74 THE THIRD POWER 



And this was the condition they met, but they did 

 not want to admit it : Farmers were holding to a 

 great extent in all the states, yet without sufficient 

 organization and cooperative ability to force the 

 price to the dollar mark quickly. The millers, how- 

 ever, would not admit it, and the statements made 

 were calculated to stampede the farmers and cause 

 them to market more freely. This occurred in Au- 

 gust, 1903, and the farmers did produce a condition 

 that fully justified dollar wheat by withholding sup- 

 plies and decreasing the visible to the lowest point 

 in many years. The speculators, however, were de- 

 termined to hold the price down and defeat the farm- 

 ers. Every bear argument that could be found, real 

 or imaginary, was brought to bear. Another reason 

 why prices were so strenuously held down was the 

 fact that the 1903 wheat crop was sold out by the 

 speculators around sixty-five cents a bushel in the 

 spring when prospects were so flattering and a nine- 

 hundred-million-bushel crop was predicted; also 

 millers contracted flour that would keep their mills 

 grinding for months. It was to the interest of these 

 speculators and millers to keep the price down as low 

 as possible until they could fill their contracts. The 

 obvious conclusion, therefore, is that the combina- 

 tion, to be effective, must include a large number of 

 farmers. The temporary surplus of any crop must 

 be controlled ; that is, a surplus must not appear at 

 any time. I estimate that one million farmers will 

 be sufficient. This is only a comparatively small 



