Bakers Would Abolish 5-Cent Loaf

1916

Chicago, Sept. 9. — Recommendations to all bakers of the United States that the five-cent loaf of bread be abandoned and the ten-cent loaf standardized, were made after considerable discussion at the closing session of the executive committee of the National Association of Master Bakers yesterday. They urged that the recommendations be put into effect immediately. Economic waste incident to the manufacture of the five-cent loaf was emphasized. Saving in manufacture, improvement in quality and standardization are urged in favor of the ten-cent loaf. It is also recommended that where local conditions make it necessary a smaller loaf may be maintained, with a price consistent with the cost of manufacture.

The bakers cited the following percentages of increase in the cost in the ingredients in the manufacture of bread within the past two years: Patent flour, 100 per cent; rye, 124 per cent; sugar, 66 per cent; shortening, 60 per cent; milk, 40 per cent; salt, 14 per cent; wrapping paper, 70 per cent. Delivery costs also have increased, it was stated, through an advance of 100 per cent in the price of gasolene and of 25 per cent in feed for horses.

The bakers went on record strongly against any attempt to lower the quality of bread.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6

U. S. Crop Report

1916

Maine

Corn — September 1 forecast, 477,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 656,000 bushels.

Oats — September 1 forecast, 5,540,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 6,080,000 bushels.

Barley — September 1 forecast, 135,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 132,000 bushels.

Potatoes — September 1 forecast, 25,700,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 22,010,000 bushels.

Hay — Preliminary estimate, 1,830,000 tons; production last year, final estimate, 1,397,000 tons.

Apples — September 1 forecast, 1,550,000 barrels; production last year, final estimate, 720,000 barrels.

New Hampshire.

Corn — September 1 forecast, 798,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 990,000 bushels.

Oats — September 1 forecast, 442,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 456,000 bushels.

Potatoes — September 1 forecast. 1,940,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 1,520,000 bushels.

Hay — Preliminary estimate, 767,000 tons; production last year, final estimate, 504,000 tons.

Apples — September 1 forecast, 510,000 barrels; production last year, final estimate, 353,000 barrels.

United States.

Corn — September 1 forecast, 2,710,000,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 3,054,535,000 bushels.

Oats — September 1 forecast, 1,230,000,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 1,540,362,000 bushels.

Barley — September 1 forecast, 184,000,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 237,009,000 bushels.

Rye — September 1 forecast, 41,884,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 49,190,000 bushels.

Potatoes — September 1 forecast, 318,000,000 bushels; production last year, final estimate, 359,103,000 bushels.

Hay — Preliminary estimate, 86,200,000 tons; production last year, final estimate, 85,225,000 tons.

Apples — September 1 forecast, 67,700,000 barrels; production last year, final estimate, 76,670,000 barrels.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

The Federal Farm Loan Measure

Maine, 1916

After many years of effort on the part of those who were interested in the proper capitalization of the farms of the Country, Congress has passed what seems to be an adequate law that will give the farmer and land owner the same privileges in our banking system that have been enjoyed by other branches of industry for many years.

The grange, both State and National, has been a factor in creating a sentiment that has made the passage of this measure possible, and is seems a matter of great concern that at the hearing on the measure at Augusta, recently, those who had official connection with the grange, or who had commissioned themselves to speak for that body, felt called upon to discourage the Commissioners from trying to locate one of the branch banks in Maine.

Had the farmers, who realize their needs, and who are trying to meet present day conditions on limited capital, been allowed to speak for themselves the result of the hearing would have been different. But they were on their farms, working against great odds, and others spoke for them from knowledge obtained in the class room, in business circles, on the lecture platform and in City counting rooms.

How this hearing emphasizes the necessity of leaders who really realize their responsibilities, and who are able to look at the problems of the farmer from the proper view point.

Is it possible that these men let partisan prejudice warp their judgment? Did they think it improper to judge favorably an act of the present Congress? If such is the case, which God forbid, let me quote a little from the last President of the United States, of the opposite political party:

"The 12,000,000 farmers of the United States add, each year, to the national wealth $8,400,000,000. They are doing this on a borrowed capital of $6,040,000,000. On this sum they pay annually interest charges of $510,000,000. Counting commissions and renewal charges, the interest rates paid by the farmers of this country is averaged at 8 1/2 per cent, as compared to a rate of 4 2/3 to 3 1/2 per cent paid by the farmers, for instance of France and Germany.

"Again, the interest rate paid by the American farmer is considerably higher than that paid by industrial corporations, railroads or municipalities. Yet, I think it will be admitted that the security offered by the farmer, in his farm lands, is quite as good as that offered by industrial corporations. Why then will not the investor furnish the farmer with money at as advantageous rates as he is willing to supply it to the industrial corporations? Obviously, the advantage enjoyed by the industrial corporation is in the financial machinery at its command, which permits it to place its offer before the investor in a more attractive and more readily negotiable form. The farmer lacks this, and lacking it he suffers."

