The daily sentinel., 1910-03-03
THE WASTE OF DISTRIBUTION.

Political economists are agreed
that the main cause of high prices is
the enlargement of the gold supply.
Gold is the yard-stiCk by which all
other values are measured. Increase
the amount of ultimate money and ii
must take a larger amount of that
money to purchase all other articles.
But. while the main principle that
lies back of the increased cost of liv-
ing is generally admitted. the press
ure of domestic economy is compel
ling careful scrutiny of all the min
or factors of the problem.
One important fact is already clear
ly established. While the farmer or
the producer is more prosperous than
ever before. and is getting a larger
reward for his work, the difference
between what the producer gets and
what the consumer pays is unreason-
ably great, For instance. to quote
from recent article which deals
with prices in one of the large east
ern cities as compared with the prices
paid to the farmers of the same state:
potatoes on the farm, 60 cents a
bushel; potatoes at the market, 50 a
bushel; eggs on the farm, 30 cents
dozen; eggs in the city, 60 cents a
dozen; sweet potatoes on the farm
Go cents a bushel; sweet potatoes in
the city, 1884 a bushel.
1t is evident that here Is a great
waste. 1t ought not to cost lao to
get a bushel of potatoes from the
farm to the kitchen, but it does not
follow that anyone along the line is
making big profit off the transac-
tion. For the most part the business
is handled at a very small margin OF
profit and with the creates: possible
efficiency. Wherever possible farm
products are shipped by the car load
in order to reduce freight charges
Storage warehouses and refrigerator
cars minimize losses by freezing Ex-
pensive methods of storage make one
seasons surplus available for times
of scarcity. The more highly organ
lied the business, the smaller the
waste. The most economical and eff
ticient system of production and dis
tribution ever devised in this coun-
try is that of the Standard Oil Com
pany.
But the buyer demands that his
supplies shall be furnished to him
when he wants them and where he
wants them, and in the quantity that
best serves his immediate needs. He
would rather buy his potatoes by the
quarters worth from the grocery at
the next street corner than to go to
a central warehouse and get them by
the sack. BY the discrimination of
! his patronage he insists that an or
der clerk shall come to the house ev
cry morning. He wants his grocer
les delivered in the kitchen In small
quantities. attractively wrapped, of
the best quality-and he pays for all
these things.
The difference between what the
producer gets and what the consumer
nays is far too great. But how un-
| reasonable it is to put the blame for
this upon the trusts, when as a mat
ter of fact the trust methods are the
| lnly effective cure for the evils COM
blamed Of. Let the potato industry,
for instance. or the egg industry, be
organized according to the Standard
| Oil methods, and the cost of living
would be greatly reduced, for the
millions that would pile up in the
| fortunes of the organizers and con
| trollers of the trusts would be but a
small share of the saving to the con-
| sumers.
But the middlemen and the small
dealers would be driven out of bust
ness, Just as they were driven out of
the oil business, and the potato busi-
ness or the egg business would be
shorn of sundry convenient but quite
unnecessary trimmings that are de-
manded by the consumers but are
preposterously eXtravagant from the
standpoint of true economy.
The population of the cities at the
present time is composed of three
classes. First, those that are doing
the necessary work of government,
manufacturing teaching and other
employment that only can be done to
advantage in the cities; second, the
non-productive classes that live upon
the income from invested capital, and
third, those that are engaged in un-
necessary work either in distribution,
financiering or in vicious or criminal
pursuits.
1t is in the third class that the
waste and the folly lies. No man
who is engaged in necessary work, be
he rich or poor, is a public danger or
a public enemy. The amount of dan
ger from the class that lives upon its
investments without work is small,
and its numbers are small.
The real burden comes from n
faulty and defective organization of
industry that sets so large part of
the population to doing things that
do not need to be done, or that ought
not to be done, and compels the ef-
fcient worker to pay the cost of II