The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-29
HOME HEALTH CLUB
(Edited by pr. David H. Reeder
 ChicagO.1
PAYING THE PIPER.


 In the big daily newspapers of all our large cities as well as in the less pretentious publications of smaller cities, the Help Wanted columns are filled to overflowing with adver- tisements, offering steadily increas- ing wages for both skilled and un- skilled labor, clerks, salesmen pro- motors managers etc. These adver- tisements are frequently presented in extra space and capitals and they fre- quently offer special inducements to boys and young men from the rural districts.
 This sort of thing has been going on for some years, but it is especially apparent just at the present time.
 The authorities of many large cities and appointing various commissions to investigate the high cost of living. Even the President and Congress are beginning to appoint numerous high salaried investigators who will make inquiries regarding prices, storage, speculation, corners in food stuff and the reports will be voluminous and conflicting. Few if any will get at the true reason.
 The time was and within my me- mOry as we'll perhaps as yours when fine fresh eggs could be had for ten and fifteen cents per dozen, fresh but ter att 15 and 20 cents the pound, a dollar for a 50 pound sack of flour was considered high and good cuts of beef steak were plentiful at 10 and 15 cents the pound.
 Why? Simple. enough. There were as many if not more producers than there were consumers. One hundred years ago over 80 per cent. of the population were producers. They grew the food for their own families and sold only the small surplus.
 The attraction of the cities and their better living conditions, shorter hours of labor and greater profit be- gan to change conditions It has been slow but steady. To-day the popula- tion that produces the farm products is almost completely reversed, nearly 75 per cent. of us live in the cities and must be fed. This condition will grow worse until the present attrac- tions of country life. are recognized by 8 larger percentage of the popu- lation. 5i rf i, If only 25 per cent of the people produce the food for all, then the 75 per cent. must pay the price and as the 25 per cent. is scattered and un- organized; the middle men take ad- vantage of both consumer and pro- ducer and reap a rich harvest. Even under our present inefficient and wastefu1 method of farming, the 25 per cent. could easily produce, an abundance to feed all of us as we'll as to send a big surplus abroad, but our methods of distribution are so crude and unbusinesslike that enough is wasted annually to. feed raH of the eleemosynary institutions ins Amer ica and stiIl have a leftover, -At
 Apples are selling to-day in Chi cago at from cents to. 10 cents per pound. A few days ago a gentleman told me of his brothers big orchard in which thousands of bushels of beautiful fruit would be allowed to rot because he could not sell them for enough to 1pat the high cost of labor in picking and packing them.
 Possibly you think this isn't much of a health article, but I think it is getting at the root of the cause of much sickness and suffering. I find it costs me an average of 50 cents daily; for milk and butter for my fam fly. There are thousands, of families. that need the milk and butter just as my children do, but on account. of the terribly high prices they cannot have their share.
 One of the chief reasons. for this high cost is the method of distribu- tion. Fully a dozen milk wagons, each outfit representing a, cash out. lay of perhaps $40, with man at; perhaps $20' per week and upkeep cost of $10 per week, drive around in my neighborhood and deliver a pint here and a quart there, quarter pound of butter to the lady on the top flour of 6-story apartment building and a pint of milk on the same flour in the next apartments for which he must go to the ground and up six flights of other stairs. The next delivery man, also has a custom CT on the same flour and another man has the family on the fifth floor.
 If the farmers would establish re- tail milk and butter stores through out the city with no deliveries they could get more for their products and save the consumers from 10 to 25 per cent.
 The health departments of many cities are seeking to relieve the dis tress of the poor and ill fed. Let them study problems of production, of waste ard solve the problem of distribution without the speculative commission merchant and other middlemen and they will solve at the same time a great health prob lem for the underfed city dweller