The third power : farmers to the front

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THIRD POWER

FARMERS
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THE
THIRD POWER

Farmers to the Front

By J. A. EVERITT

President of The American Society of Equity of North America
Indianapolis, U. S. A.

INDIANAPOLIS

THE HOLLENBECK FKESS

1903

Copyright 1903 by J. A. Everitt

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

/

TO
THE LARGEST CLASS
THE MOST DEPENDENT CLASS
THE HARDEST WORKING CLASS
THE POOREST PAID CLASS
OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
THE FARMERS
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK

1521851

1 9 o3

. PREFACE

" The World as a World scarcely makes a living."

— Horace Greeley.

If there is a place or corner anywhere in the world
where the producers of our food and clothing supplies
(commonly called farmers) are not ready to revolt
against the absolute domination of non-producing
classes in pricing their products, I am not aware of it. i

That the old and thoroughly bad system can speedily
be changed. The producers regulate the marketing
of their products and make their own prices — I am
thoroughly convinced.

The farmers own the earth. We may safely claim
that farming exists by Divine right. The farmers first
possess all the food and clothing supplies which are in-
dispensable for the life and comfort of humans and
domestic animals ; their products constitute the greater
portion of traffic for railroads and ships ; nearly all the
factories work on raw material produced on the farms
and the products of the factories are largely consumed
by the farmers, or in equipments to handle farm prod-
ucts. It is clear, the important position of the farmer
in his relation to all other industries, and how closely
all other industries are interwoven with that of agri-
culture. It is the same way all over the world, in all
civilized countries.

PREFACE

If any people, any one class, or any one industry is
entitled to distinction as the preferred business, or its
people "the select of the earth," that business is agri-
culture and the people are the farmers. If any one
class should prosper more than another, this distinction
should fall to the farmers. But this is not an attempt
to raise one class over others, it is not even an attempt
to make all equal, but to equalize conditions so all may
have an equal opportunity to secure a fair share of re-
wards for efforts put forth.

All movements for the benefit of the masses had op-
position at the start. An idea may be born and pro-
mulgated. The originator of the idea may be stoned to
death or hung, but if the idea is good and has vital
force, it grows and will not down. An evolution once
started never recedes, but develops into the perfect
flower or fruit.

This is an age of organization and cooperation. The
old saying, ''Competition is the life of trade", is
changed to "Cooperation is the life of trade."

An individual would be strong enough if he was the
only individual in the world. However, if he is one of
a large class he is weak and the larger the class the
weaker the individual. The farmer class is the most
numerous, hence, the individual farmer is the weakest
individual when he stands alone. "In union there is
strength." The greater the union the greater the
strength. The farmers united would be the greatest
union — greater than all other unions combined. They
would represent a strength and power such as the

19*3

PREFACE

world never knew before. The farmer power is the
third power to assert itself, but will be the first power
in strength and importance.

The bestirring and awakening of this last and great-
est power is the most significant event of the present
generation. No individual, no matter what his posi-
tion— professional, industrial or political — can afford
to ignore its birth and make calculations on its rise.
For, while it is not a power that will contest for mas-
tery by brute force in the 'fields economic or politic, it
will affect all in its demands for equity and the equal
rights of man.

The entrance of the American Society of Equity
into the economic problems of the world, through
which the Third Power will rise, marks an epoch. The
awakening of the agricultural classes, the organiza-
tion of them into national and international coopera-
tive bodies, which is now being accomplished, will re-
move agriculture from the list of uncertain industries
and place it on a basis of certainty for prices equal to
that enjoyed by the best regulated manufacturing or
commercial enterprises.

The undertaking is great, but since the correct plan
has been evolved, the desirable ends, in the ordinary
evolution of the times, will work out as surely as the
fruit follows the flower. The revolution that will take
place in prevailing customs and laws might appal us
if it was not for the fact that, in the working out of
this stupendous movement everything will be toward

PREFACE

betterments — physically, socially, industrially and po-
litically.

The hope of the author is that the soil owners and
workers will be aroused to a sense' of the true condition
of their industry ; that agriculture in America and
throughout the world will soon occupy the high posi-
tion to which it is entitled, when it will stand first of
all in importance and power.

A fair, equitable, impartial, unprejudiced consider-
ation of the Third Power is asked and your coopera-
tion to quickly make it a real power is solicited.

The Author.

CONTENTS

First Part — Pages.

The Third Power 1-194

Second Part —

International Consolidation of Agricultural Inter-
ests 197-232

Third Part —

The American Society of Equity 235-238

Plan of the American Society of Equity 239-243

The Results of Farmers' Cooperation Briefly Stated. 244-245

Articles of Incorporation 246-248

Constitution and By-Laws : 249-253

Questions and Answers 254-266

/ ?o 3

1 4*1

THE THIRD POWER

CHAPTER I

RIGHT SHALL PREVAIL

A hundred years, and more, ago,

The farmers rose their rights to take;

They were the first to strike a blow
For freedom's and for country's sake.

Colonial sires, your path we tread,

Against oppression's tyrant hand;
Our bloodless battle shall be led,

Till justice reigns throughout the land.

We battle for the common good,

Our flag in freedom's cause unfurled,

As when "the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world."

— Elma Iona Locke.

There is some clanger to-day lest we forget that
there are three factors in production — land, labor
and capital. The political economist told us this
many years ago, but when we read of the operations
of Morgan, Gates, Schwab, and the other great capi-
talists and promoters, we are sometimes almost con-
vinced that these men are the sole creators of wealth,
and that land and labor really have nothing to do

2 THE THIRD POWER

with it. Yet the old law is sound, and so it will
stand. Mr. Morgan has to stand on the earth, and
in this sense at least it is the land that supports him.
The Chicago gamblers could not speculate in wheat
unless there were such a thing as wheat in existence.
Mr. W. B. Leeds's railroad could last but a little
while if it were not for the crops that have to be
carried to market. So it is clear that these men do
not create, and can not create anything. All that
they do is to change the form of wealth, or to make,
not to create, new wealth by the application of capi-
tal and labor to the products of the land, in one way
or the other. If they make money in any other way
they do it simply by taking it from some one else.
The middleman, who gets between two people who
want to trade, and takes toll of them both, adds
nothing to the wealth of the country. The subject
then is creation, and the relation of the different
factors to it.

If it be true that the prosperity and material well-
being of a country is dependent on the efficiency of
these three instruments, land, labor and capital, it
follows that we should do all we can to increase the
efficiency of these instruments and maintain them
at a high standard. We often seem to act as though
we did not believe this to be true. For each class,
instead of trying to add to the efficiency of other
classes as well as of itself, frequently strives to in-
crease its efficiency at the expense of the other
classes. Labor seeks to extract the last dollar from

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 3

capital, and capital endeavors to force labor to work
for the lowest wages possible. Organized capital and
organized labor combine to beat down the price of
products from the land until workers on our farms
are the poorest paid of any class of laborers. In-
stead of cooperation, we see a struggle on the part
of each to get ahead of the others. Yet the intelli-
gent laboring man knows that the more capital there
is in the country, provided it be wisely and produc-
tively employed and carefully managed, the better it
is for him. And the intelligent employer under-
stands that in order for him to get the best results
he must pay his men enough to enable them to live
well and keep themselves in good mental and phys-
ical condition. Perhaps it is safe — at any rate it
seems to be necessary — to allow each of these classes
to carry on this guerrilla warfare for its own good,
even though success costs the rival something, trust-
ing that good may in the long run come out of the
conflict of interests. With land, however, we all
admit the necessity of keeping the farmers prosper-
ous to insure prosperity to others.

Certain it is that the efficiency of labor and capi-
tal has vastly increased in our day, particularly in
our country. The freer use of the credit system,
the more intelligent management of money, the
rapid turning over of capital, the wonderful increase
in the use of machinery, and intelligent labor, have
all cooperated to enable capital to do things which
it did not even dream of a generation ago. We

4 THE THIRD POWER

build bridges in the Egyptian desert in half the time
and for half the cost that the English can. The
Atlas Works in Indianapolis ships engines all over
the world, and sells them in freest competition with
foreign makes. There is hardly a country on earth
that has not heard the scream of the American loco-
motive, the click of the American typewriter, and
enjoyed the blessings of cheap American bread.
The conquests of American capital and the effect
of the wonderful resources of this country have been
marvelous. Turning to labor we find that here,
too, there has been an increase in efficiency. Edu-
cation, growing intelligence and skill, sobriety, ca-
pacity for hard work, ambition to rise out of the la-
bor class and to become a boss, facility in the use of
machinery, inventive faculty, have all combined to
make our labor the most efficient in the world. But
to a certain extent these influences have been at
work on the farms as well as in the counting-room,
the mill and the factory. And our farmers are far
in advance of their fathers and grandfathers in
ability to turn out results in crops. But there is one
great thing which they have not yet learned, and
that is the power of combination. The laborer has
been much helped by his unions, and because of
them he can command a wage such as his brethren
of other days could not. Through his unions he has
marie his importance felt, and has often been able
to dictate terms to his employer. That employer
also has found a great help in combination. By

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 5

means of corporations and trusts he has been able to
carry through large enterprises, to have something
to say about wages, to decrease the cost of produc-
tion while keeping no small part of the saving for
himself, and to influence, if not to constitute prices.
So we see combinations, cooperation and trusts in
almost every branch of industry. But the farmer
has yet to learn the lesson. Others have something
to say about the prices at which they will sell their
commodities. If they do not fix them, they at least
do influence them favorably to themselves. When
the market is glutted, the manufacturer or mine-
owner can curtail production, or shut down entirely,
until the demand catches up with or runs ahead of
.the supply. The laborer can and does refuse to
work except on terms reasonably satisfactory to
himself, and the mere fear of a strike often drives
the employer to make concessions which he would
not otherwise think of making. The worker has a
voice in the making of his wages, and the employer
passes the tax along by making his prices accord-
ingly.

But the farmer allows others to make prices for
him. All he is supposed to know under the present
system is how to work sixteen hours a day and the
road to market. When he gets there he finds a man
who tells him how much his produce is worth, and
if he wants to take something home with him he is
told the price of that also. He has no organization,
and no method of bringing pressure to bear on those

6 THE THIRD POWER

who buy from him. Speculators and gamblers on
boards of trade tell him what he shall sell his pro-
duce for. And he sells at their figures. The board
of trade gamblers juggle with the price, and, though
the condition of the crops and production and con-
sumption should govern prices, they have very
little influence. The prices of the important farm
crops are made in organized markets by great ag-
gregations of corporate capital ruled by unscrupu-
lous human agencies, or by speculators who set
prices arbitrarily without any reference to supply,
demand or equity. This arbitrary fixing of prices
destroys the independence of the greatest class of
our citizens — the farmers — and is more tyrannical
than were the taxes imposed by George III. This
is because the farmers are unorganized, and usually
without a knowledge of the real conditions. Com-
mercial slavery of this degree is as bad as personal
slavery. Thus the greatest class in the production
of wealth, on which all others depend, is at the
mercy of a few. The farmers are unorganized, de-
moralized industrially, and without any influence on
the situation at all proportionate to their importance.
Comparatively speaking, they are powerless. They
grow all the stuff possible and sell it for what they
can get — and then wonder why the year's balance
sheet does not show a better result.

The agricultural industry of the country is still
the victim of the most intensive competition sys-
tem ever established. Each farm is in constant war-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 7

fare against all the others. Each is striving to
produce the greatest yields possible — in face of the
indisputable fact that the larger the yields the lower
the prices — and then sells the products without the
least regard to other producers. In this way the
markets are oftentimes glutted and perfect condi-
tions produced for organized speculators and gam-
blers to perform their perfect work in depressing
prices. Notwithstanding that the farmer of to-
day, with the wonderful machines at his command,
can produce five times as much product as the
farmer of a few generations ago, his net earning
capacity has not increased, but rather decreased.
Also his land which then was virgin soil has become
in large part exhausted; which item of itself repre-
sents probably half the value of his farm, and will
require good management, the outlay of much labor
and a large cash sum to replace.

The American farmer of to-day is not living from
his investments in farm land, but as a mere laborer,
and receives less than half as much pay as the union
laborer, yet works harder and longer hours. In
short, the farmers of the United States can only
continue in business on the present basis by using
the cheapest labor on earth, i. e., wife labor, child
labor, and labor of their babes. The prices set by
speculators and gamblers for the fine grain, vege-
tables and fruit — the products of God's earth — com-
pel the agriculturist to resort to such unbearable
extremities. No hired men can be secured to take

8 THE THIRD POWER

their places at wages the farmers can pay. While
the nation and states cry against female and child
labor in factories, not a word of protest is raised
against the toil of the farmer's wife and children.

Why is it so that the farmers, who own the earth,
control the food and clothing supplies (wool and
cotton), are the creators of nearly all real wealth,
the foundation of all our institutions, who are the
most numerous and as a class the most wealthy,
have become reduced to this condition of slavery?

It is a stupendous problem which, if solved, will
mean more for humanity than anything since the
Christian era. The dawn of equity to the farmers
and through them to the balance of humanity,
means the beginning of a social and industrial mil-
lennium.

Let us see what, then, can be done to elevate the
agricultural business of this country and of the
world and place it on an equality with the best of
other professions and industries.

The fact that capitalists and laborers are so effect-
ively organized makes it especially important that
the farmers should organize. It is becoming clearer
and clearer every day that whatever advantage
either the capitalistic or laboring class wins, is won
not so much at the expense of the other as at the
expense of the great bodies of unorganized people
who can not defend themselves. When wages are
forced up by a strike the farmer pays a large part of
the raise by an increase of price on what he buys.

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 9

When trusts lift prices simply because they have the
power to do so, this increase also is largely made
out of the farmers who are the greatest consumers.
It must be so. The strife between organizations is
bound to hurt the unorganized. When Mr. Mitchell
and Mr. Baer agree on an increased scale of wages,
Mr. Baer at once shoves up the price of coal. And
the closer the unions and the trusts get together the
more certain it is that the unorganized mob of con-
sumers, of which the farmers constitute by far the
largest element, will have to pay for whatever
gain either wins, because they are not in a position
to pass it along.

From every point of view, therefore, it is im-
perative that the farmers should organize, not for
political, but for business reasons. Surely the man
who raises the crops ought to have something to
say about the price he gets for them. He should
also know how much wheat, for instance, is being
raised, so he may know what it is, in equity, worth ;
and, let me say, a needful commodity is always
worth, in equity, what it cost to produce it, with a
fair margin for profit added. This margin should
be rated the same as others have set on their goods.
The cost should be found on a basis that allows the
producer a wage equal to what others get, interest
on investment, a sum that will repair waste or over-
come depreciation of the plant, with profit added.
Then we have an equitable value. If his market is
in danger of being glutted it should be as easy as it

io THE THIRD POWER

would be quite as justifiable for him to curtail his
output or marketing as it is for the manufacturer.
He should have it in his power, as the laborer has,
to say that he will not work except for fair remuner-
ation. As it is now he is hedged around by the
scheming of the shrewdest men in the world who
manipulate his markets in mysterious ways. Be-
sides this, his business is also subject to other un-
certain conditions, such as weather, insects, blight,
rust, etc. He can not escape from his thraldom
to the natural causes. But he ought, as a freeborn
American citizen, to vow that he will break the
chains of his slavery to the other masters.

The question is simply one of the application of
power. The farmer has the power to get whatever
he wants, and to make his life what it should be.
He must learn how to use it. No power except
highly organized power is of any value in these
times. The individual man is industrially powerless
in the United States to-day. Two things, therefore,
seem to be clear. First, the farmer must use his
power to the end that he may be his own master, and
not the slave of others and the burden-bearer of the
nation. Second, he must learn that the only way in
which he can use the power which is his, is through
organization, an organization of his own, controlled
by himself, and in his own interest. By doing this
he will benefit, not only himself, but all classes of
society. It is not proposed that he should wage a
war of offense but simply one of defense. He is not

FARMERS TO THE FRONT n

to ask privileges, but to insist on his rights — rights
which other classes of society now exercise without
question from any one, rights which in the farmer's
case are Divine. Power applied through organiza-
tion is the industrial law of the day. The farmer
must rule his life by it.

CHAPTER II

There's the wily speculator,

Who forms his rings of steel.
While the honest man is toiling

In the hot and scorching field.
He is lying awake and planning,

You may rightfully suppose,
To cheat the honest farmer

Out of everything he grows.

In Frank Norris's great novel, "The Pit," is this :
"They call it buying and selling, down there in
La Salle Street. But it is simply betting. Betting
on the condition of the market weeks, even months
in advance. You bet wheat goes up. I bet it goes
down. Those fellows in the pit don't own the
wheat ; never even see it. Wouldn't know what to
do with it if they had it. They don't care in the
least about the grain. But there are thousands upon
thousands of farmers out here in Iowa and Kansas
or Dakota who do, and hundreds of thousands of
poor devils in Europe who care even more than the
farmer. I mean the fellows who raise the grain,
and the other fellows who eat it. It's life or death
for either of them, and right between these two
comes the Chicago speculator, who raises or lowers
the price out of all reason, for the benefit of his

12

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 13

pocket. Here is what I mean, it's like this. If we
send the price of wheat down too far, the farmer
suffers, the fellow who raised it ; if we send it up too
far, the poor man in Europe suffers, the fellow who
eats it. And food to the peasant on the continent is
bread — not meat or potatoes, as it is with us. The
only way to do so that neither the American farmer
nor the European peasant suffers, is to keep wheat at
an average, legitimate value. The moment you in-
flate, or depress that, somebody suffers right away,
and that is just what these gamblers are doing all the
time, booming it up, or booming it down. Think of
it : the food of hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of people just at the mercy of a few men down there
on the board of trade. They make the price. They
say just how much the peasant shall pay for his
loaf of bread. If he can't pay the price, he simply
starves. And as for the farmer, why it's ludicrous.
If I build a house and offer it for sale, I put my own
price on it, and if the price offered don't suit me I
don't sell. But if I go out here in Kansas and raise
a crop of wheat, I've got to sell it, whether I want
to or not, at the figure named by some fellows in
Chicago. And to make themselves rich, they make
me sell it at a price that bankrupts me."

That is a true picture of the actual situation.
Farmers sometimes talk as though they believed that
this gambling in wheat was a good thing for them,
but they forget that what they want is a certain
definite and steadily maintained price; not a high

14 THE THIRD POWER

price that will stimulate over-production, but an
equitable price that will always secure the neces-
saries, comfort and some of the luxuries of life. A
good price for a large crop, as well as for a short
crop. A steadily maintained price, made by farm-
ers, on the farm, instead of the uncertain price made
by the speculators and gamblers on the boards of
trade in large cities. They may and do make
money — a few of them — out of an occasional corner,
but the artificially raised price stimulates holdings ;
the farmers do not sell until the gamblers have had
their innings, the price breaks, and the farmers rush
their produce to market, and more often than not
the sales are made on a falling market, and at prices
as much too low as the corner price was too high.
Speculators know how prone farmers are to hold on
a rising market, and this helps them to accomplish
their ends. In other words, the farmer does not
control the situation. He simply supplies the chips
with which the gamblers play the game, and even
when he wins he does so in violation of the princi-
ples of equity. There is no design on the part of
the gamblers that he should win. The grain pits are
a curse to everybody that they touch. They are
barnacles that have attached themselves on the pro-
duce of the earth. The speculators and gamblers in
farm products are sap-sucking, unholy, Godless
things that are holding up and gorging themselves
on labor's portion as it is created on the farms.
Boards of trade now run in the large cities are the

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 15

Devil's own workshop, where the rewards for honest
labor are forged to the profit of the non-producing
class. They are the greatest blight on the body of
industry — a danger that threatens the very life of
the farming industry of America. They are a bold,
fearless, devilish power, that defies the laws of
morality, the state and nation. There is only one
power that can dethrone them. It is the grand,
sweeping, majestic strength of cooperative produc-
ers. If the farmers' produce were not a necessity,
it would not be chosen for gambling purposes.
Men do not gamble with diamonds, for people can
get along without them. They do not gamble with
air, for every one can get all of it that he needs.
Farm products are chosen because everybody uses
them, and because they can not be got without pay-
ing for them, and also because, under present condi-
tions, the farmers do not control them.

Farmers can be a power. They represent the
greatest invested capital and they are the most nu-
merous. They own the earth, consequently they can
control the food and clothing supplies. Mso, it is
clear, in their fundamental position and numerical
and financial strength, they hold the key to our en-
tire political and industrial system.

Unorganized, the farmers are weak and the prey
of all other strong individuals and organized classes.
Organized, they will become the dominant power,
and their business or profession will become the pre-
ferred on earth. Organized to put prices on their

16 THE THIRD POWER

own products they can remove many of the uncer-
tainties now attending farming, and elevate the pro-
fession until it will be the equal of manufacturing,
banking, merchandising, etc. Farming is manufac-
turing, banking and merchandising. To farm suc-
cessfully also requires a technical knowledge equal-
ing that demanded by any other profession, and
which requires more application and years to attain
than most of the professions ; therefore, the success-
ful farmer must be a man of great attainment and
broad business qualifications. This will particularly
be true from this time forward, when more intensive
farming must be practiced to meet the ever increas-
ing demands brought about by the increasing popu-
lation and the multiplying abilities to consume.

It is clear that farmers have within them un-
doubted, great power, but they can only exert it
through organization and cooperation. There are
only two questions before the farmers to-day, the
one is : Do you want to become free, independent
and a powerful factor — in fact the most powerful
and influential class in the world ? The other is :
Will you embrace the one way to accomplish your
freedom and independence and place you at the head
in this country and others, socially, industrially, and
through your power of numbers be able to force a
clean, strong, equitable government? Will the
farmers answer these questions in the affirmative,
or will they be forever the prey of the gamblers.
the transportation companies, and other powers

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 17

which make whatever rates and prices they please,
and discriminate against one class and in favor of
others? To hold that this condition of things must
continue is to hold that the farmers, on whom all
others depend for their very life, comfort and privi-
lege to do business, must depend on those who are
really dependent on them. If the farmers were able
to put a value on each of their products the betting
in Chicago would stop, for the gamblers would know
that they could not settle except on terms made
by the farmers. If the farmers would control their
own products, they could refuse to ship until the
railroads gave them fair and equitable rates, and so
along the whole line. No man can buy until some
other one is willing to sell, and if the farmers of
the United States could say through their organiza-
tion that they would not sell till they got their price,
they would get it. They could corner the supply as
easily as the Chicago gamblers can, simply by hold-
ing on to what is their own — to what no one else
has any right to except on payment of the price de-
manded by the owner, and they would soon come
to the farm, or to the farmer's representative — his
society — and meet his terms. Only thus can the
farmer win his freedom and independence, and he
can do it without infringing on the rights of any
one else, and to the infinite betterment of all.

These questions seem simple enough, and yet they
are apparently giving a good deal of trouble to cer-
tain classes of people who are already somewhat dis-

2

18 THE THIRD POWER

turbed at the thought that perhaps the farmers may
decide to control their own business. In a recent
number of Harper's Weekly, which is supposed to
be dependent on certain Wall Street influences for
its existence, there was printed an article entitled,
"The Twentieth Century Farmer." It was, as all
such articles coming from such sources invariably
are, exceedingly flattering. We are assured, not
only that the farmer is a good fellow, but that he
has things pretty much his own way. "There are,
for instance," the writer says, "scores of school dis-
tricts in the thinly settled portions of the plains
where the entire tax is paid by railroads and eastern
corporations, and farmers' children attend the
schools so supported." But the school tax is a tax
on property, and if railroads and eastern corpora-
tions own the property in these districts, is there any
reason why they should not pay the taxes assessed
against it ? How can this be considered a bonus to
the farmer? Further, we know — if we know any-
thing about taxation — that corporations shift the
burden of taxation whenever they can possibly do
so. If, in order to pay this school tax, the railroads
raise freight rates, which are paid by the farmers,
the farmers after all pay the school tax. At the
very most our case simply is one in which the farm-
ers find a chance to get even — pass the tax along;
there is no gratuity involved in it, yet this movement
means more than is yet evident. The tax will not

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 19

be passed along to the innocent consumers as I will
show.

The Harper's Weekly writer speaks of the ex-
pense incurred by the general government for irriga-
tion as something wholly for the benefit of the
farmer. Surely it is for the benefit of all — of the
whole country. Every foot of new territory opened
up adds just so much to the wealth of all, and brings
down the cost of food. This certainly is not to the
special advantage of the farmers as a class. They
are precisely the people that would be least benefited
by it. Every new farm created out of the present
arid region means just so much additional compe-
tition for the farmers already engaged in operating
farms.

I have opposed this irrigation scheme at every
opportunity and claim that if the government really
is desirous of doing something for the farmers it
can accomplish much more at less expense by help-
ing the present farmers to irrigate their lands. Our
present farms are not producing a third as much as
they can and must in a comparatively few years
when the population of the world has doubled again.
Our averages of thirteen bushels of wheat, twenty-
seven of corn, and other crops in proportion are
distressingly low. Consumption has fully caught
up with production, in fact in some lines is ahead
of production. If the flow of the farm products to
market was not hampered and restricted by the self-
ish interests of speculators and gamblers, and the

20 THE THIRD POWER

uncertainties of values, which enter into every trans-
action in agricultural products under the present
system, the consumption to-day of grains, meat,
fabrics, fruit, etc., would be immensely more. In-
tensive farming that will double, and finally treble
the yields of our farms will be a necessity. It is not
too early to begin now. This means irrigation,
fertilization and scientific cultivation. Instead of the
government, at fabulous expense, opening up a vast
area of land that God did not design for cultivation
until the more improved portion of our country
was producing to its maximum, it can more equita-
bly help the present farmers along the road to pros-
perity by irrigating the eastern part of our country.

One acre of irrigated land is equal in producing
ability to three of non-irrigated land in our Missis-
sippi Valley. Therefore, if the government would
carry out its irrigation scheme completely, in a short
time it would set our present farmers back a genera-
tion, and possibly prevent them from realizing their
fond hopes of profitable prices for farm products.
Our farmers are now just arriving at the point
where they can rise above the competition of new
territory being opened up for cultivation, and it
would be a great calamity to subject them to this
artificially created competition.

Let the government encourage irrigation and in-
tensive farming on our present farms. It will re-
sult in dividing the large farms into small ones;
nrevent the small ones from being merged into large

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 21

holdings; furnish new homes for millions of fam-
ilies in sections of the country where the conditions
are most favorable for social enjoyment and in-
dustrial success. True, this plan may not be of a
great benefit to a few railroad corporations and
other powerful interests, but will benefit many mil-
lions of the common people, and add untold mil-
lions to the wealth of our country.

The fact is that there are practically no laws for
the benefit of the farmers, and it is the intention of
the corporated powers, through the political ma-
chines, that there shall not be any. Ours is a gov-
ernment by the people in theory, but by corporations
in practice. The people have won their way with
little help from the federal government. In the
very article under consideration we are reminded of
the futile efforts of the farmer to get favoring legis-
lation. "Once in a while," it is said, "there is a po-
litical insurrection, and a Farmers' Alliance sweeps
the boards, sending farmer legislators to frame
super-partial laws, which later are blasted by
courts." So it is, and so it must ever be until the
farmers learn how to exert their strength in practi-
cal ways and for practical ends. But we are told
that "the settler demands the Indian's land and
gets it." :'That he demands the ranchman's grazing
territory and obtains that." Of course this is true,
and it would be true if there were not a government
in existence. For the natural evolution is from the
savage state to the pastoral state, up to the agri-

22 THE THIRD POWER

cultural state. Nothing could keep the farmer from
getting the lands of the Indian and the ranchman.
But the moment the farmer attempts to better his
condition then we have a howl from the men who
use every power they have, not simply to help them-
selves, but to persuade or force the government into
helping them. So we have this in the article in
Harper's Weekly :

"The demagogue devotes a great deal of attention
to the farmers. Frequent schemes for uniting the
wheat-growers or for forcing up the price of corn
are evolved ; cooperative plans to make unnecessary
the 'middleman' are exploited — and usually with
provision for a salary or commission to some shrewd
city promoter who would not know a self-binder
from a corn-harvester. Every little while the tele-
graph tells of the probable formation of a mighty
union of farmers to reduce or limit the acreage of
some crop. It ends in smoke — it was the dream of
a schemer who hoped to profit by its success."

The threatened combination of the farmers is
clearly not looked on with approval by the financial
interests. Nothing that would benefit the farmer
ever was looked on with approval by those interests.
So in this article, the farmer is warned against
"demagogues" seeking to make money out of their
schemes, as if the very men who sound the warning
had not all their lives made their living by "farm-
ing the farmers." There are many good texts in
this Harper's Weekly article. Here is another:

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 23

"There are indications that the farmer does not
take these things (proposed organizations) as seri-
ously as he once did. He reads the daily maga-
zines; he understands something of the other side
of life. He travels more than in the days of high
railway rates; the excursions back east for 'Old
Home Week' bring him in touch with the people of
other states. He is made broader and happier.
Most important of all, he is learning to make of his
occupation a business, and when that is done, he
ceases to consider himself the favorite of fortune.
As a result he becomes a business man, and takes
rank among the captains of industry — not the com-
mander, for none is supreme in rank, but an equal
sharer in the advancement and prosperity of the na-
tion."

Well, if the farmer has become a business man,
why should he not act as a business man? Other
business men strive to the uttermost to control the
market; they form gigantic combinations to limit
output, to lift prices, to regulate wages, and to
"work" the government. Surely it is not demagog-
ical to urge him to do what other business men are
doing in the way of managing their own business.
If Mr. Morgan may combine all the steel mills of
the country in one great organization, there would
seem to be nothing wrong in the farmer attempting
to apply the same method to his own business. If
he is to be a "captain of industry," he should profit
by the examples of other captains of industry as far,

24 THE THIRD POWER

of course, as they keep within the law and the re-
quirements of sound morals. Nor is there any rea-
son why the farmer should not be the "commander,"
and "supreme." The farming class outnumbers any
other class in the country. There are more than
10,000.000 men engaged in agriculture, and upon
them we all depend for our very life. Probably one-
half the people in gainful occupations are either
farmers or people connected closely with cultivation
of the soil. Their products constitute the great bulk
of our exports, and their crops are the most valu-
able asset that the country has. We might survive
the loss of our steel mills, but if our farms were to
quit producing the country would go to ruin. Why
should not the farmers be supreme? And if they
strive for something less than supremacy — namely,
mere parity with the rest of our people — ought they
not to be encouraged ? What is urged here is that
the farmer should realize that he is, what Harper's
Weekly says he is, "a business man," and govern
himself accordingly. He should play the part which
we all agree is his, use business methods, look out
for himself and his own interests, and use his vast
power for his own good. Surely there is nothing
radical in all this. No line of action is marked out
for the farmer which other business men do not
follow to their own advantage. It is no more dem-
agogical to say that the farmer ought to make his
own prices and regulate his marketing than it is for
a Wall Street promoter to suggest to the steel men

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 25

that they can make more money by combining for
the purpose of controlling the market, regulating
wages, and dictating prices. The cases are precisely
parallel. The real truth is that the critics of such
a policy on the part of the farmers know that it
would be effective — and they do not want it to be
effective. They know further than this, plans pro-
posed— some of them in operation already in a
limited way — are marked by none of the weaknesses
that characterized the Grange, the Farmers' Alli-
ance, and the People's Party. The fruit growers in
some sections have already organized, and they have
much to do with securing a profitable market for
their product. When they find that the market in
a certain city is full and in another is bare, they di-
vert the shipments from the former to the latter
city; and the association keeps its members informed
as to the state of the market. So there are farmers'
societies in certain sections, covering a few counties,
which are doing the same thing.

There is nothing impracticable about this. If
this limited cooperation is good, who will deny that
complete national cooperation will not do more
good. So when it is proposed to apply the same
great principle of combination, which the Wall
Street people have seen work so well in a limited
way, to the whole agricultural class, we have a great
outcry against it. They think organization is good
for all people and all classes but the farmers. Some
educators have tried to point out other ways for

26 THE THIRD POWER

farmers to make their business profitable. One of
these advised to put wheat to one dollar a bushel,
to "sow less wheat and put the ground in more
profitable crops." That's easy; but he stopped too
soon. Why did he not tell what these neglected
crops are that would be more profitable? Another
recommends, to cure all the ills of farming and
make it profitable, to "Always sell at the highest
price." A very simple plan. We recommend the
farmer who can carry out this plan to not join a
cooperative society. A certain professor of an agri-
cultural college says, "Farm as we do. Our wheat
yields thirty-one bushels per acre, while the average
in Indiana this year (1903) is about ten bushels."
When I asked him what he thought wheat would
be worth if all raised three times as much without
the ability to fix prices, he said : "Well, I had not
thought of that." Others advise the farmer to
"have patience and Divine Providence will work out
their salvation." But I don't think it right to throw
the whole job on God. Besides it is written, "God
helps those who help themselves." Others say :
"Wait for the regeneration of man, and your trou-
bles will disappear." Having waited several thou-
sand years already for this much desired time, I can
not see much encouragement in this advice for pres-
ent day farmers.

Organization by farmers is objected to now, sim-
ply because they know it will be effective in the
light of twentieth century experience. No better

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 27

argument in its favor ought to be asked. But why-
object? Organization of farmers on the plan pro-
posed will not harm, but will benefit every legitimate
business.

CHAPTER III

In the rustle of the cornfields,

And the plowman's weary tread,
And the fingers of the tassels

Raised beseechingly o'erhead —
In them all a thousand voices

Whisper in the listening ear,
"Toil will ne'er possess its products

Until Equity is here."

In the broad and waving wheatfields,

A million heads may bow,
And in sunlight gold may glitter,

Promised fruitage of the plow ;
Still the passing breezes whisper

In the anxious listening ear,
"Toil's just reward will linger

Until Equity is here."

So with orchard's blushing treasure,

And with meadow's wealth of hay,
And the lowing in the pastures,

And the garden's rich array —
All proclaim the same sad warning,

Toil in vain will seek its own,
For each season's stores will vanish

Until Equity shall come.

We thus have the three powers — money power,
organized labor, and the farmer. And the question
is as to the necessity of making the third power a
real power. Let us consider first the relation of

28

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 29

these three powers, as things now stand, to the busi-
ness of government. When a man is elected to con-
gress he finds that the capitalist and the working
man are keenly alive to their own interests, and that
they are both capable of exerting, and as a matter
of fact, do exert, much influence in Washington and
in our various state capitals. Their representatives
throng the lobby and committee rooms, and press
in the most vigorous way on the lawmakers the
claims of labor and capital. If a tariff is to be made,
abundant opportunity is given to both capital and
labor — especially to the former — to be heard, and the
opportunity is improved to the uttermost. When a
question of subsidy comes up the rich men who
want the subsidy do not hesitate to urge the matter
on congress, and congress is exceedingly defer-
ential. The working-men have got their eight-hour
law, arbitration statutes, laws regulating the opera-
tion of factories and mines, anti-child labor laws,
weekly wages laws, etc. And all this is taken as a
matter of course. But back on the farm, far out on
the lonely prairie perhaps, is a man who works with
his wife, children and babes, harder than any other
class of people on earth. There is no law passed to
prevent child labor on the farm. No eight or even
ten hour day. They work from sun to sun and then
some more, and oftentimes when the year rolls
around receive a smaller waere than convicts who
are farmed out to corporations. Our new congress-
man hears little or nothing of him. He does not

30 THE THIRD POWER

spend much time in congressional or legislative
halls. He is not consulted about tariffs or subsi-
dies. Statesmen are not wearied with his importu-
nities. No lobby fights his battles. He is practically
forgotten. Congress taxes him for the benefit of
the capitalists, and he does not complain — nay, he
seems to feel that he has no reason to complain. He
has his duty on wheat and a few other crops, to
be sure, which in no way affects its price, a duty
which is imposed simply for the purpose of making
the farmer believe that he is getting some return
for the taxes that he is forced to pay for the benefit
of other people, and which in effect works to the
benefit of the speculators and gamblers, by prevent-
ing a flow from outside countries when they want
to manipulate the market here. If a farmer goes to
Washington he feels so honored and flattered by
any little attentions his representative may show
him that he never thinks of suggesting that he needs
anything in the way of legislation. And when the
representative comes back to the district for re-elec-
tion he talks of the honest farmer and sturdy yeo-
man, and every one feels that the account is square.
There is no use in getting angry at this, for the
fault is wholly with the farmer. The politician
knows perfectly well that in dealing with the farmer
he is dealing with individuals, and with individuals
who are divided into many different classes — even
by their own societies, which number about 5,000
distinct organizations — by political and sectional

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 31

prejudices. But he knows quite as well that when a
capitalist or a labor leader calls on him at Washing-
ton he has back of him a great and powerful organi-
zation which is able and ready to punish its foes and
reward its friends. He has learned, too, that the
farmer can be made to believe that he himself is pro-
tected by the very taxes that are levied on him for the
benefit of others. But the main point now to be con-
sidered is, that the farmers are isolated, and incapa-
ble of concert of action. In these days men do not
get things unless they go after them. The farmers
do not go after them, and so they do not get them.
Men in public life have to be coerced or persecuted
into doing things. It is so much easier to drift
along without doing things, that the statesman, who
is always looking for the line of least resistance, is
never disposed to champion any cause that demands
affirmative action, unless the representatives of that
cause force it on his attention. It is easy to ignore
and forget the farmer on the lonely and far-distant
prairie. It is not easy to ignore the rich lobbyist and
his champagne and terrapin, in Washington.

My purpose in all this is, frankly, to make the
farmer discontented, not so much with conditions
as with himself for allowing them to exist. Discon-
tent breeds action ; action, investigation ; investiga-
tion, knowledge ; knowledge, the remedy. There-
fore, be discontented. Here we have a class of men,
the most numerous in the country, who fail to get
what they ought to have, simply because they do not

32 THE THIRD POWER

combine to get it. Farmers should not have any-
thing to which they are not entitled. And it is not
the intention of the writer to array them against
their brethren of the capitalistic and labor classes.
All that is desired is that the farmer should profit
by the example set by these other classes. The de-
mand is for equity and nothing more. And equity
for one is equity for all. The farmer can not be
truly prosperous without benefiting the whole coun-
try. The country can not be prosperous without
the farmer is prosperous. Keep the farmer prosper-
ous and we can not have hard times. So the cause
of the farmer is the cause of the nation, and of every
citizen of the nation. Prosperity begins and ends
on the farms. Therefore, keep the farmers prosper-
ous. Keep the source of prosperity pure and strong,
so it will flow a powerful stream that will invigorate
every industry.

Having shown how organization helps the capi-
talist and the workingman in their relations with
the business of government, it is now necessary to
show how it helps them in the ordinary conduct of
their own private business. The threshermen afford
an excellent illustration. Recently in Indiana they
have been asking and getting six or seven cents a
bushel for threshing wheat. The threshermen have
an exceedingly effective organization, and it makes
the price for threshing wheat. The farmers have
to pay it. The question is not whether or not it is
fair, but whether the threshermen can compel their

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 33

customers to pay it. Feeling that the price was too
high, some farmers recently tried to buy threshers
and thresh their own grain, but they were told by
the manufacturers that they would sell machines
only to members of the threshers' association. Thus
the farmer is confronted, not only by the threshers'
association, but by a partial combination between
that and the threshing machine manufacturers.
Again it is a case of the organized against the un-
organized, and, as always happens, the unorganized
lose. They must lose. The farmers pay prices fixed
by others, and they sell at prices fixed by others.
There is neither equity nor common sense in this,
but they are slaves to the system and will be until
they can pass it along.

So the appeal is to the Third Power to become a
real power, to the end that it may make itself felt
for the good of all the people. If it is right for the
thresher to say what he will charge for threshing the
farmer's wheat, it is right for the farmer to say
what he will charge for his wheat. It is at least not
equity for the farmer both to buy and sell at prices
made by others. If we admit that it is right for
those who sell to the farmer to fix the prices at
which they sell, and we don't dispute it, we must
also admit that it is right for the farmer to fix the
prices at which others shall buy from him. But
really it is not a question of right at all — it is a ques-
tion of power. If the farmer is to free himself from
the compulsion to which he is now subjected, he

3

34 THE THIRD POWER

must do so by his own act. And it is better so. A
prosperity won by one's own effort is better and
more securely based than that created and guaran-
teed by government. The solution of the problem
is not to be found in Washington, but on the farm.
There is no need to ask for favors. The politicians
can not greatly help, and we don't propose to call
on them. The farmers organized, and pricing their
own products, will be so strong in the control of the
food and clothing of the world, which the other peo-
ple must have, that they can put any price on them
that they want to. Thus they can meet prices, ex-
penses, and taxes, imposed by others. The farmers
organized, don't need to care whether there is poli-
tics or not, nor how much they are taxed only in
so far as they may be interested in another class —
the consumers. Nothing should be asked of the
politician except treatment that will make it possible
to deal equitably with others. It is clear that the
farmers need not look to lawmakers, Divine Provi-
dence or anywhere but themselves.

It has been said of the Irish people that they have
fought successfully in all battles except their own.
This is largely true of the farmers. They have la-
bored and struggled and paid taxes for others, and
upon their intelligence, industry, and thrift, to-day
depend the welfare and prosperity of the nation.
The farmers in the United States have been the sol-
diers of civilization. They have reduced a wilder-
ness to subjection, and have made it a fruitful

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 35

garden. They have endured loneliness, hardship,
severe toil, privation and hunger, in order that
others might be fed. Our export trade, of which
we boast so much, and which has indeed attained
tremendous proportions, has been swelled by the
fruits of the labors of the husbandman. The fac-
tory, the railroad and the mine all live off the farm.
We talk of labor as the source of all wealth, and so
it is — but it is the labor of the farmer. And yet we
find that, after all these years these men on the firing
line of our American civilization, who should be the
most independent men in the world, are dependent
on the captains of industry, the promoter, the under-
writer, the labor leader, and the grain gambler. It
is time to end this dependence. And unless the
American farmer rouses himself, he will have to al-
ways be content to have his business controlled by
others, to be called a "jay" a "rube" or "hayseed,"
and to see himself caricatured in the comic papers
and on the stage as the ridiculous victim of the
gold-brick swindler and the hay-fork note pedler,
and indeed no gold-brick swindle was ever so palpa-
ble as that which is inherent in our present indus-
trial organization. The Third Power can end it
when it becomes a real power.

