THE STRUGGLE FOR FARM FREEDOM

...The mad pit in action...

...Seasoned with years of experience, fortified with the confidence of his State-Protected franchise, safeguarded with the blood-money of the farm and the mulcted millions of the weak-minded, he suddenly dives upon the maddened throng and as the lion scatters the smaller beasts, he proceeds to devour the weaklings which the private wires, black-boards and Chamber 'cappers' have invited to his daily feast...

...Every ear trained for the offer, every eye searching for the bid, they swoop down upon one another with the swiftness of the vulture and the talons of the eagle to devour the dollar, even as buzzards push and fight for the dead carcass on the plains...

...THE Northwest farmers, thus equipped with information, began to study what may be termed "The Trip of the Bushel" from the farmer to the consumer...

...A BATTLE ROYAL IS ON INVOLVING THE GREAT PRINCIPLE AS TO WHETHER OR NOT THE PRODUCERS OF THIS COUNTRY MAY BE PERMITTED TO MARKET THEIR CROPS THEMSELVES WITHOUT BEING DOMINATED AND DICTATED TO BY THE ORGANIZED TERMINAL MONOPOLY OPERATING WITHIN THESE GRAIN EXCHANGES...

...The grain then enters public storage where the excessive charge of one cent per bushel per month is absorbed from the product...

...It became perfectly clear that this manipulation and selling out of "futures" was the most potent factor in the depreciation of wheat values and that actual wheat prices followed the course of the "future" market, and that there were three hundred times more "futures" sold than actual wheat received at these markets...

...The "dummy" then sells it to an elevator man who manipulates grain in a mixing house, known in the trade as a "hospital...

...It did not take these sturdy farmers very long to realize that the whole wheat situation of the country was based upon THE FARMER BEING OBLIGED TO TURN OVER HIS CROP TO GRAIN GAMBLERS AND WAREHOUSE MANIPULATORS, who were protected by ironclad rules of Commercial Exchanges, with favorable licenses granted by such Exchanges, and in many cases also protected with railway rates and privileges which the public was unable to secure...

...This organization is composed entirely of farmers engaged in the business of handling grain from these independent farmers and farmers' elevators DIRECT to millers and consumers throughout the country...

...It must not be overlooked that the farmers themselves are a great fighting force and many splendid champions of the Independence of Agri-iculture are numbered among the leaders in this progressive movement...

...THE FIGHT in the Northwest is being led chiefly by George S. Loftus, the sales manager of the Farmers' Terminal organization, the Equity Co-operative Exchange in the city of St...

...The grain then goes to Chicago or Minneapolis where the commission merchant exacts a charge of one cent per bushel...

...This led to the organization of many independent farmers' cooperative elevators throughout the West and more recently to the establishment of a farmers' Terminal Selling Agency in the city of St...

...It was found that when grain leaves the farm it is sold at the country elevators which of course demand a profit for handling...

...Cities boast of its triumphs, though its very doors are strewn with the memories of shattered fortunes, and the dying groans of suicides, embezzlers, and financial wrecks...

...The further discovery was made that immense private wire systems were established throughout the country extending from ocean to ocean, for the express purpose of inviting speculators of all kinds to enter the "game" in grain and buy on margins, whose purchases were in many cases made from the elevator monopolies who controlled the deliverable grain at the treminals, such monopolies being seasoned, trained professionals, while the buying speculators were merely novices in the "same...

...About three years ago a number of thoughtful farmers began to study the inside workings of the Minneapolis Chamber and the Chicago Board of Trade with a view of unraveling the mysteries of those organizations...

...The commission merchant frequently sells this grain to a company which he himself controls and this "dummy" or "subsidiary co-worker" also absorbs a profit...

...This elevator also exacts a profit...

...Not until recently has any effective organization become sufficiently strong to prove a factor in the battle at the Grain Terminals...

...Paul...

...Confronted with the spectacle of a great State, through its public officials in the interests of the large organized grain Exchanges of the country trying to crush an organization of farmers engaged in the single purpose of endeavoring to escape the rascality of the organized forces at the terminal markets, the Equity is creating a sentiment in the Northwest equal in spirit and enthusiasm to the days of the Civil War...

