102 THE AGRICULTURAL BLOC 



For a long time the farmer has received about 

 one-third of the consumer's dollar, the spread 

 between the consumer's price and the farmer's 

 price being about seventy cents on the dollar. 

 All agree that this margin must be reduced but 

 consumers are doing absolutely nothing about 

 it. The entire effort has been left to the farm- 

 ers and to the Government operating through 

 various laws and public departments. 



Cooperative marketing among producers is 

 necessary to the ultimate solution of the high 

 cost of living but cooperation among consumers 

 is almost as desirable. I have several times 

 proposed legislation to encourage consumer co- 

 operation, but to the present time such organi- 

 zations have been comparatively few and inef- 

 fective. Li this field the consumer is being pro- 

 tected and benefited almost entirely by the pro- 

 ducer while the former allows an extensive sys- 

 tem of middlemen to expand and flourish at his 

 expense. 



The Capper- Volstead Act was the result of 

 a most bitter struggle by those who apparently 

 did not desire to give the farmer equal rights 

 with corporations when he organized his busi- 

 ness merely for mutual benefits and not for 

 profit for the corporation itself. 



