The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1874-09-24
WHAT THE NATIONAL GRANGE CAN DO
An Important Letter.
Editor Anti -Monopolist

Editor Anti -Monopolist
wish to put in word in favor of the
plan fo- united az ton on the part of the
wheat growers of the Northwest, of
which you give an outline in your edi-
torial of last week under the above cap.
ton.
1t seems to me not only Of the high
est Importance but entirely practical
BILE, to organize the wheat-growing in
terests of the country, SO that fair
price may De always obtained
for our marketable product,
and that the National Grange should
take immediate action in the matter.
If the principal requisites to success
are, as you state. honesty on the part
of officials and intelligence on the part
of the Grangers,' | think the trial
should be made, and the matter thus
brought to the test of actual expert
ence. 1t would be an enterprise of vast
magnitude, 1t is true, but the people Of
this country have often demo nstrated
that vast enterprises are not necessari-
ly chimerical.
The leading disability under which
the wheat grower rests is, that he has
nothing whatever to say in fixing the
price Of his marketable product-this
business is generously done for him by
others. No matter what his goods
cost him; no matter that the ruling
price is insufficient to pay the
cost of production, or that
such price dooms him and
his family to perpetual poverty, and
the countless train of evils following
that condition, he must act the part of
the lamb before his shearer. and open
not his mouth. He must be a silent
party to the bargain on which his liv-
ing depends. The buyer says, 81 can
pay you - cents to-day" and this
formula is repeated every market day
of the year, and it buys the wheat.
This one-sided and vrong sided way of
doing business cannot enure to the ben.
EFT of but one party, and that party is
not the farmer.
What is the remedya The farmer
must have voice in fixing the price of
his wheat, and in order that his voice
may have weight, the class to which he
belongs must be so organized that the
single seller S voice must be the voice
of all. A single load of wheat, or sim
gle crop. however large, has no COM
mercial power, it speaks no language
that the world will heed or listen to
for moment, but there would be
commercial power in the aggregate
salable product Of the Northwestern
States that would startle the world,
and command instant and respectful at
tention.
As l understand it, your plan pro-
poses that the National Grange shall
establish price board, or board of
agriculture, whose business it shall be
to collect all the information possible in
regard to the worlds supply. The
worlds demand is nearly constant
quantity, then fix price with view
both to supply and the cost Of produc-
ton. this price to be the standard by
which the farmers sales are to be
made. In other words, we corner our
own wheat and thus prevent a deprcs.
sion Of prices by outside manipulatiens.
Obviously, it is the great mass of
wheat marketed at low rates, which de-
presses the market, and prevents
rise.
But" says the objector, 'the grow.
ers cannot control the price, because
they are so numerous, the supply is so
large, and after all the law of supply
and demand must control the price"
The answer is that consumption has al
ways kept pace with production, there
has rarely or never been surplus that
has not been absorb bed within two years
at the longest, and nearly always the
growers have done their utmost to pre-
vent rise, by the early and copious
supply poured upon the market. The
long line of crowded warehouses which
every year intervenes between the pro-
ducer and consumer, shows that our