98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and to insure this there must be the certainty of recognition 

 not now accorded. We must have an impelling attraction 

 to lead out into the field so clearly outlined by the host of 

 speakers who view the situation wholly from the standpoint 

 of the consumer or dealer, never from that of the farmer. 

 Give the producer a living share in the consumer's dollar and 

 a new life would be injected into the whole agricultural 

 problem. The question is not alone what does the producer 

 get per pound, per quart or per bushel, but what pi-ojiortion 

 does he get of what the consumer pays. While he struggles 

 to grow the crops and make the products, denying himself 

 that he may live, there is before him continually the cer- 

 tainty that his share in every dollar paid by the consumer 

 for what he grows is less than 35 cents. Let the President 

 and the railroad magnates, who are so frank in lecturing the 

 farmer about increasing volume per acre, assist in increasing 

 cash per acre, and the furrows would multiply and harvests 

 increase. 



The greatest obstacle encountered by the student, thinker 

 or worker to-day in the agricultural tield is this combination 

 of factors which stand between the producer and consumer, 

 a combination united, powerful and exacting. It has not 

 come in a day, but has been the growth of years, and its 

 avenues of control are extending yearly over rural life. It 

 closes cold storage plants when growers decline to sell. It 

 unloads upon the market to break prices. It stops factories 

 to check volume, and the grower is helpless because there is 

 no competition. When producers attempt to organize for 

 self-protection, to insure a living price for any commodity, 

 the cry of restraint of trade is at once heard and injunc- 

 tions are issued promptly from our courts. With public 

 speakers and the press so prompt in placing emphasis upon 

 the importance of lifting production per acre, or per animal, 

 to provide the food of support for our rapidly increasing 

 population, while trade combinations are extending their 

 power to check protection for the grower, the farmer is be- 

 tween the upper and nether millstones. 



I do not stand here with any thought of solving this great 

 problem, but simply to suggest what'seems natural and inev- 



