The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-10-13
FRANK E. HOWE. Editor and Pu
Saturday, October 10, 1917.
TO CORRECT FOOLISH WASTE

- " NOhnGSl TOOEiO1 WAC
y The Vermont Committee of Public
Safety is sending around a recon-
mendation in regard to the delivery
of goods that is of peculiar interest to
The Banner for it was urged editori-
ally by this paper several years ago
and several times since then. The
Banner article was widely copied and
commented on and now years later
it comes back to us with backing
that ought to bring about reform.
AS sent out by the committee the
statement of the case is as follows:
Ida M. Tarbell, the publicist and
cheerful response which the public i'll
general makes to every reasonable
plan of readjustment for war needs is
one OF the most heartening exhibits
in disheartening world. Show men
and women what is necessary and
they spring to it. You must convince
them it is right-a healthy system Il
and when they see it is right they do
it, and do it promptly EE
Here is the matter of reforming our
elaborate and wasteful delivery sys-
tenn. A few weeks ago the CONNER
cial Economy Board laid the facts be-
fore the country. I'VE were employing
in sending home our groceries about
100000 men--young men--and as
many horses and trucks. The butch
err, the baker, the general and depart
ment stores had great forces. This
army was not all employed to do for
us what we could not do for ourselves.
Fully fifty per cent of it was busy do
ing things which a little fore-thought
and little willingness would have
eliminated. A half dozen deliveries
day were made to probably a mil
lion households where one or two at
If the housewife had not been en-
couraged by the merchant to think
that the oftener he came to the house
the better he liked it. Extravagant
service was one of his chief competi-
tive tools Probably fifty million lit
tie packages went joy-riding daily
which might have been carried by the
purchaser. and this when we are
counting every gallon of gasoline.
1t cost money, of course The
average cost of deliveries to the groc-
ers of this country has been about
three per cent of their net sales. Ma
turally, they added this to the price
of goods. and the women who orders
once a day pays for those who order
a half dozen times.
1t is possible we should have gone
on heediness and unthinking of all
this waste of motion and material if
the war had not thrust its imperative
demand for young men upon us. War
thrives only when men are abundant.
If war calls they must go. But how
are we going to release them without
stopping the machinery which sup
plies our daily needs? There is only
one scientific way and that is the one
taken by the Commercial Economy
Board in the reform of the delivery of
goods. 1t is the study of each bust
ness practice as an efficiency engineer
would study machine operation.
finding the lost motions, the bad rout-
ing, the preventable waste. 1t means
cutting every prodigality out, husband
ing time and motions as strictly as
money and materials.
1t was such study of the delivery
system that led the government to
recommend fixed number of deliv-
cries a day. at regular hours, to ask
purchasers, as a patriotic duty, to
carry their small packages, and to