could have done
without them; but when a few firms took them up, of course the rest
had to follow suit, or fall behind in the race of competition. We
have had to pay a heavy royalty on some of these machines, and it
has been rather galling to count out our hard-earned dollars to the
company which has bought up most of the patents, and is making 100
per cent. a year on what it paid for them, with no risk, and
without doing a stroke of work. Now if we manufacturers could work
in harmony, we could make this company come down from their high
horse, and they would have to ask a reasonable price for their
machines. But we could do more than this. It stands to reason that
a good many improvements will be made in our machinery in the
future. We don't object to paying a fair price to any inventor who
will work out these new ideas for us; but it does seem unjust for
him to go and sell them to some outside company for a song, and
have that company bleed the users of the improvement for every
ounce they will stand. Now, by working together, we can refuse to
pay royalties on any thing new which comes up; but require,
instead, that any new patent in our line be submitted to a
committee, who will examine and test it; and if they find it to be
of value, will purchase it for the use of all members of the
association.

Some of the members thought this was as far as we ought to go. They
were opposed to "trusts" on principle. But the great majority saw
so clearly where we could continue to better ourselves that they
became enthusiastic over it.

Some speculators, in years of short crops, have occasionally tried
to "corner" flax-seed in a small way. We could refuse to buy except
directly from the growers, and that branch of speculation would be
a thing of the past. We have sent out some pretty sharp men as
buyers, and sometimes they have bought flax-seed in some of the
backwoods districts at very low rates. At other times, two buyers
from rival firms have run counter to each other, and paid prices
larger than their employers could really afford. But with our
combination, we cannot only fix uniform prices for seed, but we can
send out only enough buyers to cover the territory; and the work of
buying is reduced to simply inspecting and weighing the seed.

N