Mrs. Elmer Black, member of the advisory board of the New York Terminal Market Commission, discussed Communal Benefits from the Municipal Terminal Market.
Dr. Mary E. Pennington, chief of the Food Research Laboratory of Philadelphia, showed in a masterly fashion the contribution made by cold storage warehouses by providing mechanical means of food preservation and thus equalizing supply and demand regardless of seasons. Dr. Pennington pointed out that chickens kept for twenty-four hours under average ice-box conditions of the private family, changed more chemically than those kept for months in cold storage warehouses.
Clyde L. King, instructor in political science, University of Pennsylvania, urged municipal control of wholesale terminal markets to reduce cost of distribution. Said he:
“This plan of placing terminal wholesale facilities under municipal control and operation will unquestionably make for the elimination of certain of the middlemen, will make for the payment of higher prices, because of the large number of buyers present, and will give to retailers a greater choice of goods.
“The situation as to the retailers of food products in the city can well be illustrated by the situation in Philadelphia. There are at the present time in this city about 490 chain stores, 700 members of the Retail Grocers’ Associations and 4169 independent grocers. In addition there are 258 delicatessen stores, 200 butchers, handling some groceries, and 1923 variety stores.
“This makes 1190 chain stores as compared with 6550 independent stores. It is clear that the maximum point to which prices can be boosted by the retailers is that fixed by a subsistence wage on the part of these small independent stores.”
Irving Fisher of Yale University, in his opening remarks at the evening meeting, emphasized the growing belief that the real significance of the increased cost of living was to be found in changing the value of money.
The most striking address of the evening was an appeal by Frances Perkins, executive secretary of the Committee on Safety of the City of New York, for the living wage.
“HIRING A SHEET FROM A MISSUS”
In a recent strike Miss Perkins found that many of the girls in factories lived away from home, many coming from rural districts, and that most of them lived by “hiring a sheet from a missus.” That means that two or three of the girls slept in one bed, with a cup of coffee thrown in with the “hiring” in the morning. Many of these girls had coffee and rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with an occasional extravagance, such as a fifteen-cent dinner. Their wages ran from $4 to $5 a week. Other girls, according to Miss Perkins, buy bread and bananas for meals, the bananas being great fillers.