The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-02-11
WANT FARMERS TRUST

I / =
A Decatur County Farmer and Stock
4 Raiser Advocates the Forming
of farmers Trust.
EDITOR REPoRTER:-H Having desire
\ to make known a few common sense
ideas to my brother farmers and pro
ducers oil raw material, / also wish to
make the bonded stat enlent that nave
\ lived in this world all my natural life
so far, and Ilnever was i'll a place that
Isuited me as we'll, and where there was
as much stuff raised. have been in
places where they didn't raise anything
but parasols and trouble. 1t is rather
doubtful as to my getting the grammar
and punctuation marks in the right
form, for after had studied the above
mentioned things for some time made
up my mind there was more satisfaction
in having stomach we'll filled with
Yorkshire sausage and buckwlieat cakes
than there was in having Il head full of
grammar and punctuation marks. These
things are all right in their place, but
need them. But he does want to fill his
his stomach, and help to solve the
problem as to how is the BEST way to
obtain one hundred cents on the dollar
for his farm products, and protectour-
selves from the various trusts and COM
|bines that are holding us up today,like
the highwaymen, and taking our, pro-
ducts from us for less than it cost to
produce them. This is getting to be a
serious problem with the producing
world. Ii you were to go out in the
country and tell the farmers and feed
ers they were a set of fools no doubt
you would be hunting soft place to
light, just what the farmers and feeders
are looking for to-day. We have been
fgoing ahead studying the agriculture
and livestock production, forgetting to
fix place to light. When our products
would be ready to go on the market
that we might realize one hundred
cents on the dollar instead of fifty cents
as the case is to-day on some of the pro-
ducts of the farm. While we were
working and toiling in the long hot
summer days, trying to make dollar,
the packers and spectators were of at
some cool summer resort, fixing the
place for us to light, and we have lit in
the hole with no string to pull our
selves out with.
For example on the first day OF Sep
tember commenced to feed bunch of
fine thrifty shoats. On November 30, L
marketed these shoats, having kept
account of the corn consumed by the
! hogs during the three months feeding.
was loser by $17OO, the corn being
worth more than the hogs brought, to
say nothing about the cost, of pigs from
birth to September 1st. The packers
commence to take off the price about
this time of year, and take it off as fast
as the feeder puts on the gain. / saw
a car load of nice bacon hogs sell the
other day for $3.55 per cwt. At the
same time one of our local merchants
tells me that he is paying III cents per
pound for fancy breakfast bacon. The
|average feeder is not satisfied with
giving the packer SO of the whole
thing, but he turns around and pays the
packer from 1 to 4 cents pound for
digested tankage, made from the filth of
the packing house that should go down
the sewer instead OF spelling the sweet
odor of the flower gardens mile away
from where it is kept in the feed lot.
If the farmer will feed pure sweet food
to his hogs, giving them sand, salt and
~ohSo LII CHudl PdICS, anu give UueW
ideal conditions such as all food circu-
lars advocate when you are feeding
their stock food, you will have just as
good stock, have less grief and make
more money.
There is no use telling what the
I trouble is with us, for every producer
in the United States knows what is the
) matter with US. We are .on the wrong
: side of the fence. When we have some
: thing to sell we ask, "what will you
give" when we want to buy we ask,
"what will you take" Knowing what
the trouble is the next thing to do is to
find the remedy whereby we can get the
one hundred cents on the dollar for our
farm products. This can be done by
forming a farmers commission firm at
the leading markets of the United
States and let every producer of grain
and live stock consign his products to
this one firm. Then they would have
the power to set the price and sell
direct to the packer and consumer and
cut out the speculator. Cut out all
middle men. This can be done by
, organizing in each township, taking the
plan of the political parties as a founda-
tion. Let the farmers of each town
ship call meeting, select delegates
for county convention, this conven-
tion select a delegate from each county
in the state, and each state do likewise.
Hold a national convention, organize
and select body of men for each
market of the United States and for the
different kinds of products on each
market. Put all men on salary
instead of a commission. Right here
some one will say that they will cost
too much, but remember, that you are
paying three times as many men a
salary today for selling your stuff as it
: would take to sell it were we organized
in this way. Remember that we start
ed out on this plan to be able to demand
one hundred cents on the dollar for our
products the same as all other trusts
and combines. When you go to the
hackers TODAY and ask tham for n