TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 611 



solved, so that we will have a chance to say something about the price 

 that we get for our stuff. 



Must Learn to Fix Prices. 



Do you know that that law of supply and demand has applied to the 

 farmers products this year? So far as the farmers are concerned, the 

 supply is what controls; when we have a large surplus of stuff to sell, 

 we are told that demand has fallen off; but demand comes back again 

 strong the minute that stuff gets into the hands of the speculators, who 

 then hold it for higher prices and turn it over to the consuming public 

 at greatly increased prices. 



Now, it is our job to get in a position where we can study the de- 

 mand, where we can estimate the demand, and where we can have some 

 idea of the supply and fix our price just the way the other fellows fix it, 

 rt a point as high as we can do it in order to have the demand carry 

 away that supply. In other words, in place of having the board of trade 

 down at Chicago fix the prices, we will fix them when we get those 

 products where they belong. I don't mean that we can arbitrarily fix 

 prices; I don't mean that cost of production is going to be an absolute 

 solution of what the price will be, but I do mean that we can fix them 

 according to our determination of the supply and the demand. If we 

 guess wrong, then we will simply have to hold in storage some of the 

 stuff until there is a time that it is wanted. I believe that the Lord has 

 been trying to help us along this line for a long time, but the trouble 

 is the Lord has been a little too hard on certain conditions. You know, 

 when we have a bumper crop, prices go down; the next year we might 

 put in some acreage to replace the elements that were taken out by the 

 last crop, and other things over which we have no control, and as a 

 consequence our crop is shortened up, and in that way, as I say, the 

 Lord is trying to help us equalize supply and demand. The trouble was 

 a few years ago, down in Harrison county, the Lord equalized it a little 

 bit too heavy and we didn't raise any corn, because a hot wind came over 

 from Kansas and burnt it all up. But it decreased production just to 

 that extent. 



Must Have Better Credits. 

 Now I will say a word or two about some influences that I think 

 v/ill help materially. You know, I have been harping about reviving this 

 War Finance Corporation; the federation generally has been harping 

 about it; the American Federation has been talking about it. You know 

 what the Secretary of the Treasury said about it? But we talked to our 

 senators and congressmen about it, and we urged it so hard that yester- 

 day or the day before that resolution passed the senate, asking for the 

 re-establishment and putting into operation this War Finance Corporation. 

 Now, that may be a lame duck — some of them say that it is. One man 

 up here at Sioux City, a big banker, told me I didn't know what I was 

 talking about. That is probably true, but if that thing would help us to 

 take some of this surplus stuff we have over to those people in Europe 

 who are starving to death, it seems to me it would be a good proposi- 

 tion, and I wouldn't care very much if we never got the money that was 

 furnished to buy that, or not — whether we ever get that credit back or 



