The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-04-06
THE FARMERS, STRIKE.

Two or three years ago to propose strike by farmers to stop declining prices of any farm products, the person would have been held up to rdicule by almost the entire nation. As recent as two or three years ago it was universally con- eeded that farmers had no power in shap- ing prices of their own products and few people believed such power would ever
 be in their hands.
 But in this short time a revolution has been worked in the minds of the farmers well as in their method of marketing. Today there are nearly million organ ized farmers in various farmers organl- zatlons, which have adopted the plan of the American Society of Equity to com pei profitable prices. These farmers have been educated along lines as farmers never were before and more than this.
 they have felt their power and tasted of the sweet fruits of victory. Witness the victories gained by the wheat growers in the past, the better maintained prices
 on all other grains, notwithstanding very large crops; the victory of the cot ton growers. tobacco growers; grape growers, etc. These organized farmers,
 and we will say millions more, have learned of the new doctrine. new as it Is applied to agriculture, of Controlled
 Marketing, and, to a great or small ex- tent, have begun to practice it in their
 business Every farm crop has felt the uplift in price because of the new prac- tice. TO what extent we of course do not know, but it is safe to assume that
 without the change that has come over
 marketing of farm crops prices would
 now be down to the old levels because l of the largest crops the country ever grew
 l It was always so in the past. Buyers and spectators have tried as strenuously as ever to make new records and would have succeeded had not the farmers sup
 piled the sustaining elements by keeping
 the "visible" small.
 | Recently this society has been giving its | chief attention to some special crops and 1 it has not given the usual attention to the grain crops. Also, farmers have not been wise in marketing and they have caused quite large visible" to accumu- | late of some important crops. This is un- | fortunate, as in proportion to the visible | supply the temporary surplus) will be
 the price The larger the visible the low l CT the price and the smaller it is the higher can prices be maintained. If farm
 CTS want to get fair prices and maintain
 them uniformly there is only one thing
 for them to do. They must keep the visi-
 ble Temporary surplus) of every crop | low-control marketing so the supply only equals the demand
 | This declaration is sound. It makes no
 difference whether the crop is grain cat | tie, hogs cotton, tobacco, potatoes. apples
 strawberries, eggs, yranberries, or any I other crop Also th- law applies equally
 to all other commodities outside of farm
 crops. If the Standard oil company
 did not control the price, but the people
 or corporation who accumulated a large
 "visible supply of oil would help con 1 trol the price. And If the Standard oil l company's pipes continued to run large l streams into other peoples tanks, and
 increases the visible supply we defy that
 company to control the price as they do l now.