78 COMMISSION ON COUNTRY LIFE 



commissions are composed of men who will do 

 their duty; and, second, that these men are 

 sustained in honest efforts to do their duty with 

 fairness to all concerned. The charge is fre- 

 quently made that these commissions are not 

 effective, but as they are a part of the machinery 

 of the state, it would seem that the farmers have 

 here an excellent opportunity to serve their inter- 

 ests by active devotion to a plain political duty. 

 Dissatisfaction with the prevailing systems of 

 marketing is very general. There is a wide- 

 spread belief that certain middlemen consume a 

 share of agricultural sales out of all proportion to 

 the services they render, either to the consumer 

 or the producer, making a larger profit often 

 without risk in the selling of the product than 

 the farmer makes in producing it. We have no 

 desire to condemn middlemen as a class. We 

 have no doubt that there are many businesses 

 of this kind that are conducted on a square deal 

 basis, but we are led to believe that grave abuses 

 are practiced by unscrupulous persons and firms, 

 and we recommend a searching inquiry into the 

 methods employed in the sale of produce on 

 commission. 



