The Southwest Farmer from Wichita, Kansas • 1

VOLUME III WICHITA, KANSAS, MARCH 6, 1908 NUMBER 50 THE SELLING SIDE OF 1VIODERN FARMING. ance of life and the winning of comforts, and made him the most independent of men, but in the midst of his arduous toil, he forgot that his independency was in what he produced and that the exercise and enjoyment of it was in the price. Whenever he dumped his stuff at unseasonable times on glutted markets, at prices made by he knew not whom, nor how, nod why, he surrendered his independence and became a hewer of wood and drawer of water for those who speculated in the results of his labor. Since God commanded the far- we may take it for granted that the labors necessary to the worlds welfare and progress are happily divided and, let us hope, equitably apportioned, if each will do his wrork well within the atmosphere of that brotherhood, little else could be desired for the prosperity and happiness of the race. But it is a fact that, notwithstanding all must depend upon the farmer for their very existence as well as their prosperity, the farmer, through all the years, has had less of independence in business and of privilege with his products than has any other class.

lie at once on a glutted market. Some think it cant be done. Then from the independence God gave his calling, the farmer has become a commercial slave. If he is doomed to eternally sell what is his own at prices made by the buyer and to buy all he must have at prices made by the seller a slave could be no more helpless in a financial sense. But that is a position of his own choosing.

He can help it if he will. The Farmers Equity Brotherhood, through the Agricultural Southwest, intends to help. Prices and Production. Farmers as a class are entitled to no more consideration than any other class of equally good and useful citizens. But they are entitled to as much, and may of right do in their interest and for the good of their calling what other classes mal do for theirs.

In this matter farmers may learn lessons from what is done by other productive interests and those who are inclined to find fault with farmers for asserting their rights may get a wholesome lesson In the same school. Information from Cleveland, is to the effect that at a meeting of the steel trust magnates, at was decided, on account of the financial stress, to limit the production of the ore mines in the Lake Superior region in order to keep prices steady. The statement was authorized that the output of the mines for this year would not be allowed to exceed 60 per cent of the output of last year. This will reduce the iron movement by the Great Lakes fleet from 41,288,775 tons in 1907 to about 25,000,000 tons in 1908. President Corey, of the steel trust, said the steel output for December was not more than 36 per cent of the normal output, and that since then it had not been brought up to more than half of the normal.

Thus, it seems that so soon as the financial stringency came with its price reducing accompaniment, the steel production of the country was rcluced more than half in order to compel prices to stay up, which the product of the iron mines was cut down about as much for the same purpose. The stringency struck agrlcul- (Continued on Page 6.) Adapted from the Journal of Agriculture, by John P. Stelle. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread! was the injunction laid down upon the original man on leaving an Eden where everything had already been provided for his sustenance, comfort and happiness, the only labor required of his being to dress it and keep it. But out of Eden, he to till the ground.

It is therefore, natural, philosophical and Scripture that the tiller of the ground should be Independent of every other creature, dependent only upon God for the increase. And he Is independent of all others. Supplemented and aided by beast and bird that are his, his toil brings from the earth everything necessary for his life and comfort. If he needs bread, his wheat and corn fields produce It. For meat his cattle, sheep and hogs give up their lives and their fatness.

Ills gardens furnish him choicest vegetables, and his orchards the most delicious fruits. To make him clothing his cotton fields grow white and his sheep give him their wool. True, It is much more convenient for him to all others to take these substances, as Is done now, and convert them Into clothing for his use, but if he must, he can do it himself as he did in the older days. If he desires sweets, the maples in his groves, the cane in his plantations, and the beets in his fields surrender their juices, and his bees gather honey for him from the flowers. And so it is along the entire line of lifes necessaries and many of its richest luxuries.

He does not need to buy anything to live in comfort and with abundance, all things needed are his by production, and he is Indebted to no other human being for them. On the other hand, all other classes must look to the farmer for all these things. The farmer can live without the others, but not one of the others can live without the farmer. We are expressing these thoughts not to create antagonism between the classes. All humans are brothers, with Interests closely interwoven, and international Harvester Headquarters, Douglas and Santa Fe.

has been looked upon as the servant of all, which he truly is, and in modern life as an animal to be petted and groomed in politics, but in all else as a useful but not much to be regarded instrument of production for others to enjoy. He may pile up mountains of commodities that the world must have, and the world prices 'them and takes them. He may labor in season and out, but others determine what the labor shall be worth. He passes to the mills at whatever price they may offer, the cotton from his fields and the wool from his flocks, to be converted into clothing for his use, but when the clothing comes he pays not what he offers, but what the furnisher demands. God set the farmer to work, gave him all the materials for the susten- mer to till the ground, and placed therein the elements of life for man and beast, the farmer is under obligation to faithfully do that work and feed and clothe the world, but he is under no obligation to do so unless he re-no obligation to do so unless he receives therefor reasonable remuneration and as the party who has done the labor and owns the goods by right of production, he should be consulted as to what he will accept in exchange for them.

This is not a radical proposition. It is a simple demand for undis-putable justice; a right which no other class on earth would surrender. What does it mean? Simply that the farmer becomes a business man; that he prepare to take care of his stuff, and give it to the world as consumption needs it, Instead of dumping it all.