FARMERS TO THE FRONT 17 



which make whatever rates and prices they please, 

 and discriminate against one class and in favor of 

 others? To hold that this condition of things must 

 continue is to hold that the farmers, on whom all 

 others depend for their very life, comfort and privi- 

 lege to do business, must depend on those who are 

 really dependent on them. If the farmers were able 

 to put a value on each of their products the betting 

 in Chicago would stop, for the gamblers would know 

 that they could not settle except on terms made 

 by the farmers. If the farmers would control their 

 own products, they could refuse to ship until the 

 railroads gave them fair and equitable rates, and so 

 along the whole line. No man can buy until some 

 other one is willing to sell, and if the farmers of 

 the United States could say through their organiza- 

 tion that they would not sell till they got their price, 

 they would get it. They could corner the supply as 

 easily as the Chicago gamblers can, simply by hold- 

 ing on to what is their own — to what no one else 

 has any right to except on payment of the price de- 

 manded by the owner, and they would soon come 

 to the farm, or to the farmer's representative — his 

 society — and meet his terms. Only thus can the 

 farmer win his freedom and independence, and he 

 can do it without infringing on the rights of any 

 one else, and to the infinite betterment of all. 



These questions seem simple enough, and yet they 

 are apparently giving a good deal of trouble to cer- 

 tain classes of people who are already somewhat dis- 



2 