This, from so good an authority as Mr. Taft, ought to be convincing to all who are fair minded and intelligent. It ought to silence for all time the cry of the partisan that this bill has no value except as a political weapon.

The recent happenings in relation to increased freight rates, the arbitrary fixing of prices of his products by the distributors, and the high price of labor have set the farmer to thinking. He now knows that while farm products are higher to the consumer than ever before, his profits are not increasing, in fact, that they are actually decreasing in many instances, and that one great reason for this is the lack of ready capital to take advantage of conditions, and to finance him through the season and enable him to act with his fellows in any co-operative plan that shall tend to lift a portion of his burdens.

Then again, the college of Agriculture which was represented at the hearing, is all the while turning out graduates who ought to be well fitted to take up the business of farming and carry it to a successful standing.

But to do this they have got to have capital and ready means of credit, but very few of them are fortunate enough to have a farm awaiting them on graduation. This higher agricultural education calls for more expensive methods, better animals, more farm machinery, all of which call for money.

And because of the lack of ready capital, many of these young men will drift into other occupations, their services will be lost to the farm, and the college will suffer because more of its graduates are not found on farms.

It would naturally have been supposed that these college representatives would have hastened to put themselves on record as favoring the establishing of one of these land banks where it would have been available for their graduates, instead of remaining silent or actually repelling it.

But the time is coming when the farmers will speak for themselves, when they will no longer be bound by the time-serving policies of their leaders, and self-appointed spokesmen. When that time does come, as it surely will, the farmer shall get his full due, the business will again be prosperous, every man's hand shall not then be against him, and there shall come a lasting prosperity to State and Nation that shall arise from a happy, a contented, a prosperous agriculture. Let us all try to hasten the glad time coming.

B. Walker McKeen.
Fryeburg, September 1, 1916.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 2.

Trainmen's Higher Wages a Burden to Farmers

1916

New Orleans, La., Saturday. — That the increase in pay of members of the four railroad brotherhoods, caused by the enactment of the eight hour day law by Congress, will rest ultimately upon the farmer was asserted by Henry N. Pope, newly elected president of the Association of State Presidents of the Farmers' Union, in a statement issued to-day.

Mr. Pope declared that the farmers of the country stand for a fair wage for both labor and capital and favor an eight hour working day, but that he personally doubted the wisdom of Congress fixing wages for labor employed by private enterprise. "I doubt," he said, "if it is in the interest of either labor, capital or the people to make the wage schedule of railroad employes a political issue."

The condition of the farmers of the country is worse than that of the most lowly railroad laborer, Mr. Pope stated, with an average farm income of only $1.47 a day, out of which must be paid the expenses of the family.

The condition of women laborers in the fields he described as worse than during the days of slavery.

"Not a word has been spoken by Congress in defence of the woman who rakes the hay and gathers the sheaves," said Mr. Pope. "Little has been done that has increased the income of the farmer or enabled him to pay a higher wage to his laborers.

"But to-day we find the highest paid laborers in the world, making three times more money than a farmer, demanding twenty-five per cent increase, and Congress hastening to their relief. This increase must, in the end, rest upon the back of the farmer and will reduce his income, increase his hours of labor and call for another levy of farm mothers from the home to the field.

"The farmers of this nation must fight to hold what they have and to get what is rightfully theirs from the government. We must do it through organization."

Mr. Pope stated that by the enactment of the eight hour law Congress had thrust upon the people of the country a new responsibility, and organized labor now stands committed to the principle of government regulation of wages. The government, he said, should fix wages for all classes of railroad employes and should have the power to decrease as well as to increase wages to remedy comparative inequalities.

"In my opinion," he continued, "the next session of Congress should readjust the wages of all railroad employes, from railroad president to section laborer, giving all a square deal and fixing a schedule of pay based upon business justice and human rights. I submit a schedule of wages taken from official government reports which presents conclusive evidence of the inequalities of the present daily wage scale of railroad employes:—

"General officers, $16.11; other officers, $6.49; general office clerks, $2.53; station agents, $2.37; other station men, $1.99; enginemen, $5.28; firemen, $3.23; conductors, $4.49; other trainmen, $3.11; all shopmen, $2.37, and trackmen, $1.50."

Mr. Pope declared that the foregoing schedule showed that the 350,000 section hands in the country were condemned to a life of poverty. He said he believed that Congress, having undertaken to regulate the wages of higher paid employes, should review their wages.

An Elastic Tariff is the Need of America

1916

New York, Sept. 21. — Greater elasticity in the country's tariff system is necessary to meet trade conditions which will arise at the close of the war, according to reports submitted to the National Foreign Trade Council today by a committee which has investigated the foreign trade aspects of the tariff. The report says:

"All European nations will, with peace, have a large market to offer and may be expected to yield it only for opportunities to extend or protect from discrimination the foreign trade. The United States is normally the best customer of the United Kingdom and is one of the most profitable markets for France, Germany and all the other belligerents.

"With the exception of the United Kingdom all the belligerents have, in their tariff systems, ample resources for negotiations for tariff advantages and for retaliation against discrimination.

