The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-11-24
BLAMING THE MIDDIEMAN.

The administration g trust hunters
and other detectives Of this variety are
keepipq close on the trail of that mur-
derous old bandit, ''High Cost of Liy-
ing Every few weeks they believe
they have him eornered somewhere in
his lofty mouptain fastncsses, but al
ways he manages TO escape. 1t was
thought that when the tariff law was
passed he would get cold feet, come
into camp and surrender.
The last device TO reduce the high
cost Of living is an Office of Markets
N the Agricultural Department al
Washington. 1t has been established
with the object of lowering prices OF
foodstuHs, but if the programme out
lined by this bureau is correctly de,
scribed the public will be compelled TO
wait many long and weary months
while the investigators are educating
themselves in various lines of work
They will study the present systems of
handling and marketing farm products
with view OF ascertaining definitely
the wastes Of material, time, energy
ard money which now operate need
lessly to augment the cost of farm
products. This is a move in the right
direction and we should be able to
CLEAN much interesting information on
these subjects before President Will
son IS administration ends; but after we
have collected the data and satisfied
ourselves where the trouble lies we must
frame laws to eliminate il. The va
rious efforts to reduce the high cost
of living have made il clear that the
task is gigantic and that all the re-
sources Of the national government Will
be taxed to remove an evil which is
causing such discomfort and even mis-
cry in times of the utmost prosperity.
1t is evident from the plan mapped
out by the Office of Markets that the
middlemen are suspected of being the
chief offenders. There are too many
handlers Of products between the farm
and the home. The farmer justly com
plains that he does not receive enough
money for his products and the house
wife complains with equal Justice that
she pays too much for these products,
With the farmer on one side and the
housewife on the other pointing the
finger of scorn and accusation ii is diff
bcu!t to see how the unfortunate mid
dleman is TO escape conviction. 1t may
be that he will enter a plea of CON
fcssiou and avoidance, maintaining that
the complex nature Of modern market
ing requires the services of constant
lY increasing number of middlemen. He
will stoutIy assert, perhaps, that those
middlemen will be flying in the face
Of 4 natural evolution.
The government is TO be commended
for investigating all phases of this phe-
Domenon. 1t NAV turn out that the
marketing of goods is made unueces-
sar!ly expensive by various interme.
diaries who insist on coming between
the producer aud the consumer and talk.
ing profits
Ia Investigation of the cold storage
evil should also he illuminating. Cold
storage has made il possible for the
middleman artiicially to keep up prices.
In times OF surplus they place perish.
able goods in storage and wait for
time Of scarcity. By this means prices
are maintained at high level. whetber
the demand be great OF small. Doubt.
less investigation by the government
will reveal means TO deal with this class
Of monopoly Already much has been
done. Preceding administrations cor
rected some of the cold storage abuses.
E'oodstuffs that remained too long in
storage and became tainted and. there.
fore, poisonous, were destroyed in vast
quantities under the authority of the
National and State pure food laws,
out This bad no tendency to decrease
prices Indeed, the storage people
probably obtained higher prices for
their remaining goods. The evil Of