Norwich bulletin., 1918-02-22


 spirit and behavior of legislators and courts and business magnates before that much talked of flair chance will so much as stick one eye over the morning horizon!
 Mir. Schurnsan's@ plea for a hands. off policy is plea for resumption, in the face of the enemy. of tine policy actually followed for century of peace, during which the time its man. fest effect has been to reduce the country's agricultural industry from a position of undisputed primacy 10 one of third or fifth-rate subordination. There always has been much talk of the square deai," and of giving every every. industry d flair chance"
 The fundamental trouble is that it is practically impossible to find any one willing to provide either of these desirable things. As cold and per haps brutal matter of fact, very, very few of us want merely a flair chance We want a little more than that,-for ourselves. The other fellow wants a little more than that for himself And that's the way the row begins! It usually ends by the one wbo pos sesses the biggest greed, the longest pocket book, and the smallest con science getting the main chance, while the other one takes what happens to be. left. M Or what the bigger hogs nuzzIe out Of the trough, unwittingiy, in their roofing after specially dainty morsels On the other hand, as MT. Schurman Itruly points out, governmental price fixing hasn't worked out very well in the matters of wheat, coal, etc. It3has been followed by 8 diminished supply of coal, and by an @linwFarrranted rise in the prices of corn and sother cereals which are unrestricted Nevertheless it is hard to see why fif the price of wheat was fixed by government so that the consumer should not be overcharged while the producer should be assured living profit,-it is hard to see why corn ant oats and potatoes and onions and al other farm products which are con. stunned in human use should not alst have been taken in hand.
 l Why should the farmer who grow: | wheat be restricted to possible price
 Of s2.25 bushel. while, for his neigh
 bor who grows corn, the sky is tn, only limit Why should the consume
 who wants wheat mullins be protected
 by a maximum price. while the othe who prefer johnnycake has to go ul
 in an air-plane to get a, ten-pount
 bag of meal?@ Why should the con
 sumer be protected by law against hi
 bakers making anything more than 1 fair profit, while thousands of farmer are compelled to take actually les ,oSr Gee. potatoes, etc?
 The farmer can't produce withou profit, any more than he can live with !out eating" remarked Senator Gore during the course of the hearing. # This is something so clear that eve a blind man can't help seeing it.
 But how is the profit to be assure to him? That is the real nub of tn lquestion. '- '. .9~a
 I One man says; Hands off: ever iman for himself and the devil take tE hindmost.''. l Another man says. Not SO: put fence around everything, so that noth
 ing shall get in or out except on term I fair to everybody" l # when Mir. Schurman calls fc "hands off. farmers, he could also SC
 to it that unfairly protecting hand
 were at the same time taken off tf chicane and graft and greed and cun
 ming of the market places and tt ,I transportation systems and the who shoal of middlemen, generally, the
 something might come of. it.
 If MT. Sykes and his, associate could arrange system of price-fixin for every solitary article produced
 the whole: broad land. which shoui give just a fair profit to every pro
 ducer and yet exact no more than fair price from every consumer, the something might come of that, too.
 The trouble is that we aren't in tt
 Millennium, yet. Nor do we seem to headed it's way Nor can it be e1acte lby legislation.
 When it arrives either one of thes
 schemes would work perfectly. As
 when it arrives neither one will I
 adopted, because neither one will needed.
 In the meantime, 50 long as folks al the kind of critters they are, so Ior will there be friction and ineuualii and inequity.
 The farmers as, a class have bee HOT unQuInD6feu- years tlf6 ucIHer Iull stone, against whom the whirling uI
 per stone has ground out its grists. Now, the necessities of. hart . pushed world are calling on tn; ) neither stone to take up a motion it's own, and go whirling as fast as u .. upper. !, It's going to. take a good deal } patriotism and good deal of wh: is called grace: good deal of sel ! devotion and 8 good deal of sell ! sacrifice. @S :es5 ' These win count for much mo
 l in the final result than any scheme
 tprice- fixing or hands off ing. The real question is how much ! those qualities we've got We shs . have need for all we can rake i $. scrape together
 THE FARMER. s .----------
 a IN. F. A. NOTES. 5 Francis Hidweil Elected President
 A..n.sA.k.~~ |