Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1911-08-11
conservine the Food Supply

'lgn oil the times. NOT so very iohs
lgo it would have been considered ultra
sires for a state government to concern
itself In Il matter then considered as
regulated by aud amenable only to the
law Of trade based upon an absolute
liberty to produce or not to
produce, to sell or not to sell, TO buy or
not to buy. Those we're the days when
the abundance, the even superabundance
Of virgin laud, never suggested such a
problem as possible shortage OF food
stuffs or a price prohibitive to the null
titude upon any consequential part of
them. And any interference of govern
ment with this so-called natural law OF
trade would have been called paternal- |
ism, aud rank paternalism at that.
The Messenger will venture the pre-
diction that this official inquiry will
result iu the report of two very grave
factors now entering into the increased
cost of the food supply.
One is the failure Of proper distribu-
ton, that is to say, the inability under
present trade and transportation condi-
tioDs to supply region that is short OF
one product from the surplus OF that
product in another region. One section
of the country may be short of potatoes,
for instance, and only able to purchase
them in an inordinately high market,
while another section has potatoes that
literally rot in the bins for want OF a
| market. Two factors now enter into
this economic loss, or better still, eco
uomic waste. One is that under the
present system, or rather lack Of it, the
region that has too many potatoes and
the region that has too few are not in
reciprocal correspondence with each
other on market supplies and have no
practical means of equalizing conditions
of supply that could exist under such
an arrangement. 1t might be almost
said that the discovery by the individ'
ual dealer of plenty of potatoes of a
market for his surplus in region where
they are scarce is largely accidental and
only accidentally improved in the same
individual proportions. But even when
so improved, or even when an attempt
so to improve is proposed, the distance
between the region of plenty and tb'
region Of shortage makes the interposi
ton of high transportation charges
almost always prohibition upon tn
surplus giving Of its share to equaliz
the shortage.
This problem of distribution vii
| never be settled until business adopt
} the policy of establishing and maintain
, ing something like trade clearing
house that will day by day put all part
/ of the land in touch with tn
T status of the food supply in all othe
/ parts of it, and when some co-operativ
= method is adopted whereby the exces
e of the surplus wherever it may be sha
= always flow by the line of least resi-
e lance into the most available region {
4 shortage at hand. This will not onl
: mean the certainty of relief for tho:
f that may chance to be in the region {
d shortage and the securing of a markt
y for those that have plenty to sell,
i itself an economic factor of incalculab
6 good to society at large, but it will ten
Is to equalize and make stable the pric,
6 of market that today, as everybod
,t knows, is governed by the mere chant
st of opportunism and fluctuates with lit
II relation to logical cause and effect.
g. OF course, this is tremendous pro
t. lem, at first facing, and one that it ms
a require long time to solve. But it
n problem that must be solved so lor
as plenty and want are so mocking
contrasted as they are year in and ye
ly out throughout the land, so long as Il
a toll of the husbandman in one region
'g so poorly requitted by an abundant cr'
st for which he can get nothing while
OF some other part of the same country h
In product would be willingly bought at
N living price, if it could be got at all.
D. Another factor that enters into tt
~ problem is the excessive toll taken
he the middlemen on the passage of foo
at stuffs from the producer to the consul
% er. And, it may be added, that the
ly are, in some cases, too many midd
tie men each taking his toll, when under
of more scientific adjustment of ira
lie relations. there might be fewer midd
ct men or no middlemen at all. I'll
n problem, too, is only to be solved
ty something like cooperative syste
ce that shall tend to bring producer a
of consumer into more immediate relate
be ship with one another. But it must
p, solved and will eventually be solved,
as cause the middlemaD, in far too ma
he cases, is simply parasite and a lea
nd and lives entirely upon the desire of
he producer for market that he presen
is can find in no other way and the nee
ad. sity of the consumer for food that