1330 
RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
about  tin1  limit,  but  out  in  tluit  prairie  State  they 
had  a  star.  TIere  was  a  State  exclusively  agricul¬ 
tural,  inhabited  by  pioneers  or  their  children,  strong 
and  intelligent,  yet  absolutely  helpless  politically. 
The  State  was  run  by  a  gang  Of  politicians  who  had 
made  laws  which  protected  them  like  a  barbed  wire 
fence  behind  which  they  bought  and  sold  the  liber¬ 
ties  of  the  farmers. 
GO  HOME. — The  farmers,  in  fact  the  voters  of 
the  State  voted  twice  for  a  State-owned  terminal 
elevator  to  be  owned  and  operated  by  the  people. 
We  must  remember  that  the  great  wealth  of  North 
Dakota  lies  in  her  grain  crops.  For  years  the  rail¬ 
roads  and  the  elevator  trusts  have  systematically 
robbed  the  people  by  excessive  charges  and  a  fraud¬ 
ulent  system  of  grading.  The  people  stood  power¬ 
less  while  their  State  government  permitted  this 
grafting  to  go  on.  Thus  it  was  the  old  question  of 
the  35-cent  dollar  which  those  farmers  were  facing. 
Thus  they  voted  twice  for  a  Stale-owned  terminal 
to  cut  out  the  elevator  trust.  The  Legislature  re¬ 
fused  to  pass  the  bills  thus  demanded.  The  politi¬ 
cians  did  this  because  they  thought  themselves  se¬ 
cure  since  “these  farmers  never  rill  slid-."  At  the 
time  these  bills  were  turned  down  nearly  400  farm¬ 
ers  were  at  the  State  House  demanding  action. 
When  they  protested  they  got  such  classic  advice  as 
the  following: 
"Go  home  and  slop  the  pips." 
“ Go  home  and  clean  the  manure  off  your  hoots.” 
THEY  WENT  HOME.— And  there,  as  they  thought 
it  over,  the  truth  came  to  them.  They  had  been 
slopping  the  hogs  at  the  State  Capitol  too  long,  and 
now  they  must  knife  the  fat  hogs.  A  few  of  the 
more  influential  farmers  got  together  and  formed  a 
committee  which  was  to  draft  a  plan  of  action.  A 
little  later  A.  C.  Townley  of  Beech,  N.  D.,  took 
charge  and  started  the  Farmers’  Non-partisan 
League.  They  elected  ollicers,  organized  committees 
and  went  out  after  farmers  and  funds.  In  the  old 
days  when  horses  were  used  for  country  travel  the 
growth  would  have  been  slow,  but  the  automobile 
came  to  the  rescue,  and  enabled  them  to  rush  with 
a  novel  scheme. 
CO-OPERATIVE  CARS.— The  first  car  started  ill 
April  from  the  home  of  Vice-President  F.  B.  Wood 
of  Deering.  With  him  were  Mr.  Townley,  Ed.  Wood 
and  a  neighbor.  These  four  men  had  no  idea  When 
that  ear  puffed  out  into  the  road  that  they  had 
started  the  greatest,  experiment  in  pure  democroey 
that  this  nation  has  yet  witnessed.  The  plan  was  to 
go  into  a  county  and  find  10  men  who  thought 
enough  of  the  movement,  to  give  $50  each  in  check 
or  note  as  an  investment.  With  the  $500  thus  ob¬ 
tained  a  light  car  was  bought  and  four  more  men 
went  on  with  the  work.  In  a  surprisingly  short 
time  about  40  of  the  ears  were  carrying  the  news 
all  over  North  Dakota.  The  object  was  to  organize 
the  farmers  as  rapidly  and  solidly  as  possible.  This 
organization,  put  together  so  hurriedly,  is  a  marvel 
for  detail  work  They  have  a  weekly  paper  with  over 
50.000  circulation,  a  complete  organization  in  each 
township,  county  and  district,  and  what  is  best,  a 
sentiment  and  spirit  of  loyalty  that  makes  the  move¬ 
ment  like  a  crusade. 
