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The railroads of the country are confronted with a constant increase 

 in freight traffic for which they have great difficulty in providing the neces- 

 sary terminal facilities. A report of the forty-nine railroads of the north- 

 eastern section of the country, published in the New York Times of Decem- 

 ber 4, 1913, says that between 1903 and 1912 ''railway traffic, both freight 

 and passenger, increased much faster than the facihties for handling 

 either. . . . The freight traffic increased 53 per cent, and the passen- 

 ger traffic, 42 per cent, as compared with an increase of 17 per cent in 

 population," of the section served by these lines. In 1903 these roads 

 were operating 55,706 miles of line. From 1903 to 1912 they increased 

 their mileage 6J per cent and their double trackage, 15J per cent. Daniel 

 Willard, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, in 

 commenting upon the situation said, "The immediate and all-important 

 question is: How shall these railroads obtain the new capital necessary 

 if they are to provide the needed facilities and furnish the high-class service 

 which the public interest demands, and to which the public is properly 

 entitled?" In the distribution of food products to the cities, in which 

 the railroads play so large and so increasingly important a part, it is not 

 only a question of the "service to which the public is entitled," but of 

 pressing public necessity, that there should be in the cities terminal mar- 

 keting facilities for the receipt and speedy distribution of foodstujffs. 



The interest of the city in terminal markets is identical with that of 

 the country and the railroads, the function of a proper market being two- 

 fold — to distribute foodstuffs within the city, and to encourage the growth 

 and transportation of foodstuffs to the city. Unimpeded distribution to 

 and within the city will cause greater consumption of food products because 

 prices will be lower. It will encourage the farmer to produce more because 

 he is sure of a good market. The unit price of what he sends to market 

 will be lower, but there will be no waste and the aggregate return for the 

 larger quantity grown will net him a larger profit. 



One of the greatest benefits of good markets to the farmer will be 

 that they will change his occupation from the hazardous guesswork it is 

 now to a steady business at moderate prices upon which he can rely. 

 It is of no benefit to a farmer to get a high price for a part of his crop and 

 nothing for the rest of it. It will pay him better to sell it all at a compara- 

 tively low price. With the hit-or-miss methods of marketing now in vogue, 

 a farmer must guess from year to year w'hether his product is to find a 

 ready market or whether there will be a glut or whether there will be a 

 scarcity. His business is speculative in the extreme. On the other hand, 

 if the demand could be estimated and supplied through adequate distribut- 

 ing facilities, the danger of gluts would be minimized greatly. 



Our recent studies of market conditions in New York have disclosed 

 the fact that the city draws its supplies from world-wide sources: for 

 instance, potatoes, from various parts of this country, Scotland, Ireland 

 and Belgium; onions, from our own farms, Bermuda, Italy, Spain and 



