The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-07-28
SELLING COST TOO HIGH
Reason Why Farmers Don't Receive
More for Produce.


More for Produce.
Dallas, Texas, July 26-In a
speech today before the Farmers
congress in this city, Benjamin F.
Yoakum, Chairman of the Board OF
Directors Of the Rock Island and the
St. Louis and San Francisco
Railroad system. discussed the ex-
cessiye cost of marketing agricultur-
al and manufactured products in the
United States. He said in part:
There are in Texas 100000 peo-
pie engaged in producing from the
soil No other state in the union is
making such rapid Roadway in agri-
cultural production. Therefore Tex
as has more to gain than any other
State By improved conditions in mar
keting The farmers do not get as
much as they should for their pro-
ducts, and no one can improve this
but the farmers themselves.
According to Government reports,
the producer receives AS cents for
products of the farm for which the
consumer pays ST. 1t is not encour-
aging to the young farmer boys to
see that out of every dollar being
paid for the products of the farm,
their share is only 46 cents, while
the remaining "a cents are distribut-
ed among others before these pro-
ducts reach the consumers tables.
Last years agricultural products
were worth 100000 to the far
mers. The Government used farm
values in getting figures for this total
Assuming Shat the farmers kept one
third of the products for their own
use the consumers paid over $4,000,
100000 for what the producers re
ceived $6,OO0,OO0,000
THE cost OF getting the years
products from producers to consum-
ers amounted to the enormous sum of
$7000000,000. The real problem to
deal with is not high cost of living.
1t is high cost of selling.
THE industrial exports are in
creasing over agricultural exports at
the rate of seven to one, because fac
tory products are marketed in a more
| busness-like way than farm products
The United States is now exporting
| 100000 worth of goods a year In
the last twenty-five years our agricul
| tural exports have increased 90 per
1 cent. while our commercial exports
4 have increased nearly 400 per cent
This is certainly a bad showing for
: the farmers 1t is plain that rural
development has not kept pace with
manufacturing and city growth.
There may be many reasons for
this. but there is one which is more
important than all others That is
our long neglect of the business side
Of farming The late S A. Knapp,
who had charge OF farm demonstra-
ton work in the Department OF Ag-
riculture and who had more TO do
with the recent agricultural develop
ment in the south than any one man
used TO say that one-eighth Of success
full farming required scientific konw-
ledge that three-eighths was an art
and the remainder was simply bust
ness. The business end of husban-
dry had been sadly neglected and
that is the chief reason why agri-
cultural growth makes such poor
showing in comparison with other
National development
"The farmers OF this country 10 re
ceive better prices do not have TO
experiment with untried theories.
They only have to copy what others
are doing successfully For instance
the people of Denmark thirty years
ago received S12,0O0,0O0 for their
butter. eegs and bacon Then they
began the organization of market
. societies. Now the same character
of products bring in over SlOOO,OOof
600 year Nearly all their dairy
products are marketed through CO.
operative creameries. and their egg
export societies have $4,000 members
There is no such talk Of high cost of
living in that little country because
they have a system OF economical
marketing.
THE neighborhood market house
will become as important and as
popular in American life as the
county school house Popular edu
:. cation has been the strongest force
in the development OF America
These neighborhood cooperative
: selling plants will play almost as i'm
- portant a part in our future as the
|. free schools have in the past. They
will be of important educationa
value as they will cause small far
mers to make close study and appli
cation OF business methods.
| 1T will be urged by some city
people that the development OF thous
ands or hundreds of thousands o
these farm market places TO Tho
4 limit of their usefulness will result il
=. damage to existing business. This