CHAPTER IV

Come shoulder to shoulder,

Ere earth grows older !
The cause spreads over land and sea.

Now the earth shaketh,

And fear awaketh,
But joy at last for you and me.

— William Morris.

But why, it may be asked, should the speculators
and the moneyed men, the bankers, manufactur-
ers, railroad people, etc., object to the organiza-
tion of the farmers ? There are many reasons, each
one of which, however, is an argument in favor of
the organization when considered from the farmer's
point of view. Suppose some fall Mr. Hill or Mr.
Leeds were to back his cars up into the wheat coun-
try, after having made every arrangement to trans-
port the crop, and should find that there was no
wheat to carry; and suppose the railroad president
should find that the farmers had all resolved that
they would not let go of their wheat for less than
a dollar a bushel. If this resolution were backed
by a national organization, the consequences for the
railroad and the consumers would not be pleasant.
The effect on stocks would be disastrous, and a

36

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 37

panic would surely follow. That is, unless con-
cessions were made to the farmer. And as the capi-
talists and speculators think they don't want to make
concessions to the farmer, they would intensely dis-
like being put in a position where they would have to
make them or suffer ruin.

Every one that has a grip on the farmer, who sells
to the farmer at exorbitant prices — all would find
that their grip was broken, and that on the contrary
the farmer had the upper hand.

The mere shifting of power from the few to the
many would be enough to rouse opposition on the
part of the few. Oligarchies always hate democ-
racies. The four or five men who now fix railroad
freights throughout the country would naturally
feel that it was an impertinence for the 10,000,000
farmers to insist on being heard on the subject.
Those few men may combine to regulate the com-
merce of a continent, but the farmers may not.
They think control by the few is right and proper,
but control by the many is a bad thing. The banker
might find that with such a combination the farm-
ers would have to borrow less money, and that they
would have more to say about the rate of interest
and the security than they do now. If, when the
representatives of the organized manufacturers
went to Washington to demand favors at the ex-
pense of the people, they found themselves con-
fronted by a lobby of able and intelligent men repre-
senting the farmers' organization, the job of push-

38 THE THIRD POWER

ing through tariffs might be more arduous than it
is now. Some of the beggars for tariff taxes might
actually be called on to show why they needed them
and ought to have them.

As for the speculators, they would not find life
wholly pleasant under the proposed conditions.
When, to return to Mr. Norris's book, Curtis Jad-
win tried to corner the wheat supply, he was beaten
by the new crop which came pouring in. Here is
how it happened :

"And the avalanche, the undyked ocean of the
wheat, leaping to the lash of the hurricane, struck
him fairly in the face. He heard it now; he heard
nothing else. The wheat had broken from his con-
trol. For months he had, by the might of his single
arm, held it back ; but now it rose like the upbuilding
of a colossal billow. It towered, hung, poised for an
instant, and then with a thunder as of the grind and
crash of chaotic worlds, broke upon him, burst
through the pit and raced past him, on and on to the
eastward and to the hungry nations."

What if the farmers had controlled that "un-
dyked ocean of the wheat," and had refused to let
any of the ocean get through the dyke? The price
would not have broken, and the corner would have
won. The next deal would have smashed Jadwin.
And what right had he to control the price of wheat
for months ? Neither he nor any of his tribe could
do it if the farmers would assert their power. It
would be the same way with the stock market. As

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 39

it is now, a few pirates get hold of some great
granger road, "merge" it with another, buy the
roads by paying for them out of their own treas-
uries, stock and bond them out of all proportion to
their real value, issue "short-time" notes, and then
expect them to pay dividends and interest. So rates
must go up — and they do go up. They combine to
regulate rates, discriminate against non-competing
points, and it all comes out of the farmer. The
legitimate value of the shares depends on the amount
of business that the roads do, and on the price of
the stuff they haul. The farmers, I estimate, are
responsible for three-fourths of the tonnage hauled
by the railroads and stored in warehouses, yet I
venture the assertion that not one board of railroad
and warehouse commissions in all the states has a
farmer representative. It is on this basis that the
speculation proceeds. Who would attempt to bear
the market if he knew that the farmers' combina-
tion might refuse to send any farm products to
market? The value of the shares would, as now,
depend on the earning capacity of the properties,
but the farmers would have a good deal to say about
what that earning capacity should be. And this
would be a great dampener on the speculative spirit.
Grain and stock gambling would be much less popu-
lar than they are now. There would be a new and
controlling element in the problem. And it would
operate for the good of all. The case of the manu-
facturer would be much the same. He is, as are

40 THE THIRD POWER

we all, interested in selling dear and buying cheap.
Backed by the government, and assisted by his com-
bination, he has it in his power to make, or at least
largely to influence prices. With those to whom he
sells and from whom he buys unorganized, he occu-
pies an exceedingly strong position. It would be
less strong were his customers, the farmers, also
organized. They might still have to pay the manu-
facturer's price, but they could, if organized, sell
at their own nrice. The manufacturer, as do all the
rest, "looks with distrust" on any movement look-
ing to an organization of the farmers. This is nat-
ural, because all former farmer organizations were
directed to pull the other person's business down to
a level with unsatisfactory agriculture. But it is
different in this movement. Now it is proposed to
build agriculture up to a level with the best of
them. Therefore, manufacturers, merchants, bank-
ers, etc., are needlessly alarmed. In fact, when the
nlan to make the Third Power a real power is under-
stood they will apnrove and help it.

Nor can the political phase of the question be
disregarded. The tremendous power which organ-
ization would clothe the farmers with, could not be
ignored by the government. If the combined agri-
cultural interests of the country should ask the men
at Washington to take off a protective duty — even
though it were for the special benefit of Mr. Mor-
gan's steel trust — that duty would come off. If the
demand were made for special legislation in the in-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 41

terest of the farmer or the consumer of his products,
even though it might injure the manufacturer, or
middleman, that demand would be complied with.
Were the farmers orp-anized, some plan would be
found for checking the aggressions and extortions
of the railroad and food trusts. All this is perfectly
well understood by the minority that now controls
the government. Should the farmers think it worth
while to make any demands for legislation it will
be more in the interest of the consumers than from
any necessity on their part. When the farmers co-
operate and name prices on their own products they
will be so strong in their fundamental right to price
our food and clothing products which the balance
of the world must have that they can meet all ag-
gressions by others. What matters it if the rail-
road charges fifty cents a bushel for transporting
grain to market ? The farmers' price of this bushel
of grain — when the farmers represent the Third
Power — was made out on the farm before the trans-
portation company touched it. Therefore, I say. if
the Third Power concerns itself about legislation,
taxes, transportations, etc., it will be in the interest
of the consumers, and to promote the maximum con-
sumption by preventing the railroads and middle-
men from imposing unfair rates. On the whole it
is surprising that any person should oppose the or-
ganization of the farmers, and sneer at every scheme
looking toward that end.

But there is even more in it than this. If there

42 THE THIRD POWER

were resistance on the part of any class to the farm-
er's demand for fair price for his products, and if
the farmer should refuse to sell them for less, it is
evident that there would be panic and starvation.
The farmer can live on what he raises, and can
even, as he once did, make his own clothes. But
the men in the banks, the offices and the mills must
have bread, vegetables, fruit and meat. Suppose
they could not get them. Pushing the case to this
last extremity you can easily appreciate the extent
of the farmer's power, the absolute nature of his
independence. God rules in Heaven, and the farm-
ers own the earth. All others are suspended some-
where between and are absolutely dependent on the
farmers in this world, as on God in the next. The
farmer is, or may be, if he chooses, wholly self-sup-
porting. No other class of the community can be,
for all men rely, and must rely, on the farmer to
keep them alive. If he should decline to market, on
the ground that he was not being paid sufficiently
for his service, a crisis would be presented with
which the government would have to concern it-
self. Yet all the while the farmers would be doing-
nothing that the miners and manufacturers are not
doing every day. Indeed, they would be doing only
what other men are now doing with the farmer's
grain, meat and produce. The only difference is,
that the farmer's corner would be more complete
and his control of output and prices, being applied
to commodities that are absolute essentials, would

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 43

be more disastrous in its results. But what would
or could the government do? It could hardly con-
fiscate farm products, or compel the farmer to sell
them at prices unsatisfactory to himself. Surely it
could not compel those men who failed or refused
to put in crops lest there should be overproduction,
to cultivate their farms against their will.

The arbitration question here presented, if it is
a question at all, would be one far more difficult
than that between the anthracite miners and oper-
ators which President Roosevelt arranged for, and
practically compelled. The government could not
destroy the farmers' organization and continue to
permit capitalists and workingmen to organize.

The difficulty would in all probability be adjusted
either by fair compromise, or by a complete yield-
ing to the demands of the farmers. But the problem
would not be solved. On the contrary, the govern-
ment would have had such a warning as would
drive it into the adoption of a just policy. Theo-
retically we have the most just government in the
world. The preamble of the constitution reads
thus :

"We, the people of the United States, in order to
form a more perfect union, establish justice, in-
sure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,
do ordain and establish this constitution for the
United States of America."'

44 THE THIRD POWER

"To establish justice" — this is one of the pur-
poses which our forefathers had in view in adopt-
ing- the constitution. If it is found that justice has
not been established, it must be either that the con-
stitution is defective, or else that we have been false
to its principles. It makes no difference which of
these alternatives be true, the fact remains that our
government at the present time is not conducted in
accordance with justice and equity. It has too many
favorites, and among- those favorites the farmer is
not found. He is taxed, not only for the support of
the government, but for the benefit of others of his
fellow citizens, who are not taxed for his benefit.
As taxes are levied on land and as land can not be
hidden from the taxgatherers, it follows that he pays
proportionately more taxes than do those whose
wealth is in money or stocks or bonds, which can be
hidden. Under our constitution has grown up a
system of laws which favor the corporations and
trusts at the expense of the individual. And it has
come to pass that our government is weaker than its
citizens. The combination of politicians, speculators
and corporations controls the government — nay, is
the government.

The powerlessness of the central authority would
be brought home to all men in such a struggle as
that between those wanting to buy farm products
(food and clothing) and those refusing to sell
them. The people would demand that their govern-
ment should at least be as strong as its most power-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 45

ful citizens, or as the most powerful combination of
citizens. Then it would be able to do equal justice
to all. And we should all realize that justice pays —
indeed that it is essential to the perpetuity of our
institutions. So, without doing one illegal thing,
or making a single demand on the government, the
farmers could, were they organized, work such a
radical and wholesome reform as would transform
our whole social order. All the people — and that is
what the government ought to be, and in theory is
— might conclude to fix a minimum price for the
necessaries of life, and say that no one should be
compelled to sell for less than that price, or that,
if the crisis were grave, any one who offered that
price should get the commodities. At least the gov-
ernment would realize that it could not afford to be
unjust to the farmers, the most numerous class in
the country. If we are to have a class government
at all, and this ought not to be, we should have a
government of the largest and most influential class.
If we are to have favoritism, it should be favorit-
ism, not for the minority, but for the majority. If
it be said that the scheme involves socialism, the
answer is that socialism for the many would be
better than socialism for the few. If the govern-
ment helps the manufacturer to make prices which
are often exorbitant — as it does by imposing tariff
taxes — it surely might help the farmer make prices
that are fair and just. So the result of the effort of
the farmers to organize to control their own busi-

46 THE THIRD POWER

ness might easily have the effect of forcing reforms
all along the line, and I predict it will have. Hence,
hasten the farmers' organization — the Third Power
— the equitable government.

CHAPTER V

UNITE, O LOYAL FARMERS

Unite, O loyal farmers,

Beneath the banner true
Of equity and justice,

That shall thy foes subdue.
Cooperate with others,

And helped by numbers' might,
Go forward into battle

For liberty and right.

Unite, O loyal farmers,

Fear not the active foe ;
The right shall ever conquer

For those who reap and sow.
Fair Justice, ever smiling,

Holds out her hands to all
Who follow in her footsteps,

In answer to her call.

Unite, O loyal farmers,

Waste not your time in rest,
Nor talk of mighty efforts

If money you possessed ;
But seek for higher prices,

Reward for toil and care,
Let nothing you discourage,

But all things do and dare.

Unite, O loyal farmers,
And in one happy band

Press onward for the conquest
Of this, your native land.

47

48 THE THIRD POWER

O let your watchword ever

Be Equity for all ;
Unite and quickly level

Oppression's mighty wall.

Unite, O loyal farmers,

Press on — press on to-day ;
The time is ripe for action,

Let nothing you dismay;
For victory is coming,

To those who brave the wrong
And push with earnest vigor

The cause of truth along.

— EMe Stevens.

It has been said, and it is not surprising, that
those who are now more or less in partnership with
the government, should oppose and sneer at this
effort to organize the farmers. And yet there is no
good or honest reason why they should not welcome
it and cooperate with it. For its purpose is not to
help any one class at the expense of the others, but
by helping one class, which is now neglected, to
help all, and to improve the general social and busi-
ness conditions. It has been said that the country
could not prosper unless the farmers prosper, and
that the farmers could not prosper without benefit-
ing all other classes. Neither of the statements can
be denied or doubted. So the real reason why this
movement is opposed is, that the men who oppose
it are getting special privileges from the govern-
ment, and they know that these would be taken from
them when the Third Power compelled an equitable

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 49

government. The fear is, not that the farmers
would be unjust, but that they would insist on equal
and exact justice to all. And justice is the last
thing that the corporation trust magnates, graft
gatherers and the tariff-pampered manufacturers
want under the present system. Many men in this
country at the present time thrive on inequity, and
so they do not want the present arrangement dis-
turbed.

The man who both buys and sells grain or other
produce at prices made, not by the owners but by
himself, knows well enough that he would have no
just cause for complaint if the farmer made the
prices on the farm. But he does not want this, be-
cause he thinks it would interfere with his own
game, and would curtail or destroy his profits. But
he may be mistaken, as a certain profit would be
better than an uncertain one. So the protected
manufacturer, who buys in a free trade market and
sells in a protected one, thinks he does not care to
have the farmer share in that advantage. To his
mind there is nothing wrong in compelling the
farmer to pay tariff-raised prices on all that he uses,
and to sell his products at free trade prices, and in
competition with the whole world. The banker
favors cooperation between himself and the farmer
which shall enable the banker to fix the rate of in-
terest which the farmer shall pay, but he thinks he
would not like to have the farmers cooperate with
one another so that they might become their own
4

50 THE THIRD POWER

bankers or put themselves in condition that they
don't need to borrow. The combined railroads,
which, subject to the slight restraints (?) imposed
by the Interstate Commerce Commission, fix the rates
on farm produce, will no doubt object to a combina-
tion among the farmers to secure equitable rates,
a fair price for their crops and regulate their move-
ment to market. Even the trade-unions, which
vociferously, and often violently, assert the right of
their members to say what wages they shall be paid,
and who subject the country to great inconvenience
and even suffering in the struggle to carry their
point, might be disposed to deny the farmers the
right to combine for their own protection and in-
dependence, on the ground that it might advance the
price of living. Always this desire to secure an un-
fair advantage, or an advantage at the expense of
some one else, develops opposition to an organiza-
tion among the farmers.

But, as has been said, there is no good and honest
ground for any such objection. For the farmers
propose to demand nothing that is unfair, unjust or
dishonorable, nothing that it would not benefit all
classes for them to have. To illustrate : If farmers
organize and put profitable prices on their crops,
they will have more money to spend for labor and
every necessary and many of the luxuries of life.
It is only the profit that may safely be spent. There-
fore, more profit — margin — to the farmers will bene-
fit the country merchant, bankers, professional men,

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 51

etc. They intend to put such a price on their pro-
ducts that they can hire the best help in the country.
Thus the demand for union labor will be increased
by millions. The illustrations might be carried out
indefinitely ; but what the use ? If unfair advantages
are cut off, or other classes built up to a level, though
the class enjoying them would lose something, it
would lose nothing to which it was entitled, and
everybody would be benefited. This government
can not continue half just and half unjust, any more
than it could be half slave and half free. Indeed,
injustice involves slavery, for the man who is the
victim of injustice is the slave of him who profits
by it. Thus the question is one of emancipation
quite as much as it was forty years ago. So it is
proposed to raise up this Third Power as the de-
fender and champion of liberty. The man who is
forced to pay one dollar more for an article than it is
fairly worth, or to sell it for a dollar less than it is
worth, is to the extent of that dollar a slave. The toil
represented in that extra dollar is as truly slave
labor as was the toil of the black man forty years
ago, or that of the miserable peon in the Alabama
cotton-fields at the present time. And how can the
American farmer, who is grandiloquently spoken of
by campaign orators as the freest man on earth,
be free at all, in any proper sense, when he is com-
pelled to market the fruits of his hard labor at
prices made by some one else, who frequently enjoys,
at the hands of the government, an advantage that

52 THE THIRD POWER

the farmer does not enjoy? Many fantastic schemes
have been devised for the emancipation of the Amer-
ican farmer, but they have all had one fundamental
defect in that they looked in the first instance to the
government instead of the farmer himself. No peo-
ple was ever freed except by its own exertions.

"Who would be free themselves must strike the
blow."

So this appeal is not to the government, not to
the politicians, not even to the law, but to the farm-
ers themselves. If they show themselves worthy of
the blessings which they crave, they can get them.
The demand is not for government warehouses,
free silver, unlimited issues of paper money, loans
from the treasury on crops or land, duties on farm
products, or even for the better regulation of trusts
and corporations, but simply for the use of the power
which the farmers have to help themselves. The
question is whether they are patriotic enough, in-
telligent enough, self- restrained enough, determined
enough, and wisely selfish enough, simply to put out
their hands and pluck the fruit which hangs within
easy reach of their grasp. They, in the beginning
at least, need no help from any one. Governments
are like God in one particular, in that they help
those who help themselves. When people generally,
and the politicians in particular, see that the farmers
are in earnest about this business they will promptly
cooperate. The farmers will find that they have as
many real friends as they now have pretended ones.

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 53

Success will bring unexpected allies, and will un-
cover and discomfit secret enemies. Would the
American colonists ever have won their freedom if
they had waited for France to begin the struggle?
Nay, rather did not France withhold her aid till she
was convinced that the colonists could win their
freedom even without her aid? The Cuban patriots
battled for a generation before our great republic, at
last convinced that there could be no peace till Spain
was driven from the island, intervened in behalf of
Cuban freedom and independence. English liber-
ties are the product of centuries of toil and fight,
and it was the French people that won liberty for
France and maintained it against combined Europe.
So the American farmer must not whine, and beg,
and supplicate, must not rely on politics and poli-
ticians, nor even on Divine Providence wholly, but
must, as others have done, fight his own battles.
The victory is sure. And when it is won, as won it
will be, it will be found that all will be benefited.
So it is true that no American freeman, able and
willing to support himself without bonuses or sub-
sidies from the government, and without the protec-
tion of unfair and unjust laws, loving justice and
fair play, and asking for nothing more than is
rightly his — an honest reward for honest toil — need
have the slightest apprehension about this move-
ment for the organization of the farmers. The beg-
gars, the preyers on other men's wealth, the par-
asites, the government pets, the grafters, the bood-

54 THE THIRD POWER

lers, and all who look on government as an instru-
mentality for their own enrichment, may well be
disturbed. But there is no warfare to be waged
against the rights even of these. We want to take
the broad and manly view of this movement. It is
not a grab for privileges, or a war of reprisal, but
simply a firm and resolute stand for justice and
equity. The farmers are not going to ask any one
to give them something. They are merely going
to take what is theirs. The Third Power, represent-
ing the divinely established business of agriculture,
when it is organized, will not need to ask favors;
it will only have to insist on rights. Favors it does
not want or expect. Rights it will have.

CHAPTER VI

A NEW REBELLION

One hundred years and more ago, when America was young,
And writhing 'neath the tyrant's chain, the cruel oppressor's

wrong ;
Her gallant sons for freedom's sake went at the country's call,
And faced the cannon's shot and shell to bravely fight or fall.

They fought and bled for liberty, that this fair land of ours,
Might throw the tyrant's shackles by, yield but to higher pow-
ers.
They fought the fight, in God's good time they won the victory,
They laid the gory saber down and called their children free.

But are we free, does the sun in Heav'n look down on men to-
day,
Freed from all bonds of slavery, who own no tyrant's sway ?
Do they tread America's standard soil all equals in her sight,
All sharers in her bounty under Equity and right?

Go ask the busy farmer there, who toils from sun to sun,
If he enjoys that liberty, the right of such an one.
He'll tell you that there still remains injustice in the land,
That foul oppression grinds the sons of toil on every hand.

The farmer knows no liberty, for Power holds the reins ;
He has to take the leavings after others count their gains.
His fruits of labor are controlled by grinding Capital,
And he is deemed a servant who, in fact, is king of all.

To arms, to arms ! then men of brawn, you won the battle once,
Gird on your shining armor now and rally to the front !
Take freedom for your battle-cry, your watchword Equity,
And make the tyrant tremble when your ready sword they see!

55

56 THE THIRD POWER

Fear not though you have tried and failed for lack of Union

strong,
Cooperation will succeed and right will conquer wrong.
Think you that our forefathers quailed when foemen charged

the field?
They bravely met each sharp attack and would not, did not

yield.

Then, farmers, rise in all your might and strike for liberty;

Demand your rights in unity, then call this nation free.

Put forth your earnest efforts in this grand and glorious

fight,
Associate, then work and pray, and God will guard the right.

— Maude E. Smith Hymers.

A little further elaboration of the general help-
fulness of the proposed plan may help to a better
understanding of it. It has been said that the farm-
ers could not be prosperous without benefiting- all
classes, and that prosperity of the country depends
on the prosperity of the farmer. No one doubts the
truth of these statements. They have a very im-
portant bearing on this argument. For if they are
true, as they are, it must follow that a movement to
better the condition of the farmers will be in the in-
terest of all. And this is precisely the point that I
desire to emphasize. For, unless it is made clear,
the impression may prevail that we are making war
on other classes and trying to seek an advantage at
their expense. The further we get into the case the
more obvious will it become that this is not the pur-
nose at all.

What do the stock speculators mean when thev

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 57

say that the prosperity of the country depends on the
well-being of the agricultural class? Simply that
that class is the largest in the community, that all
others depend on it, that our farm produce is our
greatest national asset, and that a bad condition
here is a national calamity. Foreign trade, railroad
earnings, the price of stocks, bank deposits, wages,
and of course the welfare of all the industries di-
rectly dependent on the farm, are all affected by the
condition of agriculture. Prices are largely regu-
lated by the ability of the farmers to buy. Thus, all
our business and industry are based on the farm —
it is the foundation on which the whole structure
rests. Is it not clear that it is to the interest of all
that that foundation should be solid and substan-
tial ?

Look at the matter in another way. The farming
class is the greatest consuming class in the country.
When it. through stress of circumstances, is driven
to rigid economy, sales fall off, stocks accumulate
in factory and store, prices decline, collections are
bad, there is less available capital to loan, money
gets tight just when it is most needed, and we all
feel the pinch. Luxuries are dispensed with. There
are fewer pianos and organs in the houses of the
farmers, fewer pictures on the wall, fewer books and
newspapers bought. The farmer and his family
make the old clothes do for another year instead of
buying new ones. Farms are allowed to run down,
either because their owners can not afford to keep

58 THE THIRD POWER

them up, or because they do not think it worth while.
Improvements are not made; less machines are
bought, and fewer hands employed, and finally the
gains of former years are wiped out, then comes the
mortgage, and the whole process of reconstruction
has to be gone through with again. In the mean-
time the whole country suffers. It is all the result
of a diminished consumption on the part of the
farmers, brought about by large crops and low
prices. With the farmer out of the market, or in it
only to a limited extent, the market is bound to
suffer, and all industries be harmed.

The first thing that the merchant wants to know,
when he sends his commercial travelers out to the
smaller towns, is whether the farmers are buying,
and whether they are paying their bills promptly.
The credit to be extended to the local merchant de-
pends largely on the financial condition of the farm-
ers. If they are buying liberally, and paying their
bills with reasonable promptness, the city merchant
knows that he can afford to sell larger bills of goods
to the local dealer, and give him better terms than
he could do under other circumstances. All this is
elementary, and yet we often forget it. We seem
to feel that prosperity is maintained solely by the
buying of the rich people in the cities who are so
lavish with their money. But it is not so. The
fanners are the great consumers, and when they
cease to buy, or curtail their expenditures, they not
only limit the market by just that much, but they

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 59

lessen the power of people in the cities to buy.
Smaller stocks in the stores mean a smaller output
from the mills and factories, and that means re-
duction of wages and of the labor force. So the
working man consumes less. So, too, less freight is
hauled, earnings and wages fall off in the railroad
industry, and consumption again suffers. Thus
the farmer is inextricably bound up with all other
classes of society.

Looking at the question, therefore, from the non-
farmer point of view, we see that it is one of main-
taining and increasing the consuming power of the
farmer, which is equivalent to the maintaining and
increasing of the general consuming power. And
that is a result which all are interested in bringing
about. Thus this movement is not for the good of
the farmer alone, but for the good of all — the good
of the whole country. To regard it in any other
way would be singularly to misapprehend it.

The name of the organization which is now in
process of forming, and which will make the Third
Power a real power is The American Society of
Equity. It is not a farmers' society only, but an
American society — that is, for all good Americans
who want to see better conditions prevail on the
farm. It is not a benefit society, but an equity so-
ciety. Benefits are always for an individual or
class, while equity is for all. Indeed, it can not be
equitable unless it is for all. Equity for one and
not for another is not equity, but inequity. It is a

60 THE THIRD POWER

society that knows no state bounds ; one that reaches
from one side of the agricultural region to the other ;
one that every fanner can join, and be the better for
joining. So when we propose to organize and se-
cure fair prices for the farmer, it is not simply that
he may be benefited, but that all may be benefited,
and it has been shown that all would be benefited.
To demand more than a fair price would be inequita-
ble, and so is not to be thought of. Fair wages for
a fair day's work, fair profits for the manufacturer,
fair interest for the capitalist, fair prices to the
consumers, and fair values for the products of the
farm — this is equity. It is important that this
should be thoroughly understood. For the attempt
will be made, indeed it has already been made, to
make it appear that the farmer is proposing to rob
others for his own enrichment. This has been the
method used by other classes, and it is not surpris-
ing that those who have practiced it should think
that the farmers are going to adopt it. In fact, un-
fairness is so prevalent in commercial enterprises
that every movement is looked upon with suspicion.
The outsiders begin to look for the hook that will
catch them. The golden rule, "Do unto others as
you would have them do unto you," is interpreted
to-day, "Do him before he has a chance to do you."
But it is not so with this society. The name and
purpose of the societv alike forbid it. It is an old
maxim that those who seek equity should do equity.
They are fortunate in being in such a position that

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 61

nothing can benefit or help them which will not help
and benefit all others. So they are not subjected
to the temptation to prey on others to which other
classes have yielded. If they would put their prices
too high they would curtail consumption. Hence,
how reasonable then that they will do everything
possible to secure the maximum market. In fact,
this is one of the leading reasons for organizing
and one of the principal objects of the society. If
the Third Power controls the other powers it will
be only because it is the biggest and most essential
to the national welfare, and so ought to control.
But it will be ruled by equity, and in and by seek-
ing its own good it will, even admitting that it may
not mean to do so, seek the good of others. There-
fore, there is no reason why it should be antagonized
and feared by any legitimate interest or industry.
Rather it should have the cordial and friendly co-
operation of all who want to see freedom and in-
dependence, peace and happiness, truth and equity,
religion and piety established among the people of
the earth.

CHAPTER VII

CLEAR THE WAY

Men of thought ! be up and stirring night and day !
Sow the seed ! withdraw the curtain ! clear the way !

There's a fount about to stream;

There's a light about to beam ;

There's a warmth about to glow;

There's a flower about to blow ;
There's a midnight darkness changing into gray.
Men of thought, and men of action, clear the way !

Once the welcome light has broken, who shall say
What the unimagined glories of the day?
What the evils that shall perish in its ray?

Aid the daring, tongue and pen !

Aid it, hope of honest men !

Aid it, paper ! aid it, type !

Aid it, for the hour is ripe!
And our efforts must not slacken into play.
Men of thought, and men of action, clear the way !

Lo, a cloud's about to vanish from the day!
Lo, the right's about to conquer ; clear the way !
And a broken wrong to crumble into clay.

With that right shall many more

Enter smiling at the door.

With that giant wrong shall fall

Many others, great and small,
That for ages long have held us for their prey.
Men of thought, and men of action, clear the way !

— Charles Mackay.
62

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 63

It is, of course, obvious to all that the price of
farm products bears little or no relation to the cost
of producing them. Wheat may range in price
from $0.50 to $1.00 a bushel, and yet it costs the
farmers as much to raise it in years of low as in
years of high prices. Fifty-cent wheat may even
cost more to produce than dollar wheat. For the
lower price indicates an abundant crop, and this
means that the demand for labor is great, and that
consequently wages of farm laborers are high; but
the point is that there is no fixed and established
relation between the cost of production and price.
Surely there should be. The consumption of farm
products is reasonably uniform from year to year,
and there is not often any great decline in consump-
tion that would account for low prices. There is
little or no fluctuation in demand, no real surplus,
and the cost of production is a fairly constant
quantity. Yet prices have a wide range.

Of course, it will be said that they are regulated
by supply and demand — and how often have we
heard that phrase; it is used very glibly by many
men who have no knowledge whatever of its mean-
ing. Let us try and find out what it does mean.
Demand and supply are really the same thing — or
at least they are the two faces of the same fact.
Money in the hands of the man wanting wheat is
supply, while wheat is what he demands. The
farmer, on the other hand, demands money and sup-
plies wheat. This would be clear if there were no

64 THE THIRD POWER

money in the world, and if all trade were carried on
by barter. Then all the goods in the country would
be both supply and demand. It is only when we
measure goods against money that we come to look
on money as demand and goods as supply. So
the farmer demands money and supplies wheat,
while the miller demands wheat and supplies money.
So the law of supply and demand describes the
working of a force that is not so simple and easily
understood as we may at first think.

Again, we talk of demand equaling supply, or of
supply equaling demand. This means absolutely
nothing unless we take into account the question of
price. An increase of price will affect both supply
and demand, increasing the former and lessening the
latter. And this brings us to the main point to be
noted in this connection, and that is, that the force
under consideration is not a great natural force
above and beyond the power of man to regulate or
control. We may say that the price of harvesters is
regulated by the law of supply and demand, and so
it is. But the men who make them control the sup-
ply and manufacture no more of them than they
think can be disposed of at a good profit. Further,
by raising or lowering the price they can, and do,
temporarily influence the demand for harvesters.
And here is the thing to be borne in mind. We may
admit that the price of farm products is, or should
be regulated by supply and demand, or, better still,
by production and consumption, but still it is true

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 65

that the farmer has — or may and should have — the
power to say what the supply shall be. A controlled
supply is as much within his power as it is in the
power of the manufacturer. So when some amateur
political economist talks to you learnedly about the
law of supply and demand, tell him that you propose
to make that law work for you instead of against
you. Coal is mined and marketed under the law
of supply and demand, but when the anthracite bar-
ons think that the demand is not sufficient to absorb
their coal at the right price, although there are mil-
lions of tons down in the mines, they shut off the
supply. If the price is too low they raise it at the
rate of fifty cents a ton a month. The farmers may
do the same thing, if they will. Supply and demand,
certainly, — but they can make the supply large or
small at pleasure, or withhold it altogether. And
you may play upon demand by raising or lowering
the price of your products as you see fit. Yet, always
keep in mind that as much food and clothing will be
consumed at a fair price as at an unduly low price.

So the man can not be left out of the problem.
And that is something that you must never forget.
There would be no supply of farm products at all
except for the intelligent work of the farmers. From
their partnership with the earth flow these assets
that we all value so highly. Supply is a human
product, not a natural growth like breadfruit. It
must be adjusted and regulated at all times to the
demand, but only at a price that is fair to both par-

66 THE THIRD POWER

ties to the trade, not a temporary over-supply at
times to force prices down, nor a scarcity at others
to force prices up. The plea is that these adjust-
ments should be made by the farmers, inasmuch as
the supply is theirs, and they are the only ones that
can make the adjustment in a way to benefit all.
And in making it they must consider, first of all, the
cost of production — that is, what they pay for corn,
wheat and cotton, fruit, vegetables, dairy and poul-
try products, etc., in investments, toil, pain, absti-
nence and self-sacrifice. We see how it is in other
departments of industry. Wages are regulated, we
may say, by the law of supply and demand. Yet
trade-unions control, to no small extent, the num-
ber of laborers — thus regulating the supply. And
they strain themselves to the uttermost to keep the
supply of laborers small enough to insure good
wages. The capitalist, on the other hand, determines
to a considerable extent the amount of capital avail-
able for the payment of wages, and endeavors to les-
sen the competition for laborers. Both these classes
influence, in a marked degree, both supply and de-
mand. Why should not the farmer do the same?

So do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the
talk about supply and demand. What you have to
decide is whether you are getting prices properly
proportionate to the cost of production. It is clear
that often you do not. Indeed, cost of production
is the last thing that you, and those who buy from
you, take into account. If wheat at one dollar only

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 67

sufficiently compensates you, it is evident that wheat
at fifty cents does not. There is no natural or eco-
nomic reason for such fluctuations. They have a
bad effect in many ways. Who can make any defi-
nite calculation on such a basis as this ? Here is the
secret of the failure of many farmers to make needed
improvements. The owner is afraid to undertake
improvements for fear prices will fall, and he may
not be able to pay for them. What would you think
of a manufacturing business which sold plows this
year for fifteen dollars, but which was haunted by
the fear that, the cost of production remaining pre-
cisely the same, it might have to sell plows next year
for seven dollars? The business simply could not
go on. It would be impossible for the proprietor to
figure on prices, wages or raw material. Profits
would be as uncertain and problematical as they now
are in the farming business. It is so in farming,
which, after all, is manufacturing. The farmer is
capitalist, laborer, manufacturer, scientist and land-
owner, so that all the forces of production are com-
bined in him. The earth is his factory, the plant
food his raw material, the plant his machine, and
the crop his finished product. Yet, though he is the
supreme producer, and though all the forces of pro-
duction center in him, he is, under present conditions,
the most powerless of all producers, and the only
one who takes no account of the cost of production.
Is it not time that he asserted himself? He must
quit increasing the supply extravagantly and to his

68 THE THIRD POWER

Own hurt, and insist that the price at which he sells
shall be such as to earn him a fair profit, year in and
year out, over and above the cost of production. He
can not do this by himself. So here, again, organ-
ization is absolutely necessary.

To illustrate more forcibly the need of regulating
prices, we will say that, always, the larger the crops
the lower the prices. Frequently the largest crops
sell for the least bulk money, and vice versa, the
smallest crops bring the farmers the most money.
This is proven in the corn crop of 1901. It was the
smallest this country raised for many years, yet it
brought to the farmers more money than any other
corn crop except the one of 1902. This latter crop
was the largest ever raised ; it had the advantage of
high price established by the preceding shortest crop,
yet sold for comparatively little more than the short
one. This condition is also illustrated by potatoes.
In 1895 this country raised the largest crop in its
history, and they sold for only about half the money
as did the crop of 1901, which was the smallest for
many years. The same is true of wheat, oats, cotton,
fruit and other crops. An enterprise which is sub-
ject to such wide, violent irregularities can not be
healthy, and a system which makes them possible is
bad and vicious. Any person who will take the
trouble to study the crop statistics will be convinced
that something is wrong. It is clear from this show-
ing that it is the large crops and low prices that are
a menace to the farmers — consequently the nation's

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 69

prosperity. Short crops will make good prices for
themselves, as then the buyers go to the farm seek-
ing them, and the farmers can price them.

By organization and cooperation the temporary
surplus of any crop can be controlled — held on the
farm — and the same conditions produced as when
the crop is small. All that is necessary to do to make
prices on the farm is to control that part, which, at
times, overstocks the market, and which fixes prices
on all. In other words, to keep the market in a seek-
ing condition. We claim that as much of our food
products will be consumed at a fair price to the
farmer as at an unfairly low price. The cities are
fairly reveling in prosperity. Labor is better paid
now than ever before; manufactured goods sell
higher than ever before. Therefore, the consumers
off of the farm should pay a fair price for their food,
even though it leaves them a little less for luxuries ;
but we don't believe it will be necessary for the con-
sumer to pay more. The advent of the Third Power
will beneficially affect distribution of farm products
and cut down the mountains of profits realized by
unfair middlemen between the producers and con-
sumers. The success of the farmers' movement will
guarantee an equitable price to the farmers, a fair
margin to the middleman, lower prices to the con-
sumer, and a larger market for all farm products.
By removing the uncertainties of prices, encouraging
free buying and selling on certain and legitimate

yo THE THIRD POWER

margins, greater consumption will result, again ben-
efiting the farmers.

This matter of making prices on farm products is
the most important problem before the people of the
world. It directly affects half the population of our
country (about forty million people) and many
other millions in Europe and other countries. As
the United States is the great surplus producing
country, it can make prices on food products for the
world. It has done it in the past, and has set the
price too low. The result has been, our farmers are
the poorest paid of all laborers in this country, and
the European farmers are paupers. Through the
Third Power operating through the American So-
ciety of Equity prices can be set on an equitable
basis, the American farmer will rise to an equality
with the best business men of the nation, his profes-
sion will be above any other, and the European farm-
ers will rise proportionally.

This is the time for action, not for longer submis-
sion. Unless the farmers accept this opportunity I
believe the opportunity will pass and a land trust
be formed which will forever make it impossible for
the rank and file of American farmers to own and
keep a portion of God's green earth, but they will
be ground down to serfdom indeed.

CHAPTER VIII

MARCH OF EQUITY

Face about and turn to freedom,

Shout our blessing o'er the land !
Lift our flag of Equity,

Show the emblem's triumph band !
Convert foes or turn them under,

Here is Equity for all ;
Let the light of this transcription

Conquer prices to our call !

Free our farmers, free our farmers,

From the harmers of their price;
We are striving, merchants thriving —

Now we want our proper slice !
We will make it, we will break it,

With a wise man as our guide ;
Star is over Power the rover,

Now we'll conquer ev'ry side !

— Pearl Udilla Davis.

Perhaps it has not been made sufficiently clear that
organization is necessary to accomplish the results
desired. It lias been shown that the farmers ousfht
to organize, and that organization is the law of the
industrial and commercial world, and that in other
businesses organization has been found to be neces-
sary. Further it has been argued that farming is a
business quite as truly as manufacturing, and that

7i

72 THE THIRD POWER

the same laws govern both. It has been insisted, too,
that unorganized power has little chance in the world
at the present time, and that unity of action is neces-
sary to make power felt. Yet some may ask whether
it may not be possible, admitting that organization
is desirable, for the farmers to better their condi-
tion, in the ways indicated, by their own individual
efforts. This, at least, raises the question as to the
scope of organization, for few will maintain that
anything could be done without some combination.
How extensive should it be? If you will stop to
think about the matter you will see that if the farm-
ers of one county, or even of one state or section
should agree to market only at a fair price they not
only would fail to accomplish much, but they would
put themselves in great peril. What would it profit
the Indiana farmers to adopt this course while the
farmers of other states were rushing their crops to
market to be sold at whatever price was offered?
Suppose there were two stores in your county
town, and that the proprietor of one of them should
make up his mind that the price of dry goods was
too low, and that he would not sell to any one except
at an advance of fifty per cent., and suppose that the
proprietor of the other store should keep on selling
at the old price. Obviously the latter man would
get all the trade, and the former would have to meet
his price or go out of business. If the anthracite
coal men were in a combination, would it be possible
for any one of them to raise the price of coal as long

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 73

as one kept on selling steadily at the old price?
Clearly not. The lowest price asked for a commod-
ity must be the prevailing price, for the reason that
the buyers will pay no higher price than the lowest
at which goods can be secured.

It is precisely so with the farmers. Recently the
announcement was made that the farmers of Indiana
seemed to be holding on to their wheat, and the
question was asked whether attempts to organize
them under the banner of "dollar wheat" were meet-
ing with success. One of the millers said :

"It is a simple proposition which Indiana farmers
will face if they withhold their wheat from the mar-
ket. Other producers will supply the urgent demand
and the holders will be glad to get what they can for
their wheat after the others have sold out. The
question resolves itself into the old one of supply
and demand."

The supply and demand question has already been
discussed, but on the main point the miller is right.

A combination of Indiana farmers can not fight
against freely sold wheat in other sections of the
country. Another miller said that he had no doubt
that there was a combined effort on the part of Indi-
ana farmers to withhold their wheat, but he said,
and truly, "Indiana farmers can not control the mar-
ket here as long as we can buy elsewhere at the same
price." But suppose they could not buy elsewhere?

74 THE THIRD POWER

And this was the condition they met, but they did
not want to admit it : Farmers were holding to a
great extent in all the states, yet without sufficient
organization and cooperative ability to force the
price to the dollar mark quickly. The millers, how-
ever, would not admit it, and the statements made
were calculated to stampede the farmers and cause
them to market more freely. This occurred in Au-
gust, 1903, and the farmers did produce a condition
that fully justified dollar wheat by withholding sup-
plies and decreasing the visible to the lowest point
in many years. The speculators, however, were de-
termined to hold the price down and defeat the farm-
ers. Every bear argument that could be found, real
or imaginary, was brought to bear. Another reason
why prices were so strenuously held down was the
fact that the 1903 wheat crop was sold out by the
speculators around sixty-five cents a bushel in the
spring when prospects were so flattering and a nine-
hundred-million-bushel crop was predicted; also
millers contracted flour that would keep their mills
grinding for months. It was to the interest of these
speculators and millers to keep the price down as low
as possible until they could fill their contracts. The
obvious conclusion, therefore, is that the combina-
tion, to be effective, must include a large number of
farmers. The temporary surplus of any crop must
be controlled ; that is, a surplus must not appear at
any time. I estimate that one million farmers will
be sufficient. This is only a comparatively small

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 75

portion of them, but this number cooperating
through one central head can, I believe, fully con-
trol the surplus of any crop this country produces,
and fix the price equitably for all farmers in this
country, and on staples like wheat, corn, oats, cotton,
and meat, set the price for the world.

