THE ECONOMIC PROTEST 215 



"Now, people talk about the law of supply and 

 demand fixing the price; therefore the farmer is 

 foolish when he assumes to do it. They ignore the 

 practice that obtains everywhere else. In other in- 

 dustries they even in many cases insist upon con- 

 trolling the retail price even after the commodity 

 has left their hands and gone into the hands of the 

 retail merchant, in the interest of stability of their 

 industry, whatever it may be. ... In all other in- 

 dustries the gentlemen who produce insist that their 

 lips shall be the ones which speak the word first. 

 Under present agricultural conditions, the farmer 

 does not dare even to frame a price in his own mind 

 until he has consulted the local dealer in the 

 town." 



In another connection in the same address, Gov- 

 ernor Lowden, after explaining the difference be- 

 tween "normal price" and "market price," said: 

 "Everyone agrees that in making the market price 

 there must be equality of conditions on the two 

 sides and equality of information, or that price will 

 not reflect or even approximate the normal price. 

 Is there any such equality under present conditions? 

 In other words, what of the isolated individual 

 farmer situated a thousand miles from the market? 

 Is he on terms of equality in arriving at a just mar- 

 ket price with the great centralized, powerful organ- 

 izations, with their representatives scattered all over 

 the world, using the wires hour by hour and com- 



