The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-11-01
TOO MUCH asPREAD.n

1t is related that a sheep raiser re-
Gently shipped 1900 sheep to Chi
cago, where they netted him 80 cents
! each. Later, at a stockyards restau-
rant. he ordered mutton chops and
found that he had eaten up the profit
on four sheep.
Potato growers in eastern Montana,
shipping to st. Louis, received $1.25
for their product, but their net profit
was IL cents. the rest being eaten up
in freight rates and other charges.
Wheat at Spokane sells for 3S cents
less a bushel than it does in Minneapo-
lis, yet wheat bran costs s36 ton in
Spokane and only SIG a ton in Min
neapolis. A farmer in Wyoming
must sell six bushels of his own oats
to purchase five pounds OF oatmeal.
In some of the fancy pear growing
neighborhoods of the northwest the
crop this year is excellent. One can
see, it is said, acres OF trees beautiful
ly kept. hundreds of boxes of fancy
pears of exactly the kind that the con-
sumner pays 10 or IS cents apiece TO-
at some New York fruiterer's, and
might think that the pear growers
must be getting rich. But out of the
$3.50 which the grower receives fo'
his box of pears he must pay, per-
haps. 50 to get his product to New
York.
In dozens of western neighborhoods
where alfalfa hay sold for as much as
$42 a ton a few years ago, it now go ss
begging at IS or less. and the farmers
cannot afford to haul it to town. The
task of cutting down, somehow, the
spread between producer and con-
sumner, lis one of the most obvious
problems confronting the country
But it doesn't help the farmer very
much to sell his product even at a
good price, if he must buy it back
with all the other commodities he uses
and consumes at prices that absorb
everything he gets for what he has TO
sell, and more.
So the farmers problem is pretty
much the problem of the rest of US.
1t is the problem of reducing that
mysterious thing we call the spread"
between producers and consumers
prices, says Sydney Anderson of Min
nescta, chairman of the congressional
joint commission of agricultural in
quiry, in November Farm Life.
1t is surprising how difficult it is to
obtain information touching the ele-
ments and the causes for the spread"
between producers and consumers
prices, sufficiently comprehensive
and dependable to indicate conclusions
to be predicated upon it, or to be the
basis of constructive, remedial sug-
gestions.
There is apparently no short line
route from producer to consumer, ap-
pHcable to all commodities. Each has
it's own, route. Each route has its
own peculiar facilities and practices.
There are many alleged short cuts.
many confusing by-paths and many
detours All of them have their toll
takers. Most of them seem to have a
reason for their existence. Somehow
these routes. must be Strengthened and
correlated into a complete and in
tegrated distributive system.
A reduction in freight rates will
help but it Will not do everything. Ia
the meantime those producers who
have organized marketing associations
seem to be faring better than those
who have not done so. Pear growers
of the northwest, for instance, might
learn a lesson from the fruit growers
of California and Florida.