lyo 



The Journal of Heredity 



Great Britain — the feeling of protest 

 and revolt against commercial exploita- 

 tion and control by those who do not 

 share the burdens of agriculture, nor 

 understand its problems. Throwing 

 a cargo of tea into Boston Harbor was 

 a lawless escapade, but marked a 

 change in the temper of the Colonies, 

 as historians have reflected. The 

 analogy, of course, is not to be followed 

 in the direction of political separation 

 of the country from the cities. The 

 mutual relations of agriculture with 

 industry and commerce, as parts of our 

 national system, are obvious, and the 

 need of keeping the parts in practical 

 adjustment, if the system is not to be 

 impaired. 



STABILIZED MARKETING SYSTEM NEEDED 



The recent war-time prosperity of 

 farmers did not mean that the tenden- 

 cies of our system had changed. No 

 mere flurry of high prices and "good 

 times," but a thorough readjustment 

 of economic, social, and rural welfare 

 conditions is needed, to make farming 

 as profitable, as safe, and as stable as 

 urban business. A prosperous turn to 

 farming, by making it easier to sell 

 land, serves at first merely to facilitate 

 the movement to the city, among those 

 who have been waiting for chances to 

 go. What has to be recognized and 

 corrected is the general eftoct of our 

 present system to penalize and dis- 

 courage farming by making country life 

 more difficult and precarious than 

 living in the city. The farmer will 

 have a dependent status as long as the 

 merchant has the life-and-death power 

 over prices, without regard to the 

 interests of agriculture or of the con- 

 smuing public. An irresponsible com- 

 mercial system is sure to abuse its 

 power, like an irresponsible govern- 

 ment, or a parasitic military caste. 

 Taking advantage of war-time condi- 

 tions to collect double or treble profits 

 must be reckoned as an abuse of 

 commercial power. 



PerishabU; prodiuis hnw more acute 

 reactions (^f supply and demand, but 

 no practical reasons ha\e been dis- 

 covered ff)r the \vrv widi- flucluations 



in the prices of imperishable products 

 like cotton. Since it is possible to 

 know in advance the kinds and quan- 

 tities of fiber that are needed, and to 

 approximate the costs of producing, 

 transporting and storing a normal crop 

 of cotton, a practical marketing system 

 might be worked out, at least to the 

 extent that farmers who raise normal 

 crops would not be forced to sell 

 for less than the production costs. The 

 natural consequence of making busi- 

 ness more profitable than production 

 is to have too much business and too 

 little production. Business depressions 

 alternate with business inflations, for 

 lack of adjustment of the commercial 

 systeiu to the needs of production. 

 Stable prices and a steady flow of 

 trade are in the interest of producers 

 and consumers, but speculators must 

 buy low and sell high, to get their 

 profits. Speculative dominance of 

 markets turns the whole system of 

 trade into an agency of exploitation. 

 That "business confidence" is so im- 

 portant a factor in the prosperity of 

 agriculture or other producing indus- 

 tries, shows how precarious our system 

 is, how completely it is built on the 

 sand of speculation. The farmers do 

 not get good prices for their cotton 

 unless the urban speculators are taking 

 chances that cotton will go still higher! 



SPECULATION KICACTS ON PRODUCTION 



Over-exploitation, rather than over- 

 production, is to be considered as the 

 cause of urban panics and agricultural 

 crises. When business over-reaches 

 too far, the "demand" is suppressed. 

 Kxcessi\'e profit-taking interferes with 

 normal consumjition, and production 

 gets a needless set-back. Speciflati\'e 

 (lerangements of the connnercial sys- 

 tem discourage farmers and restrict 

 production no less than root-rot or 

 Ijoll-weevils. That we do not produce 

 i-nough sugar, oil, wool, or long-staple 

 cotton for emergency needs, was recog- 

 nized as a national danger during the 

 war. How to jirotect agriculture 

 against spi'culali\e boat-rocking and 

 mob-psycliology in urban marki-ts, may 

 1)1' learned in time, and how to dis- 



