Norwich bulletin., 1910-08-06
The Hounds. The Wolves, The Victims.

(written Specially for The Bulletin-)
 I've been talking recently with farmers from different parts of Uncle Samis big farm and the thing which has. impressed me most in all. the talks I've had has been the certainty Of each one to come round, sooner or later, to the fact that the farmer is the selected victim of the commercial world. He is expected to sell his produce at what the other fellow is willing to give him: he is expected to buy his supplies at wha tever the other fellow seas fit to charge He is given plenty of chance 10 argue and complain and cajole. but he fs given no voice in the fixing of the price. whether he buys or sells He can talk all he wants to-talk hurts nobody; but what he says ends right there; it cuts no figure in making the price
 He goes in to market with load Of corn or carrots or clover and is told that the market is over-supplied that day and that hs cant get the quoted price for his load Of course. he will find somebody to take 1t off his hands. as a favor and at a a-price below the cost of production and hauling But he must do that or draw it back home unsold- Then. when he goes to get bag of sugar or a pound of coffee, he learns that sugar and coffee have gone up'-Is there anything buyable which hasn't gone up' in the last year or twoe-and he can pay the increased prSce or go home without them- It does no more good. for him to argue with the seller or to complain of him than 1t did to argue or complain with the prod uce buyer There are the goods and there are the prices. take 'em or leave 'em-
 Worst of all, if he rejects the first offer made him. the ground that it isn't fair price. and sets out to find a new buyer, he Is apt soon to discoy- CT that there Is either a combination or a gentlemen's agreement" among the purchasers. and that the figures Of one are the figures of all the rest Likewise. if he tries to buy his sugar or coffee cheaper somewhere else, he Is everywhere confronted with the same fixed prices If he is like the boy from Missouri and wants to be shown he is told that the market Is thus and thus and the recent in crease in price has been so and so.
 If, when he gets home, he sets at work investigating, he will soon find price" for the commodities he needs to buy is simply the price fixed by one. tFos three half dozen men in New York or Lenox or Tuxedo. who control the output, and, possessing the power to limit or increase that output, jug gle it large or small as their private interests suggest; who. also possessing the power to withhold or ship thsfr
 
 Up or down to suit their own merry pleasure. He. MT Farmer Producer controls no output What his little farm yields of corn is of no more inn portance to the total supply of corn than a drop Of dew is to the Atlantic. He can no more dictate from the top of his single load, what the market price Of corn shall be. than. the dew crop falling into the Atlantic can die- tate to the great ocean how high the gurf shall surge against the base of Teneriffe.
 A few big operators" manipulate Rnd control the price of his products from some properly styled pit at Chicago or New York A few big null ltmilfonaires manipulate and control fhe price of sugar and tobacco and oil Hnd other supplies he must buy from their Wall street or Broadway offices They go. on both sides, just as far s the law wil let them; sometimes they stretch the law to the breaking point A very few of then1-a very, very few have been careless enough or greedy enough to expose themselves to prose cution- But there is small cause for encouragement in the two or three millions which have been recovered from such prosecutions, in comparison with the hundreds and hundreds of millions which have been and now are being scooped from the pockets of un- organized producers and consumers by other less reckless but no less greedy gangs.
 With present tendencies in courts unchecked, there is little use in the individual buyer or seller looking to them to protect hizn against conbina- tions of capital which can wen afford | frequent hundred thousand dollar feesJ to eminent counsel" What ] then ? | Are We helplessz~ Bound hand and foot | and delivered over to the spoilers2 Must we farmers accept it as our fate | that we shall forever pay for our seeds !,