Norwich bulletin., 1913-08-30
A PiT1FUL DISCLOSURE OF STUPIDITY

(Written Specially For The BuIletin.)
 Hundred and twenty five carloads of perfectly good potatoes spoiled in the railroad yards at Kansas City, Mo, last month. Carloads, you under stand,-not bushels or barrels. They had been sent down from Washing ton and Montana, consigned to whole salers at Kansas City. When they ar rived the wholesalers had their bins full and calmly refused to accept them. This threw them back on the railroad s hands The road tried to sell them for what they could get to pay their own fPetgtt charges. They sold few The rest stayed in the cars till they spoiled. Then, I suppose, they were dumped into the river.
 One railroad sold a whole ear of 6o5 bushels for s25. This was less than a quarter of the freight. few other cars were sold at comparable rates But the roads wouldn't sell less than q carload at a time, and individual purchasers couldn't handle six hundred bushels.
 That is to say, they thought they couldn't. And remember what thought did'
 Doubtless there are several labor unions in Kansas City. Doubtless some of them have as much as S25 in their treasuries. What was to hinder their doing what some Chicago labor unions are doing; viz, using that money to buy a carload of potatoes for the families of their members at four cents a bushel, which Is about what sos bushels at s25 would come to? t Doubtless there are at least hun dred heads of families in Kansas City who could have scraped together 20 cents to buy six bushels apiece, and -N-4 Isa,-1 Is or-h q to store them in, If they had only possessed foresight and gumption enough to bunch" their orders, take the car load and divide it up, pro rata.
 Why didn't they do 1t? Why couldn't they see the chance to save money? Why hadn't they the foresight to save 1t? Why was nobody in the whole con- sun1ing army ready with any scheme to take advantage of such a chance?
 Also, moreover, and with the same probability of an answer:-"Why is hen?'
 There are a whole lot of questions circling around such an event as this: a whole lot which deserve study, and the consideration of which might well make sensible fnen wonder where our eoasted brains hide themselves when they are wanted to work
 For instance, there were the Wash tngton and Montana potato growers: what were they about when they sent i25 carloads to a market which couldn't or wouldn't take them? Why didn't they find out beforehand? What kind of farming sense is it which spends the summer caring for ana digging pota- toes, only to chuck them on some rail- road car and send them off, nobody knows where, nobody knows to whom, nobody knows at what price?
 
 For instance, again, there were the Kansas City wholesalers. At the very time those 125 tnwanted car loads ar rived there, there were cities farther east where there was a shortage, cities to which the tubers might have been transferred and sold at some sort of profit. Couldn't the Kansas City wholesalers think in terms outside of Kansas City? Couldn't they see across the brooks
 For instance, again, there were the railroads. They had 75,000 bushels on their hands. but they wouldn't sell any except in full carload lots. Doubtless there were at that very moment sev- eral experienced salesmen out of work in Kansas City, who would have been glad of the job of opening those cars and selling direct from them to con- sifners in barrel or bushel lots A few dollars in salaries and a few more