Milford chronicle., 1956-02-24
THE sH0PPFR ABROAD

The Cf1OFFEh AbhOAD
Americans who haven't lived abroad
would be puzzled and annoyed at the way
people must 60 about shopping for food in
other countries. In most of those countries,
stores are usually forbidden by law to offer
such items as fresh meat under the same
roof with canned vegetables and soups In
France, for instance, the housewife must 90
to as many as Ia stores to complete a shop
ping list-a fruit shop, a smoked meat store,
a fresh meat butcher, bakery, dairy, and
so on.
Here in the United States, whether we
patr0nize a family-owned store or a big
chain supermarket, we take it for granted
that everything we want has been assembled
for us-and that the highest standards of
sanitation and convenience prevail
In addition, we have come to expect and
demand foods in form which requires
minimum of preparation-and we are also
accustomed to buying foods which once were
available only seasonally at all times of the
year. For example, Chain Store Age reports
that the American housewife spent S8.2 bill
lion in chain grocery-supermarkets last year
for perishable items requiring refrigeration.
The typical chain outlet has up to $75, 900 in-
vested IN refrigerating equipment alone
four or five times as much as the investment
in the entire store of 1925! These and the
many other costs brought on by the demand
for frozen and otherwise-proces foods
help to explain why the spread between
the price received by the farmer and the
price paid by the consumer has widened
The superiority of American. retailing is
not confined to foods. It is found in all the
many branches of retailing-as Americans
who have travelled abroad will tell you.
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TOMORROW'S FARM PROBLEM
The basic agricultural problem today is
found in the staggering surpluses of major
crops That of the comparatively near fU-
ture viii be entirely different. The problem
in few years will not be how to set aside
farm land and avoid surpluses Of foodstuffs,
but how to produce sufficient food on the
remaining cultivatable land.
This view may seem startling, but it
stems from the hard rock of fact. From 1912
through 1856, reports the Soil Conservation
Service, some IL million acres of cultivatable
u. S. land will have been converted to nom
agricultural purposes - industrial areas,
housing developments, airports, highways,
and so on. An additional 3 million acres has
been planted to trees. Recently President
Eisenhower recommended that Is million
acres be taken out Of cultivation and placed
in the conservation reserve part Of his pro-
posed soil bank This is not much more than
has been taken permanently out of cultiVa-
ton in decade and half.
That trend, it is expected, will not only
continue out probably intensity. At the same
time, our population is expected to reach the
210-220 million level III d mere 20 years. We
viii thus have a great many more mouths to
feed-and much-reduced acreage to pro-
duce that food
1t is evident from all this that agricul-
lures future job will be to make the crop
lands more productive, not less. That will
require the use Of more and improved farm
equipment Of all kinds, along with the other
tools and techniques that science and tech
nology have made available to the modern
farmer.
STRENGTHENING THE FOUNDATIONS
The Hoover Commission found that the
federal government operates about 5000 bus
mess type enterprises, many in direct COM
petition with private enterprise. 1t recon-
mends that the government get out of 1000
of these enterprises, and states that many
of the goods and services produced can be
obtained cheaper from taxpaying private
business.
The list of government businesses runs
an astonishingly wide gamut-fr0n ice cream
freezing plants TO electric systems; from
garden nurseries to railroads; from a mail
bag factory to banks; from fertilizer plant
to steamship lines. In each case the tax
payers are the loser in three ways; first, the
tax-exemptiOnS of government businesses
increase everyone else's share of govern
ment costs; second capital investment for
these enterprises adds directly or Indirect
ly to the national debt and increases the in
terest payments which are part of the tax
burden; and, third, hidden costs and losses
help swell the total and also add to the debt
and the interest
Al point made by Herbert Hoover him
self should guide the thinking of the Admin
istration, the Congress, and the general pub
lie toward the Commissions reports. He
said "Our job is to show safe road to a
balanced budget. But over and above
even that, many Of these reports spell out
ways to strengthen the foundations of the
Republic"
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OFF-THE-FARM JOBS
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