Evening star., 1925-06-08
Need for Half-Cent Coin
By Frederic J. Haskin.


into consideration freight and present
operating costs in the baking indus
try, bread should wholesale at cents
per pound loaf. With wheat at $1.55
per bushel, the wholesale price of
bread should be cents per pound.
Or, to state the problem in another
way, a barrel of -four yields on an
average 290 one-pound loaVeS or
bread. With an advance or de-
crease in the price of flour OF S2.9o
per barrel, the baker can adjust his
business by a corresponding advance
or reduction of 1 cent in the price OF
loaf of bread.
Smaller fluctuations in the cost OF
wheat or -four cannot be offset by
similar changes in the price of bread
because the latter must be at least
cent, it being impossible to fix price
with fraction of d cent. Should the
bread price be increased or decreased
a full cent the baker will get too much
or too little.
Thus the arguments showing the
need for a halfcent coin are summed
up, and the prospect is presented OF
another drive on Congress for legfsia-
ton re-establishing the coins or small
er value. which have not been nlnteo
for almost three-quarters OF cen
tury. This drive, if it materializes,
will be led by the baking industry.
S. S. Langendorf, d prominent San
Francisco baker, has taken the lead
in the movement and is sounding out
his associates in the basic food bust
ness to ascertain whether they be-
lieve it worth while to bring their
troubles to Washington.
Under existing conditions, he says
the baker Is forced to be either a
pist or goat. His average net pront
on large volume production Is one-halr
cent per net pound. An advance IN
-four prices of about S1.35 over his
basic flour cost practically wipes out
the bakers profit He may add
full cent to the bread price, thus get
ting too much and laying hlmseiI
open to charges of extortion. or ne
may do business without Il proht Tor
= time. gambling on the chance that
there will come a drop in the cost
of -four that will enable him to re-
co1D his losses or make up the proflt
he has foregone.
I'VE are of the opinion" continues
Mr. Langendorf, that the Introduc-
ton of a half-cent denomination or
coin would be an aid in adjusting
bread prices whenever conditions war
rant a change, and so work to the
better satisfaction of the public as
well as the baker.
Under the present coinage, retail
bread prices can only be Increased or
decreased in units of a cent. Flour
may fuctuate as much as 50 barrel.
and bakers are often prevented from
raising the price Of bread because OF
the fear Of being accused of profiteer-
ing. Few commodities are so cheap
now that II is necessary to split pen
MES in fixing their value. The price
of butter or of eggs blithely jumps a
nickel at a time, and the housewife
is so used to the changing scale that
she never bothers to check up her
grocery slips. But let there be an ad-
vance of a single cent in the cost of
loaf of bread and everybody is ready
to go cunning for prof1teers. That Is
why, with an advance in the price OF
-four of from so cents to s1.15, the
baker usually absorbs this increase at
a great disadvantage to himself.
with a half-cent coin the baker
could adjust his price of bread one
half cent per pound with an advance
or a decrease of s1.00 to $3.50 per
barrel in -four prices. which would
offset the prevailing increase or de-
crease in the cost of -four and reflect
itself to an equivalent amount in the
retail or consumer price"
It is declared that under present
conditions, in order to protect himself
In fair profit, the baker must be a
-four speculator. He cannot adjust his
bread prices as frequently as can
other industries such as flour milling.
sugar refining, coffee and the like.
Flour mills can adjust their prices
daily in accordance with the increa Sc
or decrease in the price of wheat. For
every cent advance in wheat flour is
advanced cents. With certain
number of points advance in the raw
sugar market the price of refined
sugar is altered daily, If necessary. to
conform with the price of raw sugar.
Very frequently inharmonious re-
lations existing between bakers in a
given community are due to the fact
that one group of bakers has been
fortunate in making -four purchases
on low market while another group
was purchasing on the current higher
market. The successful SPECTATORS
are thus sitting pretty, as the slang
of the day puts it.
The difference to consumers in a
change of l cent in the retail price OF
bread, il is pointed out, amounts to
only S2 per year to the individual
On the basis of the average family,
which economists have decided to con-
sist of S.3 adults, this would mean less
than 81 annually, and the bakers
think that, comparatively speaking,
this is nothing to get greatly excited
over, so far as the public is concerned,
while 1t spells prosperity or ruin to
their industry.
The Government ceased the coinage
of half-cent pieces in 1857. The coins
IN, I'd 1ot
years after that date, however, and
many of them are still out, although it
has been fully half a century since
their existence was reflected in COM
modify prices. Most of the half-cent
pieces now out are in the hands of
coin collectors and are heard of only in
their transactions.
Periodically there comes a revival
of the demand that Congress direct
the mint to resume the production of
the fractional coin. There was no bill
to that end introduced at the last ses-
sion of Congress and no measure is
/ now in the hands of committees of
either House or Senate, but with the
bakers bestirring themselves it is re-
garded as probable that the fight will
be on next Winter. Whether there Is
a real need or formidable public de-
! mand for the coin of small value is al
ways a debatable question.
Opposition to the proposal always
| comes from the manufacturers and
users of slot machines of various
| kinds, for none of these machines
has a slot that will receive a new
coin. This opposition is of the most
vigorous kind.
Other objectors to the innovation
and the half-cent piece has been
out so long that to restore it is the
equivalent of an innovation-include
the manufacturers and users of cash
registers These machines &C tbo1-