The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1910-01-20
Surplus Is What Effects Prices and the
Regulation of This by the Producers
Will Enable Them to Fix the Price
Of Their Commodities.

~ udo 1OI years
been organized for its protection and
advancement, and the agricultural in
dustry has reached stage in its his
tory where, as l shall show you, like
organization is absolutely necessary
for its future welfare.
And why should any one be pes
simistic about such organization? I
know we are scattered and have little
social communication with our neigh
bors each evening at the close of work
as do the laborers in the city, and we
thereby lose to some extent that feel
Ing of common interest which asso-
citation with others tends to create.
But this condition is being gradually
overcome. The rural delivery with
It's daily mail keeps us in touch at all
times with the outer world, and the
telephone. which should be in every
farmers home and would be if he
could afford it, should give to every
man in the county speaking ac-
quaintance with every other man and
make them all close neighbors.
Our numbers are not SO great.
The last census in 1900 showed s.
1882 owners of farms in the United
States. The same census showed 23,-
152;S36 male laborers. Those .laborers
have organized and thereby shortened
the hours of labor and vastly increas-
ed their compensation. l will leave it
to the farmers who hire some of them
as to whether they have added to their
independence. If 23,O00,000 laborers
with an empty larder were able to
withhold from the market what they
had to sell, their labor, until they
got what they demanded for it, then
certainly 100000 farmers. with gran
aries loaded with food products suf-
ficient for their own personal use for
years ought to be ashamed to admit
that they can't hold their products un-
til they are offered such prices as shall
pay them honest ,"a~>~ for the labor
bestowed upon them.
I'm fact, if the farmer himself
would go about the matter of or
ganization for his benefit and continue
it in an intelligent and determined
way. he would have an easier path to
tread than any other organization on
the face of the earth. Why? Because
he has to sell what the worlds can't
get along without three days, while
he can get along without replenishing
his stock of what he buys from the
world for weeks. months and even
years., If necessary.
Debating Prices
But l maintain that with such an
organization the farming communities
of the country could very easily die
tate the prices Of their products. 1t
is not the entire quantity of grain
or other farm product that fixes high
or low price. 1t is the surplus. A
very little surplus will greatly dimin-
ish the value of the whole and a very
little shortage will greatly enhance
the value Of the whole. If. therefore.
you could just ship an amount equal
to the surplus abroad. accepting the
worlds price for that small portion
as you now have to accept it for the
whole, SO as to reduce the home sup
ply little below the home demand, it
would raise the price of all the bal
ance twenty-five cents per bushel
above the worlds value, or sum just
equal to the height of the tariff wall
To elucidate. We raise say in one
year 65O,0OO.0OO bushels of wheat and
we need COZ. 100000 for home use. Now
ShO hCoN VI S0ut olfsAulAollOh dl
ranges to Sell direct to the foreign
trade 60.000.000 bushels of wheat at
the worlds prices. When you are or
ganized thoroughly you can easily do
that. You are reaching toward 1t
now. first in the erection of farmers
elevators all over the country: second
in a terminal elevator which believe
you will some day have. and the next
step would be direct communication
with the European consumer. That
would leave us 100000 bushels
short of the home demand. Result.
wheat values would go to the skies
we're it not for importations. All the
balance on hand, 59O.00O,0OO bushels,
would rise as high as the top of the
tariff wall. OF course if it should go
higher infportations would flew in and
bring 1t down. Now twenty-five cents
bushel upon $59O.00O,OO0 bushels
would mean an advance of about
$3.50, 100000 to the farmers of the
United States. II we raise SO.OOO, 900
bushels in this state it would mean
$50, 100000 additional wealth to North
Dakota farmers each year OIL their
wheat crop alone.
II believe the time will shortly
come when organized farming. inter.