EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VII 367 



the outside world of business, that as a rule he has been compelled to 

 deal as an individual with forces gigantic in their scope, and which he 

 did not in any way understand. 



Let's analyze that for a moment. I used to be a farmer myself. 

 A good many times, when I go thru the burden of the labors I have 

 nowadays, I wish I was back on the farm, feeding the pigs and milking 

 the cows. 



The average farmer goes to town with a load of wheat or corn. 

 How does he sell it? He finds there are four or five wheat buyers 

 in the town, representing four or five different concerns that all op- 

 erate thru the same headquarters. He takes a sample of his wheat 

 in a half-peck measure, and goes to one elevator and asks' what the 

 market is. He goes the rounds of three or four elevators, and sells 

 to the man who gives him a shade the best price, which has been fixed 

 by somebody somewhere for the man who sells it, and with the fixing 

 of which the farmer had absolutely nothing to do. The farmer is al- 

 ways going and asking the other fellow what the price is, and then he 

 sells at the price offered. When he buys, he asks what the price is 

 and pays it. 



Suppose the man who runs this big department store up here on 

 the corner would be seen this morning walking down the street .with 

 a bolt of calico under his arm, and he accosts the first lady whom hn 

 meets: "Mrs. Brown, what is the price of calico today?" She doesn't 

 know, so he goes on and meets Mrs. Smith, and asks her the same ques- 

 tion. What would happen to that man? Why, his friends would get 

 together and they would have the lunacy commission sit on him im- 

 mediately, because he had lost all his business sense. 



And yet the farmers of this country for a lifetime have permitted 

 combinations which ought to be regulated by the strong arm of govern- 

 mental authority to fix the prices for them, not only for everything 

 they raise themselves, but for everything they buy, until, by force of 

 necessity, they form just such organizations as that which is repre- 

 sented here today. I am not going to enter into any discussion as to 

 ways and means of stopping that condition at this time; it has nothing 

 to do with the farm loan business; but it shows the utter absurdity 

 of the ordinary methods of business to which the farmer has been com- 

 pelled to accustom himself by reason of the archaic custom into which 

 we have fallen. It is time to carry those same principles of co-opera- 

 tion into action that lie at the foundation of every business activi'y. 



So when you borrow from the land bank, you don't borrow from the 

 government at all, but from yourselves, because every man who bor- 

 rows any money from the land bank becomes automatically a stock- 

 holder in that bank to the amount of five per cent of his loan. That 

 bank becomes to that extent his institution. It is operated for his 

 benefit. The profits which he is accustomed to paying to outside agencies 

 for handling his farm business for him are cut off at once, and the 

 money stays in his own pocket. The business is operated upon a service 

 charge of only one-half of one per cent. The money is invested in 

 mortgages at the current rates, and the earnings of the mortgages are 



