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 THIRD POWER 
 
 FARMERS 
 O THE FRONT 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 /?6J
 
 I9.6J 
 
 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
 
 i 3 o 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
 
 i 4 o 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 
 w r ith, 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
 
 i 9 4 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 L T nited 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. jr ijty 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 4 2 
 
 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 I7 1 
 
 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 I 7 
 
 Trusts, 
 
 Farmers pay the advances 9 
 
 Land trust 7° 
 
 Extortion prevented by farmers' combine 130
 
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