"The foregoing circumstance shows the necessity for greater elasticity in the American tariff system, regardless of whether the tariff is maintained for protection or for revenue or partially for each. It is obvious that the United States should have some method of adjusting the tariff to new conditions created by political or commercial change in the part of our competitors and our customers, without resorting to a general revision. The creation of the tariff commission should contribute to this end."

The council adopted a resolution directing that the council bring to the attention of the President, Congress and the Tariff Commission, when organized. "The necessity that the American tariff system shall possess adequate resources for the encouragement of the foreign trade of the United States by commercial treaties or agreements of executive concessions within defined limits and its protection from undue discrimination in the markets of the world."

Against Taxing Wealth

1916

The high priests in their search for some vital and appealing issue against the Democratic party have hit upon another dangerous one.

They are squarely on record, as the Post pointed out yesterday, in opposition to the eight-hour day for railroad workers, and the other working men of the United States are asking themselves what this ominous assault means. Nor can they be blamed if they become convinced that the Republican party is identified with the capitalists and the big "interests." Or if they feel that logically Mr. Hughes and a Republican Congress — if such should be the results of the election — would at once move to repeal the railroad eight-hour law. The bosses can only blame themselves and their candidate for the feeling that the party has no sympathy this year for the aspirations and hopes of labor.

But there is another issue just as likely to burn the fingers of the G. O. P. orators and leaders. It is opposition to the taxation of wealth.

Already the business has begun. Assaults on the income tax law here in other States are now under way. The people are being told how iniquitous it is that the south pays so little of this tax and the north so much, as if that were some fault of the law. The logic of this is almost incredibly clumsy.

Our extraordinarily rich and prosperous northern states, Massachusetts among the rest, pay more income tax to the support of the federal government for the simple and sufficient reason that the wealth is here to be taxed. There isn't a southern state but would rejoice with exceeding great joy if from its borders went to the national treasury at Washington as much money as goes from Massachusetts, for that would mean that it was rich, that many of its citizens had great incomes which were doing their share in the Federal support.

Idle wealth was never justly taxed in these United States until the passage of the Democratic income tax law. On the shoulders of the poor rested by far the heavier burden. Now come the Republican stump speakers and attack this fairest and squarest form of taxation ever devised on the absurd ground that it is "sectional," keeping silent about the fact that wealth is taxed wherever found, whether north, south, east or west.

Against the eight-hour day and against the taxation of hitherto hidden and evading riches — that's where the Republican party is headed, if it is not already there. — The Boston Post.

President Begins Speeches

1916

Long Branch, N. J., Sept. 23. — President Wilson today actively opened his campaign for reelection with a speech replying to Republican criticism of his settlement of the recently threatened railroad strike.

With emphatic gestures, before a large crowd gathered at Shadow Lawn, he defended the eight-hour day and declared also that the nation must be freed front the possibility of interference with its transportation.

"The chief cloud that is upon the domestic horizon is the unsatisfactory relations of capital and labor," the President said, adding that "so long as labor and capital stand antagonistic the interests of both are injured and the prosperity of America is held back from the triumphs which are legitimately its own.

"Human relationships, my fellow citizens, are governed by the heart, and if the heart is not in it, nothing is in it.

"I have recently been through an experience which distressed me. I tried to accommodate a difference between some of the employes of the American railways and the executives of the American railways, and the distressing thing I discovered was that on the one hand there was unlimited suspicion and distrust of the other, and that that suspicion and distrust was returned by the other side in full measure.

"The executives did not believe in the sincerity of the men, and the men did not believe in the sincerity and fairness of the executives.

"When I carried it to Congress, some very interesting things happened. In the House of Representatives the plan was passed, was sanctioned by a vote which included, I am told, about 70 Republicans as against 54 Republicans; and in the Senate, I am informed, that the Republican members of the Senate had a conference, in which they determined to put no obstacle in the way of the passage of the bill. Now this was because the proposal was reasonable and was based upon right.

"But, ladies and gentlemen, that is not the end of the story. This thing ought to have been done, and it had to be done at the time that it was done, so as to bring about a reasonable trial of the eight-hour day and a careful examination of the results of the eight-hour day.

"But that does not finish the matter. Let me call your attention to what I believe we ought all to be thinking about so as to set the stage for this and all similar cases.

"There are some things in which society is so profoundly interested that its interests take precedence of the interests of any group of men whatever. One of these things is the supply of the absolute necessaries of life. It would be intolerable if at any time any group of men by any process should be suffered to cut society off from the necessary supplies which sustain life.

"These men were dealing with one another as if the only thing to settle was between themselves, whereas the real thing to settle was what rights had the 100,000,000 people of the United States?

"The business of government is to see that no other organization is as strong as itself, to see that no body or group of men, no matter what their private interest is, may come into competition with the authority of society, and the problem which Congress, because of the lateness of the session, has for a few months postponed, is this problem."

