QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 255 



A. S. of E. promises, and you can not drive them apart. Ap- 

 peal to their self-interest — selfish interests, if you please — and 

 they will stick to the thing that makes them money and ele- 

 vates their calling. 



4. Q. Does speculation injure farmers? 



A. It certainly does. It is the greatest curse of the country. 

 Usually the farmers' crops are sold months before they are 

 grown, when, if conditions justify higher prices the speculators 

 won't let the price go up until their contracts are filled. The 

 boards of trade are the devil's workshops, in which the earn- 

 ings of farmers are forged for the benefit of a few individuals 

 who become immensely wealthy. 



5. Q. Is not cheap food a blessing to the world? 



A. Cheap food and dear pleasures are not equitable. In 

 prosperous times the masses spend money extravagantly for 

 pleasures. Why should they not pay good prices for food? 

 In fact, low prices to the farmers will speedily put them out 

 of the field as consumers, and every business and all working 

 people in the country will suffer. 



6. Q. What are the speculative commodities? 



A. Agricultural products, railroad shares and mining stocks. 



7. Q. Why are these selected to speculate in? 

 A. Because of the uncertainties attending them. 



8. Q. How can agricultural products be removed from the 

 list? 



A. By making prices certain. By fixing a price once a year, 

 when the crop is produced, and demanding that price. This is 

 equitable, the farmer has as much right to do this as the man- 

 ufacturer, the banker, the lawyer, the physician, the gas man, 

 the ice man, the union laborer or any other person on earth. 

 Besides, the farmer has a better chance to enforce his demands 

 than any of the others. His goods are indispensable ; the 

 others may be done without. 



9. Q. When is the time to organize the farmers? 



A. Now is the time. There are more farmers in an inde- 

 pendent condition now than for many years. These are the 

 farmers who have good land and raised good crops in the 

 short crop years. Short crops make good prices. Big crops 

 make low prices. Farmers suffer more from big crops than 

 from small crops. This is the time to organize and keep prices 

 up. Have you not noticed how the speculators price your 

 crops down as soon as crop prospects are good? As soon as 

 you raise big crops two years in succession prices will go 

 away down. Don't you want good prices for good crops? 

 Then the blessings will be equally distributed. Organize now, 

 and not when mortgages are plastered all over your homes. 



10. Q. Will farmers' business grow worse? 



A. Lines opposed to the farmers — and they constitute every 



