Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1922-02-06
atcd by group organization.

| ldicu ny group oISdulLaii' ll
$40 say that congress cannot do this
is not to say that it cannot be done
but merely that congress is Ineffective
as a group organization, Il fact that
possibly we ought to dispute merely as
a matter Of American pride. That i'm
pOrtant interests believe congress can
do it is suggested by the appeal the
| railroads made to congress to fix
railroad prices, something which con-
gress did and something which con-
greSS still does. in the face of the most
hostile demonstration ever made
against congressional authority. Rail-
road rates are absolutely a matter of
! law in the United States. with which
the railroads themselves have nothing
| whatever to do. ordered by congress
| and fixed by national authority. be-
cause the railroads were Shrewd enough
| to know that in the establishments to
come after the war they might much
| better rely upon congressional price
fixing than upon the give and take Of
unregulated supply and demand.
| 1.-THE Register does not offer these
suggestions with the thought of the
American market, nor of congressional
| control. 1t offers them merely to sag
| gest to the farmer the alternative Hiat
| Sc l>o Il; In 1nvn tho
groups that are powerful enough to fix
prices. and We do have congress III the
case of the railroads entering the mar
ket to fix prices. These are the facts
| that confront the farmer as he sees
his own market shot to pieces because
nobody has thought TO make group
| for him TO monOpoliZe the food supply
and because. when it comes to the farm.
err, our political leaders at once lark
back to that staple maxim of the days
of Adam Smith, law Of supply and &c.
mand.'
Zone of two things is bound to come.
Either the groups that have already
been formed have got to be dissolved
and dissolved effectively. either :"ll'
gress has got to take itself definitely
ont of the field of business, either the
whole people have got to come back to
an unregulated market of small supply
and demand, or the farmer has got 10
| form a group of his own. or make con-
| ercss his group. and see to it that his
own product is handled as others are
handled. For the farmer to come INTO
thc market with the most Indispensable
product of all. food, and there find NM
self buffeted from making bare Nv
ing i'm good times to making nothing AT
all i'm bad times. when steel and oil and
sugar and tobacco and railroad rates,
and even electric light bulbs. are sold
| to him ut prices that are named by tn"
groups in interest. is merely to mark
the farmer as disqualified TO add two
and two together and make four OF IT,
| "Hcrbert Hoover has predicted that
the future belongs to group 0rganlZa-
ton. The individual producer must
coopc7atc with MS neighbor and come
to the market represented by an agent
who can hold his own III the general
dickcr and there fix /, fair trading
relation between corn and automobiles.
and gasoline. and days work. With
ont definitely accepting this view. We
may note that everything has been
moving i'm that direction. Our Sher-
man antitrust laws after many years.
has proved wholly ineffective in stop
ping group organization. Standard Oil
is more powerful group today by
| many times than it was when the par
ent company was dissolved.
The farmer controls the most in
dispensablc product of all. He is most
numerous of all He can make the
government his group if he wishes It,
A big ma jority Of every congress ana
Of every legislature may readily ne
chosen by the farmer. On the other
hand, it will not prove impossible for
him to organize after the fashion OF
Standard Oil, although that will ne
more difficult. The group plan is moi
| impossible to the farmer, and the farm
err will be the controlling group If that
| is to be the program. Instead of tax
| ing what the others are willing to allow
him. he can dictate what the others
shall pay. 1t is merely Il matter OF
| getting direction and knowing what
the program is to be-"
IN LINE FOR SUPREME JUDGE