100 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



the consumer has to pay, and the 

 quicker he gets out of business and he- 

 gins to produce something for the con- 

 sumer and himself to live upon, that 

 much more quickly will the world be 

 better off. 



Mr. Stockdale — I think it would be 

 advisable for the grocer to eat that sec- 

 tion and not starve. 



We make a mistake in not selling to 

 people who live close to us. There is 

 no question that it is a good deal 

 better to sell at a reasonable price to 

 people w^ho live close to you than to 

 ship it away and stand loss by shrink- 

 age and breakage, and you can increase 

 your market wonderfully at home if 

 you will but try to do it. 



Mr. Oavanagh — If the people "want to 

 support the man who is paying this 

 large rent and he can do enough busi- 

 ness in the loop district — is it not 

 legitimate for him to pay the extra 

 rent? Is it not a better proposition 

 for him to go into business here and 

 pay this rent than to go out in some 

 low rent district where the people do 

 not exist? 



If you can meet that many people 

 and transact that much more business; 

 is it not to his interest to do this? It 

 is a fact that much more honey is sold 

 in the loop district in the city of Chi- 

 cago than in the outlying districts; take 

 these big stores that have a grocery 

 department: The Randolph Street 

 Market is doing an immense business; 

 they are doing perhaps one hundred 

 times the volume of business that some 

 of the places are doing out in the low 

 rent district. Why is it not legitimate 

 for them to pay this high rent? They 

 do not have to tack anything more on 

 to the price; you have to pay some one 

 for transferring the product from the 

 producer to the consumer. The 

 gentleman's scheme may be all 

 right, if people take kindly to it, 

 but it has got to have some adver- 

 tising or the people will not know that 

 you have honey for sale; you have got 

 to charge up the advertising expense 

 back to the profit. Some others have 

 done the same thing in the past, and 

 I am not knocking his proposition in 

 the least; but I would say the scheme 

 has been tried before, as I can remem- 

 ber myself, on the co-operative basis, 

 and for some reason or other it always 

 falls through, and you get back to the 

 hardpan of overhead expense and the 



cost of getting the honey from the con- 

 sumer to the producer; the consumer 

 is looking for somebody to beat hlm^ half 

 the time. At any rate it costs money 

 to sell honey, because we must adver- 

 tise the fact that we have it for sale, 

 and this cannot be done for nothing. 



Mr. Pyles — I think we are getting a 

 little away from- the question. You 

 take any line of business whatsoever, 

 and those people who are co-operative 

 make a success of it, because nearly 

 every one of them is talking in favor 

 of it; but the minute you get the con- 

 sumers to buying a little here and a 

 little there, it does not work. 



John D., and the people with him,, 

 talk against an independent concern, 

 and they put up the price; they sell a 

 barrel of oil, as it was proven in 

 Kansas or Missouri; they were selling 

 oil at eighteen and ten cents in the 

 same state, at different points; men in 

 business will do that kind of business 

 right along; if one man loses in an or- 

 ganization, they win help him out; they 

 are going to drive the other fellow out 

 of business. I think the quicker the 

 consumer and the producer get together 

 the better off they will be. It is not 

 fair for a man to work for a dollar or 

 a dollar and a half a day and pay the 

 prices he is paying. Prices have nearly 

 doubled. In 1908 I sold honey for 10 

 cents per pound; this year I sold it at 

 12% cents, and it retailed in Peoria for 

 from 20 to 25 cents per pound. 



Men in business are not losing out. 

 I am not getting much more for my 

 honey than I got four years ago, but 

 the man who is consuming honey is 

 paying nearly twice what he paid four 

 years ago; the man who is consuming 

 'honey has got the worst of it. 



Mr. Cavanagh — How would you cross 

 lots and get this profit? I don't want 

 to offend, but I do want to get down 

 to business; that is what we are here 

 for. We are supposed to get a fair 

 price for our product, and we are dis- 

 cussing now the profitable method of 

 marketing our product. What are we 

 going to do about it? Is there some 

 method which we can adopt better than 

 those now in use? Is it for our benefit 

 or for the consumer's benefit, or shall 

 we shut the jobber and grocer out? 



Mr. Pyles — We are not talking about 

 the most profitable way for marketing 

 our honey, but, what is best for the 

 consumer? We oan't hold up our 



