New Britain herald., 1914-07-14
WHAT OTHERS SAY
Views on all sides of timely questions as discussed in ex- changes that come to Herald office.
Public Market Experiment.
(New London Day.)


 .. (New London Day)
 A very keen interest is sure to be taken by the rest of the state in Bridgeport's impending experiment in the esta blishment of several public markets where producer and con- sumer shall be enabled to deal di- rectly. They are not going to start the experiment on too small a scale, in the Park city, but will have three public markets at the beginning, with more to follow if the adventure jus tides itself.
 All over the country there is agita- tion for return to the old time sys- tenn of direct sale and direct pur- chase of produce. It is the nat ural result of the high cost of food and of the knowledge that in some measure that high cost is caused by the complicated system of distribu- tion, where middlemen's profits add much to the consumers outlay and presumably reduce the producers in- come. The public market is the sim- plest possible remedy for this condi- ton and hence the one that most ur- gently appeals to the average mind Ine theory of 1t is excellent. How It shall work out, whether wholly tu the advantage of the buyer or wholly 10 the advantage of the seller, or whether both shall share in the ben ents, or whether there shall be no real benefits at all remains yet to De seen. Not that public markets are unknown, by any means; but to find the effect of the institution on trade and living conditions it Is nec- essary that markets should be estab- llshed where no markets have been; then there is ground for comparison. between that system and the middle man system, not otherwise to be ob tained.
 There is no question but what there IS tremendous discrepancy between the average prices of farm produce obtained by the New England far mer and the average price of these commodities to the housekeeper. Sometimes the total of intermediate profits exceeds greatly the first cost or the goods. An extreme case came to the attention of the writer a short tune ago. which is illustrative of methods in food dealing, though it did not happen to be farm product nor a New England consumer that was involved. A Noank fisherman oOAN getting three cents a pound for them. Later in the same day he called at an uptown retail establishment and priced sea bass. He was asked to pay twenty seven cents a pound. This was, of course. rather special case. but in way it is Illuminating as to the divergence between first cost and last cost of perishabl food products.
 But just how the public market experiment. in isolated cases, is go- ing to work out is less certain than that there ought to be a more ,equit- able system of distribution. Much would appear to depend on the atti- tude of the farmers.
 If. in Bridgeport, they see the ad-. vantage of making the institution a permanent one and fix their prices in such a way as to share something like equally with the consumer the profits that have heretofore gone to the middleman, they will probably be talk ing part In movement bound to spread throughout the rest of the state. If, on the other hand, they merely scale slightly the prices now obtaining, there will be no great in centive to an extension of the sys- tenn, and the great bulk of the pro- duce business will remain in the hands of intermediates, to the dis advantage of both producer and con- sumner.
 A drastic cut in the price of farm commodities through the operation of a market system would, Of course, create an immedi demand in ex- cess of the ability of the producers to meet; with the accompanying temp tation to put up prices. If tie far mers yield to that temptation they will be defeating the purpose of the But if the farmers, sat- isfied with better prices than they can obtain from the middleman but still much lower than retail charges, stand loyal to their customers the cus- toners will stick to them, naturally, and the market become perma- nency.
 If the public market were to be- come an established institution all over the state at once it's effect on food prices would be easier to deter mine and to maintain. The main danger to the system in Bridgeport lies in its isolation and lack of SUD- porting influence in other neighbor- hoods.
 Blakeslec and Progressives.
 (New Haven Union