The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1914-12-30
HIGH COST OF WASTE

/ Sheer waste, due to inefficient or
ganization of the means of aggre-
eating and distributing necessaries
of life, has long been recognized as
/ one of the most serious factors in
causing the high cost of living. Be-
fore the American Economic Asso-
citation convention yesterday at
Princeton, DR.. Royal Meeker, Federal
commissioner of labor statistics,
outlined some of the specific in
stances of this condition, and urged
that measures for the proper CO.
ordination of the forces of trans
portation and merchandising were
necessary. He did not believe that
either the dishonesty or the cupidity
of the men who handle products on
the way from producer to consumer
was the chief cause of high prices;
but he insisted that waste, in both
processes and products, had much
responsibility to bear.
This is precisely what Mr.. John H.
Sherman, superintendent of markets
for this city, has been telling the
public. Mr.. Sherman recently in
sisted that if the proper instrument
talities for marketing and market
management were provided, the
producer could get higher prices, the
dealers could make larger profits,
and the consumer could get his sup
plies cheaper. That surely has an
optimistic and inviting look; yet it
seems decidedly to be backed up by
what Mr.. Meeker says about mar
Eeting methods. His illustrations
are of the kind all too familiar to
people in every city. He said in
part:
Catalogues were shipped last Au-
gust into washington in such quantities
that commission merchants refused to
handle them. On one day flfty-eight
| carloads of peaches were dumped into
st. Louis. which ordinarily can absorb
! about fourteen or fifteen carloads
! day during the peach season. One
hundred and sixteen carloads Of ap-
Piles struck New York city one day last
month. The market was so glutted that
apples from northeastern Pennsylvania
Melted only about Il cents per bushel.
AT that time the consumer was paying
Sl.6O TO 81 per bushel for bad apples
while the producer was receiving from
Il to II cents per bushel for good ap-
piles.
The differentIal is enormous but it
represents wastes rather than profits
The fault is due mostly to a lack of CO.
ordination in our economic system, and
scarcely at all to the dishonesty of indi-
viduals. The solution can be achieved
neither by prosecution Of commission
men nor by elimination OF them, but by
organization OF the market: but the
llaw can effect some improvement by
licensing and bonding commission mer-
chants and subjecting them TO Federal
inspection.
the farmers into local cooperative asso-
Citations. The Federal Department of
Agriculture is doing good service to en-
courage the formation of such marketing
about 800 at present in the United
States. The objects of such associations
should be TO determine the crops TO be
grown, to insist on proper methods of
growing. to standardiZe and guarantee
the quality. to superintend gathering
transportation and terminal facilities
and TO bargain with railroads for fair
iIeight rates.
The realization that there isn't
very much of dishonesty, of extor-
ton, of excessive proft-taking, in
the conduct of business, but that
there is a great deal of Ignorance
and unintelligence, is very much
worth while. We have had a long
era of effort to remedy conditions
by inducing larger production; and
it has seen conditions get worse in
stead of better. Distribution is far
more in need of reform than is
production; and the direction of at
tention toward distribution is long
gain toward real betterment.