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Show 1 Continued from last weet) . lng to take the unfavorable chance, If the favorable one aiso Is 'theirs and they can main fur themselves u part of the service charges that are uniform, uni-form, In good years and bad, . with Lijch prices and low. While, in the main, the farmer must sell, regardless of market conditions, at the time of the maturity of eruos, he cannot suspend pruduction in. toto. He must go on producing if he is to go on living, and If the world Is to exist. The most he can do is to curtail production pro-duction a little or alter its form, and that because he Is in the dark as to the probable demand for his goods may be only to jump from the frying pan Into the fire, taking the consumer with him. Even the dairy farmers, whose output out-put Ls not seasonal, complain that they find themselves at a disadvantage in the marketing of their productions, especially raw milk, because of the high costs of distribution, which they must ultimately bear. Ill Now that the farmers are stirring, thinking, and uniting as never before to eradicate these Inequalities, they are subjected to stern economic lectures, lec-tures, and are met with the accusation that they are demanding, and are the recipients of, special privileges. Let us see what privileges the government has conferred on the farmers. Much has been made of Section 6 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, which purported pur-ported to permit them to combine with Immunity, under certain conditions. Admitting that, nominally, this exemption ex-emption was In the nature of a special privilege, though I thlnjs It was so In appearance rather than In fact. we find that the. courts have nullified It by Judicial Interpretation. Why should' not the farmers be permitted to accomplish ac-complish by co-operative methods what 'other businesses are already doing by co-operatlou In the form of Incorporation? Incorpora-tion? If It be proper for men to form, by fusion of existing corporations or otherwise, a corporation that controls the entire production of a commodity, or a large part of It, why Is It not proper for a group of farmers to unite for the marketing, of .their common products, either In one or In several selling agencies? Why should It be right for a hundred thousand corporate shareholders to direct 25 or 30 or 40 per cent of an Industry, and wrong for a hundred thousand co-operative farmers to control a no larger proportion propor-tion of the wheat crop, or cotton, or any other product ? ' The Department of Agriculture ls often spoken of as a special concession to the farmers, but in its commercial' results, It is of as much benefit to the buyers and consumers of agricultural products as to. the producers, or even more. I do not suppose that anyone opposes the benefits that the. farmers derive from the educational and research re-search work of the department, or the help that it gives them In working out Improved cultural methods and practices, prac-tices, In developing better yielding va-. rletles through breeding and selection, in introducing" new varieties from, remote re-mote parts of the world .and adapting them to our climate and economic condition, con-dition, and In devising practical measures meas-ures for the elimination or control of dangerous and destructive animal and plant diseases, Insect pests, and the like. All these things manifestly tend to stimulate and enlarge production, and their general beneficial effects are obvious. It ls complained that, whereas , the law restricts Federal Reserve banks to three months' time for commercial paper, the farmer ls allowed six months on his notes. This ls not a special privilege, but merely such a recognition of business conditions as make's it possible for country ba-nks to do business with country people. The crop farmer has only one turnover turn-over a year, while the merchant and manufacturer have many. Incidentally, Incidental-ly, I note that the Federal Reserve Board has Just authorized the Federal Fed-eral Reserve banks to.discount export, paper for & period of six months, to conform to the nature of the. business. busi-ness. The Farm Loan banks are pointed to as an Instance of special government govern-ment favor for farmers. Are they not rather the outcome of laudable efforts to equalize rural and urban conditions? condi-tions? And about all the government does there ls to help set up an administrative ad-ministrative organization and lend a little credit at the start. Eventually the farmers will provide all the capital capi-tal and carry all the liabilities themselves. them-selves. It is true that Farm Loan bonds are tax exempt; but so are bonds of municipal light and traction plants, arid new housing ls to be exempt ex-empt ffom taxation, In New York, for ten years. On the other hand, the farmer reads of plans for municipal housing projects proj-ects that run into the billions, of hundreds hun-dreds of millions annually spent on the merchant marine; he reads that the railways are being favored with Increased rates and virtual guaranties of earnings by the government, with the result to him of an 'ncreased toll on all that he sells and all that he buys. He hears of many manifestations manifesta-tions of governmental1 concern fur par ticular Industries and interests. Rescuing Res-cuing the railways from insolvency ls undoubtedly for the 'benefit of the country as a whole, but what can be of mont general benefit than encouragement encour-agement of ample production of the principal necessaries of life and their even flow from contented producers to satisfied consumers? While It may be conceded thai special governmental aid may be necessary nec-essary In the general Interest, we must all agree that It ls difficult to see why agriculture and the production and dis trlbutlon of farm products are n't accorded ac-corded the same opportunities that are provided for other businesses ; especially espe-cially as the enjoyment by the farmer of such opportunities would appear to At even (nr contributor to tl gua- - i-y-i