133 



lengthen the loaf to the original size." That was all we 

 wanted. We did not expect to get a reduction with wheat 

 up around .$1.58, so we told them that was all we were after. 

 We shook hands and parted friends and we saved the people 

 of NeW' York City alone on the 2,000,000 loaves of bread 

 they use daily, at least $20,000 — not such a bad nest egg for 

 a department that had only $15,000 to run it a year. It 

 made the consumer smile and many poor children ate bread 

 that might have gone to bed hungry. 



The department ran along to the middle of the summer, 

 and one day in looking over the trade papers which are 

 supported by the financial interests in the form of advertis- 

 ing, we discovered that the buyers of Ncav York were out in 

 Oregon buying apples and paying for them $1.35 to $1.50 a 

 liox, a bushel box and the freight rate and icing charges 

 were 50 cents a box additional. Then the commissioner 

 read down further in this particular paper where it said 

 that buyers, operators and commission men and merchants 

 should be careful in l)uying New York State apples this year 

 for $1.50 a l)arrel. 



Just contrast that, a three bushel barrel for $1.50 with 

 a bushel box for $1.50 with a 50 cent, freight rate. "Surely." 

 the Commissioner said, "That must be a mistake," so he 

 called up the editor and he said, "You don't know anything 

 about this business." "Well," he said, "I am sixty, but I 

 am not too old to learn." 



He engaged a gentleman to help him, and he said 

 "Publicity is something these fellows abhor; suppose we 

 "svrite a piece for the papers and tell them that according to 

 the price now being paid for apples in Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, New York State apples ought to bring $2.25 for the B 

 grade and $2.75 for the A grade." The editorial was writ- 

 ten. The paper published it and 200,000 were circulated 

 among 200,000 farmers' families in this eastern country, 

 and then there was some slight — well, a few remarks made, 

 to say the least, and I do not think that the men who made 

 the remarivs — 1 don't think those remarks were Calvinistic. 