Wholesale Prices of Commodities Average Higher

1916

Wholesale prices of commodities in the United States averaged considerably higher in 1915 than in the preceding year, according to bulletin 200 of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U. S. Department of Labor. The downward trend which set in toward the close of 1914 did not extend beyond that year and by the end of January, 1915, prices of many commodities had advanced to a point well above those of the year before. February prices in the aggregate were above those in January, but slight decreases occurred in March and April. In May prices again advanced and, except for small declines in June and September, continued at high levels throughout the remainder of the year. The bureau's weighted index number for December stood at 105, the highest point reached in any year since the collection of data for the present series of reports on wholesale prices, dating back to 1890, was begun.

Dollar Rules in Finance

1916

Paris, Sept. 19. — Max Hoschiller, in an article in the Temps, contrasts America's financial position now in respect to foreign countries with what it was before the war. The article says:

"Then the United States was sending to Europe from $200,000,000 to $300,000,000 in interest on its borrowings, $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 spent by tourists, $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 to expatriates and $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 in ocean freights.

"Since the war the United States has imported $730,000,000 in gold and has paid back a considerable amount of its previous borrowings, has increased its foreign trade by $2,250,000,000 yearly and has loaned to foreign countries $1,470,000,000 so that the dollar now has replaced, to a considerable extent, the old sovereignty of the English pound abroad.

"Whether the United States will retain, with her deficient financial organization, the position recently won, will depend upon American financial and commercial policies. The arrival in France of an American commercial mission is an indication that Americans are realizing they must follow the law of exchanges between countries, buying in general, as much as they sell."

An Authorized Statement of President Wilson's Plans

1916

L.' Ames Brown in Collier's.

No sane man doubts that the coming of peace in Europe will modify profoundly the present conditions of business enterprise in the United States.

Among economists, as well as publicists, opinions differ as to the extent to which the industries of the nations now at war will be re-energized when peace makes them again our competitors in business. Some of our prophets have broadcasted the prediction that European manufacture may then be so speeded up that the resulting flood of products will swamp our industries unless they are protected by a solid tariff bulwark. Others, including President Wilson, hold that America, having husbanded and conserved her great resources while other nations were passing through the travail of a great war, is better able than ever before to meet the pace of her international competitors.

President Wilson believes that the American position is sound, not only because our resources have not been impaired, as have those of the European belligerents, but because our manufacturers have been stimulated and trained by new demands the war has made upon them. They have learned to meet, not only the war needs of Europe, but also those wants at home which heretofore foreign industry satisfied for us. Finally, the President attaches great importance to the fact that the United States has become, by reason of the Federal Reserve Act, the great financial power of the world.

Keen-minded men of every viewpoint are agreed, however, as to the imminence of severe new tests for American industry and as to the necessity of preparation to meet these tests. A period of intense competition looms up ahead of the nation — a competition of peace times which probably will not be comparable to any international industrial competition the world has ever known.

President Wilson believes that preparation for national defense is the first and most essential requirement the Government is called upon to meet. This he regards as a sort of insurance against an irremediable conflagration. But once our house has been put in order, it becomes the paramount duty of the Government to see to it that the most efficient preparation possible is made for the peace which will liberate the energies of the European power for industrial activity. Mr. Wilson already has looked ahead to the manner in which this primary duty of the American Government is to be performed, and he has evolved a comprehensive plan of preparation. It is the privilege of the writer of this article to present from intimate knowledge the views President Wilson has formulated with the object of giving a new and fuller meaning to American efficiency.

As soon as industrial preparedness is mentioned the mind of the American business man turns to the tariff. The tariff is the first line of trenches of American industry, our business men believe, and the first duty of the Government officers at work upon an adequate preparedness policy is to consider the question of tariff revision. Neither the President nor the well-informed business man has ignored the lesson contained in the announcement that Japan already has revised her tariff to meet new conditions; that England is preparing to enact prohibitive duties upon the products of her enemies and moderate duties upon the products of neutral nations at the close of the war; that Germany will revise all of her commercial treaties in 1917; and that a strong sentiment exists in England, France, Russia, and Italy for the negotiation of a commercial alliance.

The Tariff Must Be Revised.

President Wilson considers himself bound by no commitments save to a competitive tariff policy. The Underwood-Simmons Tariff Law embodied his ideas of the competitive needs of our industries at the time its schedules were framed — when pre-bellum industrial conditions obtained. His mind is entirely open as to the extent to which competitive conditions may have been modified by the European War. He does not need to be convinced that these conditions may be altered. He is prepared to act upon the facts as they may be gathered and their value impartially assessed through the instrumentality of a nonpartisan tariff commission. He considers that an earnest of his open-mindedness on tariff revision has been given in his support of the measure adopted at the present session of Congress to levy higher duties on dyestuffs as a means of securing necessary industries in the United States. The President considers his position, as here outlined, to be in the strictest accord with the avowed principles of his party.

