Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/778

 THE WORK AND PROBLEMS OF THE CONSUMERS'

LEAGUE.

ANY wide view of the problems of the Consumers' League must early recognize the closely knit character of the industry of a nation in which the consumer and producer appear in many combinations. The problem which this body expects to solve cannot be intelligently worked out by attempting to isolate either one. They must be looked at in their true light and in true perspective, as the two sides of a great machine. If we begin, then, with a product like wheat, examine its development as it passes through various hands until it reaches the con- sumer, we may have a somewhat better notion of the complica- tions of production at the present time, and how it is influenced by the consumer.

The farmer with his goods, horses, and household effects makes his way to a piece of land that has come into his posses- sion by virtue of purchase or by actual occupation under the homestead laws. He begins in the spring to sow his wheat, hav- ing received previously the seed from some great firm in a neigh- boring city that has classified it and graded it in accordance with the demands of purchasers. His plow has been produced by a manufacturing concern thousands of miles away. That concern has bought the iron and steel from a great trust and the wood from some manufacturer. The bolts, nails, and screws come from another producer ; these are gathered together and made into a plow. The harrow, seed-drill, harness, and the thousand and one things which go to make up the equipment of the farmer have been produced by many hands in all parts of the coun- try. He begins his operations by the sowing of the seed, and in course of time, after due cultivation, wheat appears. It ripens, and then the reaper, with his self-binder produced after many years of thought and investigation, makes his way to the field of golden grain. On the following day the thresher comes, and in a few hours the stack of grain is reduced to sacks of wheat.

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