CITY-COUNTRY UNITY THROUGH MARKET BUREAUS. 



Dr. Clyde Lyndon King, 

 Political Science, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 



I. Marketing — Its Significance to Farmer and Consumer. 



The cost of living agitation has turned the active minds of many 

 men in all parts of the country and in all trades and occupations to a 

 scrutiny of our existing producing and distributing systems, with a view 

 to finding out what programme may be adopted for the permanent lower- 

 ing of living costs. These numerous inquiries and studies have clearly 

 established the following general facts as to food products: 



1. Production costs will increase. 



2. Lower living costs, or even present price levels, are to be main- 

 tained if at all only through lowering distribution costs. 



Numerous potent factors are making and bid fair to continue to make 

 for increased production costs. The first of these is the fact that popula- 

 tion has increased more rapidly than the available food supply. While 

 the population of the United States increased practically thirty miUions 

 from 1890 to 1910, the number of cattle in the United States decreased 

 four millions. Such facts as these as to the ratio which the increase in 

 population bears to the food supply meet one at every turn. Moreover, 

 there has been a most significant increase in land values. In the last 

 decade timber lands in the United States have trebled in value, farm 

 lands have doubled in value, and city lands have increased from 20 to 

 200 per cent. And there is every indication that farm and urban land 

 values will continue to rise; they certainly will so long as they are 

 capitahzed, as at present, not only at their productive value, but at their 

 possible earning value in future years when population will be greater 

 and food demands heavier. An increase of 300 per cent in the supply 

 of gold from 1890 to 1910 together with an equal increase in the amount 

 of credit has without doubt caused a lowering in the purchasing power of 

 the dollar. This is not the only factor in higher costs, as some would 

 have us think, but it is one of the factors. And as there is no indication 

 of a change in either gold supply or credit supply, this force also joins in 

 boosting prices. There has likewise been an increase in the cost of raw 

 materials and in labor costs. 



All of these factors seem to show that without a doubt production 

 costs will increase. This does not mean, to be sure, that nothing should 

 be done to prevent an undue enhancement of production costs, but it 



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