than in the case of other i::'Ui-Hrles. The v'lrir of American deiiio'.'racy is unalterably opposed, alike to enacted special privilege and to the special privilege of unequal opportunity op-portunity that arises automatically from the failure to correct glaring economic inequalities. I am opposed to the injection of government into business, but I do believe that it is an 'essential function "of democratic government gov-ernment to equalise opportunity so fur as it ls within its power to do so, whether by the repeal of archaic statutes or the enactment of modern ones. If the anti-trust laws keep the farmers from endeavoring scientifically to -integrate their industry while other lndusrries rind a way to meet modern conditions without violating such statutes, stat-utes, then it would seem reasonable to find a way for the farmers to meet them under the same conditions. The law shuuld operate equally In fact. Repairing Re-pairing the economic structure on one side is no injustice to the other side, which is In good repair. We have traveled a long way from the old conception of . government as merely a defenslve.and policing agency ; and regulative, corrective, or equalizing equaliz-ing legislation, which apparently Is ol a special nature, Is often of the most general beneficial consequences. Even the First Congress passed a tariff act that was avowedly for the protection of manufacturers; but a protective tariff always has been defended as a means of 'promoting the general, good through a particular approach; and the statute books are tilled with acts for the benefit of snipping, commerce, and labor. ' IV Now, what Is the farmer asking? Without trying to catalogue the remedial re-medial measures that have been suggested sug-gested In his behalf, the principal 'proposals 'pro-posals that bear directly on the Improvement Im-provement of his distributing and marketing mar-keting relations may be summarized as follows : First: storage warehouses for cotton, cot-ton, wool, and tobacco, and elevators for grain, of sufficient capacity to meet the maximum demand on them at the peak of the marketing period. 'The farmer thinks that either private capital capi-tal must furnish these facilities, or the state must erect and own the elevators eleva-tors and warehouses. Second :' weighing and grading of agricultural products,' and certification thereof, to be done by impartial and disinterested public Inspectors (this ls already accomplished to some extent by - tlva. federal licensing of weighers and graders), to eliminate underpaying, underpay-ing, overcharging, and unfair grading, and to facilitate the utilization of the stored products as the basis of credit. Third : a certainty of credit sufficient to enable the marketing of products In an orderly manner. Fourth : the Department of Agriculture Agricul-ture should collect, tabulate, summarize, summa-rize, and regularly and frequently publish pub-lish and distribute to the farmers, full information from all the markets of the world, so that they shall be as well informed of their selling position as buyers now are of their buying position. posi-tion. .... Fifth ; freedom fo Integrate the business busi-ness of agriculture by means of consolidated con-solidated selling agencies, co-ordinating and cooperating In such, way as to put the farmer on an . equal footing with, the Jarge buyers of his products, -and. with commercial relations In other Industries. When a business requires specialized talent, it has to buy It. So will the farmers ; and perhaps the best way for them to get it would be to utilize some of the present machinery of the largest larg-est established agencies dealing In farm products. Of course, if he wishes, the farmer may go further and engage In flour-milling and other manufactures of food products, In my opinion, however, he would be wise to stop short of tnat. Public Interest may be opposed to all great integrations; but, In Justice, should they be forbidden to the farmer and permitted to others? The corporate form of association cannot can-not now be wholly adapted to his objects ob-jects and conditions. The looser cooperative co-operative form seems more generally suitable. Therefore, he wishes to be free, If he finds It desirable and feasible, feas-ible, to resort to co-operation with his fellows and neighbors, without running run-ning afoul of the law. To urge that the farmers should have the same liberty lib-erty to consolidate and co-ordinate their peculiar economic functions, which other, industries in their fields e.ijoy, ls not, however, to concede that any business Integration should have legislative sanction to exercise monopolistic monop-olistic power. The American people are as firmly opposed "to Industrial as to political autocracy, whether attempted at-tempted by rural or by urban Industry. For lack of united effort the farmers as a whole are still marketing their crops by antiquated methods, or by no methods at all, but they are surrounded by a business world that has been modernized to the last minute ai d ls tirelessly striving for efficiency. This efficiency ls due In large measure to big business, to united business, to Integrated In-tegrated business. The farmers now seek the benefits of such largeness, union un-ion and Integration. The American farmer ls a modern of the moderns in the use of labor saving machinery, and he has made vast strides In recent years In scientific tillage and efficient farm management, but as a business In contact .with other businesses aglrculture ls a "one horse shay" in competition with high power automobiles. The American farmer is the greatest and most intractable of Individualists. While Industrial production pro-duction and all phases of the huge commercial com-mercial mechanism and Its myriad accessories ac-cessories have articulated and co-ordinated themselves all the way from natural nat-ural raw materials to retail sales, the business of agriculture has gone on in much the one man fashion of the back-woods back-woods of the first part of the nine-, teeath eentury, when the farmer wm |