The Grange and Alliance had millions of mem-
bers ; therefore, if farmers organized before, they can
again, if there is a good reason for it. The reason is
more urgent now than ever before, also, the plan is
so much more practical and the objects so much
better, that I contend if the farmers will organize
once more, they will realize such great benefit that
they will never disorganize. And it is such an or-
ganization as this that it is proposed to form. Also,
we expect, after the million members are secured
for the American Society of Equity, other millions
will come, until its growth will be stopped because
there is no more material to grow upon.

The farmers' organization must be strong enough
and general enough to regulate the marketing. The
question is not one of holding products, but of sell-
ing them. The proposition is that they shall be held
only for the purpose of securing a fair price. In a
word, the farmers must make a seeking market, in-
stead of dumping their fine, valuable products with-
out system, like in the case of bankrupt stocks.

Incidentally, something may be said about the
ability of the United States to control prices of agri-
cultural products. It is a fact, that, do the best they

76 THE THIRD POWER

can, the other producing countries of the world of
bread grains never have enough to supply the de-
mand. Every year Europe requires about two hun-
dred millions of bushels of wheat from this country.
Without this, values in the thickly populated coun-
tries of Europe would probably rise to fabulous
prices, and we predict famines would be frequent.
Claims may be made that production in other coun-
tries can be greatly increased. In some cases this is
true, but at the same time population and consump-
tion will be increasing. Consumption has been in-
creasing for a few years, faster than production.
Witness the fact that three years ago this country
had a visible supply of forty-seven million bushels,
while at this writing (August, 1903) it is down to
twelve millions. The same proportions held true
in foreign countries. This in face of the fact that
the crop of wheat in 1902 was the largest ever
grown, and in 1901 was nearly as large. The fig-
ures clearly prove that consumption has been greater
than production for the last three years, even when
production was unprecedentedly large. We can not
hope to keep up the recent rate of production of
bread grain except through more intensive farming
or the opening of new territory. This latter is prob-
lematic. But suppose the area could be augmented
by another empire equal in size and productive abil-
ity to our Mississippi valley. Has not all our central
west and northwest been put under cultivation with-
in the memory of present men ? Has not the world

FARMERS TO THE FRONT yy

consumed the products ? Are we likely to have such
an increase in producing area in the next genera-
tion? I say no. In short, to supply the food for
future generations, will require intensive farming.
This means organization, cooperation and better
prices, so our present farms can be brought up in
fertility to produce double or triple the present low
averages.

To talk of foreign countries exporting wheat or
other products to this country is absurd, even though
prices were made higher here. The more likely re-
sult, in fact the inevitable result, will be for foreign
farmers to put their price up to meet those of the
United States. European farmers are more for co-
operation than are the American farmers, and they
will be glad to embrace the first opportunity to get
rid of the competition of this country, in setting
cheap prices. Besides, it is proposed to organize
this society in all foreign countries. Thus, we will
have the Russian Society of Equity, the German
Society of Equity, etc. Already the movement is
under way in the surplus producing countries of
food crops, and great interest is shown in Europe in
the plan that will enable them to cooperate with the
American farmers to make equitable prices.

But suppose it was not possible to retain the for-
eign markets on wheat — our principal export grain
— and our farmers were confined to the home market,
the tariff tax of twenty-five cents a bushel will shut
out foreign wheat until the home price reaches one

78 THE THIRD POWER

dollar and nine cents per bushel, on the basis of
eighty- four cents, an exportable basis, and this would
be a big lift. But if farmers will organize and
get a profitable price for all their crops, I predict one
of the first results will be decreased production of
grain crops. With profitable prices assured, farmers
would not need to put out as large crops as in the
past. With farming removed from the old system
when labor was the only factor that earned anything
and the person who worked the hardest and the
most hours in the fierce competitive struggle was the
one who made the most, the tendency will be to not
work so hard and cut down the acreage. At all
events a short crop at a profitable price is always
better than a bumper crop at a losing price.

This country produces nearly all the corn of the
world, and is the only one that has the soil and cli-
mate to grow the crop successfully on a large scale.
On this crop we can surely dictate to the world.

There need be no fear about our market. The
world needs — must have — our surplus and will pay
a fair price for it when it learns that it can not get
it at an unfair price, nor will the Argentine or Rus-
sian exporters be able to beat the American farmers,
when the farmers in those countries are also organ-
ized in the Equity society.

Do you not begin to see how powerful and benefi-
cent this organization will be ? Already the Chicago
speculators have been heard crying for wheat. They
can have all they want, but after the farmers' organ-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 79

ization is completed, only at prices made by it. And
the work has only begun. You are asked simply to
conduct your business as other business is conducted
at the present time. It has been said that the twenti-
eth century farmer is a business man. It is for him to
show it. The opportunity will be offered to him.
A definite aim — dollar wheat and fair prices for all
other crops — will be placed before him. We are to
see whether he, like other business men, is able to
get what he goes after. To say that he can not do
this is to impeach his intelligence. Other men have
no difficulty in seeing what is for their own good,
nor will the farmer have. If others can organize,
he can organize — and he can be true to his organiza-
tion, especially when he would injure himself by be-
ing false to it. There will, of course, be predictions
of failure, as there have been already, but they will
come from the enemies of the farmer — from those
who flatter him by telling him that he is a business
man and yet want him to act as though he were a
child or a fool. But such criticisms are the surest in-
dications of success. If the movement were hopeless
or weak there would be no objections to it. The fact
that there are objections to it on the part of those
interested in defeating it, proves that it is practical
and powerful. The people at large, who love fair
play, will support the movement when they fully
understand it.

CHAPTER IX

THE FARMERS' FUTURE RHYME

The dawn of light is breaking

To quiet farmers' fears ;
The sons of toil are awaking

To enjoy peaceful, happy years.

Then all that want protection,
Here is the way, you plainly see :

Don't continue competition,
But join the A. S. of E.

— IV. R. Freeman, Woodville, Mich.

Undoubtedly one great, and probably unsur-
mountable, obstacle that has hitherto stood in the
way of any effective and lasting organization of
farmers by any of the plans tried, has been the isola-
tion of the agricultural class. When towns were
few and widely scattered, means of communication
meager, and when the nearest neighbor was dozens,
or even scores, of miles away and without any
means in the organization for frequent communica-
tion, the farmer could, in the nature of things, know
little of what was going on in the world, could have
few or no relations with other farmers. Lacking
knowledge of the lives of others, he lacked sympathy.
There was no sense of relationship or interdepend-

80

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 81

ence. Men in the same county were farther apart
then than are men now in widely severed states.
Now. organization implies some closeness of touch.
Men must know something of one another; care
something for one another; have common interests
and also a realization of the fact that their interests
are the same.

A few illustrations will serve. Capital can com-
bine easily because capital moves freely from one
point to another. It can be, and is, handled in large
masses. A dollar in Indiana is as close of kin to a
dollar in New York as is the nearest neighbor of the
New York dollar. Laboring men even yet find it
difficult to migrate from one section to another, but
capital flows freely to the place where there is the
greatest demand for it. Distance is no barrier — the
ocean is no barrier. A man may live in Kansas and
have his capital working for him in the Philippines
or in Wall Street. The natural tendency of capital is
toward combination. And it knows nothing of iso-
lation. Turning to labor we find that labor combi-
nations are easily effected because laboring men live
in cities, and close together. Thousands of them
work in the same factory or on the same railroad.
They meet constantly and talk over things affecting
their condition. It is natural and easy for them to
cooperate; indeed, they can hardly help doing so.
Each man feels — and he would feel it whether there
were an organization or not — that he is the member
of a vast body, and he gets the daily encouragement

82 THE THIRD POWER

of touching elbows constantly with his fellow-sol-
diers. Thus there is this sense of unity independent
of the organization itself. He knows that others
are interested in him as he is in others. Combina-
tion and concert of action could not but come. And
it was easy because the laboring men were close to-
gether.

It has been different on the farm. The farmer,
to be sure, knew that there were millions of others
engaged in the same occupation as his, but he never
saw them, knew nothing about them, and he could
hardly help feeling that he was a lone skirmisher, not
certain whether he would be supported by the main
body or not. He worked for himself as others did
for themselves, and, as a consequence, each was sub-
jected to the severest competition from the others.
Community of interest was not thought of. Com-
bination seemed unnatural, and so, impossible. The
conditions implied division and separation. Isola-
tion was the bar to organization. But now all this
is changed, and henceforth the tendency will be
strong in the direction of combination. The rural
delivery, the telephone, the interurban trolley, good
roads, the wider diffusion of books and papers, the
growth of cities and towns throughout the rural re-
gion, have all served, and will increasingly serve,
to bring the farmers closer together. The farmer
can get to town every day now, whereas twenty-five
years ago he could not, or did not, do so once a week
or once a month. He meets his neighbors in socie-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 83

ties and institutes, where they discuss subjects of
interest to all. He, too, feels the touch of the elbow
on each side of him, and knows that millions of oth-
ers are fighting the same battle that he has to fight,
and that they can fight it best by combining forces.
Rural America is to-day one vast neighborhood with
interests in common from ocean to ocean, and the
American Society of Equity is specially constructed
to promote good fellowship and cooperative indus-
trial development.

So we hear from all sides talk of organization.
This means that organization is felt to be both a ne-
cessity and a possibility. When men — at least when
Americans — are brought together the first thing
they think of is organization. No people that ever
lived had such a capacity as the Americans have
for concerted action. In the present case, men have
not proposed to organize the farmers simply because
they thought it would be well to do so, but because
they saw that conditions invited organization. This
is the way in which great and successful movements
always come. Prophets and seers may dream of
wonderful things, but if they are in advance of their
time, they try to accomplish them and fail, or, de-
spairing of success, they attempt nothing. The cen-
turies roll by, and at last, in the fulness of time, the
man and the hour coincide and then the world cakes
a tremendous step in advance. Only the other day
a man wrote a book on submarine navigation. He
showed that inventors had been busy with the prob-

84 THE THIRD POWER

km for centuries, and that one boat had been built
three hundred years ago, which actually did travel
a short distance under water under propulsion of
oars. But the writer said that this inventor could
do little simply because he had outstripped the pos-
sibilities of the science of his day. Steam naviga-
tion was then two hundred years in the future.
Even thirty years ago submarine boats were looked
on as impracticable — Jules Verne writing fancifully
of a trip under the sea as he did of a journey to the
moon or the center of the earth. Now the problem
is solved, not because the men of our day first
thought of solving it, but because science had ad-
vanced sufficiently to enable them to solve it — had
given them the materials to work with. Much the
same thing is true of aerial navigation. It is so of
reform movements. Even the Christian religion
could not have spread so rapidly had it not been that
the world was prepared for it. The Romans had
built the roads over which missionaries traveled,
had welded mankind together, had established peace,
law and order throughout the civilized world, and
created a system of government that was marvelous
for its efficiency.

The moral is plain. Every influence that can be
named is operating to bind the farmers together.
Railroads, the telegraph, the wonderful extension of
the telephone service, the rural mail service, the trol-
ley roads, the growth of towns in proximity to the
farm, the spread of education, the development of

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 85

the scientific side of farming, the multiplication of
agricultural schools and farm journals, the work of
the agricultural department of the government, the
settling up of the country, and, above all, the right
plan has been devised. And these will combine to
knit the farmers closely together, to destroy the
old isolation, and to make the farmers themselves
see that organization is as natural and easy in their
case as in the case of the city laborers, manufactur-
ers and others. And now, with every condition fa-
voring, the American Society of Equity has arrived.
Those who have dreamed of an organization of the
farmers may now see their dream realized. The new
society is not an artificial thing imposed on a civi-
lization not ready for it. On the contrary, it is the
outgrowth of the very same influences which have
wrought such marvelous changes in the condition of
the farmer. As the close association which the
working men have with one another inevitably sug-
gested organization, so organization will be sug-
gested to the farmer by the closer associations that
now exist between him and his fellow farmers. Iso-
lation will yield, as it has done already to some ex-
tent, more and more to combination, and the farm-
ers, united and acting together for the good of each
and all, will no longer be conquered in detail by
other classes. Instead of ignorantly and uncon-
sciously carrying on a guerrilla warfare against one
another, they will henceforth cooperate loyally and

86 THE THIRD POWER

effectively for the improvement of the agricultural
situation.

Who dare predict that farmers can not and will
not stand by each other in a great national body for
business benefits? He might as well attempt to deny
that millions of farmers have not been loyal to the
great political parties, Republican and Democratic,
these many years. If the farmers will rally to the
support of their party in politics as often as called
upon will they not be faithful to themselves in a
business body? The farmers united in the great
American Society of Equity will each find a brother
at his elbow on the right and on the left who is
wearing the badge, "For Profitable Prices." They
all have common interests. When they are called
upon by headquarters to express themselves on any
matter it will appeal to them even more than politics.
The appeal will not be ambiguous. What they will
be asked to do will be for their benefit. Their self-
interests will be appealed to and why should they do
otherwise than cast their vote in favor of their own
interests? If the farmers are told to ask a fair price
for cotton, wool, wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, eggs,
milk, butter, tobacco, vegetables, fruit, hogs, cattle,
etc., and each farmer knows that the word goes out
to the millions of other farmers all over the broad
land, do you suppose they would do the contrary
thing? Or if we will admit that all will not obey, —
some because they can not stop marketing, — there
will still be enough in this great body to control the

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 87

marketing and make the price. All that will be nec-
essary is to stop marketing, wherever the buyers will
not pay your price. In other words, to supply the
goods as the markets need them, and not dump them
in uncertain quantities at uncertain times. The sys-
tem of marketing the bulk of a crop soon after it is
produced results in creating a large visible supply,
which is used as a club ever after to beat down prices
for the balance of the year. Speculators understand
this to perfection. The clubs of "visible supply" and
"daily receipts" are the bears' leading arguments.
The farmers can prevent a large visible supply by
keeping the produce back on the farm and let it come
forward gradually during twelve months. And if
they will sell only when they get the agreed price the
buyers will look out for the daily receipts. When
considering this matter of prices and marketing,
farmers should always keep in mind this fact : That
the world will consume as much of your products
at a fair, profitable price as at an unprofitable price.

CHAPTER X

The dawn of light is breaking,

The darkness disappears,
The sons of toil are waking

To drive away their fears.
Let all be up and working

With all their might and main,
To make our union lasting

And all the youths to train.

The work is now before us,

Let's up and at it strong.
Let not a member falter

To push the work along.
Let every one unite

With shoulder to the wheel,
And carry the heavy load aright

That all may happy feel.

When to our homes we do return,

Our hearts are light and free
To know we have our honors earned

And made our brothers see.
Come brothers, sisters, all,

United now we stand.
Come heed our leaders' call

And make a firm, strong band.

Something has been said of the influence of agri-
cultural schools and papers, which is undoubtedly
good as far as it goes. But it does not go far

88

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 89

enousfh, and there is need here for reform. The
whole purpose of those who teach agriculture as a
science is, of course, to develop the scientific side of
the business, and to teach the farmers how to make
their land as productive as possible. This is well,
but it must be remembered that what the farmer
wants to produce is not crops, but money — or crops
as a means of getting money. His aim is, or should
be, to make his farm productive, but productive of
money. To this end he should practise the econo-
mies that other business men practise, making ex-
tensive use of machinery, keeping his soil in good
condition, studying the question of crops and their
rotation, observing the markets; in short, trying to
raise as big crops as possible are commendable, but,
after all these are done, there is something more
important. It is the profitable market. It is one
that, in justice to the farmer, ought not to be over-
looked by any of the teachers, speakers or experi-
menters.

The only people who profit more from a large
crop than a small one are the consumers, railroad
men, middlemen, and the speculators. The railroads
charge as much for hauling a cheap bushel as a dear
one, and the more bushels there are the better it is
for them. The same way with the speculator and
middleman. Cheap and abundant wheat is quite as
profitable for speculative purposes as dear and scarce
wheat. The farmer's prosperity, on the other hand,
depends on both the price and the quantity. As the

90 THE THIRD POWER

freight is the same on the cheap as on the dear
bushel, it is evident that a larger proportion of the
price goes to the railroad in the former than in the
latter case, to the reduction of the farmer's profit.
So the question is much more complex than it seems
to be on its face.

Suppose by the application of improved methods
the average of wheat per acre could be raised from
twelve to thirty bushels, and this is exactly what a
professor of the Indiana Agricultural Experiment
Station said the farmers could and should do, by
coming to them and learning how. This on the same
acreage as now would mean a yield of more than
2,000,000,000 bushels instead of 700,000,000. Un-
der present conditions the effect on price would be
most depressing. No one can say how far the price
would fall, but it is certain that the farmer would
get less profit for the large crop than he now gets,
even at the present moderate price, for the smaller
one. While it is not possible to increase any of our
crops so enormously as in this illustration, it will
serve to show the folly of the farmers' institutions,
teaching how to raise large crops without the ability
to put profitable prices on them. Better devote their
efforts to teaching them how to raise less ; as under
present systems, if each farm would raise uniformly
less, so as to always make a hungry market, our
farmers would revel in prosperity. Better yet would
be to join in the educational work and teach them

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 91

how to get a good price for a large crop as well as
for a small one.

The farmer is more interested in the question of
price now than in quantity of crop. However, with
the ability to fix profitable prices on the farm, and
prevent a surplus from appearing on the market at
any one time, it will be practically impossible to
raise a surplus of any of our crops for many years.
As we have shown, profitable prices will curtail pro-
duction at first, rather than stimulate it, while pop-
ulation and consumption will go on increasing.
Those who advise the farmer to raise larger crops
and to make his land more fruitful, without the
ability to fix prices, are, therefore, unsafe advisers,
and unconsciously have been playing into the hands
of the transportation companies, middlemen, and
speculators.

By all means the farmer should adopt scientific,
up-to-date methods, but he should apply them to the
marketing of his crops, as well as to the raising of
them. Scientific business as well as scientific agri-
culture is needed. The crop in which the farmer is
most interested is the crop of money. It is for that
that he works. He does not want to raise crops
simply for the sake of raising them. He raises
them to sell. The money that he gets for them is
his living. The bigger the crop the better, of course,
provided the price be right. But, and here is the
point, the bigger the crop, the greater is the neces-
sity that the farmer should control the sale of it.

92 THE THIRD POWER

Under the present free competitive system, a big
crop may be, and frequently is, anything but a bless-
ing to the man that grows it. When the crop is
small it, in a measure, takes care of itself, even as
things are to-day. It is when his fields are most
fruitful and the conditions most favorable that the
farmer is likely to find himself swamped by the very
plenteousness of his yield. I have made the asser-
tion that the short crops of 1901 were responsible
directly and indirectly in bringing more prosperity
to the farmers than any other crop they ever raised.
Really they, the farmers, get their blessings in dis-
guise.

Thus it appears that the very instruction that is
being given at our agricultural schools, experiment
stations, farmers' institutes and by farm papers
makes further instruction necessary. When you
teach a man how to grow the largest possible crop
on a given acreage, and press on him the necessity
of doing so, you put yourself under obligation to
show him how he may best deal with the products
which he has raised in such abundance. Without
this latter instruction the former may be worse than
useless — nay, may be positively harmful. This is a
subject to which our schools and papers ought to
give their attention. Certainly the farmers should
think about it very seriously. When you increase
largely the output, you, of necessity — other condi-
tions remaining the same — depress the price, unless
you can control the marketing. A community or

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 93

country will, however, consume as much at a fair
price as at a low price. A fair price appears to add
dignity to a commodity, and make it more desired.
Besides, if we can keep the farmers prosperous by
giving them good prices, we can keep the world pros-
perous, thus stimulating consumption.

The present average yield of wheat is in the
neighborhood of thirteen bushels an acre, and at that
average the country can produce about 650,000,000
bushels. That is enough at the present time to sup-
ply the needs of our own people, and to furnish a
quantity for export. Whether it would pay the
farmer to raise more under the old conditions, de-
pends entirely on the price he could get for it. A
short crop at a high price might bring him more
money than a large crop at low prices. This condi-
tion has frequently prevailed. In fact it is the rule
that the smallest crops sell for more money than the
largest ones.

So the question is whether the price of the large
crop, though lower than that received for the small
crop, is still high enough to enable the farmer to
make at least as much money net on his investment.
If it is not, he loses. This question of the ratio be-
tween quantity and price is of vital importance, and
the ratio is one that is easily disturbed and thrown
out of joint. He would be a bold man who, under-
standing the matter, tells the farmer that he ought
to raise more than he is now raising, and the farmer
who will listen to such teaching without a protest

94 THE THIRD POWER

does not deserve a better fate than has been his por-
tion in the past. Yet the whole object of so-called
scientific instruction in farming is to induce the
farmer to do just that thing.

But the farmer will not forget the question of
price. The American Society of Equity is not going
to let him forget it. This is the first and great ob-
ject of the society. It is the stepping-stone to the
accomplishment of the Third Power. The society
is willing to cooperate with the schools by show-
ing the farmer how to market and by helping him
to market profitably the larger crops which he is be-
ing taught to raise. The two things — up-to-date
farming and up-to-date business — must go together.
No sane manufacturer makes more goods than he
thinks he can sell profitably, or increases his facili-
ties beyond what he believes to be the power of his
customers or possible customers to consume. He
does not put in new and elaborate machinery sim-
ply that he may increase his output — whether he does
that depends on the condition of the market, and his
ability to control prices — but that he may produce
more cheaply and thus, if need be, to sell more
cheaply, yet make more money. It should be so
with the farmer. He must never forget the ques-
tion of price, and must ever remember that the
product which he is after is not corn or wheat or
cotton, or pork or beef, but gold. He who gets the
most gold out of his grounds is the most successful,
up-to-date and scientific farmer.

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 95

Good prices for farm products means increased
prosperity, and increased prosperity means greater
consumption. The element of waste alone of food
and clothing when people are prosperous is a great
item, and will have an important bearing on the
farmers' markets and prices.

CHAPTER XI

All hail the cause of Equity !

Let all the nation ring
With glad huzzas from wakened hearts,

That blithesome tribute bring.
In honor of the dawn of truth,

Of justice, fair and right;
For farmers who so patiently

Have waited for the light.

That light is swiftly coming now;

It spreads along the way,
And brightens all the world about

With its hope-giving ray.
Soon, soon the day of right shall glow,

In splendor through the land,
When every farmer lad shall march

In Equity's fair band.

Such are some of the needs of the farmer. It has
been shown that they can be satisfied only through
organization, and it must now be inquired whether
the American Society of Equity is the sort of an or-
ganization that the situation demands. A consider-
ation of the subjects that it proposes to accomplish
will at least prove that its founder intends it to do
the work which it has been said must be done, if the
farmer is to wield the power that he should wield.
The objects that it aims at are precisely the ones

96

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 97

that have already been put before the reader. The
very first thing proposed is, that the farmer should
"obtain profitable prices for all farm products, in-
cluding grain, fruit, vegetables, stock, cotton, and
their equivalents." It has been shown that the farm-
ers oftentimes do not obtain fair prices for these
products, and that such prices can not be obtained
without organization among the farmers. This is the
theory on which the American Society of Equity is
based. That organization can do this it has been the
purpose of this argument to demonstrate. That the
American Society of Equity can do it follows neces-
sarily, if the argument already made is sound, for it
is based on principles that have been set forth in the
preceding pages.

But there are certain details connected with this
question of price that need further exposition. In
order to get a fair price it has to be proved that the
farmers are under no necessity of selling their crops
at irregular intervals and in uncertain quantities, and
this involves two questions : First : Can the farmers
hold them ? and second : Have they the facilities for
holding them? It is insisted that few farmers are
driven to the necessity of selling their crops to the
first purchaser that offers, for the farmers are even
now the most completely self-supporting class in the
country. Many of them have been asked, "Why do
you sell your crops now ?" and the answer almost
invariably is, "I have found from experience that the
price is about as high now as it will be at any time,

7

98 THE THIRD POWER

so I let it go." That is, they do not sell because they
have to, but because they are disgusted with former
attempts to hold and the results. They exercise a
free choice, and they choose to sell because they think
they can make as much money by selling as by hold-
ing. Undoubtedly this is the true reason in the ma-
jority of cases for their haste to get rid of their crops.
The farmers think that the price, though not good,
is as good as they can hope to get, and they fear that
they may get caught in a decline. So they let go
and then complain that farming does not pay. But
do you stop to consider that somebody holds these
crops — your wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, poultry, but-
ter, eggs, fruit, tobacco, cotton, meat, etc. The
world don't consume them — gulp them down — as
soon as you let go of them. They go into elevators,
cold storage houses, packing houses, etc. There
they are held by comparatively few individuals until
the hungry consumer wants them, when they come
forth with profits added. The present system of
marketing by farmers is similar to that of throwing
bankrupt stocks on the market. And the farmers
adhere to it, not because they like it, but because they
have no better way. The purpose of the American
Society of Equity is to point to and provide a better
way. And as the farmers are free agents, they can
tread that way if they choose to do so.

The other question is as to the ability of the farm-
ers to hold their crops. This, too, is answered by
the American Society of Equity. For another of its

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 99

objects is "to secure equitable rates of transportation,
and to provide for storage in warehouses." There
has always been more or less strife between the farm-
ers and the railroads and the elevator interests, and
in that strife the farmers usually lose. Of late co-
operative societies have been formed in the western
and northwestern states, the object of which is to
enable the farmers to store and ship their own grain.
As a rule they have been successful and profitable.
These associations can easily affiliate with the Amer-
ican Society of Equity, and with the ability to control
prices, as well as to save the grain trusts' profit and
get equitable rates of transportation, they will be in
a very enviable position. Without the ability to make
equitable — profitable — prices, they will still be at the
mercy of the trusts, speculators and gamblers. And
without the power to hold the grain, prices can not
be fixed. Thus the two things must go together. I
claim the best place to hold grain is on the farm in a
good safe, vermin-proof granary. The farmer then
has no elevator charges to pay, which in public ele-
vators is about one cent a month and eight cents a
year. This is a heavy tax, and is about sufficient to
build an elevator, if used to its capacity, in a year.
The next best way is to have a community elevator.
Several local unions of the A. S. of E. will join to-
gether and erect it. And beyond this it is the design
of the society to have large elevators in the leading
market cities, under the management of the National
Union, where grain will be stored for members at

ioo THE THIRD POWER

lowest rates. Cold storage houses will serve a simi-
lar purpose and on the same system for perishable
products. Individual members can store their fruit,
poultry, or dairy products, meat, etc., in the local
union line of storage houses, or consignments from
local union or large individual producers will be
received in the National Union storage houses. In
this way the produce can be taken care of, the market
' supplied regularly with what it needs, and uniform-
ity of prices maintained throughout summer and
winter. The producers will be benefited by higher
prices and the consumers benefited by lower prices,
because the mountains of greedy profits that are now
added by unfair middlemen and food trusts will be
cut out.

But you may ask, How are the poor farmers to
hold their crops ?

In the first place, it will not be necessary to hold
all crops at any time, and those who do hold will
make a better price for those who can not hold.
Also our farms and farmers need the "rest cure,"
and will not work so hard with profitable prices in
sight, thus reducing the crops.

Second, with the farmers organized and fixing a
minimum (lowest) price dealers will see that they
can not buy any cheaper, and there is a possibility
that prices will be higher. Therefore, they will all
want to buy all they can at the low price, and will
put all their capital in the commodity as soon as the
poor producers must sell. I predict that the market

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 101

would take more when this system is in force than
will be offered.

Third, the society provides for those farmers who
will hold their grain and other produce a rising mar-
ket each month. This may be one-fourth or one-half,
or one cent per bushel or hundredweight, depending
on the commodity, kind of crop and the market. The
advance will be sufficient to offset shrinkage, interest,
etc. If there is a tendency to market too freely this
monthly advance can be increased to make it profita-
ble to hold. It is reasonable to believe that farmers
will hold on to their crops if there is a certainty of
making money by doing it. This monthly advance
should be adjusted to a nicety, so it will not allow
loss nor make a profit, but the inducement will be to
maintain prices, which will result when twelve
months' requirements are filled, by marketing one-
twelfth of the annual crop each month.

Fourth, grain in a granary or elevator, produce in
a storage house or property anywhere in evidence,
establishes credit. If cash is wanted for pressing
needs it can easily be raised on warehouse receipts,
or on personal notes, at any financial institution.

Let me say right here that the American Society
of Equity does not propose to loan money to its
members unless it engages in the banking business
later. Also we want to effectually explode the theory
of maintaining profitable prices for farm products
by the use of money. No individual, society, corpo-
ration, nor Russian government, nor United States

102 THE THIRD POWER

government can make and maintain profitable prices
for farm products by the use of money, even though
they had the treasure of these great nations to fall
back upon. It would be possible to keep prices up
for a while by the use of money, but remember, when
a price is paid for a commodity that you can not con-
sume yourself, you must find another party who will
take it off of your hands at a higher price, and here is
where the trouble comes. If the farmers' society
would supply the money to take their crops at profit-
able prices it would be a great thing for the members
as long as it lasted. They — the members — would
not need to concern themselves about anything but
to go back to the farm and raise as large crops as
possible and turn them into their society, which must
not only pay them a profitable price but find some
other person to take them at a higher price. This is
a sure way to run up an unwieldy surplus. The only
way to handle this problem is to make each individ-
ual producer responsible for production and markets.
If he produces too much he must take a lower price
or hold it over to a season of less production on his
own account. In this way he pays the penalty for
his indiscretion. Also, if farmers will not sell at the
equitable minimum price and foolishly hold out for
a higher price, prevent the crops from going into
consumption and run up a large surplus, the board of
directors must declare a lower price, and thus they
will suffer again for their stubbornness. The Amer-
ican Society of Equity does not stand for high

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 103

prices, but for equitable prices, believing that as
large consumption will result at a profitable price to
the producer as at an unprofitable price. It will as
strenuously oppose holding for unfairly high prices
as it opposes selling for unprofitably low prices.

How will the society secure money to build ware-
houses, etc. ?

Farmers can do anything they want to do, or what
they in equity should do, if they will organize and co-
operate to put profitable prices on their products.
Suppose they would want to build or buy elevators,
cold storage houses, stock yards, telegraph systems,
railroads, ship lines, make good county roads, etc.,
they could do all these things and not issue a bond,
mortgage a property nor pay a cent out of their own
pocket.

Suppose they would add a little extra to each prin-
cipal crop they raise and cut it out of the middle-
men's and trusts' profits. We have an illustration
like the following :

Barley 119,000,000 bu. at 10c per bu. $11,000,000

Buckwheat 10,000,000 " " 10c " " 1,000,000

Corn 2,666,000,000 " " ioc " " 266,600,000

Oats 943,000,000 " " ioc " " 94,300,000

Rye 25,000,000 " " ioc " " 2,500,000

Wheat 658,000,000 " " ioc " " 65,800,000

Potatoes 273,000,000 " " 10c " " 27,300,000

Flaxseed 19,000,000 " " ioc " " 1,900,000

Apples 175,000,000 " " ioc " " 17,500,000

Hay 84,000,000 tons " $2. 00 "ton 168,000,000

Cotton 4,717,000,000 lbs. " 2c "lb. 94,340,000

Tobacco 868,000,000 " " 5c " " 43,400,000

Swine 10,500,000,000 " " 2c " " 210,000,000

Kgk's 1,293,000,000 doz. " 5c " doz. 54,650,000

Dairy products 281,600,000 dollars at 10 per

cent, increase. 28,160,000

Total 41,086,450,000

This, as you will allow, does not near cover all

104 THE THIRD POWER

the sources of income to the farm, and a like appre-
ciation of value in other products would add ad-
ditional millions to the total. Suppose this amount
was to be expended for a few years, the farmer could
own all the facilities for reporting their crops and
markets, holding for advantageous prices and trans-
porting them to markets.

Another way :

If it was not desired to raise money by an assess-
ment on the crops, each member, when he is getting
benefits such as this society will give, will willingly
pay a few dollars a year to provide facilities for
handling his business. With a membership of five
million, an assessment of $10 each will raise a fund
of fifty million dollars. If this amount is expended
each year for five or ten years all the really necessary
facilities will be provided. It is not, however, pro-
posed to decide on the way to do these things now.
But rather to organize and put the farmers in con-
dition to do whatever they want to do when the time
comes. Thus with no compulsion to sell, with facili-
ties to store, with power to make prices, the farmers
will be what they ought to be and now are in theory
— independent.

But it is proposed to use this power fairly and
honorably. It is not proposed to favor a high price,
but simply a profitable price. And every one is en-
titled to a profitable price if he can get it. The ques-
tion is how to get it. By the plan of the A. S. of E.
no hardship will be imposed on any one, and the con-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 105

sinners of farm products have nothing to fear. In-
deed, it has already been shown that the whole coun-
try is interested in having the farmer get profitable
prices. There need be no conflict of interest here.

What difference would it make to the consumer
whether the price of wheat is eighty cents or a dollar
a bushel ? The average consumption of wheat is
about five bushels per capita, or twenty cents increase
per bushel is one dollar increase a year. This will be
eight and one-third cents a month, or less than one-
third cent a day. For a family of four persons a
little more than one cent a day. The question is,
however, whether bread would be dearer. I think
present bakers' bread prices were made when wheat
was higher, and they have not been put down. Also
it is proposed to reduce the price of so many com-
modities when this society is in operation — notably
meat — that the average will clearly be in favor of the
consumer.

But suppose the establishment of the farmers' so-
ciety and the Third Power would result in a slight
advance in food. Wages have been increased out of
all proportion to any advance that can result here.
Also by giving the farmers a lift now along with the
general industrial elevation we will be increasing his
consuming powers for all manufactured goods, and
for everything he can consume on the farm and in
ln's family, thus benefiting the laborers in prospect
of continued high wages. Also if we put the farmers
in a position where each of them will keep one or

106 THE THIRD POWER

more hired men at union wages, the year around,
which is what this movement means, we make a mar-
ket for labor such as was never before dreamed of.

Is it necessary to illustrate this further? Is it not
clear that if marketing was done systematically and
the existing demand supplied, and no more, that
prices can be maintained at equitable rates? The
American Society of Equity, through its board of
directors, will be the head or clearing house to the
entire agricultural industry. Through the official
paper and the press of the country this head will
speak to every member weekly and give news about
crops and crop prospects; advice about market and
marketing. All the millions of farmers will have the
same advice at the same time about the same things
from an authentic head quite in contrast with the
blind guessing as at present. All will thus be pos-
sessed of the same knowledge, influenced by the same
motives, and they may act as one man — in short,
cooperate — for the single purpose of securing the
equitable minimum price.

The plan of the American Society of Equity is
broad enough and comprehensive enough to care
for every branch of agricultural effort — the grain
grower, the stock feeder, the dairyman, the poultry
man, the cotton grower, the tobacco grower, the fruit
grower, etc. As soon as it is in operation it will ben-
efit the largest operator, no difference in what line
nor where situated, and also the owner of a few rods

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 107

of ground, by securing stability of price, which
means stability of prosperity.

The plan is to recommend a minimum price at
which staple crops shall be sold in leading or base
markets. For instance, grain prices will be based
on Chicago, cotton on New York or New Orleans,
etc. Other markets and the farm prices will then be
regulated by the base market. The farm price will
be the base market price less transportation and cost
of handling. Farmers whose produce does not go
to the base market can calculate the freight from the
principal market that receives their crops. This min-
imum value will be named each year when the crop
is produced and will be equitable on the basis of pro-
duction and consumption, lower in years of large
crops than in years of small crops, but always a price
that will protect the farmer. If speculators force the
price over the minimum price the farmers may, of
course, take it. Farmers will be expected, however,
to stop marketing when the market will not take
more at the minimum price. The minimum price
will be the safety valve which will regulate the sup-
ply to the demand.

It must be understood that there has not been a
genuine surplus of any farm crop produced in many
years. All have gone into consumption. It is the
temporary surplus that is responsible for low prices,
and it is this temporary surplus that the farmers are
expected to control in the American Society of
Equity. We see illustrations nearly every day in

108 THE THIRD POWER

the market reports, when the visible of any crop in-
creases considerably from free marketing the price
goes down. When farmers stop marketing, prices go
up. This is very clearly shown in the cattle markets.
We reproduce from the Chicago Live Stock World
as follows :

■ ■ ,

'Country shippers are surely not hurting cattle
buyers by sending in little runs of cattle on days
when more could be used at steady prices and piling
up a glut on one or two days when prices go off
ten to twenty-five cents and oftentimes worse.
"Here is the way it looks on paper :

Monday receipts 36,010, prices 10 @ 15c lower

Tuesday receipts 7,081, prices steady

Wednesday receipts.. 25,174, prices steady

Thursday receipts 11,472, prices 10 @ 15c higher

Friday receipts 2,990, prices 10 @ 15c higher

Monday again 36,000, prices 10 @ 15c lower

"It ought not to be hard to figure out who gets
the worst of this sort of a distribution of cattle."

But there are those who think that the farmers are
getting fair prices now — and of course they do get
fair prices sometimes. However, let us consider the
case of wheat as typical. Is $1 too much? For the
past fourteen years, from 1888 to 1902, the average
price of wheat in Chicago was 76 2-3 cents. The
average yield is less than thirteen bushels an acre.
Taking thirteen bushels as a liberal average, it ap-
pears that during this time the farmer has realized
$9.95 off each acre planted in wheat. This is for the
use of an acre for one year, and must cover the cost
of labor, of seed, of sowing, of care, of harvesting,

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 109

of twine, of threshing and of marketing. From this
must further be deducted interest on investment, loss
of fertility in the soil, wear and tear of machinery
and operator's profit. It is such a price as this that
is responsible for the farm laborer earning only
twenty-six cents a day and that has put farmers in
the very lowest class of laborers. Surely even those
who hold that $1 is too high must admit that 76 2-3
cents is too low.

Thus it is that question of price is fundamental.
We are all interested, not simply in the farmer, but
in his land — which, in a sense, belongs to all of us.
Rudyard Kipling, writing of the American, says :

"An easy unswept hearth he lends

From Labrador to Guadeloupe;
Till elbowed out by sloven friends,

He camps, at sufference, on the stoop."

It is so. We have been prodigal with our national
domain, and we have invited people from all over the
world to come here, take up land, and compete with
those already in possession. And now we find that
many of our farms are in an impoverished condition
from long cropping, and the return from grain and
other farm products is not sufficient to justify the
expense of restoring the fertility. Farmers have
truly sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.
This is obviously a very serious matter, and it can
only be dealt with by securing equitable prices for
all farm products. The farmer should have $1 for

no THE THIRD POWER

wheat this year (1903), and a proportionate price
for all his other products. He can get these prices
through the American Society of Equity, which is
the organized Third Power.

CHAPTER XII

In council there is wisdom,

In union there is strength,
And by cooperation

We will succeed at length.
With a bold, united effort

We are sure to win the day,
When Equity shall triumph

And producers will have their way.

Now this is our condition,

Though a shameful tale to tell ;
The speculator prices

The things we have to sell ;
And when we want to purchase

Our purchases come high,
For the speculator prices

The things we have to buy.

Having spoken of the present dependence of the
farmer on other classes, and having shown the effect
of low prices on his consuming power, and also on
his land, it seems necessary, before leaving this ques-
tion of prices, to say a few words about the earnings
of the farmer and present additional comparisons.
There are many who tell him of his happiness, pros-
perity and independence. While there is no intention
to make things appear worse than they are it is in-
tended to put the exact truth before the farmer. The

in

ii2 THE THIRD POWER

census of 1900 shows that, taking all the farmers to-
gether, the average income per family during the
census year was only $643, or only a little over $2
a day, counting 300 working days to the year. The
average income of the families of other laborers was
$1,146, or over $4 a day. Two and a third million
of farmers' families had a yearly income of less than
$200, while 4,000,000 families had an income of less
than $400 each. Only one family in eight had an in-
come of more than $800. If these figures are wrong
then the census returns are wrong. Remember, they
represent the average farmer.

Are farm prices equitable when two-thirds of the
families on the farm are limited to an income of less
than $400 a year each ? For this they must work
longer hours at the most exacting and wearisome
labor, oftentimes under the most disagreeable con-
ditions, while the laborers in towns and cities, who
are largely engaged in producing the goods that the
farmers buy, work short hours, under pleasant con-
ditions, and receive three times the reward. Brad-
streets has figured that manufacturers, with an in-
vestment of ten billion dollars, produce thirteen bil-
lions of products, while the farmer, with an invest-
ment of twenty billions, produces only five billions of
products. In other words, the dollar of the manufac-
turer returns him $1.30 of products, while the dollar
of the farmer returns him only 25 cents of products.
Where is the equity when a dollar invested in one
form of manufacturing returns five times as much

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 113

as in another? Is not James J. Hill, the railroad
magnate, right when he says : "The time has come
when the United States should take steps to
strengthen the backbone of the country — the farm-
ing class," and James Wilson, our secretary of ag-
riculture, when he says : "We can not do too much
for our farmers"? Prices of farm products will
never be maintained at profitable rates by the gov-
ernment, nor by buyers, nor by consumers. Un-
certainty of values of farm products will never be at
an end until through national cooperation, farmers
make their own prices on the farm.

