JOBBERS AND COMMISSION MEN 779 



get their insurance from the same storage firm, which is enabled 

 to take out at less cost with an insurance company a large and 

 long-time blanket policy sufficient to cover all the policy risks 

 assumed for jobbers. 



The discussion thus far has concerned the handling of a 

 surplus more or less restricted in its use to a given primary 

 market. However, the application of modern means of refrigera- 

 tion to the handling of produce in transit has greatly facilitated 

 the movement of such surplus stock between the various primary 

 markets as well, until we now have nearly a nation-wide movement 

 of most of our fruits and vegetables. 



This wider movement of surplus stock cannot be undertaken by 

 jobbers without the use of facilities involving great increase in ex- 

 pense. It is necessary to know from day to day the supply con- 

 ditions of each of the primary markets, and this alone involves 

 an outlay for telephone and telegraph expenses, the fixed charge 

 of which it is impracticable to incur unless the jobber conducts 

 his shipments between the primary markets on a sufficiently large 

 scale. Then, too, this wider movement necessitates a knowledge 

 of freight schedules and rates and of commercial practices that 

 do not concern the dealer who limits his attention to a given 

 trade center. 



Our discussion has revealed the complexity of services devolv- 

 ing upon the middleman agencies in our modern distributive 

 system. If the cost is to be reduced, such services must either 

 be partly or wholly eliminated through changes in the wants of 

 consumers or they must be rendered more efficiently either through 

 other agencies or through some regulation of existing agencies. 



Instead of passing produce through so many hands on its 

 way from the producer to the consumer, some believe that a more 

 direct route could be devised. It is generally conceded that the 

 individuals performing the aforesaid middleman functions have 

 not revealed any conspicuous affluence in wealth. At the same 

 time many have come to regard the machinery as too cumber- 

 some and expensive. An actual increase in the use of direct 

 shipments recently from local sources of supply to the retail 

 agencies in the cities and even to the consumers themselves has 



