486 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



pelled them to sell a seat on that grain exchange. This summer a cor- 

 poration was formed to procure a seat and begin business, and as soon 

 as that can be effected we will be in line on the grain end in Nebraska the 

 same as anybody else. We will have the right to have samples spread 

 upon the grain tables and receive fair treatment the same as any other 

 grain firm. 



Those are the things on the selling end that we have been able to ac- 

 complish so far. To be sure, we have not been able to get as far as we 

 wanted to, but we are working along that line and that is our aim. We 

 had a desperate struggle because the old firms died hard. They frowned 

 on anything that savored of co-operation. They frown on anything that 

 tends to break in on the old-established order. We find it so not only in 

 the grain exchanges and the stock exchanges, but in the general trade 

 conditions of the country today. We go with produce to the old manu- 

 facturer and some of them will scarcely treat us like gentlemen. Some 

 do, others do not. They simply will not have their old lines of trade 

 broken into, but mind you, friends, the day is not far distant when the 

 big business is going to go straight from the factory to the consumer 

 with just as little in between as possible. 



Standard Oil is doing it today, and making a success of it. There are 

 other firms doing it. Some of the old-line implement houses have turned 

 over bodily their products to catalog houses to handle for them. Others 

 can be had by Farmers' Union or any other group of farmers that will 

 agree to take their output and turn it to the trade with a minimum of 

 distribution expense. So we have the aim of the Farmers' Union exempli- 

 fied by what we are trying to do. 



There are a few things that are peculiar to our organization, and we 

 believe that we see wisdom in them. In our requirements for member- 

 ship, and especially in the matter of eligibility for office in the state 

 Unions, we Insist that they be absolute, bona fide farmers, believing that 

 we can hope for little good to come to us permanently from anyone who is 

 not at heart and largely a bona fide farmer. Now, there are some in- 

 stances where we are having trouble along this line. We have men who 

 say they are farmers, but who are not. They may own a little patch of 

 land, or they may own a big tract, and not be farmers. Owning land 

 doesn't make one a farmer. What we want is to exclude the man who may 

 have interests antagonistic to the interests of the farmer. 



We are working along lines of controlling and introducing legislation 

 wherever it may be necessary or desirable. All of these things we do 

 not make public at all times, for reasons that you know are wise. Very 

 often you spill the beans by telling all your plans. But there is one 

 question I want to speak of here. It has been mentioned before, and 

 that is the question that is before the nation today — to strike or not to 

 strike. I cannot say that I know the sentiment of all the members of the 

 Farmers' Union, but I do know the opinions of a great many. And I 

 know my own opinion. We are in sympathy with labor, but at the same 

 time we cannot condone what seems to be nothing short of a crime 

 because of sympathy. 



We may have sympathy with the labor union man in his necessity, and 



