The Pensacola journal., 1920-03-27
INCREASED PRODUCTION and LESS
WASTE in DISTRIBUTION GIVEN AS
MEANS OF REDUCING Living COST
Secretary of Agriculture Mere
dith Says Unnecessary Mid
dlemen Boost Prices.
BELIEVES MANY CAN GO
Not All Distributors Are Need
less, He Says, But Many Are
and Have Become DrOneS
BY EDWIN r. MEREDITH
Secretary of Aaric ulture

/ dependent.)
| There is an idea, fairly widespread
and deep rooted, that reducing the cost
of living is essentially an agricultural
problem If satisfactory results are to
/ be secured, however business men
must also give their attention to the
| problem. Getting food delivered al the
kitchen door at the right price does
not depend solely on how much of it
| the farmer produces or what price the
farmer gets for it. but also on the ex-
| pedition and economy with which it
| is handled between the farmers wagon
and the pantry. The problem of the
high cost of living is common 10 the
whole people, and cannot be solved
unless business and labor, as well as
agriculture. put their mind on a solu-
ton.
The consumer. of course pays the
production cost of farm products-ex-
cept when the farmer sells his products
Tor less than il costs to produce them.
Production costs are high now. and the
farmer must get satisfactory prices. or
he will have to go out of business. If
he goes out of business, both he and
the city men will suffer.
When the farmer has been paid for
his product, the bin that the consumer
/ I.
The consumer pays the freight from
the farm to the city market He pays
Tor all back hauling and round about
hauling that result in so much delay
and SO much loss OF perishable pro-
ducts. He pays for terminal facilities
and. If those facilities are not what
tney should be. he pays penalty be-
cause of inefficiency, Tie pays stAe
Profits of the commission man. of the
wholesale merchant. of the retail
grocer, as well as the wages and sal
aries of the boy who drives the delivery
wagon and of everybody who has any,
thing TO do with the product from the
time IL leaves the farm until il reaches
the kitchen. Every inefficient man in
that chain of distribution, every man
who draws salary or wages for work
not needed, every man who does NOT
render honest service. is adding bur-
den to what the consumer must pav
for his food
Distribution of course, is just as es-
sentlai as production, but if. out of
every ten men, we have six engaged
In distribution and only four in pro-
auction, there can be consumed by each
or the ten men only four tenths OF
what one man can produce If six
OF the ten are engaged in production
ana only four i'm distribution, each man
can have for his own use six -tenths
instead of four-tenths of what one man
can produce. The principle applies to
the 11o,o00,000 people in the United
states in exactly the same way that il
would apply to ten men marooned on
an island. We cannot consume more
than we produce, and the quantity pro-
ouced by the whole tends to decrease
with the Increase in the number of men
engaged in the distri-
button of the products
am not prepared to say that any
gwen number of men should give up
or the place they may
now occupy IN distribution, and become
factory iaborers or miners or farmers,
put am prepared to say that in JUS
tice to himself and to his eountrv
every person ought to see to il that
there are no drones in his own hive 10
auo 10 the cost of distributing what
the Iarmer and factory produce. and
tiial every so-called Iaborer should see
lhat ne contributes just as largely as
possible to the sum total of produc
ton. no matter what article he is max
ing or what duty he may be engaged
upon.
The farmer, of course, must produce
ana OF course he will produce He
7|tS PoAu ob1g IoF Wndr he produces.
but there Is one thing which will take
him out of production and that ig to
De obliged to sell the product of his
years labor and investment for a price
which does not enable him and his
family to live as well as his friends
IA the city VINO devote their money and
energies in other directions.
The farmers ask naturally enough.
lnat the high cost of living be ap-
preached by all the people as a COM
non problem. They ask that those
engaged in distribution take up the
sack. eliminate the lost motion and
refrain from putting so great a burden
IN production They ask that the
banks, the railroads, wholesale houses.
retail establishments and factories
LII of which they recognize as vital
necessities be put on the highest
plane of efficiency. They look to the
factory executive to speed up his oper-
itions so that two days labor instead
II three. If possible. will go into a
given article which he finds necessary
% his comfort or the conduct of his
arming opera tions.
The farmer asks also that the labor.
RS in the mine, the factory and the
nil make an effort comparable to his
o see that t-&-re is just as little labor