THE PLAN 241 



products will be at an end, but should the speculators choose 

 to send the prices above the fair minimum price recommended 

 by the society, members and non-members can of course ac- 

 cept them. It is the hope of the society that they can never 

 bear prices below the equitable price named. 



When a value is placed on a crop of grain, cotton, pork, 

 beef, etc., it would be expected to control until the next 

 crop year, unless very material changes occurred to affect 

 consumption, or future crop prospects warrant a revision. 

 To prevent too liberal marketing at the start an advance will 

 be made on each staple article each month it is held, thus 

 justifying part of the producers in holding their crops. This 

 advance will be for protection only, but if there is a tendency 

 to market too much it can be increased so as to make it 

 profitable to hold back. 



The frequent fluctuations of the market (many times a 

 day) are not in the interest of the farmers, but for the specu- 

 lators and gamblers. Do farmers profit by these fluctuations? 

 Certainly not. But they could make many improvements, 

 provide many comforts for their families, or indulge in many 

 pleasures, if they knew the wheat in their granaries was worth 

 not less than eighty-five cents or one dollar a bushel, the same 

 in September, January and April, and the same way with other 

 crops. 



A plan such as this is the only practical one for the farm- 

 ers. Manufacturers may form trusts and partnerships and be 

 bound by ironclad agreements, but with the great agricultural 

 industry any enormous concentration of capital to control 

 prices would prove an incentive to unusual production, an 

 inducement to hold crops and a desire to obtain fictitious 

 values when the plan would fail. With our plan, where price 

 is based entirely on merit, an unusually large world's crop, 

 whither from increased acreage, increased yield per acre or 

 accumulations in the hands of producers or holders, means 

 lower prices in the future. This fear of lower prices will of it- 

 self be sufficient incentive to keep the crops moving into con- 

 sumption. The safety-valve will be reliable information placed 

 before them, a fair minimum price and the intelligence and 

 common sense of a fair portion of the American farmers. Array 



