THE MIDDLEMEN AND DISTRIBUTERS 67 



get their produce to market. The city is blockaded 

 against them. Often their produce is taken by the 

 commission men and sold and the farmers advised 

 that there was no market for it or that it had to be 

 destroyed by order of the health department. At 

 other times produce fails to realize enough to pay 

 freight rates. Frequently, food from a distance is 

 permitted to spoil or is thrown into the river, to 

 keep up prices. At other times it is held up by 

 railroad-car shortage and lack of terminal facilities. 

 The farmer cannot now market directly as he for- 

 merly could, and he cannot afford a personal rep- 

 resentative in the city. As a result, he is left to the 

 tender mercies of a group of distributers acting in 

 co-operation with the railroads, cold-storage plants, 

 and packers, all of whom enjoy special, preferential 

 pri\aleges which the independent shipper cannot 

 secure. 



The food manipulators of New York are given a 

 practical monopoly of the terminal facilities of the 

 railroads, which are essential to the disposal of food 

 to the retailers. Even the State Department of 

 Foods and Markets of that State, which aims to 

 help the farmer find a market, is discriminated 

 against. The various groups of middlemen have 

 powerful financial and political organizations and 

 maintain themselves against the unorganized farm- 

 ers, on the one hand, and the equally unorganized 

 consumers on the other. If the dealers fulfilled 



