New-York tribune., 1919-08-23
Markets Commissioners Ex-
poets to Dispose of
6O,OOO,OOO Pounds of
Supplies in New York
Not Enough Army Trucks
Lack of Facilities Causes
Congestion; More Help
Needed at School Sales

| the fifty-three. public schools where
the city is selling army surplus food
stuffs prompted DR.. Jonathan c. Day
Commissioner Of Public Markets, to
take steps to increase the city's order
He communicated with Captain A. A.
Stewart, Zone Surplus Property Officer
and placed blanket order for all the
! food which the army could possibly
allocate to New York City The Mar
kets Commissioner declared that the
demand has far outgrown the original
! order. 1t is expected that more than
two thousand carloads of $4,000 pounds
each will be disposed of before the sale
is ended.
Judging from yesterdays crowds and
receipts Thursdays sale merelv
whetted the appetite Of the city's con-
sumers for army food. Approximately
$4,000 persons, IS per cent women,
carried otf between 100000 and 1,4O0.-
coo pounds of commodities. The total
receipts of the day will not be avail
able until this morning, but it is esti-
mated that more than $4,000 was paid
by price weary consumers. Eighty
thousand customers have purchased
1900 tons of food during the first two
days of the sale
Not Enough Army Trucks
Yesterday, as or Thursday, the sales
were limited in all sections but the
lower East Side by inadequate facili-
ties The I25 trucks which TRANSPORTED
the food from the governments ware
| houses at Port Newark, the army base
at Flfty-ninth Street, Brooklyn, and
Bush terminals proved Incapable of
maintaining the supplies on par with
the demand. In number of schools
the supplies Of canned goods and bacon
fairly melted before the demand and
scores Of wouid-be customers were
turned away
DR.. Day intimated that the food
would be carried from the warehouses
to central points of distribution on
lighters beginning Tuesday or Wednes-
day of next week. lie said that lighters
would not only expedite the shipments.
4spnI would also cut the overhead cost.
Or. Day believes that the amount Of
sales would be vastly increased if
lighters were used. In number OF
sales depots yesterday only one article
was available, w*lle in the majority Of
/ schools but three or four varieties of
the fourteen being sold for the army
sale are certain that a greater choice
would probably double the sales.
More Cashiers Needed
Another impediment tosthe sale yes
terday WAS the presence of only a
single bonded cashier at each of the
schools. Dr.. Day said that long lines
OF customers are being held up at each
station as the lone policeman approves
each sale and the lone cashier records
1t and makes change. At the school at
hudson and Grove streets a line of
more than 2,o00 persons was formed
winding away from the perspiripg
cashiers window. Those at the end of
the line were held up for almost three
hours
Cashier John ]. McKenna, at Eras
mus Hall High School in Brooklyn the
busiest sales depot in that borough.
telephoned home for his fourteen-vear-
old daughter, Dorothy. She spent the
day making change and friends as she
accelerated the speed of the line before
her fathers window. Cashiers without
daughters had warm day of it.
bacon was the yesterdays sales mac
net On Thursday only meagre quanti-
ties Of it had been carried to the
schools, although there was consist
ent demand. This demand made itself
felt yesterday, when most of the schools
IN Manhattan, the majority in Brooklyn
and few in The Bronx received pen-
erous supplies.
3d Cents Pound
The bacon is selling for "a cents q
pound and is of quality which retails
at 50 cents at present. Thousands of
housewives purchased enough to make
their savings run into the price of ~
pair OF shoes for the baby.
Five hundred thousand pounds Of
bacon were brought from the urmv
base in Brooklyn and from Port New.
ark to q warehouse on First Avenus
and Fifty ninth Street. Here c;ty in. ~
spectors examined it, while force of
workers sliced it into two-pound
chunks. The congestion made by tho
number Of trucks waiting to be loaded
with bacon caused considerable DELAY.
Or. Day and others in charge of The
sale believe that in few days these
minor impediments will have been
eliminated,
Only 100000 Pounds
Or. Day declared that only 1900. 900
pounds of bacon are available to the
city at present, although the army is
holding Sl0,000,000 pounds. He said
that he plans to take over part of
this supply for sale in the schools as
soon as it is declared surplus by the
War Department.
Only forty-one schools were opened
on Thursday, it was learned yesterday.
The remaining twelve. ali in Tine Bronx.
were opened yesterday morning, and
were soon fairly swarlped with pur-
chasers. SO great is the demand in
Queens that it is planned TO open
eleven more -four in Long Island CITY
one each III Corona, Jamaica South Az
verne and College Point, and two in
! Ridgewood