When we consider the slight reward that the
farmer gets for his labor we can understand why ru-
ral America is to-day largely the reflection of wasted
efforts and hopes not realized. It should be a para-
dise of prosperous farms, beautiful homes, and hap-
py, contented families. An equitable distribution of
rewards will make it all this. Yet it is said that the
farmer is responsible for the high prices which have
recently prevailed. This is but an effort to shoulder
off on him the burden which rightfully rests on the
shoulders of the trusts and speculators. An illustra-
tion will serve to prove this. A bushel of wheat, for
which the farmer may receive 72 cents in the Indian-
apolis market, will make forty pounds of flour, six-
teen pounds of bran and four pounds of waste. The
consumer pays 3 cents a pound for the flour, or
$1.20, and the farmer buys the bran back at $22 a
ton, or 19 cents. Here is a total of $1.39 produced
8

ii4 THE THIRD POWER

from an original value of J2 cents. It is thus seen
that the farmer's wheat has doubled in price by the
time it reaches the consumer. By the route of the
bakery 50 to 100 per cent, more will be added. It is
the same way with the farmer's meat, butter, eggs,
fruit, vegetables, cotton, etc. The farmers are not
responsible for the price consumers pay. They are
not now and never were responsible for the high cost
of living. And the consumers should rejoice at the
thought that the farmers soon will be in a position,
through the help of the American Society of Equity,
to cut out the mountains of profit that have been
raised between the producers and the consumers.

In the meantime it is important that the American
people should know that both the price that the
farmer gets and the price the consumer pays are
made by organized speculators, trusts, middlemen
and manufacturers. They say that prices are made
by the law of supply and demand — which is the mer-
est subterfuge. That law, under present conditions,
is a myth and a fraud. It may be better called a ma-
chine erected by the boards of trade to work in an or-
ganized market, and directed against an unorganized
source of supply. This machine is equipped with nu-
merous levers, wheels and spigots. As you pull a
lever of frosts, floods or drought, you reduce the
supply, and prices go up. Turn a wheel of increased
visible supply or open a spigot of favorable weather
in the Argentine or elsewhere, and prices go down.
And there are men who put in all their days and

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 115

nights pulling levers, turning wheels and opening
spigots. And thus it is that the farmers and the con-
sumers alike are robbed and squeezed.

YVe have seen that the farmer does not get high
prices, that his annual average income is pitifully
small, that the returns on his investment are meager,
and that, not getting high prices for himself, he is
not responsible for the high prices the consumer
pays. And yet, confronting such a situation as this,
all that the farmer asks is equity. Shall he not have
it ? Ought any man, with a proper sense of obliga-
tion to himself, to his family and to his country, to
be satisfied with anything less than equity? Is it
not what we all pretend to want for ourselves, and
profess to be willing and eager to grant to others?
The American farmer is very patient — proverbially
so. He has been compared to Issachar, of whom we
have this record in the Bible :

"Issachar is a strong ass crouching down between
two burdens, and he saw that rest was good and the
land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulder to
bear, and became a servant unto tribute."

Rest may be good, and the land may be pleasant,
but he who consents to become "a servant unto
tribute" will know little of what is good or pleasant.
It is on the patience and docility of the farmer that
the capitalists and politicians have traded. And even
now they are predicting the failure of the American
Society of Equity, because, as they say, the farmer is
contented and happy, and don't need it. Are they

n6

THE THIRD POWER

right? It is for the farmers themselves to say. If
they want "rest" and would enjoy "pleasant" coun-
try that they have made their own, they must make
up their minds that they will have to free themselves
from "tribute," assert their rights as American
citizens, and at the same time show that moderation
of which we all boast by demanding only what is
equitable. So the American Society of Equity offers
them the means by which they can demand and se-
cure fair prices.

The need of some such agency as this has been
shown, and so far it appears that the American So-
ciety of Equity is thoroughly adapted to meet the
emergency, inasmuch as its aims, as thus far pointed
out. are just what those of the farmer should be.
It will be shown as we proceed that the other objects
in view are quite as important as those already de-
scribed. For the present we have the assurance that
the society proposes to secure, or enable the farmers
to secure, a fair price for their products, and to co-
operate with them in securing facilities for holding
or marketing products and in getting equity from
those with whom they deal.

CHAPTER XIII

Then awake ye honest farmers,

Producers one and all,
And let us be united,

For divided we must fall.
Now a better day is dawning,

When producers will be free,
For Equity is coming

Through our grand A. S. of E.

Through Equity we'll conquer,

No other way we can,
For in Equity we acknowledge

The brotherhood of man.
In Equity there's justice,

True principle of right ;
Then let us join together,

And work with all our might.

There is not one thing that the American Society
of Equity proposes to do that does not bear directly
on the question of price. As we have seen, it is in-
tended to secure equitable rates for transportation.
The price he is to ask is the minimum price that he
may decide is fair in some selected market, and then
deduct from that the fair cost of transporting and
handling the products. When the minimum price is
decided upon then the smaller the amount he has to
deduct on this account the more will there be left for

117

n8 THE THIRD POWER

the farmer. With reasonable rates, and with his
crops stored in elevators or warehouses owned by
the American Society of Equity, or local unions of
the same, so much larger will be the profits of the
farmer. So the plan is to increase his income both
by raising prices and by lowering the cost of moving,
handling and marketing the crops. This latter, how-
ever, is more in the interest of the consumer. What
matters it to the farmer whether the middlemen or
railroad charge 50 sents a bushel or $1 a cwt. for
carrying his produce to market ? In his fundamental
position he puts his price on the absolutely necessary
articles of food and clothing before any other person
or corporation can touch them. Therefore, he takes
his profit — all that he wants or in equity should have
— first. You can not fail to realize the strength of
position of the farmer, when organized, by this
illustration. Therefore, it is mainly to protect the
consumer and secure the maximum market that he,
through his society, will interest himself in the ele-
vator charges, railroad rates, taxes, insurance and a
thousand other things. None of these things can
hurt the farmer when organized, but through his
strength he can prevent them from working injury
to others.

It has been shown already what an influence the
farmer could have on the railroads by simply putting
himself in a position where he could refuse to ship
unless the prices and freights were satisfactory to
him. The railroads can not exist unless they have

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 119

stuff to haul and plenty of it. They are dependent,
directly or indirectly, on the farmer, and they can
easily be made to feel their dependence. This ques-
tion of transportation is a very large and important
one, in that it involves the future development and
settling up of the country. Indeed, the whole history
of the march of men across this continent is a history
of transportation. It has been said by some sup-
posedly wise men that our people have moved west-
ward along parallels of latitude. But it is not so.
They moved along the watercourses, first down-
stream, and then up-stream. Always the effort was
to make transportation as easy as possible. And the
railroads have contributed powerfully to the making
of the country. We must give them full credit. Still
when it comes to carrying the farmer's produce east
they have not always been reasonable in their charge.
And it seems to be probable that they are going to
be more unreasonable as time goes on. While there
was fierce competition competing points at least got
the benefit of low rates, though non-competing points
suffered severely. The railroads taxed the latter to
make up for the low rates of necessity granted to the
former. Certain sections have been discriminated
against ; all rates have often been too high, and some
rates have always been too high. But it has been
suggested that the situation may get worse for the
farmer. If the tendency toward railroad consolida-
tion goes on we may see an end to competition. It
is certain that the purpose of combination is to check

120 THE THIRD POWER

and control competition. If it succeeds the farmer
will be forced to look out for his own interests. He
should be in a position to say that he will not ship
at all unless he can be sure of a fair net price on the
farm for the products of his own toil.

The farmer is often told that the railroads are his
friends. He himself need not be an enemy to the
railroads in order to realize that there are no friend-
ships in the business world. That world is a world
of struggle and conquest. In that struggle the
strongest win. Under present conditions the rail-
roads will be as fair to the farmer as it pays them to
be. Under the conditions which it is proposed to
create they will be as fair as the farmer can compel
them to be. Other men use the power that they pos-
sess, often in illegal and criminal ways, to coerce the
railroads into favoring them. It is not intended that
the farmers shall do anything illegal or criminal,
but it is meant that they should realize that these
unfair concessions are paid for by less powerful and
favorable shippers, the farmers among them. So it
is important that these latter should stand up for
their own rights. If all shippers were treated equally
there is reason to believe that freight rates could be
reduced considerably, to the great benefit of the
whole country.

Further, in the vast reorganization schemes of
which we have heard so much, some of the railroads
have been over-capitalized just as other industries
have. And the farmer has to pay enough to enable

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 121

these roads to pay interest and make dividends on
their vast issues of bonds and stocks that don't rep-
resent real value. He may well question the fairness
of this arrangement. At any rate, the American So-
ciety of Equity will give some attention to this vital
question of transportation. The individual farmer
can not fight the railroads, but he can make a good
showing as a member of a great and powerful or-
ganization numbering a million or more, made up of
farmers all over the country determined to get their
rights. Mr. John D.' Rockfeller, who knows some-
thing of the virtues of combination, and who has re-
cently been engaged in an effort to secure control of
large systems of railroads, says :

"To fight the battle alone is to be lost. Association
with others is an absolute necessity if we would be
successful. In union there is strength and success.
We can see this illustration every day in the business
world."

Mr. Rockefeller is right. Especially is organiza-
tion necessary for the farmers who are at the present
moment unorganized themselves, fighting organiza-
tions in practically every branch of industry. Mr.
Rockefeller's reference to the "business world" does
not at present include the farmers. Everybody knows
that they are not considered business people. But is
it not time for them to get into the business world ?
What is good for one class of people who produce,
manufacture and sell, is good for others. If "in
union there is strength and success" for Rockefeller

122 THE THIRD POWER

and his associates, why would it not mean strength
and success for the farmers? A good many years
ago the Chinese were oppressed and harried by the
civilized nations of the world very much as they are
to-day. The people of China could make no head-
way against the trained soldiers of Europe. Finally
a formidable rebellion broke out in the empire, and
the authorities secured the services of that great
Christian soldier, Charles George Gordon, who or-
ganized his Ever Victorious Army, and with it sup-
pressed the rebellion without losing a single battle.
No better army followed a gallant leader to victory.
And to-day, if there were another Gordon at the head
of a Chinese army, he might sweep Russia out of
Manchuria and compel all the powers of the world
to respect the integrity and the sovereignty of that
ancient empire. Yet precisely the thing that the
Chinese lacked was the power of organization and
cooperation. But when they did act together it was
with decisive results.

It can be so with the American farmers. They,
too, have been oppressed and harried by highly or-
ganized bands of marauders, and they have been
unable to protect themselves simply because they
have not acted together. What we want to see is an
Ever Victorious Army of American farmers, which
shall fight, not for conquest, but in righteous defense
of their rights, their families and themselves. Their
victory, which will be sure, will redound to their own

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 123

honor and prosperity and to the welfare of the whole
country. We want a new declaration of independ-
ence and a new independence day. God grant that
it will come speedily.

CHAPTER XIV

Thus the syndicates and bankers

Always crying out for bonds,
With both feet on the neck of labor,

While they're clipping their coupons.
With their palace cars and banquets

They can pass their time away,
And you old honest farmers

Will have their banquet bill to pay.

There are many corporations

That's no better now than knaves ;
For they pay starvation wages

And make men and women slaves;
And they work the little children

In their sweat-shops day by day,
And to fill the rich man's coffers

They must wear their life away.

In the daily papers a year ago was this interesting
item :

"An increase of $4,500,000 in the capital stock of
Deere & Co. was announced here to-day. The pres-
ent capital of the concern is $1,500,000, and the
stockholders have voted to increase this to $6,000,-
000. The additional capital is to provide for the re-
markable growth and expansion of the business dur-
ing the past few years and the further increase that
is assured. It has all been subscribed by the present
owners."

124

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 125

Of course this meant that the farmers will have to
pay the dividends on this quadrupled stock in the
price of agricultural implements made by this firm.
And this brings to the front another one of the ob-
jects of the .American Society of Equity, which is to
enable the farmer to buy advantageously. It is a
fact that the farmers frequently pay much more for
their farm supplies than is necessary to insure a fair
profit to the manufacturer and the merchant. As I
write a letter comes from a member in Oklahoma.
He says : "I am paying 2 per cent, per month for
money to meet current expenses so I can hold my
wheat for $1." Must such sacrifice and determina-
tion go unrewarded? Would any banker dare
charge a farmer 24 per cent, a year if they were thor-
oughly organized? Besides, the margin of profit
placed on goods sold to the farmers is often much
greater than that added to goods sold to the people
of the towns and cities. The reason is clear. In
trading, the farmer is not an independent person.
He does business as the merchant or' manufacturer
dictates. He is usually a debtor to the implement
dealer and the storekeeper, whereas if he had cash
to pay for his supplies he could buy more cheaply in
any market in the country. Wherever the farmer
turns to make his purchases he finds himself face to
face with a trust or union. lie is worsted in the
encounter and loses some of the legitimate results of
his work when he puts his unorganized skill and la-
bor against the organized efforts of the union la-

126 THE THIRD POWER

borer. He loses again in the encounter with the or-
ganized miners who mine the steel — or, rather, the
iron from which the steel is made — which enters into
his implements. He loses when he meets the wood-
workers, the wagonmakers, the furniture makers, the
implement makers, the horseshoers, the threshermen,
the milk handlers, the carpenters, the masons who
build his buildings, the armies who manufacture the
household articles, the clothing, the army of leather
workers, and behind them the army of tanners, the
armies which run the railroads, and the armies which
run the trains over the roads to haul to market the
products of the farmer. The fanner does not drive
a nail, use a pin, lift a hoe or spade, coil a rope, or
turn a furrow but he pays tribute to some one of the
numerous armies arrayed against him. Day and
night, night and day, he is being taxed for the sup-
port of these armies, all because he is meeting them
single-handed, can not resist their encroachments,
nor pass the tax along. Plainly he needs help to en-
able him to buy advantageously, which will be, large-
ly again, in the interest of the consumer.

And this it is hoped to give him. Considering
the great number of farmers who will be members
of the American Society of Equity, and the fact that
they will soon have a good cash balance as the result
of selling at profitable prices, there can be no doubt
that they will be able to purchase for cash and at the
lowest prevailing prices. Even if the farmer buys
his supplies with his own produce, his ability to put

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 127

a price on it will enable him to turn it in at higher
figure than is now possible. He will no longer be
under the necessity of asking for long credit, and
whatever credit he may need he will get on the same
favorable terms that other business men receive.
Mention has already been made of the combination
among the threshing men, which enables them to
charge seven cents a bushel for threshing. If a
farmer were able to say to the thresher that he would
pay five or four cents, and that no farmer in the
United States would pay a cent more, and if this
was an equitable price, he would get his threshing
done for four or five cents. This is the position in
which the American Society of Equity would place
every farmer in the country with reference to buy-
ing. Probably as much money is lost to the farmer
by exorbitant prices which he has to pay as by the
inadequate prices which he is compelled to take.
He loses in both directions. It is time to stop the
loss. The farmers can do it if they will, for they
have the power, and their interest demands that they
should use it. If they apply it properly, that is,
through organization, the result can not be doubtful.
In seeking to buy at fair prices the farmer,
through the American Society of Equity, will help
all the people. Economically the struggle of man
is for cheapness. Men in trying to satisfy their wants
always endeavor to do so as cheaply as possible.
The call for cheapness by the farmer has, in the
past, been of necessity, and this necessity has been of

128 THE THIRD POWER

such a degree that they not only got cheapness but
nastiness — low grade. Witness the volume of trade
to some catalogue houses, where the chief recom-
mendation was cheapness. The success of the Amer-
ican Society of Equity will benefit the home dealer
who will keep a high grade of goods and sell at
equitable prices. We look for a turning from the
cheap, low grades, to high grade goods at equitable
prices.

We have seen how the price of farm products has
been influenced by this tendency, and also how manu-
facturers combine to resist the tendency. Every new
invention, every new process, every application of a
newly discovered force, and every improved applica-
tion of a well-known force, contribute to bring about
cheapness. The old force of competition works
toward the end. But recently we have had a great
advance of prices with no effective effort to resist the
advance.

The farmers propose to take the field in a cam-
paign for lower prices on the things they buy where
lower prices should prevail, and they are going to
use a force the operation of which will be irresistible.
It is not so much a high price or a low price, but
an equitable price all around that is demanded.
The entrance of the Third Power through the
American Society of Equity into the economic prob-
lems of the world marks an epoch in the history of
the race. Although the last of the great powers to
be organized, it is yet the fundamental or first power

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 129

or force which will dominate all others. The devel-
opment of this society and the power it will repre-
sent and wield may be compared with the develop-
ment of the force, electricity, which has revolution-
ized the industrial world. The awakening of the
agricultural classes, the organization of them into a
great national and international cooperative body,
which is now being accomplished, will make possible
the control by them of practically all the material
that enters into the manufacturing and commerce
of the world, and on which human and animal life
depend. Such a revolution might appall us were it
not for the fact that, in working out this stupendous
movement everything will be in the direction of
improvement and better conditions for everybody
and for every legitimate enterprise.

It will be so in the matter of prices. There will
not be one price for the farmer and another for the
working man and professional man. Whatever con-
quests the farmers win in this direction will be for
the benefit of all. What the farmer gets, all will get.
In fighting his own battle the farmer will fight the
battle of every American citizen. It will be impos-
sible to charge the farmer a fair price and to charge
other classes an unfair price. So the American So-
ciety of Equity does not come to oppress or enslave
any class, but to give liberty and independence to the
greatest class of citizens, and through that to all oth-
ers— not to destroy or cripple any institution, but to
benefit and strengthen all institutions, including the

i3o THE THIRD POWER

government itself. Heretofore farmers thought
when organizing they must fight every institution
on earth to get their right. This we admit is human
nature, but also is a relic of barbarism. There are
too many such relics remaining. The farmers really
have no light against anybody or anything ; all they
need is equity, and this they can take, regardless of
the disposition of other parties.

Many schemes have been devised, and many more
suggested, for the regulation and control of trusts.
The law does something, and more stringent legal
enactments might do more. But no curb can be as
effectual as an organization of American citizens
greater and stronger than the trusts themselves.
Through this and through this alone can trust ex-
tortion be prevented, and fair treatment be secured
for all. The people can do it for them. And the
trust magnates understand this. With the help of
shrewd and unscrupulous attorneys they can usually
find a way to evade the most formidable statute, and
to organize so as to get within the letter of the law.
But they could make little headway with the people
organized against them, and when the farmers are
organized the people will be organized. How could
the cotton or woolen manufacturers get along with-
out the farmer's cotton or wool, or the packers with-
out his cattle? This but indicates the power which
the farmer could exert as a member of the American
Society of Equity. He could oppose his trust — if
you choose to call it so — to the manufacturing trusts,

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 131

and in snch a contest the farmer must, of necessity,
win. This is a force — this new force, this Third
Power — which the industrial trusts would under-
stand and respect. Thus organized, the farmers
could meet their enemies and oppressors on their
own ground, and overthrow them, if necessary, for
the common good. The trust problem would be
solved, and solved in such a way as to benefit all.
And the farmer, enabled both to buy and sell advan-
tageously, would enjoy a prosperity and freedom
such as he has never known, and that prosperity and
freedom would be shared by all our people. The
world has been waiting long for this Third Power.
Now it is at hand.

CHAPTER XV

If farmers were only half as persistent
As politicians are wholly inconsistent,

What a different footstool !
They walk up to the secret voting booths,
The aged and younger and hopeful youths,
And vote for men that others may choose

Over them to rule.

The farmer produces the wealth of the land;
In framing the laws he should take a hand —

Insist upon his rights.
He feeds the whole world by sweat and toil,
Forces great crops from the resisting soil,
From famine a safe and shielding foil,

And no wrong incites.

Something has been said of the influence that the
farmer can exert through organization on the poli-
tics of the country. One of the purposes of the
American Society of Equity is to enable him to
exert such influence. Here, again, it is not because
the farmers, organized, need to look to politics for
relief or strength on their account, but for the gen-
eral welfare of humanity. The farmers, through
their society, not only intend to do equity, but to get
equity; not only to give equity, but to demand
equity. It is not the object of the society to become

132

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 133

a political party. But it is intended to secure,
through already existing parties, laws in the interest
of agriculture. Though legislation is not the first
thing sought, nor the most important thing, legis-
lation is nevertheless needed. The reason that it
has not been secured is that the politicians, though
prolific in promises, when seeking election, forget all
about the farmers when they get to Washington.
They quickly fall under other influences. More-
over, they know that the farmers are easily put off;
that they do not persist in the pursuit of their aims,
and that when election day comes round again they
may be trusted to support the party, readily accept-
ing excuses and trusting to new promises. Nor are
the farmers adequately represented in Congress by
men of their own class. Thus they are largely with-
out influence in shaping legislation. Until they are
in a position, through cooperation, to secure what
they want, progress will be slow. With the Ameri-
can Society of Equity a success, all these things can
be rapidly accomplished.

It is not necessary to set out here all that the coun-
try needs in the way of legislation. But some things
may be mentioned. Possibly the first and most im-
portant thing is some lightening of the burden of
taxation; and this also implies less extravagance
with the people's money, less graft, rake-offs and
boodle, or, in short, the money wisely and econom-
ically expended, when we will see greater results
with less tax. The farmer is taxed on everything

134 THE THIRD POWER

he buys and yet is protected on scarcely anything he
sells. This is an evil that must be righted, and it
can be righted, but only by the combined efforts of
the farmers. Until there are such efforts nothing
will be done. As long as there are a few people who
can control the taxing power of the government,
and many people who are content to have that power
so used, it is idle to hope for relief. The few will
control as long as the many allow them to control —
and not one moment longer. Even the slightest
measure of relief is denied at the present time. Op-
portunities have long been presented for making
reciprocal commercial treaties with foreign nations
that would have had the effect of making a much
larger market for farm products, but they have in-
variably been put aside at the dictation of selfish
interests demanding protection. Treaty after treaty
of this sort has been killed or allowed to die in the
Senate, which has been indifferent to the welfare
of the farmer if only the protected industries were
allowed to have a monopoly of the home market.
Rather than remove or lower the duty on one article
manufactured in New England, our Congress has
preferred to allow the farmer to get along as best he
could — to find his own market. Yet when protec-
tion hurts a certain corporation, Congress is quick
to grant a rebate of the tax on any product that goes
into a manufactured article when that article is ex-
ported. But nothing is done for the farmer.

Yet there are many millions of foreigners who

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 135

could be taught to consume the fine cereals and
meats produced on our American farms, if an earnest
and well-directed effort were made to open and
cultivate foreign markets. Lower taxes and wider
markets could thus both be secured by legislation,
and the American Society of Equity will work for
such legislation, bringing directly to bear on Con-
gress the influence of over 10,000,000 American
voters who now play little part in the business of
lawmaking. This constant failure of the efforts to
secure reciprocity has another bad effect on the
farmer, for it provokes retaliation on the part of
other countries from which the farmer even now
suffers, and will suffer still more. Our fruits, cattle
and meat products have been made the subjects of
discriminating taxes and vexatious inspection im-
posed and resorted to by foreign governments in
retaliation for exorbitant duties levied by our gov-
ernment on their exports to this country. There
are threats of further retaliation, and we even hear
talk of a European combination to save the Euro-
pean markets from the so-called American invasion.
Yet we go on in the same old way, and our manu-
facturers get even for the low prices at which they
must sell abroad, by charging the home consumer
greatly higher prices. Thus the farmers are kept
out of foreign markets that they ought to have, sim-
ply that the manufacturers may plunder the home
market.

Such arrangements as these arc plainly not the

136 THE THIRD POWER

work of the farmers or of the friends of the farmer.
They were devised by men who understood per-
fectly that the agricultural class is docile, patient,
and most easily fleeced. The farmer is not inter-
ested in paying taxes for the benefit of people who
never seek to benefit him, in narrowing the market
for farm products, or in provoking retaliation from
foreign governments. What he wants is freedom,
equity, fair play to all, markets as wide as the world,
low taxes — and not one of these things is his at the
present time. With all these, and with the American
Society of Equity at work in his behalf, he probably
would need little else from the government. But
whatever he needed, he would get. For the politi-
cians, who now so quickly forget the farmer, would
realize that it was dangerous to do so, if they found
that they were dealing with a great organization
acting as a unit — an organization that refused to
accept promises as legal tender, but that insisted on
a redemption of those promises in honesty and good
faith. Thus may the farmers make their influence
felt in the condition of affairs which is rightfully
theirs. The Third Power can easily defeat the first,
second or third house. The farmers will be ignored
as long as it is safe to ignore them, and no longer.
The thing to do is to make it unsafe. The American
Society of Equity is the means to bring that result
to pass.

CHAPTER XVI

Of all the modern ideas,

In the North, South, East or West,
The justice bringing idea

Of Equity is best.
It can harm no human calling,

And can boast none o'er the rest;
But brings equal chance to all of them,

And therefore it's the best.

Manifestly it will be impossible for the farmers
to cooperate unless they are kept thoroughly in-
formed of what is going on in every part of the coun-
try, and indeed of the world. It would be foolish,
to take a simple case, to attempt to fix and maintain
a price on farm products unless each member knew
what that price was. This information, at least,
must be regularly furnished. It will be conveyed to
the various members of the society through their
official paper, which is a part of the plan. This offi-
cial organ will be printed four times a month as
soon as the society is sufficiently organized, and
there can be little doubt that with this plan in opera-
tion the recommended price will be printed by all
the other daily and weekly papers as regularly as
the markets are reported now. The recommended
price will have to be printed by all newspapers hav-

137

138 THE THIRD POWER

ing a market department, for it will also be the mar-
ket price.

With this knowledge, concert of action will be
easy. For every member of the society will have
the same price and the same advice about the
same crop at the same time, and, feeling sure
that purchasers can not get those products from
any one else for less than they can get them from
him, he will be under no temptation to sell for less
himself. Without this knowledge it would be wholly
impossible to make the scheme work. But further
than this, it is felt that the members of the society
should have information that would convince them
that prices agreed on are fair and reasonable — and
attainable. So it is proposed, through the local
unions or members, to carry on a system of crop re-
porting that will surpass anything ever before ac-
complished, or even attempted. Every member will
be a crop reporter. The present system, or lack of
system, of reporting crops is the source of great loss
to the farmers. Take wheat, for instance : The har-
vest begins in Texas in May and ends in the Dako-
tas about September. Yet, as a matter of fact, crops
are maturing and harvests are in progress in some
part of the world every day in the year. From the
beginning to the end of the harvest in this country,
and more or less every day in the year, false crop
reports are circulated, the yields are exaggerated,
damage from weather, insects, etc., is emphasized,
and all manner of frauds and deceptions are prac-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 139

tised. The result is that the market fluctuates every-
day, and often several times a day, until the poor
bewildered farmer sells rather than holds against
uncertainties. The government reports, from the
very conditions under which they are obtained,
can not be more than reasonably good guesses,
and consequently they are not held in good repute.
So much discredit has sometimes been placed upon
them that the market has been known to have acted
in exactly the opposite way from that in which the
reports should have influenced it.

So, the American Society of Equity will see to it
that the farmers have full and accurate reports of
conditions and crops. The size of the yield, and the
character of the product; the nature of the season,
whether favorable or unfavorable — all this will the
members of the society get. Each member will be
in a position to report the exact condition of grow-
ing crops on his own farm, and also yields and quan-
tities on hand. He can also give a correct report of
his neighbor's crop, if that neighbor does not belong
to the society. These reports will be given to the
secretary at each meeting, to be forwarded, or will
be sent to headquarters, direct by members, where
they will be tabulated by statisticians, and in this
way more accurate results will be secured than could
be obtained in any other way. The crop reports and
market conditions will be sent to each member, and
thus all will be able to cooperate in asking and ob-
taining uniform prices. This is not only one of the

i4o THE THIRD POWER

strongest features of the proposed plan — it is an ab-
solutely essential feature. With such trustworthy
information, prices can be adjusted in such a way as
to be equitable to both producer and consumer.
Without this information such adjustment would
be impossible.

But other information of an educational sort will
be furnished by the American Society of Equity.
Reference has already been made to the work of ag-
ricultural schools and colleges, but valuable as this
work is, it does not meet the requirements. The
time has arrived when more intensive farming must
be practised, and conditions will soon be such that
our farms must produce two or three times as much
as they do now, if they are to supply the ever-increas-
ing demands of the world. It is a fact that the aver-
age of our staple crops can be raised to three times
the present average. This has been done in Euro-
pean countries, and what is done there can be dupli-
cated here. Intensive farming implies more intelli-
gent farming. To farm more intelligently, the people
must be educated in the mysteries of the science. To
educate them schools must be established and main-
tained. There are, at present, many agricultural
schools and colleges, but they are not sufficient for
the almost universal education of the young people
from the farms which will be required when the
American Society of Equity is in successful opera-
tion. Nor do they fully meet the requirements of
the advanced agriculture that must be practised in

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 141

the near future. The schools and other institutions
which it is proposed to establish should be the meet-
ing-place of farmers within the neighborhood, and
they should be looked to for enlightenment on the
intricate matters related to seed, soil, fertilizers and
cultivation. Each farm should be plotted; there
should be a chart giving the analysis of the soil in
each field, or parts of fields ; and recommendations
should be made regarding the plant food needed to
produce 40 bushels of wheat, 80 bushels of oats,
100 bushels of corn and 250 bushels of potatoes,
etc., to the acre. Such an institution could be of
vast help in giving instruction concerning drainage,
irrigation, breeding, stock, grain, fruits, vegetables;
it could help in stamping out disease, fighting insects
and blight, analyzing seeds for impurities, and
guarding against and eradicating weeds. It could,
and would, award prizes and medals for the best
stock, the most successful crops, and in many ways
it would guard and promote farmers' interests in
the highest degree. The education which the sons
and daughters of the farmer would get at these
schools, at a merely nominal expense, would be of
the greatest value, in that it would greatly increase
their efficiency, and what is even more important,
would give them a pride in and make them content
with their lot in life. A membership of 5,000 for
each such institution, and annual dues of $5, would
afford a revenue of $25,000, from which enormous
benefits would flow. And as agriculture is the foun-

H2 THE THIRD POWER

dation of our national prosperity, we should strive
to promote the most intelligent conditions on the
farms to the end that our material prosperity may be
large and perpetual.

Yet the qualification that has already been made
must not be forgotten. All this education, as far
as it involves the raising of larger crops, and an in-
crease in productiveness of the land, would be ca-
lamitous unless the farmer also had the power to
fix the price of his products. But with this power
assured, and the American Society of Equity will
assure it, the more education and the larger produc-
tion there are, the better will it be for all. The two
things hang together. The farmer must control the
present supply before he devotes himself to the work
of increasing it. And the greater his success in in-
creasing it, the greater is the necessity that he should
have the situation wholly within his own control.

CHAPTER XVII

The cause of Equity is good;

It seeks not its own gain,
Against the weak ones of the earth,

Who toil 'mid want and pain;
It welcomes all within its band,

The strong as well as weak;
Its motto is, "Cooperate,"

Each other's good to seek.

The cause of Equity is just;

It lends a helping hand
In lifting up a mighty force —

The third power in our land.
That is the struggle it may win

Against foes unafraid,
Who wish to cause its overthrow,

It needs each farmer's aid.

All this means, what cooperation must ever mean,
unity and solidarity among the people cooperating.
The farmers, instead of being strangers to one an-
other and rivals and competitors of one another,
will be friends and fellow helpers. This will be a
great gain, and in many ways. Every person will
be the better for knowing that he is a member of
a great society the object of which is the good of all.
He will know that while he is working for others,
others are working for him, and that out of the com-
bined effort good must come to the whole agricul-

143

144 THE THIRD POWER

tural class, and indeed to all other classes. There
will be such an incentive to work and sacrifice as the
American farmer has never known. The very sense
of unity will be a great stimulus. Other men have
found it so. They all have their organizations —
manufacturers, working men, lawyers and physi-
cians, etc., and these minister to their pride in their
calling, and help to make that calling honorable and
profitable. The farmers should learn from the ex-
perience of other workers unity, combination, coop-
eration, mutual helpfulness, each for all and all for
each, instead of the fierce guerrilla warfare of com-
petition— these are along the lines of present-day
tendencies, and are the products of what we may
truthfully call natural forces.

And it all strengthens the influences which make
for self-help. There are many things that the farm-
ers can do in combination that they never can do
under the present individualistic system. It would
be difficult to show, for instance, why farmers should
not carry their own insurance. It has been abund-
antly demonstrated that fire risks on farm properties
exclusively can be written at only a small fraction
of what the old companies now charge. The haz-
ard is slight, and of course it would be slighter still
if each farmer were interested as a stockholder in
the company which would have to pay for losses.
Already there are farmers' insurance companies op-
erating in various parts of the country, to the great
satisfaction of their members. But whether it be

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 145

through local companies or through one central
company, the farmers certainly ought to carry their
own fire insurance. It is the same with life insur-
ance. This insurance, if limited to the agricultural
class, can easily be offered at a lower rate than that
charged by companies that take all classes of risks
up to the extra-hazardous. And with improved con-
ditions on the farm, which it is intended to secure,
life will be prolonged, and the farmer will become an
even more desirable risk than he is now. This is
incidental, and is not involved in the main plan, but
it is important as being one of many things which
the farmers may, and should, do for themselves.
They even might, as has been suggested, in time, be-
come their own bankers.

Viewed in this way the field of the American So-
ciety of Equity is almost limitless. It is remarkable
how everything that is suggested contributes to sol-
idarity. For example, the society will exert its in-
fluence to secure the improvement of the highways,
toward which something has already been done.
The amount of money that the farmers lose each
year by bad and impassable roads is almost incalcu-
lable. The light loads which they are often com-
pelled to haul, the wear on wagons and stock, the
often enforced loss of a favorable opportunity to sell
through the inability to get to town at all — all this
is costly and wasteful. We all realize what the rail-
roads have done for the farmer in the way of open-
ing up markets, and we know that if the rail-

146 THE THIRD POWER

roads were allowed to get out of repair they would
be of much less service. Insufficient or worn-out
rolling stock, broken-down locomotives, unsafe
tracks, weakened bridges, poor terminal facilities or
none at all, would cost the farmer millions of dol-
lars. It is precisely so in the case of wagon roads.
When these are good and easy to be traveled every
day in the year, there is just so much added to the
value of the farm. When they are impassable, the
value of the farm is lessened by just that much.

But this is not the whole story, one of the terrors
of the farm is isolation and loneliness. Against
these the American Society of Equity proposes to
wage war by improving or compelling the improve-
ment of the highways, in order that, among other
things, there may be an increased social intercourse
among the farmers. Good roads and human rela-
tionships alike tend to bind men together. Present
conditions, on many American farms, have been
beautifully and truthfully described by Meredith
Nicholson in his poem, "Watching the World Go
By":

Swift as a meteor and as quickly gone
A train of cars darts swiftly through the night ;

Scorning the wood and fiefd it hurries on,
A thing of wrathful might.

There, from the farmer's home a woman's eyes,
Roused by the sudden jar and passing flare,

Follow the speeding phantom till it dies, —
An echo on the air.

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 147

Narrow the life that always has been hers,
The evening brings a longing to her breast;

Deep in her heart some aspiration stirs,
And mocks her soul's unrest.

Her tasks are mean and endless as the days,
And sometimes love can not repay all things;

An instrument that rudely touched obeys,
Becomes discordant strings.

The train that followed in the headlight's glare,

Bound for the city and a larger world,
Made emphasis on her poor life of care,

As from her sight it whirled.

Thus from all lonely hearts the great earth rolls,
Indifferent though one woman grieve and die,

Along its iron track are many souls
That watch the world go by.

Is it not so ? There is a spiritual side to this ques-
tion of life on the farm that we can not safely ig-
nore. And the man who is not deeply interested in
making farm life all that it should be, and can be, is
not fit to be an American citizen. We may not be
able to bring the farm to the world, but we can take
something of the world, its life, its virtues,
its beauty and its intellectual stimulus to the farm.
Something of this has been done already, as has been
shown, but more remains to be done. We can not
cure human discontent and dissatisfaction, but we
can, and must, as far as possible, destroy those con-
ditions which give discontent and dissatisfaction a
reason for being.

CHAPTER XVIII

The time has surely now come to pass
When farmers should arise in solid mass

And throttle wrong.
They are the ordained rulers of the earth,
So intended from the day of creation's birth.
Without their help what'd our land be worth?

Arise, be strong !

General irrigation of the farms, the prevention of
food adulteration, the settling of disputes without
recourse to the courts, and the organization in other
surplus-producing countries of societies similar to
the American Society of Equity, are all within the
scope of this movement; and they all have a direct
bearing on the problem to be solved. With a con-
stantly fertile and productive soil, freed from the
wrongful competition of base and fraudulent prod-
ucts, relieved from the vexations and delays of liti-
gation, and bound together with his fellows all over
the world in a society seeking the good of all, the
American farmer will be his own master, and will
enjoy a peace, prosperity and dignity such as he
never before knew.

Such will be the general result. Particularly, the
farmer will find that the value of his land will
increase from 25 to 100 per cent. Producing more

148

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 149

value, the farms will, of course, be worth more.
It has been said that the capital invested in farm-
ing amounts to twenty billions of dollars, most
of which is, of course, in land. This could easily
be doubled, by making the farms more productive
of money. Reference has been made to the action
of a certain corporation in quadrupling its stock.
This is common in the commercial world. Is
it not in order for the farmers to declare their
farms and plants worth four times the old value?
It is quite the style for manufacturers of agri-
cultural implements to quadruple their fortunes
by the simple act of making a declaration to that
effect, and then to put the price of their goods on a
basis that will enable them to pay dividends on the
increased capitalization. If the farmers must pay
prices for their plows, cultivators and other ma-
chinery that makes such things possible for the man-
ufacturers, why not put up the price of grain and
farm produce so that the earning capacity of farms
will be increased to such an extent that farmers also
may declare their capital stock to be four times as
great as it was ?

But this would not be a case of simple "marking
up," for the real value of the farms would be in-
creased. With fair prices, close and intelligent cul-
tivation, equitable laws for all, wide foreign markets,
reciprocity, good roads, irrigation, information as to
actual crop and market conditions, ability to direct
produce to the best markets, systematic marketing

150 THE THIRD POWER

and organization, farm lands would rise in value
greatly, and every farmer and the whole country
would be the richer. On such a firmly established
basis as this our national prosperity could hardly be
shaken. As has been pointed out, the farmer could
and would spend more money for improvements,
more for education, and more for both necessities
and luxuries. Indeed, things that are now luxuries
would speedly become necessities. The certainty of
the business, as contrasted with the present uncer-
tainty, would put a new life and spirit into the
farmers. They would be proud of their occupation,
and happy and contented in it. Travel, books, pic-
tures, better clothes, better house furnishings, more
amusements, and a wider and fuller life, would all
be in reach of the farmers. There would be no need
of pinching economy in the good years to insure
against distress in the bad years. Having a certain
profit from their products, they would spend it free-
ly, and every industry in the country would be bene-
fited— even beyond the dreams of the past — thus ben-
efiting every man, woman and child. The improve-
ments that the farmer would feel that it was worth
while to make would still further increase the value
of the farms, and thus in every possible material way
the improvement would be tremendous. The men
on the farms would not have to work as hard as they
do now, and they could shorten their working day,
thus gaining time for other things. With a larger
margin of profit, they would not be driven to raise

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 151

the largest possible crops in order to make a bare
living. There would be less drudgery and more
rational enjoyment, and thus rural life would take a
charm which it so sadly lacks under present condi-
tions. There would be more money, fewer notes in
bank, possibly no mortgages, and with it a general
ease and security which present uncertainty and
anxiety make quite impossible. The farmer is the
last man who should feel any anxiety, and yet
anxiety seems to be almost his special foe. It grows
out of the uncertainty that he feels in regard to his
income from year to year, the inevitable result of
uncertainty of weather, yields and prices and his
sense of helplessness. It is from these things that he
is asked to emancipate himself. Think for a moment
of the effect that freedom of this sort has on the
minds of men. They at once begin to feel that many
things are worth while which never seemed to be so
before. Even life itself becomes more worth while.
This freedom would encourage the farmer to im-
prove his property, to make his home more pleasant
and attractive, would increase his pride in his occu-
pation, keep his interest up to the mark and his mind
on the alert, and would make his life the joy that it
ought to be. To sum up : The effect of the Ameri-
can Society of Equity will be to benefit the farmers
of the United States and of the world and all other
businesses as well, for they are all dependent on the
farm. Tt will mean higher education, better citizen-
ship, less poverty, misery and crime, lower taxes,

152 THE THIRD POWER

fewer saloons, more schools and more innocent places
of amusement. Present uncertainties as to price will
be removed, farm values will increase, thus adding
billions of dollars to the wealth of the country. Busi-
ness everywhere will be stimulated, and there will
be a more equal distribution of wealth, a much larger
proportion of it remaining in the country. Specula-
tion in the products of the farm will be done away
writh, and all its evil effects on those products and on
the people who watch the board and ticker will van-
ish. The success of the American Society of Equity
will make it possible for the farmers whose tastes
run in that direction to have comfortable and even
luxurious homes, and will make of the country a
veritable paradise. And prosperity will be general
and permanent because based on the prosperity of
that industry on which all other industries depend.
An ambitious program surely, but it can be carried
out if the farmers will but loyally and intelligently
cooperate. This is no dream — or, if it is, it is one that
can be easily realized. The farmers of the United
States can make it come true. The future of the
United States of America is the future of agricul-
ture ; mark this prediction. So the appeal is to the
patriotic as well as to the selfish motives of the farm-
ers. Through their salvation the salvation of the
country must be worked out.

CHAPTER XIX

Cooperate ! Cooperate !

If you would keep the boys
Contented with the farmer's lot,

A sharer of his joys.
Lift them above the path that you

Of old were wont to walk,
A humdrum round of drudgery,

Where wolves of want close stalk.

Cooperate ! Cooperate !

The good wife needs a rest,
For she has shared your burdens long,

Your true friend and your best.
Through countless tasks and thankless toil

Her youth was gladly spent,
But now the load too heavy lies

Upon her shoulders bent.

There are many problems that are troubling our
wise men a good deal that will be solved by the suc-
cessful operation of this plan. A few of them may
well claim our attention. We have all read the
mournful lamentation over the unwillingness of
young men to remain on the farms. The tendency
of population is, we are told, constantly toward the
cities. And the tendency is growing stronger all the
while. The percentage of the city to the total popu-
lation is larger than it was ten years ago, it being

153

154 THE THIRD POWER

41 per cent, in 1890, and 47 per cent., counting in
towns of 1,000 population and over, in 1900. The
growth of cities in the United States is one of the
most marked features in our American life. That
the cities will continue to grow may be taken for
granted, but there is no reason why they should grow
so largely at the expense of the country and country
towns.

