142 MARKETING AND THE MIDDLEMAN 



The Cost of the Middleman. A few years ago some writer put 

 into circulation the superstition that the middleman gets fifty 

 cents out of every dollar the consumer pays, and that the farmer, 

 in consequence, received but half the price paid by the ultimate 

 consumer. And in more recent times the middleman's "toll" is 

 commonly given as sixty-five cents on the dollar. No earnest 

 seeker after the truth will be satisfied with such sweeping assertions 

 as these. Since the "toll" of the middleman varies greatly from 

 one product to another, depending on the various factors involved, 



FIG. 22. Shipping perishable farm produce by parcel post. (U. S. D. A.; 



it is necessary and it is also the honest way to inquire separately 

 into some of the commoner articles of consumption coming from 

 the farm. Some of the common articles considered below are 

 bread, meat, butter, eggs, potatoes and tobacco. Careful studies 

 have been made in all these fields by federal and State govern- 

 ment investigators. 



Wheat and Flour. We may trace wheat into export, till it 

 reaches the hands of the Liverpool buyers, or we may trace it in 

 domestic trade till it passes as flour from the retailer to the house- 

 holder. Taking the Kansas wheat crop of 1914, we find that the 

 Kansas farmer got seventy-five cents out of the dollar paid by the 

 Liverpool buyer. The various margins between the Kansas wheat 

 grower and the Liverpool buyer were as follows: 



