2l8 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



Do you suppose the merchant is going to continue selling 

 goods at that rate? u Oh, then I'll go back to the co- 

 operative store. n You will? You goose! You've got no 

 co-operative store now. You've killed it by your neglect. 

 You've got no more sense than the man who sat on the 

 wrong end of the limb and sawed it off. 



"But didn't those other fellows keep up the co-opera- 

 tive store?'* No. They went and acted a fool like you did, 

 and now you are again at the mercy of high prices. O, 

 fools of men ! When will we have sense enough to set a 

 goose on a hillside? These things are transpiring every 

 day. People are paying millions of dollars exorbitant profits 

 into the hands of greedy middle-men, and persist in saying 

 they are satisfied with this condition of things. The 

 merchant fixes the price on what he sells you. Do you 

 fix the price on what you sell him? If it is cotton the 

 price is fixed in England and each middle-man must have 

 a slice off of that. If it is beef or pork the price is fixed 

 by a combination of packers. So with all other things 

 which the producer has to sell. The financial condition 

 of the farmers is such that they cannot hold their products 

 for better prices. Merchants take advantage of this. They 

 take the farmers' cotton, hold it at their pleasure, and buy 

 goods on it as security. Why not the farmers organize 

 business enterprises and do the same thing? All these 

 things prove that we must work on a broader ground and 

 go to the deeper roots of the problem. We cannot hope 

 to obtain justice for the toilers while the elements of pro- 

 duction and distribution remain under the control of the 

 few. Neither can we hope to get control of these elements 

 in any other way than by co-operation. The evils of 

 which we complain are as largely due to defects in our 

 industrial and social system, as they are too dishonest in 

 our political system, for the former is the foundation and 

 the latter is a structure resting on it, and when the source 



