AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 237 



other town or city and inquire how long the family could live 

 without replenishing their food supply. The answer would be 

 "we must buy to-morrow." Go to the grocery store and ask 

 the same question and to the wholesale or commission houses, 

 and they will tell you that, should the farmers stop marketing 

 for a single day there would be hardships ; for a week actual 

 distress would be experienced. The same illustration can be 

 applied to our clothing, which is made from the farmer's wool, 

 cotton, etc. Where is there an intelligent man who is so 

 dead to his own interests that he would not take legitimate 

 advantage of such genuine necessity to secure his just rights 

 and protect his own family from hardships? The producers 

 of our food are under no legal or moral obligation to feed the 

 world at an unfairly low price. 



With things so much desired as the food we eat and the 

 clothes we wear, the rule should be for the consumer to seek 

 them — because he must have them — rather than for the pro- 

 ducer to force or dump them on him. 



Stop, good farmer, and consider what possibilities open 

 up at this viewpoint. There are no other commodities in the 

 world so desired as yours, in fact they are absolutely neces- 

 sary for the comfort and existence of human and animal life. 

 In your business you have all possibilities of extortion, yet 

 the farmers can be trusted to feed the world at fair prices, 

 even when cooperating on this plan, where equity rules. 



This plan of cooperation contemplates a society or organi- 

 zation. It is called the American Society of Equity. (There 

 may be a Russian Society of Equity, a German Society of 

 Equity, etc., if necessary, but, as America is the great surplus 

 nation, prices may be made here which will govern over the 

 world.) 



Tn support of the suggested name, "American Society of 

 Equity," We will give Webster's definition, as follows : 



"Equity — Equality of rights; natural justice of rights; the 

 giving or desiring to give to each man his due, according to 

 reason and the law of God to man ; fairness in determination 

 of conflicting claims; impartiality." 



"Equity is synonymous with or equal to justice, rectitude. 

 (See below.) 



"Justice — The quality of being just, conformity to the prin- 



