TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 607 



he seemed to fill the entire end of the schoolroom, to blot out not only 

 the teacher's desk, but the judges' seats, the blackboard and the four- 

 colored map of the United States that hung upon the wall behind him. 

 He was a fine-looking man, a solid-looking man, a gentleman of wealth 

 and culture, who, unspoiled by good fortune, was still a brother to all 

 men. Already he had gained that enviable reputation among them. 



"Friends and neighbors and fellow-farmers, it was startling to reflect 

 that the agriculturist was the only producer in all the world who had no 

 voice in the price which was put upon his product." 



Doesn't that sound natural? (Laughter). 



"The manufacturer turned out his goods and set a price upon them, 

 and the consumer had to pay that price. And how was this done? By 

 the throttling of competition. And how had competition been throttled? 

 By consolidation of all interests in any particular line of trade. Iron and 

 steel were all controlled by one mighty corporation against which could 

 stand no competitor except by suffrance; petroleum and all its by-prod- 

 ucts were in the hands of another, and each charged what it liked. The 

 farmer alone, after months of weary, unending toil, of exposure in all 

 sorts of weather, of struggle against the whims of nature and against an 

 appalling list of possible disasters, himself hauled his output to market 

 and meekly accepted whatever was offered him. Prices on every product 

 of the soil were dictated by a clique of gamblers who, in all probability, 

 had never seen wheat growing nor cattle grazing. Friends and neigh- 

 bors and fellow-farmers, this woeful condition must end! They must 

 co-operate! Once compacted, the farmers could stand together as firm 

 as a rock, could demand a fair and reasonable and just price for their 

 output, and get it. Today wheat was quoted at 94 cents on the Chicago 

 Board of Trade. If the farmer, however, secured 82 cents at his delivery 

 point in actual cash, he was doing well. There was no reason why the 

 farmers should not agree to establish a standing price of a dollar and a 

 half a bushel for wheat; and that must be their slogan. Wheat at a dollar 

 and a half! 



"He was vitally interested in his project, and he was willing to spend 

 his life and fortune for it; and, in furtherance of it, he invited his 

 friends and neighbors and fellow farmers to assemble at his house on the 

 following Saturday night and discuss ways and means to bring this enor- 

 mous movement to a practical working basis. Incidentally, he might 

 f'nd a bite and a sup and a whiff of smoke to offer them. All those who 

 v/ould attend would please rise in their seats. 



"As one man they arose, and when J. Rufus Wallingford, glowing 

 with the immensity of his noble project, stepped down from that plat- 

 form the walls of the Willow Creek schoolhouse echoed and re-echoed 

 with the cheers which followed his speech." 



The Same Old Story. 



Folks, we have been listening to that song for fifty years. We have 

 had a revival along this line every ten or fifteen years, and up to date 

 what has been accomplished? Out of the present wreck of things, can 

 not we by some use of gray-matter, devise something that will stick? 

 There is one thing that has been accomplished — the little country ele- 



