The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1927-01-14

farther and farther out of your reach; and every
are receiving less and less for the products of tn
am going to strip this Farmers Problem
naked; am going to tear off its Masks its false
faces and sweep aside the misconceptions, mis-
understandings and the misrepresentation that
have concealed the FACTS and the TRUTH from
the American people and especially from the
farmer themselves.
What is the reason for the increasing POWER
TY of the American farmer and why is it that for
fifty years Agriculture has been slipping deeper
and deeper into the pit of economic hopelessness
and despair?
Consider, first, this astounding fact:
Agriculture stands at the head of the list of
our nations industries: it is the keystone of the
arch of our national structure; upon it rests the
safety, the progress, the happiness, the VERY
EXISTENCE of the nation itself There is APP
proximately farm population of 100000.
These toilers slave early and late, in the heat of
summer, in the cold of winter, year in, year out,
to bring forth the harvest and to garner its
weath-yet these toilers, when their task is done
when they have laid at the feet of the nation
their precious wealth-these millions of workers
must stand dumb and speechless and utterly help
less before an economic despotsm which arbitrari-
rights, their needs or necessities, FIXES THE
PRICE of every bushel of grain, of every sack of
potatoes, of every pounds of meat, every gallon
of milk, every bale of cotton and every ounce of
wealth produced by these millions of workers Not
single word would have these producers to say
about what they shall receive for the vast wealth
which their ceaseless and wearisome toll has Gre
ated And yet who should have better right to
fix the price of wealth than he who, by his own
toll produced it?
Consider also this fact:
The farmer is a producer of raw material only.
To convert this raw material into use a vast web
OF intricate and costly machinery is required
railroads, mills, packing plants, canneries, fac
tories storage warehouses, etc. The farmer owns
none of these. He owns only the patch of land
usually mortgaged) and the implements with
which he produces the raw material Neither can
he obtain to, the use of these railroads,
machinery and manufacturing plants until he pays
the price demanded by those who own them. And
let it not be forgotten that these railroads and
manufacturing plants are privately owned by
rich and powerful corporations whose only pur-
| pose is to accumulate ever greater and greater
profits for themselves.
Suppose the farmer refuses to pay the robber
freight rates demanded by the railroads.
All right" says the railroad trust, "your
crops may rot in your fields, we will not move
them until you pay our price"
Suppose he refuses to accept for his grain the
price Offered him by the grain trust. GAIL right
they will tell him, "your grain will stay in your
granary-we don't want it."
If he refuses to accept for his live stock the
price fixed by the Beef Trust they will invite hin
to keep it, they will not buy. And, if it so hap
pens that he musters up courage to DEFY his ex
plolters and refuses to turn over his products al
the prices they offer, what then happens?
Very likely the banker notifies him as follows
"Mr. JONES' your note at the bank is past due. vor
are behind on your interest and we are compelled
to demand settlement at once or we shall have tc
forecose"
Trapped at last, like hunted animal he !,
driven to cover and can do nothing but surren.
der. He possesses no economic power with which
to defend himself; he is throttled and choked int
heplessness.
Whenever the farmer steps over the boundar,
OF his own farm he is confronted by an Economi,
Bandit. This bandit represents the Private Own
ership of the Means of Life otherwise known a,
the Railroad Trust, the Food Trust. the Clotbin,
Trust, the Machinery Trust the Lumber TINS
~ o'HNA 'SH1dClSS o1 the octopus Which
we call Big Business" In the clutches of thi,
power the farmer is as helpless as lamb in The
paws of a tiger.
And now consider this further fact:
The farmer sells his wheat at &c pound; h,
buys it back in handsome pasteboard boxes labelled
''Wheatena" or "Puffed Wheat" and pays Csc
pounds. He sells his corn at SOC bushel an,
buys it back in "Corn Flakes" at $500 a bushel
He sells his beef and pork at &c pound and buy
It back at 4Oc to Coo. He sells his cotton at 10