Defenseless Trade Position of Agriculture. 97 



might result in prices as far below as it had risen above 

 a fair level. 



Something more remains to be added in the compari- 

 son of trade positions. In combinations for fixing price, 

 other things being eqnal, the fewer the persons in the 

 movement that need to be consulted the greater the suc- 

 cess. The number of proprietors in manufacture is one 

 to every seven or eight workmen ; in agriculture the num- 

 ber of laborers is fewer than the number of farmers. 



Then again manufacturers are located in the centres of 

 population in easy reach of each other by car, train, tel- 

 ephone and telegraph ; the farmers are scattered all over 

 the territory of the nation, widely separated from each 

 other, with no direct way of communicating, utterly un- 

 known to each other. 



There is no headquarters of production. There is no 

 way of concentrating agricultural supplies and forcing 

 them on the market by a few guarded channels. For 

 most agricultural products supplies can be obtained from 

 a thousand sources and these enter the market at as 

 many points. 



For these reasons farmers' products are simply 

 thrown on the market, and the degree of supply to de- 

 mand determines the price at all points. Nothing is 

 done — nothing can be done to hold price at a fair level. 

 The inevitable result of millions of men competing under 

 existing conditions is to cause price to fall far below a 

 reasonable level. 



To cap all, as if the trade position of agriculture was 

 not bad enough, the national government increases the 

 degree of competition by giving away farms, by making 

 great tracts of land available by irrigation and by its 

 foreign policy of restricting trade. 



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