A writer, discussing this question a short time
ago, said that the reason the sons of farmers sought
the cities was that city life was so much more com-
plex than life on the farm, and that the whole tend-
ency of our civilization was toward complexity.
This may be the philosophy of it, and it is undoubt-
edly true that our people demand excitement and
variety. Dullness and monotony are to most of us
intolerable. So there is a shrinking from the un-
eventful farm life, and also a longing for the more
stirring life of the large city. But this is not the
whole of the question. What the American youth,
whether he be country or city bred, wants above
everything else is a career — an opportunity. The
city offers a thousand chances to one offered by the
farm. The chance of failure is greater in the city
than on the farm, when a mere living is considered,
but so is the chance of success. And Americans were
ever drawn by risk. They will play for high stakes,
and they do not as a rule grumble if they lose, pro-
vided they have had a fair chance to win.

So the young man wants his career. He considers

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 155

the case of his father, perhaps, and sees that he has
worked drudgingly all his life for the most con-
temptible reward. Long hours, severe and heart-
breaking toil, anxiety, pinching economy, self-denial
and sacrifice, and finally old age, with, it may be,
little to show for it all — what is there in the picture
that is alluring to the high-spirited young man ? The
young man loves his home, and if he loves it he re-
members it with affection, but still he knows that the
life was narrow, that the hardships were many, and
that the return was slight. Apparently there is noth-
ing more in the life for him than there was for his
father, and so he escapes to the city, where there is
at least a chance for him to win his spurs. People
may have theories and write learnedly on this sub-
ject, but there is no way of keeping the young man
on the farm if we allow things to remain as they are.
Our wise, good and honest men may deplore the
tendency toward the city, but they can not honestly
quarrel with the young man's choice. Nor can they
forbid him to make his choice.

There is only one thing to be done, and that is to
make farm life more attractive, and equip it with
good possibilities. We can not exclude men from the
cities or chain them to the farms, but we can allure,
attract and keep them to the farms. And this is what
we propose to do through the American Society of
Equity. If the farmer's son could feel sure that he
would get good prices for his products, that he
would be able to control his own business, that he

156 THE THIRD POWER

would not, as now, be neglected by the government,
be ridiculed by his acquaintances, and that all the
capacity he possesses and all the education he might
acquire would find abundant scope for exercise on
the farm with the certainty of liberal reward, he
would think long before migrating to the city. Give
the farmer as many of the comforts of the city as he
cares to possess, a fair chance at the city's amuse-
ments, plenty of books and papers and an education
that would fit him to enjoy them, and he will, with a
sure chance for a career, be quite content to remain
a tiller of the soil. But if he is to be a mere drudge,
a hewer of wood and drawer of water for others,
we have no right to be surprised that agriculture has
slight charm for the young man.

It is admitted that it is a bad thing both for the
city and the country to have the young men in such
large numbers leave the latter for the former. The
professions are crowded ; there are more clerks and
bookkeepers than are needed, and the farm needs
laborers more now than ever before, and it is besides
dangerous when there is a large element of the popu-
lation living in boarding-houses without any of the
restraints and safeguards of home. This congestion
of population is getting worse. And witli it the
chance for the individual is growing slighter all the
time. Yet all the while there is a clamor for workers
on the farms. Would the average young man run
away from a good chance on the farm to a desperate
Struggle in the city with thousands of others perhaps

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 157

better equipped for it than he is ? This is not likely.
The farms need the young men, and it is to the inter-
est of the nation that they should stay on the farm.
There would be more than enough work for all if
the conditions were right and if the workers could
only be assured that it would pay to farm to the
limit. With larger profits the farmer could afford to
pay better wages and to grant a shorter working day
to the men employed by him, and so those toilers who
are now stranded in the city would be drawn to the
farm, to the great advantage both of agriculture and
themselves.

The possibilities in this direction are very great,
and they should be attractive. Nothing is more need-
ed in this country than a redistribution of the popu-
lation wisely and judiciously made. To secure this
we must make farming as attractive as it was meant
to be by God when He created a garden and put a
man in it to dress it. The poet Cowley writes:
"God the first garden made, and the first city Cain,"
and Cowper assures us that "God made the country,
and man made the town." True to his nature man
has done what he could to spoil the country, God's
handiwork. It can be, to some extent at least, re-
stored to its lost estate. And it is fortunate that
much is already being done to accomplish this. We
have only to cooperate intelligently with forces al-
ready at work in order to keep the country from be-
ing depopulated and the city from being overcrowd-
ed. In some other countries rural life is popular.

158 THE THIRD POWER

It can be made so with us. Indeed, the popular taste
is already turning in that direction. There is no
business that demands more brains than agriculture
if it is properly carried on. But in these days brains
must be liberally paid. The competition for talent is
severe, and the farm must be prepared to meet it.
If there were assurance of adequate reward for
farming even the present isolation and loneliness and
other unsatisfactory conditions would not repel.
Men go to the Klondike and live there simply that
they may make their fortunes. They will brave any-
thing for the sake of a chance to make their way in
the world and to find free scope for the talent they
feel stirring within them. The frozen north, the
burning tropics, the islands of the sea, nay, the most
barbarous and dangerous life — all these call to our
young men, and they do not call in vain. Yet they
turn their backs with something like contempt on the
farm. Is it not strange ? And does not the fact con-
demn us as a people ? Surely we can do better than
this. The American Society of Equity offers the
chance. It would make farming attractive, and
would again clothe it with the old seductiveness that
it once had for our people in those days when every
American citizen wanted to become a landowner.
A shame it is that that charm has been lost. But it
need not be lost permanently. Even as it is the life
has a charm which the shriekers on the floor of the
stock exchange and in the wheat pit know nothing
of. For the farmer does produce something, and he

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 159

at least has the satisfaction of knowing that he is of
some use in the world.

The problem, then, is to develop the life on the
farm up to the full measure of its great possibilities.
We must make farming a career in the sense that
other honorable occupations are careers, assure the
farmer of a fair return for his labor, develop in him
a pride in his work, make him see that it is worth
while for him to put into it all the brains he possesses
and that scientific farming pays, and give him that
intellectual stimulus which comes from a larger and
freer life. We must elevate the farmer's business
until it is on an equality with the best business in the
country, and when farming as a profession is the best
profession on earth. When we have done all this,
when the Third Power at last asserts itself, there will
be no difficulty in keeping the boys on the farm, and
other boys will want to come. Is not the experiment
worth trying ? Do not the farmers see that they owe
it to their profession, the most ancient and honorable
of all professions, to exert themselves to the utmost
to give it that standing in the eyes of the world that
it ought to have and once did have ? And can not all
our people be made to understand that anything
which contributes to the accomplishment of all these
results is worthy of their cordial and enthusiastic
support ? There is nothing here suggested that may
not be done. The question is, Will the farmers do it ?

CHAPTER XX

Who, then, 's more entitled to inspire the laws,
Who'd take more interest in the common cause,

Than he with good at heart?
As barnacles on the great ship of state,
Politicians decrease its fast sailing rate
And have no cares for its final fate ;

They know no chart.

It is, of course, quite impossible to consider this
question apart from politics. Few questions in this
country can be considered in this detached way. In
this case it happens that there is a very direct and
intimate connection between the reform proposed
and politics — not party politics, but politics in the
larger and more scientific sense. The air is full of
talk about political reform. The abuses, injustices
and oppressions incident to the business of govern-
ment in this country are dwelt on with much em-
phasis. All know that corruption abounds on every
hand, that graft is almost the law of our political life,
that extravagance is the rule, that favoritism is prev-
alent, and that those with the strongest "pull" get
the greatest consideration. There is discrimination
everywhere, and it is in favor of the strong and
against the weak. The law itself is too often the

1 60

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 161

mere agent of the rich and powerful for carrying out
their doubtful schemes.

Why is all this true in a country in which the peo-
ple are supposed to govern ? None of us can be made
to believe that the people are corrupt or that they de-
liberately prefer bad to good government. The peo-
ple are not corrupt, and so far from preferring bad
government it is they who chiefly suffer from it.
The trouble is that the people do not govern. Nom-
inally a democracy, this government is the«oligarchy
controlled by a comparatively small class in its own
interest. The people simply take what is given to
them. Thus we have turned our system upside
down and are false to the fundamental law of our
political being. When a scoundrel in the postoffice de-
partment is caught with money in his hands that does
not belong there we all know that it is the people's
money that he has stolen. When a rascally law is
enacted taxing the people for the benefit of a few
greedy and grasping individuals, it is not the people
who are guilty of the oppression, for it is they that
are oppressed. Divided into parties, the respectable
and decent men of our cities are powerless to check-
mate the rogues who prey on all alike, no matter
what party they may belong to. The combination
between men in office and corporations seeking fran-
chises and favors is a combination in the interest of
the politicians and the corporations and against the
interest of the people. The people everywhere suf-
fer, not because they govern, but because they are

162 THE THIRD POWER

governed, and really without their consent. Pulls,
influence, money, party trickery, corporate corrup-
tion in politics practised by our leading citizens —
these be our rulers. And to this perversion of our
government from its true aim and purpose are due
all the ills from which we suffer.

And it is only those who make something out of
government who have any constant and effective in-
fluence in public affairs. President Hadley, of Yale
University, writes :

"Except in those grave crises when a wave of pa-
triotism sweeps over the community the support on
which a democratic government relies is spasmodic
and accidental. No man except the professional
politician feels that the government is being run in
his particular interest. On none, therefore, except
the professional politician can it rely for continuous
activity in giving effect to its decrees."

We all understand this perfectly well. Who are
the men directly and keenly and continuously inter-
ested in politics if not those who work simply that
they may get something out of the game? The men
who speak in political campaigns are, as a rule, men
who, if not paid outright for their services, expect
to get appointments if their side wins. Year after
year you see the same men hanging around the polls,
and hoping, through their connection with the or-
ganization, to be "taken care of." Gradually the
government has been wrested from the hands of the
people, and more and more — and as a consequence —

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 163

the people have lost interest in it and influence
with it.

Now the proposition is to restore to the people
that supremacy which is rightfully theirs, and which
they must have if this is ever again to be a govern-
ment of the people. As this is even yet pre-eminently
an agricultural country, the farmers are the people.
With the millions of men directly interested in fur-
thering their own interests, which are those of the
people, and bound together in an organization, the
usurpation of the politicians and corporations would
be broken, and the real rulers would govern. Con-
sidered in this light the American Society of Equity
— the Third Power — is an instrument for the resto-
ration of true democratic government in the United
States, regardless of name of party. No administra-
tion would dare to disregard such an influence, or
would think of tying itself up to the politicians and
those who now use them. Under such a system noth-
ing would or could be done without the freely ex-
pressed will of the people. If they governed them-
selves badly, they would still govern themselves, and
would be responsible for all mistakes and crimes.
With this power and influence the people would re-
gain their old interest in public affairs, and the
government would no longer be forced to rely on
the professional politician "for continuous activity
in giving effect to its decrees." In a word, it is
proposed to broaden the base of government and
to put the power and responsibility in and on the peo-

1 64 THE THIRD POWER

pie. Favors enjoyed by all are not favors, but rights.
A favor is something enjoyed by one at the ex-
pense of others. If we can secure the granting
of justice to all and the withdrawal of privileges
enjoyed only by the few, we shall destroy the
"pull" and the whole system based on it. So
this is a movement for democratic government —
government for all and by all, in which all shall
participate. With this secured most of the evils
from which we are now suffering would disappear.
The pull would not work when there is nothing to
be gained by it. The people would not be interested
in stealing from themselves. If there was nothing
for corruption to win there would be no corruption.
In brief, the remedy is to be sought in a simple ad-
herence to what is the true American system, from
which we have so widely departed, and in a loyal ad-
herence to the old American ideals.

One other point is made by President Hadley that
bears directly on this discussion. He calls attention
to the fact that business and politics are now both re-
garded as games, and he says :

"A wider discretionary power for good or ill is
placed in the hands of those by whom the public
affairs of the city or state are conducted. These
affairs will not be safe while politics is regarded as a
game. * * * Under an imperialistic policy our
government can not remain what it is. It must
grow either worse or better. It can not remain a
game in which the struggle for success is as far as
possible disassociated from the moral sense of the

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 165

participants. It will involve either a direct breach of
trust or a direct acceptance of trust."

How widely this "game" theory of politics is held
we all know, or if we do not we can easily learn by
a few minutes' talk with a ward worker. Perhaps
we ourselves have held to the theory. However this
may be, the theory is wholly pernicious. For what is
a "game" except something at which some one must
win and some other one lose ? It is the risk of los-
ing, the hazard, that gives the game all its charm.
There would be no betting on horse races if it were
positively certain that every one would win. If suc-
cess were sure for all, our gambling laws would en-
force themselves — for there would be no gambling.
What, therefore, are we to think of a political system
administered by, or in the name of, a free people,
which is avowedly based on the theory that some of
the people must win at the expense of others of the
people ? Yet that is the present situation. It should
be ended. An honest government is one under which
every citizen, even the humblest, would win — that is,
it is not a game. It is a business, and a business con-
ducted for the benefit of all. And that is the sort of
government that is advocated by the American So-
ciety of Equity. Politicians do not struggle, and
plot, and bribe in order that they may secure justice
and equity; what they seek is privilege. They play
the game, and they play it for rich stakes. So it is
proposed to uproot this game theory, for, as Presi-
dent Hadlcy truthfully says, our "affairs will not be

166 THE THIRD POWER

safe while politics is regarded as a game." If we
make it impossible, as we intend to do, for one man
to win at the expense of another, we shall end the
game business and destroy the interest in politics
now shown by men who ought to be banished from
politics. With the people in power, and with the
government, which is now a great gambling affair,
turned into an honorable business enterprise, corrup-
tion, bribery and extravagance will disappear, and
elections, instead of being fierce and degrading strug-
gles for spoil, will be, as they ought to be, sober
consultations regarding questions of principle and
policy in which all will have a legitimate interest.

CHAPTER XXI

While some may think him quite enchanting,
Heed not the politician's senseless ranting;

Down with his throne !
In your sturdy ranks are statesmen true
Who'd see that you received what's justly due.
Bring them forward, as you surely should do —

Have rulers of your own !

Much is said about the dangers of a strong gov-
ernment. But surely no one will deny that the gov-
ernment ought, at least, to be stronger than any
citizen or combination of citizens. The power of all
must be stronger than the power of less than all.
Otherwise we shall have the rule of the many by the
few, which is abhorrent to American ideas. So we
shall have a government strong enough to prevent
one man from injuring another. And it will make
no difference how rich and powerful the would-be
injurer is. In no other way than this can justice and
equity be secured. The government must first itself
be just, and then it must, standing above and outside
of all classes and cliques, impose absolute justice
upon all. We all know that weak governments can
not do tli is. A feeble ruler is always, and of necessity
must be, an unjust and oppressive ruler. In order

167

1 68 THE THIRD POWER

to maintain himself he is forced to seek the support
of the rich and powerful or of certain classes of the
rich and powerful, and to win their support he must
favor them at the expense of the rest of the commu-
nity. A study of the history of the South and Cen-
tral American republics will show that this is true.
To be just, a government must be great and strong,
owing no favors to any one, and granting none to
any one.

To this extent, then, we intend to have a strong
government in this country. Putting the case in the
other way, surely no one will say that it should be
less strong than even the most powerful citizen, or
combination of citizens. We want all the people —
and not some of the people — to rule all the people.
And this, and this only, is self-government. We may
then start with the certainty that the success of the
American Society of Equity and the triumph of the
Third Power will mark the end of class rule and of
the favoritism that has grown out of it. Thus we
shall have justice and the destruction of all motives
that lead men in power to be guilty of injustice.
Surely that will be a great gain. Of course it would
be foolish to attempt to say what such a government
might do, for it could do whatever it pleased to do.
What it pleased to do would depend wholly on the
will of the people. It is conceivable that the new
system might develop along socialistic lines, and that
the central authority might interfere more than it
does now with what we call private business. Yet

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 169

there is no tendency to the confiscation of property
nor anything that will check enterprise, nor limit
ambition or kill incentive to efforts. But if two
classes of citizens got into a controversy causing in-
convenience and loss to the whole community, it is
very probable that all the people, acting through
their government, would intervene to protect them-
selves and to end the quarrel. The Interstate Com-
merce Commission even now may say that a certain
railroad rate is unreasonable, though it may not fix
a reasonable rate. Under the new order the nation
might do the latter thing — and it would be no very
great extension of power. If it were found that the
butchers were charging prices for meat out of all
proportion to the cost of the cattle that they bought
— as they have been known to do — the government,
in the interest of all, would almost certainly order
the price to be reduced. The coal strike of 1902-3
could have been ended before the evil effects of it
were felt outside of the neighborhood where it start-
ed ; and who will claim that immeasurable suffering,
inconvenience and financial loss all over the country
should be endured just because a few miners and
operators disagree? If a government is not for this
purpose, pray, what is it for? In the controversy,
which it has been suggested might arise between the
farmers and the consumers as to the price of farm
products, the government would impose its just will
on both parties to the quarrel and see that a fair and
reasonable price was established. In a word, it would

i;o THE THIRD POWER

instantly ally itself with all the people as against any
class that was seeking to win for itself an unfair ad-
vantage at the expense of society. As it is now it
allies itself with a given class against the whole body
of the people. Thus that situation would be entirely
reversed.

But, it will be asked, could such a government be
trusted ? Certainly it could be if the people can be
trusted to govern themselves, as we all pretend to
believe. And when we say that we believe in the
principle of self-government we do not mean that
we think that the people are infallible, and so incapa-
ble of making mistakes. What we do mean is that
the people are honest, intelligent, swayed by good
purposes, and are much better fit to govern them-
selves than any man is to govern them. We mean
further that they will be much more patient under
their own mistakes than they could be under the mis-
takes of any one else. They would recognize that
the hurt came from themselves, so as there would be
no one to punish there would be no basis for discon-
tent or revolution.

It would, to be sure, still be necessary to decide
questions of policy by a majority vote, and the dan-
ger of a tyranny by majority would not be wholly
removed ; but it would be greatly lessened. For we
should have in government something of that co-
operation which it is designed to introduce in the
business of production. The government would be
more directly by the people and less by the delegated

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 171

agents than is now the case. And the overwhelming
preponderance of the farmers would strengthen and
broaden the foundation of government and would
give many more people an interest in it.

Thus the American Society of Equity, merely by
calling attention very sharply to the grievances of
the farmers, who constitute the largest class in the
country, and without having anything directly to do
with politics, may be expected to transform our
government by restoring it to its first and highest
estate.

What does it matter if mistakes are made? They
are made now. The people are quite as wise as the
politicians and ringsters who now bear rule. And
surely the politicians ought to be willing to admit
that people wise enough to put them in power are
very wise indeed. To hear the defenders of the pres-
ent system talk you would think that presidents and
congresses were never corrupt or wicked or incom-
petent or foolish. They compare the new scheme
with an ideal system, and because it does not meas-
ure up to it they condemn it, forgetting that neither
does the old system measure up to the ideal. Yet it
must ever be borne in mind that we do not advocate
any new system — no patent device or trick. What is
advocated is old enough, namely, a government
which shall be controlled by the people and not by
the agents and servants of the people — a strong gov-
ernment, that will protect its citizens and afford that
protection quickly — an equitable government, that

172 THE THIRD POWER

secures justice for all. This is the true American
theory from which, however, we have widely de-
parted.

One thing which it is desired to secure is new in
human governments, and that is justice. If that can
be gained all will have been gained. Is it beyond
our reach? For ages men have longed for it and
struggled for it, but it has always gleamed just
ahead of them, and they have never been able to
reach it. Is it now at hand? Not ideally or in its
fulness, perhaps, for this is an imperfect world of
imperfect men, and selfishness is hard to kill. But
substantially it can be secured. It can be secured,
but only in one way — by enlisting selfishness (self-
interest) in the struggle for it. If we can make a
large majority of men see that it pays to be just,
that they can not have justice themselves unless they
are prepared to concede it to others, they will be as
zealous fighters against injustice as are the most un-
selfish and idealistic of people. Men have in the past
tried to eliminate selfishness. Now the purpose is
to use it on the side of righteousness. The appeal
must be made to the intelligence and self-interest of
men as well as to their conscience. It ought not to
be difficult to make sensible men understand that
they would win more by freely yielding to every
other man his rights than they could ever hope to
win in a fierce scramble for unfair advantages in
which they are as likely to be hurt as they are to hurt
their brother. The farmer's cause will not be pro-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 173

moted — the Third Power will not rise — on the ruin
of other enterprises, but by building up alongside
of them will strengthen every other legitimate busi-
ness and institution.

A great economic writer has given us an allegory
showing the wastefulness of a foolish and unen-
lightened selfishness. He once saw a cage of mon-
keys being fed. A plate full of food was placed be-
fore each monkey, but each one of them, instead of
eating from the plate before him, wildly grabbed for
the portion of his neighbor. And in the scramble
much of the food was lost. What is suggested here
is that each man should eat off his own plate and
leave his neighbor to consume his meal in peace.
Thus all would get enough, and the decencies would
be maintained. Society at the present time is very
like the cage of monkeys. In both cases there is
selfishness, but it is of the silly kind. Surely we can
order things better. If we can not, we might as well
confess that self-government is a failure, nay, that
men are not fit to live together in organized society.

CHAPTER XXII

Then come along! Come along! Make no delay;

Come from every dwelling, come from every way ;

Let Equity be in your hearts, and on your banners gay,

Then right and justice will prevail and dwell with us alway.

Such is the argument in favor of the proposed so-
ciety. For further details as to methods of organi-
zation, and rules for government of the society, I
refer to the appendix in which the constitution, by-
laws, regulations and other details are set forth ex-
plicitly. And these have to do directly with another
exceedingly important question. Some farmers may
say that such a combination would be very desirable,
that It would accomplish all the things I have said it
would accomplish, and that in every way it would be
a good thing for the farmers and the people. But
they may ask : Is the plan practicable ? This is the
great question which reformers always have to an-
swer, and, of course, it is right that they should be
required to answer it, for it is to the test of practica-
bility that everything must be brought. A flying
machine would be most useful — if it would work.
But unless a device of this sort will work there is no
sense in paying any attention to it. Always there is

174

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 175

this terrible test. Can the American Society of
Equity stand it ?

I have not, in what has been said, passed over this
question. For it has been shown that organization
is the law of industrial progress; that other indus-
tries are organized ; that all the forces of our civili-
zation are tending toward a closer unity among men ;
that the farmers have combined successfully already
(witness the Grange, Alliance, Farmers' Mutual As-
sociation and others), and that every change for the
better that has taken place in the farmer's condition
— his greater intelligence, his growing sense of de-
pendence on others in the same line, his closer asso-
ciation with others through the medium of frequent
mails, telephones, trolley lines, the growth of cities
and towns in the rural regions, and his greater use of
machinery — all points the way to organization, and
makes it necessary, easy and inevitable. The Ameri-
can Society of Equity is thus working along natural
lines and in cooperation with natural forces. So the
argument in favor of the possibilities of organizing
by this plan is reasonably strong as it now stands.
As to its practicability and durability, these depend
on the benefits it gives. But a little closer and more
detailed examination of it may serve to allay the
doubts of the more timorous and conservative. Of
course, the great objection is that the scheme is too
large and involves too many men. Organization, it
is said, is easy when only a few people are concerned,
but it is exceedingly difficult when it becomes neces-

176 THE THIRD POWER

sary to take in millions of people, living in widely
separated sections of the country, but this objection
is based, not on the impracticability of the plan, but
on the difficulty without conceding its impossibility.
It will undoubtedly be harder to organize the farm-
ers in such a way as to secure united action from
them than it is for two men in the same city to form
a commercial partnership ; but the one is no more im-
possible than the other.

Surely the farmers in a certain neighborhood can
organize without much trouble, and they can agree
to abide by certain rules. They have done so and are
doing this every day. So of the farmers in another
and adjoining sections. Thus far the case is plain
enough. If, therefore, the farmers in any given
county have organized in the American Society of
Equity — and they have in many — does it not follow
that they can organize in other counties until a state
is organized. If one state can organize an-
other can. In fact, all the states can. If the
farmers in the United States can organize (and
they have more than once, but on very poor
plans), the farmers in Canada can organize, where
the needs are as urgent and the conditions are very
similar. Now if the farmers in America can organ-
ize on this new plan of the American Society of
Equity, and for the beautiful and meritorious ob-
jects for which it stands, does it not follow that the
farmers of Europe can organize, particularly since
they need organization even more? I do not admit

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 177

the necessity of organizing the farmers of Europe
to accomplish all the objects of the American Society
of Equity in this country, but organization there will
follow. It will be a spontaneous lifting up or fol-
lowing in the lead of the American farmers until
they are on the same level. There is not a step
in the process which may not be easily taken. In-
deed, the work has already been begun and is now
going forward with great rapidity. It would not be
too much to say that the organization has already
been effected. The problem is not one of the crea-
tion, but of the extension of the organization. That
the organization can be formed has already been
demonstrated. But there is another question which
may give trouble to some people, and that is, Will
the organization work ? Unless there is good reason
to believe that it will not, we are almost justified in
asserting, even in the absence of affirmative proof,
that it will, since the presumption is so strongly in
its favor. At any rate we may say that the only way
to find out positively whether or not it will work,
unless it can be absolutely demonstrated that it will
not work, is to try it. The man who builds a flying
machine does not hesitate to put it to the test. Many
men were sure that no ship could ever cross the
ocean under steam. Yet when the trial was made
it was found that the doubter was mistaken. So it is
here. There is, as I believe, a great, new machine.
That it can be built has already been proved. Now
we want to know whether it will operate. The ma-

178 THE THIRD POWER

chine is being built for benefits. We will leave you
to judge if the plan as explained does not provide
for every needed timber, all the wheels, levers and
cranks ; is there a nut, screw, bolt, rivet or nail lack-
ing ? Don't it look that all that is needed is the co-
operative help of one million American freemen to
man it, when it will start and continue forever to
supply the needs of the entire agricultural needs of
this greatest of countries ? In order to be sure either
that it will or will not work we must give it a trial.

We have seen what it would accomplish, assuming
that it will work. Are not these objects worth tak-
ing some risk — especially when the risk is so slight
to secure? If the machine breaks down the loss
to each individual will be inappreciable ; if it moves,
his gain will be tremendous. You risk infinitely
more on every crop you put out or every head of
live stock you put in the stall, not knowing whether
you will get your money back or not. If the ma-
chine works, it will insure you a liberal return for
every dollar invested, or every hour employed in all
future time. But why should it not work? It all
depends on the farmers. If they come into the or-
ganization, are loyal to its rules, are true to one an-
other, and cooperate faithfully and intelligently for
the general good, there can be no possible doubt of
the success of the plan. No, I will not expect this.
All do not need to be loyal, considering the great
number of farmers, and the fact that only a small
portion of any crop needs to be controlled at any

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 179

time. If we admit that the great majority of farm-
ers are stubborn, in fact rebellious, yet they can not
affect the accurate working results of this machine.
There will still be enough loyal ones left at any time
to insure success. In this respect the great num-
bers of farmers which, in the past, was considered
the great element of weakness in a farmers' organ-
ization will be its greatest strength, when working
on the plan of the American Society of Equity.
Give us a number equal to what were in some for-
mer farmers' organizations and the definite results
will work out almost without an effort on the part
of the individual fanner. Farmers should remem-
ber that they are not to be ruled from the outside.
When the voice of the American Society of Equity

is heard, it will be the voice of the farmers them-
selves.

So what we are to learn is not whether the organ-
ization can succeed, but whether the American farm-
ers honestly want it to succeed ; therefore, to doubt
the practicability of the plan is to doubt the farmers
themselves; after the organization has been effected
the farmers can kill it if they wish to, but so can a
man rob his partner. Railroads combine success-
fully, and yet how often do we hear of secret cut-
ting of rates in direct violation of the agreement
between the roads. So I admit that some of the
farmers might play the traitor to the organization,
and yet I hold that the organization would win in
spite of their treachery. But there would be few

180 THE THIRD POWER

such men among the American farmers ; having once
decided to give the American Society of Equity a
trial they would see to it that it had a fair trial.

The only people incapable of working together in
organizations are savages, idiots and the insane.
Among these a perverse individualism prevails. Are
we to class the farmers in either of these categories?
Organization is the great weapon of civilized and
enlightened men, and so it is peculiarly the weapon
of the American farmer. In his "Notes on Vir-
ginia," Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"Those who labor in the earth are the chosen peo-
ple of God, if He ever had a chosen people, whose
breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for sub-
stantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus in which
He keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise
might escape from the earth. Corruption of morals
in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which
no age or nation has furnished an example."

And writing to John Jay, in 1785, Jefferson said :

"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable
citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most in-
dependent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to
their country and wedded to its liberty by the most
lasting bonds."

What they were in Jefferson's day they are now.
Yet it is of such men that we are asked to believe
that they, like the insane and savage, are incapable
of organization. The farmers are as intelligent as
the mechanics, who combine without difficulty and

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 181

make their combinations effective. They are even
as intelligent as the so-called captains of industry,
who, through their organizations, control both the
business and the politics of the American people.
What the mechanics and capitalists do, the farmers
can and will do. To say that they can not organize
effectively is to put them in a class by themselves
and to rank them infinitely below all other classes.
And that is absurd.

One objection remains to be considered : There
are those who say that the scheme is too great — that
it is beyond the power of men to achieve. This is
but another way of stating an objection already
considered. But what are men put in this world for,
if not to achieve great things? The very greatness
of this enterprise, instead of being an objection to
it, ought to be one of its chief recommendations.
Further, if it has been shown that it is practicable,
what matters it how great it is? The greater the
better, one would think ; besides, system is the serv-
ant of the twentieth century business man, and great
enterprises frequently work out more definitely than
small ones. It is a stupendous campaign in which
the farmers are asked to enlist. But that very fact
ought to stir their ambition and inflame their zeal.
Instead of saying that the plan can not be put in op-
eration, we ought to set ourselves to a considera-
tion of those qualities that are necessary in those
who would make it work. Ralph Waldo Emerson —
an American prophet who was never staggered by

1 82 THE THIRD POWER

the great or impossible — has said that "nothing
great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.'' It is
so. Therefore, our duty is, not to pick flaws in the
proposed scheme ; not to make up our minds before-
hand that it can not win. but to kindle our enthusi-
asm to such a point as to make failure absolutely
impossible. The cause is worthy; the weapon is at
hand and effective ; the only weakness, if there is
weakness, is our own doubting spirit. The appeal is
for men to fight in the cause and to wield the
weapon. With them — and they will be had — the
Machine of Cooperation will be built. The Third
Power will be a real power; the grand American
Society of Equity will be a triumphant success, and
agriculture will be lifted to the plane where it right-
fully belongs.

CHAPTER XXIII

Away with special privilege,

Away with greed of gain,
Away with cunning schemes of men

That equal rights restrain.
When Toil goes forth amid the fields,

Its fruits mankind to bless,
Let Toil say what those fruits are worth,

Let Toil its own possess.

The plan outlined ought to appeal to European
farmers quite as much as to their American breth-
ren. With the cheap land in America, and bound-
less quantities of it, and by the large use of ma-
chinery, the farmers of the United States have
forced the price of European wheat, and farm prod-
ucts generally, to an extremely low price. So all
the farmers, and not merely those in the United
States, have suffered from low prices and inade-
quately rewarded labor. This American invasion
has not been a good thing for any of the farmers.
For they have been engaged in a competition that
was hurtful to all. Of course the farmers of Europe
can not possibly raise prices as long as they are sub-
jected to the competition of American products at
the present low prices. The thing to do is, mani-
festly, to combine to raise prices. Restrictive legis-

183

1 84 THE THIRD POWER

lation will accomplish little. In resorting to this,
there is, too, the further danger of raising prices so
high that people can not or will not buy. The farm-
ers can check the present competition by combination
more easily, and more effectively, than governments
can kill it by law.

And the key to the situation is in the hands of the
Americans. If they will refuse to compete with
Europeans on the present basis, and will combine
with them to lift the price of farm products all over
the world, it is clear that, though competition will
not be destroyed, it will be put on such a basis as to
make it possible for all to profit. Every advance of
price here, provided it be firmly held, will raise the
price of the competing product abroad.

A combination among American farmers even
without help from abroad would have that effect.
It would establish a level below which the European
farmers would not need to go in competing with one
another. But with all the farmers in the combina-
tion the effect would be much more marked.

It seems strange that the European farmers
should look for salvation to their most dreaded
competitors, but it is from these latter that salvation
must come. For they have found that in beating
their European rivals they have also injured them-
selves. Now they propose to take themselves out
of the unprofitable struggle for cheapness. And
until they do withdraw from that struggle there
will be no hope for any one. So this chance is of-

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 185

fered to the farmers of Canada, France, Austria-
Hungary, Russia, the Argentine, far-off India, and,
in short, the world where food for man and beast are
grown, in the confident expectation that they will
eagerly embrace it. The arguments that prove that
organization will be a good thing for the American
farmers prove, also, that it will be a good thing for
the farmers everywhere. For the same conditions
that operate against the former operate against the
latter, and there is the additional element of Amer-
ican competition.

Let it be distinctly understood that the organiza-
tion proposed is industrial rather than political. For
nations differ in their forms of government and in
their political institutions, and a political program
that would work well in one country might not work
at all in another. Production, however, is the same
the world over. Everywhere it depends on the three
factors, land, labor, and capital, and the problem is
the same everywhere, namely, to secure a fair reward
to all three. There is no reason why the Third
Power should not operate as effectively and benefi-
cently in Russia as in the United States, in India as
in the Argentine. The farmers in all these coun-
tries are interested in checking speculation, in pre-
venting the speculators from playing off the prod-
ucts of one against the other, and in securing fair
prices for what they raise. In a word, their interests
are identical. Therefore, all can easily cooperate.
The farmers of other countries need the society

186 THE THIRD POWER

even worse than those of the United States do.
They have smaller farms and they work dearer land
— and land that is more in need of constant renew-
ing- and fertilizing. They need to make even a
higher interest on their investment than is necessary
in this country, in order to be sure of a decent living.
When they come in competition with American
wheat, grown on large farms and on land that is yet
cheap, they are at a serious disadvantage. There is
not a farmer in Russia who does not know that it
would be easier for him to compete with American
wheat at a dollar than with American wheat "at fifty,
sixty or seventy cents. And if the Russian buyer
were unable to get wheat from abroad at a lower
price than that established by the Russian farmers,
he would be compelled to take Russian wheat. Nor
are the American farmers at all disturbed at the
prospect of all farmers getting good prices for their
products. They know that there is a demand for
all the staple crops that is ever likely to be raised —
that the market is big enough for all. The trouble
is that the crop of one country is used to depress the
price of the crops of other countries, and thus all
have suffered.

It is this well-known fact that makes interna-
tional cooperation desirable, and to make the bene-
fits of the society world wide. Buyers operate on an
international basis. Sellers must, if they would
protect themselves against imposition, do the same
thing. Thus business, and not politics, is the object

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 187

of the organization. The question is not whether a
man is a Republican or a Democrat, a Liberal or a
Conservative, a supporter or an opponent of the gov-
ernment, but simply and solely whether he wants
to end the bad, uncertain and unprofitable system of
the past. Elevate his business on a plane with the
best of others, and make the best possible man out
of himself. It is from this point of view that rulers
and people alike are asked to consider this plan.
The combination is one of the world's producers
for their own, and so for the world's good. It is
proposed to antagonize nothing except unfair com-
mercial and industrial conditions. And when it is
known that those conditions operate to injure by
far the largest class of people in the world, surely
no one can object to having them removed.

So the organization will be, and indeed has been,
extended to other countries than the United States.
The Russian farmers are roused, and are moving
in the same path which the American farmers are
asked to tread. Societies similar to the American
Society of Equity will soon be organized in the
Czar's dominions and other countries. The in-
terest is intense wherever the plan has been devel-
oped. No man to whom it has been explained has
failed to be convinced. Its simplicity, and, at the
same time, its wide scope, its effectiveness, its justice
and its equity, have all served to commend it to rea-
h »nable men. Whether a man lives in Russia or In-
dia, the United States, or elsewhere, he wants at

1 88 THE THIRD POWER

least a fair chance to make his living and care prop-
erly for his family. On this platform all can stand.
It is the platform of the American Society of
Equity. And this is the reason why it is so well
adapted to act internationally. The invitation,
therefore, is as broad as humanity. The call goes
to all, and from all. For their own good a favora-
ble response is earnestly desired. It comes from
men who are firmly determined to control their own
business in their own interest, and to quit paying
unfair toll to the speculators and middlemen who
so long preyed on the productive industries of the
world.

CHAPTER XXIV

Let justice reign o'er our mighty band;

Let our hearts with triumph fill ;
Let all awake, ere 'tis too late,

And every foe we'll still.
In unity we'll conquer all —

Oh, may the day be near
When with God and right we will reign as might,

With conscience bright and clear!

Oh, why should we, to whom life depends,

Be trampled in the dust?
While others gain, we writhe in pain,

For want of right and just.
If one and all would for duty strive,

Then sorrow soon would end;
We supreme would reign and our rights we'd gain —

On no one we'd depend.

As a final word, it seems to be necessary to urge
the thought that success would not involve the en-
slavement or control of any one class, but the free-
dom of all the people. It has been said that the
struggle to which the farmer is invited is one for
emancipation. What is sought is as little govern-
ment regulation as possible, and the widest possible
opportunity for each one to work out his own des-
tiny. The removal of obstacles rather than the im-
position of new restrictions is the end sought.

189

190 THE THIRD POWER

Undoubtedly men who prey on others must be re-
strained, but even this restraint will be in the inter-
est of general liberty. That man is not free who
does not get a fair reward for his own toil undimin-
ished by tax for the benefit of his fellow citizens. So
the vice of our present system is, that it is not based
on liberty. And the farmers are those from whom
liberty is withheld. So it all comes to a question of
freedom. In doing away with the present abuses
we are attacking not simply commercial and indus-
trial unfairness and oppression, but tyranny. It is
not insisted that any man shall have less than he is
entitled to, but that all men shall have all that they
are entitled to. Liberty, then, is the great aim of
the American Society of Equity.

And there can be no real justice where there is
not liberty. For justice is, by its very nature, some-
thing that is due to a man ; a debt owing to him ;
something to which he is entitled. When it is given
or conceded to him as a favor or privilege coming
from a benevolent despot, it is not really justice at
all. Justice is not a thing to be granted, but one to
be demanded. So when the American people came
to frame their new and free government under the
constitution they declared that one of their purposes
was to "establish justice." They knew that a gov-
ernment could not be free unless it was just, or just
unless it was free. And they were right. Surely this
is a good precedent — one to which every American
citizen should bow in reverence. But the appeal is

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 191

not to one people, but to all people. The greatest
merit of the plan is that it does not antagonize any
government. It seeks the cooperation of all govern-
ments, which, no matter what their form, are with-
out exception based on the idea that the good and
prosperity of the subject or the citizen must be their
chief consideration.

If the rulers of the earth believe this, and they all
profess to do so, they will find a valuable and useful
ally in the American Society of Equity. All that is
asked is that the men who feed the world should
themselves be decently fed. Even in the most abso-
lute monarchies it is of the first importance that the
people should be happy, contented and prosperous.
And that government is wise which exerts itself to
the utmost to secure that result. When this can be
achieved without cost or peril to the government, it
would seem as though no objection could be raised
even by the most absolute ruler to any plan that ap-
peared likely to bring the result to pass. Kingdoms
have been known to go to war for the sake of divert-
ing the attention of the people away from ill condi-
tions at home. There have, in the history of the race,
been many wars prompted by this motive. But such
relief is only temporary. For after the war is over
we find that the same evils exist, and that the burden
of taxation imposed by the war only makes them
worse and increases the discontent of the people. So,
at most, war undertaken for this purpose is a mere
palliative. What is wanted is a permanent remedy.

192 THE THIRD POWER

And the true remedy is one which is not only con-
sistent with peace, but one which demands peace.
The late Lord Tennyson wrote of his vision of what
the earth was one day to be :

"Robed in universal harvest, up to either pole she smiles,
Universal ocean softly washing all her warless isles."

That is the ideal. Abundance for all, general
content, the greatest productiveness, justice, honest
pay for honest toil, and universal peace — these are
the things that the American Society of Equity
would have the world 'enjoy. To keep the people
happy is better than going to war to make them for-
get their unhappiness. It is in this direction that
we must look for federation, not of Europe against
America, not of one class against another, not of
the people against their government — but of all
people, of all the nations for the general good. It is
through such industrial and commercial alliance that
political alliances must come. The Russian, the
American, the Argentine, the Indian and all other
farmers ought to be friends, not enemies. They
will be friends when relieved from the spell of the
speculators and gamblers in farm products, the mar-
ket manipulators and false crop reporters. And
when they are friends their governments will be
friends.

So this society is not American except as it is
domiciled in America. It is world-wide, and there
is not a toiler in the world who will not be benefited

FARMERS TO THE FRONT 193

by it. What has been said to, and of, American
farmers applies to all farmers, and this organiza-
tion is meant for all farmers. It all comes to the
scriptural doctrine that the laborer is worthy of his
hire. To withhold his hire from him, or any part
of it, is to weaken all government and to impair the
foundations on which society must rest. While to
insure him his just reward is to strengthen the so-
cial order and to build anew the foundations of the
political structures of the world.

Years before it came to pass, Arthur Young, trav-
eling in France, predicted the great revolution that
took place in that country more than a hundred
years ago. He based his prophecy simply on the
fact that the people were being robbed by the church
and the nobility, and robbed to such an extent that
they did not have enough left to live on. We are
wiser in our generation, in that we do not push our
spoliation to such an extreme point. But we want,
not simply to avoid revolution, but to make all the
people happy. The question is, not how much we can
safely take from them, but how much we can give
them. And when we are asked to give them only
what is already theirs, in equity, with the assurance
that by doing so we shall make them happy, shall
we hesitate?

