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Show 4 . i Apples, for Instance i i I By Frederic J. Ilaskui. J . Washington, i . r.. oct. o. u you bu an apcio a: a cruet fniittand in a certain American cit, it will probably cost you cvnu. It you buy apples of the same kind iA grade. " ha t:d - picked aoi'i-'sl at a g roc try Mure, i iu v w lil cost uu from to j.; a b-ishel. W you buy cull, or windfall app'es. for evoking ur caiinit'g at a grocery store in this same eitv. ti:ev will coL you about 51.00 a bushel. If vi-u go into the country, within a few miles of ibis cny, you will luid th ground literally carpeted with apples ap-ples in hp is t of t ie farim rs' orchards. Some of these app'n-s are rotting where they lie, and some are being fed to pigs. Many of the farmers allow you to have apples for nothing if you wi'l pick them up oursdf. or the farmer will pick them up and sell them to you for US cents a busht-i about one-1 bird what they would cost you in town. The case of this city is fairly t ypi-cal. ypi-cal. Tk.? prices ary m different pans of the country, and some cities, of course, arc not located in npnlr-growing sec-tions. sec-tions. But in general it is true of the whole country that apples are very high in price: that the retail prices are from two to five times what the apples cost on t ho farm, and that more apples are rotting on ; lie gruund than are going to market. "Why is it that, when we all want apples ap-ples and need a pples, apples are going to waste in enormous uuanlit ics'.' Why is it that apples are abundant, and yet are a luxury which many cannot afford'.' 1'erhaps. if these questions are answered, an-swered, the answers v. ill shed some light on the cost of living problem, wh ieh congressional and depart mental investigations inves-tigations have fa i led t do. In the first place, it should be said that no one person or class of persons is to blame for this situation. Our pood old American tene'ency. inherited from our .witch-burning ancestors, is to look for someone to blame whenever anything goes wrong, and. having discovered a convenient and not-too-powerful culprit , to go after him with a big club and make him holler. In this case there is no real culprit, and meting out punishment to individuals individu-als will not do a bit of good. It is not profiteers who are to blame, but the system. The cause of the high price of apples (and of most other high prices) is not the depravity and greed of individuals, in-dividuals, but tiie as I onishing stupidity of all of us. our inertia and our devotion devo-tion to habit. Consider the system by which we produce pro-duce and distribute apples and you will understand why you cannot afford to buy ap files, although a pples are serving as fertilizer and pig food all over the country. Apples are raised by farmers and or-chardists. or-chardists. They are sold by farmers and orchardists to the representatives . of 1 I1I16(MUII I I 1 1 i I C 1 1 il 1 1 , WilU go to I II u farms and orchards and buy t he apples on the trees. They are sold by the commission merchants to wholesalers and jobbers, and the wholesalers and - jobbers job-bers sell them in turn to retailers, win i in somo cases sell them again tu peddlers. Each of 'these orchardists, solicitors, commission men. jobbers, retailers and peddlers is in business to mako money, just like you. Kach of them has a family fam-ily to rear, taxes to pay, shoes 1 o buy. Each of them gets all ho can out of what ho does, wherein once more lie resembles the rest of us. Until you, yourself, become be-come a philanthropist, go hungry and scorn profits, you cannot blame these other people. Each of this long row of gentlemen, who pass the apples from hand to hand, like a bucket brigade at a country fire, gets all that he can out of that apple. Nothing but tho varying luck and ability of these individuals regulates what 'each gets. Some of them get too much and some of them don't get enough. Rome of them buy automobiles and some of them go broke. Very few of them got rich. There arc too -many of them lor that. , , . Tt would be quite possible for the farmer to sell his apples direct to the retailer, or even direct to the consumer. 1 That is. it would be possible, except for the system. It has even been done in somo cases. But in general the system has us in its grip. Not only are we you hear a great deal about cooperative associat ions all over the country, both for buying and soiling. This is an Instinctive In-stinctive move on the part of the people to shorten that long lino of needy gentlemen gen-tlemen between the apple raiser and the apple eater. The people haven't thought it out, but they feel what is wrong, and what they feel is a great deal more than what congressmen think. The expert above mentioned suggested three remedies which the people may apply. First, direct marketing. This means going to the market, selecting your food, bargaining for it, and carrying it home. It means going into the country and buying stmf on the farms. It means making arrangements with farmers to send you things direct. It means patronizing the new parcel post marketing market-ing system, and every other eystem which brings you mto more direct connection con-nection with the source of your food. Second, canning'. Buy cuU apples from the farmers now, and can them. Can fruits and vegetables of all kinds. It will pay, even if you have to hire help to do it. If you don't know how, get the famous Farmer's Bulletin S'S'), and learn how. And, as an accessory to your homo canning, have a garden in your own yard, if you possibly can. Third, community action the League : of Neighbors. Band