New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-06-23
HIGH PRICES WILL CO ON
United States Will Never Have a
Remedy, Says DR.. E. E. Pratt.
MARKETING IS WASTEFU-
Crying Need for Better Facilities
in New York, Declares
State Statistician.
LRy Telegraph to The Tribune.l

Lake Placid, n. Y, June 2-''rhe pres
ent system of supplying the community
with food is unsystematic and wasteful'
said Dr. E. T.. Pratt, chief statistician of
the New York State Investigating Com
mission, before the American Home Eco
Monies Association here tonight The
difficulties, however, Of marketing food
stuffs," he added, "are not due to the
manipulation Of any group of men, but are
due to bad method Of marketing"
Dr. Pratt condemned the marketing ia
cilities Of New York City, saying:
At present there are in New York City
only two strictly retail mlrkets-the WASH
ington and Jefferson markets. In addition
there are the public wholesale markets
known as the West Washington, GaIse-
WORT. Wallabout and Fulton (Wlllch does
a small retail business).
In the case Of these markets the city OIL
New York merely acts as q landlord; the
city provides the building and rents out
the stalls 10 retail dealers. There IS con-
siderable vacant space in both or the re-
tail markets, and as result they are
dead loss to the city. AS matter OF fact
the city loses about $4,000 yearly IN the
conduct Of its markets. ,.a.,.o
New York City to-day, has no dennio 20
market policy 1t provides neither ade-
quate wholesale nor adequate retail mar
ketng facilities. The city does not even
prOYlue adequate terminal 1dCllilltS lOI 10
food supplies There is a crying need Tor
some sort Of regulation Of markets ana tor
the provision Of marketing facilities IN the
city OF New York.
'The fault which l have to find with our
present system Of marketing" said DIT
Pratt, lis not due especially to the ra-
pac!ty or dishonesty of any group OF men.
There IS no one group Of distributors, even
Of food products. who are getting especially
rich at the expense Of the consumer. The
difficulty with the present system is simply
that It IS an obsolete, uneconomical and
wasteful ARRANGEMENT of facilities for mar
keting food products. The middleman him-
self is as much a victim Of the system "a
is the consumer" He continued:
The general high level of prices, of which
we read much I'm the public prints ana
of which we hear so much discussion, 10
due in the last analysis TO certain ruhda-
mental causes, chief among which IS the
Increase in the supply of gold, the cheap
ening OF our medium OF exchange;
II the monetary unit In which all values
are measured decreases, then the other sldc
Of the equation. namely, the price OF conf
modtleS, must increase. Therefore We
ind that prices are rising rapidly, not only
in the United States, but also throughout
the entire world
Among the various groups Of commool-
ties however, food prices have risen more
RAPIDLY than the prices OF many other
groups Of commodities. The prices or fo0I
products have risen more rapidly than TIE
prices of clothing, metals, fuel, etc. lnl3
~ 6ue I'm a large part 10 the fact that the
food producing areas Of this country have
been greatly reduced. and that population
a remedy for high prices will probably
never be found in this country. For any
considerable period OF time we may LOOK LOOK
forward to a period Of continued H hlgS9
rricos This IS especially true OF food
iIrnd,Icts because II will be increasingly
ffiig%icult for our agriculture to keep Ralce
with a rapidly Increasing population. rms
fact should make and is making us more NOR,
rarcflI about our methods Of doing ousl-
- ord should lead US to eliminate as
much waste and ineficiency in orr meth
nds Of production and marketing as is pos
cghIp