Peace, happiness, truth, justice, order, the death
of anarchy, firmly established governments, the
reign of law, contentment and satisfaction, together
with real and widely diffused prosperity, and to

i94 THE THIRD POWER

crown it all a real federation of the nations — surely
these are things worth striving for. St. Paul said :
"Who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the
fruit thereof? Or who feedeth a flock, and eateth
not of the milk of the flock?" And the Psalmist
wrote to his people in their captivity : "For thou
shalt eat the labors of thine hands; O well is thee
and happy shalt thou be." We seek the fulfillment
of these prophecies. There is not a human being in
the world, and not a government in the world that
will not be better because of the triumph of the
Third Power through the American Society of
Equity.

SECOND PART

195

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION
OF AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS
AND THE AMERICAN FARMER.

By Eugene Matrosow, D. C. L.

While the terrible agricultural depression of 1893- 1897 is
fresh as yet in the memory of the American people, opinions
widely differ as to the present state of American agriculture.
Though, by some people, the general agricultural condition of
the United States is considered as not only satisfactory but
even indicative of increased prosperity, there are many con-
servative and well-informed persons concurring in the opinion
that American agriculture is still in the state of depression,
although, of course, not in such a terrible degree as it was
several years ago.

It is very remarkable indeed that in all these discussions of
the general condition of farming throughout the United States
an accurate analysis of the farmer's income was not under-
taken. Meanwhile, in order to grasp the true condition of the
American farmer of to-day, his income must be properly
analyzed. We must go to the bottom and present the facts
in their true significance.

Reports of Twelfth Census of the United States, published
last year, contain no information as to the number of persons
to a farm. Thus, we have to find out this number for our-
selves. According to the Reports on Population, rural popu-
lation of the United States in 1900 was 39,528,398 (vol. T, p.
LXXXIX). The number of farms reported by the division of
agriculture, 5,739,657 (vol. V, p. LXIX), is 0.7 per cent, greater
than the number of farm families reported by the division of
population. 5.700,341 (vol. II, p. CLXXXV1TT). This varia-
tion is explained in the reports as being unquestionably the re-
sult of incomplete agricultural reports, mainly among the

197

198 THE THIRD POWER

Indian farmers. The population figures, therefore, according
to the said explanation of census officials, more fully express
the facts of the case, so far as the number of farms and of farm
families are concerned, than those of the division of agri-
culture (vol. II, p. CCIII and vol. V, p. LXIII). So, divid-
ing rural population in 1900 (39,528,398), by total number of
farms as reported by the division of population (5,700,341),
we find that the number of persons to a farm in 1900 was 6.9.
It is necessary to bear in mind in this connection that num-
ber of persons to a farm is not identical either with number of
persons to a dwelling, 5.3 (vol. II, p. CLVII), or with num-
ber of persons to a family, 4.7 (vol. II, p. CLVIII).

Total value of farm products of 1899 was $4,739,118,752.
Average value per farm : Total, $826. Fed to live stock,
$170. Not fed to live stock, $656. Average expenditure per
farm: Labor, $64. Fertilizers, $10.

(Abstract of the Twelfth Census, pp. 234-237.)
According to this estimate the annual income from the aver-
age farm in 1899 was $582 ($656 — $74). As the results of
the last census show quite clearly, there were in the United
States in 1900, 4,410,877 agricultural laborers in strict mean-
ing of the word, i. e., of so-called hired help, (Abstract of the
Twelfth Census, p. 24), for 5,700,341 farms or 0.77 of hired
man per farm. If we allow 5.9 persons to each farm for
1899 (what was the case in 1900), deduct 0.77 of hired agri-
cultural laborer per farm from 6.9 persons to each farm, and
divide this $582 among them equally, we receive for the farm-
ers of the United States an average annual per capita income
of $94.9 ($582 divided by 6.13). If we again divide this amount
by the number of days in the year we receive for those, who
have to depend on the farm for their living, an average per
capita income of 26 cents per day ($94.9 divided by 365).
There are farm owners, part owners, cash tenants and share
tenants, while agricultural laborers in the strict meaning of
this word, which are just 0.77 per farm, receive an average
annual per capita, $83 ($64 divided by 0.77), and average per
capita income of 22.7 cents per day. Thus, it becomes ap-
parent beyond any dispute, that an average daily per capita
income of agricultural laborer of the United States is just

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 199

3.3 cents per day less than an average daily per capita share
of the American farmer and members of his family in the
total product, to say nothing of their daily net profit.

It must be remembered that this $582 or 26 cents per day
per capita is not the profit made from the average farm or
day's labor, but constitutes the value of the entire annual pro-
duction of the farm, just the portion of the product fed to
live stock and expenditure for hired labor and fertilizers hav-
ing been deducted therefrom. It includes that portion con-
sumed on the farm, as well as that portion sold. Out of this
amount the farmer must pay his taxes, insurance, interest,
the cost of seed, wear and tear of farm implements and re-
pairing of fences and buildings. All these items must be paid
out of the $582, before the farmer can have anything for him-
self and his family. The question then is, how much will the
average farmer and his family have for their own support
after paying all these items? As the profits in the most lucra-
tive industries do not exceed 50 per cent, of joint product,
then, assigning to the farmers of the United States even such
an immense proportion of the total product, we discover that
the average farming family of the country receives, at the
present, for their own support, an average income (net profit)
of $328 per year. Deducting 0.77 of agricultural laborer per
farm from 6.9 persons to each farm, we discover that the
average net income of farming family in the United States,
amounting, according to the most liberal estimate possible,
to $328 per year, must be divided among 6.13 persons to each
farm, what gives for the members of farming families of the
country an average net annual income of $53.50, i. e., $29.50
less than the same income of agricultural laborer or an aver-
age per capita net income of 14.6 cents per day, i. e., 8 cents
less than an average net daily income of agricultural laborer
of the country. With this miserable income, lower than the
income of the lowest industrial strata of the land, the farm-
ing family of this free country must secure food and clothing,
educate the children and pay incident expenses.

In report of the Industrial Commission on prison labor

emission's Reports, Vol. VTII), we find data relating to

tin- employment of prisoners during 1898 and 1899. Tn Ari-

200 THE THIRD POWER

zona the prisoners were worked by the Arizona Improvement
Company under contract system. The territory was to receive
compensation therefor at the rate of 70 cents per day per
man employed (p. 81 ) . In Connecticut, 240 prisoners were en-
gaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes at the rate of
50 cents per day per prisoner (p. 87). In Indiana, convicts
were worked under contracts as follows : 200 men at 40 cents
per day, 50 men at 42 cents per day and 130 men at 32% cents
per day (p. 91). In Kentucky, convicts were worked under
the lease system as follows : 650 men at the rate of 40 cents
per day per man and 400 men at 35 cents per day (p. 95).

Here we are confronted with the shocking and disgraceful
fact that the agricultural population of the United States is
compelled to live on an income much below that provided by
different states for their convicts.

The total expense of maintaining the United States Peni-
tentiary, at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, during the year ending
June 30, 1901, has been $160,316.88, and the daily average cost
per capita about 54 cents. The average daily per capita cost
of subsistence alone was about 11 cents (Annual Report of
the Attorney-General of the United States for the year 1901,
pp. 30, 31).

Here we are confronted again with the cold fact that daily
subsistence allowed by the United States to her convicts is
somewhat greater than the daily subsistence gained by the
American farmer and members of his family by their hardest
and most unceasing toil (14.6 cents per capita per day for
subsistence proper, clothing, education, etc.).

How, then, it came to this, that in these days of "unprece-
dented economic and commercial progress of the United
States," in this "midst of halcyon prosperity of the country,"
the average American farmer, the real producer of all these
"stupendous" and "tremendous" exports amazing the world,
in respect to his average daily income stands below the Amer-
ican convict if the census report is correct? Let us see.

The very first question of foremost importance which con-
fronts us in this connection is this : Is the American farmer
living upon the results of ownership of the land which he
tills or of his productive toil? Is he, in other words, receiv-

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 201

ing his income from his investment of capital or from his
labor? Almost every Agricultural Year Book, annually pub-
lished by the United States Department of Agriculture, in-
structs us that with improved agricultural machinery of to-
day, even not taking in computation the almost phenomenal
machinery of California wheat farms, the productive power
of the modern farmer is at least ten times greater than that
of the farmer of a few generations ago. Thus, if average an-
nual income of modern American farmer is $582, the income
of average farm in the United States 60 years ago should have
been just $58.20. But it is self-evident that solid comfort
of life of early American farmer could not be had for such
a trifle. Mere absurdity of the result reached by this calcu-
lation proves quite conclusively that the modern American
farmer does not receive all he produces, to say nothing of re-
ceiving more than he produces and if he does not receive more
than he produces this means that his income amounting to $582
a year derives, not from his investment of capital, but from
his labor, the hardest and the most productive toil on the face
of the earth.

This unavoidable conclusion has been reached already,
several years ago by a high authority on economic questions in
the United States. "By using all available statistics," says
Professor C. K. Walker, "it becomes evident again and again
that deducting rent and interest, the American farmer receives
less for his exertions than does the laborer in the factory or
the hired man on the farm." The consequence is, that the
American farmer of to-day is living largely on his accumu-
lated capital or the returns therefrom, and that this Capital is
so fixed that he can not utilize it for any other than its
present use without an "almost total loss (American Economic
Association Studies, 1897, p. 56). This conclusion finds its
further corroboration in our calculations exhibited above.
If the American farmer receives from his farm an average
per capita income of 26 cents per day and out of this amount
must pay the taxes, insurance, interest, the cost of seed, etc.,
so that no more than a per capita income of 10 cents per day
can be left for support of himself and his family, while his
hind help receives in his wages an average per capita in-

202 THE THIRD POWER

come of 22.7 cents per day, it becomes apparent in this partic-
ular case the workman receives more than his employer and
that the latter is simply his fellow co-worker, just with smaller
pay.

The most striking illustration of this social phenomenon
of free country we find in the most interesting and instructive
article by Charles B. Spahr, published about three years ago.
"When I asked this farmer," says Mr. Spahr, "why the large
farms were breaking up into small ones," he put the whole
case in a single picturesque phrase. 'There are,' he said, 'only
two sure crops in the country — ice and children, and the small
farmer has the children.' ' (The Outlook, November 4, 1899,
p. 566.) This means that the small farmer can successfully
compete with the large farms and even compete them out of
existence, simply because he employs the cheapest labor in the
land, resorts to incredible and unbearable toil of his wife and
babes, to which no hired man will ever submit. Yet, while
the conscience of the nation has been recently aroused against
female and child labor in workshops and factories, no one
ever mentions about the terrible lot of farmers' children and
his wife, who, according to the most reliable statistics, fur-
nishes the largest percentage to the American insane asylums.

How, then, it came to this that the American farmers, who
created the country and her institutions, once independent and
contented producers, became reduced to the state of real pro-
letarians of the land?

This is a long story and we will try to make it as short as
possible.

This is a well-known fact that agriculture of to-day greatly
differs from agriculture of several generations ago. While
it still embraces several, more or less different industries,
such as wheat raising, market gardening, poultry farming, bee
farming, stock raising, etc., these are just a comparatively
small part of all the industries, which constituted the agri-
culture of olden times. As soon as any branch of old, origi-
nal agriculture becomes subject to great mechanical improve-
ments, as soon as it has been touched by great industrial ad-
vance of our times, it is invariably taken from the farm and
transferred to the factory. Whenever any process in agri-

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 203

culture was greatly improved and performed with complex
labor-saving machinery, created by tremendous mechanical
progress of last century, it practically ceased to be a part of
agriculture. Thus, the agricultural industry of past genera-
tions has been divided and sub-divided into a great number
of processes, which practically became separate industries,
having been removed from all connections with the farm.

Carding, weaving, spinning, knitting, cloth making, skim-
ming (skimming stations), churning (creameries), butter
making, cheese making, cotton ginning, rice hulling, thresh-
ing, manufacture of agricultural implements, etc., all of these
have left the farm more or less long ago and are concentrated
in the factories. Beet sugar and meat packing industries rep-
resent especially a whole class of industries that grew up out
of olden, original agriculture.

Thus we see that universal law of economic evolution, the
law of differentiation and specialization with incident concen-
tration, affected also the field of agriculture. The farmer of
olden times, who was a general producer, whose income was
always in direct proportion with his exertions (unless af-
fected by natural calamities), has become to-day a specialist.
As a specialist he is working within one little and narrow
field, he is left to perform the most difficult and disagreeable
processes, he is producing for sale instead of creating the
wealth, as before, for his own benefit. To tell it shortly, the
farmer has actually become a part of the competitive system.
His customer is not some individual as heretofore desiring
some article to be created for his use, but the great, imper-
sonal, competitive world market. This fact of tremendous
importance is almost invariably overlooked, not only by the
farmer himself in reasoning about his own economic condi-
tion, but even by almost every writer discussing the problems
of agriculture.

The size of the market reached by each farm has grown
gradually and continually larger until the American farm,
some time ago, an almost isolated industrial unit, met face
to face with the world market. Just a few generations ago
the American farmer made everything he needed upon his
fwn farm and consequently cared nothing or little for what

204 THE THIRD POWER

the rest of the world might do. He produced for his own
use and had little need for intercourse with the remainder of
the world. Not so the American farmer of to-day, whose
butter is made at the creamery and cheese at the factory and
who never saw a suit of home-made clothes. He sells his
grain and his fruit in the market of the world ; he competes
there, not only with the agricultural producers of all sections
of his own country, but also with semi-tropical agricultural
workers of the Argentine Republic and India and the peasants
of South Russia. Therefore, droughts of South America,
rains of India and floods of Russia affect his condition as
much as similar occurrences in his own field.

Every year as methods of production are improved, stronger
grows the competition among agricultural producers all over
the globe. Bulky products, like hay, straw and so-called fod-
der in general are transformed into meat before being mar-
keted, and in this form their market becomes as extensive as
this of machinery or diamonds. Refrigerating system on
railroad and steamship lines with cold storage warehouses
have extended the market for once highly perishable products
of dairy and poultry farming nearly to the same limits. Once
new methods of transportation introduced, the cereals became
eternally flowing through the channels of commerce and a
few cents difference is sufficient to send them from one hemis-
phere to another.

This specialization of farming did not make, however, the
task of the modern farmer any easier as it did in all other
industries. To succeed in raising of many crops on modern,
specialized farm, he must possess the knowledge of the chem-
ical composition of the soil and of the system of fertilizing.
The modern processes of sowing, tending and harvesting are
comparatively very complex and to do them properly a modern
farmer must have an elaborate and expensive equipment of
complicated machines. The proper care of animals without
a knowledge of scientific system of feeding is simply impos-
sible. Truck farming and market gardening demand a knowl-
edge of scientific application of heat, sun-light and plant food
to growing plants. If the modern farmer has no knowledge
of composition of the soil and of fertilizing, he is in many

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 205

cases on the road to bankruptcy and foreclosure. If he does
not possess a knowledge of fundamental principles of me-
chanics, his expenses for repairs of machines will exceed all
his income. The ignorance of the system of feeding animals
will result in the cost of production being above the price
fixed for the finished product and ruin is his lot. If he at-
tempts after all to start truck farming or market gardening
without a knowledge of scientific application of heat, sunlight,
and plant food to growing plants, such an attempt in a very
short time will result in disastrous failure and irreparable
losses.

The marketing of his products is, however, for the modern
specialist farmer a much harder task yet than the production
itself. While he is absolutely dependent on the market, he has
practically no knowledge of modern methods or system of
marketing. It is a well-known fact of the competitive system
of our times that the success of every producer depends much
more on his ability to sell than on his knowledge of the pro-
cesses of production. In the field of modern American manu-
facture, which is undoubtedly in much more advanced stage of
development than modern American agriculture, the process
of sale of many articles is much more expensive than the
process of manufacturing the same. The former chiefly con-
sists of impetuous advertising and skilful manipulating of the
market. Thus the thing of foremost importance in modern
marketing is to know what one's competitors are doing. The
American manufacturer understands that perfectly, and what
concerns him mostly in transaction of his business, is to learn
in some way what his competitors are doing or intending to
do. Not so with the American farmer. Not only he does not
know what his competitors in some far away comer of the
globe are doing, but in most cases even does not care to know
what his neighbors are doing. Such a lack of knowledge of
conditions of the market and its probable future movements
puts the modern specialist farmer in the greatest disadvantage.
He must cither sell his crops to a local buyer, in which case
the latter only knows the facts essential to the making of a
bargain, "r to intrust them to the noble and tender mercies
of a commission man. Though such intrusting of the selling

206 THE THIRD POWER

of his products to the body of men he had never seen before
might be considered little short of insanity, it should be said
that in his present state of complete ignorance of modern
methods of marketing and lack of organization, he has no
other alternative, unless his crops are already sold in advance
to some mortgage holder.

It must be pointed out, however, that this is not a lack of
knowledge or rather complete ignorance of the best methods
of marketing alone that puts the American farmer in such a
great disadvantage in the world market, where he must com-
pete with the farmers of all producing countries. There is
another yet most powerful factor, which, being coupled with
the said lack of knowledge, not only compels the average
farmer to sell to the first bidder, which appears after the
harvest, but even makes such selling imperative. The mod-
ern average farmer of the United States, being absolutely de-
pendent on the market, lives from day to day under a constant
and terrible pressure for cash, and, therefore, can not afford
to hold his products for a better market. He can do that no
more and even less than the American wage-worker can wait
for his wages.

But here the modern farmer's troubles by no means end.
He may master perfectly all modern processes of agricultural
production, he may possess the knowledge of modern methods
of marketing, he may even own the land which he tills, he
may, year by year, raise the bountiful crops, but as long as
these are still on the farm, they are valueless. To make them
of any value he must transport them to the place where they
are wanted to satisfy human wants. Of course, he can not
transport them in the old way because, in the modern com-
petitive system of production, only the cheapest methods can
be used, where several methods are operating in the same
field. For this very reason, the old slow ox-team and hand-
carried bags have given place to the railroad, steamship and
elevator, with pneumatic transfer tubes that suck up a whole
ship-load in about the same time it took the farmer of olden
times to unload a wagon-box of wheat or corn with bags and
scoop shovel. But, while the ox-team belonged to him, the
railroad, the steamship and elevator belong to another party.

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 207

Therefore, when he comes to the owners of railroads, tele-
graphs, elevators, stock-yards, cold storage warehouses, etc.,
they charge him for their inevitable and indispensable serv-
ices as much as ''traffic will bear." Railway charges and ele-
vator tolls, combined with farm and machine mortgages,
swallow up almost all the value of his produce.

Where, however, the modern specialist farmer of the United
States is at the very tremendous and simply fatal disadvan-
tage, this is in the final disposal of his crops. When, after all,
he reaches the market, too often he finds there financial panics
and fluctuations of prices, which sweep away practically all
his possessions. Moreover, in the unhealthy structure of mod-
ern industry, founded on the wrong adjustment of production
and abnormal distribution of produce, a new species of pests
were bred, immeasurably more injurious to the welfare of the
American farmer than any pest known heretofore to his
forefathers. A special class of men came into existence in
this great competitive world market, who made it their busi-
ness to defy the natural basic principle of social economy
known as the law of demand and supply, and by misrepre-
sentations, misinformations and frauds of all kinds to filch
away from the farmer his produce. Speculators, grain deal-
ers, grain buyers, grain gamblers, grain brokers, tobacco buy-
ers, commission merchants, commission men, cotton factors,
cotton brokers and many, many others, whose name is legion,
stand between the agricultural producer of this free country
and the consumer of his products. The farmers are so nu-
merous, and the competition among them in disposal of their
products is so fierce, that they are inevitably at the mercy of
this numerous army of so-called middlemen immeasurably
more than any other class of producers, being practically com-
pelled to accept whatever price is offered. Moreover, the
middlemen buy from the farmers practically upon commis-
sion, and in this many not only make the latter sustain losses
by their false reports as to the prices received, by dishonesty
of their patrons and bad debts incident thereto, and by many
other causes, but practically compel helpless agricultural pro-
ducers of the country to supply the capital for their fraudulent
operations. Being isolated and often lacking capital as well as

2o8 THE THIRD POWER

organization, the American farmer is unable to reach the con-
sumers directly, and consequently is forced to a desperate
bargain.

It has been pointed out not only by some writers on mod-
ern economic problems, but also in some official reports, that
the latest tendency noticeable in the handling of agricultural
products (as well as manufactured commodities) is to elim-
inate the middlemen. This contention is the result of misun-
derstanding, pure and simple. While the middlemen of small
dimensions, like local grain buyers, are really disappearing,
their place is taken by middlemen of much larger and posi-
tively formidable dimensions like grain dealers' associations
and line elevator companies, into whose control about 98 per
cent, of cereals pass now on their way from the farmer's
hands to the primary market. This simply shows that the
process of capitalization and concentration of the American
agriculture in the department of distribution goes on and on,
and in this stage of modern American agriculture at least (as
well as in all manufacturing production), the big fish eat up
the little ones. That these new giant middlemen are infinitely
more able to exploit the agricultural producer and press him to
the wall than the small middlemen, now completely disappear-
ing, does not require any argument.

Thus in the field of modern, specialized American agricul-
ture, we are confronted with the complex and most remark-
able economic phenomenon. While in the stage of agricul-
tural production small producers seem to compete out of exist-
ence not only large farms, but even these immense "bonanza
farms," which are destined to disappear in not distant future;
in the stage of distribution of agricultural products we find
undoubtedly an immense capitalization and concentration of
agricultural industry. We dwell particularly on this point be-
cause the relation of American agricultural production to
American agricultural distribution constitutes a fundamental
and most important of all the elements and factors, which de-
termine the position of the American farmer in the modern
American commonwealth.

It is a well-known fact that millions of acres of the most
fertile lands in the United States lie still untouched, not only

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 209

by the plow, but also by surveyor's chain, awaiting the
time when adequate irrigation works can be constructed.
Breaking up of the old slave plantations in the South, which
has taken place since the Civil War, has increased the number
of small farms in the country very considerably. The opera-
tion of the well-known "Homestead Law" created again over
3,000,000 small farms. The immense grants of lands to rail-
roads and for the benefit of schools, now surpassing 750,000,000
acres, resulted again in the creation of several millions of
small farms, and even great "bonanza farms," which have had
their origin in the same stupendous grants, are gradually
breaking up into .thousands of small farms. So long as there
is in the world more land than is required to produce neces-
sary agricultural produce, the ownership of the land means
very little and conveys very little advantage. So long as the
ownership of the land can be obtained so easily as in the
United States and in the whole of America generally, this
ownership economically amounts to almost nothing. With im-
proved machinery and improved methods of agriculture, the
amount of land required for a given amount of product grows
continually less. With modern methods of intensive agricul-
tural production — approximately speaking — Texas alone could
supply the present world's demand for cotton, and the Amer-
ican "wheat belt" certainly could produce all the wheat neces-
sary to satisfy the wants of the population of the globe. If the
latter will ever become so increased as to require the entire
surface of the earth for support it is extremely doubtful, and
presents in our days the matter of merely theoretical interest
anyway. It seems, however, that a much larger portion of the
available land of the world is already under tillage, when cul-
tivated intensively, than will be required for the support of
any population that can appear for many generations. Mean-
while farm laborers in the United States become proportion-
ately scarcer and scarcer every hour. Every year, particularly
when harvesting season approaches, the farmers of the coun-
try, especially in the Central West, complain more and more
insistively that good farm hands are more and more difficult
secure. While the American farmer needs more and more
intelligent workmen, because the agricultural machinery be-

210 THE THIRD POWER

comes more and more complicated and demands a high intel-
ligence for its operation, the qualifications of agricultural
wage-earners in the United States are becoming lower and
lower. So it becomes self-evident that the share of land in
agricultural production of the country is extremely insig-
nificant and the item representing the ownership of the land
(interest on the capital invested in the total value of the re-
turns of agricultural industry of the United States) is infi-
nitely small. Thus the total value of agricultural production
of the country, which in 1899 amounted to $4,739,118,752, or
$826 per farm, represents almost exclusively the labor of the
American farmers (owners, half owners, share tenants and
cash tenants) performed by the farmer, his wife and his
babes, with entirely insignificant help of hired men (just 0.77
per farm in 1900), only "bonanza farms" excepted. This is
the very reason why the small farmer of this free country
competes out of existence the great "bonanza farms," which
are at present breaking up and gradually disappearing. By
virtue of eternal and incredible toil of himself and his family
in the fields, from sunrise to sunset of a long summer day, the
small American farmer performed the impossible economic
feat of eating up the big fish of American agriculture. This
feat puzzled all writers of his country on economics, and some
of them have even been driven to nervous prostration or to
convulsions.

According to the latest and most realiable official wage sta-
tistics, farm laborers of this country during the last decade of
the last century have never been working less than ten hours
a day (sixty hours per week), quite often twelve hours a day
(seventy-two hours per week), and in some instances fifteen
hours a day (ninety hours per week) (Fifteenth Annual Re-
port of the Commissioner of Labor, 1900, pp. 532-534). Now,
any one who knows anything about the American agriculture,
knows very well that farmers themselves and members of their
families, as a rule, work much longer hours than their "hired
men," hastily picked up from anywhere. Thus it appears that
cold and impartial eloquence of figures confirms our conclu-
sion, that the American farmer, his wife and his babes work
longer hours than any other working being in the land and

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 211

receive for their superhuman exertions the lowest pay known
to the world of toil.

As long as the American farmer and members of his fam-
ily are compelled to toil at least twelve hours on the average
day ; as long as his wife is overwhelmed by the work prac-
tically never done ; as long as his babes have to work from the
time that they are strong enough to walk — and are extremely
happy — if they are not kept out of school during planting,
harvesting, corn-husking and fruit pickings; as long as the or-
dinary farmer hires a man only during seed time and harvest,
just for three or four weeks altogether, it makes no essential
difference in the situation if he owns or rents a farm of three
acres, or three hundred acres, and if he hires annually a man
or one hundred men. There are thousands of hard workers in
this terrible sweating trade of the large cities of the United
States, who undertake much more work than they can per-
form by themselves, and to get through hire a few of their
fellow workers, more or less systematically, paying them out
of their own wages. Still such undertaking resulting in the
hiring of help does not turn them into employers or capitalists.
In the mining industry of this country there are also thou-
sands of workers who, possessing a great experience in the
trade, undertake the work on a much larger scale than they
can perform by themselves, and in order to perform it, period-
ically hire a few of their fellow workers, paying them out of
their own wages. But this does not turn them into any labor
employers, in the proper meaning of the word and capitalists
of any description. The more so with the farmers. They hire
a few men periodically for very short time altogether, paying
them, as we have shown already, higher wages than they get
themselves, to say nothing of their wives and children. The
returns of the last census show quite conclusively that the
average size of the farm in the United States is decreasing
(Reports of Twelfth Census, Vol. V, p. XXI), while in the
same time the tenancy is permanently growing. Here is the
table showing the growth of the tenancy in this country, com-
piled by us from two different tables relating to the subject,
which we find in the same Reports:

212

THE THIRD POWER

(Vol. V, p. LXXVII)

Year.

Total No.
Farmers.

Owners.

Cash Tenants.

Share Tenants.

1880....
1890....
1900

4,008,907
4,564,641
5,739,657

2,984,306 (74-5$)
3,269,728 (7i-65»)
3,7i3,37i (647M

322,357 ( 8. f)
454.659 (10.65*)
752,920 (13.15*)

702,244 (17.5$)

840,254 (18.4$)

1,273,366 (22.256)

Of S»739,6S7 farms in the United States June 1, 1900, there
have been of those under three acres in size, 41,882, or 7 per
cent. ; of three acres and under ten, 226,564, or 4 per cent. ; of
ten acres and under twenty, 407,012, or 7.1 per cent.; of twenty
acres and under fifty, 1,257,785, or 21.9 per cent. ; of fifty acres
and under 100, 1,366,167, or 23.8 per cent.; of 100 acres and
under 175, 1,422,328, or 24.8 per cent.; of 175 acres and under
260, 490,104, or 8.5 per cent.; of 260 acres and under 500, 377,-
992, or 6.6 per cent.; of 500 acres and under 1,000, 102,547, or
1.8 per cent.; and of 1,000 acres and over, 47,276, or 0.8 per
cent (Reports of Twelfth Census, Vol. V, pp. XLIII-LIII).
Thus the farms of fifty acres and under 100, and of 100 and
under 175, are predominating in this country very conspicu-
ously and, put together, constitute 48.6 per cent, of the total,
while farms exceeding 1,000 acres comprise just 0.8 per cent,
of the total (as reported by the division of agriculture).
"Bonanza farms" are gradually disappearing (Reports of
Twelfth Census, Vol. V, pp. XLIII-LIII), leaving the owners,
part owners, cash tenants and share tenants of medium sized
and small farms in full possession of the farming industry of
this country. So it is evident that by both the size, as well as
the source of his income, the farmer of the LTnited States in
the economic constitution of the country can not be classified
otherwise than a skilled laborer specialized in the agricultural
production. The only difference between the American
farmer and his "hired man" in this respect is this : the farmer
has a permanent job, while the latter enjoys a chance employ-
ment. This relation of the American farmer to his hired
laborer bears all essential features of relations of the skilled
laborer to the unskilled laborer in all other trades. It must
be remembered in this connection that a very large proportion

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 213

of hired agricultural laborers of the country is composed of
the tramps, outcasts of the large cities, and other representa-
tives of the lowest industrial strata of the modern American
commonwealth. This permanency of the farmer's job is, how-
ever, delusive to a considerable extent, as the uncertainty sur-
rounding agriculture, combined with fluctuations of prices,
threaten too often to sweep away all the results of his labor,
representing besides many other items the wages of himself,
his wife and his babes. Thus it can be seen quite clearly that
the farmers of the United States constitute one homogenous
body of skilled agricultural laborers, just of little different
calibre and consequently of little different economic standing.
This we find also in all other trades and industries of the
country. Their wages, however, as we have proven already,
are the lowest known to the world of labor and make them
real proletarians of the land.

Thus we see that on the productive side of American agri-
culture are grouped the workers exclusively and on its dis-
tributive side the capitalists exclusively, while the mortgage
holders constitute a particular class by themselves, which does
not belong either to the productive or distributive side of ag-
ricultural industry of the United States. They are invariably
bankers, stock-brokers and professional money-lenders, and
usually residents of a few of the largest cities of the country.

Turning our eyes to Europe, we find there a similar condi-
tion of agricultural industry and a similar grouping of con-
tending economic forces on its productive and distributive
sides. Everywhere, even in England, the classical and tradi-
tional realm of primogeniture and landlordism, large landed
estates are at present breaking up, much slower, of course,
than the American "bonanza farms," gradually dissolving in
small holdings passing into the hands of peasants and agricul-
tural laborers of various names. Thus the average size of
European farms is decreasing just the same as in the United
States, the number of small farms gradually increasing and
the army of tenants permanently growing. Tn a similar man-
ner the character of agricultural wage-workers of the Old
World is gradually deteriorating, while the agricultural in-
dustry there, just the same as in this country, demands mor;

214 THE THIRD POWER

and more intelligent and efficient workers. In order to secure
more or less permanent and efficient agricultural labor the
owners of great landed estates enter with the agricultural
wage-workers and farmers of adjoining localities into special
agreements, therein granting to them special privileges and
particular inducements. In this way lack of the labor power
on the great landed estates of Europe has resulted in the grow-
ing of especial productive agricultural units combining the
features of agricultural trusts with those of agricultural labor
unions. These agricultural combinations of Europe, however,
even with the addition to them of American "bonanza farms"
existing as yet, constitute relatively such a small percentage
of all the productive agricultural forces of the civilized coun-
tries of the world, i. e., of all these countries which passed
already the primordial stage of production by individual farm-
ers for their own use only, that agriculturists of all the civ-
ilized world practically constitute a homogenous body of agri-
cultural producers. The slight admixture to this body of
"bonanza farms" of the United States, now gradually disap-
pearing, and of the above mentioned new productive agricul-
tural units of Europe, combining the features of an agricul-
tural trust with those of agricultural labor union, does not
change a bit the character of the said body of agricultural
producers all over the civilized world as agricultural laborers
producing all the salable food-stuffs for the world's consump-
tion. Therefore, the interests of agricultural producers all
around the civilized world, American "bonanza farms" and
European landowners not excepted, are absolutely identical.
These interests, being exclusively concentrated on the pro-
ductive side of the agricultural industry of all civilized coun-
tries in its entity, are opposed by similarly identical interests
of an immense army of agricultural middlemen of the newest
type. Among them the railroad and elevator companies are
representatives of comparative honesty and leniency for the
producers. The immense army of non-producers, concen-
trated, also exclusively, on the distributive side of the indus-
try, especially in the persons of produce gamblers, produce
brokers, produce commission men, produce commission mer-
chants, produce stock gamblers and produce stock brokers,

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 215

invariably succeed to filch away from the farmer his produce
and deprive him almost entirely of the results of his labors.

While in this country, as well as in all other civilized coun-
tries, t. i., the countries which have entered already the stage
of competitive agricultural production, nature yields her
bounty to the producer in direct proportion to his efforts, but
social relations rob him of nearly all he creates, while in other
words, the army of non-producers arrayed on the distributive
side of agricultural industry by virtue of their ownership of
means of distribution, and particularly and especially by crim-
inal manipulations of the produce market, daily commit an
open and outrageous highway robbery on the farmer all over
the world, while the American farmer, as well as the farmer
of all civilized countries, just the infinitesimal percentage of
"bonanza farms" and great European landowners excepted,
have become practically reduced to the status of proletarians of
the lands, hereby the economic outrage perpetrated on the
farmer of modern civilized world by modern social conditions,
by no means ends. Under the present system the producers of
agricultural products in the United States must foot the entire
cost of production, which, at a conservative estimate, must
foot up to two billions dollars ($2,000,000,000) a year. If the
agricultural producer of the country sells his wheat at a dollar
per bushel and pays five dollars for a suit of clothes, the latter
costs him five bushels of wheat, but when the protective tariff
raises the price of the same suit of clothes to ten dollars, the
latter costs the farmer already ten bushels of wheat instead
of five bushels, as before. Thus the price of the suit has been
raised for the farmer simply by the governmental action (the
Tariff Act) irrespectively of its intrinsic value. In this way
the protective tariff works in the United States all along the
line, raising the cost of manufactured products averagely by
80 per cent., and thus practically reducing the proletarian in-
come 1 if the average farmer just to 20 per cent, of its nominal
size. In this way it came to pass that in the case of the Amer-
ican farmer the question of the price for his produce is not
even the question of absolute quantity of money, received by
him for ti , but simply In qu lion of a proper pro-

portion. Similar is the conditi • of the farmer in all agricul-

216 THE THIRD POWER

tural surplus producing countries. It is very remarkable in
this respect that the two leading agricultural countries of the
globe — United States and Russia — which practically are the
granaries of the world, possess the most atrocious protective
tariffs on the face of the earth, thus putting all the burdens
of fostering manufactures of the countries on the shoulders
of their agricultural producers.

Therefore the amelioration of the condition of the Amer-
ican farmer lies undoubtedly in the same direction as the
amelioration of the condition of the farmers of all civilized
countries the world over. The American farmer being just a
part of all the creators of agricultural wealth of the civilized
world, his interests being identical with and just a part of the
interests of all the agricultural producers of the globe, rem-
edies for his wrongs must necessarily and inevitably be the
same as those for wrongs of the farmers of all the civilized
world. In order to find out the means of relief from social
oppression and economic exploitation for the American farmer
(as well as for the farmer of all the civilized countries) we
have evidently to seek out the laws of economic advance, in-
dustrial growth and social evolution, because all the measures
to accomplish all these high and just aims, if taken in opposi-
tion to the direction of social evolution and economic ad-
vance would inevitably prove abortive and disastrous. The
history of all previous efforts at bringing relief to the farmers
from social oppression and economic exploitation, ever made
in the United States, as well as in various foreign countries
(which history is outside of the province of our short sketch
on the subject), is highly eloquent and sufficiently instructive
in this respect. Thus the laws of modern economic and social
evolution are to be defined at first.

It does not require a particularly strong intellect or very
keen power of observation to see that modern state of society
all around the world is a state of universal war, political as
well as economic, war of different political and economic
classes within the separate states as well as between the states
themselves, with complete anarchy and undescribable horrors
incident thereto.

This universal economic war and inevitable anarchy, result-

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 217

ing therefrom, constitute what is usually called "free compe-
tition." Fierce and bloody struggle on the economic field of
the world of hundreds of thousands and millions of compet-
itors naturally results in killing off and driving out of busi-
ness an overwhelming majority of them. In modern indus-
tries (except agriculture) the advantages of large scale pro-
duction are so great that the smaller establishments must in-
evitably and continually fail in "free competition," and in
course of time these industries must of necessity be concen-
trated in a very small number of very large establishments.
Then the owners of these surviving establishments agree to
put a stop to the process by suspending competition. Thus the
trusts are the natural outgrowth of modern industrial condi-
tions. They do not owe their existence to any legislative de-
vice and consequcnly can not be prevented by the same. They
are as far beyond legislative control as the procession of the
seasons of the year. The mere concentration of industry in
a few large establishments does not constitute, however, the
trust; it only creates conditions favorable to the formation of
a trust. The trust is formed only when some sort of an agree-
ment is entered into by surviving competitors whereby com-
petition among themselves is suspended. In its original stage
it was a mere agreement relating to prices and output. It
passed through several stages until finally the typical trust is
a single huge corporation which has absorbed a number of
competing corporations. Thus in its original stage the trust
was not a factor of concentration, but a means to prevent still
further concentration. There is always a strong probability
that the same conditions which destroyed a large number of
small competitors, leaving only a few large ones in the field,
would continue until all but one should succumb, leaving only
a single surviving concern in complete and absolute posses-
sion of the field. In order to suspend these conditions and
prevent this form of concentration the Compact is entered into.
It is a sort of agreement relating to the cessation of industrial
lities, a measure for preserving the balance of industrial
power, a kind of industrial di -armament. These compacts
could not, hi , prevent still further concentration tend-

ing to exterminate all competitors but one, leaving only a

2i8 THE THIRD POWER

single surviving establishment in the field of each industry,
but they resulted in changing the methods of concentration
from the extermination of competitors to the peaceful absorp-
tion of the same. Thus the compacts, constituting the original
form of trusts, finally resulted in the benefits for the surviving
competitors, saving them from the horrors of a life-and-death
struggle and inevitable extermination.

The stage of political development, through which the world
is passing, is absolutely identical with the stage of modern
economic development. The proposals of disarmament in the
field of international politics are identical with the suspension
of competition among a few large competitors in the industrial
field. As the sheer dread of a struggle between any of the
great military powers of to-day is sufficient to create a general
anxiety for some other means of settling international dis-
putes, similarly the sheer dread of a life-and-death struggle
among a few huge competitors in the industrial field, involv-
ing the loss of millions, is sufficient to inspire all those directly
concerned with an anxiety for a peaceful settlement. As the
disarmament or suspension of hostilities among the members
of the trust threatens more the existence of small competi-
tors, remaining outside of the trust, so the very existence of
the small states never hung by so slender a thread as in these
days of peace congresses and proposal for disarmament. The
fact that the sentiment against the war among the great pow-
ers is so strong renders war among them much more improb-
able than ever before. As the formation of an agreement,
whereby the competition was suspended among a few gigantic
producers in certain industries, was for the purpose of pre-
venting still further concentration, so in the field of interna-
tional politics general disarmament is intended to prevent still
further political concentration. As such still further indus-
trial concentration could not be prevented, but its methods
changed from the extermination of competitors to the peace-
ful absorption of the same, so in the field of international pol-
itics still further political concentration could not be prevented
by the movement in favor of general disarmament, but the
methods of such concentration changed from the process of
military conquest to the process of "benevolent assimilation,"

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 219

The process of economic concentration did not leave, of
course, the field of agriculture untouched, though, as we have
shown already, in this field it took a form somewhat different
from that, into which it developed in the field of manufactur-
ing industries. The reasons for such a difference are mani-
fold and more or less obvious as in agricultural industry the
limit, beyond which further enlargement of scale of produc-
tion ceased to be advantageous, has been reached long before
the number of competitors was reduced to a few, and agri-
cultural trust in its essentials identical with a manufacturing
trust became unnatural and therefore impossible. A large
farm may have certain advantages over a small farm, but the
limit, beyond which large scale farming can not be profitably
carried, is soon reached. It would therefore be impossible for
larger farmers to continue crowding out the smaller ones
until the whole market for agricultural products could be sup-
plied from a few enormous farms. This is one of the reasons
that an agricultural trust, essentially identical with a manu-
facturing trust, has become impossible. Another almost equally
important reason for this is the universal lack of agricultural
labor in all civilized countries and marked deterioration of its
character. Nevertheless, in spite of this important difference
of processes and forms of concentration in agriculture and
manufactures, another essential feature of such concentration
in both fields are identical. On the productive side of agricul-
ture we find a continually increasing application of capital
(machinery, etc.) and labor to any given area of ground,
which makes a final transition from an extensive to an inten-
sive method of cultivation. This is the same process which
takes place in all industries. On the distributive side of ag-
riculture we find a continually increasing control of the industry
by a few other industries, namely: coal production, iron pro-
duction, power transmission and transportation. This is also
tin process which is common to all industries of our times.

Having considered all essential features of evolution of ag-
ricultural industry as compared with those of manufactures,
one can not fail to see thai, while the stage of development,
through which all the industries (except agriculture) are now
pa im',, presents ;; fierce and bloody war between immense

220 THE THIRD POWER

industrial armies concentrated in a few points of industrial
field, inevitably leading to the proposals for disarmament in
the form of agreements to suspend the competition and to the
changing of methods of industrial concentration, the modern
stage of development of agricultural industry presents an un-
ceasing, persistent and exhaustive guerrilla warfare between
millions of small guerrilla bands scattered all around the agri-
cultural field of the civilized world, the bands, which never
thought as yet not only of disarmament, but even of armistice.
This state of not belonging to one of the immense industrial
armies of our times, but of conducting the exhaustive guerrilla
warfare in the agricultural field in a small band, msually con-
sisting of the members of his family with an occasionally hired
helper, is the very independence, of which the American farmer
so thoughtlessly and so ignorantly boasts.

