r. The result has been to
force the building up of a domination by certain concerns who control
many of the cars and stifle free competition. Much the same results have
been attained by special groups in control of stock yards and, in some
cases, of elevators. Where such formal or informal monopolies grow up,
they are public utilities, and if the farmer is to have a free market
they must be replaced by constructive public service.

A FREE MARKET

Every impediment to free marketing in produce either gives special
privileges or increases the risks which the farmer must pay for in
diminished returns. We have some commodities where manufacture has grown
into such units that these units exert such an influence that they
consciously or unconsciously affect the price levels of the farmer's
produce. When a few concerns have the duty of manufacturing and storing
the seasonal reserves in a single commodity they naturally reduce prices
during the heavy production season and increase them in the short season
as a method of diminishing their risk and increasing profits. Moreover,
their tendency is often to sell the minor portion of their product that
goes for export at lower than the domestic price in order to dispose of
it without depressing local prices. They do not need to conspire, for
there can be perfectly coincident action to meet the same economic
currents. Such coincidence has much greater possibilities of general
influence with a few concerns in the field than if there were many.

The experience gained in the Food Administration on these problems
during the war led to the feeling expressed at that time, that such
business should be confined to one line of activity, just as we have had
to confine our railways, banks and insurance companies. This is useful
to prevent reliance being placed upon the profits of alternative
products when engaged in stifling of competition, through selling below
cost on some other item. Even this restriction may not prove to be
sufficient protection to free market by free competition. I am not a
believer in nationalization as the solution to this form of domination,
but I am a believer in regulation, if it should prove necessary. If
experience proves we have to go to regulation, it is my belief that it
should be confined to overswollen units and that the point of departure
should not be the amount of capital employed but the proportion of a
given commodity that is controlled. The point of dep