THE FARMER'S WAR AGAINST MONOPOLIES. 295 



The farmer, the producer of the food of the country, 

 is compelled to make a heavy outlay of money and time 

 in order to make a fair crop of grain. To this outlay 

 he adds his labor, which is long and severe. When his 

 crop is harvested and sent to market, he receives a small 

 profit upon his investment in the price paid for his 

 grain, and this is still further reduced by the iniquitous 

 freights levied upon him by the railroads for transport- 

 ing his produce to market. The grain upon reaching 

 market passes into other hands, and sells at an advance 

 upon the price paid the farmer. The next step is to 

 convert it into flour or meal, and here another profit is 

 added to its cost, and one very much larger than that 

 received by the farmer. Millers are fortunate men, and 

 they are experts in the art of making money. The flour 

 or meal next passes into the hands of the commission 

 merchant, or the retail dealer, and by the time it 

 reaches the final consumer the cost is vastly increased 

 by the number of profits it has to pay. As flour or 

 bread a price is paid for it which the whole community 

 pronounce too high, and the result is that the farmer is 

 universally denounced for his rapacity. He is believed 

 by the average consumer of bread to be enjoying the 

 proceeds of an extortionate price for the chief article of 

 human consumption. 



Now the truth is, that of all the profits we have 

 enumerated, that of the farmer is the smallest and the 

 most unfair. It is not in proportion to that of the mer- 

 chant or the miller. He is robbed by the railroads in 

 the first instance, and in the next place his price is kept 

 down in order that the grain merchant and the miller 

 may enlarge their profits. These worthy gentlemen 

 are shrewd enough to join in the general demand for 



