THE MIDDLEMAN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 503, 10 April 1933, Page 4

THE MIDDLEMAN

"It is a common practice, especially in times of depression, for people to abuse the middleman, and to assert that he robs both the producer and consumer," says Mr. Harold Cox, in the Sunday Times. "How these two are to be brought into touch with one another without the aid of the middleman nobody has yet succeeded in explaining. Bnt the abuse goes on. Few people seem able to realise that most producers are impotent without the aid of the merchant. On the surface view the retailer's charges may sometimes appear excessive when the prices are compared with the wholesale prices of the goods he sells. But the picture looks very different when allowance is made for the charges of his business. He has to provide a shop, often on an expensive site; and he has to keep it plentifully stocked with

a variety of articles, some of which may not be sold for many months. And hetween the producer and the retailer there is large expenditure on transport. . . . Wholesalers as well as retailers are rendering a real service to the community and the profits they receive arise out of willing payments made by ihe general public. Undoubtedly there are possibilities of improvement in our mercha,nting system, as in most other features of our industrial and commerciql life. But to go on repeating "the absurdity that the merchant is a parasite merely does mischief by diverting public attention from solid'facts to popular delusi'ons."