QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT . 153 



The middleman will disappear when we dispense with his 

 services, and not till then. 



Since " direct marketing" is an ideal which can never be real- 

 ized in its entirety, the farmer's opportunity for improving his 

 marketing, permanently and economically, seems to lie in the 

 direction of owning or controlling the middleman, not in eliminat- 

 ing him. This, of course, signifies a high degree of organization 

 on the part of the farmers, coupled with standardization of product, 

 so that a group of farmers in one section can deal " direct" (through 

 their proper representative agent, a "middleman") with an organ- 

 ized group (through its representative) in some other section, be 

 the group farmers or city consumers. Progress in this direction 

 is slowly being made. With the coming of the county agent in 

 every county, and with a fuller development of the present 

 "Country Life Betterment" movement, the farmers will be in a 

 strong position for marketing their products. 



Collective Bargaining, The words "collective bargaining" 

 have come into general use as signifying the dealings between 

 organized laborers and capitalists in adjusting wages and condi- 

 tions of employment. It is held to be legal for the laborers thus 

 to dispose of their labor collectively. Collective bargaining is just 

 arriving in agriculture. It is based on collective action, that is, 

 the organization of a group of farmers. The most conspicuous 

 examples thus far in agriculture in America are those of the organ- 

 ized dairymen in the New York and the Chicago districts, fixing 

 prices with distributors by means of the collective bargain. The 

 collective bargain has also been used by organized tenants in fixing 

 rents; by organized producers, both in buying supplies and in 

 selling farm products; the collective bargain has -also been used 

 by farmers in fixing the wages of farm labor. 



The "elimination of the middleman," so far as such a thing is 

 feasible and desirable, will come about increasingly through the 

 growth of collective bargaining in agriculture. This growth pre- 

 supposes an increase in real cooperation, that is, cooperation which 

 is for savings, not for profits. 



QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT 



1. Show the four underlying problems in marketing. When did the States 



begin marketing activities? Account for this new activity. 



2. Show in detail how the marketing problem was attacked by each of the 



following States: Idaho, California, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, 

 North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington. 



3. Going back to the California case, what principles of marketing were 



finally accepted as correct? 



