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RIVEN by the ever increasing clamor of the populace and the newspapers about the high cost of living, the New York City government has established three big public markets where producer may meet buyer without the intervention of jobber, middleman, or landlord.

Under the Queensborough Bridge, which spans the East River at Fiftyeighth street, under the Williamsburg Bridge at Delancey street, and in the wide space before the Fort Lee Ferry houses at West One Hundred and Twenty-seventh street these public markets have been established.

The Williamsburg Bridge market is accessible to the poor of the lower East Side, New York's most congested dis

trict. It is right in the heart of what is the most thickly populated section of any city in the world. The Queensborough Bridge and the Fort Lee Ferry markets are accessible to those living further up town, and many people come to these markets in automobiles. The well-to-do are not in the least averse to saving a few dollars per week on living expenses.

In the establishment of each market, space has been used that was not bringing the city any revenue. Thus a waste is being turned into a profit-a proceeding that has only recently become popular in large municipalities.

The authorities are careful to satisfy themselves that every one applying for a permit to sell in this market is an actual producer. No others are allowed. This insures fresh produce to the consumer

and helps to keep the price down. And the prices are really down. For example, during a recent period there was a difference of about twenty-five per cent in favor of the public markets on all sorts of fowl. On vegetables the margin was greater, running as high as forty-five per cent in favor of the public markets, especially on cranberries, onions, Long Island and New Jersey celery, sweet and "Irish" potatoes, cauliflower, beets, turnips, and head or leaf lettuce. When the market men were asked why they demanded more per pound than the public market price, they bitterly replied, "Let the politicians pay our rent and we'll sell just as cheap."

So it appeared that this new plan, bringing such benefit to so many people, could not be put into operation without some one suffering. The dealers at the public markets had no rent to pay. The business man who had money invested in a stock and fixtures and who did have rent to pay as well as light, heat, insurance, etc., not to speak of delivery charges, could not meet these prices and could never hope to do so.

But the public market has come to stay. It is an economic move that was necessary. It should have been made years

T

HE gigantic task of burrowing into a mountain bulk to mine millions of tons of gold ore is nearing completion at Juneau, Alaska. Three different mining companies there have undertaken to open up the largest vein of gold in the world, and as soon as the stamps start to drop, the biggest ore-crushing enterprise of all time will be under way.

One company figures that it has over fifty million tons of ore which can be mined by simply dropping it into cars. Another company's engineers are confident they have enough ore in sight to permit their mill to operate for a hundred years to come. Still another company promises to develop a

LAYING FOUNDATIONS FOR THE MILL WHERE GREAT IRON JAWS WILL CRUSH THE COARSE GOLD ORE

property which will produce a hundred. millions of dollars in gold before its. working days are over. The output of the three mines when they are running to their projected capacity will be in excess of fifty thousand dollars for every day of the year.

Juneau's gold belt lies in a precipitous mountain range which rises from the very water's edge of southeastern Alaska's great archipelago. Hunters used to scale the mountains and hunt for bear, deer, and mountain sheep; and in winter, when the winds from the glaciers come howling up the channel, searing the whole countryside with frost, many a luckless hunter has perished.

Into this dreary region, after the discovery of gold, engineers came and started their work. But this mountain of ore near Juneau was not thought rich enough to mine; and so, although conceived originally fifteen years ago, when the success of the famous Treadwell mine, two miles from Juneau, astounded the mining world, the plans for developing the Juneau mines on the present elaborate scale did not assume definite shape until about two years ago. Now one company, under the direction of a copper magnate and a practical young California mining man, has acquired control of three miles of gold claims along the mineral zone, another company has obtained a mile and a half adjoining, and still a third company owns the next two miles of the gold belt. The plans of the companies are being worked out along the same lines and within three years, it is predicted that each company will be operating full blast.

The first step in the vast undertaking was the question of power. Four miles