The Nevada County picayune., 1922-01-19

iCopohulHS to HIS ef1t ttency Tn pf0uuc- tion2 Do not the recent fluctuations in the May wheat option, apparently unrelated to normal interaetion of supply and demand, offer a timely proof of the need of some such stabll- izing agency as the grain growers have in contemplation?
 It Is contended that, If their pro- posed organizations be perfected and operated, the farmers will have in their hands an instrument that will be capable of dangerous abuse. We are told that 1t will be possible to pervert 1t to arbitrary and oppressive price fixing from It's legitimate use of order Ing and stabilizing the flow of farm products to the market, to the mutual benefit of producer and consumer. I have no apprehensions on this point.
 In the first place, loose organiza- ton, such as any union of farmers must be at best, cannot be so arbi trarily and promptly controlled as great corporation. The one is lum- bering democracy and the other an agile autocraey. In the second place, with all possible power eff org .nization, the farmers cannot succeed to any great extent, or for any considerable length of time, in fixing prices. The great law of supply and demand works in various and surprising ways, to the undoing of the best laid plans that attempt to foil it. In the third place, their power will avail the farmers nothing If 1t be abused. In our time and country power Is of value to its possessor only so long as 1t is not abused. It is fair to say that I have seen no signs in responsible quarters of a disposition to dictate prices There seems, on the contrary, to be a commonly beneficial purpose to realize a stability that will giv1 an orderly and abundant flow of tarm products to the consumer and ensure reasonable and dependable returns to the pro- ducer.
 In view of the supreme importance to the national well-being of pros porous and contented agricultural pop Vation, we should be prepared to go a long way In assisting the farmers to get an equitable share of the wealth they produce, through the inaugura- tion of reforms that will procure continuous and increasing stream of farm products They are far from get ting a fair share now. Considering his capital and the long hours of labor put in by the average farmer and his family, he is remunerated less than any other occupatlonal class, with the possible exception of teachers, reli- gious and lay. Though We know that the present general distress of the farmers is exceptional and is linked with the inevitable economic readiust- ment following the war, 1t must be remembered that, although represent ing onethird of the industrial product and half the total population of the nation, the rural communities ordi- narily enjoy but a fifth to a quarter of the net annual national gain. Notwith- standing the taste of prosperity tsat the farmers had during the war, there Is today a lower standard of living among the cotton farmers of the South than In any other pursuit in the country.
 In conclusion, 1t seems to me that the farmers are chiefly striving for a gen erally beneficial integration of their business, of the same kind and charac ter that other business enjoys. If il should be found on examination that the attainment of this end requires methods different from those which other activities have followed for the same purpose should we not sympa thetically consider the plea for the right 10 cooperate, If only from our own enlightened self interest, In ob- taining an abundant and steady flow of farm produets2
 In examining the agricultural sltua tion with a view to its improvement, we shall be most helpful If we main tain detached and judicial viewpoint, remembering that existing wrongs may be chiefly an accident of unsymmetri- cal economic growth instead of crea- tlon of malevolent design and conspira cy. We Americans are prone, as Pro lessor David Friday we'll says In his admirable book, Profits, Wages and Prices" to seek g criminal intent be-