The Tariff Commission is the instrumentality through which the President expects the Government to gather the facts needed for guidance in adjusting the tariff schedule. That would be perhaps the chief purpose of the Tariff Commission's suggested journey to Europe, though that would be only one phase of its inquiries. President Wilson is now as thoroughly convinced as anyone that America is not at the period of her destiny when free-trade ideas can be applied in our tariff making consistently with the necessities of revenue. It is an obvious fact, to which a section of the Democratic leaders, not including the President, persistently has closed its eyes, that all tariff duties in some degree protect the industries concerned. Tariffs protect, whether drawn with an eye to protection or to revenue, and the wisely drawn tariff law — the competitive tariff law — is that which balances revenue features with the nicest sensing of the needs of developing commerce and industry. It can be said that the President will study the report of the Tariff Commission with the view of formulating an adjustment of necessary tariff levies which will effect the fullest measure of development.

"There are many paths which lead up the mountainside, but when we reach the peak the same moon we shall see," says a proverb of Old Japan. How applicable it is to the present tariff discussion! Some one has called President Wilson's attention to the fact that fully 50 per cent of arguments among individuals about the tariff grow out of misunderstanding of isolated facts and not out of differences on fundamental principles. He does believe that a clear presentation of the facts relating to the conditions of competition between the United States and foreign countries will go far toward weeding out differences of opinion attributable to lack of information; so far that it will be possible to formulate a tariff policy for the United States which will command the support of an overwhelming majority of the people of the country regardless of partisan affiliations. The possibility of such an approximate agreement on a subject that hitherto has divided the electorate into two antagonistic sections is attributable in large measure (the President considers) to the development of independent thinking among the voters.

The great body of the people (Mr. Wilson believes) have made up their minds that the industries of the country ought not to be hampered by a too strict adherence to abstract tariff theories, but that the fullest measure of opportunity should be opened to them so long as the conferring of special privileges is avoided. On the other hand (as the President understands the public mind) there is the conviction that our industries ought not to be fattened to the point where apoplexy is threatened; but again, the conviction is just as clear that it would be the height of national folly to lower the entire range of tariff duties to such an extent that, coincidentally, the Government would be deprived of an important part of its accustomed revenue and the industries of all of their accustomed re-enforcement. So much for the President's views on the tariff, which relate solely to the defensive preparation of American business for the tests to come at the end of the war. The President believes that the aggressive and buoyant spirit of American business is such that it will be more concerned with offensive measures, with preparation to wade into the markets of the world, and to establish American supremacy there.

The President's policy includes numerous legislative and executive steps through which this preparation is to be accomplished. Most important of these is his plan to procure definitive authorization for American firms to co-operate for foreign-selling operations without regard to the provisions Of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. The President recognizes that in the past the American Government has been somewhat provincial in its attitude toward this need of our export business. The war and the vigorous investigation by the Federal Trade Commission have orientated the President and the Government, however. Now it is realized that the great competitive strength of Germany and the other industrial nations of Europe in the past has been due in large measure to the freedom with which their industries were permitted to organize for purposes of foreign trade. In Europe individual companies of one nation did not need to meet ruinous competition of other nations. They could present a solid national front. This was accomplished through the organization of syndicates and cartels which have flourished for decades in every great industrial nation except the United States.

Set Business Free.

The President's understanding of prospective post-bellum conditions holds up to his mind the probability that hereafter American industry may have to compete not only with those solid national organizations, but with international organizations. It is because he faces this prospect that the President believes it is high time for the American Government to strike from our industries some of the shackles in which they have labored because the Sherman Law failed to authorize the needed and wholesome processes of co-operative business organization.

President Wilson's attitude toward business organization as a principle for domestic as well as foreign application is different from that which has determined the policy of many Governmental officers in the past. Then the Government was so much concerned with eradicating the flaws in our business structure that it gave no large measure of thought to developing business opportunities. Under the President's inspiration the Trade Commission idea has been evolved, whereby the anti-trust division of the Department of Justice has been prevented from flourishing its sword over the heads of business organizations, merely because of the size of these organizations. Mere bigness is not held to be cause for suspicion by the Trade Commission, which is now the chief instrumentality of enforcing the anti-trust laws.

The Trade Commission has encountered little difficulty in straightening out kinks in commercial organizations which involve violations of law because business men have been made to realize that the main concern of this body has been the promotion of growth and the development of opportunity.

The Tariff Commission will find many ways of being useful to the business world if the plans President Wilson has formed for it are followed. The war has developed new industries in the United States, notably the dyestuff industry. Great benefit can be conferred on industries of this character, the President believes, if the Tariff Commission studies their methods of operation and subsequently the methods of operation and the economies which obtain among the European nations, where these industries have been longest established and are most efficient.

The President expects the Commission to go into the field of foreign tariff duties and to convey to American export organizations complete data as to the existence and effects of discriminating duties, commercial treaties, and preferential rates; the effects of export bounties and preferential transportation rates; and the effects of any special or discriminating privilege that may be used against the United States.

