CHAPTER IT. 



THE FARMER AXD THE COMMISSION MERCHANT. 



NEARLY all perishable products, a majority of the semi- 

 perishable, and probably a majority of staple goods, are 

 sold by the farmer, through commission merchants or 

 brokers. A "broker" is a commission salesman who canvasses 

 for orders, but maintains no store or shop. The conrmission 

 trade of the United States, in all lines witlj which I am 

 familiar, is in a thoroughly unsatisfactory condition. It is 

 probably so in all lines. While any experienced business man 

 could suggest effectual methods for correcting the abuses — real 

 and imaginary — attaching to this business, the cooperation of 

 too many would be required for carrying them out to admit 

 of any hope of success. What can be done is to indicate tJie 

 nature of the troubles, with their ultimate causes, and leave 

 the matter to be dealt with in the light of the sturdy common 

 sense of the farmer. 



A commission merchant or broker is one who sells goods 

 for account of another, receiving and accounting for the pro- 

 ceeds. He is what the law terms the "ageiit" of his consignor, 

 and the law holds him strictly to the powers and duties of an 

 agent as defined in the statutes of different states and countrie.-. 

 In practice, the letter if not the spirit of these obligations is 

 openly violated every day by most or at least many commis- 

 sion men. For an agent to apply the proceeds of a commission 

 sale to his own purposes is, in most states and countries, if not 

 in all, a crime. Nearly all commission merchants deposit the 

 proceeds of tlieir sales to their own account, intermingled with 

 their private funds, and where it would be attacliable for their 

 private debts. This is doubtless a matter of convenience, and 

 it is very rarely tiiat losses accrue to the farmer from this 

 cause, but it is not a correct transaction. 



The duty of the commission merchant is to faithfully j^irose- 

 ( 152 ) 



