Proceedings of Seventeenth ISTormal Institute l-iT 



Second, there were the difficulties that beset the ordinary city- 

 dweller who cannot buy in quantity, because there is no place to 

 store a ban-el of apples or even a peck or so of potatoes. Even 

 where storage was adequate there was a general objection to bring- 

 ing into the house more than enough for the next meal, because of 

 the petty thievery of sei-vants, who felt it was a perquisite of the 

 job to take all that was not immediately needed or consumed by 

 the family. Literally, many city-dwellers live from hand to 

 mouth. This is a feature that the country-producer, with ample 

 cellars and bins, and a whole winter's supply of food, cannot 

 readily understand. But with a majority of consumers, at least 

 in the city, it is impossible (or appears to them to be impossible) 

 to purchase much more than a day's supply ahead. 



THE COSTS OF SERVICE 



A necessary result of this is that there are large charges for 

 service and for storage, which the consumer must of course pay. 

 Some of these charges are unnecessary, but will exist as long as 

 present economic systems of distribution continue in force. 



A favorite example of the economists, and indeed, one of the 

 a. b. c. theorems of those who advocate municipal control of mu- 

 nicipal activities, is the question of milk deliveries. Under pres- 

 ent arrangements there is sheerest waste of service due to too 

 much competition. Milk delivery wagons cross and recross the 

 paths of one another, and five different distributors may deliver 

 milk in five houses standing next door to each other, whereas one 

 could do the work more cheaply and effectively. This effective- 

 ness could be brought about if all the companies consolidated, or 

 if the city organized a central milk depot with deliveries by area 

 units or districts. How the city man can get milk for eight cents 

 a quart is beyond my comprehension. That he does is a tribute 

 to the farmer, the transportation company, the milk dealer, and 

 the individual milkman. A careful study of the cost of milk 

 production, made by the New York State College of Agriculture 

 indicates that " at least one-eighth of the dairy herds in the state 

 return an annual net loss to their owners." Under the most favor- 

 able conditions of cheap feeds and good markets the farmer makes 

 between one-half and two-thirds of a cent as his share of profit 

 on the eight cents the consumer pays. 



