BREAD AT COST PRICE.
signor sangiorgi Thinks the Italian
 People Should Be Supplied by

s.=tg . signor sangiorgi Thinks the Italian
 People Should Be Supplied by.
 Government.
 What is rather a new theory has just. been put forth by Signor Sangiorgi, the wealthy Italian philanthropist, writes a Rome correspondent of the New Or leans es-Democrat. He declares that there is one thing to which every one born into the word has a right braed. The signor has just written a book to prove that it Is the duty of a state to provide bread for such of it's inhabitants as cannot afford to buy It.. Better still, however, he has established at his own expense at Massalombarda. a, House of Bread, ? to put his theory. into practice and furnish the govern ment with an object lesson as to the. beneficence and practicability of his system. One immediate consequence of the opening of this establishment has been to reduce the price and improve the quality of the bread supplied by private bakeries in the neighborhood
 Signor Sangiorgi proposes that the government should establish similar in stitutions throughout Italy, where bread will be provided to the general public at almost costprice to charitable institutions at cost price, and to the needy for nothing. He contends that properly conducted they could be made self-supporting. the profits derived from those who buy bread of them defraying the cost of what is given away. If any surplus remains he would invest it as a reserve fund so that in periods of ex- ceptional distress the state bakeries might be able to meet the increased de- rnand for free bread.
 Of course, the bakers themselves are strongly opposed to the project. They. have raised a prodigious howl over it, declaring that the general adoption of such system would ruin them, and that bread cannot be sold cheaper than at present without losing money, which would leave no gain to pay for the bread that is given away.
 This last statement, however, is proved false by experience. At Catania and Palermo, the latter a city with S70,-. 900 inhabitants, breadmaking has been taken over by the municipalities with the result that bread in these places is much cheaper than when the public were dependent on private bakeries for it while the municipalities make sub- stantial profit out of the business.
 Signor Sangiorgf argues that the iil- terests of those concerned in private bakeries should not be allowed to weigh in the balance against the welfare of millions to whom cheap bread is 8 matter of vital concern. As under his proposed system the state bakeries would turn out only the plainer kinds of bread, private bakers would still have the trade in fancy breads entirely ln their hands. ss--... P. ..,-. @.
 As regards the contention that free bread would increase pauperism, Signor Sangfri points out it would be quite feasible to devise safeguards by which the distribution of free bread would be practically restricted to those who could not afford to pay for it. In any event, he contends, the benefits of the system would for outweigh any evils that might result from it's adoption. With the assurance that whatever hap pened a man would be providid with berad enough to eat, life, he says, would cease to be the hopeless struggle to keep body and soul together that is at preasant with a large portion of Italy's population. Bread, he argues, supplies only the primal necessity of life, and he vigorouly assails the theory that that where it is supplied freely all stimulus to work will removed. From the general public Signor Sangiorgi's project has received the most cordial approval.