Norwich bulletin., 1912-05-11
WHAT CENSUS FIGURES PLAINLY REVEAL

(Written Specially For The Bulletin)
 Statistics are proverbially dry read ing. Likewise bones would be pretty hard eating in these days of almost universal store teeth" But we need bones inside of us to keep the other parts from slumping into a greasy heap Likewise, statistics seem to be required te furnish the anatomy for a good many arguments. It's slow and uninteresting work putting in the foundations, whether for a building or for thesis. Nevertheless, it has to be done, if you expect the structure te stand up when it's finished.
 With these few words of excuse, l want to call your attention to few figures from the last census. With the single exception of Australia, the United States eats more meat, per head. than any other country on earth. We average 220 pounds apiece per an- mum. Australia goes us about forty pounds better, but England, the home of roast beef" gets along with an aV- craze of 2O5 pounds; Germany eats only TIT pounds; France only 79 pounds: Spain, Russia and Italy less than 50 pounds per head. each of the three
 Sc much fer one set of figures. Now. just one more and I'll be through with the things, for the present. Dur ing the last ten years the population of non producing cities in this country increased S5 per cent. During the same time the population of the
 
 per cent The total population of the country, l. e.. the consumers, increased by q per cent. The improved furm acreage of the country increased less than four-and a quarter per cent
 Now, will you kindly "put two and tive together" and see about what you get2 Every pound of beef that is eaten in the United States has to be raised and fattened by some farmer on some farm The animals have to be fed on other products grown by some farmer on some farm, either their owners or another's, With 121 persons now demanding meat where there were a hundred ten years ago, there are less than I04 l-4 acres of land in farms against the hundred of ten years ago, and only Ill farmers against the hundred of ten years back. Assuming that the hundred farmers on the hundred acres of farm land fed hundred consumers in 1900, or an even break" then you'll observe that the eleven new farmers on four-and a-quarter acres of added land are call ed on to feed twenty one extra con- sumers this year. That is making bricks with mighty little straw.
 To keep up the parity, there should ka to the hundred among farmers and of twenty one to the hundred in acres farmed- Then, no doubt. there would have been about the same amount of meat and other food stuffs produced, per hundred farmers, and sold to each hundred consumers that there was ten years ago. As things are, it is per- fectly clear, as clear as anything in figures and arithmetic can be. that production isn't keeping it's end up with consumption
 There are 121 people yelling for meat against 100 ten years since There are only III people working to raise the meat against 100. then Taking III out of l2I leaves ten according 10 old fashioned substraction. That is, there are about ten people in every hundred, now. who must either go without meat entirely, or else pay good deal more, or else induce the other hundred to eat enough less to save them a share
 If there happens to be just a hun dred and eleven spools of black linen thread in the dry goods stores of Nor wich, and only d hundred women want black linen thread. then the price will remain steady and fairly comfortable. But if hundred and twenty one women arise in the morning and march on the stores, each individual one of them demanding a whole spool of black linen thread, then and there. Either ten women will go without thread. and ten husbands pantaloons have t0 be fastened up with shingle nails. or some of the women will have to pay extra and fancy prices for thread.
 And then you have the high prices of meat. etc. explained in parable.
 lf there's too much of a tFino on hand for sale, then the price goes down: if there isn't enough of a thing on sale, then the price goes up. The only sure and permanent way to keen the price where it ought to be is to see that production and consumption march elbow to elbow and side by side
 If those who ought to be producers desert that task and choose to become mere consumers. then. of course. con- sumption increases, production de- creases' and prices go ballooning.
 We talk about the old times when food was cheaper, Well, why shouldn't 1t have been2 In 1S40 more than three-QDarters of all the people in the United States who were engaged in gainfhl occupations were farmers In ly10 less than 0ne- third were farmers. 1T yod think that one producer can supply the needs of two consumers as fHliy an cheaDly as three producers used t9 supply the needs of one con- sarneF, then you've got another think coming"
 of course, the producer turns cut more, per capita, than he used to. The invention of labor saving machinery counts for q good deal! Yes, and the consumer calls for a good deal more, per capita, than he used to- Don't forget that, too, Moreover, calves are nst born nor steers fattened by mack ineTy any more, now. than they were in JS4G,, Ii takes just about as long ana calls for just abo1st as much meal to turn out fat beef in 1912 as it did seventy years ago, Somehow - - ------------.----------