The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-01-20
View of Uncle Sans army bake
shop under the Statue of Liber-
ty on Bedloe's Island. Wives
of Soldiers Pay Less Than Two
Gents g. Pound for Loaves.
1y K. w, PAYNE.

New York, Jan. 20.-Uncle Sam has
put on bakers cap and solved the
bread problem!
Two large loaves, fresh from tho
oven, for a nickel, is his extraordinary
price!
But don't excited, housewives. You'll
have to become soldiers wives as well
if you want to lessen your living cost
by buying at Uncle Sans cut'rate
shop.
have visited the little bakery on
Bedloe's island, in New York harbor,
where two pounds of fresh bread are
sold for a jitney! The same weight OF
bread in the city would cost 16 cents.
Under the shadow Of the Statue Of
Liberty, which rises above them sym
bolic of their freedom from the high
cost of living, a group OF army men
and their wives are paying less than
two and one-half cents pound fol
bread.
Under the shadow OF the skyscrap'
ers of Manhattan, monuments to com
merce, we are paying eight cents a
pound for bread. #s,
Is Typical.
The bakeshOp under the Statue OF
Liberty is typical of other army posts
throughout the country. What goes
on in the way of buying and selling
food here illustrates the advantage the
government can give families Of sol
diers, sailors and marines.
Every month we figure the total
cost of the ingredients we used In
bread and divide it by the number OF
ne.pound loayes baked" said the ser
geant in charge. "The result fixes the
price for the following month.
"The soldiers wife doesn't have to
pay for the labor that goes into the
loaf, because the soldiers do the work
nor for fuel or rent and upkeep of the
bakeshop. The city baker has to pay
these costs, also the costs of his ma.
terials, and has to pay himself some
kind of profit.
But I've studied in the army bak.
ing school and know something about
it. And l can't see how a modern bak
er, with first-class labor-saving de-
vices and the economics of production
on a huge scale, cannot sell his r.
ounce loaf for less than six cents and
still make good profit, if his ingred.
tents cost only half a cent per ounce Of
bread, as our figures show they do
And it isn't only on her bread that
the soldiers wife saves. 1t is practi-
cally everything she buys.
At Bedloe's island l saw tins of sal
mon selling for IA cents, canned corn
at 8h cents, dozens Of other articles
of food priced several cents lower
than the retail prices for city people
The answer is the same as in the
case of bread. The soldiers family
pays for a package Of macaroni or
can of cocoa only the exact price of
the article to Uncle Sam, and Uncle
Sam buys cheap, at wholesale.
But doesn't Uncle Sam feed his SOL
diers? Why do they have to buy any
food at all?
For the Families.
Every enlisted man is fed free by
the government. But he has to buy
with his own money the food for his
wife and children, if he has any. 1t is
for their. sake that the United States
bakes bread and sells canned goods
cheap.
The baker on Bedloe's island does
all his work by hand and makes about
200 lOaves at time.
The actual cost of ingredients per
pound, according to latest figures, is
about $.O247, and the receipts from the
bread sold are turned over to the
treasury department. So Uncle Sam
actually gets nearly IS for every 200
loaves he sells.