The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-01
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

|
 She wastes so much I cannot afford to keep her." Did you ever say that? | The present high price of food is partly | attributable to waste and shortsighted ness.
 Mrs Mathis slogan, we must eat less, waste less and make more," Is based on sound economies and ought to be adopted
 1 With the warnings coming from Pres ident Wilson, Secretary Houston and the ! other farsighted men upon whom the bur- den of carrying on the war must fall, nc housewife, no dealer, the nation itself 1 cannot afford to countenance the waste of food.
 The thing that appalled, Mrs. Mathis on her visit to Chicago was visit tc the great railroad yards on the outskirts of the city, where car after car of per ishable foodstuffs were filling the air with their odor of decay It sent her home to stir her beloved people to the need of food conservation through better distribution.
 
 In a recent article in the New York Evening Mail, Isaac Russell arraqgns for eign packers of foodstuffs thus Enough food is thrown into New York pay every year because it is sent here packed so that it spells from bad pack ing, to feed comfortably 5000OO people The statement is not haphazard one couched up by lay investigator. Tn making 1t I am quoting the largest i'm porter of foodstuffs such as onions grapes oranges. lemons in the United States"
 Emmett A. Jones, chief of the markets bureau of the state of Alabama, says: There Is a profitable market for. every food product grown in Alabama, provided it is put into merchantable shape" The Alabama Markets Journal, published by ! the state markets bureau, Montgomery, and sent free upon application, gives con- siderable information on the grading, packing and shipping of perishable prod ucts.
 Food shipped by our American rail- ways, according to MT. RusseIls article aforesaid, fares much bet ter: Northwestern America and southern California. lead all the world in packing fruit, and the American rail- roads lead all the world in hauling this fruit scientifically to market What we have got to do is to get some of the skill of the western railroads into the steamship carrier and dock facilities for steamships where the goods may be cared for as they often are cared for in the warehouses where railroad cars unload on zero days We have got to get busy here in Alabama and remedy conditions.
 Paul Pierce says:
 Our national shortsightedness shows itself in the farmer who raises food crops, large or small, with no thought of how this is to be packed to insure against spoilage, or how it is to be shipped from farm to market. Raising crops is the whole of their scheme of things That food will spoil unless properly packed, that it will not move itself from farm to market, that here is an expense which must be provided for, a separate business which supplements the raising of crops, seems to have escaped his mental vision entirely"
 He goes on to say:
 T have heard farlhers complain bitterly of not being able to dispose of their ap- pies. potatoes beans, etc., when they had only to sit down and write commits sion dealers in cities and arrange for the shipping. Yet it is too much trouble to stock the farm desk with paper, pens, ink and stamps or even postcards.
 T know farmers so indifferent to get ting rid of their produce that they do not drive to town on the days they know buyers for city traders will be in town to meet farmers. I know farmers who let apples rot on the ground and potatoes rot in the hills, apparently too lazy or indifferent to gather them"
 (While there are interruptions commits
  sion men in every city, there are reliable of the food preparedness committee in Birmingham to protect shippers.)
 Now, the farsighted man would not only plant his crops and tend them with care, but he would peer into the future and make certain provisions for packing and marketing these foods. In other words, he would study the business of packing, shipping and selling his prod livery, he can get in touch with commits sion merchants and can receive market and weather reports regularly. In many localities farmers combine, selling to local commission agent who forwards their stock of produce to the nearest market If farmer lives in commun- ity where this situation does not obtain, then let him take the initiative and form such combine. Let him apply the mod ern spirit of cooperation to farming.
 The waste of food, as we see it every year on many of the farms throughout the country, means tremendous loss to the consumer, and if it could be remedied would greatly reduced the cost of living"
 
 But the city people are under just as great an obligation to keep down waste as are the country people. It's the busi- ness of every one to cut down waste.
 
 But there is another kind of waste