FARMERS' EXCHANGE COLLAPSES 



Or: 



As has been said several times in this colimin of late, 

 the fluctuations are caused mainly by the operations 

 of professional traders. 



These things they read all the year around 

 and then contemplated the immensity of the 

 falsehood that the prices of their produce 

 were subject to demand and supply or to any 

 other influence except that of the manipu- 

 lators and speculators for whose benefit the 

 farmer arose early and labored late. 



These men, moreover, had read books 

 about the economic struggle elsewhere. They 

 had read about the great co-operative move- 

 ment in Europe, the inspiring record of the 

 Rochdale pioneers, the marvelous story of 

 life remade for the farmers of Belgium and 

 Italy by the simple achievement of combining 

 their forces. They knew that co-operation 

 had the indorsement of all sociologists as 

 scientifically sound and humanly useful. It 

 seemed to them as feasible in Minnesota as 

 in England or France. Their grain was sold 

 in a public market chartered by the law of 

 their state. All that was needed was that 

 grain should be handled on that market so 

 as to deliver it straight from producer to 

 consumer and both would share in the great 

 saving that would result. 



About a dozen of them, impressed with this 



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