THE STORY OF BREAD 



bread — just plain, common, everyday bread — the 

 kind we place on our tables along with the knives 

 and forks — the kind that is so cheap that hotels 

 and restaurants forget to charge for it. 



It seems rather strange that people should be 

 forced to fight for bread. That is to say, it seems 

 strange to us who live in this Age of Plenty. Oh, 

 yes, it's true that our large cities still have their 

 bread lines. But bread lines are not for the lack 

 of bread. They are for the lack of something or 

 other which puts up the fight that gets bread, and 

 all that goes with it. 



There is plenty of bread today, and it is cheap 

 enough, too. Every bread line and every soup 

 house is a sign that somewhere in our civic, indus- 

 trial, or social machinery, something is out of gear. 

 If a man is willing to work, he should be given work 

 to do; if he is not willing, he should be given some- 

 thing else — say, a loaf of bread, a bowl of soup, and 

 numerous kicks, all properly placed. However, this 

 is a problem to be worked out by our economical 

 and sociological friends. 



But to go back to the days when people fought 

 for bread — no farther back than your great grand- 

 father and mine. They might better have saved 

 their strength, for there was no bread to be had, 

 for there was no flour, for there was no wheat, for 

 there were no large fields planted, for there were 

 no quick ways of gathering the harvests. 



