The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-11-24

THE TIME TO SPEAK OUT,

Solomon once said that there was a
time to speak and there was a time to
refrain from speaking. He never said
wiser thing. We have now come to
the time when the farmers must speak
out on the anti-option bill, and that in
no uncertain tones, and must speak
directly to the only persons who can
make their will in this matter the law
of the land. Congress, fresh from the
people, meets early in December, and
one Of the first questions that will en-
gage the attention of that body is the
anti-option bill, which has now passed
the house and awaits the action of the
senate. 1t is, therefore. matter Of the
utmost importance that the farmers
from one end of the land to the other
should impress the minds of that honor
able body that they wish the decisive
vote of the house, taken last year, at
irmed In an equally emphatic manner
In the senate of the United States. It
is not enough that senators should know
by their intercourse with the people
during the last campaign what their
opinions are on this question. They
should know personally by letters from
farmers themselves, by the action of
alliances, state, county and local, of
farmers Institutes and by petition from
individual farmers in every part of the
United States
Human nature is SO constituted that it
acts only when the necessity Is impera-
tive. This is especially true in matters
legislative. 1t was never the intention
that legislative bodies should enact laws
in accordance with the passing whims
of a section of the people. They wait,
and do well to wait, until the people
have reached matured conviction on
the subject, and expressed their mature
conviction in direct way, so that
there can be no mistake rs to public
sentiment. We have reached that time
now. There is no subject, to which the
farmers have given closer attention. up
on which they have more decided or
mature convictions, than on the subject
Of option dealing. they have seen prices
of farm products in both continents
pressed down to the lowest level, year
after year, solely because men who have
no products for sale, offer them at the
very lowest price at which they can be
procured in good year. To illustrate the
working of this nefarious practice, we
submit the following: Every year there
are thousands OF farm sales held all over
the west, from one to three Or four in
every township each spring and fall.
The main offerings at these sales are
live stock, cows, yearling and 3
year-old steers, hogs, sheep, etc.
These offerings are knocked down to
the highest bidder on certain definite
terms of payment Suppose, now, that
A. tn,
who are known to have no stock to sell
to attend these sales. and when a bunch
of yearhng steers, for example, are put
up and going at $50 . head, to offer TO
furnish steers OF TIE quality of those
sold to the buyers at SO. SIS, SIT, SIS
or SIS per head. Would not the sale
come to sudden end? Would not the
farmer. who had advertised the sale,
arranged with an aUctloneer and secured
crowd, be sufficiently indignant to take
cattle whip and drive these insefiopers
off his farm? If not, and they were al
lowed to attend all the other sales in the
county Or township, knowing that farm
ers must dispose OF their stock, they
would, without owning a steer them
selves, be able to supply buyers with the
cattle they want at these reduced rates,
and with the very cattle with the sale of
which they interfere. This is precisely
the situation.
Farmers are sending their grain, at
much expense, to the great markets, and
spectators are there, owning no wheat
themselves, and each one of them offer
ing fer sale. often, more in dav than
the entire visible supply in that locality.
This Offering likes the price w4ich is
telegraphed all over the country, and be-
comes the basis OF the next days markets.
- that if the seller Is compelled to fHrn-
ish the grain, he can furnish 1t from the
actual grain purchased at the price
which he has fixed IN the market by
sisiply offer the wind grain VIII .ct. has
no existence whatever. II Is tie system.
that the farmers wish 10 brrak W. once
aud forever. They are perfectly salts
fied with the operation Of the law of sup
ply and demand, ard will be satisfied
vita nothing less
This agitation has gone on for years.
II was first ridiculed, treated as a craze