The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1915-12-30

\pf Pennsylvania patrons,
Miskss b recognizes, and appre-
ciates, what the Government has
done to encourage and educate
the farmer to produce more BUSH
els of grain, more pounds of meat
and butter, and more dozens of
eggs, but he thinks the Covert
ment should not stop until it
sees to it that the farmer gets
value received for his products.
The business men of the Country
have shown wonderful interest
in the welfare of the farmer, but
after the. farmer has his crop
ready for the market, the busi-
ness man says: Now, let me do
the rest," and he takes the farm
er's produce, sells it for him, col
lects the money, and hands it
over to the farmer. No, not all
of it, and here is where the shoe
pinches. The difference between
what the farmer receives for his
products and that which the con-
sumer pays, is entirely to great.
AS Mr.. Ream says:
why should you be 80 inter-
ested in prying into the farmers
business, and in gaining an.intri-
cate knowledge of his methods,
both his failures and successes,
when you have SO securely lock-
ed up your own business with
combinations an associations,
national, state and local, that the
farmer could not pry into your
secret prices and methods of do
ing business, even if he used a
steel crow bar in his attempt to
do so?
Conditions indicate that the
only three points of the great
problem of distribution that you
have given careful thought is:
l. What is the greatest possible
profit you can secure? 2. What
is the greatest possible amount
of money that can be invested?
3. What is the greatest possible
number of people that can exc
out an existence both in a direct
and indirect connection with the
business?
you have readily recognized
the wasteful methods and the
unbusiness like management of
the farmers; but / am wondering
if you have realized that there
are untold millions of dollars USE
lessly invested in what you term
business upon which the people
are expected to pay a reasonable
rate of interest. And that there
are untold thousands of people
uselessly employed in your busi-
ness of distribution who are in
reality a veritable tax on the pro
ducers and consumers.
To-day there are thousands of
bushels of good apples going to
waste within 125 miles of us.
These people are willing to sell
these apples on the trees for
twenty-five cents per bushel, yet
you are charging our people $1.00
per bushel for a common grade
of these same variety of apples.
And under your association Sc
cret system of doing business it
is impossible for the farmer to
know how much of a rake off you
get between the price the manu-
facturer receives and the con-
sumer pays for the article. Ac-
cording to the most reliable sta
tistics that we have been able to
gather it costs from 81. 90 to So. 90
to market every dollars worth of
produce that the farmer sells.
Or that the consumer pays from
So. 90 to $3.0 for that which the
farmer receives only $1.00. Is
it any wonder under such condi-
tions as these that we should be
asking you if you realize the re-
sponsibilities that rest upon you,
whether you have ever given the
question of the economic distri-
button of the necessaries of life,
any serious thought? Is it any
wonder that under such condi-
tions that the producers and con-
sumers should be asking for a
rof;onoI vuorLotino coynno;oo;oy,