The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-08-01
(Official City, State and County
Newspaper
Foreign Representatives
SMALL. SPENCER, BREWER
Uncorporated
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON



BY cooperating in the movement to
raise the price of wheat received by
North Dakota farmers, the Bismarck
Association of Commerce has done
much to cement the feeling that the
farmer and businessman are willing
to stand together.
Everybody knows that all of us are
in the same boat and that, If it sinks,
all of us will go down together. The
logical answer of having everyone
join in keeping the boat afloat has
given impetus to this proposal which
is as much farm product as wheat
or hogs.
Some opposition to the suggestion
has come from persons who contend
they cannot see far enough ahead to
believe that the movement will sue
coed. They are of the class which de-
sires to chart every course to the final
goal, listing every hazard and putting
a sign on each one.
In cases where that can, be done
1t is good thing, but it is not often
possible. In business and in our per-
sonal affairs We can name the goal
We hope to attain and the methods
by which We hope to arrive but it is
never possible to list all the obstacles
which will be met nor devise in adj
vance means of overcoming them.
THE best laid plans of mice and men
gang aft agley" and it sometimes be-
comes necessary to pick up the pieces
That is the situation which We face
today. This newspaper is not and
never has been prophet of gloom,
but there is no more sense in refusing
to recognize the situation for what it
is than there would be to paint 1t
darker than it is. We can apply the
doctrine of "the truth will make you
free" to economics just as easily as
to politics.
No one will disagree that the simple
truth is that prices for farm prod
ucts are too low and that definite
steps are necessary to raise them. The
farmers know it and the business peo-
pie know it,
1t is possible that the program out
lined by the Tolna farmers will fall
short of its goal but there is nothing
to discourage us in that fact. Most
programs do.
1t may be. as some persons suggest.
an impossibility to raise the American
price for wheat to AZ cents above
Winnipeg prices. thus obtaining full
advantage of the tariff, now fixed at
that figure. But there is reason to
believe it can be raised some by the
method of marketing outlined and
even a little will help.
Back of that, there are other bene-
fits which will accrue from the pro-
posed marketing of only 10 per cent
of the grain crop in any one month.
The initiated law making crop mort
cages illegal requires many farmers
to adopt a new system of financing.
The 10 per cent month method may
offer at least partial answer to con-
ditions created by this decision of
the people Of North Dakota as well as
to the price problem. II the farmers
set out to teach each other a new
marketing system they can do it. To
many the need has long been appar-
ent.
The farmer Is not. never has been
and never will be perfect any more
than the rest Of US. but he has enough
brains to solve his problems II he has
the chance. He has been talked
down to long enough.
Now he is beginning to speak up
for himself and the results should be
i,,torae$ino