Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1912 — Interesting Letter About Marketing of Onion Crop. [ARTICLE]

Interesting Letter About Marketing of Onion Crop.

Knox Uogublican. Colonel C. A. Carlisle, of South Bend, member of the famous Studebaker family and a recent candidate for the republican nomination for governor, has written this office tihe following letter upon the subject of marketing the onion crop: “.Wihen I had the pleasure qf visiting you a few weeks’ ago I had some leisure time and interested myself among the onion growers. “I found that parties were building a new storage warehouse; one that would perhaps hold 25,000 bushels of onions, and I was told that last year the onion growers sold their crop in the field at about 40 cents per bushel and that later in the year these same onions sold out of the warehouse for more than $2 per bushel.

“Why don’t you call a convention of the onion growers in Starke county and discuss this problem? It seems to me that the onion growers and the consumer ought to get together upon a basis that would more equitably distribute the profit and reward between production and consumption. “I believe that there is room for the middle man and that his interests ought to be properly conserved, but at the same time, I believe that the farmers and the business men of your community* make a mistake when they fail to take advantage of a profit that would come to them by getting together and developing an elastic credit so that the producer can earry his product until the highest possible market is reached and then sell it. If you can hold that profit in your community it certainly would represent an advantage in preference to having it land outside of the community. / - ?■ -

“You understand, of course, my dear friend, that I am only making this as a suggestion to you. Perhaps you ihave already thought the matter over, perhaps you have talked it over with your farmers and business men and that you have already solved the problem to your own advantage. I have had this thought on my mind ever since I saw you and I wanted you to have the benefit of it if you find any interest in it” Colonel Carlisle’s suggestion is a good one, and shows the business instinct that has made the Studebaker corporation one of the most successful in the country. If the onion growers of the county can perfect such an organization as suggested, their profits will be vastly larger than at present