Norwich bulletin., 1921-05-06

(Written Specially For The Bulletin) Another contribution to the high cost of living discussion may be, found in recent Washington dispatch
 An assistant secretary Of war calmly announced to the congressional military committee last week that the department had just sold eighty-one million pounds Of canned meats to a Philadelphia firm for s5,516.276.
 This was at the rate of about six and half cents a pound.
 The department paid thirty-four cents pound for it. the last year of the war. The present market price is stated to be about twenty-OEe cents pound.
 How much do you suppose you will have 10 nay for a pound of it if such bound should ever happen to come your vav7
 As purely business proposition, what do you think of the plan of nrylng caii- ned meats at thirty-four cents a pound. holding them two years after ally possi- ble use for them has disappeared, and then selling them at six and a half cents a pound when the regular trade value even on a falling marke+, Is twenty-one sents7
 Does any consumer expect 10 ret anv share q these six and a half cent canned meats at one cent less than the full mar Eet rate7
 AS one occasional and chary user Of such meats I am compelled 10 re- port that I cant buy them, anywhere in my vicinaEe. at anywhere near that fig uro Of twentv-onc cents. Indeed, if I could get hold of a few tins a the al- le-ed twenty-ono cent rate. In view of existing prices for fresh meat, I think should invest in them. It would be al econon-.
 H seems to me that I have once be- fore alluded to an English Sase. where munitions factory. built under war time stress and at what was supposed to he the peak Of wartime prices. was, after the close Of the war, sold by the English government for several thousand pounds sterling more than 1t cost. Al almost that very time our government was selling buildings similarly construct ed during the war. for less than one tenth of their original cost
 Now. whether this means that the English 0rohteers aren't ddi,e such hogs ,s inc American. or that the Engi:sr vovernment Is keener and shrewodcl salesuaa than the American, I dor1 xnov-or care. I'm simply woncerins Env if they can do such things in 2 green tree. they can't do something similar in a dry.
 Only a couple of weeks ago one de aartment of the government, that of 2 -iculture was criticiZing American far rers for not being better salesmen Now we observe another department O government. that of war. seliiny for si' and half cents q pound goods which raid thirty-four cents a pound for ant he existing market value of which itsel re7orts 10 be twenty-one cents a pound Is that a sample of the high art of safes n1anship which the farmers Of the lam are told they should aspire to? If sc the attainment isn't by any means hope less. It can hardly he called tificult even. l have no trouble, simple -mndc old hayseed as I am. in selling rigli how for six cents a neck onions whic cost me in the neighborhood Of thirt cents q peck 10 raise. I can do eve better: I can sell potatoes which cos me between ninety cents and a collar hushel to grow, for eighty-dve cents busheL
 If it is high finance and expert sales nanship to sell things at less than co! which is the present government, nlan-then he would be only a poo" stic nf z farmer who couldn't do it. even c rainy dav Tn a cold. backward sprin
 Oh shuczs
 IL is little over a week, now, since Florida cabbage grower sent a car-loa of fancy new csbbages to New York. A ter they had been sold in that center hi- business and high finance and Il various charges for freight and ccr mission and carriage and wheelage ar FtaulpaCc and cussage and so forth q ducted the Florida cabbaEe-Crower r ceived seven one-cent stamps in full pa nent for his carload.
 Probably you've all read about Il famous Chicago onion case. For q benefit of the few who may not hay let me say that a Chicago organizatic having the interests 'of the city consur CTS in view recently checked up on ne' crop Texas onions. They were being r