Greenbelt cooperator., 1939-11-23
Better Buyers Argue
AT Ice Cream Hearings

of the open hearings on ice held at the Depart
nent Of Agriculture on November 10. It was the first
Of such hearings attended by the writer, and In
tensely interesting affair it turned out to be. In
portant looking men, all pressed and polished, and
with bu1ng brief somewhat nervously lit seem
ed to me asked for the floor from time to time and
testified, oh, so earnestly, that vanillin the
proper thing to make vanilla ice cream with, or that
only pure fruit flavoring used in peach flavor
Ice and it silly of the consumers to miss
the fresh peaches which mother used to put in the ice
she made. And then they sat down, and lit an
other cigaret less imposing group, numbering per-
haps ten,-two Of them With babies in their
laps,-hstened intently to everything that said.
A handsomely dressed woman, sporting the latest in
ftngerwaves mancures, and mink capes, rose to her
feet. nj, one, do not believe in pena1izing in
dusty, she said "and cannot see the necessity for
Standardization Of products. AS for strict laws
garding labels, that's absurd. No women read the
labels anyhow" The small, unimportant group Of
men up stra ghter and when the speaker had sat
down, they looked quickly at each other. One woman
handed her baby to her and rose to her fee
chairman nodded at her and she began to speak,
so much engrossed in what she saying that she
forgot to give her to the secretary. For az
proximate1y fifteen minutes, she talked about tbs
stupidity Of housewives who opened cans and led
their families out of them without reading labels,
about the rise Of consumer consciousness and the
great need Of government The chair
man nodded kindly to her she took her seats The
fashionable Lady and the manufacturing experts lit
cigarets and there was short and
silence. Another Of the wdmportant group ask
ed to be heard and began to speak the desirabi-
lity of setting minimum of fresh fruit to be used
In ice before it could be styled "Fresh fruit
ice cream. humorous note was struck by an expert
who didn't intend it to be humorous. When asked by
whether his company used re-2n ice cream,
chocolate the day after it didn't sell VANILLA
he replied, MADAM, that is against the Law" She
asked again whether his company did this, and he
answered heatedly, MADAM, think I said it was g.
gainst the Law. I meant the Law in the District.
don't what kind of Laws you have in Greenbelt!"
The questioner approached of Greenbelt's Better
Buyers in the hall after adjournment of the hear ings,
and said, "Thanks for starting off. I might not
have spoken if you hadn't spoken first. And It'd like
to add that I felt distinctly f1attered that he
should have taken for Greenbelter."
When the writer left the building, large number
of important looking also coming out, ,busi1y
lighting cigarets. On the whole it would appear to
have been Large day for the cigaret manufacturers.
And the small, unimportant looking group down
the steps with their babies, and even the babies
looked pleased with themselyesl-
Morden, England has been experimenting with
structing playground surf With composition,
where children fall without being hurt, the
position material preventing cuts, or scratches.