The scope of the Trade Commission's activities, according to the policy in the President's mind, includes the development of plans by which American business firms may best prepare themselves for the plunge into the international markets. For example the standardization of materials, manufacturing methods, and products, so that a uniformity of quality and price may be maintained in foreign markets, will obviate many of the difficulties experienced by American exporters in keeping up their historic endeavor to compete with one another. Another measure approved by the President is the development of a system of accounting which will enable the American business man to tell more accurately what it costs him to turn out his product. The President was surprised recently to learn from Federal Trade Commissioner Hurley that, whereas 50 per cent of German manufacturers can compute the exact cost of their products, only 10 per cent of American manufacturers can do so.

In general, the President intends that the Trade Commission shall apply itself vigorously to methods of reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of production.

The President is wholly committed to plans for maintaining and developing the transportation facilities at the disposal of the nation's business. His views on the need for an American merchant marine such as will assure American manufacturers means of conveying their products to foreign markets without depending on other nations, are now well known, and the shipping bill which embodies his ideas is now before Congress. The public is not so well informed, however, as to the President's attitude respecting the conservation and development of our domestic transportation facilities, namely, the railroads. With a view to obtaining the real facts about the difficulties confronting our great railroad companies the President has brought about the creation of a Congressional Commission to make a thoroughgoing inquiry into all phases of railroad problems. The President does not ignore the fact that in many instances the State Railroad Commissions and the Federal Interstate Commerce Commission have worked at cross purposes, thereby seriously retarding the development of the roads as national utilities. The President's mind is open on the subject of Federal incorporation and he will embody in his constructive business policy the conclusions which may seem justified by the investigation of the Congressional Commission.

Welcomes "Dollar Exchange"

There are many other phases of the railroad problem, however, regarding which the President desires the public to be better informed so that the Government may be enabled more fully to do its duty by the roads. These relate to credits and methods of expansion, as well as to schemes of regulation; and most important of all, to the spirit in which the public is to approach all questions relating to the welfare of the common carriers.

Another phase of the President's plans centers around his desire to provide means of assuring to the country the most efficient exertion of its great accumulated financial strength at the end of the war.

The United States has more gold than either group of the European belligerents and her financial position is incomparably stronger than that of any European nation with which we are shortly to engage in competition. But the President faces the fact that this new and happy condition has been created by the war and that plans must now be evolved for expanding our credit structure if the nation's industries are to reap the full benefits of our great financial strength when peace comes. The President believes that one of the measures which should be taken toward this end is the establishment of joint agencies of the Federal reserve banks in Europe as soon as sufficiently stable conditions are restored there. He also favors the establishment of such agencies in South America. It is his policy further to encourage American banking institutions to establish foreign branches in South America, where American trade is endeavoring to establish new footholds, and in general to adopt the most liberal attitude permissible while observing the spirit of the Federal Reserve act. The development of "dollar exchange" he contemplates with real enthusiasm.

The Government Must Help Business.

The President's policy may be summarized in the statement that he desires the Government to assume the role of the vigorous and robust friend of American business men in their endeavors to cope with competitors from other nations. This general statement covers not only the measures which have been discussed in this article and the holding of financial conferences between the United States and countries with which our trade may be expanded, but other concrete ideas for legislative enactments and executive acts which will promote the same purpose.

The President believes that the measures which his administration has taken for conserving and energizing American labor are part and parcel of the policy which I have been permitted here to set forth.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 8.

The Right to Strike

1916

Railroads are from their very nature public institutions. They have their being in law, and are governed throughout by legislative enactments. Their rates are limited, and within certain broad lines their duties are prescribed. The advocates of government ownership merely would extend the power of government that now lie latent. Private business may and should control its own affairs; but public business must be subject to such supervision and control as is necessary to protect the rights of the public. This raises the question of the responsibility of labor on railroads or in gas and electric light plants the same as that in a store or factory? A strike in a factory makes little difference to the public at large; and such inconvenience as does follow may better be borne than to interfere with individual initiative. But the strike that ties up a railroad or a gas plant immediately and directly affects the whole public. Clearly the cases are different, and call for different treatment. — The Public.

"Thus Far and No Farther"

1916

These soaring prices every time any one can take advantage of a situation are among the things driving the nation forward to a time when all prices will have to be regulated and fixed as those of public service corporations now are, or to something much more radical. Such is the greed for money that very many men will take such advantage at every opportunity.

No well-informed, far-sighted person can for an instant think that our industrial system can go on many decades more without very material changes.

There isn't in reality any competition in business any more. Practically every line of business is a monopoly — a business of course that is open to others; but no matter how many go in the exclusive control continues. Prices are always fixed by those in the business, and the chances are that the more that go in the higher prices will be, for all have to live.

Of course something different will be worked out. No one can predict what it will be, whether it will be regulation by commissions, whether an industrial democracy, whether Socialism.

Standpat people can no more readily stop the trend than King Canute could the incoming tide when he said to the waves: "Thus far and no farther." — The Pacific.