Having thus defined the laws of modern social and economic
evolution, we can see without any difficulty the lines along
which the amelioration of the condition of the American
farmer can be accomplished and must be conducted. In all
civilized countries, i. e., the countries which have already
emerged out of the stage of agricultural production by indi-
vidual farmers for their own use only and entered the stage
of production by them for sale, the agricultural industry pre-
sents a state of a stupendous and monstrous guerrilla warfare
of millions of small farming bands with indescribable eco-
nomic anarchy incident thereto, usually miscalled "free com-
petition." The same as there are no means to humanize the
war and alieviate its horrors because the atrocity, brutality
and ferocity can not be humanized, there are no means also
to humanize this heinous economic guerrilla war between the
agricultural producers all over the world. As long as war,
either political or economic, exists there always will be some
killed and disabled for life, to say nothing about its terrible
demoralizing and degrading influence on the future genera-
tions. The only means to humanize the war, either political
or economic, is to abolish it altogether. Thus, this guerrilla
warfare between the farmers of all civilized countries must
be stopped at once. Prices of all agricultural products as
well as their outputs must be defined and regulated since by

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 221

international agreements of their producers. As international
surplus of each agricultural product, composed of separate
national surpluses of the same,' exported by different pro-
ducing countries, in its grand total is a paramount, if not only,
factor in establishing prices for the product, these international
agreements of agricultural producers of the world shall have
relation just to prices and outputs of export agricultural
products. They will be sufficient to bring the agricultural
industry of all the civilized world out of the present state of
self-destructive competition and economic anarchy to the
harmony of socialized and intelligently organized cooperative
production and distribution, securing to the farmers of all
civilized countries a fair and profitable price for their pro-
ducts. If these international agreements of agricultural pro-
ducers would be international agricultural trusts, then let us
have international agricultural trusts. It must be pointed out
right here that the evolution from anarchy of competition
to trust stage in any industry represents a social and economic
advance of tremendous importance and far-reaching results.
It is an universal and immutable biological law, running
through all forms of life, economic realm not excepted, that
that form of it becomes the fittest for existence and destined
to survive, which first succeeds in eliminating waste. Ac-
cordingly, in the economic field, as soon as a certain form of
waste has been abolished and a new method of accomplish-
ing the same result with less energy substituted, the old
wasteful method is thereby abolished and never can be re-
vived. The most remarkable growth of trusts in the United
States since the panic of 1894- 1895 is but a decisive step in
the direction of elimination of waste and improvement of pro-
duction. In the modern state of industrial anarchy, known
under the name of "free competition," plants, machinery and
processes are quadrupled, and production is entirely unregu-
lated so that natural resources, mechanical power and human
facilities are destroyed in the most reckless manner, in efforts
of different firms to undersell each other and drive all the
competitors out of existence. The trust brings order into
this industrial and economic chaos, and in this respect it is
undoubtedly and undeniably a factor of great economic and

222 THE THIRD POWER

social progress. But, as in agricultural industry of the civil-
ized world, all its iniquities and evils are concentrated ex-
clusively on the distributive side, similarly in this new trust
movement all evils and iniquities of the latter are concentrated
on its subjective side. Being perfectly right, inevitable and
beneficial in their object, which is the improvement in pro-
duction, the trusts are monstrously wrong and harmful in
their subject, i. e., as to the character of their present owner-
ship. While trust is to industry as a whole what the machine
is to the single establishment, — a means of saving time and
productive power, the fact of their ownership being concen-
trated in a fciv hands, turns them into the instruments of in-
dustrial exploitation and economic enslavement of all pro-
ducers of wealth. But just broaden their subject, just let all
the people participate in their ownership, and all their evils
will be transformed into the greatest benefits for the masses.
As any attempt to oppose the economic and social advance
represented by the trust movement, while being practically an
attempt to move backward into the anarchy of the old com-
petitive system, would be necessarily and inevitably abortive,
if not disastrous, the only problem which confronts the
human society in the trust issue is not, how to abolish or
even hamper and restrict them, but how to use them for the
benefit of all the people. The fate of anti-trust legislation in
the United States is highly demonstrative and sufficiently in-
structive in this respect. Introduction and growth of profit-
sharing and arbitration principles in the trust movement in
the United States as well as in other manufacturing coun-
tries, especially in England, is exactly the principal move-
ment in the direction of broadening the subjective side of the
trust system, which is destined to transform them into eco-
nomic and social factors, highly beneficial for the masses.
As human society is not merely a mechanical conglomerate
of individuals and represents some organic whole, and as,
furthermore, it always develops as a whole, in one direction
at a time only, the agricultural trusts seem to be bound to
come. However peculiar conditions of agriculture in all
civilized countries, which preclude its being concentrated in
a few hands and render such a concentration impossible, are

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 223

necessarily and inevitably tending to eliminate all objection-
able features of manufacturing trusts from these coming
agricultural trusts in their very inception. Therefore, if any
agricultural trusts will ever come, they can not be anything
else but organizations highly beneficial for all agricultural
producers as well as for the human society in its entirety.
The same social and economic conditions, which have created
national trusts, will undoubtedly create international ones —
manufacturing as well as agricultural — if the latter are bound
to come at all, what seems to be certain. Thus, if interna-
tional agreements of agricultural producers relating to prices
and outputs of each exported agricultural product, now be-
ing suggested by us, even would be international agricultural
trusts, our suggestion would be just in the strictest accord
with direction of economic development and industrial growth
of modern society and undoubtedly would be bound to pro-
duce the greatest benefits for agricultural producers of all
the civilized countries as well as for all mankind in general.

Nevertheless, international organizations of producers of ex-
ported agricultural products, now first time being suggested
by us, would not be and can not be trusts. We have proven
already beyond any dispute that the American farmer is
simply a skilled agricultural laborer and that the price he re-
ceives for his produce represents merely his wages. There-
fore, United States branches of these international agricul-
tural organizations would be undoubtedly just agricultural
labor unions. Identical with this in the United States is
the condition of agriculture on all the American continent,
and thus all American branches of the said international agri-
cultural organizations would be simply agricultural labor
unions. Very similar with the condition of agriculture in all
the American countries is the condition of the same in all
the civilized countries of the old world. Great landed es-
tates of Europe, now of necessity combining the features of
agricultural trusts with essential features of agricultural labor
unions, represent relatively such a small percentage of all
productive agricultural forces of the old world that they can
not change a bit the character of European agricultural pro-
ducers as simply skilled agricultural laborers. Therefore, in-

224 THE THIRD POWER

ternational organizations of producers of exported agricul-
tural products, now first time being suggested by us, a new-
est and only means for amelioration of the condition of the
farmer all over the civilized world, beyond any dispute, will
be just international agricultural labor unions. Thus, we
venture to call out so loudly that all the world could hear :
"Farmers of all countries, great landowners attending to your
business on your estates not excepted, unite : this is the only
way to beat the wolf of speculator and price manipulator, suck-
ing your blood, off your back !"

Now from the exposition of economic principles of inter-
national consolidation of agricultural interests of all civil-
ized countries, we have to turn to the practical side of the
case.

The transition from the present competitive system in agri-
cultural industry of the civilized countries to the new cooper-
ative one, now first time being suggested by us, as a newest
and only means for raising most miserable income of the
farmer all over the civilized world, and for the general ameli-
oration of his present pitiful condition, in order to be effective
and able to bring about desired results, must be accomplished
fully and thoroughly. It would be of course a very great
step toward such amelioration for the farmers of all surplus
producing countries to enter into international agreements
relating to prices and outputs of exported agricultural prod-
ucts, but this would not be enough. Before all, and above
all, they ought to be able to maintain the prices agreed
upon between themselves by the said international agreement
on their national as well as local markets. Otherwise the
transition from the competitive to the cooperative system in
the agriculture of the world would be just merely a nominal
one, without any practical significance whatsoever.

In the field of agriculture cooperation, in full meaning of
the word, found as yet so limited application and its results
in the modern hostile environment have been so sporadic and
so uncertain that a wild confusion in respect to this com-
paratively new principle of social economy in its application
to agriculture prevails, not only in the minds of ordinary
mortals, but even in the intellects of political economists and

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 225

writers on agricultural economics. Therefore, a few explana-
tions of this economic principle as applied to the field of
agriculture, would be, not only appropriate, but even nec-
essary.
There are three kinds of cooperation in agriculture, namely :

(1) Cooperation in agricultural production,

(2) Cooperation in direct purchasing by the agricultural
producers of the articles desired by themselves and members
of their families, and

(3) Cooperation in distribution of agricultural products,
t. i., in the marketing of the same.

Of these three kinds, or rather phases of agricultural co-
operation, the first has been tried the most, and consequently
is known the best. The greatest majority of cooperative
communities, established in the United States in the second
part of the last century have been representatives of coopera-
tion in agricultural production. As long, however, as modern
system of distribution of agricultural products exists, as long
as by organized forces of exploitation, concentrated on dis-
tributive side of agricultural industry, the agricultural pro-
ducer is deprived of almost all results of his labor and
driven invariably and inevitably to the point of mere sub-
sistence, no improvement in agricultural production, coopera-
tion in the same not excepted, can ameliorate the condition
of the farmer of the civilized world. This is the very cause
of the failure of almost all cooperative communities, usually
established by the most enlightened and progressive thinkers
of the age, in the United States as well as in the old world.
No matter how much increases the agricultural production,
almost nothing of this is left to the producer by the vicious
and criminal system of modern agricultural distribution.

Cooperation in direct purchasing by the agricultural pro-
ducers of articles desired by themselves and members of their
families, entirely eliminating middlemen of all kinds and
criptions, constituted the first aim, and paramount object
of existence and activity of the National Grange. It is known
that in 1876, the Grangers owned five steamboat lines, thirty-
two elevators, and twenty-two warehouses. Of all these very

tensive financial and commercial transactions of the Grange

226 THE THIRD POWER

only mutual insurance companies and cooperative stores sur-
vived the wreck of 1879, and their only result is, at present,
a very large mail order house, known as the "Original Grange
Supply House." This kind, or rather phase of agricultural
cooperation, entirely eliminating middlemen of all sorts and
descriptions from the dealings of the farmer with the pro-
ducers of other products, reduces the prices of all the articles
wanted by himself and members of his family, to a certain
extent and in this way increases purchasing capacity of his
miserable income. Thus can be said of this phase of coopera-
tion in agricultural industry, that it indirectly increases the
income of the farmer. Nevertheless, as long as prices on his
own products are fixed in the most arbitrary, oppressive and
highway robbery manner by the forces and factors of exploita-
tion, concentrated exclusively on distributive side of the in-
dustry, such an indirect increase of his income, always in-
definite and uncertain, occasional and necessarily temporary,
can not seriously affect his deplorable condition and bring
to him more or less noticable relief. The fate of the Grange
represents the most eloquent and unanswerable argument in
this respect.

Turning to the third and last phase of cooperation in agri-
culture, t. i., cooperation in marketing of agricultural prod-
ucts, it should be said this kind of agricultural cooperation
is a thing entirely unknown as yet to the modern industrial
and commercial world. It would be then an entirely new
machine put to work in the huge structure of modern agri-
cultural industry. This cooperation in marketing of agri-
cultural products by the farmers should consist of their social-
ized, concerted and coordinated efforts to sell their products
intelligently, with precise knowledge of the condition of
markets — local and national as well as international ones.
While the present competitive system of marketing of agri-
cultural products represents simply the blind throwing of
them on the next market in uncertain quantities, and at in-
definite, mostly inopportune times, so that they must take
their chances in finding there any purchaser at any price, the
new cooperative system of marketing of these products,
founded on the precise knowledge of the condition of the

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 227

market, would represent the intelligent, methodical throwing
of agricultural products on certain market in certain quantities
and at definite times, so that, with relation of supply to de-
mand being discounted, they would certainly find their pur-
chasers at certain, established price. Thus, by the cooperative
system of marketing, only the above mentioned international
agreements of agricultural producers as to prices for their
products can be realized, and thereby their present miserable
income raised, what would mean a genuine improvement in
their pitiful condition. It appears, therefore, that in agri-
cultural industry of our times the cooperative system of mar-
keting is really a whole thing, while all others, its factors
and conditions, are indisputably just secondary and subordi-
nate ones. So, according to the new cooperative system of
agricultural industry now suggested by us, or rather to the
cooperative system of agriculture in its full meaning and
complete application, prices of all agricultural products shall
be established on the ground: (1) of relation of the world's
production of the product to the world's demand for the
product, and, (2) of costs of its production, with a fair profit
added. As of these two factors, which shall determine the
price of each agricultural product in the coming Cooperative
Agricultural Commonwealth of the World, the first, t. i., rela-
tion of production to demand, is entirely a natural one, and
the second, t. i., costs of production with a fair profit added,
just as much an artificial one as affected by protective tariff,
the price thus determined and established will not be fixed
arbitrarily for the consumers. On the contrary, as the new
cooperative price for all agricultural products shall be deter-
mined and established in such a way that the present huge
profits of enormous parasitic army of middlemen shall be
equitably regulated, this price naturally will be not only profit-
able to both — producer and consumer — but also relatively
lower than the old competitive one.

As the modern competitive system of agricultural industry
is an international one in its foundation and its character,
the new cooperative system of the industry, in order to elimi-
nate and entirely supplant the former, necessarily and in-
evitably must be an international one also. It is self-evident

228 THE THIRD POWER

that in order to possess a sufficient knowledge of the con-
dition of markets — local and national as well as international
ones — and to obtain timely information ot the prices, fixed
for each of them by the said international agreements,
the farmers of the civilized world must have an inter-
national organization. Of course the price of any prod-
uct on local and national markets will be a price established
by international agreements of its producers mentioned above
for international markets, with costs of transportation de-
ducted therefrom. It does not require of any argument that
in modern social condition of humanity divided in different
political nations, which live under different political systems,
speak different languages, have different laws regulating com-
merce and industry and possess different commercial cus-
toms and usages, national organizations of agricultural pro-
ducers shall be established at first. Such establishment of
national organizations of agricultural producers in all produc-
ing, and especially surplus producing countries, is of course,
a necessary prerequisite of creation of an international agri-
cultural organization embracing all the agriculturists of the
civilized world. There are existing at present, some agri-
cultural organizations in different countries of the old, as
well as of the new world, but all these organizations are
merely local in their character or, if more than local in their
scope, then limited just to a certain branch of agricultural
production, such as grain growing, cattle raising, truck farm-
ing, etc. Gradual fusion of all these local and special organi-
zations of agriculturists of each producing country in a
single agricultural organization of broadest national scope is
just the question of time. Though agriculture in its modern
stage is but a general name for a large number of more or
less different industries, all of these industries have closest
connection with the soil and are therefore considerably inter-
dependent. Moreover, many farmers in all civilized countries
produce many different agricultural products at the same
time and not only resort quite often to crop-rotation of more
than three fields, but even turn their energies from one branch
of agriculture to another of quite different nature, as from
crop raising to cattle breeding, from market gardening to

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 229

bee farming, etc. Therefore, all these local and special agri-
cultural organizations of different producing countries will
naturally become united in national agricultural organizations,
which thus will represent all agricultural interests of each
producing country. For the same reasons the fusion of all
these national agricultural organizations of all the civilized
countries of the world in one international agricultural organ-
ization in the course of time will be, not only natural, but
inevitable. This international agricultural organization, which
shall embrace all agricultural producers of the civilized world,
will be the very representative of all agricultural interests of
the globe, which shall name the prices of all agricultural prod-
ucts on the international markets.

Of course, the agricultural millennium, when every farmer
of every civilized country would belong to its national agri-
cultural organization and through the latter to the interna-
tional agricultural organization, which, through its repre-
sentatives, shall name the prices for all agricultural products^
is far off. However, in order to raise the miserable income of
the farmer in all civilized countries and thus ameliorate his
present pitiful condition it is not necessary at all to wait so
long. As in division and organization of political forces of
every civilized country a comparatively small body of men
holds usually the balance of political power and thereby keeps
political destinies of the country in their hands, in the same
manner among many economic factors and forces, which
create prices for all agricultural products in every civilized
country, a comparatively small body of agricultural producers
holds the balance of economic power to influence and es-
tablish these prices and thus keeps economic destinies of the
country in their hands. This is a relatively small body of
agricultural producers, which are able to hold their products,
representing the temporary surpluses as under the old system,
for a better market. This is an indisputable fact that such a
body exists in every producing country. Here undoubtedly
lies the key for the preliminary solution of the most tremen-
dous economic problem of the age, called the amelioration
of the condition of the farmer. Tt is apparent that thus far
this is the only key. If in every producing country, nay, in

230 THE THIRD POWER

every surplus producing country, only a part of the fanners,
which are able to hold their produce for a better market,
could be united in national organizations, or have the exist-
ing local and special agricultural organizations united into
the national ones along the lines of modern, intelligent, scien-
tific marketing, the modern agricultural problem would be
already almost solved. As soon as so frequent temporary
over-supply of agricultural markets, inevitably caused by the
existing antiquated, blind and vicious system of marketing
of agricultural produce, by the new system of intelligent and
concerted marketing, even partially applied, will be eliminated
and made impossible, the amelioration of the condition of the
farmer will be already almost attained. The fusion of the
said agricultural organizations of this new type of just a
few surplus producing countries, or even just simply their in-
telligent and concerted action on the international markets
for agricultural products, would be already a long step toward
a final, stable and permanent solution of the tremendous
agricultural problem of the age.

As the evolution of modern society is steadily and invaria-
bly tending toward the substitution of the new cooperative
system in all industries for the old competitive one, and agri-
culture, as we have shown already before, makes no excep-
tion of this general law of modern and social and economic
evolution, it would be abnormal and very strange indeed, if
even in such a foremost agricultural country as the United
States there would not appear some men, which are able to
understand the spirit of the time and to grasp the modern
agricultural situation. Most fortunately for the American
farmer as well as for the farmers of all the civilized coun-
tries, the initiative in such a great movement, emanating from
the spirit of the times, is already taken and exactly in this
country.

The American Society of Equity of North America, first na-
tional organization of the American farmers in proper meaning
of this word, was organized in Indianapolis, Ind., last De-
cember and has already over 60,000 members in all parts of the
country. The chief and paramount object of the American So-
ciety of Equity is to obtain profitable prices for all farm prod-

INTERNATIONAL CONSOLIDATION 231

ucts, including grain, fruit, vegetables, stock, cotton, wool, etc.,
by introducing and establishing of modem methods of mar-
keting of all agricultural products. As competitive system of
modern agricultural production and distribution embraces all
the countries, producing national surpluses of each agricul-
tural product, in their grand total composing an international
marketable surplus of the same, the chief and paramount ob-
ject of the American Society of Equity may not be fully ac-
complished without the cooperation of farmers of all other
surplus producing countries. Thus, to the cooperation of the
American farmers in marketing their produce, which con-
stitutes the basis of the American Society of Equity, the
cooperation of the farmers of all other surplus producing
countries in the same direction should be added. Fully realiz-
ing this fundamental principle of its activity and this neces-
sary condition to insure the success of the latter, the Amer-
ican Society of Equity, first time in the history of the United
States, has made arrangements for the establishment of
similar societies in all leading surplus producing countries.
These preparatory arrangements met with universal approval
and support of prominent agriculturists as well as of states-
men of leading European countries. This shows quite de-
cisively that if in this hour of extreme peril the American
farmers would become aroused to exigencies of the situation,
and would be prompt enough to join the ranks of their
national organization in proper meaning of the word, which
represents, undoubtedly, the embryo of the first and most
powerful international agricultural organization of the world,
they will become, very soon, powerful enough to drive the
economic anarchy, so strenuously and so harmoniously de-
fended and supported by capitalistic as well as the anarchistic
press of the country, out of economic and commercial sys-
tem of the United States.

Great movements are not born to die in infancy. When the
spirit of the times finds its expression in social evolution and
becomes incarnated into social organizations they are des-
tined to growth and development. Therefore, the organiza-
tion of the societies of equity in leading agricultural coun-
of the world is just the question of the time. Meanwhile

232 THE THIRD POWER

the American Society of Equity of North America would natu-
rally and inevitably assume at present all the work toward the
real amelioration of the condition of the farmer all the world
over and promotion of only means of his salvation. Honor
to the country where such a grand movement emanates from,
honor to the men, which became incarnation of the spirit of
the times. Thus, reversing the old, antiquated saying, which
from beginning of the times was always a lie as to the social
world, we will exclaim: "ex occidente lux!"

Agriculture is the foundation of all the industries of all the
countries, and the farmers constitute the most numerous social
and economic class in the world. Therefore, as soon as the
societies of equity will have been established in leading agri-
cultural countries of the globe, even only in surplus produc-
ing countries and will have taken a concerted action toward
the introduction of the cooperative system into distribution
of agricultural products, industrial slaughter and economic
anarchy will cease, and industrial peace will come at last down
to the earth.

Then, and then only, the long fight of man with man will be
sunk in a cooperation of all mankind in a common effort to
gain from Mother Nature all possible blessings for the benefit
of all.

As in this short sketch, on the subject of the most compli-
cated nature and the most tremendous importance, we have
entered an entirely new field of social and economic thought,
and had no single beaten path to follow, we earnestly hope
that our errors and shortcomings will be leniently overlooked
by our readers.

THIRD PART

233

The emblem of the American Society of Equity is symbolical of Price, being
on an equality with Production and Consumption.

234

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY.

A Plan for Cooperation by Farmers to Secure Profitable
Prices for all Farm Products.

"Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take
for granted, but to weigh and consider." — Bacon.

The machine must not belittle the engine that drives it, nor
the engine the steam that propels it. Oftentimes as people
look at the machines and note the great work they are doing,
they do not think of the steam away back, which makes the
machine useful. The farmer furnishes the steam for all the
business in the country. He sows, he tills, he harvests, but
if he would stop there the business of the country would be
crippled. He must market, when all the machinery starts.
The products of the farm flow like life blood through all the
arteries of trade and give life to the whole body.

The farmer creates most of the wealth. Surely what he
creates makes all wealth possible. He feeds them all and
clothes them all ; and he can starve them all. Yet he has, in
the past, been the most helpless and dependent of all. The
people who create wealth should enjoy many of its blessings.

Farmers are doing many things now because it has been
the custom in the past. Merchants and manufacturers did
the same way a few years ago, but they are changing their
methods. The farmer may be the last one to get out of the
rut, but the time has arrived for action. Progress, improve-
ment, new methods, benefit farmers as well as other classes
of business men.

The cost to produce a bushel of grain one year is about
the same as another, yet one year it may bring the producer
fifty cents a bushel or less and another one dollar or more.
Who can make any definite calculations on such an uncertain
basis as this? Here is the secret of lack of improvements

235

236 THE THIRD POWER

on many farms. The owner is afraid to undertake improve-
ments for fear prices will be down and he can not pay for
them.

The consumption of the various staple farm products is
quite uniform year after year, whether the producer receives
a fair return or not. The family who eat their loaf of bread,
a pie, a cake, etc., daily when wheat is worth sixty-five cents
a bushel, would eat the loaf of bread, the pie, the cake, etc.,
just the same if wheat was worth one dollar per bushel. A
profitable — equitable — price will not curtail consumption.

Profitable prices do not necessarily mean high prices. Some
farm products are high enough now, but this is the time to
act and keep them profitable. Don't be deceived by a false
feeling of security. Conditions may easily work around to
fifteen-cent oats, twenty-cent corn and fifty-cent wheat. A
fair, profitable price is what we want. No hardships imposed,
but benefits bestowed on every man, woman and child.

We believe everybody will agree with us that land is the
primary source of all wealth. Therefore the owners of the
land have it in their power to direct the affairs of the world.
A great thing to contemplate.

We believe there is one source of great danger to the pros-
perity of the country, and it lies in the uncertainties surround-
ing agriculture. No business may be considered healthy that
yields such great profits as to induce extravagance, or such
small profits as result in hardships ; and particularly an ele-
ment of uncertainty about any business is very deplorable.

It may be claimed that a very large number of farmers and
producers can not be held in line to effectually control prices.
We believe there are enough intelligent and sensible agri-
culturists in the country who, seeing the enormous benefits
resulting from this plan, will not refuse to market conserva-
tively, and thus exert the desired influence to control prices.
The trouble, heretofore, has been that farmers have never yet
realized the power they hold, nor has there been a plan or
society through which they could cooperate for such great
financial benefits.

To illustrate the relation of the farmer with the balance
of the people : Go into any home in Indianapolis or any

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF EQUITY 237

other town or city and inquire how long the family could live
without replenishing their food supply. The answer would be
"we must buy to-morrow." Go to the grocery store and ask
the same question and to the wholesale or commission houses,
and they will tell you that, should the farmers stop marketing
for a single day there would be hardships ; for a week actual
distress would be experienced. The same illustration can be
applied to our clothing, which is made from the farmer's wool,
cotton, etc. Where is there an intelligent man who is so
dead to his own interests that he would not take legitimate
advantage of such genuine necessity to secure his just rights
and protect his own family from hardships? The producers
of our food are under no legal or moral obligation to feed the
world at an unfairly low price.

With things so much desired as the food we eat and the
clothes we wear, the rule should be for the consumer to seek
them — because he must have them — rather than for the pro-
ducer to force or dump them on him.

Stop, good farmer, and consider what possibilities open
up at this viewpoint. There are no other commodities in the
world so desired as yours, in fact they are absolutely neces-
sary for the comfort and existence of human and animal life.
In your business you have all possibilities of extortion, yet
the farmers can be trusted to feed the world at fair prices,
even when cooperating on this plan, where equity rules.

This plan of cooperation contemplates a society or organi-
zation. It is called the American Society of Equity. (There
may be a Russian Society of Equity, a German Society of
Equity, etc., if necessary, but, as America is the great surplus
nation, prices may be made here which will govern over the
world.)

Tn support of the suggested name, "American Society of
Equity," We will give Webster's definition, as follows :

"Equity — Equality of rights; natural justice of rights; the
giving or desiring to give to each man his due, according to
reason and the law of God to man ; fairness in determination
of conflicting claims; impartiality."

"Equity is synonymous with or equal to justice, rectitude.
(See below.)

"Justice — The quality of being just, conformity to the prin-

238 THE THIRD POWER

ciples of righteousness and rectitude in all things, strict per-
formance of moral obligations, practical conformity to human
or divine law ; integrity in the dealings of men with each
other; rectitude; equity; uprightness.

"Conformity to truth and realty in expressing opinions and
in conduct ; fair representation of facts respecting merit or
demerit; honesty; fidelity; impartiality; as:

"The rendering to everyone his due or right; just treatment,
requital of desert ; merited reward or punishment ; that which
is due to one's conduct or motives.

"Agreeableness to right, equity; justness; as the justness of
a claim.

"Equity and justice are synonymous with law; right; recti-
tude ; honesty ; integrity ; uprightness ; fairness and impar-
tiality.

"Justice and equity are the same; but human laws, though
designed to secure justice, are of necessity imperfect, and
hence what is strictly legal is at times far from being equitable
or just.

"Justice, Rectitude — Rectitude, in its widest sense, is one of
the most comprehensive words in our language, denoting
absolute conformity to the rule of right in principle and
practice."

The name, American Society of Equity, will always indi-
cate the object of this society. We can not offer any more com-
prehensive explanation than contained in the word "equity"
itself. Equity given and equity received will be the guiding
principle of this association.

THE PLAN OF THE AMERICAN
SOCIETY OF EQUITY.

The headquarters is at Indianapolis, Ind., and is called the
National Union. Branches called Local Unions will be formed
all over the country, in every township as frequently as nec-
essary, to accommodate every farmer. They may be in every
school district. It is not necessary for a member to belong
to a local union, but it is recommended where ten or more
members can join together and where they can have a meet-
ing place. The plan of the American Society of Equity is so
flexible, however, that a member, no matter where situated,
can cooperate for all general benefits, with other members,
without belonging to a local union. An official paper con-
taining all advice, is the key to cooperation and goes direct to
the farm. This is the only farmers' society in which members
can get the full benefits of national cooperation without be-
longing to a local lodge or union, and without attending the
meetings.

The affairs of the society are regulated by a board of seven
or more directors. These directors will be experts on various
lines of farm products. To illustrate, there will be a director
representing each of the following and all other important
crops: Wheat, corn, oats, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy,
tobacco, fruit, etc. The directors may be selected by members
interested in the particular crops, or appointed by the officers
of the society.

The key to the workings of the society will be the official
paper. This will go to every member. At present it is pub-
lished twice a month, as soon as the society is sufficiently de-
veloped it will be printed four times a month. Through the
official paper the National Union— officers, directors and editors
—will speak to all the members, giving information and ad-

239

240 THE THIRD POWER

vice, so that all may have the same information and be in a
position to act as one man, or cooperate, as well as if they were
all in one community, and could be seen individually. The
National Union will be the head or clearing house for the en-
tire agricultural business.

A very important part of the plan of the American Society
of Equity is the crop reporting system. Each member will be
a crop reporter. Either direct, or through his local union
secretary, on blanks furnished by the National Union. This
will be the most complete and most reliable crop reporting
system ever undertaken or accomplished, and will afford re-
liable information instead of unreliable reports, as have been
given to the public in the past. The crop reporting will also
be carried to foreign countries which produce or consume
sufficient to make them factors in this great problem.

With reliable information about crop yields and the known
consumption of any commodity, the board of directors will
decide what is an equitable value for each crop as it is pro-
duced, and recommend members to ask that price, and not
sell for less. This will be called the minimum (lowest) price.
If members will quit selling the moment the market will not
take any more supplies at the minimum price, prices will be
maintained, the demand will be supplied regularly as it ap-
pears, no over supply, surplus or glut will occur on the mar-
kets, and farmers, dealers, millers and consumers will be
benefited, to say nothing of the relief from uncertainties and
fear of loss attending the old system.

Remember, it will not be necessary for each person to be
told when to sell any crop. The plan contemplates that each
owner of produce, zvherever situated, shall supply the markets
through the regular channels zvith all they will take at the
minimum price, and stop selling the moment the buyers
won't take more. There need be no fear that buyers will be
out of the market long, because the world must have your
goods all the time. They can not do without a month, nor
week, nor even a day. The price can be made and maintained
as soon as this society has a million members. Then other
millions will ask the price also.

We expect, under the new system, that speculation in farm

THE PLAN 241

products will be at an end, but should the speculators choose
to send the prices above the fair minimum price recommended
by the society, members and non-members can of course ac-
cept them. It is the hope of the society that they can never
bear prices below the equitable price named.

When a value is placed on a crop of grain, cotton, pork,
beef, etc., it would be expected to control until the next
crop year, unless very material changes occurred to affect
consumption, or future crop prospects warrant a revision.
To prevent too liberal marketing at the start an advance will
be made on each staple article each month it is held, thus
justifying part of the producers in holding their crops. This
advance will be for protection only, but if there is a tendency
to market too much it can be increased so as to make it
profitable to hold back.

The frequent fluctuations of the market (many times a
day) are not in the interest of the farmers, but for the specu-
lators and gamblers. Do farmers profit by these fluctuations?
Certainly not. But they could make many improvements,
provide many comforts for their families, or indulge in many
pleasures, if they knew the wheat in their granaries was worth
not less than eighty-five cents or one dollar a bushel, the same
in September, January and April, and the same way with other
crops.

A plan such as this is the only practical one for the farm-
ers. Manufacturers may form trusts and partnerships and be
bound by ironclad agreements, but with the great agricultural
industry any enormous concentration of capital to control
prices would prove an incentive to unusual production, an
inducement to hold crops and a desire to obtain fictitious
values when the plan would fail. With our plan, where price
is based entirely on merit, an unusually large world's crop,
whither from increased acreage, increased yield per acre or
accumulations in the hands of producers or holders, means
lower prices in the future. This fear of lower prices will of it-
self be sufficient incentive to keep the crops moving into con-
sumption. The safety-valve will be reliable information placed
before them, a fair minimum price and the intelligence and
common sense of a fair portion of the American farmers. Array

242 THE THIRD POWER

on our side the intelligent farmers who are amenable to facts
and reason and the results are accomplished. The balance of
the farmers, at any rate, are the stubborn, ignorant portion
who are either driven or led, and are not sufficient to effect the
general results.

We know, with a profitable price obtainable, the temptation
to hold will not be so great, and we predict crops will be
marketed closer during the year and the consumption will be
greater of every staple product. Also, with profitable prices
for each crop the inducement will not be present to put out
an exceedingly large acreage of any one crop, which has been
one of the great faults of farmers in the past.

We have had some experience with human nature, and we
believe enough producers can and will demand the minimum
(lowest allowable) price to make the workings of the plan
definite and reliable. As to controlling production this feature
will take care of itself. Consumption has overtaken produc-
tion in all important lines, while with a profitable price as-
sured, each producer will not attempt to put out a whole
township as he oftentimes attempts when prices are low, in
order to "make both ends meet."

Manufacturing and mercantile enterprises are not conducted
by chance. Why should farming be an exception? It need
not be. We appeal to every producer of crops to consider
this matter very carefully and decide in the future to do
business on business principles.

The selling of farm products in the past has always been
a guessing match. Guessing is good enough if it hits, but a
certainty is several thousand per cent, better. With profit-
able prices made on each crop, farmers can put up elevators,
warehouses or granaries to hold their products, or build co-
operative cold storage plants to hold their fruit, if necessary.
Did you ever think of it? The farmer may be the greatest
monopolist of them all. To illustrate : He can take the
rawest kind of material (plant food), put it in his land and
manufacture through his plants and animals the very highest
finished products, such as meat, butter, eggs, fruit, etc., and
sell them to the consumer at the highest possible price. There
need be no person to share profits with him if he lives up to

THE PLAN 243

his privileges. The plan of the society, however, is not to inter-
fere with established business methods as long as the other peo-
ple will concede to the farmers their rights, but only to put
farming on a safe, profitable basis and secure for farmers bene-
fits equaling those realized in other business undertakings.

With this plan in successful operation it will limit or stop
all speculation in agricultural products — such as wheat, oats,
corn, cotton, pork, beef, etc. — by gamblers, who only thrive of
uncertainties.

THE RESULTS OF FARMERS' CO-
OPERATION BRIEFLY STATED.

It will increase the value of all farms from 25 to 100 per
cent. It will make of the farmer a spender of much more
money for improvements on the farm, for necessaries, luxu-
ries and education. It means enormous benefits to all people
engaged in agricultural pursuits, also to merchants, millers,
grain dealers, manufacturers, professional men, etc. It means
unprecedented and uninterrupted prosperity for America and
the civilized world. Uncertainties about prices, over-produc-
tion or unprofitable prices in any great enterprise like farm-
ing are constant menaces to the prosperity of a nation.

The success of this plan means steady, uninterrupted pros-
perity for farmers. It means that they can make many im-
provements that otherwise they can not. It means substantial
buildings, with many comforts for the farmers' families and
stock that may never be enjoyed under the old order of things.
Having a certain profit from their products, they will spend
it freely, and every industry in the country will be benefited,
thus benefiting every man, woman and child. There can be
no mistake about this prediction.

The success of this plan also means the control of the
markets of the world by the farmers ; and they can be trusted
to feed the world at fair prices. But should the fair prices
be refused they can starve the world by withholding their
produce.

More than this : Remove the uncertainties surrounding any
business and you make better citizens of those people. They
will be better morally, mentally and physically. Remove the
uncertainties of prices for agricultural products and you will
lessen sickness, poverty, crime and taxation. Our schools
and colleges will fill up and our poorhouses, asylums, jails
and penitentiaries will have fewer inmates. Give us equity
and you will give us happiness. The success of this plan
will cause the farmer to love his business, to care for his farm,
to raise better crops and larger crops. He will be encouraged
to irrigate and to do a thousand things that now he can not
do.

The success of this plan, where equity rules, will obliterate
that feeling, "Do him or he will do me." On the contrary,

244

RESULTS OF FARMERS' COOPERATION 245

when you get your just reward, you can love your neighbor
as yourself. The churches will be filled because humanity
will have much to be thankful for, and the saloon will be
empty because of no sorrows to drown. Uncertainty of price
does not stimulate demand and consumption. Remove the
uncertainty of prices of farm products, give the producer a
fair profit and the middleman a fair margin and there will
be a constant stream flowing to the consumer, causing greater
consumption and benefiting every person.

The plan is simplicity itself, as already explained. Give
us a fair proportion of the farmers willing to ask a fair price,
based on production and consumption and the result will be
accomplished. Give us unity in cooperation among the farm-
ers, if that is possible, in the carrying out of this plan, and no
trust ever dreamed of would represent such a power of capi-
tal as would be behind the American Society of Equity.

The farmers are strong enough and rich enough now to take
this important step. Prompt action will prevent prices from
slipping down to an unprofitable basis, with all the hardships
attendant on a condition of poverty and bankruptcy that large
crops and unprofitable prices will bring sooner or later.
Profitable prices for good crops is what we must have, then the
benefits will be evenly and generally distributed, and perma-
nent national prosperity guaranteed.

Note — Any attempt to control prices through a large fund
as recently proposed by several companies will fail because it
will encourage producers to increase production and to hold
their crops, which will result in an unwieldy surplus. If the
fund is actually used to buy and hold the crops, it will cer-
tainly result like the Leiter deal — in an inability to find buyers,
who will take them at a still higher price, when they must be
disposed of. Neither individual, corporate, nor national aid
along this line can be effective, unless the surplus that is bound
to result will be destroyed.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF N. A.

ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION.

We, the undersigned citizens of the United States of Amer-
ica, hereby associate ourselves together as a society, herein-
after named, under and pursuant to the statutes of the state
of Indiana, same being an act of the general assembly of the
state of Indiana, approved March 6th, 1899, and being an act
entitled 'An Act for the Incorporation of Societies, not for
pecuniary profit, etc.," by the following articles:

Article I. Name.

The name of this society shall be "The American Society
of Equity of North America.

Article II. Stock.

This society has no capital stock and is not organized for
pecuniary profit.

Article III. Objects.

1. To obtain profitable prices for all products of the farm,
garden and orchard.

2. To build and maintain elevators, warehouses and cold
storage houses in principal market cities or in all localities
where necessary, so that farm produce may be held for an
advantageous price, instead of passing into the hands of
middlemen or trusts.

3. To secure equitable rates of transportation.

4. To secure legislation in the interest of agriculture.

5. To open up new markets and enlarge old ones.

6. To secure new seeds, grain, fruit, vegetables, etc., from
foreign countries, with the view of improving the present
crops and giving a greater diversity.

7. To report crops in this and foreign countries, so that
farmers may operate intelligently in planting and marketing.

8. To establish institutions of learning, so that farmers and
their sons and daughters may be educated in scientific and in-
tensive farming and for the general advancement of agri-
culture.

9. To improve our highways.

246

ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION 247

10. To irrigate our land.

11. To prevent adulteration of food and marketing the same.

12. To own real estate, build, maintain and operate ele-
vators, storage houses, stock yards, railroads, ship lines, etc.,
as may be deemed wise and expedient.

13. To promote social intercourse.

14. To settle disputes without recourse to law.

15. To borrow and loan money and do a banking business.

16. To do an insurance business, both life and fire.

17. To establish similar societies in foreign countries.

Article IV. Incorporators.

J. A. Everitt, Eli A. Hirshfield,

Mark P. Turner, A. D. McKinney,

H. W. Miller, Sid Conger.

Article V. Place of Business.

The principal offices of this society shall be located and
maintained in Indianapolis, Marion county, Indiana, with
such branch societies elsewhere as may be necessary to carry
out the purposes of the society.

Article VI. Term of Existence.

This society shall have and is incorporated for a term of
fifty (50) years' existence.

Article VII. Seal.

The likeness and imprint of the official seal of this society
is hereto attached. (See page 233.) The seal is the regular em-
blem of the society, with the word "Seal" added.

Article VIII. Election.

The officers of this society shall be a President, Vice-Presi-
dent, Treasurer, Secretary, Organizer, General Counsel and
Board of Directors, and each and all shall be elected by popu-
lar vote of the members at the annual meeting of the society
al Indianapolis, Marion county, Indiana, on the first Monday
in October of each year. Members who can not be present
can vote by proxy through their Secretary. (The date of the
annual meeting for 1903 has been changed to the first Monday
in December.)

Article IX. Management.

The business and prudential concerns of this society shall
be managed by a Board of Directors, consisting of seven or
more persons, including the President, Secretary and Treas-
urer; who shall be members of this society in good standing.

248 THE THIRD POWER

The Board of Directors and officers for the first year, and
until a Board of Directors and officers are elected at the an-
nual meeting, are as follows :

Officers.

J. A. Everitt, President.

Seldon R. Williams, Vice-President.

Eli A. Hirshfield, Vice-President.

A. D. McKinney, Secretary.

H. W. Miller, Treasurer.

Mark P. Turner, General Counsel.

Sid Conger, General Organizer.

Fremont Goodwine, Advisory Counsel.

, Statistician.

Board of Directors.

J. A. Everitt, A. D. McKinney,

Hiram Miller, Sid Conger,

Mark P. Turner, Eli A. Hirshfield.
Fremont Goodwine,

State of Indiana, Marion County, ss :

Before me, Kathryn C. Tilly, a Notary Public, in and for
said county and state, appeared J. A. Everitt, Eli A. Hirsh-
field, Mark P. Turner, A. D. McKinney, H. W. Miller and
Sid Conger, the above named incorporators, and each for him-
self duly acknowledged the execution of the above and fore-
going articles of incorporation to be his voluntary act and
deed for the purposes and uses therein set out.

Witness my hand and notarial seal this 17th day of Decem-
ber, 1902.

(Seal.) Kathryn C. Tilly,

Notary Public.

My commission expires August 21, 1906.

