Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1907-01-10
THE FARMERS COMBINE
Attempt to Raise the Price OF
Wheat.
TIE TARIFF PROTECTED TRUSTS
The Farmers Sell Their Surplus Prod
ucts In Competition With Other
Countrics-The Trusts Are Licensed
to Plumber the Farmers and Other
COnsumera.

COuntrles-The Trusts Are L1censed
to Plumber the Farmers and Other
COnsumers.
One can hardly blame the farmers II
the wheat growing regions for organ
izing Il combine to hold their wheat un'
til the price advances. a dispatch from
Kansas City reports the price of wheat
as so cents bushel and less ut the fn'
terror markets in Kansas. There Is
less in growing wheat ut that price
with all the farmer buys at the pres
cnt high prices. The tariff protected
trusts have advanced the prices OF
nearly everything the farmer buys
over 45 per cent since the present high
tariff law was passed, SO that prospect
IT, for the wheat farmer is myth. al.
though Secretary Wilson, who. being
secretary of agriculture. should know
better. declares the farmers were new.
Ell, SO prosperous. Secretary Shaw IL
making equally preposterous state'
nents and states in the speeches he Is
making ON his partisan stamping tour
that the tariff makes the farmers pros
porous because it protects the home
market from foreign impOrtatiOns. But
facts belle their words, for wheat IL
protected in the tariff by duty OF q
cents Il bushel, but that does not pre-
vent the price from depreciating unit.
the price in Kansas. as noted above. Is
80 cents bushel.
1t is strange that Republican farm
urs swallow such Republican state
ments and vote to continue that party
In power, which protects every trus,
that produces what the farmer must
buy and only pretends to protect the
farm products. The tariff includes du'
ties on wheat. corn. oats, barley, cattle
hogs and other agricultural products
but the price Of those farm products
is settled by the law of supply and de
mand. II there is surplus Of wheat,
and other farm products. it has to be
exported and sold in the worlds mar
kets in competition with the surplus
Of other countries. and that fixes the
doubled, and it would have no effect
OH the price. or it might be abolished
and the price would not be affected
There is no tariff duty OH cotton, that
product being on TIE free list. yet the
price Of cotton is advancing. while the
protected wheat has declined.
No farmers trust or farmers unior
can control the price Of wheat unless
the combination is complete enough te
prevent wheat being sold to the mills
which supply the flour that the Ameri
can people require. If the wheat grow
ers could prevent enough wheat beine
marketed to supply the mills. the mill
ing combine at the great flour milling
centers. such as Minneapolis. would
probably bid up the price enough tt
induce the farmers to sell until the
price was too high to manufacture anC
ship the -four abroad at profit. Wher
that limit was reached, you may bt
sure the mills would be shut dOw1
rather than run them ut loss. Tt
prevent the mills shutting down in the
spring Of 1905. when there was a short
age of wheat, the administration al
lowed Canadian wheat to be imported
in bond without the payment Of the
duty Of % cents a bushel and GROUND
in the mills at Minneapolis Snd eX
ported as -four. That was the Repub
lcan way Of protecting the farmers
when they had very short crop an6
All opportunity Of averaging up the
price with the years like the present
one, when Il large surplus has beer
raised and the price is low.
The fact is that the farmers have
prospered in spite of the tariff, which
has increased the price Of about nj
they buy through the protection the
trusts and combines enjoy. The gOot
or poor crops are not the result Of the
tariff, but good crops are due to the
bounty Of nature when the season is
propitious, and the poor crops wher
nature frOwns and is unfavorable. The
ideal for the farmer Is to be allowed
to buy in the cheapest market withou,
any more tariff restriction than Is nee
essary to produce enough revenue fol
the government honestly and econom
ically administered and to sell in the
dearest market that his produce car
reach. The Republican policy, miscall
ell protection, compels the farmer, and
every one else for that matter, to pay
not only the tariff tax to the govern
ment which averaged on all imports
for last year 59.S4 per cent. but the
still greater tax which the tariff allows
the trusts to collect by increasing theil
prices, which averages on trust prod
ucts a much greater percentage thar
the government collects. Not conten,
with this trust plundering, the tariff
law pretends to provide protection OF
the farmers wheat and other cereals
the price Of which no law can govern
because the surplus crop after our owr
people are supplied must be sold in the
open markets Of the world after pay
ing the railroads and shipping com
bines all they demand.
That is Republican protectionism
which would not stand minute If Re
publican farmers would join theil
Democratic neighbors in electing tariff
reformers to congress.