Page:Oscar Ameringer - Socialism for the Farmer (1912).djvu/17

 hoping that somewhere, sometime, somebody would pay him something for the fruit of his toil.

So long as the unorganized farmers dealt with unorganized buyers, the prices of farm products were determined by the law of supply and demand. But when the industries in which farm, products are prepared for final consumption became trustified, a small and powerful clique of trust magnates set the price of farm products within certain limitations.

In order that a farmer may be able to raise crops he must have food, clothing, Shelter, tools and animals. Should his income fall below the point where he can no longer acquire these necessities, he must cease to produce. By pauperizing the farmers completely the trusts would kill the goose that lays the golden egg, and so it may be said that in the long run the income of the farmer is determined by what it costs ta keep him alive and in working condition, while he works for the trusts.

No commodity is produced until it has reached the consumer. A hog has no value to the consumer until he is converted into ham, bacon, pork chops, tenderloin, and pickled pig's feet. To prepare the hog for consumption, railroads, packing plants, refrigerator cars and market facilities are required. But these industries and facilities belong not to the farmer, but to the capitalist. The farmer owns the hog, and the hog has no value as food as long as he is a hog; hence the hog must be sold to the capitalist who owns the pork machinery. The capitalist is in business for profit and profit is the difference between the cost of production and the selling price of a thing. It is to the interest of the capitalist to buy cheap and sell high, while it is to the interest Of the farmer to sell high and buy cheap.

If the farmer could reach the consumer directly he would charge all he could get, but this pleasure is taken from him by the owner of the hog converting machine, who sets the price of hogs to the farmer and the price of pork to the consumer.

When the farmer is both producer and consumer he gets it going and coming. In the latter case he often sells the whole hog for less money than it costs him to buy back one lower side of the swine.

The hog raiser is dependent on the market. He no more sets the price on his hog than the wage worker in the pork factory sets the price on his labor power. The ownership of the pork industry gives to the owners of the hog a price that