2o8 THE THIRD POWER 



organization, the American farmer is unable to reach the con- 

 sumers directly, and consequently is forced to a desperate 

 bargain. 



It has been pointed out not only by some writers on mod- 

 ern economic problems, but also in some official reports, that 

 the latest tendency noticeable in the handling of agricultural 

 products (as well as manufactured commodities) is to elim- 

 inate the middlemen. This contention is the result of misun- 

 derstanding, pure and simple. While the middlemen of small 

 dimensions, like local grain buyers, are really disappearing, 

 their place is taken by middlemen of much larger and posi- 

 tively formidable dimensions like grain dealers' associations 

 and line elevator companies, into whose control about 98 per 

 cent, of cereals pass now on their way from the farmer's 

 hands to the primary market. This simply shows that the 

 process of capitalization and concentration of the American 

 agriculture in the department of distribution goes on and on, 

 and in this stage of modern American agriculture at least (as 

 well as in all manufacturing production), the big fish eat up 

 the little ones. That these new giant middlemen are infinitely 

 more able to exploit the agricultural producer and press him to 

 the wall than the small middlemen, now completely disappear- 

 ing, does not require any argument. 



Thus in the field of modern, specialized American agricul- 

 ture, we are confronted with the complex and most remark- 

 able economic phenomenon. While in the stage of agricul- 

 tural production small producers seem to compete out of exist- 

 ence not only large farms, but even these immense "bonanza 

 farms," which are destined to disappear in not distant future; 

 in the stage of distribution of agricultural products we find 

 undoubtedly an immense capitalization and concentration of 

 agricultural industry. We dwell particularly on this point be- 

 cause the relation of American agricultural production to 

 American agricultural distribution constitutes a fundamental 

 and most important of all the elements and factors, which de- 

 termine the position of the American farmer in the modern 

 American commonwealth. 



It is a well-known fact that millions of acres of the most 

 fertile lands in the United States lie still untouched, not only 



