The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-02-18


Kas., Eagle:
In connection with the recent slump
in cold storage products, various no
| table utterances from many sources
were capped by the assertion of W.
M. Hays, one of The leading men in
the department Of agriculture, that
there would never again be a return
to the old low standard Of prices
Hays gives as his main reason for this
assertion that one-third of the popula-
ton Is producing for the other two
thirds of the country, as against con-
clifton forty years ago when two-thirds
were producing for the other one-third
That is, he gives as his reason the
| well-known one of the shift of country
population to the towns, the change
of the food producing armies into the
cohorts of distribution and manufac-
ture.
This seems the popular explanation
of high prices and will undoubtedly
| become fixed as a theory. But the
economists here in washington, while
giving due weight to the urban shift
of population in relation to high
! PRICES, hold that it is only one Of many
known and some unknown causes for
price conditions.
| 1t is interesting to consider some
of the causes assigned, and 1t is cur
| ious to see how vitality the factor of
distribution enters into all analysis,
ID in the matter of the ability of
the producer to withhold his produc.
ton from the market, CD the cold
storage care Of over-supply, (3) the
added cost Of transportation, (4) the
combination selling device ordinarily
1 designated as trusts" (5) the tariff
and (6) all kinds of governmental
taxation, federal, state and municipal
Taking these factors up in order,
and beginning with the first, the abil-
ity Of the food producer to withhold
from the market the daily mail, the
rural telephone, strength at bank, and
an increasing disposition to act in con-
cert with other farmers, has made the
farmer of the central west more a
free economic. agent than he or his
| forebears have ever been before
Staple products, In a greater degree
than ever before, are held back from
weak markets, either fed on the farm
| into some higher value, as corn into
pork, or stored against the day Of a
satisfactory quotation. Hap-hazarc
marketing accrued either to the mid
dleman at one period Of the year and
also to the consumer and at another
period a famine. Part Of its economy
was manipulation Of grades Of many
products by the middleman, and it is
! interesting to know, that IL the present
tendency endures, grades on many
things will be fixed before the
products leave the farms with great
| accuracy, so that for instance five or
six consignments Of wheat, all differ
ing In value, but under present condi-
lions all taking the designation of the
same grade, and bringing the same
price will bring in fact different
prices. This organization Of the
factors of distribution right at the
soil itself, may not make the price of
all Of a given product higher, but 1t
will make the best of any staple high
err and the poorest of any staple lower,
other things being equal.
on the next step in distribution
the matter of cold storage-there is a
world of UNEMPLOYED land, economi-
caIly. Wherever cold is an effective
preservative, storage has been UNI
doubtedIy used TO force out of the
public, the highest average price for
any product susceptible to this treat
ment. In this connection there has
| been world of rank speculation. AS
almost any one who watches the mar
kets knows, the market gamblers play
| with even as dangerous a product as
the hens egg, which frequently Stays
it's thousands financially. The opinion
Of most men is that cold storage cuts
down the hills and fills up the valleys
of the old haphazard market Of high
and low prices, but also that it forces
more than the equitable average; that
the distributor regulates the supply to
degree and with an undeservedly
| large profit.
The step in distribution which fol-
lows storage is inter place transporta-
ton. While enormous economies have
been accomplished in transportation,
yet the cost element in extensive in
terchange Of products is prodigious.
The strawberry which Is picked in
Florida one day in January and eaten
the day after in Pennsylvania has
taken on a value by reason of change
in cline which in indicative though
in an exaggerated way of course, of
the added cost which goes into every
thing transported. Heavy as this
cost is, it is not more striking than
that item of transportation, called To-
cally delivery" The delivery sys-
TENS of various businesses In all cities
and towns is factor little talked
about The United States is virtually
the only country in the world where
delivery is accounted part of the sale
price and where the man who carries
his own purchase home helps pay for
the delivery of the purchase of his
neighbor
On top Of these features Of modern
distribution comes the Industrial COM
bination which manufactures and dis
tributes it's wares with the well-laid
plan of earning a good fat return on
the money put into the business. This
combination or trust preys upon all
alike. 1t is more merciless upon the
agency in American life. In it's pro-
cesses for the elimination Of competi-
ton or of the middIeman, it shows
frequently interest in the consumer,
but its care for him, when it once
has possession of field, is not phil
anthropic. It's earnest purpose is to
hold up prices.
On many thing, and during certain
periods the tariff is credited with be-
ing primarily responsible for high
prices. but never with the same degree
Of intensity in conversation among
politicians as in their political