FARMERS TO THE FRONT 5 



means of corporations and trusts he has been able to 

 carry through large enterprises, to have something 

 to say about wages, to decrease the cost of produc- 

 tion while keeping no small part of the saving for 

 himself, and to influence, if not to constitute prices. 

 So we see combinations, cooperation and trusts in 

 almost every branch of industry. But the farmer 

 has yet to learn the lesson. Others have something 

 to say about the prices at which they will sell their 

 commodities. If they do not fix them, they at least 

 do influence them favorably to themselves. When 

 the market is glutted, the manufacturer or mine- 

 owner can curtail production, or shut down entirely, 

 until the demand catches up with or runs ahead of 

 .the supply. The laborer can and does refuse to 

 work except on terms reasonably satisfactory to 

 himself, and the mere fear of a strike often drives 

 the employer to make concessions which he would 

 not otherwise think of making. The worker has a 

 voice in the making of his wages, and the employer 

 passes the tax along by making his prices accord- 

 ingly. 



But the farmer allows others to make prices for 

 him. All he is supposed to know under the present 

 system is how to work sixteen hours a day and the 

 road to market. When he gets there he finds a man 

 who tells him how much his produce is worth, and 

 if he wants to take something home with him he is 

 told the price of that also. He has no organization, 

 and no method of bringing pressure to bear on those 



