Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-11-06
THE ODORlFEROUS ONION.


Ii ought TO be said, IS q matter of
common justice TO one Of the most
popular and yet most ealumniated Of
garden vegetables, that the onion has
displayed O diguiied reserve through
out the entire controversy over the
high cost of living.
1t appears To have been entirely
content TO remain in the background
while potatoes. cabbages, caulifiow-
ers turnips, celery. lettuce and even
radishes have pressed the m selves
continuously upon public attention.
But il appears that the onion could
not altogether escape the not0rie "
it has thus far consistently Stunned.
A railroad manager who is fond Of
talking TO the cultivators of the soil,
and who likes particularly to dive II
upon garden truck in its relation to
the daily life of the people, made
statement not long since. il seems, to
the effect that onions which brought
the growers only 1921, 600 in
single year cost the consumers S.
PIE, 600.
An editor in the very heart of the
onion belt of the great Southwest Of
the United States, rises to que stion
the accuracy of this statement. On
ions, as he views it, pass only through
few hands between grower and con-
sumer. IF cents stuck 10 their
fingers in passing the &c from the
customer 10 the consumer, he says,
cit would mean such an abnormal
profit that me would leave all other
occupations in order to handle onions.
The mere fact that they do not do
50 throws doubt upon the figures.
There is no monopoly in handling
onions. If the middlemen get 9 cents
to the growers the grower must
be very stupid fellow indie I'd not to
become a middleman.
1t is difficult to verify the figures
named by the railroad manager; per-
haps it would be impossible TO do so
unless estimates be accepted. But
this does not materially strengthen
the position of his critic. AS a mat
ter of fact onions do pass through
many hands, as a rule, from the time
they leave the grower until they
reach the consumer. This statement,
of &C urse, has reference to the dried
onion. Like many other commodities
il is moved backward and forward,
distributed and redistributed, until in
the course of things it may, after
travelling thousands of miles, find its
way again to the neighborhood in
which it was grown.
hn e "a q L.
carload, by the ton, by the barrel,
by the bushel, by the peck, by the
dozen, even by the half dozen, before
it finds its way finally TO the kitchen.
1t is among the probabilities, at
least, that during this frequent hand
ling nobody obtains in the handling Of
it at exorbitant or an abnormal profit
As ia the case in a thousand and one
other Instances, the enormous expense
cident to a clumsy system of distri-
button is widely spre sd so that the
margin of profit in the handling OF
the onion is very low at every stage
OF the process.
The fault, at any rate, does not lie
with the onion. 1t will grow almost
anywhere. There is no reason why
it should be pulled and hauled every
where, unless one may be found in
the senseless modern custom Of ship
ping everything TO common eenters
that they may be reshipped to other
common centers, and that they may
accumulate at every shipment cost
which the consumer must meet. The
onion did not voluntarily enter into
this discussion, yet its disposition
here as elsewhere is &c apologize for
even a seeming intrusion Christian
Science Monitor