114 FARMERS' UNION AND FEDERATION 



"The lesson of the war in pool buying is being continued by England 

 and the Allies. They buy at various prices, then average them and sell 

 to the people at prices lower than would prevail were there no pool 

 buying. 



"This plan is a natural one and protects the English or French 

 consumer, but it threatens the American food market. America has 

 stimulated production to care for her Allies. 



"Now if they go into other and cheaper markets of the world first 

 and refuse to enter the American market until the rest of the world has 

 been swept clean or until they can break American prices to suit their 

 pocketbooks, American producers, if unprotected in their market, face 

 a serious situation. 



"Food buying by the Allies with no food control here would give 

 them the power to dictate to the American market. They might buy 

 at prices lower than the cost of production or so manipulate prices as 

 to drain our supplies. 



"In the long run, however, the nation with the food supply can 

 control the situation, but only if the nation is organized to do so. The 

 government, it is said, must extend food control during the reconstruc- 

 tion period in order to prevent prices going too high for the consumer 

 and too low for the producer, and at the same time to regulate the flow 

 of food out of the country, so that there shall be no serious shortage 

 at any time." 



Had the wheat growers been unionized they could have 

 rushed organizers to Australia, Argentine and other wheat 

 exporting countries to unionize the wheat raisers, so they 

 could command union prices for their wheat and not under- 

 sell us in the world's market. It would be no more to our 

 interest to have the wheat price lowered by scab wheat 

 raisers than for union labor to have wages lowered by scab 

 labor. 



Monopoly Selling Should Meet Monopoly Buying. 



A plan is brewing to place the buying of all the export 

 wheat in the world in the hands of Mr. Hoover, for the im- 

 porting nations to stop competition among them for the 

 wheat, and thus reduce the price of wheat to the lowest 

 possible level through world-wide monopoly buying, as the 

 following news item indicates : 



