Norwich bulletin., 1916-11-25

CWritten Specially for The Bulletin-) Just why the National Grange, In session at Washington, should have asked President Wilson to address them is not clear. Perhaps the mo . tive may have been one of respect Tor the high office he holds Perhaps it may have been just common curl osity, and the morbid desire to hear a speech.' Certainly it could not have been with any expectation of. learning anything about agriculture. For, whatever his admirers may claim as to MT. Wilson's scholastic attainments and elocutionary abilities, no one has yet asserted that he had even an anna teurs acquaintance with the problems of practical farming.
 Anyway, whatever the eransers' motive, any politician can see wEy Mr. Wilson gladly accepted the invite and made them talk. In the course of it he demonstrated, If such dem onstration had been needed, his total misunderstanding of the farm problem. I quote one extract:
 I've ought to raise such big crops that circumstances like the present can never recur, when men can make as if the supply was 50 short that the middleman could charge for it what he pleased. It will not do to be mig gardly with the rest of the world in respect to it's food supply"
 This Is not quite as clear language as President Wilson Is capable Of using, on accession. When men can make as if the supply was so short" l" etc. Just what does that mean or imply? The phrase ito make as if is defined in Webster as meaning ito pretend that: and the common mean ing of ''pretendr is ITO hold out false ly; to offer, as something untrue or unreal; to show nypocritically or for the purpose of deceiving; to simulate;
 Apparently, then, President Wilson says in th,s that the middleman through holding out falsely and showing "hypocritically or for the purpose of deceiving'' that supply was for that supply.
 This is a rather severe indictment of the middlemar. But what does President Wilson, or any other aver agely intelligent man. suppose that the farmers have to do with the md dleman's holding out false informa- tion or showing something untrue or unrear' for the purpose of deceiving ?''
 The farmer isn't a nddIeman: he is more in the position of an end man. at the end of a "snap-the- whip" line. He has no control over the bus mess methods or the moral divaga- tions of middlemen. He is neither their partner nor their ally, nor is he usually even a benevolent neutral He is just one of their victims; a yearly and almost daily loser through their multivaried and multifarious make as-ifs." They have, as a class, swim dled and despoiled him of fair prices for his produce as now they are swindling the consumer by refusing to sell to the latter at fair prices. It has made small difference to them what the pretexr or false preterce held out flor the purpose of deceiv- ing" has been. Any rumor or roor- back was sufficient to depress prices such a point that the wonder Is far mers didn't stop producing any thing more for them, or for anybody else except their own families. The consumers aren't getting any worse treatment, now, in this era of Thigh prices" artifcially boosted and fac titiously maintained, than the farmers of the country have been getting for To, these many years. They squeal toughened to the sldnning alive pro- cess! That's all.
 Some years ago President Hill of the Northwestern railroad system, who knew a whole lot about transporta- ton and next to nothing about farm ing, started the cry that farmers ought to produce more It was evident enough why he wanted bigger produc- ton. His railroads draw their profits from farming country and the more crops they had to haul the more pro- fits they might reasonably expect Since then the slogan has been kept