The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1942-10-08
Wheat Price Minor Factor
In Present Cost Of Bread
Improved Merchandising, Manufacturing
Methods Boost Bakers Bills; Raw
Material Cost Relatively Slight.
By
Ne,Ds Analyst and Commentator.

Ne,Os Analyst a
WNU Service, 1s4s H Street, NV,
Washington, D.. C.
The recent debate in congress
over the sterilization Of prices and
wages goes as deep into the home
and the farm and the factory as any
national issue ever has.
I received a typical letter on the
subject-a query about the relative
cost Of wheat and bread, what the
farmer gets and what the baker
charges. In trying to answer it, I
found a mountain Of statistics and
a wide variance Of opinion; but it
was a childhood memory which
gave me the most convincing part
Of the answer.
First, the letter from my listen
er in Bismarck, N. D.:
Before you put too much blame
On farm products for the rise in the
cost Of living, please explain soon in
one Of your radio talks, why during
World War I, when wheat was SELL
ing for $2.25 to $50 per bushel, that
bread va selling for ten cents a
loaf while now, posted local prices
at this point, are 90 cents Cfor wheat)
and bread retails at 10 to is cents
q loaf . . :"
Now the memory:
It was a clear summer morning.
School was just out and there was a
treat in store for me. I got up long
before the family was awake,
slipped into the summer kitchen and
poured myself a glass of milk and
put a couple of cookies in my pocket.
As I went quietly out the front door,
I tiptoed across the stoop where the
empty pan with a red milk-ticket
lay beside it.
I walked down Locust street to
Arthur Barnes house just in time
to climb into the bread wagon beside
him and his father. We crunched
down the driveway and through the
empty streets to the New York Gen.
trail station. Before we got into the
freight yards the train from Buffalo
was rolling in. BY the time Mr..
Barnes had backed the wagon up to
the freight station platform the
bread crates we're waiting.
Fast Delivery
We stood beside the crate. Mr..
Barnes was in the delivery wagon.
I wasn't nearly as adept as Arthur.
Of course, for he had much more
practice in extricating and tossing
the loaves and he often had to wait
q second or two, while he toyed with
the unwrapped loaf before I had
managed to toss mine to Mr.. Barnes
who deity caught it and put it in
place in the layers that rose from
the wagons floor. This lack Of dex-
terity on my part made me a little
nervous and one loaf went wild. Mr..
Barnes reached out nobly but it hit
the side Of the wagon and caromed
over into the cinders.
Mr.. Barnes was a man of deeds,
not words. He leapt out Of the
wagon and recovered the treasure.
I looked sheepishly at Art. There
was half my pay gone, surely. But
no! Mr.. Barnes was frowning, he
looked around, whipped out his knife
and with a few expert incisions re-
moved the cinders. gave the crust
an affectionate stroke with his bare
wrist and leapt back into the wagon
with it. The loading continued in
silence for a moment. Then Art
leaned over and said in = reproving
whisper. Don't say nothin' about
that"
It was that concern over a pos.
sible aroused public opinion over a
lapse in our sanitary discipline
which foreshadowed one Of the de-
velopments that has increased the
cost Of bread.
The incident I have described took
place about 1893 and it reveals some
Of the primitive methods Of the bak-
ing industry which sanitary laws,
popular taste. cost Of labor make
impossible today.
Take the most obvious: packag-
ing. Can you imagine bread being
shipped in crates and massaged by
human hands today? Yet even as
late as the time Of which my cor-
respondent writes, 19l4-wrapping
bread was unknown in many COM
munities.
This one sanitary measure Is only
one Of many which have made the
cost Of bread higher-the conditions
with the bakery have changed even
more radically. OF course, labor is
the most important factor. In 1914
men worked much longer hours for
much less money.