208 Cooperation in Agriculture 



ucts which he stores as a trustee for these people, or when 

 they form trade combinations in the markets through 

 which they agree on a maximum price to be paid for the 

 produce. 



The dishonest commission merchant is one of the most 

 serious difficulties that the producer has to meet. There 

 are few lines that are more attractive to the unscrupulous 

 man than the commission business. His business is un- 

 checked and unregulated. The unscrupulous merchant 

 can and often does overquote the market in soliciting 

 shipments, and he returns to the producer as much or as 

 little as he pleases, with small chance of having his dis- 

 honesty discovered. There are many commission mer- 

 chants who have built up enviable reputations for business 

 integrity. The National League of Commission Mer- 

 chants endeavors to eliminate dishonest practices from the 

 commission trade, but on account of the unlimited oppor- 

 tunity for fraudulent dealing, the commission business 

 attracts an unusually high proportion of unscrupulous 

 dealers. These men have cast discredit and suspicion on 

 the entire commission business which has led to a growing 

 demand that the operations of the commission merchants, 

 as well as those of other semi-public distributing and 

 marketing agencies who handle produce entering inter- 

 state commerce, shall be subject to federal regulation, and 

 that the states and local authorities shall prescribe the 

 conditions under which these different agents who conduct 

 an intra-state business shall transact their operations. 



A still more serious difficulty lies in the fact that most 

 of the commission firms are also jobbers in the products 

 which they handle on commission for the public. In that 



