222 COLD STORAGE 



the price level of food products. It is obvious that the first effect 

 is to make prices higher to both producer and consumer during 

 the three or four months of heaviest production, and to make the 

 prices lower to producer and consumer during the season of lightest 

 production. In other words, cold storage tends to equalize prices 

 during the year. However, there is a larger question involved, 

 and one not easy of statistical proof or disproof. That is, the effect 

 of higher prices on production. For it is evident that the producer 

 does find a larger market and better prices during the heavy 

 producing season when his surplus is disposed of for cold storage 

 purposes. The necessary effect seems to be that cold storage 

 increases production. And the total effect of this increase in 

 production is to lower the cost of living. The situation was 

 summed up by the Massachusetts Commission on the Cost of 

 Living, 1910, in these words (p. 179) : 



"Before cold storage facilities were available, during the time of plenty, 

 prices were extremely low for the producer. Conversely, during the season 

 of scarcity prices rose rapidly and were extremely high to the consumer. 

 Many classes of perishable products were not procurable, even at the extreme 

 prices. The cold storage warehouse acts as a balance. It insures that a fair 

 supply of the products of plenty, produced in their seasons, shall be available 

 throughout the year. It materially lessens the extreme between the former 

 minimum and maximum selling prices, which is a decided advantage to both 

 producer and consumer." 



Government Regulation. Little attention was paid to the cold 

 storage question by legislative bodies prior to 1910. The period 

 of agitation concerning the high cost of living had succeeded by 

 that time in focussing public attention upon several real or imagin- 

 ary causes, and the cold storage was hit upon as one of these causes. 

 In 1911 five States passed cold storage legislation; these were 

 California, Delaware, Indiana, New Jersey, and New York. 

 Kansas alone, prior to this date, had any such legislation. These 

 State laws have to do with these subjects: (1) inspection of cold 

 storage warehouses; (2) marking or tagging of cold storage prod- 

 ucts; (3) limitation of the time of cold storage; (4) regulation of 

 the sale of cold storage goods. The public has now come to de- 

 mand, and the warehousemen to expect a certain amount of in- 

 spection in the interests of public health. Beyond this activity, 

 however, the wisdom of State regulation is open to serious ques- 

 tion. The situation was well summed up by a cold storage com- 

 pany of Worcester, Massachusetts, in reply to the Cold Storage 

 Commission of that State, in these words: 



"The local board of health makes inspection of our plant, we think, about 

 twelve times a year. We do not think there is much need of legislation on 



