OCR Text |
Show 1 axe dissatisfied with the prices we have to pay, for instance, for potatoes, eggs, pork, etc., we are at liberty to try our hand at producing pro-ducing thcra. And this is exactly what is going on right now. The high prices of such things are forcing more people into the producing produc-ing lines, and if the balance is not already restored it soon will be. This is probably as well as we can do until some strong paternal government, under the name of new nationalism, socialism or some other ism, takes hold of us and, treating us like children, provides for all our wants as if we were all one great family. When that comes to pass, let us know. THE MIDDLEMAN EVIL. At a convention of farmers' institute workers, recently in session in Washington, the blame for the high prices was laid mostly on the middlemen. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson 0. K.'d this diagnosis of the case, and urged that the middleman who seems to be a sort of useless vermiform appendix to society should be cut out. This is a very good theory, and we would like to see it adopted in practice. Undoubtedly, if eggs and butter and meat and flour and vegetables and fruits and other staple articles of common consumption con-sumption could be supplied to consumers direct from the producers, it would result in higher prices for the producers and lower prices for the consumers. BUT and it is really a big but it is impossible at best to avoid a heavy item of expense for the transportation and distribution of supplies, and all the risks and losses of handling. A large part of the cost of all goods at retail is in distribution. Some of this cost can be avoided by better methods, but not all. The great mail order supply houses come nearer to meeting the situation than any other medium so far brought forward. On most articles they can make prices which the ordinary merchants cannot ! possibly meet, because they cut out part of the middle profits. But on the other hand they have some items of expense which the ordinary merchant does not have, such as the furnishing of huge catalogues. In the big citie3 strings of syndicate groceries are being established, estab-lished, which in the same way can handle goods on such a large scale and narow margin of profit that they can undersell the ordinary corner groceryman by 10 to 20 per cent. Co-operative stores have also been tried in many places with a view to saving the middle profits, but not once in a hundred times have they been a success. In every business, no matter what it is, there are losses and expenses ex-penses which are just as necessary and legitimate a part to the final cost of the articles to the consumers as their original cost of production produc-tion was. The consumer must foot the bill, with all the incidental JueiS. But there is no monopoly of anything in this country as there is Ha'ome countries. In Turkey or France, for instance, a person is -isoned if he undertakes to make his own salt from sea water. On), if you think 50 cents is too much to pay for a 60 pound bag of Ltfou can make your own. You may have hoard that the salt you Cujnng costs the manufacturers les3 than the bag it is put in, and t does not alter the fact that you are getting that salt very the same way all along the line, and any time any of us I |