Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-12-04
Farmers Fix Prices.


The Society of Equity at It's late
annual convention decided on the fol-
lowing minimum price scale for agri-
cultural products:
wheat, ST. corn, 45 cents, until
Jan. /, so cents from Jan. 1 to April /,
and 55 cents from April l until the
next meeting of the society; oats, ~
cents; cotton, u cents, based at New
York; hogs, $3.50; cattle, Sc; hay, $14
With the exception of cotton, all prices
are based on delivery at Chicago"
Those minimum prices are very rea-
sonable in comparison with the price
the trusts are charging for their prod
ucts, but the trusts are protected by
the tariff in fixing the price of their
products, whereas the farmers have
comparatively no protection. The tar
iff duties provided in the Agricultural
schedule of the Dingley bill cannot add
to the price of those farm products
the farmers have placed their mini
mum price upon, because the price is
fixed in the worlds markets, where the
surplus is sold in competition with
like surplus from other countries.
Take wheat, for instance, upon which
there is tariff duty of 20 cents
bushel. Does that protect the wheat
grower by increasing the price! Inc
market price at Chicago answers the
question, which for months has BEEN
about 70 cents bushel and will, prob
ably, be lower when navigation closes
and the Argentina crop in January be-
gins to compete in the European mar
kets.
No tariff, however high, can over
come the law of supply and demand;
If there is surplus produced that
must be sold in the open markets of
the world, and the Republican polit-
clans, when they fixed the rates in
the Dingley law on wheat, corn and
other cereals, only did so to make a
show of protecting the farmers on
their products so as not to appear one
sided when they fixed the high tariff
duties which protect the trusts IN
charging high prices for their prod
ucts.
The Republican trainers of the tariff
did not pretend to protect cotton, but
placed it on the free list, and cotton
has been higher in proportion than
wheat, which is supposed to be pro-
tected by the duty of % cents bush
ell. The duty of 10 cents a hushel on
corn and oats has not increased the
price of those products, for while the
price of cotton has been advancing the
price of these protected products has
been falling.
Since 1897, the year the present high
trust protective law was passed the
price of all commodities has increased,
on the average. nearly 80 per cent, and
If the protection on farm products was
equally effective, the price of farm
products would have been likewise in
creased. The plan of the farmers COM
posing the Society of Equity to in
crease the price of wheat, corn, etc,
is not to sell until the price at Chi
cago reaches the minimum they have
set. But how can that be done with
wheat, for instance which so many
farmers are compelled to sell to pay
their debts and so many others are
obliged to sell for lack of storage
room. The present low price of wheat
and the determination of the members
of the Society of Equity and of the
Farmers Unions in the Southwestern
States to hold for better prices has
probably induced half the wheat grow
ers of the United States to hold back
their crop. Yet the market price at
Chicago is barely steady at u cents
bushel, which is the world price less
freight and charges.
The remedy the farmers should in
sist upon is tariff ,eform, that would
reduce the price OF all they buy by
taking from the trusts the tariff pro-
lection which has allowed the trusts
to so enormously increase the price of
their products. If the cost of running
the farms was thus decreased the low
price of wheat, corn, oats, etc, would
be equalized and farm labor would not
have to demand such high wages. The
prosperity the farmers have enjoyed
for the past few years has beer in
spite of the trust protecting tariff and
not by virtue of 1t. Good crops in the
United States and poor average crops
abroad have kept up theprice of wheat,
corn and oats and other farm products,
but this year there are fair average
crops the world over and prices are
therefore low. So the farmers have
to sell at the price fixed in the free
trade markets of the world and buy in
the trust protected market here, and
the only organization that will pro-
tect the farmers from this upper and
neither mill stone is to organize polite
ally to reform the tariff which thus
plumbers them.