15 
wagon and stationed in some out-of-the-way place about the mar- 
ket do not bring good prices because the majority of farmers do 
not know how to market their produce in an attractive manner. 
The result is that the buyer prefers to go to the regular dealer 
and pay his added profit. 
The nttmber of links in the chain of distribution of farm pro- 
ducts has been increased beyond all reason, with the result that 
the consumer pays too much for the farm produce, and the farmer 
receives too little. The only obvious way of improving these con- 
ditions consists in eliminating the excessive middle profits and 
bringing the farmer and the consumer nearer together. The 
immediate results of such a movement are that the producer gets 
more for his share of the work, the consumer pays less and the 
quality of the product is improved. As an illustration of how 
these results have been brought about, we will mention a co-opera- 
tive woolen mill, which has been in operation for many years in 
New Mexico. _ This co-operative association includes among its 
members both the consumers and the producers of wool. About 
two million pounds of wool are annually manufactured into cloth- 
ing, blankets and other woolen products at the mill. Woolen 
suits, guaranteed to be absolutely pure wool, are made to order 
by the best tailors which can be found, for $15.00 a suit. A suit 
of corresponding quality in an independent tailor shop costs from 
$30.00 to $35.00. Nothwithstanding the fact that the price is 
thus cut in half by the co-operative concern, the profits from the 
manufacture of clothing at this greatly reduced price amount to 
thirty-three percent annually. The cost of the production of 
clothing in this case has been reduced by the elimination of mid- 
dle-men’s profits. In the co-operative woolen mill in question the 
wool is received from a wool growing member of the co-operative 
association, and is directly manufactured into clothing, without 
passing through any other institution. The cloth used in the ma- 
nufacture of clothing in the shop of the independent tailor of the 
same town, however, goes through a large number of hands and 
makes a long journey back and forth across the country. In the 
first place, a buyer comes from an eastern wool broker, usuallv 
located in Boston, to the far West and bids on the wool produced 
by the sheep raisers. The expenses of this buyer, even to the 
cigars which he furnishes the sheep raisers, are ultimately paid for 
by the man who buys the suit of clothes from the independent 
tailor. After the wool is purchased it is freighted across the 
country to Boston or Chicago, where it passes through two or 
three companies before it is finally turned over to the woolen mill. 
From the woolen mill the cloth is distributed to wholesalers, from 
them to distributors who ship it to dry goods merchants located 
