Proceedings of Seventeenth Normal Institute 153 



A "favorite remedy which is being suggested is that the producer 

 and the consumer shall get directly together. There shall be a 

 bee line between them. This is not possible in our present eco- 

 nomic system. The only place where it works out to advantage is 

 in municipal markets, and even here it would be far better if all 

 of the individual farmers did not take their produce into market, 

 but used at home the time which would be taken in selling, for 

 the production and improvement of their goods. After all, there 

 is no truer statement than that time is money, and that it is well 

 to pay money to somebody who can save your time. The one' 

 fundamental fact, however, is that of all those concerned in the 

 production, distribution and consumption of life's necessities, 

 the producers and the consumers are the last to organize, and 

 of these two the producers are in the rear. As a consequence 

 the producer has suffered most. 



Do not fear that the consumers will not welcome producers' 

 organizations. They should include what the consumer wants 

 most — a standardizing of farm products, honest weight and 

 measure, purity and high quality, which would mean a better 

 price for the producer and a lower cost for the consumer, because 

 it would result in the elimination of all but the necessary middle- 

 men, and the producer and consumer could divide the leaks that 

 go to the unnecessary middleman. 



In this connection, one problem continually faced our Wash- 

 ington organization : that there are always some producers who, in 

 their eagerness to get a share of the unearned increment, expect 

 to get it all. Equally there are some consumers who, in their 

 eagerness to save the unearned increment, expect to save it all. A 

 better understanding of both sides should lead to the point where 

 the producer will gladly give the consumer a rightful share of the 

 profits, if the consumer is doing his part in reducing the cost by 

 sane methods of distribution. ' The consumer should be equally 

 willing to share with the producer. I plead for the three-fold 

 point of view — the producer's, the necessary middleman's, and 

 the consumer's. There are surely enough profits made by the five 

 to thirteen middlemen discovered in this state to allow a reasonable 

 division. 



What is the best way to get into the minds of all this broadness 



