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my place?" That is elementary. All theories of justice and equity 

 result from putting yourself in the other man's place. 



Before a more economic method of getting the farm produce to the 

 city consumer can be inaugurated the city consumers must be willing to 

 spend a little more time and take a little more trouble in their marketing. 

 So long as the city consumer expects to use the telephone a few hours 

 before dinner and order the things which she forgot to get in the morning, 

 she will never be able to trade directly with the farmer. So long as the 

 farmer insists on dumping his produce in a nondescript and unstandardized 

 condition upon the market, the city consumer will never be able to buy of 

 him. The middleman will continue to be necessary, and there is no 

 occasion for attacking him under those conditions. So long as he is a 

 necessity, so long as the goods must go through his hands, he can charge 

 whatever toll he chooses to charge. It is like goods on one side of the 

 river and a demand on the other, but only one bridge and one man or one 

 group of men controlling that bridge. So long as the goods must pass 

 over that bridge and in no other way, the people that control that bridge 

 can charge what they like. But if another bridge is built, and even 

 though it is not so good, then that is a new channel that is opened up 

 through which goods can go from one side to the other, and that will 

 limit the toll which can be charged on the first. 



The city consumer must, therefore, be willing to buy intelligently and 

 take some trouble, and that means, first, to buy some time in advance 

 and not expect to get instantaneous service. In the second place, the 

 city consumer must be willing to buy standardized goods in standardized 

 packages. So long as one consumer insists on having two eggs, another 

 half a dozen, and another a dozen, and there is no uniformity, it is very 

 difficult for the farmer to sell eggs to individual consumers in that way. 

 But if they will get in the habit of buying standardized packages, then 

 the farmer may be able to meet their needs, but not until then. That is 

 not only true of eggs, but other produce as well. 



On the other hand, as I indicated a few moments ago, so long as 

 the farmer takes the easy way of selling his products in a nondescript 

 condition, the city consumer cannot use the goods in that condition. He 

 must have what he wants. He is not going to buy a nondescript lot in 

 the hope that he may get something that he wants and throw the rest 

 away, but the farmer must grade and standardize his own product; 

 otherwise the city consumer will never buy directly in large quantities. 

 If the farmer will grade and standardize his products, not only as to 

 quality but as to package, so that it is marketed in uniform packages 

 about the size that the average consumer can conveniently handle, 

 that in itself will make possible the bridging of that gap between 

 the two and therefore of reducing the toll which can be charged 

 now by those necessary agencies through which the goods must be 

 transmitted. 



