Connecticut western news., 1922-09-21
EXTENSIVE MUNICIPAL
 IMPROVEMENTS EXPECTED
Continued from page 1


 hind will have an opportunity of get
 ting in the front, ranks; while some of the cities now in the front ranks will drop back into the lower places The result of the race will depend upon the vision of those who direct the affairs of the cities"
 These changing conditions are al- ready evidenced by the Business Barometer Figure of the Babsonchart which has reached to 79o below nor nal. l expect this sub-normal condi- tion to soon disappear. Wise are the cities which plan their improvements and make their contracts while busi- ness is still below normal.
 What's the Matter with the Retailer
 +Any reduction in the cost of liv- ing must come thru better distribu- tion rather than cheaper production, says Roger W. Babson in discussing the business outlook.
 "It's strange how we concentrate dollar slip thru our fingers. The officials of every manufacturing com pany in the country are hunting fran tically for new ways to cut down the cost of production. They lie awake nights over a few cents an hour on labor, or an extra dollar or two on ton of coal, or any other factor which product. Once the goods are made and out of the factory their efforts cease. The job of getting their pro- duct to the ultimate consumer be- longs to someone else.
 "All of us have become so en- grossed with the problem of cutting down the cost of production that we have let distribution take care of it. self. We have saved millions at the bung but we are losing millions at the spigot. In the past fifty years the amount of goods produced in he United States has increased probably ten times over. The number of work CTS necessary to produce those goods have increased only about two and a half times. This means that, owing to new machinery and better meth ods, the average worker today is able to turn out about four times as much goods in eight hours as the worker fifty years ago did in ten or twelve hours. Allow for the cost of the fuel, etc., and even then you will find the average unit pro ducing cost today is less than half of what it used to be. In production we have made wonderful progress, because we have given most of our thought and effort to it.
 "Turn to distribution and we find no such progress. In fact, the per ,entage cost of distribution probably 1as not been reduced at all. With twice the production per worker we should expect that the wages for a lays work would buy twice as much goods as it used to. If distribution had been improved as much as pro- 1uction, a days wages would buy four times as much as it did fifty years ago. We all know that no such ] increase has'taken place. In fact, it S debatable if the average family ;oday is even half again as well off IS 1t used to be.
 "This does not mean that the re- ailer or the jobber or the carrier are logging the difference. It means to l large extent that we have not de- yeloped our tastes so as to get the | most for our money. It means that ye have not educated the | 'etailer and other distributors to most | efficient methods of handling mer- .handise. In short we have not made the same progress in distribut- ng goods as we have in their actual production.
 "We have been devoting our efforts o building better factories, to get ing a greater output from labor, to 'utting out more and better goods.
 "We have done very little toward he equally important problem of citing those goods to the ultimate onsumer The government is spend ng' over $1OO,OOO,OOO year in re- earch to help the manufacturers nd farmers, but it has never even aken a census of the retailers. Hun. reds of men are employed gathering 1formation on the crops. Hundreds lore are experimenting in chemical esearch for means of fighting pests nd b1ights which destroy crops, and 1structing the farmer in their use.
 Similar work is being done for 1e manufacturer to help him find lore efficient methods of production.
 complete census of manufacturers
 taken every five years, which 1ows the number of firms in each ldustry, their production, costs and rofits. These things, of course, cost loney but they are worth it. They re largely responsible for the fact lat the United States stands head nd shoulders above any other coun- y in the efficiency of it's production
 there any reason why we should ot spend at least as much to help the ,tailer distributor on whom we must epend to get those goods to us? "So far most DeOn1e have henn