The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-04-03
Marketing Farm Products
By Parcel Post.

Postmaster General Burleson is to
make an experiment in postal market
ing which will be watched with great
Record. Ten cities have been selected
and their postmasters are instructed
ITO receive the names OF persons who
are willing to supply farm products In
retail quantities by parceI post" We
presume that they will receive, also,
the names of persons who are willing
to buy direct from. the producer, for
OF course the postmaster general does
not intend to have tho carriers to
reddle the products to such customer
ers as may be found
The chief difficulty to be confront
ed. we anticipate, will be in estab-
fishing an agreement between the pro-
Queer and the consumer as to the
quantity and price of each article. A
householder may place an order with
her carrier, to be executed by a given
producer, for a dozen eggs every other
day, or for three pounds of butter or
% nldily CtnChCAS q week, out Ino
arrangement will not be so easy as to
vegetables. The variety desired for
each day and the variety available
are both such uncertain quantities
that precision and dependability will
be almost impossible, and both the
producer and the consumer may be
seriously inconvenienced at times. 1t
may be expected also that there will
be occasional sharp disappointments
on account OF the quality OF the vege-
tables. If customer should reject
the supply as undesirable, what will
the carrier do and upon whom will
the loss fall? And how will butter be
kept from melting in the hot days OF
the summer? Must the carrier have
an iceboS?
And how will fluctuations in price
be adjusted? The householder will
murmur if strawberries contracted at
rs cents the box arrive on the morn
Ing when her newspaper quotes them
at the green grocers for 10 cents.
We ask these questions in no cap
tious spirit. They simply occur to us
as indicating first glance difficulties
that may prove insuperable. We fear
that the postmaster general may at
tempt too much.
A great saving in the cost of living,
with gain to the producer, may be
effected by direct dealing, but inexpe-
rience in other countries where the
expense of distribution is much less
than it is in this country indicates
that the economy is to be accomplish
ed by cooperative effort among pro-
ducers who sell to groups of Gus
toners or to selected customers and
who employ their own agencies for
barter and delivery. The European
egg societies furnish a striking case
in point. The eggs are collected by
carriers employed by the society. so
that each farmer saves the loss of
time in going to town. and are in
restaurants, particular dealers and
other regular customers in the nearby
cities. So it is with all farm products.
Cooperative organizations take the
place OF many useless meddlemen,
though needful middlemen are re-
tanned, and the result is that the pro-
Queer receives relatively more while
the consumer pays relatively less. In
many cities consumers are organized
into cooperative groups for direct
dealings with cooperative groups of
producers. Cooperative societies of
producers are in successful operation
in several Of the northwestern states
and in nearly all of the Canadian pro-
vinces.
The parcel post as a direct agency,
instead OF a mere carrier. is entirely
new Mr. Burleson is pioneering, to
say the least, but whether his under
taking will prove altogether practical
remains to be seen.