Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1913-12-19
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1919.
MIR. ALIENS ADDRESS.

In Saturdays Herald there will ap-
pear an address, printed in connection
with other interesting matter by Mr..
: Frederick III. Allen. of the New York
State Delegation on the American Com
mission which studied European farm
ing methods and conditions last sum.
mer.
The address is Il feature of a meet
ing called for the discussion of systems
of cooperating in marketing, and il list
Of the men and women invited to be
present will be a feature Of the news
story which embOdies Mr.. Aliens speech
A perusal of this list will be interest
ing, as showing the extent of the inter.
est in this question and the character
n standing OF the l'eopie who are in
terested.
In his address Mr.. Allen will shown
how this question Of production and
marketing lies at the very roots of the
question of profitable production and
that of the cost of living. 1t touches
the producer on the one hand and the
ultimate buyer on the other. Also he
will show how and why it is that in
many European countries the farmers
get better resturns for produce while
the final buyer gets the produce cheap
er than the American buyer.
For example he will show that in Am
erica the farmer gets 81 cents out Of
every dollar paid bv the consumer. and
H. on{, e I:f-:l,,:n rnt e. .oDf~
while in Europe the situation is exactly
reversed the farmer getting the %
cents, while the cost of distribution is
only 30 cents.
His position on this point is able and
most convincing. He said: rg
The excessive expense Of getting
these food products from the pro
Queer to the consumer is largely
responsible for the high cost of liv-
ing. This fact has been brought out
repeatedly md proven by all the
investigation that have been made
of the subject. The several items of
expense have been segregated and
the ones which are responsible for
this high cost in the greatest degree
have Been cloarlr shown III the re
ports of the several commissions
appointed hv the State and City of
New York to study the subject. The
Markets Commission, which pub
lished its report about Il year age.
The New York State Food InvcSti-
eating Commission which has Just
completed its report, a subcommittee
Of which showed the proportion of
the consumers dollar that is rep
resented by transportation and dis
tribution of farm produce from the
place where it is grown to the ter
minals in the cities by the railroads.
10 be a surprisingly small proper
ton of the expense. Let us take an
illustration in the ease Of milk.
The railroad cost represents II a
cent a quart per 10 miles. An indie
pendent investigation in the city of
Rochester Il typical manufacturing
center brought out these facts:
Under the present methods of dist
tributinc milk in that city. which
a~npIics to NEST of the cities IN our
State. sos wagons are used. travel
ing a ~totalof $500 miles daily. i'll
yolyinn a cost of about - 900 per
day. Under a well organized Sys-
tenn > delivery trucks would do the
same work at Il cost OF TGU9 per day
and would have to travel only $50
miles TO serve the same customers.
On the basis of these figures. the
waste i'm distributing this one com
modify in Rochested alone is est
mated at $500 Gee per year, or -. 30
per capita which u nearly : 10
cents for each quart of milk con
sumed. This results from the pres
ent method of competitive delivery
and assembling, which results in a
= tremendous duplication and unneces-
sary expense.
Perhaps there is no more interesting
feature of the speech certainly no more
instructive part of il. than where the
sneaker takes up the question Of the
distribution of milk in this country.
Heading it attentively we easily under
st,nd WHY it is is that the average house
holder of a small Texas City pays more
per Quart for his daily supply of milk
than the average householder in the big
rich, expensive city of Paris.
Of course much more thai the question
Of milk supply is involved i'll the adj
.-. mona thap tho nrpIlrtiOu Il