782 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



in Minnesota and New York, compelling commission merchants 

 to be licensed and bonded and subjecting their accounts to 

 inspection by state officials in case of complaint from local ship- 

 pers. The problem suggested in this connection is whether it is 

 desirable and practicable to extend the regulation of commission 

 business so that the accounts of such firms are inspected regularly 

 in some such manner as that applied to banking institutions. The 

 same problem arises in connection with the storing of surplus 

 stock by jobbing or other agencies. In the latter case the pub- 

 lic interest is affected not only by the possibility of abuses such 

 as the misrepresentation of storage goods as if they were fresh, 

 but also by the extent to which a concentration of surplus stock 

 may lead to a control of the supply. 



