CHAPTER XXVIII 

 PRICE-FIXING AND THE COST OF FARM PRODUCTS 



IN the preceding chapter attention has been called to the 

 ways in which farmers may cooperate and the ways in which 

 governments may regulate the activities of middlemen with a 

 view to securing fair prices for farm products. In this chapter 

 attention will be given to the question of price regulation as a 

 means of solving the marketing problem. 



Many who in the past have been satisfied to leave the fixing of 

 prices of farm products entirely to competitive forces operat- 

 ing under the law of supply and demand now see the need of 

 commissions to adjust prices. The Price Commission, to be suc- 

 cessful, cannot represent a class, but must stand for economic 

 justice to all classes. The condition and needs of the producer, 

 the distributor, and the consumer must be considered with equal 

 care. The biggest problem in price-fixing is to get the facts 

 needed as the basis of action. 



For many years the idea of price control has received the at- 

 tention of farmers who have been hard pressed to make both ends 

 meet. Dollar wheat sounds cheap now, but at one time it looked 

 like a cure-all for the ills of the Dakota farmers. The control of 

 cotton prices has often been talked about in times of low prices, 

 and the price of Burley tobacco was more than doubled by the 

 concerted action of farmers in holding their product and refrain- 

 ing from growing a crop in 1908. In all this agitation it was 

 argued that the price should be enough to pay the cost of produc- 

 tion and a reasonable profit. This point of view stimulated in- 

 terest in farm cost accounting as a basis for price-fixing. 



The United States Department of Agriculture and many state 

 experiment stations have cooperated with farmers in keeping 

 detailed records of man and horse labor, the use of equipment, 



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