The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-10-06
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN FORM ALTON
Blu REAU
FREDERIC J. HAEK1N. Direc4AR.
Washingtea. .. c
APPLEs. For INSTANCE.


in a certain. American city, it will
probably cost you 8 cents.
II you buy apples of the same kind
GA grade, hand picked apples) at
grocery store, they will cost you from
80 to Sc a bushel.
If you buy Gull, or wind fall apples
for cooking or canning at grocery
store if this same city, they will cost
you about $3.50 a bushel
If you go into the country, within
a few miles of this city, you will find
the ground literally carpeted with APP
Some of these apples are rotting
where they lie, and some are being
fed to pigs. Many of the farmers al
low you to have apples for nothing
Il you will pick them up yourself. Or
the farmer will pick them up and sell
about one-third what they would cost
you in town.
The case of this city is fairly typi-
cal. The prices vary In different parts
of the country, and some cities, of
course, are not located in apple-grow-
ing sections. But in general it is true
of the whole country that apples are
very high in price. that the retail
prices are from two to five times what
the apples cost on the farm. and that
more apples are rotting on the ground
than are going to market.
Why is it that, when we all want
apples and need apples, apples are go
ing to waste in enormous quantities?
Why is it that apples are abundant,
and yet are a luxury which many can
not afford?
Perhaps, if these questions are an
swered, the answers will shed some
| light on the cost of living problem.
which congressional and departmental
investigation have failed to do.
In the first place, it should be said
Of
sons is to blame for this situation. Our
| good old American tendency, inherit
ed from our witch burning ancestors,
| is to look for some one to blame when
discovered a convenient and not-too-
powerful culprit. to go after him with
a big club and make him holler.
| In this case there is is no real cul-
| prit and melting out punishment to in
dividuals will not do a bit of good. 1t
| the system. The cause of the high
price of apples land OF most other
high prices) is not the depravity and
greed of individuals. but the aston
| ishing stupidity of all of us, our in
ertia and our devotion to habit.
Consider the system by which we
| produce and distribute apples and you
will understand why you cannot af-
| ford to buy apples, altho apples are
serving as fertilizer and pig-food all
over the country.
| Apples are raised by farmers and
orchardists. They are sold by farmers
and orchardists to the representatives
of commission merchants. who go to
| the farms and orchards and buy the
| apples on the trees. They are sold by
| the commission merchants to whole
salers and jobbers, and the wholesalers
and jobbers sell them in turn to retail
ers, who in some cases sells them
| again to peddlers.
/ Each of these orchardists, solicitors
commission men, jobbers, retailers
and peddlers is in business to make
| money, just like you. Each of them
has a family to raise. taxes to pay,
| shoes to buy. Each of them gets all
he can out of what he does, wherein
once more he resembles the rest OF
us. Until you yourself become a
phiIanthropist, go hungry and scorn
profits, you cannot blame these other
| people.
Each of this long row of gentlemen
| who pass the apple from hand to
hand, like a bucket brigade at coun-
try fire, gets all that he can out oil
that apple. Nothing but the varying
luck and ability of these individuals
regulates what each gets. Some OF
| them get too much and some of them
don't. get enough. Some of them buy
! automobiles and some of them sc
| broke. Very few of them get rich
There are too many of them for that
1t would be quite possible for the
farmer to sell his apples direct to the
| retailer, or even direct to the con-
sumer That is. it would be possible
except for the system. 1T has ever
| been done in some cases. But in gen
erai the system has US in its grip. Not
only are we too weak to change 1t
but we are even too stupid to see it.
The system is bad enough at 1T:
| iS At re n
product of the large oFchardist, who
raises a large crop of apples anC
nothing but apples. The commission
merchant sends a solicitor to tht
orchardist, and the solicitor buys al
of the apples on the trees. The farm
err gets. perhaps, SO a bushel for hi
best apples. By the time they have
run the gamut of our wonderful bust
ness system, they cost you SIS at the
retail stores and about 5 cents eacf
at the fruit stands. The price is high
but at least these apples get into cir
human food. They are not wasted.
But only a small part-certainly
less than half-of the apples raised
in this country are raised in the or
chards of the big orchardists. Al
the rest are raised in the small or
chards of farmers. They are the one!
that rot Why do not the commission
merchants gather~pp these small ap
pie crops? Because a good solicitor
gets a good salary. and the commits
| sion merchant cannot afford to senC
him to each small farmer. Moreover
| the commission merchant does no
want too many apples. He is not In
terested in preventing economic waste
he is only interested in making a liv
ing like you and 1. If he puts too
many apples on the market, the pric'
will go down and he may lose anC
even go bankrupt. A commission maj
has even been known to buy crops O.
| apples from orchardists and then re
Ifuse to pick them or allow ANYONE
. else to pick them. because he wa
afraid that, too many apples would
come to market and glut 1t and lowe
the price. He has got to keep tn
price up or bust, and he keeps 1t up
You can't blame him.
1t is no wonder that he does no