Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-04
APPLES WASTE
BUT PRICES GO
TO SKY LEVELS
Fruit ROts On Ground Because
Farmers Have Not the Time TO
Move 1t to Market.
BIZ FREDERICK ]. HAsKINs.

BIZ FREDERICK j. HASKINS.
Washington, D. c., Oct If You
buy an apple at a corner fruit
stand in a certain American city,
it will probably cost you 5 cents.
II you buy apples of the same
kind "a grade, hand-picked ap-
ples) at a grocery story, they will
cost You from So to So a bushel.
II you buy Gull, or wind-fall ap-
piles for cooking or canning at a
grocery store in this same city,
they will cost you about $3.50 a
bushel.
If you go into the country, with
in few miles of this city, you
will find the ground literally car
peted with apples in most of the
farmers orchards. Some of these
apples are rotting where they lie,
and some are being fed to pigs.
Many of the farmers allow you to
have apples for nothing if you will
pick them up yourself. Or the
farmer will pick them up and sell
them TO you for IS cents a bushel
about one-third what they would
KOst you in town.
fypical. The prices vary in diff
ferent parts of the country, and
some cities. of course, are not To-
eated in appIe-growing sections.
But in general it is true of the
whole country that apples are very
high in price, that the retail prices
aro 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 mar
ket.
Why is it that, when we all
want apples and need apples, ap-
piles are going to waste in enorm-
ous quantities? Why is'it that ap-
pies are abundant, and yet are a
luxury which many cannot afford?
Perhaps, if these questions are
answered, 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 that no one person or class of
persons is to blame for this situa-
ton. Our good old American ten
dency, inherited from our witch
burning ancestors, is to look for
some one to blame whenever any
thing goes wrong, and having dis
covered a convenient and not-too-
powerful culprit, to go after him
with big club and make him hoI-
Ter.
In this case there is no real cuI-
prit, and melting out punishment
10 individuals will not do a bit of
good. It is not profiteers who are
10 blame, but the system. The
cause of the high price of apples
land of most other high prices) is
not the depravity and greed of in
dividuals, but the astonishing stu
pidity of all of us, our inertia and
our devotion to habit.
System Is Poor.
Consider the system by which
we produce and distribute apples
and you will understand why you
cannot afford to buy apples. al
though apples are serving as fertil-
ger and pig-food all over the
country
Apples are raised by farmers and
orchardists. They are sold by farm
srs and orchardists to the repre-
sentatives of commission mer-
chants, who go to the farms and
orchards and buy the apples on
he trees. They are sold by the
commission merchants to whole
salers and jobbers, and the whole
salers and iobbers sell them in
urn to retailers, who in some
cases sell them again t peddIers.
Each of these orchardists, Solic-
tors, commission men, jobbers, re
alters and peddlers is in business
10 make money, just like you. Each
bf them has a family to raise,
axes to pay, shoes to buy. Each
be them gets all he can out of
what he does, wherein once more
be resembles the rest of US. Until
you yourself become a philanthro-
oist, go hungry and scorn profits,
you cannot blame these other peo-
pie.
Each of this long row of gentle
men, who pass the apple from hand
20 hand, like a bucket brigade at
country fire, gets all that he can
put of that apple. Nothing but the
varying luck and ability of these
Individuals regulates what each
gets. Some of them get too much
Ind some of them don't get
enough. Some of them buy auto
mobiles and some of them go
broke Very few of them get rich.
There are too many of them for
hat.
1t would be quite possible for |
he farmer to sell his apples direct |
o the retailer, or even direct to |
he consumer. That is, it would be !
possible, except for the system. 1t |
has even been done in some cases.
But in general the system has US
its grip. Not only are we too |
weak to change it, but we are even |
90 stupid to see it,
The system is bad enough at its |
pest It is at its best in handling |
he product of the large orchard |
st, who raises a large crop of |
pples and nothing but apples. The
commission merchant sends a So
icitor to the orchardist, and the
solicitor buys all of the apples on
he trees. The farmer gets, per-
haps, So a bushel for his best ap-