Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-03-16
UNITED STATES BEST FED NATION

The best exponent of the benef-
ciences of business of whom l have
any knowledge was Edward Atkinson,
of Boston.
A business man himself, Mr.. Atkin-
son gave a large part Of his time to
the study of economic questions. With
his practical experience he was able
to present his conclusions in a most
striking and stimulating fashion.
He was of the opinion that the high
wage scale in this country was due
to the effective employment of large
capital.
The modern miracle, he says, is
that 1000 barrels of flour, the annual
ration of 1000 people, can be placed
in the City of New York, from a point
LOO to 1000 miles distant, with the
exertion of the human labor equiva-
lent to that of only four men, work
ing one year in producing, milling and
moving the wheat. 1t can there be
baked and distributed by the work of
three more persons: so that seven
persons serve one thousand with
bread.
This statement was made in 1885.
He also estimated that the equiva-
lent of one mans work for one year,
divided between the coal mine, the
iron mine, and the iron furnace, suf-
feed for the supply of 500 persons
with 200 pounds of iron each per year.
One operator in the cotton factory
made cloth for $50, in the wooden fac
tory for 300; while a cobbler, working
1000 men with all the boots and
shoes they required in a year.
The improvements made in machin-
cry and in the organization of industry
since that time have probably so in
creased the productiveness of each in
dividual that Mr.. Atkinson's figures
might safely be increased so to 100
per cent.
This is an achievement which any
one can understand and appreciate.
l once made the statement that even
the spiritual structure of civilization
rests on bread, iron, steel, cotton, wool
and leather.
One reader took exception to this
statement and said that what the world
needed was not more bread but more
idealism.
My answer was that the United
States is at once the most spiritual
nation in the world and also the best
fed nation, and I think there is a re-
lation between the two.
In reading history I have noticed
that it was not until a nation had
solved it's bread and butter problem
that it was able to solve any other
problems satisfactorily, Or to inspire
to or reach any high degree of spirit
ual development.
For this reason / have always felt,
with Mr.. Atkinson, that the men who
have given their lives to these mate
rial problems of making two blades
of grass grow where one grew before
have never received the consideration
to which they are entitled.
The two foes of progress are ig-
norance and disease.
The multiple plow, the reaper, the
grain elevator, the railroad, and the
modern bakery have so released men
from drudgery that it is now possible
for practically all boys and girls to
receive at least a common school edu-
cation before they begin work in the
fields or shops at full-time employ
ment. That means less ignorance,
while the assurance of an ample sup
ply of wholesome food is a protection
against most diseases.
Feeding, clothing and sheltering our
selves is our first job, and the more
efficiently we can do this the more
surely can we distinguish ourselves
in the less fundamental but more sat-
isfying activities of life.-By Will
liam A. Feather in the Type Metal
Magazine.