Evening star., 1923-06-17
Uncle Sam Proves Success
As Washington's Market Man
Center Market ShO,Us
Good Profit for First
Year.
Dealers Satisfied Despite
Slight Boost in
Rent.

Uncle Sans experiment as mar
ketnan. in taking over at the behest
rt- Congress the management or CEN
ter market. which has been In opera
ron for nearly 1925 years and which
covers approximately two city BLOCKS
or nearly two and one-half acres oil
land, is proving success.
Uncle Sam has summered and win
tered as marketman during one OF
the most trying periods in the mar
keting of perishable foodstufs, for
Center market has been under the
administration of the Department OF
Agriculture for more than year
Same Rental Rate.
Starting July l each class of deal
ors will pay the same rate of rental
per SQUARE foot for the space they
occupy i'm Center market. For the
sake Of uniformity and to treat every
Il, aler the same. this adjustment mas
been ordered by {. W. Kitchen, the
Supt rintendent.
This will result in some instances
in "A merely nominal increase and IN
some cases in quite considerable
increase. The increases will average
about or s per cent.
Average Rate Lower.
Even with the increase the rates
charged for stalls in the market are
lower than prevailing rates in pri-
vately owned buildings.
There is no serious criticism among
the dealers because Uncle Sam has
thus raised the rent. 1t will increase
the revenues $4,000 or $4,000 year.
and as this is distributed among 14o
dealers it will he readily seen that it
should not prove very heavy burden
on any OF them.
MI OF the surplus is promptly
turned into improvements. During
the past year more than $4,000 was
spent in improvements. Now the ad-
miuistrat tion is installing four first
c,1ss sanitary baking stands.
New Poultry Counters.
Already there have been installed
two sanitary poultry counters which
also provide for display of these
products under glass. one fish counter
nf the same design and a large num-
ber of miscellaneous repairs to stands
have been made.
Superintendent Kitchen with the
cooperation 81 experts in the bureau
of agricultural economics is now con-
ducting experiments on refrigerated
counters.
When a new stand is built the work
is done entirely at government eX-
DenSe, ana the amount Oh increase III
rent is charged so as to spread the
cost of the equipment over a period
of years. The old market company.
II is explained. used to let the stand
holder pay all costs of improvements
Turnover Slight.
There. have been few who gave up
their stand privileges in Center mar
ket since Uncle Sam took charge.
The turnover has been slight. So
the administra ton of the market by
the Department of Agriculture meets
with the approval of the tenants.
There are 173 stand holders now and
almost as many others waiting to
get stands.
The gross sales reported in the
1922. including the wholesale business
done in the market. totaled $14,594-
904. and that did not include sales
made by approximately 200 farmers
who have space on the south side of
the market building.
Employ Meat Inspector.
One of the important rules put
through under federal administration
of the market was the employment of
meat inspector, whose duties are
to see that all meat offered for sale
is pure and wholesome and fit for
human consumption, and that the
equipment and utensils are kept in a
clean and sanitary condition. A num-
ber of regulations have been put in
force designed to make the WaShinp