*THl! STATE CONVENTION AT TOPEItA. 273 



only benefit which the farmer could hope for was by well- 

 considered organization. The old question of demand and 

 supply was obsolete and played out ; none of the great inter 

 ests were using it. It was,, instead, the new word of combi 

 nation which determines the price at which iron and other 

 commodities are sold from New York to San Francisco. 

 All classes, whether they be mechanics, engineers, shoemak 

 ers, or boot-blacks, combine and fix the price for their dif 

 ferent products or labor. We have parallel lines of railroad, 

 but they combine and do not compete. If the poor farmers 

 were to combine and withhold their hands, the people would 

 perish. There was but one course for the farmer to pursue, 

 and he would not give one fig for any thing they would ac 

 complish unless they adopted it. He advocated county and 

 State organizations, auxiliary to a National one, all to be in 

 correspondence with headquarters ; and that the National 

 Directory should set the price for farm products in our 

 cities ; who should find out all the statistics of interest to 

 the farmer, average of grain and cost, and have an intelli 

 gent information of the prices determined in all our great 

 cities. The State organizations should, within their limits, 

 gather up such statistics and fix prices, and county societies 

 should do the same. The farmer would then handle the 

 same weapons, and be on the same footing with dealers in 

 iron, wool, and cotton. He urged organization, and whon 

 organized, to correspond with headquarters, and agree to 

 abide in good faith with the Board of Directory as to th* 

 movement of grain and prices. We can then obtain laws, 

 regulate railroads and the price of every commodity to be 

 bought by the farmer. They will give it up when this state 

 of affairs occurs. While he did not advise any political ac 

 tion, his advice was to vote for the known friends of the 

 former, wherever they might be found, and they would soon 



