THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 211 



a wise law by reason of the fact that it is paternalistic in the extreme 

 and socialistic in tendency. 



There is no reason why, as David Lubin puts it, the state should grah 

 a chicken by the neck and run to market with it in the interest of the 

 fanner any more than the state should grab a rocking chair and run to 

 market with it in the interest of the man who manufactures it. The 

 marketing commission is here, however, and while I do not approve 

 of t lie law nor perhaps "I' some of the things being done by the Market 

 Commissioner, nevertheless, I believe that everyone of us should do 

 everything in our power and within reason to help the Market Com- 

 missioner to make a thorough and complete experiment, trial and 

 exemplification of the law. In this way, and in this way only, can we 

 learn whether the principle back of the establishment of the State 

 Marketing Commission be good or bad and the sooner this question is 



determined the better it will 111' for all of us. 



Begging your pardon for having entered into the larger field of dis- 

 cussion upon this subject T will proceed to tell you, briefly, the few 

 things that I know regarding David Lubin 's plan for the use of the 

 parcel posl in the marketing of farm products. It occurred to Mr. 

 Lubin, who has done more than any man or agency in the history of 

 the world to' stabilize the world's price upon food products, that it 

 might be possible to bring to bear upon the marketing of farm products 

 the experience and the system which has been built up during the past 

 50 years by the meat mail order houses of the country and to add to 

 this system and experience the service and efficiency of the post-office 

 department, thereby creating a large and helpful agency toward bring- 

 ing the consumer and the producer closer together. 



The system which Mr. Lubin takes as his example has been so per- 

 fected that single mail order houses now do a business of over one 

 hundred millions of dollars annually and do it in individual units, a 

 larger business than is done by any one of the great wholesale houses 

 in tin' United States. 



Having conceived this idea Mr. Lubin went to congress and placed 

 bis ideas and bis plan before the proper committee for its consideration. 

 lie also presented the subject to the post-office authorities and hearings 

 weie held in Chicago at which representatives of the great mail order 

 houses and representatives of congress were present. At these hearings 

 Mr. Lubin laid his entire plan before the gathering and for the especial 

 consideration and criticism of the managers of the mail order houses. 

 lie wanted to know from the latter if there was anything in his system 

 which was weak' or wrong or would not, in their judgment, work out 

 satisfactorily. Finally Mr. Luhin reached a point with congress and 



the post-offi lepartmenl where they asked him if it would be possible 



for him to conduct an experiment to test the efficiency of his plan. The 

 post-oftice department having DO funds for conducting such experiments 

 must, therefore, look for such means from other sources. David Luhin 

 then came to Sacramento and interested the State Grange in the propo- 

 sition, that organization agreeing to condud the experiment. These 

 experiments were carried on in the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce 

 and at one other point and the grange made a report, a few copies of 

 which I have left and which are available for distribution among these 



