The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-09
WHO IS GETTING THE
FARMERS PROFITS?
Inquiry Is Conducted in
Chicago
AFTER MIDDLE MAN
Cooperation in Dispensing of Farm
Products Urged-Present Mar
keting System Unfair Both to
Growers and Consumers

Chicago April s.-Chicago house,
wives today paid cents a pound. or
from to 12 cents head for fresh
cabbage. On South Water street COM
mission merchants paid $3.50 to So a
crate down in the Rio Grande county
of the gulf coast of Texas cabbage was
rotting on the farms
The search for an answer to that
problem prompted farmers, truck grow
ers and agricultural experts from 30
states and Canada to start three days
inquiry here today. Cabbage is only
one of the products that is causing
shaking of heads. As Edward r. Kone,
commissioner of agriculture of Texas,
said, somebody else is getting the
money for nearly everything that farm
ers grow. The meeting was called to
fnd out who gets the farmers profits
Officially the assembly is known as
the National Conference on Markets and
Farm Credits. 1t is the first of its kind.
1t is independent of organizations and
came into being because heads of farm
oranges, farm experts and growers who
had invested millions in land in the
agriculture, saw their products going
to waste while the cost of living went
UP and the consumers paid the bill
After Middle Man
THE railroads aren't getting the
money" said Kone. "At least we think
not. The farmer isn't. The consumer
isn't getting the farm goods oheaply. |
He's hollering about the high cost of
living, where does the money go? If to
= f,afd a
Peter Radford, president of the Texas
Farmers union said that farmers have |
long been restive under present mar |
keting conditions.
1--WE are going after the trouble in |
an organized way" said Radford. "Wo |
want to know why we get only 80 cents |
on bushel for potatoes which sell for
for rs cents to 81 bushel here. That
seems too big a profit"
other states besides Texas are in re-
volt. Warren Dunham Foster, member
of the Massachusetts, homestead COM
mission, told why New England is sup
porting the conference.
Potatoes we raise on truck farms
in Cummington, Mass, are rotting in
the fields" said Mr.. Foster. In Worth
ington, a town practically contiguous
to Cummington, they sell for $3.50 a
bushel. There seems to be need for CO.
operation between east and west"
chambers of commerce of the United
States, welcomed the conference on be-
half of Chicago. Col Frank P. Holland,
permanent chairman opened the ses
sion.
Sidney e. Mazes, president of the
University of Texas, was unable to at
tend and his address was read for him.
In it the educator said so per cent of
the people of Texas live on farms and
that the state leads the Union in ag-
ricultural production.
Marketing System Unjust
'swhile some progress has been made
in teaching the farmer how to grow
more crops" the paper reads, little
has yet been done to aid him in get
ting fair prices for his produce. To
illustrate the gross injustice of our
present marketing system, l may point
out the fact that at Laredo, Tex. in our
onion growing district, one day short
time ago onions were sold for cents
a pound the next morning Laredo
onions were sold in the open market
at Austin, Tex, at % cents a pound. In
this transaction, as you will see the
commission man, the public carrier and
the retail dealer divided $50 per cent of
the price paid to grower.
Again tomatoes were sold one day
at 2-3 cents each in Palestine, Tex, and
the next morning were sold at Austin
at cents each.
I'm each of the instances cited the
producer received only 13 per cent of
the final selling price, while 81 per cent
was divided among the railroads and
the sellers. The glaring injustice of
such a system is made more apparent
by a comparison with the results of
co-operation in marketing farm prod
ucts in Denmark. In that country the
cooperation society handles, sorts ac-
cording to size, and packs eggs for
31a per cent; the shipping and selling
cost for 4 per cent, leaving the farmer
921k per cent of the final price paid by
~. the consumer
Cooperation Needed
y 1.-THE need of cooperation in secur-
ing cheap money for the farmers in
the southwest is great the need
of obtaining larger returns for his pro-
duce. In many places in Texas and
Oklahoma the farmer is yet obliged to
pay interest of from 10 to 25 per cent
and even these rates are better than
buying on time from the country mer-