The Washington herald., 1917-02-10
Interesting Chats
From Hotel Lobbies

Lack of storage facilities among
neighboring farmers considerably affects
the price and quantity of seasonable
foodstufs on the local market" re-
marked Frederick Atwater, former
marketmaster of La Porte, Ind, who Is
registered at the Shoreham.
Can you imagine how the one-horse
farmer stores his potatoes" asked Mr..
Atwater. Il notice some of the potatoes
that are on huckster wagons in this city
and the hucksters tell me that the tubers
were frozen when they got them. OF
course the commission men are to blame
also, but in the main 1t is the fault of
the farmer. If you had all the money
that Is lost yearly by rank carelessness
among our farmers, you could retire and
buy several counties and all that was In
them.
Not less than $1,000, 900 Is lost yearly
Losses that are preventable and ought
to be rigidly Investigated by the authori-
ties. Consumers pay the bill. 1t would
take but a few days to make a storage
house that would hold all the potatoes
a farmer could possibly raise, or several
of them could get together and store
their stun on the cooperative plan. With
hig hprices prevailing all over - country
I cannot see a single reason why farmers
do not adopt some feasible plan for
storage. They have made enough money
during the past two years. Go out to the
farms around here and see how many
farmers have facilities for storage-about
one in a hundred.
Outside of cellar, and some of
them have not even that, there is no
place on the average farm to economical
ly take care of surplus products. The
American farmer is the most extrava-
CANT man in the country and that Is one
cause of the high cost of living.
'T am more than surprised at the
ignorance of many Americans concern
ing Brazil" said Luis Montez. of Sac
Francesca. who Is stopping at the Will
lard, particularly concerning the atti-
tude of Brazil toward the American mer-
chant
Making due allowances for few in
stances where apparent ill-feeling has
been manifest, I think American mer-
chants stand a pretty good show in my
country. I was educated at Harvard and
I believe know the Americana very
well.
."There are q great many things that
some Americans have tried to put over
on the Brazilians that were rather raw,
but We also know that some of the
deals that Brazilians have put over on
Americans are not anything to brag Of.
Those of us who make a study Of the
American markets and resources, as they
concern our welfare and prosperity. would
a great deal rather give an order to an
American, povided he will ship the stuff
when he says he will and pack it 30 1t
won't get smashed.
''The packing Of exports has been a
sore spot with Brazilian merchants for
a long time and lots of merchandise has
been a complete loss because Americans
were too lazy or too ignorant to pack
the goods properly.
This failure has enormously increased
the price to the retailer, who wants to
handle American products, and does not
want to be bothered with the tiresome
red tape of filing claims for damage and
waiting indefinitely for allowances.
I'VE prefer American goods to Ger
man, If the American will sell US what
we want. when we want 1t, and as we
want It. The shoes that are sold in Brazil
nearly all come from France or Ger
many-that is they did prior to the war;
but since the war we have not been sal-
isfed with American shoes. They are
too short"