St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-10-25

SUM- 40 81 dpt3 61nQ- .CApOS0S
so lucidly the fallacy of some
modern movements designed to force
short cut distribution of farm pro-
ducts that we reprint in full for the
benefit of our readers.
The MiddIeman.
(From The Sun, New York;
The high cost of living" various
ly ascribed to the tariff, to trusts, -
to the railroads, is also being laid at
the door of the middleman, and es-
pec1ally here in New York does it
appear fashionable to- condemn the
shipper, the commission merchant
and the jobber as parasitic intruders
between producer and consumer.
Very recently, as an indication of the
Vagaries of popular opinion, a Judge,
having sentenced several live poultry
commission merchants to jail for
combining in restraint of trade, y
delivered himself of this observa-
ton:
Between the farm and the table
a chicken has six separate profits
fastened on it. Six separate profits
must be paid when chicken is
bought over the retailers counter. Is
ting poorer?''
The live poultry trade offered an
excellent target, since the Jewish
faith requires that the profits of
kosher butcher and rabbi shall be
added to- the usual list of those reap
ed by shipper, commission mer-
chant, jobber and retailer. And the
fact that the live poultry dealers had
been attacked at trust" lent spice
to this condemnation of the modern
system of distribution, for such it
was intended to be, as this further
extract from the quotation clearly in
dicates:
eff he (the farmer) had any way
of dealing directly with the cont
sumner it would be possible for poor
man to buy chickens of the finest
quality a good deal cheaper than he
gets poor quality of cheap meats
for under existing conditions
Fifty New York and Pennsylvania
farmers, acting, it may be, on this
hint from the learned jurist, have
announced their intention of open
ing shortly at the Bush Terminal
stores a market for the distribution
of farm products direct to the retail
er. J. w. Kjelgaard, a Pennsylvania
cattleman prominent in this newly
organized attempt to effect an
imaginary saving, is quoted as au-
thority for the following explanation
of the movement:
The farmer now receives 1 cents
of the dollar that is paid by the
customer for his produce. The rest
goes to the middleman, the greater
part to the trusts, which produce
nothing and reap vast profits through
the perfection of their gathering and
selling organizations. This associa-
ton has been formed in the belief
that the farmer can do away with
the trusts by placing his wares on
the market himself. All he requires
is selling organization possible by
cooperation with other farmers =
*The present high cost of living
is due to nothing else than a lack
of farmer cooperation
Here again is an attack upon all
that delicately adjusted and incalcu-
ably valuable productive machinery
comprised in the "middleman" of
commerce.
The old fallacy that agriculture
and manufacture were the only s'pro-
ductive" departments of human in
dustry has long since Joined the junk,
heap of discarded economic theories.
Man is never a producer" in the old
sense. The actual transformation of
any raw material whatever is accom-
plished entirely by the forces of ma
ture. 1t is mans job to see that the
raw material and natures forces
come in contact and that the trans
formed product reaches those for
whom it was transformed. The only
economy for which man is respon-
sible is the economy of place. In
the modern sense, however, the pro-
duction of no commodity can be
complete until that commodity has
reached the hands of the ultimate
consumer, and every human being
who helps it toward it's goal, who
creates an economy of place, is a pro-
Queer, the shipper, the railroad Off
cial, the commission merchant, the
jobber, the retailer just as much as
the farmer, manufacturer and miner
What arrogance then on the part
of any one stratum of workers sup.
porting the Industrial edifice to
usurp the name of producer and to
point to others as parasites, med
dlers! 1t is possible, of course, to
eliminate temporarily the shipper,
the commission merchant and the
Jobber from some particular com
mercial field, but is is impossible to
do away with the need for the SER
vices which they perform for society
much better than substitutes. Inc
farmer who himself sees to the ship
ping of his produce must ship it in
comparatively small units, pay high
er freight rates in consequence, and
spend valuable time away from his
farm. If he co-operates with the
other farmers of his region, as Mr.
Kjelgaard suggests; and they ship
their produce in bulk, then the asso-
citation to. which he belongs must en-
ploy collector and shipper, an Office
force to keep the books, etc., and
must rent or build a warehouse or