CURSE OF HUMAN PARASITES. 



391 



eggs, poultry, calves, and all the products of field and flock. He 

 scours the country and buys at his own prices very often, and 

 reaps a big percentage. But, say you, he don't make every time. 

 Allowed. But who must make up his losses think you ? 



Bring the producer and consumer together and the one gets 

 more, while the other pays less for the same product, than now. 

 They divide the parasite's profit between them ; they are both 

 benefitted. When the producer sees his interest in its true light 

 he will establish market days and attend personally to the sales of 

 his products, or by an agent who represents and is one of an asso- 

 ciation of producers. The consumer will meet the producer on 

 market days and at market places. Their interests concentrate 

 here, and will bring both together. Even railroads are in a 

 measure in the hands of these parasites and pressed into service 

 against the producer. On authority of the Massachusetts Plough- 

 man, I find that " The Milk Producer's Association of Massa- 

 chusetts and New Hampshire, in the course of their investigations, 

 have found that the contractors (middlemen) have made contracts 

 with the railroads, by which they are enabled virtually to control 

 the means of transportation. The consumer pays in the city 

 twice as much as the farmer twenty-five miles off receives for 

 pure milk at his door, and the railroad freight is only one cent 

 per quart ; it will be seen that the interest of all other parties 

 are now sacrificed to middlemen." 



Farmers' clubs, market days, cheap, untrammeled transporta- 

 tion, diffusion of knowledge and cooperation, are among the most 

 potent means of ridding productive industry of these parasites, 

 now sapping its life blood. Agricultural colleges, associations, 

 the Press, and the unbiased common sense of an educated people, 

 will work this out, if it ever is worked out, to practical utility 

 and blessing. 



As now exists, the producer receives the minimum price and 

 profit, the parasite the maximum ; very often this profit exceeds 

 the price received by the producer. The producer, content 

 through ignorance or powerless through apathy, lies passive in 

 the hands of middlemen. Prices are established by the dealer, 

 on products bought and sold, of and to, the farmer. The dealer 

 has both ends of the trade ; the producer is at his mercy. 

 Demand and supply have far less to do with regulating prices 

 than ought to be the case. The parasite grows rich, the producer 

 poor. 



