WHOLESALE DISTEIBUTIOlSr OF EEUITS AND VEGETABLES. 13 



ting the goods from the car to the dealers' place of business are 

 paid by the buyer. In case the broker did not make a direct sale, but 

 handled the goods through auction, his activities would be confined 

 to seeing that the goods arrived at the auction and attending the sale 

 raw the shipment if prices were unsatisfactory. 



broker's EXPENSES. 



The broker per" a,ps handles more business at less cost to himself 

 than any other type of middleman. He has no considerable amount 

 of capital in his b; md a large part of his expenses is prac- 



tically fixed. His heaviest items of expense are usually rent, clerical 

 :, and telegraph charges. The latter, of course, varies with the 

 amount of business handled. As a ride, most of the broker's business 

 is composed of association accounts and accounts of large private 

 shippers, and a very small portion is drawn from small shippers. 

 The broker acts as the exclusive agent on his market for each con- 

 cern that he represents, and since he handles car lots only and moves 

 large quantities in relatively short periods of time he is enabled to 

 render important services at a very low cost to the shipper. 



broker's abuses. 



Brokers are often charged with misuse of their privileges in that 

 they may sometimes speculate on goods passing through their hands. 

 For instance, a broker may make returns out of his own funds for a 

 supposed sale, but hold the produce for a rising market before actual 

 sale is made. If the expected advance occurs, he pockets the increase 

 in price. This practice would prevent a shipper from getting just 

 returns and his goods would not be on an actively competitive basis 

 with other market offerings. In other words, such sales would secure 

 to the grower or shipper the lowest market price quoted on the day 

 returns were made and he would get no benefit from either the ex- 

 pected rise in price or the broker's ability as a salesman. This tend- 

 ency toward speculation is ordinarily done away with entirely when 

 there is direct dealing between the vendor and vendee, so far as the 

 handling of money is concerned. As a matter of fact, according to a 

 strict interpretation of the term, the shipper's selling agent ceases to 

 be a broker when he assumes responsibility for collecting and remit- 

 ting, and so the term "broker" as here used is applied according to 

 trade usage and common understanding. Brokers are charged some- 

 times with failing truly to represent the shipper. Being always in 

 close persona] touch \ i h buyers and having no such close relation 

 to the shipper, ther letimes (he tendency to favor the buyer 



unduly in order to retain his good will. 



