Bisbee daily review., 1914-04-16
SOUNDS A WARNING
 AGAINST FORMATION
 OF FARMERS TRUSTS
SAMUEL uNTERMYER WARNS WESTERN ECONOMICS so.
 cIETY OF DANGERS

surlcteu, rulnOuS competition, was advocated by Samuel Untermyer of New York in an address here tonight before the Second National Confer. ence on Marketing and Farm Credits meeting here in first session with the Western Economies Society The New York lawyer discussed the relation of the farmer to the trust problem and endorsed pending national legislation banning various forms of combina- tions for marketing products of farms, | factories and other industries
 "The main criticism. of legislotion now under consideration by Congress is that 1t does not go far enough on the constructive side of the regula- ! ton of competition" he said. ~Var ious cooperative arrangements for marketing remain under the ban of the law. They include farm products. as they should. if the prohibition of such agreements is to continue to be the policy of the government
 The time must soon come when, with the aid of the industrial trade commission. the law. whatever it may be, will be generally and impartially enforced. This incredible situation of extending general immunity to the farmers to violate the law whilst they are demanding and securing it's en- forcement against the industrial world will not be longer tolerated.
 Mir. Untermyer incidentally said that he considered wrong the pro posal to include organizations of la bor in the banned forms Of co-oD5ra- tive arrangements. but he declared this phase of the trust problem one with which the present convention was not concerned
 "The questions for discussion may be stated thus" he said:
 What is the real attitude of the farmer as a producer to the trust question? Is 1t just sincere, consist ence or public spirited? What should be his attitude both in his own inter. est and as citizen? To this I answer. and shall endeayor to prove. that it is unjust. inconsistent and unwise.
 This broad indictment is based upon 11 the drastic character of the Ati-Trust laws in the farming States as applied to all forms of industry other than farming; (2) the exemp tions that have been engrafted upon these laws in favor of the farmers; t3) the failure to enforce the laws against them in States in which the exemptions do not exist; C) the at titude of their Representatives in Con gress. and (5) the many open viola tions of the federal antitrust law that exists by sunerance in the various forms of pooling and selling arrange ments among the farmers in the diff ferent sections of the country.
 "It is common knowledge that price fixing agreements in the form of sell ing agencies are in active operation in farm products all ever the country of which those in cotton and fruits are conspicuous examples.
 In none of the states in which these combinations (all of which are within the condemnation of the Sher. man Law are expressly legalized, Is there provision for their regulation by public authority. In none of them is any relief provided against their levying undue tribute except in the vague requirement. that the combina- ton may exact only reasonable profits
 1.-The country is honeycombed with these pools. trade agreements and gentlemen's understandings under cover of selling agencies. trade asso- citations, social clubs, information bu- reaus and innumerable other dis guises. Every now an dthen the gov ernment pounces upon some unfortu- nate industry, like the members of the wire, window glass, turpentine. bath-tub, strawboard, wood pulp and wrapping paper pools, in spasmodic and haphazard fashion, selecting it's victimg at random. collect fines from the little fellows and sOmetimes-gen- erally unsuccessfully-tries to send them to jail-only to find them getting together again after the storm has blown over. but in more elusive form as the result of their expensive and uncomfortable experience.
 This anomalous condition of insub- ordination and defiance of law by our men of affairs to whom We look up as constituting our best and most en- terpTising citizenship is the inevitable outcome of an unsound and destruct- i've economic policy, from the effects of which the farmers by reason of their vast political power, are seeking 10 exempt themselves whilst imposing that policy upon the rest of the couH. try.
 "The only possible excuse for such a position on the part of the farmer is that he, as the most valuable and the greatest wealth-producing and least protected element in our industria, life, is entitled to exemptions and i'm. munities at the expense of the rest of the community
 There is no basic principle upon 1. which any such exemption or discrim' nation can be justified. Why should the cotton-g growers be suffered to com. bine in the marketing of their pro. duct so as 10 regulate the price and output, whilst that right is denied to the manufacturers of cotton goods? Or