ADVOCATE AND GUIDE. 129 



might see in this ring system that the farmers them- 

 es as consumers would pay the additional price of the 



de. They would pay their share of it proportionately as 

 it returned to them in its various manufactured articles 

 they use, but that price might not be any higher on account 

 of the increased price for farm hides. A tracer from the 

 price equalization board of the hide producers' union would 

 trace a hide through all its course and the union would 

 eliminate all excess profits by a more direct and less expen- 

 sive routing. This would result in higher prices for farm 

 hides and lower prices for leather goods. 



The same process would apply to most all unionized farm 

 products, such as wheat, cotton, corn, cattle, hogs, wool, 

 poultry, eggs, butter, etc. Eggs are now (Dec. 15, 1918), 60 

 cents a dozen, for which the farmers got 15 cents last spring 

 when the hens were laying. An egg-producers' union could 

 raise the price to 35 cents to the farmers and lower it to 40 

 cents to the consumers. 



Farmers Not Represented in the President's Official 



Family. 



The President's official family is the Cabinet, composed of 

 the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, State, War, 

 Navy, Interior, and Treasury. They constitute the Presi- 

 dent's advisory council. There is not a farmer among them 

 according to their biographies in the Congressional Directory. 

 The Secretary of Agriculture is supposed to represent the 

 farmers, but he is not of that class of citizens, and can no 

 more represent the interests of farmers than a farmer could 

 the interests of college professors. Here is his biography 

 from the Congressional Directory of the Sixty-fifth Congress : 



"David Franklin Houston, of St. Louis, Mo., Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture (1808 New Hampshire Avenue), was born in Monroe, Union 

 County, N. C., February 17, 1866 ; A. B. South Carolina College 1887 ; 

 A. M. Harvard 1892; LL. D. Tulane 1903, University of Wisconsin 



