SELLING ON COMMISSION AND BTYIXCJ DIKECT 907 



>nts correspond to the jobbing houses, which in all great markets 

 form the necessary function of drawing supplies from the 

 ater receiving stations, assembling them at points convenient 

 the smaller retail distributors, and dealing them out in lots 

 Deeded. 



These larger depots, distributing to retailers, may or may not 

 \v supplies directly from producers or from interior collectors 

 produce, according to circumstances. As a rule, in the normal 

 1 unrestrained development of the distributive machinery, they 

 imt. Their requirements are too much specialized and usually 



I immediate to permit dealings with primary sources of supply 

 remote. In practice, they deal for the most part with the 

 |1 larger wholesale markets, which are the first recipients of 



city's supply of food products. 



there is nothing in the constitution of the distributive ma- 

 [nery of a great city which bars a shortening of this course of 

 fribution as a result of open competition, whenever it can be 

 lie economically and in such manner as to meet the demands of 

 ,sumers. The distributive machinery contains within itself 



seeds of its own economical development, and short cuts of 

 iribution are continually being established in regard to par- 

 ilar packings of produce as opportunities arise. But the fact 

 t, in the main, despite a free and open competition, these dif- 

 pnt centers of distribution the first wholesale receiving 

 [tots, the second selective or jobbing depots, and the third retail 

 lots have persisted, is conclusive evidence of their necessity ; 



I 1 all the rantings of demagogues or efforts of would-be re- 

 Imers, based upon ignorance and misconception, can never 

 Inmate them any faster than the forces of the trade itself will 

 fiove agencies of distribution that may, from time to time, 

 I pine obsolete as to particular products. 



fhe producer cannot, with a few minor exceptions, deal 

 I pctly with these secondary or subsequent agencies of city dis- 

 mtion. He is, except in a few cases, too far away for personal 

 mination of his goods by the buyer; the determination of 

 - is difficult unless goods are subject to immediate demand 

 numbers of buyers; the machinery of salesmanship is not 

 lomically available to a producer selling farm products to 



