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Show SOME ASPECTS Of THE EARMERSPROBIEI (Continued from last week's lisat) IV Now, what Is the farmer asking' Without trying to catalogue thu rt medial measures that have been so; gested In his behalf, the principal pn. posals that bear directly on the It provement of his distributing and mi:, ketlng relations may be summarized follows : First: storage warehouses for co: ton, wool, and tobacco, and elevator for grain, of sufficient capacity to mce: the maximum demand on them at tfct peak of the marketing period. Tt; farmer thinks that either private cap' tal must furnish these facilities, or M state must erect and own the electors elec-tors and warehouses, i Second: weighing and grading of agricultural products, and certificate thereof, to be done by Impartial ani disinterested public Inspectors (tfiis ti already accomplished to some extern by the 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 product! 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 ol 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 to Integrate the business busi-ness of agriculture by means of consolidated con-solidated selling agencies, co-ordinating and co-operatinj in such way as to put the farmer on an equal footing with the large 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-mllllns and other m.nr.h,n of food products. In my opinion, however, he would be wise to stop short of that. Public Interest mnv be opposed to all great integrations ; 'but, In justice, should they be forbidden to the farmer and permitted to othersl The corporate form of association cannot can-not now be wholly adapted to hU 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 run- ning afoul of the law. To urge that the farmers should have the same lib-' erty to consolidate and co-ordinate their peculiar economic functions, which other industries in their fields enjoy, Is 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 bv no methods at all, but they are surrounded bv a business world that has been modernized to the Inst minute and Is tirelessly striving for eflMoncv. This elcncy Is due In large measure to big business, to united business to integrated in-tegrated business. The farmers now seek the benefits f such larKeneSS, union un-ion and Integration. The American farmer Is a modern of the n'oderns In (h use of labor saving a,chlnery. nll1 " nuule vast s Ides In recent years l selcntlnc t I nge and efllelen, fa,-,,, ,m,a,emen,, buMne.Ses nglreul.ure Is "one horse sla In competition with power autoniob es Tim . , ' 1 lu' Anierlcnn farmer Is menial mechanism mu, ,ls Invl., , m, ed ,? ",,Vf nrtl"" ". -o,,rd. nnted themselves l, tho wnj. frm Z IT' Trl"ls ' ro," '". upS th" n on in much thft one man fashion of the back- .lS f ,,h0 nm l,n'- "f tho nlne-twnth nlne-twnth century, when the farmer U self sufficient and did not depend tipnn, or care very much, what the great world was doing. The result Is that the agricultural group Is almost as much at a disadvantage In dealing with other economic groups as the jay farmer farm-er of the funny pages in the hands of sleek urban confidence men. who sell him acreage In Central Park or the Chicago city hall. The leaders of the farmers thoroughly understand this, and they are Intelligently striving to Integrate their Industry so that it will be on an equal footing with other businesses. busi-nesses. As an example of Integration, take the steel Industry, in which the model Is the United States Steel Corporation, with Its Iron mines, Its coal mines, Its lake and rail transportation, Us ocean vessels, Its by-product coke ovens, its blast furnaces, Its open hearth and Bessemer furnaces, Its rolling mills, its tube mills and other manufacturing processes that are carried to the highest high-est degree of finished production com patlble with the large trade It has built up. All this is generally conceded conced-ed to be to the advantage of the consumer. con-sumer. Nor does the steel corporation Inconsiderately dump Its products on the market. On the contrary, it so acts that It Is frequently a stabilizing Influence na is often the case with oth er large organizations. It is master of Its distribution as well as of its production. pro-duction. If prices are not satisfactory the products are held back or production produc-tion Is reduced or suspended. It is not compelled to send a year's work to the market at one time and take whatever It can get under such circumstances. It has one selling policy and lis own export department. Neither are the grades and qualities of steel determined determin-ed at the caprice of the buyer, nor does the latter hold the scales. In this single sin-gle Integration of the steel corporation 13 represented about 40 per cent of the steel production of America. The rest Is mostly In the hands of a few large companies. In ordinary times the steel corporation, by example, stabilizes all steel prices. If this Is permissible (It Is even desirable, because