Evening star., 1925-01-02
IN TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

1t is a startling statement made by
Senator Capper and Representative
Brand of Ohio that the public Of
America is paying every day 100000
for bread which is not delivered. AT
s cents a pound, that means as much
bread kept back as would be eaten by
$500, 900 hearty citizens, counting half
loaf a day per man. 1t would load
train of Al cars, each containing 40
tons of bread. 1t amounts to SOS, ,500,-
900 a year, which would pay the in
stallments of the soldiers bonus be-
fore they become due, and would keep
on paying an equal amount perpetu-
ally. The very statement made by
the Representative and Senator makes
one hungry to think about it and
wonder if Queen Marie Antoinette
was right in prescribing cake when
the rabble was crying for the bread
which was lacking.
x X x
The Brand-Capper bill now pending
in both branches of Congress would
make it obligatory, so far as concerns
interstate shipments, that all bread
shall be in standardized loaves of half
a pound, one pound and pound and a
half. No longer would it be legal to
meet competition" with 14ounce
loaves, claimed to be a better grade
is made by the bill to enforce stand
ards of purity or superiority of in
gradients. The entire aim is to stand
ardize weights of loaves. BY that
measure alone 1t is hoped to so inspire
State Legislatures to enact similar
Standardization of weights for inter-
state bread traffic that the alleged
tricky weights of loaves will be elimi-
mated and the consumer will know
that he is getting a pound for the
price of pound.
X X * x
The shortage does not exist in the
District of Columbia, for within the
last year a similar law was passed,
which corrected the practice of short
weights. Eleven States have similar
laws, but the estimate is for the daily
shortage of delivery applies to the
other States alone-S300,000 a day
shortage in only 81 States.
These figures are vouched for by
Representative Brand, who counts
that 12Q000,000 people eat $4,000, 900
pounds of bread daily and that 65
per cent of this bread is made by
bakeries in the 81 States-30, 600, 900
loaves of 14-ounce bread-and that
with a shortage of two ounces per
loaf-but why go into details? In
Mr.. Brands own State of Ohio the
bakeries used to call a 12-ounce "bis-
cult" a loaf, weighing it by troy
weight as if it were pure gold, four
ounces per loaf short weight He
estimates that the consumers of New
York City pay daily for $4,000, 900
the price of several skyscrapers
daily.
Prior to the war, when wheat sold
for a dollar a bushel, bread sold for
cents a pound; wheat has sold since
the war around a dollar bushel,
but the average price of bread has
been cents a pound, and even then
the pound has too often ranged from
two to four ounces short. But the
same increases of costs have gov
erned other foods, and this legisla-
ton does not attack that phase of
the matter. Some of the represent
atives of the large bakery organiza-
tions have urged that they be per-
mitted to make short-weight loaves,
provided they state the weight on the
label on each loaf what is its weight
This would be prevented under the
proposed Brand-Capper bill, upon the
assumption that the buyer would pay
little attention to labels, while look
ing at the comparative size of the
loaf, where shortage OIL two ounces
would not be observable to the casual
observer. There is no argument ad-
mitted by the supporters of the
Standardization which justifies ir-
regular weights. They contend that
the sole reason for 14-ounce loaf
is to deceive the buyer into assuming
that 1t is the same as the pound loaf
How much does it cost to produce
a pound of bread which sells for s
ssnts2