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Show CHECK THE SPECULATORS XN addition to the many services which the farmers render the public in general, there is another and a most important one. That is, when men ' representing big commission houses come to them and offer to buy their crops for purposes of speculation, to get the names of the men and the firms ' they represent and send them to Washington, D. C, and allow the government j to take care of them. It is said that representatives of speculators have been all through the South and bought tho crops as they are in the ground. The prices offered have been such as to tempt the producer. That means that we will be held up and made to suffer by paying an exorbitant ex-orbitant price for the crop when it is placed in the retail markets. Such men have been through the country and offered two dollars a bushel for the crop which has hardly been more than planted. Of course the buyer in that case is taking a risk, it is a gamble, so to speak. However, if the crop is a good one the buyer pays two dollars a bushel for what he gets and then sells it and makes a mighty handsome profit judging from the prices asked for potatoes today. At the present time, that is the first part of this week, potatoes were selling at $1.35 a peck, or $5.40 a bushel. It was said that the last part of the week they would be $1.75 a peck or $7 a bushel. Surely that is a pretty high price to have to pay for a staple article of diet as the potato. These speculators are cognizant of the rise in price and thinking only In terms of dollars and cents see their way clear to make a great deal of money through their trading in the necessaries of life. This is one of the things that sends the cost of living to such heights as to make it almost impossible to get money enough to pay for merely the necessities neces-sities of life. These are tho methods that cause disorder, dissatisfaction and discord. It is a matter which should be brought to the attention of the government govern-ment which should bend every effort to stop this speculation in food stuffs. Already Al-ready many things are being charged for at a ridiculous rate solely because of the actions of the speculators who sneak around and buy up supplies, then hold them until there is a shortage and they can ask what price they will and get it. This practice might be considered good business, but in times like the present it should not bo tolerated. Bridgeport Life. |