Farmers  and  the  Feed  Dealers 
Story  of  a  Direct  Shipment 
fSiuce  we  printed  n  report  of  what  the  Wicks  Com¬ 
mittee  had  10  (k  with  the  feed  dealers  we  have  asked 
for  actual  cases  w  here  local  dealers  undertook  to  inter¬ 
fere  with  direct  shipment  to  farmers.  There  follows 
G-«  history  of  one  /■ase.J 
CASE  IN  P(\)TNT. — It  is  frequently  one  tiling 
to  ku<w  sonAetbiug  with  practical  certainty, 
and  quite  am' her  I  to  prove  it.  I  can  give  some 
facts  relative  i  i^fie  question  presented  regarding 
feed  dealers  holding  tip  sales  of  feeds  to  farmers. 
A  farmer  of  my  acquaintance  ordered  a  car  of 
feed  from  a  jobber,  and  by  arrangement  had  the 
jured  his  trade  already.  The  whole  transaction 
was  understood  by  the  farmer,  and  he  at  once  or¬ 
dered  another  car  from  another  place,  doing  it  to 
show  that  he  was  not  at  the  mercy  of  the  dealer  in 
town.  When  the  second  ear  was  about  due  the 
farmer  asked  both  the  freight  agent  and  the 
banker  not  to  disclose  the  name  of  the  party  who 
sold  him  the  car.  The  dealer  was  more  annoyed 
by  the  second  ear  than  he  had  been  by  the  first  one, 
and  made  much  ado  about  it  when  talking  to  other 
farmers.  Ibis  was  almost  all  that  farmers  knew 
about  the  matter,  but  it  was  sufficient  to  indicate 
beyond  doubt  that  the  dealers  bad  some  method  of 
handling  cases  in  some  instances  if  not  in  all.  The 
is  not  in  evidence,  after  the  farmer  had  requested 
the  bank  not  to  disclose  this  information.  When 
making  complaint  about  the  second  car,  the  deal¬ 
er  wrote,  “We  are  still  having  trouble  with  farmers 
buying  direct  through  - ,  a  farmer  whom  we 
are  unable  to  do  anything  with,"  etc.  This  letter  is 
signed  by  the  dealer  mentioned.  The  State  feed 
officials  got  busy  and  took  up  the  matter  with  the 
manufacturer  who  sold  the  car  to  the  farmer,  but  in 
this  case  they  got  but  little  encouragement.  This 
concern  and  one  other  were  the  only  ones  that  I 
came  across  that  the  State  association  could  not 
intimidate.  All  the  others  seemed  to  give  in  at 
once,  and  promised  to  be  good  to  the  Feed  Dealers’ 
A  Concrete  Dairy  House  on  an  Illinois  Farm.  Fig.  593.  See  next  page 
car  forwarded  to  a  creamery  in  town.  The  order 
was  accepted,  and  after  a  suitable  time  the  draft 
arrived  at  the  local  bank.  The  feed  did  not  ar¬ 
rive,  and  after  some  delay  inquiry  was  made  re¬ 
specting  it.  A  local  dealer  in  town  approached  the 
creamery  manager  and  asked  that  the  car  be  di¬ 
verted  to  him,  although  he  did  not  say  how  he 
learned  of  its  shipment.  It  must  have  been  through 
the  hank.  The  jobbers  also  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
divert  the  ear  to  the  dealer.  Doth  requests  were 
declined.  After  a  long  delay  the  car  arrived  and 
was  unloaded  to  farmers  as  the  farmer  who  made 
the  order  arranged.  The  dealer  made  quite  a  fuss 
about  it,  and  the  jobber  stated  that  he  would  not. 
sell  any  more  to  the  farmer,  as  this  sale  had  In- 
Feed  Dealers’  Association  was  considered  as  having 
a  hand  in  the  matter,  but  this  could  not  be  estab¬ 
lished. 
WIDESPREAD  CONTROL.— When  the  Wicks 
commission  went  after  the  feed  dealers  it  got  a 
lot  of  fbe  correspondence  relative  to  such  matters, 
and  I  have  just  been  reading  a  number  of  the  let¬ 
ters  that  were  turned  over  to  the  Attorney  Gen¬ 
eral.  Among  the  rest  was  the  correspondence  rel¬ 
ative  to  these  two  cars.  The  jobber  was  properly 
penitent  after  the  State  Association  got  after  him 
in  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  local  dealer 
referred  to.  II  was  then  that  he  declined  to  have 
more  to  do  with  the  farmer.  Relative  to  the  second 
car  the  dealer  got  the  mime  of  the  shipper,  but  how 
Association.  I  have  noticed  that  the  goods  put  up 
by  the  two  concerns  who  would  not  be  intimidated 
have  been  cut  out  by  local  dealers,  and  are  no 
longer  to  be  had  by  fanners  in  the  local  markets. 
Local  dealers  are  telling  of  dissatisfaction  from  the 
rse  of  these  I  w  o  lines.  Had  this  been  understood 
earlier  it  is  likely  that  their  feeds  would  have  been 
brought  in  by  the  farmers  to  a  considerable  extent, 
as  they  should  have  been.  It  is  wise  to  encourage 
these  concerns  who  stand  their  ground. 
LEGAL  PROCEEDINGS  CALLED  FOIL— Now 
that  these  activities  of  the  dealers'  association  are 
matters  of  public  record,  and  the  evidence  is  in  the 
bands  of  the  Attorney  General,  there  should  be  no 
excuse  for  delay  in  instituting  pm . >dtnvs  against 