Buying Fruit

1901

The prudent man never buys the fruit which is marked with the highest prices, and his motive is not merely economy. He knows that the second grade fruit is riper than the most expensive, which in nine cases out of ten is too green to be eaten immediately. It is held at high prices because the dealer knows that it will keep, and as it ripens and grows better fit for human consumption its price will be reduced. That is the stage of the fruit when the price is lowered for the first time. It is then ripe and in condition to be eaten. And the prudent man who doesn't always feel that he has got the best article only when he pays the most for it buys his fruit at the marked down price. — New York Sun.

Current Turkey Models Are Bigger and Heavier

1934

Shifting of styles in turkeys is under way, according to L. E. Cline of the Nevada agricultural extension service, who recently finished a study of the present market for the holiday birds. The 1934 model will be bigger and heavier, Mr. Cline says, reflecting a consumer demand for a different type of bird which has been increasing since last Christmas.

The shift is a return to the turkey in greatest demand some time ago, the extension man says, and may be an indication of better economic conditions. In recent years the smaller birds have brought the best prices. Demands from restaurants and cabarets for larger breast meat has been an important factor in the change in consumer requirements.

A premium of one or more cents a pound is now being paid for the heavier turkeys, while for the last two or three years the price was that amount under the sum paid for lighter birds.

This condition always shows a decidedly healthy tone of the market, and if it prevails through the coming marketing season, as indications point, there will be a distinct advantage to the turkey producer.

Economy in Small Ways

1896

The little leaks in the household expenses, says the Jenness-Miller Monthly, are the most mischievous. The big ones are prominent enough to compel attention. Do you not, for example, trust all your tradespeople implicitly? You can't afford to do so.

The head servants in the Vanderbilt and Astor, and other wealthy families have among their chief duties that of weighing the household supplies. Dry goods measurements in the large shops are generally very accurate because the employes are under strict orders to be exact. But grocers and butchers will bear watching. Get for yourself or your kitchen priestess a set of measures and some scales, and after you and she have learned to use them, you will be amazed to see how much you have been paying for that you haven't had.

Even in the most reliable shops — so called — the weighing is very lax. Butchers claim that the deficiencies in their weights are all due to the waste in trimming. Very well, order the meat sent untrimmed. You will get fresher meat, and what you trim off will often give you nice bits for the stock pot, suet, etc. Try it and be convinced.

A quick-witted housekeeper says she has earned many a dollar in plumbers' bills by buying a force cup and learning to handle a wrench. Despite washing soda and potash, now and then something unmeltable slips through the sink strainer and clogs the pipe. All the more modern plumbing has a nut at the bottom of the "goose-neck," just below the sink. By setting a pan beneath this, and with a wrench loosening and then removing the cap, the obstruction will generally be found right there. Sometimes the force-cap applied over the strainer in the sink will be sufficient to clear the pipe without taking the cap off the gooseneck. If both fail, no harm will have been done, but one or the other, or both, succeeds often enough to make it worth while to exercise one's ingenuity a bit.

The Luckless Procrastinator

1914

The procrastinator is always liable to be luckless. To postpone a duty that should be discharged at once is to invite trouble for all concerned.

Many a man who is well disposed toward life insurance is still deferring the purchase of a policy which would be a boon to his family in the event of his death. The would be insurant is in good health today, but tomorrow he may be stricken with a disease that may bar him from the ranks of the insurable.

His reason for putting off securing a policy may he that it is inconvenient at present to pay the premium. But he should consider carefully the fact that life insurance will never be cheaper for him than it is today. His yearly premium on a policy taken out now would be appreciably less than would be the premium on a policy of the same amount taken out when he is a year older. Delay, therefore, will add somewhat to the yearly burden he would have to carry. The best thing for any uninsured man to do is to insure at once. — Leslie's Weekly.

The Bicycle a Benefactor

1895

A reliable correspondent writes to the New York World that in Chicago there flourishes a club of young women bound by a vow to ride horseback astride henceforth and forever. These young women have abandoned the spine-twisting side saddle; they have lived down the ridicule which accompanied the inauguration of their reform, and, most important of all, they attribute the success of their movement to the beneficent influence of the bicycle.

Each day it grows plainer that we must add the bicycle to the list of humanity's great benefactors. Already tens of thousands owe to it health, strength and their first intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. It has helped the farmer who foolishly despises it, by advancing the fight for good roads. It has filled the pockets of languishing owners of country inns. It has made the country boy and girl acquainted with their brothers and sisters from the city. It promises to do away with the stupid fashion of long trousers — to restore to mankind the graceful knickerbockers of old. It promotes equality. It discourages the separation of the people into hostile classes.

The bicycle is a democratic machine, a faithful servant, a luxury and a necessity, great and cheap. It is a good doctor, a destroyer of the blues. It deserves the monument which it is building to itself in the shape of a healthier, happier people.

Return to Ancient Method of Bartering Possible

1918

War Gradually Forcing Countries to Go Back to the Primitive Custom of Barter

Predictions by some economists that the time may come if the war lasts much longer that money would cease to have any value, are gradually coming true, they contend. They point out that shipping deals being made by both belligerents are virtually a return to the old system of bartering goods. As an illustration, the case is cited of the United States dickering with the Japanese for tonnage to transport and maintain the 1,500,000 troops Secretary Baker expects to have in Europe by the end of this year. Ship plates for the Japanese have been held up in this country for several months by withholding export licenses. If the United States can obtain the tonnage the Japanese may get the plates on the basis of about two tons of shipping for one ton of ship plates.

