

ADVOCATE AND GUIDE, 57 



Were the government to continue pricing wheat it would 

 still be necessary for the wheat growers to unionize to have 

 authorized and qualified representatives to plead their cause 

 before the price-making authorities to get a square deal. All 

 unionized classes are clamoring for cheap wheat, and would 

 influence a class-ruled government against the interest of 

 unorganized wheat raisers. 



In May, 1917, when speculators had the wheat, the price 

 went to $3.40 a bushel in Chicago, but the government saw 

 no way to interfere with profits of gamblers and speculators. 

 But when the growers had a new crop about ready to put 

 on a $3.00 market with a good prospect of it rising, the gov- 

 ernment got busy and reduced it to $2.20 for the entire year, 

 and $2.00 for the succeeding year after a timely tip to the 

 speculators and gamblers to unload. This shows that the 

 government could not be trusted to deal fairly with the 

 wheat growers unless they were unionized to bring their 

 nited influence to bear against other organized classes. 



Tariff Discrimination Against Farmers. 



Placing a duty on foreign goods to protect the domestic 

 market for native producers is a device to allow the home 

 producers to unionize and arbitrarily raise the price of their 

 products to the foreigner's price plus the tariff. That com- 

 pels the consumer to pay that much more. The placing of 

 that tariff on goods the farmers buy while leaving foreign 

 agricultural products to come in free of duty shows the class 

 nature of the device in its discrimination against the unor- 

 ganized farmers. 



A partial list of articles and amount of ad valorem duty 

 on them, from the United States Customs Duties of 1913, 

 that farmers buy are as follows : 



Earthenware, porcelain, decorated 40% 



Earthenware, common ' 15% 



Glassware, plain and cut 45% 



