River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1921-10-06

|
reason both farmers and consumers
are impatient to have it brought about.
Some persons believe that products
could go directly from farmer to con-
sumer without the help of middlemen.
Others, with practical experience and
! first-hand knowledge of what both CO.
operative and private marketing COM
4 panies do, are positive that farmers
| themselves will not do the work of
4 these middlemen. Fortunately, both
! groups want the same results. Their
only point of difference is the means
by which they would cause marketing
TO cost less for producer and con-
/ Sumer
Products Consumed Throughout Year.
The farmers ultimate market con-
sists of consumers located either in
the homeland or in foreign countries.
i Consumers want food and clothing
constantly throughout the year. These
are finished products made from the
raw materials produced on farms.
Unfortunately, farming does not
lend itself to uniform production. Less
is produced in winter than in sum-
mer, and in some months more than
/ in others-while most farm crops are
harvested but once a year. In other
words, many more pounds of raw ma
terials are produced in some months
than it Is possible to use, while In
4 other months little or none of these
goods are produced. For this reason,
the output of agricultural products
vastly exceeds the demand during GER
tain seasons and falls far below the
demand at other times.
Price Fiuctuation Result.
because farmers are unorganized
4 and therefore unable to prevent sea-
| scnal flooding of the markets upon
which their goods are sold, there are
violent seasonal fluctuations SO
long as the motive of the competitive
private middleman is to buy raw ma
terial at the lowest possible price
and this means getting them from the
farmers who must sell during the PEE
riod of seasonal surplus-there is
bound to be widespread unrest con-
corning marketing, and much hard feel
! ing about it. No one can hope TO
solve this problem of price fluctuation
| without first preventing the seasonal
flooding of markets.
Organization Is Needed.
How to prevent alternate starving
and flooding of the farmers markets
Is a problem which no individual mid
dleman can solve. 1t is far beyond
the power and ability of individual,
private or cooperative middlemen.
The surplus product which floods the
market and depresses prices is neither
owned nor handled by one or few
companies. 1t is divided among great
numbers of middlemen, each of whom
! sells when he thinks that the market
! affords him the best price. Because
there is little, if any, coordination
among these widely scattered, discon-
nected units, too many of the farmers
products reach the market in too short.
4 time.
The surplus which causes the flood
! ing of the markets is not caused by
any one farmer alone, out by all the
farmers producing a given product.
| Each contributes but a small part TO
! the total seasonal surplus fol the in
dustry This, therefore, is not To-
cal and individual problem, but a coun-
try-wide group problem. The only
way to hold this surplus back so that
/ prices will be stabilized is to have all
! or most of the farmers of the industry
organized for orderly marketing. The
resulting stabilized prices work to the
| advantage not only of producers and
| consumers but of the mass of middle
| men as well.
/ Local Markets Easily Glutted.
Throughout the United States, or
even within single state, some locali-
ties produce more of certain commodi-
ties than they can possibly use, while
they produce little or none of other
articles If the farmers of one sec
ton, for example, In Wisconsin were
to attempt to sell all their cheese
within the state they would have to
get each resident to consume $50
pounds of cheese each year where he
now takes less than 10 pounds. To
dispose, within the state. of ten times
as much cheese as its people now
take would result in disastrous flood
ing of the market and ruinously low
prices would be certain.
The only thing that prevents such
a catastrope is that Wisconsin cheese
Is distributed over many states, there
BY normally preventing the markets
of Wisconsin from becoming danger
ously flooded. Each community in the
state. therefore. is well able by itself
TO produce milk and make cheese in
a volume far yreater than 1t can con-