80 FARMERS UNION AND FEDERATION 



since other parties can and do fix the price on them regard- 

 less of whether wheat be $1.00 or $3.00 a bushel, as the 

 following press items conclusively proves : 



"WASHINGTON, Nov. 25. A statement showing average family ex- 

 penditure for food during the past year has just been issued by the Labor 

 Department. The figures, which are based on price quotations received 

 monthly by the department from more than 2,000 retail stores through- 

 out the country, and which are taken from twenty-two of the most es- 

 sential articles, show that the average family expenditure from Septem- 

 ber, 1917, to Septamber, 1918, increased sixteen per cent." 



Remember that during all that time the price of wheat 

 was stationary, having been set by the government. It was 

 not one of the twenty-two articles that increased the cost of 

 living sixteen per cent in one year. 



But here "are some of the producers and dealers in the prod- 

 ucts of wheat that did contribute to that increased cost of 

 living : 



" 'To make a barrel of flour takes 264 pounds of wheat,' declared Mr. 

 Hyde, at a convention of farmers at Kansas City, Kan., March 21. 

 'From this barrel of flour the bakers get 300 sixteen-ounce loaves of bread. 

 The farmer gets $8.80 for the wheat that goes into the barrel of flour. 

 The consumer pays a total of $31.36 for the 300 loaves of bread. That 

 makes a difference of $22.66 and who gets it? When wheat was ninety 

 cents a bushel, soda crackers sold for five cents a pound. Now, when 

 wheat is about twice that price, the price of crackers has gone up to 

 twenty cents. Hoover recommended the people eat substitutes for 

 wheat flour, and through a patriotic spirit the people obeyed. Imme- 

 diately the price of corn meal and other substitute flour products as- 

 cended.' " 



Had wheat been $3.20 instead of $2.20, Chicago basis, 

 what a boon it would have been to the wheat grower and 

 his family. It would have given them fair wages and over- 

 head expenses while not adding one cent to the cost of liv- 

 ing. It would have simply been deducted from the excess 

 profits of the foregoing profiteerers. Wouldn't all people ex- 

 cept these rather see the wheat raisers get it? 



Then, wheat growers, unionize and take what is justly 

 yours from these city profiteers in your product. 



