The Washington herald., 1918-04-06

Some Of the definitions of market
ing-the scientific kind-which T. c.
Powell, former regional traffic COM
mitteeman. gives US in his address of
a recent date. are more than accept
able. But We fear for the part
wherein he says:
MY own conception of scientific
marketing is the PROMPT disposal
10 the ultimate consumer OF all prod
ucts of the factory and the water and
the land ON A BASIS MUTUALLY
SATISFACTORY TO ALL con-
CERNED."
There isn't 'any such animal.
We fear Mr.. Powell is looking for a
more utopian Utopia than any of us
conceive, even Moore's could have
been. II Mr.. Powell will amend his
statement We think it will stand more
chance of being received In polite. IL
not practical, company.
We wish 1t. would be possible to say
that prices would some day be
worked out on a scinetific basis. We
wish the problem could be solved by
certain formulae. But it can not.
Congress has pondered over it and
each member has talked to the most
expert man" in the world. And
many of the members have talked to
more than one expert. and the ex-
perts themselves have conferred and
re-conferred. But the problem re-
mains the same in magnitude and
general overwhelming perplexities as
it always has-and probably always
will.
Taking this into consideration then.
the members OF Congress hope to
solve 1t only partially. and on in
tensely practical lines. No one will
pretend to say that the result OF all
this will be the acceptability Of
prices "to all concerned. The only
thing that can be hoped for will be
the acceptability to the greatest num-
Der. and with the prayer that the
ones who are displeased will not have
enough latent power to some day rise
up In just or unjust political wrath
and condemn to political perdition
those who brought on the solution.
To Mr.. Powell We are indebted
and the members Of Congress are as
well-for the highly Illuminating pre-
sentation of some interesting facts.
They are set up in such a way that
they make worthwhile reading. We
would be derelict in our duty II we
did not set them out for the readers
of The Herald. We quote at random
and believed that you will be quite as
interested as We were, gentle reader,
in reviewing the statements. Mr..
Powell says:
do you realize that I'm New York
alone. 100000 dozen eggs reach here
in a damaged condition in a year?
Reduced to a money value, this
loss represents the annual interest
charge on s100.00,000.
Please don't overlook the fact that
in this war our first credit to Eng
land was for just that amount. ana
we thought we were doing something
remarkable.
Even the Russians have designed
better system of packing eggs than
we have,
There is no doubt In my mind that
this country is suffering today more
because Of high prices than from any
single cause.
''The high cost of living is no longer
jest!
But these conditions have not
been brought about by any actual
shortage Of food. but by a poor
marketing system, and the failure OF
the marketing system has permitted
manipulation Of prices.
I'm one of our New England towns
the Public Safety Committee Is solv-
ing the problem by buying direct
from the farmer and selling direct to
the consumer.
Two weeks ago their special agent
sold cabbages On the public square at
&c a head.
"The next day the leading grocer
announced the same price!
"On October 10Th. the papers con-
tained dispatch from New York
stating that the Chicago packers were
said to own millions of eggs in cold
storage, for which there was no de-
mand, and that wholesalers were said
10 be facing a loss of millions of dol
lars unless the government fixed u
price arbitrarily which would insure
profit.
rs II probable that those consum-