Evening star., 1925-10-08

of the year being idle, Vet requiring
wages high enough to support their
families through that idleness.
One-seventh of the shoe factories
produce Csc per cent of all shoes
made in the United States. They
average 1896 pairs of shoes per man
per year but in smaller factories the
output is only l,3SS pairs per man.
and in still smaller factories, only
LOSE pairs. None of the factories is
able to work throughout the year with
out glutting the market. because of
competition. but the public pays for
its shoes on the basis OF the average
cost of production.
If the entire industry were left 10
the production on the basis of ! ,s96
pairs the difference of about 500 pairs
a wear per worker would be without
any labor cost. considering the whole
community the employer of the IN
dustry There would he only 14ie
per cent as many shoe factories and
workmen. but they would work eff
ciently 800 days Il year: the released
shoemakers could be employed in
other lines of production OF soclai
value. The same great economic
truth applies to many other over
orga nized industries, besides coal.
shoes and -four.
The argument that il would he So
cially disastrous to throw so marH
men out of employment. by inlroduC-
ing efficiency, can he best answered
by citing the trend of all modern
improvements and labor-savins ma
chinery When Mccormick invented
the harvester it threw men out Of
the arduous employment Of cradiinG
grain at cents an hour. The same
men or their children began to rrIu
ma chnery at 80 cents to 81 an h"ur.
In the days of Nero it took -
farmer four days and half of hard
labor for each bushel of wheat h"
produced. When the harvester cane
agriculture in America had so pc
ressed that a bushel of wheat re
quired but three hours of labor; now
it requires just 10 minutes per
bushel But for such development al
efficiency millions Of acres never
would have been cropped. the world
could not now be fed. and the mil
lions of workers who have
been spared from the farms to add
would be still grading or plowins
at 3 cents an hour. and the fac-
tories would not exist.
X X X
A bulletin reviewing a survey of
bakeries made by the Federal Trade
Commission at the entrance OF the
United States into the war said:
although it is impossible to show
that the man baking less than 1,ono
loaves a day produces his bread as
economically as the large man. be-
cause the former keeps no books. the
best proof of the small mans ability
ho q
| the fact that he has successfully met
this competition in the past
The census OF 1921 showed that the
total investment in bakeries in 1913
| was $509 ,266 900: the new combine
has a capital of S400. 900. 900. 1t viii
be able to curtail overhead costs and
monopolize general distribution.
A single 'travelinS oven in
modern bakery produces 5000 loaves
Of bread per hour. but they work
only about half the week. a wraps
ping machine wraps so to 60 loaves
per minute-3.600 per hour. An
other steps in making bread. fr'np
the -four to the delivery, are done hg
machinery-in the great bakeries.
No handwork of the small bakeries
can possibly produce with equal
economies. yet the skilled workers
tending these machines earn from
Do cents 10 Sl all nOuT, producing
bread at a labor cost OF from two-
fifths cent to two third of cent
per pound loaf. In addition. there is
the overhead cost-interest taxes
and administration.
A barrel of -four produces 1876
pound loaves of bread If the retail
price of bread followed the market
price of flour. the price of whent
would have to rise probably a dollar
bushel to require a rise of | cent
a loaf in retail prices Of bread
If the so-called bread trust" att
tempts to increase the price of bread,
it will be called upon to explain by
the Department of Justice under the
anti-trust laws.
Big business brings great econo-
mics. but the question remains
whether the protection of laws en-
titles protection to the general COM
munity as well as to the investors in
the methods of modern efficiency,
tcopyrfxht. le:S. BY Paul '. Collins.