department of public
cleanliness. Some of the public markets are managed by a contractor,
who receives $250.90 a year for setting up the stalls and keeping them
in good order. He deposits a security on undertaking his contract and
in default of a satisfactory performance of his work the commune does
it and charges him with it.

Comments

It has been testified that New York's annual food supply costs, at the
railroad and steamer terminals, $350,000,000. But the consumers pay
$500,000,000 for it. The balance of $150,000,000 does not necessarily
indicate that any particular section of middle-men have been exacting
excessive profits. It merely demonstrates that too many people handle
the produce between the farm and the fireside. The provision of an
adequate Terminal Market system for New York would apply the remedy.

New York stands alone, for a city of its importance, in having to face
an annual deficit on its markets. The results elsewhere prove that the
deficit could be turned into a profit by the creation of a Terminal
Market system, equipped and administered on twentieth century lines.

America is exporting less foodstuffs than formerly. The annual value
has fallen $126,000,000 in eleven years. The growth of the
manufacturing population and the relative decrease of the agricultural
population, together with the gradual impoverishment of much of our
farm land, will soon make conditions worse unless we organize our food
distribution.

The first step for New York is the establishment of a Terminal Market
system. It is estimated that New York's population will continue to
grow at the rate of fully 100,000 a year, so this problem admits of no
further procrastination.

In natural resources America is the richest country in the world. Other
nations have to import vast quantities of produce because of the
restricted area of their territory, the comparative unfruitfulness of
their soil, or their adverse climatic conditions. We have a wide land
of boundless fertility, never wholly in the grip of winter's cold. Yet
we no more escape the high cost of living than these less favored
peoples overseas. They have partially compensated for their
disadvantages by organizing their markets, while we have neglected that
important branch of civic enterprise.

Everywhere in Europe, the provision of adequate terminal markets under
municipal control is pointed to as a powerful aid in keeping food
prices down. There is a lesson