The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1920-10-21


principle. The men who have fatted
from our labor under the old plan of
marketing our wheat and who have
manipulated. prices to our great dis
advantage are becoming desperate
and are using all kinds of propaganda
to scare US. Just sit steady and
market your wheat as it is needed
(and it viii all be needed) and you
will get a better price than If you
rush it to market Everybody get
busy Spend a day or two in this
drive and we viii go over the top.
This is a very important battle.
A. Slaughter,
National Organizer,
Wakita, Okla.
Proclamation by the National Wheat
Growers' Association
Wichita, Kansas, October 6, 1920
To avert a national calamity
caused by the decline in the price of
wheat to less than half its cost of
production, the National Officers and
Board of the Wheat Growers Assoc
iation of the United States hereby
issues a proclamation to all wheat
producers of the United States and
Canada to suspend the delivery of
wheat TO market from the farms at
8 p. m, Standard time, October 25,
1920, until the price of good wheat
has retraced its downward plunge
and is stabilized at $500 bushel at
the growers terminal market. We
ask all presidents of county and local
wheat growers associations, of the
National Wheat Growers Association
to call a special meeting of their
members on Saturday, October %, at
2 p. m. at the County Seat of each
county to ratify this proclamation
and to adopt means to put it into eff
feet on the above stated time.
We urgently and fraternally invite
national and state officers of all farm
organizations of the United States
and Canada to adopt and indorse this
proclamation and action and to take
such necessary steps to inform the
wheat growers in their membership
of this movement and induce them to
act in unison and harmony with all
wheat producers throughout North
America to the end that the price of
wheat may be advanced and stabil-
lied at $500 bushel for good wheat
at the growers terminal market, this
being the cost of production on ten
year average yield per acre
We further invite agricultural col
! -.
boards of agriculture, national, state
and county farm bureaus, chambers
of commerce, union labor and all
organizations and associations inter
ested in the public welfare and pros
porous times TO indorse and encour-
age this international effort of wheat
growers to stabilize the worlds great
est food crop at cost of production
to the end that they be not bankrupt
ed and incapacitated to continue the
production of wheat.
We believe that the decline In the
price of wheat below half the cost OF
production and still declining rapidly,
| effects all classes of citizens dis
astrously and will if not restored re,
suit in an industrial and financial
panic equal to any proceeding. ones
| for the following reasons:
l. The decline in wheat price
pulls down with it the price of all
other farm products.
g 1t will result in driving hun
dreds of thousands of farmers to in
dustrial centers to compete with
union labor for jobs that pay better
than farming.
8. Low prices for farm products
viii kill the farmers consuming power
by rendering him unable to buy high
priced commodities he needs, thus
eliminating one-haf of the consum-
ing power of the United States.
4 Low prices for products and
labor will result in high priced dol
lars with which TO pay our billions of
debts. That viii result in virtually
doubling the debt. Since the debt
was made with cheap dollars they
should be kept cheap until it is paid
Off
5. Wheat growers expenses for
labor and equipment IN raising this
years wheat crop was the highest
average in the last ten years. Now
that the price Is cut In two he stands
to lose half his investment In labor
and overhead expense in its produc-
ton.
6. As the average consumer pays
only one and a half cents a day to
the wheat grower for every dollar
per bushe1 OF its price, or one-half
cent per meal, three dollar wheat
would cost the consumer only Az
cents day or i y cent a meal, as
the wheat growers share. That
could not be hardship on anyone
for his primary food.
z. Forcing down the price OF
wheat now while the grower is sell
ing is the board of trade gamblers
device to get possession Of It at the
lowest possible price regardless of its
cost TO the producer Then after It
gets in their possession, they viii
hold it of the market and run the
price up to an exhorbitant price per
bushel on the boards OF trade and the
consumers viii get no benefit from
the sacrifice now being made by the
wheat producers
This proclamation and action by
the Wheat Growers is to stop this
scheme OF the gamblers IN wheat TO
hold ND the public for hundreds Of
millions OF dollars IN tribute 10 pro
ffteering wheat dealers and to give
fair vage and overhead expense TO
tn growers OF wheat who BEGAN in