Norwich bulletin., 1920-03-13
THE THING WE ALL WANT MOST

There is an idea, fairly widespread and deep rooted, that reducing the cost of living is essentially an agricultural problem, writes Edwin T. Meredith, the new secretary of agriculture. 1T satisfactory results are to be secured, however, business men must also give
 their attention to the problem. Get
 ting food delivered at 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 expedition and
 economy with which it is handled be-
 tween the farmers wagon and the pantry The problem of the high cost of living is common to the whole peo-
 pie, and cannot be solved unless busi-
 ness and labor, as well as agriculture, put their mind on a solution.
 The consumer, of course, pays the
 production cost of farm products-eX- lcept when the farmer sells his pro ducts for less than it 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 luS Dl1l llloil LlAS SOA1oNAAA must pay is by no means made out
 The consumer pays the freight from the farm to the city market. He pays for all back hauling and roundabout hauling that result in so much delay
 and so much loss of perishable pro ducts. He pays for terminal facilitie: 1 land, if those facilities are not wha
 they should be, he pays a penalty be
 cause of ineffeciency. He pays thu profits of the commission man, of Ih'
 wholesale merchant, of the Fetal gro
 cer, as well as the wages and salarie
 of the boy who. drives the deliver,
 wagon and of everybody who has any l thing to do with the product from tn
 time it leaves the farm until it reach
 es the kitchen. Every inefficient ma in that chain of distribution, ever man who draws salary or wages fo , work not needed, every man who doe
 not render honest service, is adding burden to what the consumer must pa for his food.
 Il When we have taken the lost motto ? out of the distribution and properl {. emphasized production in the factor : and on the farm, we will have gone r far way toward reducing the price ths g the ultimate consumer pays for hi 3 necessities. The farmer and the ager cies that operate for and with the fal e mer, of course, are powerless to $ that alone. It can only be done wit U the help of business men and laborin - men everywhere.
 e1 Distribution, of course, is just as e: sential as production, but if, out Il every ten men, we have six engage = in distribution and only four in prt Y duction, there can be consumed - each of the ten man only four tentl = of what one man can produce. If S q of the ten are engaged in productiC if and only four in distribution, each ma If can have for his own use six tent q instead of four tenths of what one m; 1t can product. The principle applies . the 10,000000 people in the Unit le States in exactly the same way tn l. it would apply to ten men maroon 70 on an island. We cannot consuI al more than we produce, and the qua IS tity produced by the whole ends to m crease with the increase in the numb
 of men unnecessarily engaged in f distribution of the products.
 .i, I am not prepared to say that a is given number of men should give f. merchandising or the place they m 7e now occupy in distribution, and | 1s come factory laborers or miners in farmers, but am prepared to say tn he in justice to himself and to his cou in try, every person ought to see to S. that there are no drones in his O ". hive to add to the cost of diStributi