56 FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



the mortgage, paid it off and handed it to the Colonel. Of 

 course, the planter was so grateful to him he consented to 

 the marriage. 



This story was dramatized, filmed and exhibited in movies 

 all over the country. No wonder boys get dissatisfied with 

 the old slow farm life when they see the choicest prizes going 

 to the gamblers in farm products. 



There's a remedy. It is this : Let the big five wheat, 

 cotton, corn, cattle and hog growers unionize separately, 

 then federate. Adopt the minimum price system through 

 which to control prices and put the boards of trade gamblers 

 out of business in their products. A few farmers may op- 

 pose this program, but that might expose them to the sus- 

 picion that they had been fortunate gamblers themselves, 

 or else lucky a few times in selling products at the top price 

 speculators put them to and thus gained a relative advantage 

 over neighbors who sold at lower prices, or they may have 

 a covetous eye on a farm they hope the owner will be obliged 

 to sell cheap or be unable to pay off the mortgage on it, so 

 he can bid it in. Be that as it may, a very large majority 

 of the farmers will favor encouraging and protecting their 

 sons in the slow but honest, industrious way of home build- 

 ing and ownership through production by knocking out this 

 tempting gambling device of boards of trade. 



Objections to Government Price-Making. 



Of course, it would be much better for the wheat growers 

 were the government to continue setting the price on wheat 

 than to return that function to the gamblers. But the gov- 

 ernment should in that case price everything the wheat 

 raisers must buy to do them justice. The time will probably 

 come when the government will find it necessary to take 

 over the entire business of price-making for all classes to 

 prevent oppressive monopolies. 



