The
existence of these middle agencies is responsible for a large proportion
of the increased cost of living, which is the most acute domestic
problem of modern industrial communities. They have too much power over
the farmer, and are too expensive a luxury for the consumer. It would
be very unbusinesslike for any country to contemplate the permanence in
national life of a class whose personal interests are always leading
them to fleece both producer and consumer alike. So the first
fundamental idea for reformers to get into their minds is that farmers,
through their own co-operative organizations, must control the entire
business connected with agriculture. There will not be so much
objection to co-operative sale as to co-operative purchase by the
farmers. But one is as necessary as the other. We must bear in mind,
what is too often forgotten, that farmers are manufacturers, and as such
are entitled to buy the raw materials for their industry at wholesale
prices. Every other kind of manufacturer in the world gets trade terms
when he buys. Those who buy--not to consume, but to manufacture and
sell again--get their requirements at wholesale terms in every country
in the world.
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