stable and fair prices are essential to solid and continued prosperity) why would U be wrong for the farmers to utilize central agencies that would have similar simi-lar .effects on agricultural products? Something like that Is what they are aiming at. N Some farmers favored by regional compactness and contiguity, such as the citrus-frult-ralsers of California, already al-ready have found a way legally to merge and sell their products integrally inte-grally and in accordance with seasonal and local demand, thus improving their position and rendering the con-aumer con-aumer a reliable service of ensured quality, certain supply, and reasonable and relatively steady prices. They have not found It necessary to resort to any special privilege, or to claim any exemption under the anti-trust legislation of the state or nation. Without With-out removing local control, they have built up a very efficient marketing agency. The grain, cotton, and tobacco to-bacco farmers, and the producers of hides and wool, because of their num-brs num-brs and the vastness of their regions, and for other reasons, have found Integration a more difficult task; though there are now some thousands of farmer's co-operative elevators, warehouses, creameries, and other enterprises en-terprises of one sort and another, with a turn-over of a billion dollers a year. They are giving the farmers business xperlence and training, and, so far M they go, they meet the need of honest weighing and fair grading; but they do not meet the requirements of rationally adjusted marketing In any large and fundamental way. The next step, which will be a pattern pat-tern for other groups, Is now being prepared by the grain-raisers through the establishment of sales media which shall handle grain separately or col lartlvely, as the Indlvldunl former may elect. It Is this step the plan of the Committee of Seventeen which has created so much opposition and Is thought by some to be in conflict with the anti-trust laws. Though there Is now before congress a measure designed de-signed to clear up doubt on this point, the grain-producers are not relying on any Immunity from anti-trust legislation. legisla-tion. They desire, and they are en titled, to co-ordinate their efforts Just aa effectively as the large business Interests In-terests of the country have done. In connection with the selling organizations organiza-tions the United States Grain Growers Incorporated Is drafting a scheme of financing Instrumentalities and auxlll ary agencies which are Indispensable to the successful utilization of modern business methods. It Is essential that the farmers should proceed gradually with these plans, and aim to avoid the error of strapping the existing marketing ma rhlnery, which has been so laboriously built up by long experience, before they have a tried and proved substitute substi-tute or supplementary mechanism. They must be careful not to become enmeshed In their own reforms and lose the perspective of their place In the national system. They must guard against fanatical devotion to new doctrines, doc-trines, and should seek articulation with the general economic system rather than Its reckless destruction as It relates to them. V To take a tolerant and sympathetic view of the farmers' strivings for better bet-ter things Is not to give a blanket endorsement to any specific plan, and still less to applaud the vagaries of i some of their leaders and groups Neither should we, on the other hand, allow the froth of bitter imitation, false economics, and mistaken radical Ism to conceal the facts of the farmers' farm-ers' disadvantages, and the practicability practicabil-ity of eliminating them by well-con aldered measures. It may be that I he j farmers will not show the business sagacity and develop the wise leader-ihlp leader-ihlp to carry through sound plans; but I that possibility does oat Justify the obstruction of their upward effort We, as city people, see In high and speculatively manipulated prices, ' spoilage, waste, scarcity, the results of defective distribution of farm products. prod-ucts. Should It not occur to us that we have a common interest with the farmer In his attempts to attain a degree de-gree of eiticiencj in dil-tribution corresponding cor-responding to his efficiency In production? produc-tion? Do not the recent fluctuations In the Hay wheat option, apparently unrelated to normal interaction of supply and demand, offer a timely proof of the need of some such stabilizing stabil-izing agency as the gmin growers have In contemplation? It Is contended that, If their proposed pro-posed organizations be perfected and operated, the farmers will have in their hands an Instrument that will be capable of dangerous abuse. We are told that it will be possible to pervert It to arbitrary and oppressive price-fixing price-fixing from its legitimate use of ordering order-ing and stabilizing the flow of farm products to the market, to the mutual benefit of producer and consumer. I have no apprehensions