The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-09
A FOOLISH PROJECT.


 apolis a society of farmers who named their organization "The American Society in Equity" the avowed object of which Is mot to sell wheat for less than one dollar per bushel." It does seem that the ne-sidedness as well as the short-sight- edness of such an organization should be patent to the farmers themselves as well as to all others. Suppose the merchants of Indianapolis, with whom these farmers presumably trade, should resolve that they would not sell sugar. coffee, tea, dry-goods, farming implements, or any other of the many articles which the farmers must have. unless they receive stated price, and that price as high, in proportion as one dollar Is for wheat? That price is 40 or 50 per cent above the present market price in Indianapolis. Sup pose, then. the merchants should form corporation and refuse to sell anything to the farmers unless they can get 50 per cent more than they are now charging would not these same farmers be among the first and most vociferous in their un- favorable criticisms of the unsuitable demands of capital?'
 Of surety they would. and they would have some ground for complaint, but the merchants would be doing just what these farmers are laying a predicate for, and the latter would have no right to com plain. But they would complain, all the same. and would insist that they were being oppressed by the merchants. This is the one-sided face of the movement, but 1t Is shortsighted, because its success is impossible unless all the farmers of the entire country would unite. Do these farmers imagine that they can bind all the wheat-growers of the United States by a compact of this kind?
 Yet that is just what they must do if they are to succeed in their design. If they do not their resolutions and com pacts are worse than useless. If there is a large crop of wheat made during the present year great number of the grow CTS might find 1t profitable to sell at 50 cents, and would do so In that case those who belong to this so-called "So- ciety in Equity" would find no purchas- CTS for their crop and would in all prob- ability have to call on the merchants to advance money to live on. Unless all the wheat-growers can be bound so tightly that none will sell at less than sl per bushel it is plain that some will do so and the society" crowd will be left In the rear for an indefinite period.
 This is another of those ill-advised ef- forts to control prices, and is in the same class with the efforts in our section to control the outp0t of cotton. Time and again have the planters of the South dis cussed the proposition to limit the area of cotton planting but it has always fall ed because all the farmers cannot be bound and those who refuse to be bound will think it good time to plant an ex- tra large crop, each thinking that all the others will plant but little and that con- sequently the price will be high.
 The attempt to fix an ironclad price for an article, without regard to the laws of supply and demand and without regard to the individual needs of each dealer or pro- ducer always fails and always ought to fail. Prices fluctuate as there is or is not surplus of any article and nobody can prevent that nuctuat.on. Besides. a farm CT may at times find 1t quite advanta- geous to sell below what he considers the real value of his produce, if he has special need of money, or sees where he can use 1t to advantage. This new So- ciety will have it's day, like many other cranky projects, and its day will be brief.