72 



Mr. Benjamin: Yes, sir. 



Mr. Steffans : Mr. Opperman said that this lack of efficiency under 

 the present methods cost us for eggs about $45,000,000 a year. I so 

 understood him. I can't understand why, in a co-operation of farmers 

 to deliver their eggs to one point, there should be any lack of efficiency, 

 providing they use part of their profits to pay the manager and secure 

 efficient management in that way. How should there in that case be a 

 lack of efficiency? 



Mr. Benjamin: The manager's salary depends on the profit which 

 is made. 



Mr. Steffans : Or give him a share of the profits as salary. 



Mr. Benjamin: Yes, that would be a very good way of overcoming 

 that to some extent. What I meant to bring out was that when we hire 

 a man to do a job, he is not going to be as vitally interested as though 

 he had got to do that to get a living, but if his salary depends on the 

 profits that he makes in the business, his efficiency is going to increase. 



Mr. Steffans: But the situation at present is this: Your six inde- 

 pendent dealers purchasing from the farmers inevitably form a combine 

 to fix the prices. The farmers form a small combine and do business 

 through one agency. You put six dealers into a field and they inevitably 

 will combine to fix prices and grades. 



Mr. Benjamin: I do not know of any such combination in our 

 particular locality, although that perhaps exists. Perhaps there is no 

 actual combination, but possibly there is an understanding. There may 

 be something like that, although I do not know of any regular agreement. 

 Of course, we have lack of efficiency due to duplication work, when we 

 have several competing firms. There are six people doing the work which 

 one organization might do, yet perhaps each one of them is working 

 harder than one manager would, but one manager might be more efficient 

 in the end. 



Mrs. Smith: We will now hear from Dr. WiUiams. Dr. Williams 

 is a member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. He has made a 

 very close study of the economics of milk. 



