Norwich bulletin., 1921-09-09
WHAT IS NEEDED TO HELP THE FARMER

gather millions of consumers who must eat yet can neither plant nor hunt norI fish. the necessity of a swift. sanitary cheap system of transportation and dis tribution becomes as insistent and im- perative as that of production itself.
 It would seeni to tho weII-lznewn ''man lip tree' as if the dullest brain couldn't help seeing this. It would seem as if the very first duty of business was to at- tend to this primal necessity; to devise systems and perfect methods whereby the production. the transportation and the distribution of foodst1ffs should be made as efficient and as economical as conditions would possibly permit.
 The first of these three functions, that of production, is in the hands of the farmer. The other two, those of trans portation and distribution, are in the hands of business.
 As myself 8 farmer, I am pro1d to know that tho work which is committed to the farmers of the country has been done amply, adequately and, in the main, efficiently. This, though the natural diff faculties in their way are unquestionably the greatest. In the face of late and early frosts, of parching summer heats, of occasional delugs and frequent drouths, of bugs and brights and worms and weevils, and despite the attacks of predatory birds and rodents. the farmers Of America have stuck doggedly to their tasks. Through bad seasons and good, through periods Of imitation and years Of depression, they have kept unfinth- ingly at Eheir treadmill round and have almost always been able to deliver the goods.
 There the record Of successful accom- fte1fI safxT happened repeatedly this very year, the freight charges on carload of farm ! products from farm to city market have i been greater than the entire value of the products themselves, it is seIf-eviG ent that the transportation problem has not | been successfully met.
 When, as Congressman Ansorge re- ports, it costs three times as much to distribute farm prodaces at the end of their trauecon tinental haul as all the ! admittedly excessive charges for the long i haul itself, it is equally self-evident that ] the nrobhsrn of city distribution has been l fearfully rnisrnanaged.
 I II the result of these two huge busi- ness failunes were solely the damage 1 inflicted on the city consumer. We farm ttrs might think ourselves justified ir i taking only 9 lonr-distance interest in l tt in leaving the city consumer to seek ] ana apply his own remedy. But he is | not the enly sufferer.
 1 WIfiIe the trca,sfve costs of traEssper i tation and the ea.orbitant costs Of city ! distribution fall lAaviE on the city con. l suraer, they react disasirousiy on the producing back-rostas farmer The de mand for his products is stinted; tho 1 difficulty of disDosilstr of them is in. i creased; the prices which can be paid hin ares times to the vanish. i ing point.
 His fields and eartA.ns and orchard. ! pour forth almost unlimited stores 0, foodi Of food which sells at estrayag 1 antly high prices in the scitvs retail mar iets. Of food which hundreds of thou
 sands of ely consumers are hindere, ! from freely using. just ANcause Of tfog
 inorGinate retail prices. Net, in the fac
 of almost unlimited supply at the, farm
 and almost unlimited deru@nd in the bi; cities. inc farmer is oftera compelled l. T let his crops waste on the Relds or unde
 the trees, simple because of the fa;lur of q "big business" to proA idle an ade Guatc system and efficient methods o transportation and distribution.
 Of all men the farmer is most Oft.,
 the subject Of sneers because of his ''un
 6usiuesslilza" habit Professional an
 successful business men deploEe his lac
 ot business push and his inability t
 suanage on business lines. OaccasionaIl | one of them comes out into the corntr
 and philanthrepicaily sets himself to tn
 task Of teaching business meth pds to tn
 rIlralites. The results Of such excur
 sions, it may be said parenthettally, ar
 always interesting to the bystaiS1ers an(
 usually, educational to the expesrine ente
 But the gross and outstanding fas
 which towers above all other details
 this; That the crudely working, sloH
 thinking, old fosyish and unbustnesslN,
 farmer gets there nine times out of tel
 while highly progressive, up-to-date an
 somewhat bufnptieus "big business'' fai
 to do it's part as it should about ninety
 nine times out of the hundred.
 And, in So Intensely practical and fur
 damental a function as that Of feedin
 the nation, it is success which is u 1 proper criterion of management II
 farmer has less call to hold the hand l humanity over the mouth of ircapacii
 and utter contrite confessions of faf
 ure than ''big business"
 For he has done, is doing, and vi
 continue to do his share. and "big bus
 ness has not done, is not doing, ar
 shows no present tendency towards deis