The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-30
IDA M, FARRELL
 ADVISES WOMEN ON BREAD BUYING
Fact That War Is Fought on Wheat Makes Subject
 Important
(By Ida M. Tarbell)

day loaf of freshly baked bread. We so take this convenience for granted that we do not exercise even
 ordinary forethought about the amount of bread that we order in the morning.
 we know that if we take two loaves in the morning and find our selves short toward tea time that an extra fresh loaf Is, easy to get. It ] is only when our attention is chal- ! lenged that common sense tells us | that this is no matter of course but l the result of large preparation on somebody's part. What the machin- cry and efforts are have just been
 made clear by the governments Coun- cil of National Defense.
 | The fact that this war is to be fought on wheat as much if not more than on guns and men is becoming clear to us all. The government is turning it's machinery to study the practical points of saving wheat with out too largely disturbing business. l The Council of National Defense has subordinate body called the Com mercial Economy board. It is the business of this board to see where we can make useful economies in the | distribution of commodities. One of | the first things to which this Com mercial Economy Board turned it's attention was wheat products, and quite naturally it seems now, the first thing they discovered was the com tinuous supply of fresh bread on the retailers shelves. They saw that he | was carrying every day more than he sold, which meant that the bakers who supplied him were making more than they sold.
 EcOn0r1v Board lat once undertook an investigation. It | is one of the prettiest pieces of work I that has recently been turned out in Washington. The board. sent it's agents to a number of leading bakers and wrote to over four hundred oth-, CTS in all parts of the country in or
 der to find out what their, practice was. It was discovered that largely for competitive reasons these bakers kept the shelves of the bread retailer stocked fully with fresh bread. In doing this they did not expect the
 retailer to sell all the bread. Their
 point was that the retailer should all ways have enough of their bread on l hand so that there would be no com plaint on his part that he was not supplied. Any part of the bread that remained unsold the baker took back lwhen the next days supply was de- l livered. The retailer knowing that he would have more bread than he could lsell never required his customers to l order ahead. His customers were trained, so far as bread was concern ed, to toll nor neither to spin, noth- | ing to do, but order at any hour of l the day.
 | It requires little thinking to see I that this arrangement must mean waste at some point. As matter or fact the Commercial Economy Board l finds that it means considerable waste, one which at the present time cannot be allowed to continue. As nearly as the board can estimate with | the help of the bakers of the coun- try, who have been taking a hearty Interest in the investigation, it should be said to their credit, fully four per lcent. of the bread delivered to the Iretailers of this country is returned ot, the bakers, the bakers themselves i going to the expense to collect it. I Now what is done with this four per cent of the returned Ioaves. some of it is sold to the poor who go di- lrect to the, bakers for it.. It is per ifectly clesG. however, that if the bak-
 CTS did not over supply the retailers q and were not obliged to bring back Il the leftover Ioaves, they could af-
  at as low a price as they do now. Or the four per cent returned, probably :. one and gone-half per cent. is fed to ] pigs chickens and other animals. Now make a little calculation. Sup pose in your town the bakers put out ten thousand loaves a day. g. small town requires as many, there was
 one hundred and fifty 1oaves fed to
 the pigs and chickens. Extend this
 calculation. There are bakers in our II large cities who turn out over half million loaves a day. That means : 7,5Oo for the pigs.
 It needs no argument to these who realize what the shortage of wheat 1, means to convince them that this leakage must be stopped. All that thinking people ask Is how 1t can De done. The bakers themselves are be- ginning to take steps. Inquiry among the bakers show that probably on an
 average at least eighty per cent. arc
 in favor of stopping bread returns
 that is, they are in favor or selling
 to the retail bread dealer only what l he believes he can dispose of. This f plan has already been put into effect , by the bakers of Washington city and 3 they say it is working satisfactorily } And here the women come in. They t iere bread buyers, and the no-returr !. i bread plan means that they must l make their calculations for the days
 supply and do it in such business
 like fashion that they will not be -lef'
 l in the afternoon. without a loaf. tha' z if they are so left they will not com . plain to their grocer, but that they . will accept the fact as a proof of then = own lack of business foresight in or , dering.
 . This really important saving car only be effected if the women of the
 country generally back it up. The
 Woman's Committee of the Counct of National Defense is today asking the Chairman of it's state divisions te spread throughout their organizations
 a request that they will immediately
 begin to order bread for twenty foul , hours instead of for temporary needs s that they regulate their purchase
 from day to day as much as possible . so the retailers may know better how
 much to order, that they explain
 carefully to their neighbors who may
 not have been reached in any wa,