The Topeka state journal., 1918-11-27
TOPEKA ETATD JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BURE AU
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director
Una.Ae.~A~n ~ ~
WAR TRUCKS TO FEED CITIES.
washington. D. c.

lean k1tchens.
Each motor truck line. connecting
a city community with the country, to
be under the joint control of the peo-
pie whom it serves, and managed by
officers whom these people elect.
Every bit of food-every egg and
oyster-guaranteed pure and fresh by
the fact that it is shipped as United
States mail, and must therefore fulfill
every claim made for 1t by the shipper.
Fair prices guaranteed by the fact
that the food comes direct from pro-
ducer to consumer and also by the
fact that each city will have number
of truck lines to draw from, SO that
open competition will be assured.
These are the essentials of a plan
which the postoff1ce department., in
cation, is now beginning to put into
operation. Both the legislation and
the physical machinery necessary to
carry out the project are already in
existence. Congress has passed a law
authorizing the postofflce department
to establish such q truck-parcel-post
service between the producer and the
consumer, and has made an appro-
priation for starting the work. The
war department has on hand 10000
motor trucks, built for war purposes,
| which are to be taken over by the post
Office department under Fourth Assist
ant Postmaster General Blakeslee, to
form the transport corps for this new
system of food distribution. E. j.
Ward, who is attached to the bureau
of education for the purpose of study
ing the problems of community or
ganizati ton, left Washington few days
ago to organize the first truck line of
this great system, which will operate
between the national capital and the
historic town of Gettysburg in south
ern Pennsylvania.
Mr.. Ward and Mr.. Blakeslee. who
are the moving spirits of this new gov
ernment enterprise, see 1t as compar-
system. Means of conveyance, road
| beds and terminals are all to be pro-
vided for. The trucks, of course, will
| be the means of conveyance. State
roads will take the place of tracks.
| and the government will contribute to
their support. The terminals, in the
beginning at least, will be school,
houses, in the cities and in the coun-
| try. These will be the centers of COM
munity organization. the places at
the country and distributed in the
city. The plan OF organization, in
brief, will be this:
The farmers of each country COM
| munity will meet at their schoolhouse,
form an organization with q constitu-
ton and bylaws outlined by the gov
ernment, and will elect q community
| secretary. This community secretary
will very likely be principal or
teacher Of the school. He will receive
| one-third of his salary from the United
| States government. That is, If the
community is now paying the indi-
vidual one thousand dollars g. year to
act as school principal. the United
states government will pay him an ad-
| ditional five hundred dollars to act az
community secretary. His first duty
| as secretary will be to receive the
produce-eggs, butter, poultry, vege-
| tables, etc.-brought in by the farm
| ers, list it, together with the prices
asked. and send the list to the city.
The people in each city community
will form an exactly similar organiza-
| ton, with a secretary elected and paid
in the same way for the purpose of
| buying food. This city community
secretary will receive the requests Of
the community people for produce,
and list them.
When the system is complete, there
will be in each city which forms hub
all Of these lists will be turned in.
| Now suppose that the farmers
| grouped about a rural school twelve
miles from Washington can send in
two gross of eggs every week at 81
cents dozen. The clearing house will
readily determine which urban COM
munity can use those eggs, and they
will be sent by the community secre-
| tary in the country, direct, by parcel
post truck, to the city community
| secretary who can dispose of them.
The advantages of the system are
the prices lower, and above all, waste
will be eliminated. Farmers having
small amounts of produce are now at
a loss how to dispose of them. Much
food. especially fruit and vegetables,
is allowed to rot for want of a market.
Cfa1~ v,o
roundabout process by which county,
produce now reaches the city. This
system will make a clean sweep of the
tributary country of every big Ameri-
can city. gathering up daily everything
that the farmers can spare and deliv-
| erhg 1t directly to the city folk who
l need it, :
Moreover, the proposed system is in
no sense an experiment. 1t is not of
fered to the public as a project which
exists only on paper. 1t is the culmi-
nation or long series of experiments
IN community organization, and it has
been operated successfully, in all its
essentials, in at least one community.
Mr. E. J. Ward, who is co-author of
the scheme with Mr.. Blakeslee, has
spent the last twelve years of his life
in studying the problem of organizing
American communities for various
purposes, first as private citizen. and
later as an official of the American
government appointed by President
Wilson. He effected the community
organization in Bridgeport, Conn.
which did SO much to solve-the labor
problem in that city at the time of
the recent munition factory strike.
Long before that he organized the
community center movement in Wis
consin. In that state and elsewhere
an effort was made to organize the
people Of each community about their
local school house. The idea was for
the people to meet In the school house
to discuss their various social and
/, economic problems. THE movement
never developed much vitality because
there was no provision for paid COM
munity secretaries. and hence no prac-
teal thing could be accomplished by