In Germany the idea has been forced to a greater extent. In Erfurt and elsewhere it has long been the practice of doctors, dentists and other professional men to insist on payment in kind.


Sweet Are the Uses of Perversity

Abstractedly, I disapprove of fishing; hunting I think barbarous; "he who wantonly treads on a worm is no friend of mine"; and yet I fish. I do not merely carry rod and reel; I use them. I suppose it is like smoking; that seems to me a feeble-minded habit and yet I smoke. Working, too, seems sometimes as foolish, and yet I work. Some pessimists have convinced themselves that living is a waste of time, and yet, so far as I have observed, they continue to live. Sweet are the uses of perversity. — Robert M. Gay, in the Atlantic.

Twenty Rules for Health

1874

1. Remember the author of the laws which govern the human body is the author of the Ten Commandments.

2. Infidelity to the laws — established that mankind should be healthy and happy — is the greatest sin of the present generation.

3. Be cheerful, trustful of others, and faithful to your own best conception of duty. Never brood over troubles that you have, and be sure you never borrow any.

4. Be much in the sunlight, and prefer light-colored clothing.

5. Drones must die. Exercise liberally and live. Be out-doors all you can while the sun shines.

6. Breathe pure air. Live with open windows, and the windows of heaven will be more likely to open for you.

7. Pray with a pure heart and a clean skin. Bathe often.

8. Avoid stimulation by spirits of all kinds, strong coffee and tea, opium and tobacco.

9. Keep the head cool, feet and heart warm, hopes heavenward, and fingernails clean.

10. Eat only three times daily, and never between meals — not a nut nor an apple. Drink nothing while eating.

11. One hearty meal of meat per day is sufficient. The other two should be spare.

12. Avoid late, hearty suppers, pork, spices and pepper, rich pastry, and imperfectly cooked beans.

13. Wheat, oat and barley meal, with beans, peas, lean meats, fish and wild game, are the best articles of food.

14. Fruits are cooling to the blood, and especially adapted to warm weather.

15. Eat slowly, masticate your food well, and eat nothing for three hours before retiring.

16. Let the time spent at table be happy. Encourage pleasant, cheerful conversation; joke, but do not argue. Rest a half hour after every hearty meal.

17. Sleep eight hours of each day.

18. Brain, bone and muscle are built of different material, and the brainworker should have food different from the muscle-worker. He is not thoroughly educated who cannot select food adapted to his needs.

19. Avoid corsets, and suspend no article of clothing from the waist. Protect every part of the body from chill and exposure.

20 Study hygiene, attend health lectures and read health literature. As you are ignorant or intelligent in physiology will your habits be wise or otherwise.


Note: Consult with your physician before taking questionable health advice. There has been progress in health information, I've heard, since 1874. The information here is for entertainment purposes only. And I'm not so sure it's good enough for even that.



You may glean knowledge by reading, but you must separate the chaff from the wheat by thinking.


Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health. Profuseness is a cruel and crafty demon, that gradually involves her followers in dependence and debt.


A clergyman in Dundee, Scotland, announced to his congregation that, in consequence of his inability to afford coals for keeping up his study fire, he had discontinued studying, and would preach old sermons until a fall in the price.

The Habit of Saving

1874

Wastefulness characterizes our domestic economy to an extent unheard of in more frugal countries, and we must always eat, drink and be clothed with the best the market affords. There is no economy in depriving ourselves of an abundant supply of nourishing food, decent raiment and healthful shelter, but this affords no excuse for the prevalent sin of waste, nor does it justify spending hard won wages upon expensive delicacies, unnecessarily large habitations or costly trifles. There is far too slavish a subserviency to fashion among all classes. Economy in this respect would not only save money, but tend to create a much-needed independence, both in dress and in our whole manner of life.

The only absolutely certain way of inculcating habits of economy is to begin with the children and accustom them to self-control and self-denial by saving a portion of their pocket-money or the earnings of odd minutes. There will be even a greater necessity for economy in the next generation than in this, since now the bounteous gifts of nature are being very lavishly drawn upon, and our successors are likely to live under narrower conditions than we do.


Method in Work

Do instantly whatever is to be done; take the hours of reflection for recreation after business and never before it. When a regiment is under march, the rear is often thrown into confusion because the front do not move steadily and without interruption. It is the same thing with business. If that which is first in hand is not instantly, steadily and regularly dispatched, other things accumulate behind till affairs begin to press all at once and no human brain can stand the confusion. Pray mind this; it is one of your weak points; a habit of mind it is that is very apt to beset men of intellect and talent, especially when their time is not filled up regularly but is left to their own management. But it is like the ivy round the oak, and ends by limiting if it does not destroy the power of manly and necessary exertion. — Sir Walter Scott.