The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-11
OoBURN DEFENDS FARMERS.

Something In the nature Of a con-
vincing answer to the contentious that
the farmers, in the main, are response
BILE for the high cost of living, as 1t
pertains to foodstuffs. comes from the
pen of F. D. Coburn, secretary OF the
Kansas department OF agriculture. 1t
is presented by him through the col-
umns of the Saturday Evening Post, OF
the current issue, In an illuminating
discussion of this important subject
under the title of Does the Farmer
Get His Share?" Mr.. Coburn expresses
the belief that the 'middlemen" are the
ones who get the bulk OF the profits IL
the handling of all agricultural pro-
ducts which are turned into foodstuffs.
He summarizes his case for the farmer
in this rather incontrovertible fashion:
"a farmer has two investments. He
buys or rents the farm and buys the
stock and machinery for its conduct
Then he gives his own time, which
must be counted IN the same way rs
the merchant figures his salary. The
difference is that the merchant fixes
his own salary ana sells his goods so as
to pay it. The farmer does not fix his
own wages and sells his goods at what
ever price, margin or profit M can. At
every turn IT is ground into the farmer
that regardless of what It cost him to
produce his surplus, or how many
bushels Of high priced grain or how
many tons of expensive hay his ami
mails consumed, or how much care and
risk they required. hs cannt sell them for
more than the buyer chooses to pay.
Like situations obtain as to every
farm product. It matters not how hard
the farmer worked blowing his fields,
how many times they were cultivated,
how much Of his crop was destroyed
by water, winds, and insects, how much
his machinery cost and detertorated, or
how much he paid for labor, the grain
men and millers and hay merchants
and packers all set the price he must
take. This will never be changed until
the farmers through intelligent organ
izatien and cooperation assert and
protect themselves, which is something
that as a class they have. unaccount-
ably, not yet shown they were capable
of doing.
"a careful study Of actual conditions
leads to the single conclusion that it is
the distributors and never the pro-
ducers who fix prices for agricultural
products. That is the business condi-
ton of the times. Demand may in
crease the price but not necessarily the
profit Of the producer, as he is con-
sumner also, and must necessarily pay
more for the things he uses, as do
others. He does not know whether he
will make a profit or not. All the farm
work and expenses are calculated to-
gether and all the returns added to-
gether. If there is a surplus over the |
expenses at the end OF the year it goes
to pay off the mortgage and buy more |
comforts. The farmer likes and desires |
such comforts as we'll as does the mid |
1leman, but he is often deprived Of |
them simply because he has to take |
what the distributor wants to pay him |
FOR his products, rather than what they |
cost.
IF any one really earns fair profit |
It is the farmer. His is a work that |
cannot be neglected or deferred for |
winters cold or summers heat. There |
8 no cessation from this work. There |
s no insurance for his risks, and no |
-eduction of expenses except by more
and harder work.
ITO sum up, whatever the prices |
producers of staples receive 1t Is not
hose prices that make the cost to re-
all buyers excessive. Fairly consider
ng all his surroundings and the cir
of production it is not too
much to say that the grower of a staple
commodity never receives for 1t an ex-
ravagant or extortionate price. On
he other hand, 1t is frequently too
nearly unremunerative. Prices the con-
sumner is paying for necessities in daily
Use are certainly excessive, and un-
luestionally this excess is tackled on,
n transit as it were, at the pleasure of
he go-betweens-not by any means all
however-who collectively
constitute a phalanx of toll-gatherers
continent wide-arbitrary, dictatorial,
ntolerant and grasping to the traff1c's
init"