Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-02-13
By VIM. Goodyear)
CHAPTER 1


than most of his neighbors. By
hard work and strict economy
through long period of years, ably
assisted by his wife, two boys and
one daughter, he had managed to Sc
cure title to 400 acres of wheat land,
on which rested a mortgage of
$4,000. His house was fairly large
and well built, but had few convent
ences to tighten the daily round of
toll His wife, Mary, showed the eff
fects of much hard labor and worry.
Their daughter, Faith, had worked
her way through the State College
of Washington and was teaching in
the high school of the town located
about five miles from the ranch. The
two boys, Bob, aged II, and Ted,
aged Is, were attending the country
school and putting in all their spare
time working on the farm,
One Saturday evening Mr. Farmer
came home from town in a very bad
humor. AS soon as he entered the
house he gave vent to his feelings by
exclaiming;
"Confound these wheat speculat-
ors. 1t does seem as if the farmer
always gets the worst of everything.
Here | sold my wheat for $2.03 a
bushel and now it has gone up to
$3.50. l am getting tired of raising
the stuff and then having someone
else make all the profit"
As he spoke, Faith, who had come
home from her school to spend Sun
day, looked up from the copy of The
Pacific Farmers Union, over which
she was pouring, and replied
4 don't blame you for feeling
sore, Daddy dear, and I was just
reading here about a plan which Mr..
Sapiro of California presented to the
Farmers Union convention at Spo-
kane for the wheat growers to mar
ket their own product through a CO.
operative association and secure for
themselves the profits which the
spectators are now absorbing 1t
seems such a splendid plan to me, so
simple and fair, and ! want you to
read it after supper and then we can
talk it over together, VIII you,
Daddy?"
oh, yes, | can read it, but l don't
think much of these new tangled
schemes the Farmers Union is for
ever springing on us
After supper, Mr.. Farmer put on
his slippers, lighted his pipe and pro-
ceeded to peruse the paper, while his
wife and daughter washed the dishes
and tidied up the kitchen. By the
time they came back to the dining
room, he had laid aside the paper
and sat staring at the fire
Faith drew her chair close to his
and asked excitedly; We'll, Daddy,
what do you think of it,"
"Oh, | don't know" replied her
father, lit sounds all right, but these
lawyer fellows can make black look
like white. 1t seems kind of funny
to me that fellow who don't know
anything about wheat should come
up here and tell us wheat raisers how
to sell our grain. Pears like we
ought to know a heap more about it
than he does
Yes, but father he knows a lot
more about cooperative marketing
than any of you do and he wants you
to apply the system to your business.
The California farmers have tried it
and like it and are getting better
prices than they ever did before"
1T may work all right with
prunes and oranges and stuff that
amt raised much of anywhere else
than California, but when it comes
to handling wheat, which is raised
everywhere, it's a different story"
But, Daddy, the bean growers
have tried it and beans are grown all
over the United States, and don't you
see that it simply means applying
marketing methods, which have been
thoroughly tried and have worked
out splendidly, to a bigger product
If the system is sound it doesn't
make any difference to what crop
you apply it, If you had worked out
a good system for feeding 10 hogs.
you would not hesitate to use it on
100 hogs"
"Mebbe so. But it looks like too
big scheme for bunch of hayseeds
to tackle"
But, Daddy, you know that next
June the government guaranteed
price for wheat ends. Do you want
to go back to the old system and sell