Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1910 — THE FARMERS NOT GUILTY [ARTICLE]

THE FARMERS NOT GUILTY

That the farmer is not responsible for the high cost of living is admitted by Secretary Wilson in his report to congress, who repeats what The Democrat has so often said, that there is too much difference in the price the producer receives and what the consumer has to pay. That this evidence may now be wholly from republican sources, we copy wdiat the Fowler Republican has to say about it: Secretary of Agriculture Wilson in his annual message absolves the farmer from blame for high prices of food products. He Quotes figures to show that the countrymen often get less than 50 per cent of the firice paid for produce and that the middle men and railroads get the rest. He suggests as a cure for this condition that the consumer buy his supplies direct from the farmer. In the ease of milk, in seventyeight cities distributed throughout the United States where the subject was investigated by the department, the farmer. receives a scant 50 per cent of the price paid by the consumer. The railroads get 7 per cent, so that the remaining 43 per cent of the consumer’s price is received by the retailer. The farmer receivs hardly more than one-half of the consumer’s price in the case of poultry; 69 per cent in the case of eggs; cabbage 48 per cent when bought by the head and 65 per cent when bought by the pound. The apple grower receives 56 per cent of thfe consumer’s price when the purchase is by the bushel and 66 per cent' when by the barrel. The rule seems to be, the smaller the retail quantity the smaller the farmer’s share of the consumer’s price. Among the many othef products represented in the list are oats, with 74 per cent of the consumer’s price going to the farmer when bought by the bushel; melons, 50 per cent when. bought by the pound; watermelons, 34 per cent when bought singly. After presenting these figures the report says: “The conclusion is inevitable that the consumer has no complaint against the farmer foe price he pays. The farmer supplies the capital for production and takes the risk of his losses; his crops are at the mercy of drought and flood and heat and frost, to sa f. nothing of nqxious insects and blighting diseases. He supplies hard, exacting, unremitting labor. “Then there is the risk of overproduction and disasterosuly low prices. P rom beginning to end the farmer must steer dexterously to escape perils to his profits, and indeed tp his. capital, on every hand. At last the prpducts are started oh their way to the consumer. The railroad, generally speaking, adds a percentage of increase to the farmer’s prices that is not large. The dealers have risks that are practically small, except credit sales. “Why do not consumers buy directly from the farmers?” the report adds. “A distribution of farm products in this simple way has already begun in England, where co-opera-tive organizations of farmers are selling by direct consignment to cooperative organizations of consumers In cities. Aside from buying associations maintained by farmers hardly any exist in this eouptfy. It is apparent, therefore, that the consumer has much to do to wofk out his own salvation with regard to -the prices he pays.” —