The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-07-16
THE FARMERS WHEAT CORNER.

Some Alliance man whose head pro
jects front and rear like Chlnes'
pagoda has evolved a great schem'
which he thinks is calculated TO Khoch
mortgages sky high, and enable the
farmer who,is now painfully extract
ing scant Giving from forty acres OF
rocky land, by the aid of large and
forceful vocabulary of explosives and
a mule team with .recalcitrating pro-
cliyities. to wear billed" shirt every
day in the week, and eat pie with
silver knife. His scheme is that the
farmers shall corner" their own
wheat. The average agriculturist
regards a "cornerw as an infallible
short cut to a fortune, a veritable 81
Dorado that never slips an eccentric
or blows out the breech pin.
The plan is unfolded in n Circular
of advice issued.through the accred-
tied official channels to all members
of the farmers organizations in the
United States. 1t suggests a combi-
nation of the 6,000,0 600 members Of the
farmers organizations, and has the
relative Importance of an official order
of a strike among trades unions or
labor organizations. The farmers are
instructed to go on a strike for better
prices; to hold back their grain from
the market until prices have been
forced up Ito such a point as the
managers of the corner are
satisfied with. 1t is a great scheme,
but it will not. work. The farmers
will not hang together close enough
to successfully bull the market"
Many of them ale in urgent need Of
money and no official order will keep
them off the market. 1t is no easy
thing for close combination of specu
lators, with abundance of money TO
successfully control so important a
product, and 1.-The attempt to do SO
through the cooperation of 10000
of men, most of whom are urged by
necessity to Jump the game" is but a
feverish dream.
But suppose that ssthe agricultural
organizations of America were so per-
feet that an order from headquarters
was equal to a ukase from the czar;
that the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, cotton and
other crops, couldsbe thus arbitrarily
held back until scarcity Of supply
would force up the market, would tn,
American farmer be benefited2 Only
temporarily at best. BY successful,
and persistently bulling the marke
the American farmer would be bu
fastening his own downfall. He mus
bear in mind that there are million
upon millions of fertile lands in othe
parts of the globe that have
never been touched by tn,
pillow. The cheapness of American
farm products is the magic that keeps
IuIe NdSU ca I)dllSCn VI lOlViiO ooll IL
other countries. Whenever the Amer
lean farmer arbitrarily puts up tn,
price of products he offers u premium
for competition; he forces the develop
ment of the agricultural resources o.
South America, Africa, Australia and
Southern Russia. He gives to agricul
ture in those undeveloped countries al
the benefits of subsidy. He furnishes
the razor to cut his own throat.
The problem for the American far
mer to ponder is; How to reduce the
cost of production; how to sell cheaper
and make more money. The first step
is to cut expenses, to demand the priv,
ilege of buying in the cheapest mar
ket the world affords instead of pay
idg tribute to monopolists. The far
mer would do well to bear in mind
that it is the cheap bread and meat
that feeds the world.