The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-05-10
BY Peter Power.

BY Peter Power.
If flour is as high next year as
at present, or even higher, give due
credit to Patten and the grain
gamblers for having educated the
wheat growers to an understand
ing of the value" of their prod
uct. The Farmers union, to which
1 have already referred as an or
lganization with several million
members, and growing rapidly, is
as intent on suspending the So
called natural law of supply and
demand as was Patten and his CO.
horts.
"If Patten can monopolize our
product and clean up millions of
dollars, why cannot we, the rails
ers and original owners of wheat?'
is the question the farmers are
asking. And what is the answer?
Organize and withhold wheat from
the market. And that is precisely
what the farm workers are now
preparing to do.
Throughout the west and south
west hundreds of elevators have
been or are being erected under
1.-THE direction of the Farmers
union for the purpose of storing
their grain. Efforts are also be-
ing made to limit the acreage of
wheat to make control more effec-
tive. But the farmers will need
cash to pay interest, taxes, etc.,
you say. Some, but not all.
They claim that they can borrow
all the money required, and by
forcing up prices 25 per cent pay
all expenses and increase their an
nual incomes fully 20 per cent.
Besides they have discovered a
new wrinkle, or rather will borrow
I it from their cotton-growing breth-
rem in the south.
In the south the Farmers
union is becoming almost invulner-
able. The question of restricting
production of cotton is paramount.
President ]. Az Taylor Of the Ma
tional Ginners' association, says in
an address to the cotton growers
that this years crop will bring
them 100000 less than last
year (when the total product
brought $600,000,000), although
Q, 900, 200 bales more will be mar
keted this year than in 1908,
President Taylor urges that al
least 10 per cent less cotton should
be raised the coming year. His
advise is being followed with en-
thusiasm. Meetings by the hun
dreds are being held in small
towns and cross-road school
houses. SPEAKERS are showing that
when the unions instructions were
followed cotton was boosted from
6 cents to 8 cents and even IA
cents pound, and that this year
La loss will be sustained because
the members did not obey the
unions decision.
The new idea that is being put
Into practice by the cotton grow
lers and will be copied by the wheat
raisers emanates from Mississippi.
The members of the Farmers
union of that state decided to set
aside one acre of their crops for
1.-THE maintenance of the general
distress fund, to be used only for
1.-THE purpose of aiding those mem
| ers requiring assistance and en-
liable them to hold their cotton and
beat the gamblers and spectators
Ito the manufacturers. The plan
lis also being adopted In Georgia.
Texas and other states.
Soon you will hear the specula-
tors and gamblers in wheat and
cotton denouncing the "labor mo-
|nopolys that exists on the farms
LOT the west and south. They will
demand the enforcement Of the
sherman antitrust law and the
OF the Farmers union
lon the ground that It is In ''re-
|straint OF trade and violating
1.-THE sacred law Of supply and de-
|mand."
The unions in the trades are in
close utilization, and sympathy with