HIGH COST OF LIVING AND FARMER 63 



combining in restraint of trade, yet what these 

 farmers were attempting to do was to facilitate 

 trade to increase the consumption of milk and 

 to get a fair share of a consumers' price in 

 order to foster production. 



Our city people have overlooked the fact that 

 it is not actual high prices from consumers that 

 the farmer wants, but merely a price that bears 

 a fair relation to the cost of production so that 

 he may secure a reasonable margin. Farmers 

 understand that a moderate price of the food- 

 stuff will tend to encourage and increase pro- 

 duction, thereby making it possible for him to 

 sell more in quantity and get a larger gross re- 

 turn. He is not so much interested in what 

 the actual price is, as in its relation to his costs 

 and the prices of things which he has to buy. He 

 fears the violent fluctuations of prices more 

 than he does the long periods of relatively low 

 prices. Farm production can be adjusted to 

 any level of prices if the changes are not too 

 frequent, and one of our greatest needs is for 

 methods of stabilizing prices. 



There has been considerable narrow thinking 

 concerning the relation of the exportation of our 

 surplus of farm products to the cost of living 

 of our people at home. By providing an outlet 



