Madeleine Black

“ Producers may have their supplies sold either at auction or by private treaty, as they prefer, and as none of the agents are allowed to do business for themselves the distant growers have confidence in the market methods.
In the retail markets each dealer in fresh meat pays just under $6.00 a week in all, while dealers in salted meats, fish, game and vegetables pay a much lower rate. All, however, in the covered markets pay three taxes—one for the right to occupy a stand, one for the cleaning and arranging of the markets, and one for the maintenance of guardians and officials. ”

“ The city has almost quadrupled its population in a generation, but the markets remain about as they were. Many other cities in the United States not only testify to the value of municipal markets as a means for lowering prices to the consumer, but so guard their interests as to provide a very different balance sheet. ”

“ Not only have these markets proved beneficial to the consumers generally, but the market men are unanimous as to their advantage, for they afford a ready and inexpensive means of doing a large business. ”

“ In the belief that the establishment of a first-class Terminal Market system, worthy of twentieth century requirements, is a matter of vital importance to every family in New York, I have spent considerable time during the past few months investigating markets on both sides of the Atlantic. ”

“ Ten years ago the United States supplied 41 per cent of the Smithfield meat, but now these supplies have fallen off enormously and the last report of the Markets Committee says: "The United States, in particular for domestic needs, is within measurable distance of becoming a competitor with England for the output of South America." South America and Australasia are, indeed, the chief producers today for the British market. ”

“ Though this market has direct access neither to river nor railroad, it still retains its premier position among the wholesale markets of England. As the approaches are extremely narrow, most of the produce has to be carried on the heads of hundreds of porters from the wagons outside into the market buildings. As it is under private ownership, no figures are issued, but there is known to be a huge profit on the market. For outer London there are fruit and vegetable markets at Stratford, in the east, Kew in the west, the Borough in the south and two railroad markets in the north. ”

“ 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. ”

“ There are to be found wholesale meat, poultry and provision markets, with sections for the sale, wholesale and retail, of vegetables and fish. In the last twenty years the development of cold storage processes has lowered the quantity of home-killed meat and remarkably increased the importation of refrigerated supplies. Last year the wholesale market disposed of 433,723 tons of meat, of which 77.2 per cent came from overseas. ”

“ 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 purchasers benefit by these market arrangements, for if they buy from a regularly authorized dealer they can file a claim with the administration if the supplies delivered are faulty and if their case is proved the account will be rectified. ”

“ It is true that the problem of the high cost of living is afflicting the old lands of Europe, the newer countries like New Zealand, as well as our own wide territories of the United States. The causes vary, according to local conditions; but everywhere it is agreed that a potent force for the amelioration of the condition of the consumers is found in the establishment of efficient Terminal Markets under municipal control for all progressive cities. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Stalls are rented from four to ten cents a day, according to the accommodation. Supplies come by boat, rail and wagon, and when there is pressure on the interior market space sales are allowed from the boats and wagons at a toll of ten cents a day. Otherwise only merchandise is allowed to be sold outside the market halls. Not only must no fish, game, meat or poultry be sold without first being passed by the veterinary inspectors, but none of these articles of diet must be brought to market packed in straw, cloth or paper. Unripe fruit must not be sold to children. ”

“ Buda-pesth has 715,000 people and a very complete market system, under which, though only nominal rentals are charged, there is a profit of over $100,000.
There is one large wholesale terminal market, while six local markets cater for the retail requirements of all quarters of the city. All salesmen are carefully selected; criminals and diseased persons being rigidly excluded. Though a wide variety of articles are sold in the smaller markets besides farm produce, storekeepers are not allowed to rent stalls, so the market men and farmers alone have the use of the buildings. ”

“ The trade of the chief market is in fish. With the Altona market, the Hamburg market and the Geestemunde market, the sales in this section of Germany are the most important in the Fatherland for fresh sea fish, and salted herrings. About a fourth comes in fishing cutters or steam trawlers direct alongside the market halls, while the remaining three-fourths come from Denmark by rail or by ships from England, Scotland and Norway. Often there are three or four special fish trains from the north in a day, while twenty-five to thirty steamers bring the regular supply of imported fish. ”

“ Below the toll house and the market generally are vast cold storage cellars and refrigerating plants for the preservation of surplus supplies till the demand in the market above calls for their delivery. Each market hall is devoted to a separate section of produce, and the cellars below are correspondingly distinct, so that there is an absence of confusion, orderliness is ensured, and rapid deliveries facilitated. ”

