THE FARMER AND THE MIDDLEMAN 359 



promoters of creameries and farmers' packing companies call 

 upon them for liberal stock subscription, at least 17^- per cent 

 of which is available for paying expenses of promotion. 



The farmers know a great deal about producing cotton and 

 wool and corn and hogs and wheat and cattle and dairy prod- 

 ucts, but they know but little as a class about the functions of 

 the middlemen, made necessary by the modern commercial 

 organization of industrial society. The farmer takes cotton or 

 grain, his hogs and his cattle, or his milk to the local market and 

 surrenders them to the local buyer. Year after year he may 

 see the train pull out of sight around the curve below the corner 

 of his farm without any clear vision of what happens to his 

 products from that point. 



In the main, the functions of middlemen are little understood 

 by the producers or by the consumers. What is in the dark 

 may be evil, and his human imagination is prone to draw gro- 

 tesque pictures of what may happen in the realm of the unknown. 

 Thus it has come to pass that the producer sometimes covets 

 the whole dollar which the consumer pays for his products and 

 looks with disgust at the fifty-two cents which he receives. 

 This is a fertile field for sowing the seeds of discontent and there 

 have been plenty of writers and cartoonists ready to ride the 

 crest of the wave of popularity which has given prominence 

 in recent years to the marketing problem. It is only recently 

 that this onslaught has been participated in by the farmer. 

 The farmers have in general maintained a passive part while the 

 politicians and professional agitators have played the leading 

 role with the paid writers and cartoonists as emphatic seconds. 



The thing that is needed most at the present time is education 

 on this question of middleman processes. It is not the writer's 

 purpose to imply that the producer is wrong in thinking there 

 may be an injustice, but it is his purpose to say that the starting 

 point in solving the marketing problem is not what may be 

 imagined about middlemen but the actual facts about middleman 

 services and middleman charges. This is a problem for the 

 scientist. The scientific economist should turn on the light 

 so that all may see the truth. He should study carefully and 



