COMPETITION— LAWS OF PRICES 59 



price would send the trains a hundred and 

 twenty-five miles after milk. A perfect flood of 

 milk would be diverted from the cheese factory 

 and the butter maker and flow to the city. 



The problem of the middleman (or more 

 properly the middle charges, is a problem for 

 the consumer. With the abolition of all un- 

 necessary costs between the farm and the kit- 

 chen, the whole advantage will ultimately go to 

 the consumer. Every time that a housewife 

 orders a quart of potatoes over the telephone 

 she is paying for her own shiftless method sev- 

 eral times the value of the potatoes. 



Competition will always limit the returns 

 from any simple conservative operation. If big 

 crops, alone, meant success, there would be a 

 flood of big crops; if big farms meant big re- 

 turns, small farms would be forced out of busi- 

 ness; if a lot of money assured the farmer a 

 high rate of return, capital would gravitate to- 

 ward the farm. 



The owner of an orange grove was in the 

 possession of a fortune until the certainty of 

 the profit brought sharp competition. Prices 



