CRITICISM OP OUR PRICE-MAKING SYSTEM 17 



deal, or except as the emergency itself compelled a square deal 

 to insure continued production. 



If farmers are to continue under the present laissez faire sys- 

 tem with supply and demand, together with strategic manipula- 

 tions, as the price-making force, they must necessarily learn to 

 play the game themselves. They will find it necessary to practice 

 sabotage in the same scientific, businesslike way as labor and cap- 

 ital. They will reduce the size of their crops at strategic moments, 

 because they know that small crops ordinarily bring in a greater 

 return than large crops. Of course, if farmers should practice 

 sabotage in the same heartless, efficient way as labor and capital, 

 our society will be imperiled. The burden of the sabotage prac- 

 ticed by labor and capital has been borne chiefly by the farmer. 

 When farmers also practice sabotage, labor and capital will be 

 forced to come to an agreement with farmers on production and 

 price matters. 



Is there not a possibility that capital, laborers and farmers, 

 by placing themselves in equally powerful bargaining positions, 

 may come to see the futility of sabotage as a price-sustaining 

 force? Once farmers are able to meet the other classes of society 

 on equal terms, all three classes ought to unite on production as 

 the source of profit, rather than on clever bargaining. This in- 

 volves close-knit organizations of both farmers and laborers under 

 the leadership of men well educated in general economics, in stra- 

 tegic bargaining, and in production. There must be men studying 

 the system as a whole, men who perceive the legitimate physical 

 difficulties which our society faces. The labor leaders must come 

 to see that there is a point beyond which labor can not go in raising 

 wages and reducing hours. Farm leaders must come to see that 

 there is a point beyond which farmers can not go in reducing acre- 

 age and raising prices. Business leaders must come to see that 

 the common people will not stand for curtailment of production to 

 two-thirds factory capacity in order to secure abnormal profits, 

 when by running the factories to full capacity the business will 

 give normal profits. The best brains of all classes must unite in 

 overcoming legitimate physical handicaps, not in figuring out 

 u ays in which a specific class may benefit at the expense of other 

 classes. In the meantime, farmers must learn to use sagacious 

 sabotage as effectively as labor and capital. Otherwise they will 

 continue to be at the mercy of capital and labor. 



What is the best means of overcoming the food shortage re- 

 sulting from drouth? Laissez faire economists and business men 

 say: Let high prices curtail demand and stimulate production. 



