Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1914-07-17
FUNCTIONS OF A MIDDLEMAN
He 10 One Of Necessary Parts Of the
Tragedy Of CiviIlzation-This 10
"Strlkine" Age.

Inc SUCCESSFUL COnQuCt OF tuo AZ
fairs Of mankind depends upon men
working in harmony with each other.
It is their duty to help themselves in
dividually first, and then to cooperate
and work for the whole. To do SO each
one must perform a duty accepted or
assigned to him which he Is qualified
to perform-in other words every man
to his business, wutes ]. S. Hoy In
Denver Field and Farm. II any per-
son. company or corporation takes all
the profit without consulting the rights
of others he wrongs everybody con-
cerned. Doing this is the cause OF
most of our industrial troubles, but
there are two sides to this subject;
the rich depend upon the poor to pro-
vide them with their necessities as
much as the poor depend on the rich
for work.
THE eye cannot say unto the hand,
have no use for thee, nor again. to
the feet have no need for thee" etc.
The banker cannot say to the borrow
er l have no use for you-the accom-
mediation is of a nature reciprocal
Society has placed us In a close de-
pendable relationship to each other.
Middlemen are made the scapegoats
upon which is sought to place all the
blame or odium for the high cost OF
living. As we are all interested In
the matter 1t is proper for the least OF
us to express his opinion. so that per-
haps in q multitude of counsel we may
happily solve the problem. l can not
better explain what would happen to
the producer who would resolve t.
eliminate the middleman than by an
illustration:
Il will market my beef without the
odious interference of this robber mon
ster." First he would have to ship
his cattle to where the buyer. the con-
sumner lives. At present the most ex-
pensive middlemen are hired help. the
railways and the stockyard charges.
At the outset this benevolent farmer
would meet two unavoidable obstacles.
but he will find more and worse ones
before he finishes his work. Second
he is no longer farmer but has taken
upon himself the obnoxious work OF
middleman, being butcher and distrib-
utor. He comes in contact with merci-
less competition and what Is worse a
tickle, censorious and fault finding ulti-
mate consumer. He will be compelled
to build a slaughter house, refrigera-
tor, a meat market, buy teams and
tools, hire skilled meat cutters and
sausage makers, In a few words per-
, form the work now done by middle
men and thus he becomes a middle
man himself.
To carry out his desires to the end,
he would have to build and equip q
tannery, stores and shops to transform
the green hides into leather, thence
into shoes. harness, saddles and the
| thousands of other articles in which
leather is used and all these men
would be middlemen. This example
will apply to every branch Of business
in the industrial worid-every man to
his trade. A millionaire would cut q
sorry figure in an attempt to shave q
dude or climb a steeple, but that
would be no sadder sight than to see
a lawyer earning an honest dollar by
cutting wood for a dollar a cord. or a
Judge sweeping the street at $3.50 q
day and many other incongruous mis-.
fits. The middlemen are the spokes
in the wheel. The chief business OF
the world is in swapping. cheating
gouging, cornering. adulterating. false
Weighing and consuming all that is
produced. To do away with the mid
dlemen Is to obliterate nine-tenths OF
mankind.
All these men and women are parts
of a gigantic whole. as a single bee Ia
a part of the whole hive. They are all
necessary parts of the tragedy Of civil
lization. These nine-tenths are neither
drones nor parasites, the opposite OF
tinhorns. pickpockets and gamblers
who take legally or by force or Gun
ming without giving anything in re
turn. We read in newspapers. from
the men managing the nations bust
ness, that high prices have at last
struck the toboggan. but taking 1t all
in all-with federation strikes. the
strikers striking for higher pay. the
hired man striking for more and better
food, fewer hours of work and more
money, others striking the trail fol
Washington-it looks as II the strikers
have the right of way with the deter
mination to continue to strike till the
millennium day. 1t strikes me that this
is a striking age and In consequence
there is an end to cheaper food FOL
/ man and beast.