“ The auctioneers are given a monopoly of selling for ten years, on binding themselves to pay to the city a sum equal to two per cent on the total annual sales. The minimum is fixed at $1,930 for one stand or $5,650 for four stands, to be paid to the municipal treasury. Two per cent is added to the purchase price of every payment made by buyers at auction, and if this does not amount to $1,930 per stand for the year, the auctioneer has to make up the difference. The poorer classes benefit largely by these sales, banding together to buy wholesale and then dividing their purchases. ”

“ In the past century they have spent $730,000 on extensions and improvements. Of the present modern buildings, the fruit hall cost $170,000 and the flower building $243,000. Formerly the producers were chiefly concerned in the market, holding their stands at a yearly rental. But with the expansion of London the growers have gradually given place to dealers and commission men, who pay twenty-five cents a day per square foot of space, and on the produce, at a regular scale, according to its nature. On flowers there is no toll, but each stand holder pays a fixed rental. ”

“ Most of the tenants at Smithfield are commission salesmen, who pay weekly rents for their shops and stalls at space rates, all the fittings being supplied. Last year these rents brought in $427,920. There is a toll of a farthing on every 21 pounds of meat sold, which together with cold storage, weighing and other charges amounted in the same period to $241,635. The meat sales are entirely wholesale, except on Saturday afternoons, when there is a retail "People's Market," where thousands of the very poor buy cheap joints. ”

“ Every day a bulletin issued by the market commission sets out the wholesale prices, while a weekly list gives the retail prices, but in the latter case the note is added that the market commission will not be responsible for any controversy that may arise. All the stocks held by the market traders are insured by the municipality, though not to their full value. ”

“ Perhaps more than any other country in the world Germany places reliance on municipal markets, because of the peculiar pressure of the problem of the high cost of living in the cities of the Fatherland. ”

“ The inspection is very strict, every precaution is taken to ensure cleanliness, and breaches of the regulations are punished by fines or imprisonment. All condemned carcases are sent to a patent Podewill destructor to be reduced by steam pressure and rolling to a powder, which is disposed of as an agricultural fertilizer.
On these central meat markets there is a profit of about $100,000.
The Corporation also controls a great live cattle market at Islington, covering seventy-five acres. Over $2,500,000 have been spent on this market and the modern slaughterhouses attached thereto. ”

“ Gardeners and farmers are not permitted to sell their produce on the way to the market and are only allowed to deliver to storekeepers after the wholesale markets are closed. Here, as elsewhere where the markets are successful, every precaution is taken to avoid the prosperity of the market being dissipated by sales in the surrounding neighborhood. The annual rents for butchers are very moderate, ranging from $57.90 to $154.40, vegetable dealers $42.85 to $92.64; dairy produce dealers $52.11 to $85.11, fishmongers $23.16 to $86.85. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Over 41 per cent of England's imported meat passes through Smithfield, and railroad access is arranged to the heart of the market. The Great Northern Railway Company has a lease from the corporation on 100,000 feet of basement works under the meat market, with hydraulic lifts to the level of the market hall, and inclined roadways for vehicular traffic. ”

“ This proportion is not so startling when it is considered that something like two million animals are slaughtered every year, of which more than half are pigs. Until recently Germany used to export a large number of prime animals to the London market, but the demands of home consumers now prevent this and the export trade has practically ceased. ”

“ These auctions not only enable local dealers to distribute supplies at cheap rates to the small stores all over the city, but wide awake housewives can frequently tell just what the stores gave wholesale for the produce offered to them retail later in the day, so a check can be kept on overcharges. ”

“ It is hampered by narrow street approaches, but a very expeditious system of direct delivery of fish from the Thames side of the market building enables the licensed auctioneers to dispose of supplies very quickly. Steam carriers collect the fish from the fleets around the coast and deliver them packed in ice at Billingsgate every night. Billingsgate market has cost the city $1,600,000. Stand prices are high, but there is keen competition whenever a vacancy occurs. ”

“ In front is seen the toll-house and receiving station, then the great market hall and, in the upper part of the picture, the restaurant and administration offices. The sidetracks on the right facilitate the rapid distribution of produce sold at the market. Under the great market hall are large refrigeration chambers connected directly with the railroad. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It should have effective control not only over the markets but the adjacent streets, wharves, and railroad sidings, so as to obviate evasion of the market tolls. The rentals should not be high, and no sub-letting should be allowed under any circumstances. ”

“ In an average year 14,000 carcases are condemned and destroyed, as well as 400,000 diseased parts. Whenever possible the inspectors cut away diseased portions, and the remainder of the carcase, after being sterilized, is sent to the markets known as the Freibank, for sale to the very poor. ”