FARMERS TO THE FRONT 107 



of ground, by securing stability of price, which 

 means stability of prosperity. 



The plan is to recommend a minimum price at 

 which staple crops shall be sold in leading or base 

 markets. For instance, grain prices will be based 

 on Chicago, cotton on New York or New Orleans, 

 etc. Other markets and the farm prices will then be 

 regulated by the base market. The farm price will 

 be the base market price less transportation and cost 

 of handling. Farmers whose produce does not go 

 to the base market can calculate the freight from the 

 principal market that receives their crops. This min- 

 imum value will be named each year when the crop 

 is produced and will be equitable on the basis of pro- 

 duction and consumption, lower in years of large 

 crops than in years of small crops, but always a price 

 that will protect the farmer. If speculators force the 

 price over the minimum price the farmers may, of 

 course, take it. Farmers will be expected, however, 

 to stop marketing when the market will not take 

 more at the minimum price. The minimum price 

 will be the safety valve which will regulate the sup- 

 ply to the demand. 



It must be understood that there has not been a 

 genuine surplus of any farm crop produced in many 

 years. All have gone into consumption. It is the 

 temporary surplus that is responsible for low prices, 

 and it is this temporary surplus that the farmers are 

 expected to control in the American Society of 

 Equity. We see illustrations nearly every day in 



