The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1922-01-20

The corporate form Of association can
not now be wholly adapted to his OBJ
jects and conditions. The looser CO.
operative form seems morT generally
suitable. Therefore, he wiBs!es to he
free, If he finds it desirablG and feas-
ible, to resort to cooperation with his
fellows and neighbors, without run
ming afoul of the law. To urge that
the farmers should have the same lib
erty to consolidate and coordinate
their peculiar economic functions.
which other industries in their fields
enjoy, Is not, however. to concede that
any business Indignation should have
legislative sanction to exercise monop-
olistic power The American people
are as firmly opposed to industrial as
to political autocracy, whether at
tempted by rural or by urban industry.
For lack of united effort the farmers
as whole are still marketing their
crops by Anticipated methods, or by no
methods at all, but they are surrounded
by a business world that has been
modernized to the last minute and is
tirelessly striving for efficiency. This
efficiency Is due In large measure TO
big business, to united business, to IN
tegrated business. The farmers now
seek the benefits of such largeness, I'M
Jon and Indignation.
The American farmer Is a modern Of
the rnodcrns in the use of labor saving
machinery, and he has made vast
strides In recent years In scientific
tillage and efficient farm management,
but as business in contact with other
businesses agriculture is a lone horse
shay" In competition with high power
automobiles. The American farmer is
the greatest and most intractable Of
individualists. While industrial pro-
duction and all phases of the huge COM
mercial mechanism and its myriad ac-
cessories have articulated and co-orli-
mated themselves all the way from nat
ural raw materials to retail sales, the
business Of agriculture has gone on in
much the one man fashion of the back
woods of the first part Of the nine
teenth century. when the farmer was
self sufficient and did not depend upon,
or care very much, what the great
world was doing. The result is that
the agricultural group is almost rs
much at disadvantage in dealing with
other economic groups as the jay farm
er of the funny pages in the hands of
sleek urban confidence men, who sell
him acreage in Central Park or the
oIf of no
farmers thoroughly understand this,
and they are intelligently striving to
integrate their industry so that it will
be on an equal footing with other bust
nesses.
AS an example of indignation, take
the steel industry, in which the model
Is the United States Steel Corporation,
with its iron mines. its coal mines, its
lake and rail transportation, Its oceap
vessels, its by-product coke ovens, IFS
blast furnaces, Its open hearth and
Bessemer furnaces, its rolling mills, its
tube mills and other manufacturing
processes that are carried to the high
est degree of finished production com
patible with the large trade it has
built up. All this is generally conccd-
ed to be to the advantage of the con-
sumner. Nor does the steel corporation
inconsiderately dump its products on
the market. On the contrary, it so
acts that it is frequently stabilizing
influence, as is often the case with 9th
er large organizations. 1t is master of
Its distribution as we'll as of its pro-
duction. If prices are not satisfactory
the products are held back or prOduc-
tion Is reduced or suspended. 1t is not
compelled to send years work to the
market at one time and take whatever
it can get under such circumstances.
1t has one selling policy and its own
export department. Neither are the
grades and qualities of steel determin-
ed at the caprice of the buyer, nor does
the latter hold the scales. In this sin
gle Indignation of the steel corporation
is represented about 40 per cent of the
steel production of America. The rest
is mostly in the hands of a few large
companies. In ordinary times the
steel corporation, by example, Sabilizes
all steel prices. If this is permissible
ut is even desirable because stable
and fair prices are essential to solid
and continued prosperity why would
It be wrong for the farmers to utilize
central agencies that would have SINH
lar effects on agricultural products?
Something like that is what they are
aiming at.
Some farmers favored by regional
COM. 60 - eor-. -n such as the