INSTITUTE PAPERS. 85 



The milk problem is the most complex one of all farm pro- 

 ducts. Sixty cents of the producer's money out of each dollar 

 that the consumer pays ought not to go into the hands of the 

 railroads and the dealers. A strong organization of the New 

 England milk producers has for years been seeking a solution 

 of the problem but is not nearer to it than years ago. It has 

 affected the price paid by the contractors, but it has not affected 

 the cost of exchange. The contractors have in the last decade 

 greatly consolidated the handling of milk and perfected their 

 methods, yet the distance between the producer and the consum- 

 er has not been materially bridged. Nor does it appear that 

 contractors though handling immense quantities of milk have 

 become inordinately rich. Shipment to consumers' clubs would 

 help here. But this means that the old-fashioned method of 

 marketing must come into vogue again, if the cost of distribu- 

 tion is to be seriously reduced. Many of our American farm 

 products are sold for less in European markets than in our own. 

 But merchants are content with less margins while the good wife 

 goes to the market far more fully than here. But the merchants 

 lower tribute on goods is partly induced by the far wider spirit 

 of co-operation than exists here. 



I am aware that I have not helped you much, if any. This 

 makes my discussion of the subject, though by request, pecu- 

 liarly unsatisfactory to myself. In conclusion I may say that the 

 fact that the middlemen get often the lion's share of the final 

 selling price of the goods that we create and lead an easier and 

 more luxurious life, is causing the whole problem to undergo a 

 far more tense inquiry approaching to grim determination to 

 close much of the chasm between the producer and the con- 

 sumer. Both parties in interest are moving to one end. The 

 producer will not remain content to work harder and longer, 

 accept less for his services and live lower than those rendering 

 less service to the race and giving services of a lower mental 

 order. He is becoming alive to facts that environ and hedge 

 him in. He will find at least a partial solution of the difficulty. 

 One move that he will make is towards greater Catholicism. He 

 will sacrifice something of his indisposition to work heartily and 

 fairly and without unjust suspicion wth his neighbors for the 

 common good. He will place -capital in the common treasury 

 and be willing to pay for competent brains to handle the joint 



