The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-09-25

the disposed of wheat and cotton-raisers
to relieve pressing foreign mortgages, can
their be any doubt about their ability to
limit supply and establish prices? The
association at any time could curtail pro-
duction of the American output To il
lustrate: Should it be found that there
is to be an excess of say $4,000, 900 bu-
shells in any single year, the association
could suspend production at points fur
thest remote from the seaboard, thus saw
ing considerable in transportation
charges alone. The wheat output of Cali
fornia and Oregon we will say is 50,000,-
600 bushels The production of so much
of this as would be exported might be
suspended for year and the loss latter
deducting a reasonable sum for the i'm
proved condition of the land by reason of
such. disuse) could be made good by a
slight tax upon the product of other
states In other words, if the wheat-rais-
ers of the other states were enabled to
sell their 800, 100000 bushels of wheat at
dollar a bushel by reason of this, in
stead of at fifty cents as at present, they
could we'll afford to give back fifteen cents
of that amount to the Oregon and Califor-
mia farmers. # the same danger of over
production occurred again the next year,
select Nebraska as the field for suspen-
sion and so on.
The advantages of the foregoing plan
might be summed up as follows:
First-It requires no legislation of any
kind. All that the wheat and cotton
raisers have to do is simply to organize
at once under the present State and Terri
torial laws governing incorporated COM
panies. Separate corporations for the
same purpose could be formed in each
state, or the head Office of the concern
could be located in one state and the mere
filing of supplementary articles in the
other states would give it the same power
as if organized separately.
Secondly acting in common concert
the producers would not only be able to
limit the output and fix prices, but to
obtain reasonable transportation rates
from railroad companies. Representing
as this association would. more than one
half of the tonnage of the agricultural
States, little difficulty would be expert
enced in securing reasonable rates: To
illustrate: If the Northern Pacific, Union
Pacific and O. R. & N. Companies, operat-
ing in Oregon and Washington, and the
Southern Pacific in California, should re-
fuse to enter into written agreement
before the seeding season to move the
crop of that year at a reasonable figure,
the association could order production
suspended in these sections and increased
along the waterways of the nation, and
thus enrich the land by disuse and bank
rupt the railroads by loss of business
Every railroad in the West would be at
the mercy of this association, since the
loss of the grain tonnage, with the added
loss of freight on agricultural imple-
ments, bags, ETC., and the travel incident
to harvesting, would be a strain that no
bonded railroad could stand.
Third-The elimination of the wheat
product of these States, amounting to So,
100000 bushels, or one-tenth of the ma
tons output and more than One-ffth of
it's eXportable product would have a
marked effect on the value of the re-
mainder and would make the
work of fixing an arbitrary
price comparatively easy. The power to
do this rests solely with the producers.
The question is, shall we fix the price of
our products or continue to let the COM
mercial cormorants of the world do it?
Fourth-If the courts, in interpreting
the antitrust law, should hold this agree
ment to be unlawful as a restraint to
trade, we shall at least have the satisfac-
ton Of knowing that the same decision
y
the United States Cordage Company, the
the American Wire Company, the Ameri-
can Rubber Company, the Ameri-
can Tobacco Company, the American
Railway Managers Association, and
thousand-andone other trusts and COM
binations now fattening upon starving in
dustry. To accomplish this alone is worth
the effort of organization. In order to de-
feat any such step Oh the part of the pro-
ducers to organize, it is more than prob
able that the usual rainbow" reports of
short crops and good prices "anti-
trust decisions by the courts" etc., will
appear in corporation newspapers, sup
plemented by similar statements on the
part of the local banker and the wheat
buyer.
The producers condition in this coun-
try is such that he can lose but little more
All that he has now is practically a re-
demption right, and that, under the pres
ent circumstances, is scarcely worth the
effort that he makes to hold it, Let the
wheat and cOttOn-raiserS of this country
unite under one head and guard one an
others interests as jealously as the cor
porations do, ard in less than five years
they can discharge every dollar of their
oppressive mortgaged Indebtedness and
place this country upon the Independent
plane that it occupied before it passed
under the control of corporate and for
eign interests.
In suggesting plan for combination of
the producers of wheat and cotton into
an association and establishment of an
auxiliary bank mentioned in connection
Herewith, I have kept in mind constant