49 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



of dealing have met with only limited success. The fault is not with 

 the theory of the open competitive market, but, apparently, in the 

 inability or unwillingness of buyers to come to such a market place, 

 or in the irregular supply or uncertain quality of the goods dealt in. 1 

 The same practical scrutiny must be given to the numerous plans for 

 direct selling by producer to consumer. Likewise, the principle of 

 co-operation is simple, briefly stated, and easily understood. But the 

 practice of co-operation presents an unending series of problems of 

 practical adjustment and readjustment. 



This raises the question of co-operation on a large scale through 

 the agencies of government. Section F presents several types of such 

 endeavor. Did space permit, we should add also the New York sys- 

 tem, under which commission dealers are bonded and licensed by the 

 state and a state commissioner of food and markets not only super- 

 vises the activities of private dealers, but provides auction markets, 

 to which producers can consign their goods. The issue is fairly 

 drawn at the present time: Shall the government agency secure and 

 furnish information, shall it assist producers to form marketing asso- 

 ciations of their own, or shall it actually engage in the active opera- 

 tions of the market itself ? 



A. Organized Exchanges 



156. FUNCTIONS OF PRODUCE EXCHANGES* 

 BY S. S. HUEBNER 



The produce exchange is not itself organized for the making of 

 money, and does not fix prices or make transactions in the trade as 

 an organized body. It is merely instrumental in affording a con- 

 venient market place, in regulating trade, and in disciplining the 

 conduct of its members. The members act on their own responsi- 

 bility, doing as much business as they like, provided they conform 

 to the standards which the rules of the exchange prescribe for the 

 regulation of the trade. 



Practically all the exchanges have adopted disciplinary rules for 

 the regulation of brokerage transactions, and the maintenance of a 



1 For an intelligent discussion of the limitations of the auction method, see 

 Weld, The Marketing of Farm Products, chap. vii. 



* Adapted from The Annals, XXXVIII, No. 2 (September, 1911), on "Amer- 

 can Produce Exchange Markets," 321-41. 