...Last February, during a very spirited debate in the House of Representatives at the Capitol at Bismarck, N. D., in pleading for the establishment of an open market for grain, freed from th'e curse which now exists at the terminals, one of the Equity speakers voiced the sentiments of a large number of farmers who marched up to the Capitol building and requested a hearing in favor of a state-owned elevator to be established by North Dakota in the City of St...

...Associated with him in the active work are Ex-Congressman James Manahan of Minnesota, Benjamin Drake of Minneapolis, M. D. Munn of St...

...Yes, this is the game which shapes the destinies of the farm, controls legislatures, subsidizes the press, moulds public opinion and force3 children to follow the plow...

...Paul...

...Hundreds of men jump, rush, grab, tumble and yell in the great whirl-pool of the pit...

...Paul, J. M. Anderson and the splendid Farmer Board of Directors of the Equity Co-operative Exchange, as well as hundreds of Northwest farmer stockholders...

...IT IS but natural that this control of farmers' grain by farmers themselves through their own Marketing Agency should arouse the antagonism of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and the Chicago Board of Trade, who have for so many years controlled and manipulated the markets through the possession of the grain which farmers were obliged to give to them on account of lack of organization to handle it themselves...

...The receipt of the grain in public storage then becomes the foundation for the "hedging" and "short selling" system in the pits which results in the "selling short" of the tremendous lines of "futures" which today are the curse of the wheat raisers of the Northwest...

...This suit thus instituted at the instigation of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, led to a number of mass meetings which have been filled with more enthusiasm than has been manifested in the Northwest for many years...

...The Struggle for Farm Freedom A Battle Royal Between Northwest Wheat Raisers and the Grain Trust By SAMUEL HALLETT GREELEY FOR the past thirty years, at least, the wheat raisers of the Northwest have been subjected to a marketing system at prominent terminals, chiefly Minneapolis and Chicago, which is meeting with determined opposition...

...columns of the daily newspapers...

...It became further evident to farmers that in order to protect themselves from these conditions it would be necessary to control their own grain as completely as possible from the farm to the independent millers who grind wheat into flour...

...that this "short selling" system became the basis of "freezing out" buyers of "futures" and the collection of differences through clearing houses of these Exchanges and the absorption of margins from unwary speculators who were enticed in the "future game...

...Paul, Minnesota, known as the Equity Co-operative Exchange...

...As a result of this independent attitude of farmers, and the establishment of their own terminal distributing company, together with the intention of farmers to build proper terminal elevator facilities to assist them in marketing, the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce instituted a lawsuit in Fargo, North Dakota, through Attorney General Linde of that State, to dispossess the farmers of their charter, being incorporated under the laws of North Dakota, and to force the Equity Co-operative Exchange into a receivership, on the grounds that the farmers are defrauding farmer shippers by false representations as to the marketing of products through their own agency at St...

...Ye mighty pit...

...These farmers also learned that the domination of public storage led to the artificial mixture and accumulation of grain which was used as the basis and insurance of an immense "short selling" system and control of the trading in "grain futures...

...Vain are your victories, infamous are your spoils...

...This "short selling" system has given birth to such expressions in the trade as "raiding the market," "hedging," "effective selling pressure," "bear onslaught," "drastic liquidation," "selling drive," "pit speculators," "sharp breaks," "wild fluctuations," "stop-loss orders," "cleaning out of weak holders," etc., which fill the...

...Paul...

...These farmers became convinced that the public warehouses at Chicago and Minneapolis, by virtue of political alliances and State protected franchises, together with privileges granted them through the Exchanges in which they held memberships, were enabled TO ABSOLUTELY DOMINATE PUBLIC STORAGE FACILITIES of the two most important grain markets in the world...

...These words are so expressive that they are offered in the hope that the public may become more fully arous-2d as to conditions which now exist against the interests of the Northwestern producers: THE PIT "At 9:30 the gong in the tower signals the debauch...

...But in the midst of the intoxication, this drunken frenzy of money-mad insanity, there stands the cool, trained veteran, the elevator monopoly...

...Oh...