94 THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



pounds of spring vegetables were permitted to rot 

 on the wharfs along the Hudson River. Yet the 

 poor of New York were on the verge of food riots, 

 with car-loads of perishable food but a few blocks 

 away. Commissioner John J. Dillon, commenting on 

 this situation, said: "Not only were the people of 

 New York City the victims of such a market system, 

 but farmers of the South who sent the vegetables 

 here lost many thousands of dollars in freight charges 

 and lost labor and money spent to produce the 

 vegetables. The farmers who sent the vegetables 

 are receiving curt wires from the commission men, 

 saying in effect: ' Market oversupplied ; no demand; 

 your shipment rotted at wharfs for want of buy- 

 ers; health authorities condemned entire shipment.' " 

 In recent years Eastern apples could not be mar- 

 keted, but car-loads of Oregon apples found a prompt 

 and regular market in the East. Apples which the 

 farmers of New York are ready and eager to sell 

 for $2.50 a barrel rotted on the ground fifty or a 

 hundred miles from the city, while car-loads of West- 

 ern apples are sold at prices prohibitive to the poor. 

 Peaches, pears, and other fmits find the city markets 

 closed against them, while Florida, Maryland, and 

 distant producers secure cars and buyers in abun- 

 dance. A few years ago nearly every city was sup- 

 plied, in part at least, from its immediate neighbor- 

 hood. To-day the bulk of the perishable vegetables 

 come from a distance. Even eggs and poultry can 



