120 



Third. Organized agriculture has helped in the establishment of the 

 famous Agricultural Bloc which has so vigorously supported agricultural 

 measures. 



Fourth. You have helped to secure the first general reduction in the 

 freight rates on any basic commodity throughout the United States that has 

 ever been obtained in the history of American railroading, a reduction 

 which will save the farmers of our country approximately one hundred mil- 

 lion dollars annually. 



Fifth. You have helped in a marked degree to prevent the enactment 

 of a sales tax as a substitute for an excess profits tax. A sales tax dis- 

 tributes the burdens of the government in accordance with what people 

 oonsume. That is not exactly the result, but in substance that is the effect. 

 The cost of government should be borne not in accordance with what we con- 

 sume, but in accordance with the benefits we derive from government or 

 in accordance with our ability to bear that burden. A great capitalist may 

 not consume very much more than you or I, but he may have a billion 

 dollars worth of property protected in a thousand different cities and hamlets 

 throughout the country. He should certainly bear a larger portion of the 

 costs of government than you or I. 



Sixth. Two years ago you helped to secure a reduction in the tentative 

 valuation of railroad properties upon which freight rates have to be based, 

 aggregating one billion, seven hundred million dollars. This meant a net 

 annual saving of approximately one hundred million dollars to the shippers 

 of the country. And you helped to force a part of the burden over on pas- 

 senger traffic which the railroads were proposing to place on freight traffic. 

 This meant an additional saving to the freight shippers of approximately 

 three hundred million dollars annually. 



Seventh. You helped to persuade the Federal Trade Commission to 

 reverse its former position and to file a complaint against the United States 

 Steel Corporation, demanding a change in the "Pittsburgh Plus" system of 

 fixing prices on steel products throughout the country. The agricultural 

 industry consumes the second largest amount of steel products of any indus- 

 try in the country, and you are vitally concerned in the Pittsburgh plus case. 

 Today prices on rolled steel products are made on the price at Pittsburgh 

 plus the freight from Pittsburgh, even though the steel is actually produced 

 at Chicago or Birmingham. This fictitious fright cost levies a burden upon 

 the consumer of iron and steel products throughout the West, aggregating 

 several dollars a ton on every ton you use. In one building in Chicago 

 this added cost amounted to over $60,000.00. The total burden aggregates 

 many millions. 



Eighth. You have helped to cystallize the great co-operative movement 

 throughout the nation, which will enable farmers to sell their products col- 

 lectively in a sane, business-like way. 



I have recited these facts simply to demonstrate in a concise manner 

 the real value of organized activity and a few of the achievements that 

 you have helped to bring about. 



FABMEBS BIGHT TO OBQANIZE. 



This is a day of organization. That is the great lesson that you must 

 learn as a result of the experience of the past few years. If it is right for 

 those men who sell your grain to unite and fix prices which they shall 

 charge; if it is right for those who sell your live stock to do likewise; if it is 

 right for the great steel companies to unite in one large company, handling 

 50 per cent of the steel of the nation; if it is right for the railroads of Amer- 

 ica to unite in one great association representing over 90 per cent of the rail- 

 road mileage of the nation; then It is right for the farmers of America to 

 unite in a few, powerful Institutions which will safeguard their interests. The 



