"Whether there is a bounteous crop or a short one, the Trust still
controls the wheat and flour and arbitrarily fixes their price.
"When the newspapers assert that the farmers enjoy the advance of the
price of a season's crop, they state an absolute falsehood.
"By the system that prevails in this country to-day, as a result of the
Wheat Trust, crops are sold a year in advance. There are never two years
of exceptionally large crops; so the benefit of the advance of one year
does not go over to the next.
"The farmers of this country are compelled, by the present system, to
pledge their next year's crop to the local wheat factors who control the
elevators. The purchase price is determined by the factor. The farmer
receives a certain number of bushels of 'seed' wheat from the factor,
agreeing to repay him with two or two and a half bushels of the coming
crop; a large percentage of the remainder of the crop is pledged to the
local store-keeper for the goods that the farmer must have to do his
work and to live upon.
"Wheat is the medium of exchange. The Trust's price is the measure of
value. Why? Because the farmer cannot sell to any one except to an agent
of the Trusts, as the Trust has arranged traffic rates with every
railroad; and the wheat, if bought by any one outside of the Trust,
could not be transported to a market and sold at a profit.
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