Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-03-21
HURTS THE FARMER
UBIQUITOUS WORKING OF THE
TARIFF LAW.
Organization Among Agriculturists of
Little Avail While Protected
Trusts Retain Their
Privileges.

TNINilG9Coh 4
The farmers of the central, western
and southwestern states have for the
past two or three years been organic
ing with the object of increasing the
price of their products by fixing the
minimum price for which the produc-
ers shall sell. There are two organ
izations, one the Society of Equity,
and the other known as Farmers
Unions" but both appear to have the
same end in view. AS nearly every
trade and profession is organized for
the purpose of increasing profits or
fees or wages, it would but a
matter of s~elf-defense for the farmers
to do likewise. 1t is not at all certain,
however, that this combination of
farmers can succeed in their object
except in part, for the price OF all
farm products Of which a surplus is
raised more than can be consumed
in the United States, must be export
ed and there sold in competition with
the surplus crops of other countries.
The great law of supply and demand
in fixing the price of the surplus is
certain in a great measure to control
the home price. AS al example, the
price of wheat in Chicago, st. Louis,
Duluth or New York is the same price
as Liverpool, London or the continent
dol urLoo+ yoo,lyo+1 1nrc thn frainhf
and charges from our markets to the
foreign ones The Society of Equity
has already discovered this, for the
price of one dollar a bushel for wheat
az Chicago, which it's officials declared
last fall was to be the minimum price
for which the members should sell,
has eve reached that figure and is
now but 70 cents. The reason for this
low price of wheat is a very simple
one. There is a large surplus here,
the crop of 1906 being a bumper one,
which is trying to find a market in such
countries as Great Britain, and the
surplus from India, Argentina and
elsewhere is seeking the same mar
kets and very naturally the English
buyers or other buyers fix the price
they will pay.
If all u wheat farmers were mem
bers of the Society of Equity and re-
fused to market their wheat until the
price was one dollar a bushel, 1t might
and probably would compel our con-
sumers to pay that price, but the
wheat growers of the west, with their
present limited storage on the farms
could not retain the wheat. The mo-
ment a bushel of wheat leaves the
farmers hands, although he may not
sell it but only store it in an elevator,
it at once becomes available for the
western mills, or may be shipped to
New York and ever exported. If the
farmers owned all the elevators they
might prevent the wheat stored there
from being shipped, but that would
require enormous capital for the farm
ers to own and build all the elevators.
But eventually the stored wheat would
have to be sold either to the mills
| vi IOI CADOlJ dlu dlLllUu6A IL LuC
wheat was held back in the elevators
the home demand would force up the
price, the surplus must still seek a
foreign market and the price there
would be less than the price in the
United States. But while the farm
ers were holding back their wheat
from market, the mill owners would
be using their influence with the ad-
ministration to allow Canadian wheat
to be imported in bond, made into
flour in bond and the flour exported
without the payment of the duty of
rs cents a bushel. That was actually
done in the spring of 1905 when the
supply of wheat in the western states
ran short in consequences of the short
crop of 1904. There were 205,S 2 bar
rels of -four so exported and the draw
back paid amounted to $188,173. The
tariff law, it Is thus evident, is ad-
tariff friends for the benefit of the
wheat manufacturer, and the farmer
is left in the lurch when the pinch
comes. Yet if that Canadian wheat
had not been imported in bond, it is
not likely that the price of wheat and
-four would have been much If any
increased, for there was enough wheat
and flour to supply the home demand
and the average price as reported by
the agricultural department was 92.4
cents a bushel, the highest since 1888.
For it is a law of trade that when the
price of even necessities goes beyond
the ability Of the consumer to pay
consumption decreases and thus keeps
the price within a reasonable limit
When 1t comes to making consum
ers pay the price fixed by the Society
Of Equity on other farm products
such as corn, oats and cotton, similar
obstacles will prevail, for we always
have a surplus Of those products tt
sell and the price is fixed by the law
of supply and demand in the countries
to which the surplus Is exported
There is, perhaps, an exception witt
regard to cotton, for it is possible fol
cotton growers to hold back theil
crop, or part of 1t, from the marke'
!,
: A New Doctrine.