Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1922-01-26
Some Aspects of the
Farmers Problems
(Reprinted from Atlantic Monthly
By BERNARD M. BARUCH

and still are, Instances of purposeful
abuse, the subject should not be ap-
preached with any general imputatiOn
to existing distributive agencies of de-
liberately intentional oppression, but |
rather with the conception that the !
marketing of farm products has not
been modernized.
An ancient evil, and a perststent !
one, is the undergrading of farm prod !
ucts, with the result that what the |
farmers sell as of one quality is re-
sold as Of higher. That this sort Of |
chicanery should persist on any i'm !
pOrtant scale in these days of busi- !
ness integrity would seem almost in |
credible, but there is much evidence
that it does SO persist. Even as I
write, the newspapers announce the
suspension of several firms from the
New York Produce Exchange for ex-
porting to Germany as No. wheat a
whole shipload of grossly inferior wheat
mixed with oats, chaff and the like.
Another evil is that of Inaccurate
weighing Of farm products, which, 1t
n charged, is sometimes a matter of
dishonest intention and sometimes of
protective policy on the part of the
local buyer, who fears that he may
"weigh out" more than he weighs in"
A greater grievance is that at pres
ent the field farmer has little or no
control over the time and conditions
of marketing his products, with the
result that he Is often underpaid for
/ his products and usually overcharged
for marketing service The differ
ence between what the farmer re-
ceives and what the consumer pays
often exceeds all possibility Of justi
fication. To cite a single illustration.
! Last year, according to figures attest
/ ed by the railways and the growers,
/ Georgia watermelon-raisers received
/ on the average rs cents for melon,
+ the railroads got 12.7 cents for carry
| ing 1t to Baltimore and the consumer
+ paid one dollar, leaving 1913 cents for
/ the service Of marketing and its risks,
as against 20.2 cents for growing and
transporting. The hard annals of
farm-life are replete with such COM
mentaries on the crudeness of pres
ent practices.
Nature prescribes that the farmers
goods" must be finished within two
or three months of the year, while
hancial and storage limitations gen.
orally compel him to sell them at the
same time AS a rule, other Industries
are in continuous process of finish
ing goods for the markets; they dis
tribute as they produce, and they can
curtail production without too great
injury to themselves or the commu-
nifty; but If the farmer restricts his
output, 1t is with disastrous conse-
Quences, both to himself and to the
community.
The average farmer Is busy with
production for the major part of the
year, and has nothing to sell. The
bulk of his output comes on the mar
ket at once. Because of lack Of stor-
age facilities and of financial support,
the farmer cannot carry his goods
through the year and dispose of them
as they are currently needed. In the
great majority of cases, farmers have
to entrust storage-In warehouses and
elevators-and the financial carrying
Of their products to others.
Farm products are generally mar.
keted at a time when there is a con-
gestion Of both transportation and
finance-when cars and money are
scarce. The outcome, in many In.
stances, Is that the farmers not only
sell under pressure, and therefore al
a disadvantage, but are compelled to
take further reductions in net returns
in order to meet the charges for the
service Of storing, transporting, flnanc
ing, and ultimate marketlng-which
charges they claim, are often exces
sive, bear heavily on both consumer
and producer, and are under the con
troll Of those performing the services
1t Is true that they are relieved Of
the risks Of a changing market BY
selling at once but they are quite will
fng to take the unfavorable chance
IL the favorable one also is theirs an
. they can retain for themselves a par
of the service charges that are uni
form, In good years and bad, witt
high prices and low.
While, in the main, the farmer mus
sell, regardless of market conditions
at the time of the maturity of crops
= he cannot suspend production in toto
He must go on producing If he Is to g,
on living and If the world Is to exist
, The most he can do is to curtail pro
duction little or alter its form, ant
that-because he is in the dark as t,
the probable demand for his goods
may be only to jump from the frying
: pan into the fire, taking the consume
with him.
: Even the dairy farmers, whose out
= put Is not seasonal, complain that the.
find themselves at a disadvantage II
: the marketing of their productions
r especially raw milk, because of tn,
e high costs of distribution, which the!
must ultimately bear.
r III