together with your fellow sufferers to buy cooperatively, j The postoffiee department will help you 1 reach the farmers, and the war depart- -j merit will sell you staples in large nuan-! nuan-! tities at low prices. This idea cannot j be loo strongly emphasized. You ftnd. j your neighbors can solve the cost of liv-I liv-I ing question, if you have got It in you 1 to act together for the common good. I If these things are done by the people, i congress, in due course, will awaken and i rub its eyes, and back them up wtU the I necessary legislation. loo wcuk to cnange it, out we are even too stupid to see it. The system is bad enough at Its best. It is at its best in handling the product of tho large orchardist, who raises a large crop of apples, and nothing but apples. Tho commission merchant sends a solicitor to the orchardist, and the solicitor buys all of the apples on the trees. The farmer gets, perhaps, three dollars a bushel for his best apples. By the time they have run the gamut of our wonderful business system, they cost you six dollars al the retail stores and about 5 cents each at the fruitstands. The price is high, but at least these apples get into circulation. They fulfill their destiny as human food. They arc not wasted. But only a small part certainly less than half of the "apples raised in this country are raised in the orchards of the big orchardists. All tho rest are raised in the small orchards of farmers. They are the ones that rot. Why do not the commission merchants gatjier up these small apple crops? Because a good solicitor so-licitor gets a good salary, and the commission com-mission merchant cannot afford to send him to each ' small farmer. Moreover, the commission merchant does not want too many apples. He is not interested in preventing economic waste, he is only interested in making a living, like you and I. f he puts too many apples on the market, the price will go down and lie may lose money and even go bankrupt. bank-rupt. A commission man has even been known to buy crops of apples from orchardists or-chardists and then refuse to pick them or to allow anyone else to pick them, because he was afraid tha t too many apples would come to market and glut it and lower the price. He has got to keep the price up or bust, and he keeps it up. Vou can't blame him. It is no wonder that he does not go around gathering the apple crops of the small farmers. He can't afford to do it. Why doesn't tho farmer lihch up his wagon and drive to town with these apples and sell them direct to consumers? consum-ers? He could sell them for half the retail price and still make big money. I Once more we come to the typical American city which we are studying. I In this city some farmers do drive to town with loads of apples. They go to 1 market, back their wagons up to the curb and prepare for business. But as soon as they get there, the word is passed along the line that the price of apples for today is so and so. That price is the same as the price in the retail stores, or only a few cents different. It has been fixed by the men who control con-trol the market by agreement with the other local retailers. Suppose this farmer, in order to get rid of his ap-I ap-I pies, undertakes to sell them for less than the agreed-on price. If he does this, the next time he comes to market he will not be able to get space at the curb. This space is controlled by the ! market men, through the man who rents it, and who wants to please the majority. major-ity. Tho farmer who wants to undersell the rest of the market will be shoved off into an undesirable place where he 1 cannot do any business. Furthermore, he will be hazed. He will be treated as a renegade and a traitor. He will have violated tho first rule of nil business, which is to keep the price up whatever happens. His friends and fellow traders will turn upon him like wolves upon a , bob-tailed wolf. They will drive him out , of business. And you can't blame them. Their livings, the livings of their wives and children, depend upon keeping the price up, and they keep it up. The only other thing this farmer could do would be to drive about the streets from door to door trying to sell his apples. ap-ples. If he is going to farm, he cannot do that. He hasn't got time. And. furthermore, fur-thermore, he would find himself up against a combination ..of street hawkers, who would go after him unmercifully for trying to.; break -the market. So tho farmer stays at home, and feeds to pigs apples which you and I would bo glad to have, and lots apples rot. Often he says to the passerby: 'if you want some apples, help yourself." Why don't you and 1 accept the farmer's farm-er's invitation into the country and pick up apples, can them, and havo a winter supply? We are not used to doing it; we never thought of it. We are slaves of habit. And, besides, we are too stuck-up to go out and pick up apples off the ground. We have 30-cent incomes, but millionaire million-aire tastes. We may be poor, but golly, how proud we arc! AVe would rather pay $G a bushel for apples, curse the profiteers, prof-iteers, and watch the department of jus-' jus-' lice noisily hunt for a goat to skin, when there isn't any goat. Thus you and I are just as much to blame for the. high cost of living as anyone any-one else, if not more. so. A government expert was asked what he thought was the remedy for this situation. sit-uation. He said, in the first place, that neither congressional nor departmental j action is apt to reniedv It for a long I time. " ! . The people must solve this problem for I themselves. They have a tendency to do so by instinct. For example, right now |