CHAPTER XIX. 



MARKETING PROBLEMS OF POULTRYMEN 



THE highest efficiency comes through co-operation. The_big work 

 of the world is done by co-operation. Tunneling the mountains, 

 digging canals, building cities, can never be done by the individual. 

 The individual is only a cog in the economic machinery of the world. 

 Alone, the individual has little force, but united with a definite purpose, 

 order and system spring from chaos. It is only by joining our energies 

 with our fellow men that big movements are possible. It is absolutely 

 impossible to attain the highest independence alone. We need our 

 neighbors; we need our social life; we need the economic division of 

 labor; and above all, we need the strong co-operation of our fellow 

 poultrymen who are all producing the same thing. We must realize 

 here and now that the poultry producers will never reach the highest 

 market efficiency except through co-operation. Every line of produc- 

 tion in the United States is more or less organized, and the more 

 thorough the organization the less economic waste. Without co-opera- 

 tion, the citrus growers would have been out of business long ago. 

 The raisin growers are putting a standard product on the market in an 

 efficient way that makes prosperity. 



The manufacturer of any article names the selling price of that 

 article, and it must sell for more than cost of production or the maker 

 goes out of business. Henry Ford does not turn his machines over to 

 a merchants' exchange for them to gamble with and fix the prices. 



The commercial world is coming to a one-priced system and it will 

 not be long till the price of eggs will not be a gamble, running up and 

 down a sliding scale at the whims of a few men. Only a few years ago 

 and there was no fixed price for any article on the market. 



The dealer paid as little as possible and sold for as much as the 

 buyer could be coaxed into paying. I can even remember when we 

 used to come home from the store and talk over the bargains that we 

 had made on goods that were marked so much and we jewed him down 

 to what we were pleased to call the right price. That day is almost 

 over. We buy today and pay the price asked without questioning the 

 honesty of the seller. There is a certain sense of business honor that 

 belongs to the highest type of business man. 



What a jumble of things if all the produce were sold through a 

 merchants' exchange! The man that produces the goods should be 

 able to dictate the price, and so he does, in most productions. What 

 an absurd thing it is that the men who produce the eggs have not the 

 least power to fix the selling price of these eggs. Is it not the height 

 of folly for eggs to soar to 60 or 75 cents at a certain season of the year, 

 thus being unjust to the consumer, and then have them drop below 

 cost of production at the season of the year when the producer might 

 make some profit, thus being unjust to the producer? Under the 

 existing system there is an injustice to both consumer and producer. 



We are producers of eggs. We know how much it costs to produce 

 them. Do we know that we will be able to sell them at a profit? Is 

 there any way by which we can say what we can afford to take for our 



103 



