The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-02-25
DISCUSS MARKETING
OF FARM PRODUCTS

.
Nearly a hundred people gathered
at the Meridian theatre Thursday az
ternoon to hear w. S. Shearer, Of
Lewiston, Idaho, president of the ID
aho Farm federation Ada County
Agricultural Agent H. A. Mathiesen
had charge Of the arrangements for
the meeting.
Our marketing problems today are
to give the producer fair return for
what he has worked so hard to pro-
duce' said w. S. Shearer in his
talk to the gathering of farmers at
Meridian yesterday afternoon. 1T
is our aim to give more of the $40,
the selling price Of box of apples in
Missouri, to the man who grew them
and take more of the responsibility
into our own hands. II the present
marketing machine is to extensive
to operate let's either throw it away or
tear 1t apart and build ii all over
again SO that we can have the
say as to where all the profits are to
go.
llO ldpoI nave seen the
benefit of thorough cooperation and
has perfected the Federation of Labor
that has a great function and speaks
with authority. They can now dictate
their own scale of labor and their own
working hours which their employers
must accept because they are organ
iZed.
On the other hand the farmer has
taken little interest in the doings of
the markets aside from prices of
commodities that he is producing.
AS a result he is forced to take what
;he is offered and pay high freight
rate because his brother, the laborer
believes in cooperation. III he will
but follow the example of others he
can speak to his congressman with a
voice three million strong and tell his
congressman exactly what he wants
and not leave such matters to be set
tied by men who do not know what
the needs of the farmer really are. 1t
is one-sided affair that the indus
: tries and labor forces are organized
to the limit while the producing pop
ulation stand by and let their prob
lens be settled for them
we must get together and work
out our own problems If we ever ex-
pect to get results. The state feder-
alton only wants 30 cents year for
each family but it asks for the moral
support to the limit. The beet grow
ers in different parts of the Snake
River valley are now marketing their
beets under a contract that is said to
be the best one in operation 1t was
worked up by a committee of beet
growers from all beet sections as well
as sugar men themselves This is the
way that the State Federation of
farm bureaus plans to work when the
county organizations have done
their part and organized to work in
cooperation with each other.
The present stagnation is due
partly to the fact that the ware
houses are full and there is no finance
to move the produce to the markets
that need it. That change of some
kind is due in shown by the fact that
the bankers and merchants are will
ing to call the producers into session
with them when they are considering
any big undertaking We have or
ganized our production and succeeded
in getting two blades of grass to grow
where one grew before but we must
now arrange our marketing so that we
can make our plans for putting our
products before the consuming pub
lie, not at higher cost but at low
er marketing cost and therefore
greater return to the farmer who is
the producer.