Semi-weekly herald., 1912-11-25

consumer as good organization will
permit, and with the least expense.
This new system of handling farm
products will not interfere with the
legitimate commission business of the
country. 1t will aid it. Commission
merchants will always be necessary,
but one commission ought to be suffi-
cient, and that one fixed so that the
cost of selling will be known by the
producer.
| am going to illustrate what |
mean by unnecessary, or needless
cost, between the farm and table. Not
only does it illustrate that point, but
it also illustrates the fallacy of the
reason that is so often given to the
uniformed as to why the producer
gets such low prices for products
which sell at high retail prices in the
markets. The question is often
answered by charging that high rail
road freight rates makes the sellers
price so low and the consumers so
high. This story is in part concerned
with railroad freight rates. 1t was
told to me few days ago by friend
of mine who is a student of this sub
ject.
He had just been in St Paul and
Minneapolis. AS he stood on the plat
form of small Rock Island station
in Oklahoma, where all the freight,
passenger and express business is
handled by one agent, he observed a
car being loaded with big, fine water
melons. Being an observing man, he
inquired of the farmer how many
melons he was loading in the car, and
was told 1,050 He then asked the
price which he was being paid, and
the farmer said cents apiece, or
$3.50 for the carload, and mentioned
the fact that he lived three miles
away, and that it took him all day
with his two teams, and one which he
hired, to load the car in time to
catch the fast freight train going
north the same evening, which was
oHN VI ehC VI tfS llt
said that he was not making expenses
on his melon crop, but was trying to
haul in enough to get little ready
money to pay some bills. Just then
the local buyer came along with the
railroad agent to check up the water
melon shipment and have the car
billed out, and this inquiring friend
of mine pursued his inquiries further
in the presence of the farmer. He
told the buyer that he was recently
from Minnesota, and such water
melons were selling retail from 60
cents to rs cents apiece in Minneapolis
and st. Paul, and that 5 cents would
put the grower out of the watermelon
business. The buyer answered this by
saying he was sorry for the farmer,
but he had big railroad freight bill
to pay, and explained that he would
get over 25 or 30 cents from the com
house which sold to the car
load dealer, who in turn sold to the
retailer, who supplied the consumer.
My friend stuck to his text and
asked the railroad agent the freight
to Minnesota, and he said SIS car,
This was Z 1-2 cents melon for the
600-mile haul by railroad, which added
to the 5 cents paid the farmer made
IL l-2 cents, or $131 that the producer
and railroad received from the 1,050
melons delivered at the market. The
first dealer got $315 and the final con
sumner paid from $500 to $3.50 for that
$53 car of watermelons.
The farmer listened to this talk,
took in the figures, and his only COM
ment was: well I'll be d. |
thought the railroads were robbing
us farmers" All such farmers are
ready for organization when shown
how to proceed.
Too many of our public men are
quite as ignorant of the real Difficult
ties as they exist with the farmer, and
of the real fundamental principles un-
derlying the high cost that all classes
are paying for their living, as that
farmer was.
All who have kept abreast of public
affairs know that both capital and
labor through closer relations with the
government have Jared well in secur-
ing legislation in the interest of both.
Both have fought for protection, be-
cause it was to their interest, and
both have succeeded in making it prof
liable. The farmers are starting late
They have been slow.
In speech made to the working
men in New York on September A,
Governor Wilson said:
Men waste their energies if they
do not cooperate in a proper way,
and therefore the way in which large
bodies of workingmen are guided and
directed is of capital Importance to
them in the creation of wealth." In
this phrase Governor Wilson sums up
very concisely and concretely what the
farmers of the United States should
have done, and have not done, for their
own interest.
If congress establishes market de-
partment on broad lines of educational
work, as soon as its Importance is