Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1910-04-22
CoBURN ON COST OF LIVING.
Distributors, Not Producers, Fix
Price of Farm Products, says

R0uodus
+. ID. COburn, Secretary Kansas
State Board of Agriculture, In
the Saturday Evening Post.
The farmer is the only manu-
lecturer on earth who is given no
voice as to what shall be the prict
Of his product. Ihe man who
makes pins, pianos, breakfast
-,.--S or battle ships must be con-
suited as to the price for which
Lis output shall be marketed and
what he snail pay for his purchas
eS; but the farmer, who feeds all
and clothes all, is so unheeded and
mute at both ends of a transae-
ton that in comparison the pro-
verbal oyster would seem bolster
OuSly lOquaciOus.
Greater newspaper space is be.
iAs gwen at this time to discus
S-ng the high cost of living than
Is devoted to any other subject.
IL is a matter of greatest interest
70 every person, whether of high
or low degree. Newspapers, com
MISSIONS and commissioners grand
JurleS and public and private in.
NeStlgators, are trying to learn
why living expenses are sd hipb.
recommending how they may be =.
~"ceu and attempting to fix the
oiame Tor the present level of the
prices. Every man and woman wbt
las a grocery bill to pay knows
mas a grocery bill to pay knows
mat prices are higher now than
ever before in their experience.
and all are interested in knowing
why. The investigators are try-,
lug 10 IND out.
1t is not likely that the cost of
living will be nOticeably reduced
until there is a material increase
In the production or a decrease
In the consumption. James VIII
son, Secretary OF the National DE.
partment of Agriculture, has said
ne sees no prospect of the cost of
hVmg going down. The law Of
supply and demand should deter
mine the prices of fOOdstuffs, but
II Is a fact that some artificial
means is playing an important
part In their increase. The tariff
trusts, cold storage houses. whole.
sale dealers, demands of foreign
natlons and other factors may en-
Ter into the cost of living, and
one or all Of these may be charged,
10 a greater or less extent with
having some purely artificial in.
tluence on what consumers nav
supply and demand would create
one price, but these artificial ere
atlonS apparently fix another and
largely increase the cost.
A careful study of actual cOndi
nons leads to the conclusion that
1t Is the distributors and never
Ine producers who fix prices for
agricultural products. That Is
tne business condition of the
'lmes. Demand may increase the
price e Dut not necessarily the pro-
ut If the producer, as he is con-
Sumer also, and must necessarily
pay more for the things he uses,
as do others. He does not know
whether he will make profit or
not. All the farm work and ex-
FenSeS are calculated together ant
all the returns added together. b
there Is a surplus over the expen-
seS at the end Of the year, it goes
o pay off he mortgage and buy
mere comforts. The farmer likes
and desires such comforts as weh
as does the middleman, but he is
often deprived of them simply be-
cause he has to take what the dis
trlbutOr wants to pay him for his
products rather than what they
cost.
Fairly considering all his sur
rOundingS and the circumstances
of production it is not too much
20 say that the grower of staple
commodity never receives for it
an eXtravagant or extortiOnate
e price. On the other hand 1t IS
frequently too nearly unremuner.
ative. Prices the consumer is pay
/ ing for necessities in daily use ar,
s certainly excessive, and unques-
: tionably this excess is tackled on
a in transit, as it were, at the pleas
d ure of the go-betweens-nOt. by
n any means all superfluOus, how
l. ever-who collectively constitute
a phalanx of toll gatherers con
tlnent wide-arbitrary, dictator
# ial, intolerant and grasping to tn
n traffic's limit.