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS.

GOVERNING LOCAL UNIONS OF THE AMERICAN
SOCIETY OF EQUITY OF N. A.

Article I. Name.

This union shall be known as the Union of

the American Society of Equity of (To save

confusion all unions must bear the postoffice name, and not
more than one union bear the same name, except where the
territory is too large for one union others may be formed and
must be designated by numbers, as Riverside Union No. 2 or
No. 3, etc.)

Article II. Membership.

Any person, of good moral character, male or female, of the
age of fourteen years or over, who is engaged in any branch
of agricultural work; also all persons not engaged in agri-
cultural work but a friend of agriculture may become members
of the American Society of Equity by paying the required fees.

Proviso I. A person may be a member of the National
Union and enjoy all the general benefits of the society until
there are a sufficient number of members to form a local
union, but no person shall be a member of a local union with-
out supporting the National Union. All members of the Na-
tional Onion are required to affiliate themselves with a local
union as soon as one is organized in the neighborhood, and in
this way carry out the complete plan of the society.

Proviso 2. Any young persons between the ages of 14
and 21, who are children of members of the society, and wives
of members, also old men and women (75 years or older),
whose life has mainly been spent on a farm, may become com-
plimentary members, without any membership fee or dues. The
object being to ( ncourage the youths to start aright and to
smooth the pathways of the old people who have become aged
in the service of agriculture. Such members must be indicated
when reports are sent in.

249

250 THE THIRD POWER

Proviso 3. In the case of a woman who is actively engaged
in agricultural pursuits on her own account, membership must
be granted her on exactly the same terms as to men. In case
of death of the husband, his membership will fall to his suc-
cessor, be this widow or son, and such cases must be reported
to the National Union by the secretary.

Proviso 4. No person can hold membership in more than
one local union at the same time.

Article III. Form of Application.

Application for membership should be made in the following
form, to-wit :

"I, James M. Goodwill, whose postoffice is , in the

county of , state of , desire to become a

member of the American Society of Equity, and hereby make

application for membership in the union of the

A. S. of E.

"I fully appreciate the disadvantages of the old business sys-
tem of farming, and I also appreciate the great advantages
that must result to the agricultural class if they will in the
future cooperate on the plan of the American Society oi
Equity. Now, therefore, I, being desirous of securing for my-
self, my family, and my brethren and sisters who are labor-
ing in the same work, all the benefits that will result from co-
operation, do hereby agree to follow the reasonable advice of
the society regarding crops, prices, etc.

"Also recognizing the great benefits that have accrued to
other lines of business through cooperation, and admitting
that equal and greater benefits will result to farmers if they
will cooperate, I hereby promise to, at every opportunity, in-
duce others to join the society and cooperate.

"I hereby subscribe to the by-laws of the society."

(Signed)

(Date)

Article IV. Admission of Members.

Members may be admitted at any regular meeting by a two-
thirds vote of the members present, not less than seven mem-
bers, including officers, to constitute a quorum.

Article V. Fees.

The membership fee of the National Union shall be one
dollar (which also covers the dues for the first year), and
dues one dollar a year thereafter (or twenty-five cents a
quarter) ; also, fifty cents additional for the official paper and

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS 251

bulletins. They must be paid through the local union, except
if no local union, they may be forwarded direct to the National
Union, Indianapolis, Ind.

.Membership fees must accompany the application.

Dues to the local union will be fixed by that union in each
case. It will depend on the business they undertake to do.

The dues to the National Union may be reduced or in-
creased after the society is in working order, depending on the
work undertaken, and as experience demonstrates.

The membership fee, including the official paper, has been
placed at fifty cents until one million members arc secured.

Article VI. Officers' Salaries and Bonds.

The officers of a local union shall be a President-Treas-
urer (the two in one) and a Secretary. It shall be their duty
to perform such duties as usually fall to such officers. The
officers may be reasonably paid for their services, such a sum
as will secure entirely competent men. The benefits to mem-
bers, if they live up to the privileges, will be so great that no
hardship need be imposed by the legitimate expenses. The
rate of compensation shall be fixed at the annual session.

All officers holding responsible positions should execute a
safe bond.

Article VII. Election of Officers.

The officers shall be elected by vote of the members ; first
the President-Treasurer, then the Secretary. The majority
electing. The election shall be held on the third Saturday in
September of each year, or on such a date as the local union
may select. Officers shall be elected for one year, and serve
until their successors are elected.

Article VIII. Vacancies.

In the case of a permanent vacancy of any office for any
reason, a successor must be chosen, temporarily, at the next
meeting following the vacancy, and permanently at the follow-
ing meeting. In case of a temporary vacancy, a temporary
officer may be appointed by the remaining officer.

Article IX. Organization of Local Union.

Ten or more persons eligible to membership may organize
a local union.

Article X. Appeals.

Matters affecting the union, and that are not covered by the
existing by-laws, may be appealed to the National Union.
Such an appeal must be made in writing with the evidence.

252

THE THIRD POWER

Article XI. Charter.

The fee for a charter for a local union shall be one dollar,
payable to the National Union.

Article XII. Seal.

The seal of a local union shall be the name of the society,
with the town, state and number and the word seal added.
The cost will be charged to the local union.

Article XIII. Amendments.

These by-laws may be amended at any regular meeting,
providing the amendment is voted favorably. It is expected
that each local union will enact such additional laws and
change these laws, as will best serve the condition existing in
their district.

Article XIV. Time of Meeting.

The regular meeting of this union shall be held on the

day of each (week or month), at o'clock.

Seven members shall constitute a quorum. (Where the union
owns its meeting place it is recommended that the room be
kept open constantly for the use of the members.)

Article XV. Settlement of Disputes.

Litigation is to be discouraged, and in no case shall mem-
oers of the American Society of Equity enter into litigation at
law with each other, or a member against a non-member,
until the matter is presented to the union and its good offices
used to settle the difference, except when delay will be detri-
mental.

Any member violating this provision shall be liable to ex-
pulsion.

Article XVI. Withdrawals.

Any person may withdraw by making his desire known pre-
vious to calling to order of any meeting and being present at
the meeting, when the demand will be considered in the regu-
lar order of business. Unless the applicant is persuaded to
continue a member, permission to withdraw shall be given by
the President. All dues are to be paid up to time of with-
drawal.

Article XVII. Payment of Money.

All orders for warrants must be signed by both the Presi-
dent-Treasurer and the Secretary.

Article XVIII. Records, Reports, Notices.
It shall be the duty of the Secretary to keep a record of all

CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS 253

transactions. The minutes of any meeting must be approved
at the next meeting and then become matter of permanent
record. Also, to secure reports on crop conditions, acreage,
yields, etc., and forward a copy to the National Union as fre-
quently as twice a month, and more frequently when condi-
tions out of the ordinary prevail ; also to report all new mem-
bers, withdrawals, delinquencies, deaths, etc., sending a report
to the National Union (suitable blanks will be provided for
these purposes), and to do all things as will tend to the build-
ing up of the society and the advancement of the interests of
the members.

Article XIX. Local Conditions.

In each locality some conditions exist that are peculiar to
that place alone; therefore, it is expected to amend these by-
laws to meet the conditions of the particular sections.

While cooperative buying and the conduct of cooperative
stores is not deemed necessary when the farmers get profit-
able prices by cooperative selling, yet cooperation in any line
or in any direction that will benefit the agricultural classes is
not prohibited. We simply ask each member to keep in mind
the motto of his beloved society. "Equity."

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Read carefully. There is not a trouble affecting agriculture
that cooperation will not cure. If all the problems are not
solved here, it is because no person has .brought them forward.
There is a solution in cooperation for every problem in the ag-
ricultural book, and for nearly all the other problems of our
social, political and business life.

1. Q. Can farmers organize?

A. They did in the Grange, Alliance, Farmers' Mutual
Benefit Association and other societies. Therefore, they can
again, if there is a good reason for it. The reasons are more
numerous now than ever before.

2. Q. Can farmers cooperate?

A. The farming industry is the same all over the country,
and practically all over the world. Farmers all have their in-
vestments for one purpose, and all labor to one common pur-
pose, viz. : to produce the necessaries and comforts of life.
Laborers, on the contrary — while they all sell their labor for
wages — are subject to many varied conditions, as found in the
factories, stores, banks, mines, on the railroads, in cities or
country, etc. They are also influenced by many interests of
their employers and frequently attempts are made to prevent
them from organizing and cooperating; yet they have organ-
ized and do cooperate, and have secured great benefits from
such cooperation. If laborers can cooperate for their mutual
good under such conditions, who dare say that farmers can
not? No fair person will oppose the farmers' organization on
the plan proposed by the American Society of Equity. On the
contrary every person doing a legitimate business will help the
organization, because it will help him. Farmers are surely as
intelligent as coal miners and factory employes, and surely
they can see it is to their great (yes, enormous) interest to co-
operate for every good thing. Every class of people can co-
operate except Indians, idiots and the insane — unless we ex-
cept the farmers. We will see if farmers must be classed with
the above after giving them a trial on a good plan.

3. Q. Will farmers hold together and cooperate?

A. Give them all, or half, or quarter, of the benefits that the

254

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 255

A. S. of E. promises, and you can not drive them apart. Ap-
peal to their self-interest — selfish interests, if you please — and
they will stick to the thing that makes them money and ele-
vates their calling.

4. Q. Does speculation injure farmers?

A. It certainly does. It is the greatest curse of the country.
Usually the farmers' crops are sold months before they are
grown, when, if conditions justify higher prices the speculators
won't let the price go up until their contracts are filled. The
boards of trade are the devil's workshops, in which the earn-
ings of farmers are forged for the benefit of a few individuals
who become immensely wealthy.

5. Q. Is not cheap food a blessing to the world?

A. Cheap food and dear pleasures are not equitable. In
prosperous times the masses spend money extravagantly for
pleasures. Why should they not pay good prices for food?
In fact, low prices to the farmers will speedily put them out
of the field as consumers, and every business and all working
people in the country will suffer.

6. Q. What are the speculative commodities?

A. Agricultural products, railroad shares and mining stocks.

7. Q. Why are these selected to speculate in?
A. Because of the uncertainties attending them.

8. Q. How can agricultural products be removed from the
list?

A. By making prices certain. By fixing a price once a year,
when the crop is produced, and demanding that price. This is
equitable, the farmer has as much right to do this as the man-
ufacturer, the banker, the lawyer, the physician, the gas man,
the ice man, the union laborer or any other person on earth.
Besides, the farmer has a better chance to enforce his demands
than any of the others. His goods are indispensable ; the
others may be done without.

9. Q. When is the time to organize the farmers?

A. Now is the time. There are more farmers in an inde-
pendent condition now than for many years. These are the
farmers who have good land and raised good crops in the
short crop years. Short crops make good prices. Big crops
make low prices. Farmers suffer more from big crops than
from small crops. This is the time to organize and keep prices
up. Have you not noticed how the speculators price your
crops down as soon as crop prospects are good? As soon as
you raise big crops two years in succession prices will go
away down. Don't you want good prices for good crops?
Then the blessings will be equally distributed. Organize now,
and not when mortgages are plastered all over your homes.

10. Q. Will farmers' business grow worse?

A. Lines opposed to the farmers — and they constitute every

256

THE THIRD POWER

other industry, profession and consumer in the country — are
being drawn closer in organization and cooperation. As they
all get their living from the farm, they will employ the sharp
practices that the stirring times have developed to beat down
the farmers' prices to the very lowest level. True, there will
be seasons of short crops, when prices will stay up, but in
seasons of large crops there will be absolutely no sustaining
power to prices of farm products unless the farmers will
furnish it. I defy any person to show me the man or set of
men who will protect another man or set of men in trade, who
will not try to protect himself. The grasping, greedy disposi-
tion is not the spirit of Christianity, but it is human nature.
The weak are always oppressed by the strong, the disorganized
by the organized. There is absolutely no safety or good pros-
pect in this country for an industry not organized.

11. Q. Are there not too many farmers to cooperate?

A. This is a popular fallacy that sound reasoning will dispel.
The great number of farmers will be the great element of
strength in farmers cooperating. All the farmers don't need to
hold crops at any time, as the markets will take immense quan-
tities of supplies every day. All that will be required will be
enough farmers to control that part that goes on the market
and creates a temporary over supply or surplus. This over
supply makes the low price on all. Take, for example, the
year 1901 : all crops except wheat were short; everything, corn,
oats, fruit, vegetables, meat, etc., brought high prices. Why?
Because there was no over supply at any time and the buyers
were eager to get all that was offered. Now let us see how
about wheat. It was a large crop. The price ruled low.
Why? Because growers of wheat fed the market faster than
it needed it ; yet the entire crop was consumed, although it
was the largest crop the country ever raised. No business can
maintain prices or control prices that markets a year's supplies
in a few months. Cooperation is intended to produce the same
condition that prevails when there is a short crop — i. e., keep
the stuff back on the farm or in warehouses until the demand
comes for it. Comparatively a small portion of the producers
can do this, even though the others won't try. If we have a

MILLION OR MORE MEMBERS IN THE A. S. OF E., ENOUGH OF
THEM WILL HOLD THEIR CROPS BACK TO PREVENT THE TEMPO-
RARY OVER SUPPLY, IN SPITE OF ALL THE WEAK, STUBBORN FARM-
ERS THAT MAY BE ARRAYED AGAINST THEM. The A. S. of E.

proposes, however, to make it profitable to hold crops.

We train ourselves to watch ourselves,

Until we find at length
We've made our very weakness

The pillars of our strength.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 257

12. Q. Is the American Society of Equity a good name?

A. Yes, considering the power of the farmers when cooper-
ating, it is necessary to have a motto that will influence their
actions. For instance, the farmers could practice inequity to
the disadvantage of all other classes if they wanted to. There-
fore, the originator of the plan of the A. S. of E. selected this
name as a promise by the farmers that they would do equity
and a notice to the world that they would expect equity.
Equity means justice, right, honesty, impartiality. It is the
basis of moral strength and potent influences. It is the ground
swell of fraternity, of good fellowship and the essence of
neighborly kindness. It will make the world better to the ex-
tent to which it is recognized and practised. No one can hide
behind it with a plea of ambiguity, as it is one of the most un-
compromising words in the English language, covering not a
shade of selfishness, unfairness or one-sidedness. A society
founded on equity is founded on the solid rock of fair deal-
ing and righteousness. No better foundation word could be
found for self-protection or society.

13. Q. If farmers get profitable prices, will they not over-
produce?

A. Take into consideration the fact that in the last fifty
years practically all our great western and northwestern states
were brought into cultivation and immense areas in the older
states cleared, drained and made productive, yet all the prod-
ucts have been consumed. There are no more such areas to
open up. Also, farmers need rest, and their farms need rest
to recuperate in fertility. Is it not reasonable to suppose, with
profitable prices, that the farmers will work less and produce
less?

14. Q. If a surplus should exist any time, what would be
done with it?

A. When farmers control their crops and regulate prices
they have done a great thing. There are, however, other un-
certainties connected with farming that they can not control.
We refer to the weather. Do the best they can, they can not
control rainfall, frosts, heat or cold; also, insects and blight
are uncertain factors in the production of crops. These factors
will make short crops some seasons. If farmers are cooper-
ating they can easily hold the surplus of good seasons, should
they exist, over to the short years, thus equalizing supplies and
prices, and benefiting both producers and consumers. In case
of perishable products, fruit, vegetables, etc., they can be pre-
served, canned or manufactured to far better advantage than
when each farmer is for himself.

15. Q. How can poor farmers hold their crops to help main-
tain the minimum prices?

258 THE THIRD POWER

A. 1. We don't think they will need to hold. 2. But suppose
they do : under the new system it will be profitable to hold ;
therefore, more will hold than under the old plan. Each addi-
tional farmer who holds will make a better market for the poor
farmer who can not hold. 3. A slight increase in price will be
made each month to offset interest, shrinkage, etc., to those
farmers who hold. This is not intended to be enough to be
particularly profitable, but for protection. However, if enough
don't hold, the monthly advance can be made larger until it is
profitable to hold, and until the supply dries up enough to
maintain the minimum price. This will give the poor farmer
the early market all to himself. 4. With a minimum price es-
tablished dealers will want to buy all they possibly can. They
know the price won't be lower, and will be higher (on account
of the monthly increase in price). We believe there will be buy-
ers for more grain and staple crops than will be offered. It will
be the aim of the society to keep the bulk of the crops out of
the hands of speculators and back on the farms or in farmers'
warehouses, and feed the markets as they need it. If the
farmers would sell all their wheat, corn, oats and other grains
to me now at prevailing prices, and contract all their year's
output of meat, dairy products, eggs, poultry and fruit to me
at prevailing prices, I could make a billion dollars profit on the
deal. Perhaps it would be necessary to destroy some of the
perishable products, but I would not market a single lot of
stuff except at a profit. All I would want, is control of the
products, and I would make the market price. This is what
the A. S. of E. proposes to do, by farmers cooperating.
5. With profitable prices secured, farmers would take the rest
cure for themselves and their farms. Thus there would be less
production and a better chance to maintain prices.

16. Q. Is the 1903 wheat crop worth a dollar a bushel?

A. From the producers' standpoint it undoubtedly is and
will afford a very meager profit at this price. The average of
this year is only ten to eleven bushels per acre. From the
consumer's standpoint there is nothing else he can buy of
equal intrinsic value. From the standpoint of production and
consumption it is abundantly worth a dollar. All fair people
will admit our claims, and it is a crying shame that the price
is arbitrarily withheld from the farmers who have been mar-
keting at a less price.

17. Q. Will dollar wheat come?

A. I predict it will. It will come when the first run is
over. Harvests ended in September. The world is taking and
consuming the wheat as fast as it comes to market all over
the world. Warehouses and elevators are empty. Those farm-
ers who hold will get their price, after the farmers of the

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 259

world who have not heard of dollar wheat, or can not hold,
have marketed. Remember, there is a shortage of wheat for
the world's needs this year.

18. Q. Who are eligible to membership in the A. S. of E. ?
A. Farmers (owners and renters) of all descriptions, and

friends of farmers, with their wives and sons and daughters,
between 14 and 21 years of age.

19. Q. Why do you admit merchants, bankers, etc.?

A. Their's and the farmers' interests are mutual. The suc-
cess of one class makes it better for other classes. The mer-
chants want the farmers to organize and get good prices, so
they can pay good prices for good goods, and not buy the
nasty cheap goods, as they now oftentimes do. Bankers want
farmers to organize, because it will add stability of value to
all property and insure permanent prosperity. The farmer may
as well take them into their society if they want to come, as
it will be easier to control them on the inside than to shut
them out, arouse their antagonism and control them on the
outside. Besides, most merchants and bankers are farmers
also; therefore, you could not debar all unless you limit a
farmer's business to farming. In the A. S. of E. we hope all
the people in the country and small towns will cooperate to
the upbuilding of rural America, get more profit for the goods
in the country and spend the money there.

20. Q. Is the A. S. of E. a secret society?

A. No. The farmers don't need to have any secrets from
anybody else. Where equity is given and received, you don't
need to hold your meetings behind sealed doors. The farmers
cooperating will be so strong that they can go boldly before
the world, make their equitable demands and get justice, or
take it.

21. Q. Must a member belong to a local union?

A. No ; a member anywhere can get the full benefit of na-
tional cooperation without belonging to a local union. The
official paper will be the key and guide for action. It will give
advice regarding markets, crops, prices, etc., so all can act as
one man. Local unions are particularly for local affairs, social
features, and assisting each other to hold crops.

22. Q. Will farmers stick together?

A. They will when there is something to stick for. In the
old attempts they did not get enough benefits. What is buy-
ing at lower prices as compared to selling at fair prices? The
A. S. of E. is built for benefits, from the ground up. Once
let farmers realize some of the benefits of cooperation on this
plan, and no influence on earth can drive them apart.

23- Q. How are members bound?

A. There is no binding agreement. It is proposed to make it

260

THE THIRD POWER

-n_^

to their interests to belong to the A. S. of E. If, after a fair
trial, great benefits can not be shown, then farmers can not
cooperate. It would be useless to bind farmers in an ironclad
agreement, as many would break the agreement, and then
they wouuld have disrespect for it. If farmers will hold crops,
as they do now, for an uncertain advance, will they not market
conservatively to maintain a profitable price?

24. Q. What is the membership fee and dues?

/\y0-Gs{ &^{ A. jrijty cants. This also pays for the official paper, badge,
certificate, all advice and crop reports from the National Union
and all dues for the first year. Future dues will be small, as
the membership will be very large. Membership to his wife is
free, also to his sons and daughters, between 14 and 21 years.

25. Q. What is the local union membership fees or dues?
A. No membership fee. The dues will be fixed by each local

union to meet their requirements. There is, however, an or-
ganization fee.

26. Q. Will not

profitable prices for farmers make higher

prices for consumers i

A. No. We expect consumers' prices to average lower when
farmers cooperate. At present the middlemen and trusts often
get more than the farmers. They pile up mountains of profit
between the two. This will be regulated or cut out entirely if
they do not deal fairly.

27. Q. How will the farmers' organization effect labor?

A. When farmers get profitable prices the labor problem on
the farm will be solved, as they can then hire the help needed.
It will make a market for a million or more laborers the year
around. This movement is the greatest thing for working peo-
ple that ever was proposed.

28. Q. How will this movement effect the producer of per-
ishable products?

A. Cold storage houses and warehouses will be provided
where fruit, butter, eggs, vegetables, meat, etc., will be held
as the producers' property until the market can use them. In
the case of berries, peaches, etc., the markets will be known
and supplied to the maximum consumption at good prices, but
no more. By knowing the needs of all the markets a much
greater volume of products can be directed to them than in the
uncertain way as at present, and if an actual surplus exists it
will be left to spoil at home, or be preserved by canning or
otherwise. The society will be of enormous benefit to produc-
ers of perishable crops.

29. Q- How about meat? Will you advance the price?

A. Beef is too high to the consumer and too low to the pro-
ducer. The society will elevate the farmer's price and reduce
the selling price. Other meat will be put on an equitable basis
and kept there.

OUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 261

30. Q. Can this society regulate the price of potatoes?

A. Certainly. This is a crop that frequently sells at ruin-
ously low prices when the production is large. It will be one
of the easiest to control. When the farmers are organized in
Maine, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the
trick will be done. Consumers can pay fifty cents a bushel for
potatoes as a minimum price — which should net the grower
thirty cents to forty cents, when the crop is large — as well as
anything under. The chances are that the city consumer who
buys in the small will pay twenty cents a peck if the grower got
only twenty cents a bushel. This society will prevent such in-
equalities. The same illustration will apply to apples, only the
difference is usually greater.

31. Q. Can you help the tobacco grower who is now at the
mercy of the tobacco trust?

A. Most assuredly. If the tobacco districts are organized
and sell their product through their own representatives on the
national board of directors, they can absolutely take a good
profit on their crop before the trust can touch it. It is not
proposed to dictate to trusts, or put them out of business —
unless their existence jeopardizes maximum consumption and
markets — but simply to take the growers' profit first.

32. Q. Will the minimum (profitable) price limit consump-
tion ?

A. No. It will rather stimulate trade and increase con-
sumption. Because it will remove uncertainties. Under the
old system, if the farmer thought prices too low he would not
sell. If the buyer thought they were too high he would not
buy; also, the buyer was always fearful the price would go
down, therefore he always wanted to buy as low as possible.
Under the new system certainty will prevail. There will be no
fear or hesitancy. All will sell and buy as much as the market
wants, and farm products will go into consumption with
greater ease and regularity than by the old system. This plan
has beauties and advantages that can not be fully realized or
appreciated until it is in working order.

33- Q- How can farmers store their produce?

A. Several local unions can join together and erect neces-
sary warehouses, cold storage houses or elevators. These will
be under their direct control. There will be another cla^s
owned by the society in principal cities, where produce can be
shipped and stored for account of the owner. Warehouse re-
ceipts will be issued on grain and produce, which can be used
as credit at banks to secure money. Non-perishable goods
should be held on the farm as much as possible. A good
granary is as good as an elevator, while no storage is charged.

34. Q. How will you regulate railroad rates, stock yard
charges, grain inspections, grading, etc.?

262

THE THIRD POWER

A. Let it be understood that the farmers in this society
don't intend to control anybody or anything but their own
business and prices. Heretofore the farmers were taught that
to get justice they must fight everybody and everything on
earth. It is a grevious mistake. All the farmers need to do is
to put the price on their goods at their market town and
get their price there. They don't need to care what the rail-
roads or stockyards charge, unless they want to protect the
consumer, and this they can do when they are strong and
powerful through organization. Don't let anybody make you
believe that you must fight anybody when you have the goods
everybody else must have to live on and for their comfort.

35. Q. Is it a fact that the larger the crop the lower the
price?

A. Invariably, and there are many cases where the smallest
and nastiest crops the country ever raised brought the most
money to the farmers, and the largest, finest crops the least
money. Hundreds of times farmers see their efforts crowned
with success in producing a crop, only to meet crushing disap-
pointment when marketing.

36. Q. Will you not need to control production as well as
supply?

A. No. The world will take all the food crops this country
will grow, and pay a fair price for them if the farmers will
regulate the marketing so as to prevent over supply at any
time. Consumption is ahead of production now, and we pre-
dict will increase faster than production, unless our farmers
get better prices to encourage better farming and larger crops.

2,7. Q. Do farmers need to market a twelve months' supply
in a few months ?

A. No. We have referred to this before. Here is the whole
secret of failure in the past and success for the future. Sup-
pose a year's supply of coal had to be marketed in three
months in the summer. The miners would get a very low
price, the middlemen make a mountain of profit, and the con-
sumer would pay more than an equitable price.

38. Q. Will it not be sufficient to have storehouses and get a
low rate of freight ?

A. Never. What profiteth a farmer if he stores his grain,
but lets the speculator, trust or middleman price it at last?
This is not another way to whip the devil around the bush,
and the devil will catch him coming or going. Storage
charges, commissions and reduced railroad freight combined
are not equal to putting a fair price on your own stuff and
taking your profit first.

39. Q. Do you think money can be well spent in marketing
farm products?

A. Surely. It is a fact that manufacturers and merchants

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 263

frequently spend as much money in advertising, traveling rep-
resentatives and in other ways to find a market as the goods
cost in the first place. Farmers have been spending nothing—
simply dumping their fine products, to let them take their
chances on prices, and without any regard to their brother
farmer's interests. Through cooperation farmers can market
their goods much cheaper than can any other class, because
there is a natural demand for them. Others must create a
demand.

40. Q. On what does the prosperity of our country depend?

A. On the farmers. They constitute about half our popula-
tion. They are also the greatest consumers. Keep them pros-
perous by always getting good prices, as this society proposes,
and the country can not have hards times. I am not thoroughly
acquainted with European countries, but I think the cause of
their depression of business is with the farmers. The Euro-
pean farmers are kept down by the competition of this country.

41. Q. But many of the farmers may not join and thus de-
feat your plans.

A. We will first get the million, and then make it imprac-
ticable for the balance to stay out of the society. For instance,
we will, first, make it profitable for them to come in ; second,
union farmers' products will be marketed in distinguishing
packages and under the A. S. of E. label. These goods will be
of guaranteed purity and high quality and will be sought after
and taken first before the non-union farmers' products will be
taken ; also union laborers will buy only the union farmers'
products, because the society proposes to make a great demand
for labor at good wages.

42. Q. Tell about the system of crop reporting.

A. Every member will become a crop reporter. In this way
we will have the most complete and reliable reports, quite in
contrast with the guessing at the present time.

43- Q- Who will this movement injure?

A. No person doing a legitimate business, but will build
them all up.

44. Q. Can this society prevent adulteration of food prod-
ucts?

A. This is one of the chief objects of the society, and when
established it can effectually prevent adulteration, by inspection
of food products, and by demanding and securing legislation
against it. Fraud in food must cease. It is injurious to health,
besides reduces the farmer's market to an amazing extent.

45- Q- Why not have a society for each crop. For instance,
grain growers, cattle growers, fruit growers, tobacco growers,
cotton growers, etc.?

A. Quite unnecessary. One national society, with represent-
atives from all of these special crops on the national board,

264 THE THIRD POWER

can act as the clearing house for all the crops. In this way
fewer officers will be needed. The expenses will be much less ;
a better knowledge of crops and markets may be had, and,
more than all, a mixed producer need not belong to a half
dozen societies to secure representation.

46. Q. How many members had the Alliance and Grange?
A. About three or four millions each.

47. Q. Do you think they could have succeeded if they had
operated on the plan of the A. S. of E. ?

A. I do. I am sure if they had made their first object to
secure profitable prices for their own goods instead of attempt-
ing to put prices on the other party's goods, farmers would
be successfully cooperating to-day, and rural America would
be a paradise.

48. Q. Are agricultural colleges, experiment stations, farm-
ers' institutes and farm papers doing good for the farmers?

A. Yes. It is well for all classes to be educated and en-
lightened ; but also, no, for they are teaching how to increase
production, while we all know the larger the crop the lower
the price. Now don't think that I am opposed to educating
the farmers, but until they are also educated as to how to get
a good price for increased crops the' effort toward education
is largely lost. Think about this. Farmers should demand of
their institutes cooperation to bring about better conditions in
marketing.

49. Q. What will be the result if this effort to organize the
farmers fails?

A. There will be a land trust formed. The owners of the
land will go into a trust, or capitalists will buy up the land.
They can easily then control production and prices. This
will be the worst thing that can happen to the country, but it
is inevitable. In short, as we have shown that capital is de-
pendent upon the farms, the capitalists may conclude that they
must control the land to insure the integrity and permanency
of their capital and investments.

50. Q. Suppose when the farmers organize, buyers would
refuse to pay the price they demand?

A. How can they? Can consumers (human and domestic
animals) do without food and clothing? If they would not
pay the reasonable prices, farmers could strike for higher
wages, and the strike would have the proper effect in a very
few days. A farmers' strike would mean much more than a
strike by union laborers. All others are dependent on the
farmers. The farmers are dependent on no other class.

51. Q. How does the food trust operate?

A. It has warehouses in many parts of the country. It buys
the farmer's fruit, vegetables, potatoes, butter, eggs, poultry,
etc., in the summer, when prices are low, puts them in cold

QUESTIONS, AND ANSWERS 265

storage, and they come out at two or three times the price be-
tween seasons. The farmers can attend to all this when or-
ganized.

52. Q. Could the government help the farmers by loaning
them money at a" low rate of interest?

A. No, not permanently. Besides the farmers don't need
help in that way. It would be the most degrading thing that
could be offered them to make them the special objects of the
country's charity. The farmer's position is the strongest of
all. If they will only rise to their true position, they will
never need to look to the government or outside sources for
help.

53. Q. Are not farmers taxed too heavily?

A. Yes ; but here again if they will cooperate and get profit-
able prices they won't need to care how much they are taxed.
They can simply add it on the price of their goods.

54. Q. When the farmers are organized they will likely be-
come a power in politics ?

A. They could if they would. But why will they want to
bother with politics ? They won't need anything in the way of
profits that they can't take when they price their goods. We
expect them, however, to dictate to political parties, for the in-
terests of consumers and equity to all.

55. Q. Is the ground as productive now as formerly?

A. No. Our farms have been robbed of their original fertil-
ity and the crops sold at prices that did not afford renewing it.
It would bankrupt many farmers to restore the fertility to
their farms, and it will bankrupt them if they continue farm-
ing under the present system if they don't. So here you have
a dilemma that absolutely demands better prices for farm
products. Many farmers have already sold their birthright
(the accumulated plant food of centuries) for a mess of pot-
tage, and others will do it under the old system.

56. Q. You speak of intensive farming. What do you mean?
A. I mean raising the average of all our crops to two or

three times the present yield. This can only be done by sci-
entific farming, building up the soil with plant food and irriga-
tion. All these wait on profitable prices for farm crops.

57. Q. Could not good prices be made for farmers if your
society had a large capital with which to buy the crops?

A. Never. If all the money in the United States treasury
was employed for this purpose the scheme would fail. Farm-
ers must individually be responsible for their production as
well as prices. If a company would agree to take all they
raise at profitable prices there would be no check on their pro-
duction, while the company or society must find some other

266 THE THIRD POWER

PERSON WHO WILL TAKE THEM AT AN EVEN HIGHER PRICE; and

here would come failure in time.

58. Q. Why not organize one state and see how the plan
will work?

A. This would be useless. It would not Work. The farm-
ers in Indiana could not do anything unless the farmers in
Illinois, Ohio, etc., will cooperate with them. Also, it would
not be possible to control prices on one crop and let the others
take their chances, as then the crops that are not controlled
would be neglected and the other one would be overproduced.

59. Q. Can farmers secure profitable prices on their crops
regardless of the European farmers?

A. As soon as the European farmers know the price set by
American farmers they will gladly rise to it. America has set
the price on food in the past, and set it too low. European
farmers suffered more than did our farmers, and they will be
glad when the range is set higher. America can do this thing
without the cooperation of Europe, because it is the greatest
surplus country. But European farmers will cooperate, and
arrangements are now making to organize them.

60. Q. What will be some of the results of cooperation by
farmers ?

A. The results will be everything the farmers want or
should have. Then land will increase in value 25 to 100 per
cent. They will build good, modern, comfortable houses and
barns. They will beautify their grounds. They will educate
their children. They will build good roads all over the coun-
try. The farmer and his wife and children will work less and
hire more, .visit and entertain more. The farmer's wife will
furnish her home as well as the city woman does. The farm
labor problem will be solved. The boys will want to stay on
the farm, because it offers possibilities equal to any other busi-
ness, and the farmers' profession will be the best one on earth.
Besides all these things, and many more not necessary to men-
tion, the success of this society will build up the country
towns, and through the country merchants the benefits will
reach the cities. It will, in short, benefit every legitimate in-
dustry and every man, woman and child in the country. It
means more for humanity than anything since the Christian
era.

*S

INDEX

Agriculture, page

Big crops not a blessing 92

Cattle receipts and prices 108

Clearing-house of 106

Cotton, base market 107

Develop life on the farm 159

False crop reports 138

Farm price 107

Future of America, the 152

Grain, base market 107

High prices, farmers not responsible 114

Intensive farming 146

Irrigation of farms 148

Isolation of agricultural class 81

Land values increase 148

Maximum markets 118

Minimum price 107

Prices adj usted 140

Production increased 89

Price, uncertainty removed 152

Safety valve, the 107

Schools of and institutions 88, 140

Somebody holds crops 98

Spiritual side 147

Surplus, no real 107

Wider markets 135

American Society of Equity, which represents the Third

Power 235-238

Benefits and strength 129

267

268 INDEX

American Society of Equity — Continued. page

Boys, keep them on the farm 153

Broad and comprehensive 106

Cold storage houses 100

Constitution and by-laws of local unions 249-253

Crop reporting system 138

Elevators 99

Food adulteration 148

For benefits 178

Freedom for all 190

Fundamental force 128

Highways, improve 145

Incorporation, articles of 246-248

Industrial, not political 185

Is it the right kind of organization ? 96

Is it practicable? 174

Liberty its great aim 190

Liberty and independence, give 129

Loaning money 101

Local unions 249-253

Need of 116

Official organ 137

Plan of 239-243

Platform of 188

Political party, not a 133

Questions and answers 254-266

Results of cooperation 148

Results of farmers cooperating 244, 245

Stands for equitable prices 102

Strength, greatest element of 179

The (A. S. of E.) 59, 235-238

Triumphant success 182

World wide 192

Capital,

Combines to beat down price 3

Efficiency of 3

Farmers warned 22

INDEX 269

Capital — Continued. page

Organization of farmers, objected to 36

Prices, arbitrarily fixed by capital 6

Wealth, creation of 2

Consumers,

Lower prices 69, 105

Protection of 1 18

Economics,

Consumption increasing 76

Factors in production 1

Irrigation, opposed to 19

Problem, stupendous 8

Surplus must be controlled 74

Supply and demand 63-68

Visible supply 87

Wealth, creators of 1

Farmers, Farms and Farming,

Advised 25

Are the people 163

Bound together 84

Business man, a 23

Buy advantageously 125

Buy at equitable prices 128

Chosen people 180

Combined, they have 175

Consumers, the greatest 57

Corn production 78

Corner on food supply 42

Discontented 31

Earnings of m

Ever victorious army 122

Fair prices 108

Fertility exhausted 7

Free, is not 51

Free himself 33

270

INDEX

Farmers, Farms and Farming — Continued. page

Friends and helpers 143

Fundamental right 41

Gold out of ground 94

Guerrilla warfare 85

High prices, farmers not responsible 113, 115

Hold crops, can they 97, 98

Insurance 144

Intensive 20

Laborer, a mere 7

Make it attractive 157

Money, how secure 103

No fight against anybody 130

One thing to learn 4

Organized 15, 25

Organization necessary 71

Organized power 10

Patient 115

Poor farmers hold crop 100

Powerless, unorganized are 6

Power, extent of 42

Prairie, out on 29

Prices made by others 5, 125

Price, the question of 94

Prices, how to get them 7, 104

Produces five times as much 7

Prosperous 32

Slavery 8

Sold their birthright 109

Surplus, temporary 69

Supreme 24

Taxed for everything 133

Twentieth century farmer, the 18

Government,

All the people 168

Appeal, not to it 52

City against the people 161

INDEX 271

Government — Continued. page

Class 45

Equitable, an I71

Few control 1 34

Freeman 53

Honest 165

Justice secured 172

Laws, none for farmers 21

Oligarchy 37, 161

Oppressive ruler 167

Powers, three 28

Profitable prices, can not maintain 102

Reciprocity treaties 134

Representation by farmers, lack of 133

Special privileges 48

Strong government, a 160

Strong government, dangers of a 167

Theoretically just 43

True democratic 163

Industrial,

Agricultural industry 6

Farming is manufacturing 67

Friendship in business, no 120

Merchants want to know 58

Organization of farmers objected to 36

Threshermen's association 32

Virtue of combination 121

Wealth, creation of 2

International,

Consolidation of agricultural interests 197-232

Discrimination against farm products 135

European farmers 183

Extended to other countries 187

Federation of the nations 104

Foreign countries affected 7°

Organizing other countries 148

2-J2 INDEX

International — Continued. page

Tariff on wheat yy

United States can control 75

Labor,

Coal strike, how could be ended 169

Efficiency of 3

Increased demand for 106

Laborers, millions more needed 51

Opposed to organization of farmers 50

Wages advanced 105

Politics,

As relates to the farmers 30

Game, is a 162, 165

Laws, none in interest of agriculture 133

More than 86

Scientific 160

Questions and Answers,

Are agricultural colleges, farm papers, etc., doing good

for the farmers? 264

Are farmers taxed too heavily? 265

Are there too many farmers to cooperate? 256

Can farmers cooperate ? 254

Can farmers organize? 254

Can farmers in the United States secure profitable prices

for their crops regardless of European farmers? 266

Can this society regulate the price of potatoes? 261

Can you help the tobacco growers, who are now at the

mercy of the trust? 261

Can this society prevent the adulteration of food prod-
ucts? 263

Could the government help farmers by loaning them

money at a low rate of interest? 265

Could good prices be made for farm crops if your so-
ciety had a large capital with which to buy crops?. .. .265

INDEX 273

Questions and Answers — Continued. page

Do farmers need to market a twelve months' supply in a

few months ? 262

Do you think money can be well spent in marketing

farm crops ? 262

Do you think they would have succeeded if operated on

the plan of the A. S. of E. ? 264

Does speculation injure farmers? 255

How are members bound? 259

How about meat? Will prices advance? 260

How can agricultural products be removed from the list?. 255
How can poor farmers hold their crops to help maintain

the minimum price ? 257

How can farmers store their produce? 261

How does the food trust operate? 264

How will the farmers' organization affect labor? 260

How will this movement affect the producer of perisha-
ble products ? 260

How will this movement affect railroad rates, stock yard

charges, grain inspections, grading, etc.? 261

How many members had the alliance and grange? 264

If farmers can get good prices will they overproduce?. .257
If a surplus should exist at any time what will be done

with it ? 257

Is cheap food a blessing to the world ? 255

Is the A. S. of E. a secret society ? 259

Is "The American Society of Equity" a good name? 257

Is it a fact that the larger the crops the lower the prices?. 262

Is the ground as productive as formerly? 265

Is the 1903 wheat crop worth $1 a bushel ? 258

Must a member belong to a local union ? 259

On what does the prosperity of the country depend?. .. .263
Suppose buyers would not pay the price organized farm-
ers asked ? 264

Tell about the system of crop reporting 263

What are the local union membership fee and dues?.... 260

Why are these selected ? 255

What are the speculative commodities ? 255

274

INDEX

Questions and Answers — Continued. page

What will be the result if this effort to organize farmers

fails? 264

What do you mean by intensive farming? 265

What is the membership fee and dues 260

What will be the result of cooperation by farmers? 266

When is the time to organize the farmers ? 255

Will farmers become a power in politics when organ-
ized ? 265

Will farmers' business grow worse ? 255

Will farmers hold together ? 254

Will farmers stick together? 259

Will dollar wheat come? 258

Will profitable prices for farmers make higher prices for

consumers ? 260

Will the minimum price limit consumption? 261

Will you not need to control production as well as con-
sumption ? 262

Will it not be sufficient to have storehouses and get low

freight rates ? 262

Will plans be defeated if many farmers do not join?. .. .263

Who are eligible to membership in the A. S. of E. ? 259

Who will be injured by this movement? 263

Why not have a society for each crop? 263

Why not organize one state and see how the plan will

work ? 266

Why do you admit merchants, bankers, etc.? 259

Railroads,

Dependent on farmers 119

Discrimination in rates 119

Interstate Commerce Commission 169

Opposed to organization of farmers 36

Rates, fair and equitable 17, 99, 118

Speculation and Speculator,

Chicago gambler 2

Juggle with prices 6

INDEX 275

Questions and Answers — Continued. page

Opposed to organization of farmers 36

Speculator, the I2

Stop speculation I7

Trusts,

Farmers pay the advances 9

Land trust 7°

Extortion prevented by farmers' combine 130

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