on this point. In the first place, a loose organization, organiza-tion, such as any union of farmers must be at best, cannot be so arbi trarily and promptly controlled as a great corporation. The one is a lumbering lum-bering democracy and the other an agile autocracy. In the second place, with all possible power of organization, the farmers cannot succeed to any great extent, or for any considerable length of time, In fixing prices. The great law of supply and demand works in various and surprising ways, to the undoing of the best laid plans that attempt to foil It. In-the third place, their power will avail the farmers nothing if it be abused. In our time and country power is of value to its possessor only so long as it is not abused. It Is fair to say that I have seen no signs In responsible quarters of a disposition to dictate prices. There seems, on the contrary, to be a commonly beneficial purpose to realize a stability that will givo an orderly and abundant flow of farm products to the consumer and ensure reasonable and dependable returns to the producer. pro-ducer. In view of the supreme importance to the national well-being of a prosperous pros-perous and contented agricultural population, pop-ulation, we should be prepared to go a long way in assisting the farmers to get an equitable share of the wealth they produce, through the inauguration inaugura-tion of reforms that will procure a continuous and Increasing stream of farm products. They are far from getting get-ting a fair share now. Considering his capital and the long hours of labor put in by the average farmer and his family, he Is remunerated less than any other occupational class, with the possible exceptirn of teachers, religious reli-gious and lay. Though we know that the present general distress of the farmers Is exceptional and is linked with the inevitable economic readjustment readjust-ment following the war. It must be remembered that, although representing represent-ing one-third of the industrial product and half the total population of the nation, the rural communities ordinarily ordi-narily enjoy but a fifth to a quarter of the net annual national gain. Notwithstanding Notwith-standing the taste of prosperity that the farmers had during the war, there is today a lower standard of living among the cotton farmers of the South than in any other pursuit in the country. In conclusion, it seems to me that the farmers are chiefly striving for a generally gen-erally beneficial integration of their business, of the same kind and character charac-ter that other business enjoys. If It should be found on examination that the attainment of this end requires methods different from those which other activities have followed for the same purpose should. we not sympathetically sympa-thetically consider the plea for the right to co-operate, if only from our own enlightened self interest, in obtaining ob-taining an abundant and steady flow of farm products? In examining the agricultural situa tlon with a view to Its improvement, we shall be most helpful if we maintain main-tain a detached and Judicial viewpoint, remembering that existing wrongs may he chiefly an accident of unsymmetrl-cal unsymmetrl-cal economic growth Instead of a creation crea-tion of malevolent design and conspiracy. conspira-cy. We Americans are prone, as Professor Pro-fessor IJavid Friday well says in his admirable book, "Profits, Wages and Prices," to seek a "criminal intent behind be-hind every difficult and undesirable economic eco-nomic situation." I can positively assert as-sert from my contact with men of large affairs. Including bankers, that, as a whole, they are endeavoring to fulfill as they see them the obligations that go with their power. Preoccupied with the grave problems and heavy tasks of their own Immediate affairs, they have not turned their thoughtful personal attention or their constructive construc-tive abilities to the deficiencies of agricultural agri-cultural business organization. Agriculture, Agri-culture, It may be said, suffers from their preoccupation and neglect rather than from any purposeful exploitation by them. They ought now to begin to respond to the farmers' difficulties, whu.li they must realize are their own. On the other hand, my contacts with the farmers have filled me with respect for them for their sanity, their patience, pa-tience, their balance. Within the last year, and particularly at a meeting called by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture and at another called by the Committee of Seventeen, I have met many of the leaders of the new farm movement, and I testify in all sincerity that they are endeavoring to deal with their problems, not as promoters pro-moters of a narrow class Interest, not as exploiters of the hapless consumer, not as merciless rilonopollsts, but as honest ment bent on the Improvement of the common weal. We can and must meet auch mea and such a cause half way. Their business Is our buslne the nation's business. |