Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-12-28
WHY FOOD is HIGH
Secretary Wilson Says Margin Be-
tween Farmer and Consumer
is Too Wide.
ANNUAL REPORT INTERESTING
IOwa's Great Farm Expert Reviews
Conditions, Noting High Cost
of Getting Food From Pro-
ducer to Consumer.

High prices, and the wide differ
ence between the amount the con-
sumer pays and the net return to
the farmer, for food products, re-
ceived a good deal of attention in
the recent annual report of James
Wilson, secretary of agriculture.
In the investigation of meat
prices year ago it was found that
on an average the retailer received
38 per cent more than he paid to
the slaughterer for meat, and Of
course there was a wide margin be-
tween the price paid the farmer for
the live animal and the prices re-
ceived by the slaughterer for the
products.
Pursuing the investigation farther
this year, Secretary Wilson finds
that in the case of milk the farmer
receives a scant one-half of the price
paid by the consumer. The railroads
get about per cent, so that the
remaining 43 per cent of the con-
sumer's price is received mostly by
the retailer.
The milk wagon of the retailer
has long route. 1t stops at a
house or two in one city block, per-
haps passes several blocks without
stopping, and so proceeds to serve
customers thinly distributed along
a route of miles. At the same time
the milk wagons of other retailers
are covering various portions of the
same route, and so there is a great
waste of effort and of expense in
the distribution.
The farmer receives hardly more
than half of the consumers price
in the case of poultry; 50 per cent
in the case of eggs; cabbage 4S per
cent when bought by the head, and
e5 per cent when bought by the
pound; celery, so per cent when
bought by the bunch.
The apple grower receives sc per
cent of the consumers price when
the purchase is by the bushel and
&C per cent when by the barrel; the
strawberry grower gets 40 per cent
Of the consumers price in purchases
by the quart and 76 per cent when
by the crate. When the consumer
buys a peck of onions at time, the
farmer receives % per cent of the
retail price; when he buys a barrel
the farmer receives 5S per cent. So,
in the case of oranges, when the
purchase is by the dozen the grower
receives 20 per cent of the consum-
er's price, whereas, when the pur-
chase is by the box the grower gets
SO per cent. The rule seems to be,
the smaller the retail quantity the
smaller the farmers share of the
consumers price.
Four-fifths of the coffee imported
into the United States in the fiscal
year 1910 came from Brazil; II per
cent from other countries in South
and Central America and from Mex
leo. In 1910 the coffee imported
from American countries had an i'm
port value of rs cents per pound.
The freight rate from Rio de Janeiro
is about one-fourth of a cent per
pound. For nearly all of this Ameri-
can coffee the consumers paid prices
ranging from twenty to thirty-five
cents per pound. In other words,
the import value, plus the ocean
freight charge, is from % TO 40 per
per cent of the prices paid for the
coffee at retail
The case is similar with regard to
tea. The imports of 1910 had an
import value of sixteen cents per
pound, and if it may be assumed
that most of the tea, consumed in
this country is bought at retail
prices ranging from fifty to seventy
oerts per pound, the import value
CT tea is from 23 to 80 per cent of
what the consumer pays.
After presenting many details
with regard to the increase of prices
On farm products between farmer
and consumer, the secretary of .ag-
riculture declares, 1.-The conclusion is
inevitable that the consumer has no
we'll grounded complaint against the
farmer for the prices he pays. The
farmer supplies the capital for pro-
duction and takes the risk of his
losses; his crops are at the mercy Of
drought and food, and heat, and
frost, to say nothing of noxious in
sects and blighting diseases. He sup
plies hard, exacting, unremitting la
Dor. Then there is the risk of over
production and disastrously low
prices. From beginning to end the
farmer must steer dextrously to es-
cape perils to his profits, and indeed
to his capital, on every hand.
Secretary Wilson suggests that
the problem of high prices is one
for treatment by the consumer.
why do not consumers buy direct
ly from the farmers" he asks. "A
distribution of farm products in this
simple way has already begun in
England where cooperative organi-
zations of farmers are selling by di-
rect consignment to cooperative or
ganizations of consumers in cities.
Farmers cooperative selling asso-
Citations are numerous in this coun-
try, but cooperative buying associa-
tions among the people of cities and
towns are few. Aside from buying
associations maintained by farmers,
hardly auy oYist In this cnuufrv n