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If he refuses to sell at five cents. per pound in Kansas City, he may reload his stock and ship it to the Chicago Stock Yards, belonging to the same trust, and sell them for a nickle per pound. By the time he has deducted feed bills and additional transportation charges, he can be glad that his cattle pass entitles him to a return trip home.
The cattle man is only the owner of the first few links in the chain of production. The ownership of land and cattle does not prevent his exploitation by the Armours, Swifts and Sulzbergers, who own the packing houses and the market facilities. On his way to the consumer he finds his road blocked by the capitalist owner of the greater means of production, who says, "Stand and deliver."
Sometimes cattle are high and sometimes low. Some cattlemen make money, others go into bankruptcy. But on an average the cow man receives enough for his stock to keep him alive and in working condition to raise more steers for the meat trust.
PICKING THE COTTON PICKER.
King Cotton, Queen Poverty, Prime Minister Hunger and Court Chaplain Ignorance rule the cotton states
Cotton is the devil's own crop. It takes thirteen months out of the twelve and all the children out of school to raise a cotton crop.
Raw cotton on the farm has no more value than ice on the North Pole. To prepare cotton for the consumer it must go through
THE GIN,
THE COMPRESS,
over
THE RAILROAD,
through
THE COTTON MILL
THE CLOTHING FACTORY
and
THE STORE.
The cotton raiser may be the proud owner of land, mules, implements, cotton bags, and children, but the cotton gin, the compress, the railroad, the cotton mill, the clothing factory and the store belong to Mr. Capitalist, and this gentleman sets the price of cotton and regulates the price of clothing. The result is that the cotton raiser's family, who produce enough cotton in one season to clothe themselves for a life time, are forced to dress in rags and shoddy. In a pinch the hog raiser may eat his own hog. The wheat farmer can take his wheat
