The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-07-27
FARMER AND CONSUMER

IF farmers find it profitable to write to
the city for household goods, why can't the
city people find it profitable to write to the
country for fresh eggs and fresh butter and
vegetables and dressed poultry?
+ The government is encouraging the
producer-to-the-consum plan as much as
possible, but the present parcel post system
has been found inadequate.
Under the present system, the postoffice
distributes lists of farmers, and the produce
they have to SELL The housewife looks the
list over; couple of days later she decides
to order She sees that Farmer Brown has
some butter. She writes a letter, goes to
the postoffice, buys a money order, puts it
in the letter, seals the letter, stamps the let
ter and mails the letter. When Farmer
Brown gets the letter he is out of butter.
He then writes letter, goes to the post
office, puts the money order back in the
letter, seals the letter, stamps the letter, and
mails the letter The housewife gets the
letter, opens the letter, reads the letter, takes
the money order, goes to the postoffice, and
gets her money back. She then says, Never
again.
A refreshing contrast to this cumbersome
plan is the proposal submitted by David
| Lubin and presented by Senator Fletcher
of Florida It is printed as Senate Docu-
ment No. 240
According to this plan, the city customer
! buys a purchasing book from the post
! office Farmers register their names and
addresses at the postoffice. Farmer No. 40,
we will say, has six dozen eggs for sale;
Farmer No % has eight chickens for sale,
and so forth Farmer No. 40 makes out
six cards for the eggs, one for each dozen
Farmer 25 makes out eight cards for the
chickens-one EACH. Each form, by the
way, is of different color, to simplify
things.
The rural carrier collects these forms
from the farmers and sends them to the
postoffice. The postoffice has a system of
racks, on which to display the cards.
The housewife who wants eggs, goes to
s the egg rack. She sees how many eggs
there are for sale, and who are offering
them. By past experience she may know
that Farmer No 40 gives good service. If
she wants dozen eggs, she takes one of
Farmer 40's cards from the rack-the price
is listed at 80 cents She wants chicken;
she takes one of Farmer 25's cards-say go
cents. And so on down the line She writes
her name and address on the cards, takes
them to the postal clerk, he tears out the
necessary number of tickets from her pur-
!; chasing book The postal clerk mails the
cards, with the purchasers name and ad-
dress, back to Farmer 40 and Farmer 25
The next morning the housewife has her
t butter and chicken. The purchasing cou-
( pons enable the postoffice and the farmer
} to keep their accounts with ease and &C
= curacy.
E This method sounds complicated, but
, really it is very simple. Writing is reduced
e to minimum, and the housewife knows
4 she will get what she orders, for Htier
V Farmer No. 40 is out of eggs there are nc
e cards in the case.
n 1nasmuch as all farmers in a given com
q munity sell the same product, therewouldb t
t enough competition under this system tt
), insure equitable prices to tie consumer
q and with the nliddleman eliminated, thu
farmer would get full value fer his produce
n Instead of trading out" his eggs and but
T ter and chickens and pork with the countr7
/ store at any old price, the farmer woulc
?. have cash business.
7 The system would develop the dairy in
IS dustry in West Florida, because our owl
G people would be encouraged to produce tn
o butter that is now imported from Kansa
Il and Illinois; it would develop the poultr
y business, because we would keep the none
n at home that goes for cold storage eggs:
would develop the hog business, for tn
ri northern sausage would be unknown in tn
land; it would develop vegetable produc
ton, for instead of importing canned good