The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-11-10

NEEDED COOPERATION.

| Middlemen in businesS-that is, those
who act as agents between the producer
| and the merchant, not between producer
and consumer-are proper institution
| only when they are necessary. 1t is rare
! thing for such men to be seen between
manufacturers and merchants, as the BUSH
ness of disposing OF manufactured articles
has become thoroughly learned and firmly
adjusted. But while we observe an alb
sence of middlemen between manufactur-
ers and merchants we find them between
| farmers and merchants. Why should this
be?
That is the question which the fruit
growers of California are seriously asking
themselves. Clearly the profits of middle
men operate against the profitable prose
cution of rural pursuits by taking SO much
from the producers earnings for as there
are many producers who do not reach
merchants through middlemen it is clear
that those who do are placed Al a disad-
vantage and must accept prices based on
the smaller cost of marketing.
The prevalent plan of marketing CaIiior-
MIA fruits in the East is to place the
product in the hands of middlemen, who
in turn dispose of it to merchants. This
has grown to be an enormous business.
The middlemen have acquired fortunes,
While the producers are making nothing.
But the mlddlemen are a pleasant and
convenient agency. When growers need
money the middleman advances it to them,
takes mortgage on their crop, charges a
heavy rate OF interest and compels them
to put the crops in his hands for DISPOSE
ton. AS a result there is no systematic
attempt to extend the market, and eenters
into which the fruits are poured under this
system become glutted, the fruits them
selves are cheapened, prices are forced
down, and the grower suffers The mid
dlemen are sure of their commission.
They become rich and the producers poor.
These are things which the California
grower has learned from bitter experience,
and it is this knowledge that is moving
| producers to organize for the purpose of
dispensing with middlemen and coming
in direct contact with merchants and con-
sumers. Nothing wiser was ever taken up
in this State. The proposed pan contem-
plates central organization wholly under
the control of the growers and branch es-
adjustments in all the fruit centers for
doing the things which the middlemen
had been doing, bur in much wiser and
more beneficial way.
The next question will concern the abil-
ity of producers to display the necessary
business sense to carry out the plan and
remain faithful to one another in its exc
cution. Farmers in this country are gen.
orally charged with lack of ordinary
business sense, and this lack is advanced
to explain their inability to make their
business profitable. At the same time it
is boast hereabout that farming in Cali
fornia is OF so much higher and finer a
character than that in the East that it's
prosecution develops its followers and
places them on an intellectual level with
the best elements of the State. This mat
ter is now to be put to a test If the plan
suggested at the Sacramento convention OF
fruit-growers is adopted throughout the
State. 1t is the plainest of all propositions
that If the farmers should unite and should
act with the intelligence necessary to the
success Of any business they could easily
cure all the ills which hamper the market
ing OF their fruits and make profit in
their business possible. We believe that
the necessary intelligence does exist, and
that organization is>all that is required to
make it efficient