eat brought in should be for delivery to municipal
markets or co-operative societies only. The result has been an
immediate fall in retail prices ranging up to fifty per cent.

[Illustration: BERLIN'S TERMINAL MARKET

An Outside View of One Section of the $7,250,000 Central Market that
Caters for the Needs of Consumers in the German Capital.]

BERLIN'S two million people since 1886 have had a splendid terminal
market on the Alexanderplatz, consisting of two great adjoining halls,
with direct access to the city railroad. One of these halls is entirely
wholesale, while the other is partly wholesale and partly retail. Meat,
fish, fruit and vegetables are dealt with under the same roof by
upwards of 2,000 producers and dealers.

The whole market cost $7,250,000, of which $1,920,711 was for the main
market and $4,852,862 was for the slaughterhouses, which are most
elaborately equipped to ensure sanitation and cleanliness. Great as the
market is, the pressure of business has grown so much that a project is
on foot to construct more accommodation at a cost of $15,000,000. The
market is maintained by stand rentals and administrative charges and by
a fund established for the improvement and extension of the system. On
the entire enterprise, when all charges have been met and interest
paid, there is _a profit of over $135,000 a year_.

A committee of eleven, partly city councillors and partly selected
representatives of the public, administer the markets with ninety-three
officials to ensure the carrying out of their orders. The regulations
are most elaborate, especially as regards the inspection of foods,
which is conducted by a department having a staff of six hundred.

A healthy competition is created by the system of sales, which may be
conducted by the producer himself, or through an approved wholesale
dealer, or through one of the six municipal sales commissioners. These
municipal sales commissioners have to give bonds on appointment and are
not allowed to have any interest in the trade of the market beyond a
small percentage on sales. Producers living at a distance can have
their business carried through by them under conditions so well
understood and respected as to ensure confidence. Though the municipal
sales commissioners handle less than a quarter of the sales, they
nevertheless act as a check on the private dealers, especially as they
issue a regular report on the average wholesale prices. Moreover the
purcha