The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1920-01-02
DlEMEN TAKE
BULK OF VALUES
..,ce Shows Consumers.
a, ".;d Thirteen Times What
Farmers Got.

49,. farmers recently sat down to
five IN moderate priced hotel
n l1rasbinston, D. G. 1t consisted OF
IN "a toak corn, potatoes, bread, but
beel'S'.se oa and nothing else. They
tel, T.. charged s11. This rather large t
were e enr This quantity of simple food
price ~ these farmers to do little fig
eauss' for the purpose Of finding out
urlhs ,;fference between the price OF
the - farmer gets for his food prod
uc's Gov for Them They discovered that
p lss farmers who grew this food with
tne .1oontion of the coffee got only 81
cents for it,
-,..,ve.T hirteenths to Middiemen.
=. nod increased in value in passing
tho hands of the producers to
llO'I s+omachs of the ultimate consum-
'us more than 1900 per cent. OF the
a. s,ay the consumers paid for the food
' ~" farmers got only one-thirteenth
-. tho various kinds Of middlemen
satween the producers and consumers
Wv +welve-thirteenths of this money,
so +uo,ve times as much as the
farmers.
rho question brought up by these
eliminating figures is, whether or not
..o actual work done by the middle
.o, WIS worth twelve times as much
80 the actual work done by the farmer.
Farmers Work Worth Most.
The farmer maintained at great ex-
nonsp and risk a farm with all its
improvements worth at least $lO,OOO
10 furnished the seed, the land, the
1ahor the machinery, the farm build
;nos and the livestock, the risk and
the care to produce the wheat that
made the bread, the milk that made
the hutter. the potatoes, the corn, ant
tho steer from which the beef-steal
was taken.
The potatoes and corn passed from
tho farm to the table of the hotel al
most without change except TIN
change entailed in cooking All tn
added cost to the corn and pOtatOe
was chargeable to handling and cook
inc. For handling and cooking tn
middlemen got several times as mucl
out of these two food products as tn
farmer got for furnishing the land, tn
labor the seed and the risk. cOnnecte
with growing them. Instead of pass
ing these products through as fe,
hands as possible and making tn
r;i;:SS<.,,c.nen charge as light as pos
sble, they were passed through q
many hands as possible and the mi(
dleman charges were made as heav
as possible.
Too Much Handling.
In the case of the butter, If til
farmer did not make it on his Ow
farm, it went through one process (
manufacture at a creamery. All tt
charges above the original charge I
the raw product accrued from one pr
cess Of manufacturer and the proce!
of transportation and handling. f,
these processes the middlemen aga
got several times as much as Il
farmer got for the raw product.
In the case of the bread, the IA
product was wheat and had to be ha
died, transported, manufactured in
flour and cooked. But for these pr
cesses the middlemen got probab
twenty times as much as the farme
In the case of the beef-steak, althoul
butchering, king, transp0rtin
handling and cooking were includ
in the middlemen processes, the d
ference in price again was perha
as much as twenty times as much
the farmer got. At the rate Of 81.
for meal the few ounces Of be-
steak eaten must have cost more tn
a dollar. The farmers, consequent
paid several dollars pound for me
which they sell on the hoof for prio
ranging from to Is cents per pour
The Way Out.
These figures show conclusively tt
mddlemen are tremendously Oyerps
1or the work they do. in comparis
with the farmer and that between
farmer and the ultimate consumer
an enormous wastage and an unnec
sarlly long process Of passing prodt
through many sticky fingers. This t
mendous margin for these simple fc
products of 1900 per cent indica
what big field there is for the org
lzed farmers and organized workers
SyStematiZe and reduce to the priI
Pies of economy. 1t is probable Il
When the farmers and workers hi
orldged this abyss Of middlemen
non-producers with cooperation, p
lie ownership and control, system {
organization, that the farmers will
more than twice what they are gett
now for their produce and the c
sumers will pay less than half W
tney are paying now for their fooo
200 PER CENT PROFIT.
The Armour Grain company, a
TOR in the cereal and breakfast +