WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION OF FRUITS 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 
to withdraw the shipment if prices were unsatisfactory. 
broker's expenses. 
The broker perhaps handles more business at less cost to himself 
than any other type of middleman. He has no considerable amount 
of capital in his business and a large part of his expenses is prac- 
tically fixed. His heaviest items of expense are usually rent, clerical 
help, and telegraph charges. The latter, of course, varies with the 
amount of business handled. As a rule, 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 personal touch with buyers and having no such close relation 
to the shipper, there is sometimes the tendency to favor the buyer 
unduly in order to retain his good will. 
