120 THE THIRD POWER 



and control competition. If it succeeds the farmer 

 will be forced to look out for his own interests. He 

 should be in a position to say that he will not ship 

 at all unless he can be sure of a fair net price on the 

 farm for the products of his own toil. 



The farmer is often told that the railroads are his 

 friends. He himself need not be an enemy to the 

 railroads in order to realize that there are no friend- 

 ships in the business world. That world is a world 

 of struggle and conquest. In that struggle the 

 strongest win. Under present conditions the rail- 

 roads will be as fair to the farmer as it pays them to 

 be. Under the conditions which it is proposed to 

 create they will be as fair as the farmer can compel 

 them to be. Other men use the power that they pos- 

 sess, often in illegal and criminal ways, to coerce the 

 railroads into favoring them. It is not intended that 

 the farmers shall do anything illegal or criminal, 

 but it is meant that they should realize that these 

 unfair concessions are paid for by less powerful and 

 favorable shippers, the farmers among them. So it 

 is important that these latter should stand up for 

 their own rights. If all shippers were treated equally 

 there is reason to believe that freight rates could be 

 reduced considerably, to the great benefit of the 

 whole country. 



Further, in the vast reorganization schemes of 

 which we have heard so much, some of the railroads 

 have been over-capitalized just as other industries 

 have. And the farmer has to pay enough to enable 



