Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1910-01-27
HAVE POWER TO
CONTROL PRICE
SENATOR ncCUmBER TELLS FARMERS
THAT THEY SHOULD ORGANIZE
AND CONTROL PRICES.

Fargo, N. D., Jan. 26.-Before an
audience which practically filled the
auditorium of the opera house, United
States Senator Porter ]. McCumber
this afternoon delivered an address
upon Justification of Organization
Among Farmers" It was delivered as
a portion of the program Of the Tri-
State Grain Growers convention, and
in part the speaker said:
Every industry in the United States
outside of agricultur, has for years
been organized for its protection and
advancement and the agricultural In.
dustry has reached stage in its his
tory as l will show you, that or
ganization is absolutely necessary for
it's future welfare.
"And why should any one be pes
simistic about such organization! l
know we are scattered and have lit
tie social communication with our
neighbors each evening at the close of
work as do the laborers in the city,
and we thereby lose to some extent
that feeling of common interest which
association with others tends to Gre
ate. But this condition IS being grad
ually overcome. The rural delivery
with it's daily mail keeps us in touch
at all times with the outside world,
and the telephone which should be in
every farmers home and would be if
he could afford it, snould give to
every man in the county speaking
acquaintance with every other man
and and make them all close neigh
bors.
"Our numbers are not so great. The
last census in 1900 showed 5,737,372
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 increased
their compensation. I will leave 1t
to the farmers who hire some of them
as to whether they show their inde-
pendence. If 100000 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
5000, 900 farmers, with granaries load
ed with food products sufficient for
their own personal use for years ought
to be ashamed to admit that they
can't hold their products until they
are offered such prices as will pay
them for the honest labor bestowed
upon them.
I'm fact, if the farmer himself would
90 about the matter of organization
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 world can't get
along without three days, while ne
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 I maintain with such an or
,panization the farming communities OF
the country could very easily dictate
the price of their products. 1t is not
the entire quantity of grain or other
products that fixes high or low
price. It is the surplus. A very little
surplus will greatly diminish the value
of the whole and very little short
age will greatly enhance the value OF
the whole. If, therefore, you could
inst ship an amount equal to the
surplus abroad, accepting the worlds
.prices for that small portion as you
now have to accept it for the whole,
so as to reduce the home supply a
little below the home demand, II
would raise, the price of all the bal
ance 25 cents per bushel above the
worlds value, or sum just equal to
the height of the tariff wall. TO elu-
cidate: We raise, say, in one year.
65O,OOO,OOO bushels of wheat and we
need 600, 100000 for home use. Now
the head of your organization arranges
+, sell direct to the foreign trade
SOC, ,OOo. 900 bu,hel: of wheat at the
worlds prices. When you are organ
!xed thoroughly you can easily 90
that, You are reaching toward it now;
first, in the erection of farmers ele-
yators all over the country; second IN
terminal elevator, which I believe
YOU win some day have, and the next
step would be direct communication