The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-11-17
THE STAFF OF LIFE.

Meantime, Wnllc the Iol'tl'ti economists are showing that the price of bread is regulated by the law of supply and demand, and that monopoly has not thing to do with it, for it cannot infringe upon that economic principle, some in- spired idiot might with profit to us all explain how it is that although the United States produces more wheat than any of them, bread IS cheaper in England, France and Switzerland than it is in the Land of the Free and the Home Of the Brave.
 And fl this is not enough of problem. they might very well con descend to tell us now Il is that iA Australia, the very loaf which costs six cents now iu the United States, is retaiied in the lard Of the South ern Cross for four cents, although the per capita wheat production ot Australia is not a third as great as that of the United states.
 Nor is the question of price paid for the Staff of Life simplitied by consideration of the commercial ac. tivities within the wheat market, The Allies are buying and have ex- pressed their willingness to buy four hundred million dollars worth of the six hundred millions produced.
 The economist says "There you are, the Allies are buying up the wheat and there is not enough for this country, hence the price must be so high" That is all very well. But why should the same loaf made by the Allies from wheat bought ln the United States be cheaper than the loaf bought by Americans and made from identically the same wheat?
 These are questions not to be solved off hand. There are many factors which have to be fully in vestigated before the six cent loaf of bread can be explained away in detail
 In any event let us side track this matter of the Staff of Life a minute to reach a deeper question that is most directly involved.
 One of the highest functions of industrial activities ought to be that of feeding, clothing and shelterins society. Man must be fed. Hence the feeding is of prime importance. If we could live on grass, or moss. or chunks of wood, or sand, or clay, or gravel. or stone, the question would not be a serious one. But it is true that we must earn our bread with the sweat of our brow or the other fellow earns it with his sweat for us, which is accepted by all good preachers as the same thing.
 Accordingly this matter of feed ing being a supremely high and i'm portant function, society should have great concern about it's effici- ency It's sowing and reaping, its milling and moving, it's baking and it's purveying should be matters which are thoroughly understood and thoroughly efficient in every way. Waste should be eliminated. And the main thing to be considered should be that all should have their food requiremnts satisfied with the least per centage of useless labor and There is some efficiency for you. But what efficiency expert would for a heeting second consider the elimina- tion of the grain broker, the specu- lator, the elevator man. the grader and the like? What person would consider the question pure ly from a social point of view and see to it with the elimina- tion of all other matters, the hungry were fed?
 Why, under Gods canopy not a one The efficiency expert is not a social worker It is immaterial to him whether the social functions are performed well or ill. He is not concerned in labor and work and energy being expended in satisfying the social needs. No one considers efficiency in that connection at all.