54 FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



Oklahoma, introduced a bill to raise the price of wheat to 

 $2.50 per bushel at the farmers' hom,e market, .and Senator 

 McCumber, of North Dakota, one to increase the price to 

 $2.75, Chicago basis. 



In order to stop the holding of wheat caused by this agi- 

 tation for higher prices, President Wilson by proclama- 

 tion on February 23, 1918, raised the price of the 1918 crop 

 twenty cents a bushel, making it equal to the 1917 govern- 

 .ment price. A newspaper clipping of that date says : 



"The prices fixed, the President declared, would insure the producer 

 of a reasonable profit. On the basis of No. 1 northern spring wheat and 

 its equivalents, the President fixed the prices as follows : Chicago, $2.20 ; 

 Omaha, $2.15; Kansas City, $2.15; St. Louis, $2.18; New York, 

 $2.28 ; Galveston, $2.20 ; New Orleans, $2.20 ; Fort Worth, Tex., $2.09 ; 

 Oklahoma City, Okla., $2.05 ; Wichita, Kan., $2.08. The equivalents 

 of No. 1 Northern to which the same price applies, are No. 1 hard winter ; 

 No. 1 red winter; No. 1 Durum, and No. 1 hard white. The wheat 

 must be harvested in the United States during 1918 and sold in the 

 market before June 1, 1919." 



This firmly establishes the precedent and legality of price- 

 setting on crops in advance of seeding. It is a most valu- 

 able and necessary duty for wheat growers to perform for 

 themselves when the government quits and leaves them 

 again at the mercy of profiteerers. But only by unionizing 

 can they do it. Teachers and preachers, lawyers and doc- 

 tors and the scores of other professional people have the 

 price of their services fixed in advance of the performance 

 of it. Before union labor strikes a lick of work at anything 

 they see to it that the wages they are to receive are settled. 

 They know in advance what it is to be. Even the most 

 unskilled common laborers know in advance what their 

 daily, weekly or monthly wages are to be. Not so with the 

 farmers. They are the only class of laborers who go it 

 blind by performing the work first before anything is said 

 or done about the price he is to receive. All this can be 

 changed by unionizing and pricing the wheat for a year 

 ahead. 



