VOL.  LI.  No.  2226. 
NEW  YORK,  SEPTEMBER  24.  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
$2.00  PER  YEAR. 
Out  With  Useless  Middlemen. 
LET  US  COOPERATE. 
According1  to  tables  published  by  the  New  York  Trib¬ 
une,  while  the  prices  of  wages  at  Homestead  have  ad¬ 
vanced  considerably,  the  cost  of  living,  i.  e.,  the  cost 
of  farm  products,  has  decreased  very  materially,  as  the 
following  extracts  from  the  table  will  show : 
Flour . 
June  1,  '89. 
...  $7.50 
June  1,  '91. 
$<>.50 
June  1,  '92. 
$0.00 
Corn  meal . 
...  .03 
.03 
.02!^ 
Beans  . 
...  .10 
.09 
.08 
Beef . 
...  .14 
.12 
.10 
Pork . 
...  .12 
.10 
.10 
Mutton . 
...  .13 
.12 
.11 
Butter . 
...  .30 
.28 
.25 
Errs . 
...  .20 
.22 
.18 
Milk . 
...  .07 
.00 
.05 
Apples  (dried).. 
...  .15 
.13 
.10 
This  is  a  total  reduction  in  the  price  of  all  food  from 
100  on  June  1,  1889  to  85.7  on  June  1,  1892.  Now  we 
milk,  beans,  apples  or  beef  and  mutton  are  fairly 
averaged  in  this  table;  they  are  higher.  Flour  is 
lower  but  corn  meal  will  unquestionably  be  higher  as 
a  result  of  the  reduced  crop.  Most  of  the  products 
named  above  vary  considerably  in  price  and  depend 
upon  natural  causes — good  and  bad  seasons,  for  ex¬ 
ample — for  their  commercial  value.  The  R.  N.-Y. 
has  long  believed  that  the  tendency  of  all  products  is 
downward  in  price.  We  do  not  believe  the  sanguine 
individuals  who  predict  a  coming  high-price  era  when 
the  value  of  farm  products  will  suddenly  shoot  up  in 
price.  We  believe  that  agricultural  science  and 
mechanical  skill  will  keep  ahead  of  “  soil  exhaustion  ” 
and  that  some  of  the  lands  to-day  accounted  “  worn- 
out  ”  will,  40  years  hence,  be  among  the  richest  in  the 
country.  It  is  folly  for  a  farmer  to  depend  upon 
the  greater  the  number  of  middlemen  that  must  stand 
between  producer  and  consumer.  Every  one  of  these 
middlemen  must  be  paid,  and  for  every  extra  pocket 
to  be  filled  the  farmer  must  go  to  his  own  basket  be¬ 
cause  the  cost  of  handling  and  selling  his  goods  must 
come  out  of  him.  He  takes  the  risks  and  does  the 
business  on  all  perishable  products,  and  he  has  to  pay 
the  handlers  and  sellers  just  as  he  pays  the  pickers 
and  other  hired  men.  The  only  difference  is  that  his 
agents  in  the  city  take  the  lion’s  share  of  his  profits, 
while  he  is  expected  to  do  what  he  can  with  the  rest. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  would  be  better  by  far  for 
the  farmer  to  have  alive  manufacturing  town  in  which 
cash  circulates  freely  within  easy  reach  of  his  farm 
than  to  have  “  an  enlarged  European  market,  ”  for  in 
the  latter  case  the  middlemen  and  handlers  will  get 
are  told  that  one  of  the  chief  advantages  of  protection 
is  the  increase  of  wages  in  the  protected  industries, 
and  the  higher  prices  which  are  paid  by  workingmen 
for  farm  produce.  Yet  here  we  have  an  elaborate  set 
of  tables  to  prove  that  while  wages  in  the  iron  works 
have  increased,  the  compensation  to  farmers  has  de¬ 
creased  in  the  proportion  of  100  to  85.7. 
Isn’t  it  about  time  for  farmers  to  strike  and  compel 
some  of  the  “industrial  barons”  to  pay  for  property 
destroyed  and  for  the  moving  and  boarding  of  the  State 
militia  ?  Farmers  are  partially  awake,  a  few  more 
shakings  up  and  they  will  become  fully  so  and  then  we 
shall  see  a  social  revolution,  not  anarchy  but  a  govern¬ 
ment  by  the  people  for  the  people.  j.  h.  Griffith. 
R.  N.-Y. — We  do  not  believe  that  the  prices  of  eggs, 
higher  prices  alone  for  his  coming  profit.  Depend  upon 
it,  prices  will  not  increase  largely.  The  only  thing  to 
do  is  to  grow  a  larger  crop  with  the  same  expenditure 
of  money  and  labor  or  to  grow  the  same  crop  at  less 
expense.  The  skilled  workman  is  the  one  that  gives 
the  best  results  from  an  hour’s  work.  The  skilled  far¬ 
mer  is  the  one  that  grows  a  bushel  of  potatoes,  a  ton 
of  hay  or  a  quart  of  berries  for  the  least  money.  All 
industrial  progress  lies  in  the  direction  of  saving 
wastes  and  decreasing  the  cost  of  production.  Inci¬ 
dentally,  the  nearer  the  farmer  gets  to  a  good  market 
and  the  more  money  there  is  in  his  market  town,  the 
better  his  chance  of  getting  a  share  of  what  the  mid¬ 
dleman  now  claims  as  his  just  due. 
The  further  a  farmer  is  removed  from  his  market, 
most  of  the  money.  About  the  most  successful  farm 
ers  that  we  know  of  are  their  own  middlemen — that  is, 
they  are  good  sellers  and  are  so  near  a  good  market  that 
they  can  sell  directly  to  retail  customers  or  through 
only  one  agent.  Such  men  get  the  “  middleman’s 
share  ”  and  it  makes  a  big  difference  in  their  profits. 
They  “  cooperate”  with  themselves.  Rut  the  farmers 
back  from  the  large  market  towns  cannot  do  this  in¬ 
dividual  marketing  nor  can  they  grow  perishable  crops 
successfully.  They  must  club  together  and  form  sell¬ 
ing  associations,  with  one  of  their  own  members  as 
city  agent  to  handle  their  products  and  sell  to  the. 
best  advantage.  This  “cooperation  ”  or  squeezing  out 
the  useless  middlemen,  must  come  or  there  will  be 
more  deserted  and  “  abandoned  ”  farms.  We  say 