‘•SIX -DOLLAR  SUCKERS.” — That  is  what  the 
politicians  called  them,  because  new  members  at  first 
paid  $6  each.  This  paid  for  one  year’s  subscription 
tit  the  league  paper  and  a  magazine,  the  expenses 
of  the  organizer,  the  upkeep  of  the  car  and  cam¬ 
paign  expenses,  A  small  sum  is  laid  aside  to  pay 
the  10  men  who  originally  provided  the  ear.  These 
dues  were  finally  raised  to  $0.  and  then  of  course 
the  farmers  were  “Nine-dollar  suckers.”  But  they 
kept  right  on,  and  the  movement  spread  like  a 
prairie  fire.  At  first  only  those  who  are  actual  farm¬ 
ers  were  permitted  to  join.  Then  it  was  found  that 
many  business  men  were  in  hearty  sympathy  and 
they  were  admitted,  but  have  no  power  to  vote  at 
the  meetings.  Conventions  in  township,  county  and 
districts  were  held  and  delegates  elected  to  a  State 
convention,  all  under  the  name  of  the  Farmers’  Non¬ 
partisan  League,  and  ignoring  political  party  lines. 
A  program  of  action  was  arranged,  the  most  import¬ 
ant  features  being: 
State  terminal  elevators,  flour  mills,  stock  yards, 
packing  plants  and  storage. 
State  bail  insurance — on  the  Canadian  plan. 
The  single  tax  on  farm  lands — that  is,  no  taxes 
mi  improvements. 
State  supervision  of  docking  and  grading  of  grain. 
Rural  credit  banks  at  cost  to  farmers. 
THE  POLITICAL  STDE. — By  the  end  of  1915 
there  were  48  ears  in  the  field  and  50.000  readers 
df  the  League  paper.  Then  came  the  question  as  to 
how  to  get  at  the  grafters.  North  Dakota  has  a 
primary  taw  so  contrived  that  only  candidates  for 
Republicans,  Democratic  and  Socialist  parties  could 
be  voted  for.  That  was  to  enable  the  politicians  to 
rut  out  any  new  party  in  the  primary.  The  State  is 
Republican  by  a  large  majority,  so  the  League  de¬ 
cided  to  win  control  of  that  party.  They  put  up 
candidates — men  who  were  true  blue  to  the  League 
principles — and  went,  oul  into  battle.  It  was  a  bit¬ 
ter  fight,  and  dirty  iu  some  places,  for  that  old 
ring  died  hard.  The  farmers  were  all  organized, 
and  knew  wliat.  they  were  doing,  and  they  nomin¬ 
ated  their  candidates  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
Then  they  got  control  of  the  Republican  Slate  com¬ 
mittee  and  put  their  full  program  into  the  party 
platform.  Tt  was  all  clone  regularly  and  in  an  or¬ 
derly  way.  They  have  a  full  State  ticket,  including 
member  of  the  Supreme  Court,  composed  of  farmers 
or  men  in  full  sympathy  with  the  program.  These  men 
are  sure  of  election  and  will  most  certainly  start 
these  reforms.  The  old  ring  is  whipped,  but  it  dies 
liard.  Tt  has  been  aide  to  cut  down  the  assessed 
valuation  of  the  State — the  object  being  to  compel 
the  fanners  to  raise  the  rate  of  taxation.  Then  tlie 
“ring”  will  use  that  as  an  argument.  We  expect  to 
see  the  daily  press  of  the  entire  country  next  year 
bristling  with  figures  to  show  that  these  farmers  are 
ruining  the  State  through  high  taxes.  Let  them 
bristle — lings  do  that  mostly — the  farmers  will  not 
be  frightened  from  their  purpose.  They  have  wisely 
decided  to  confine  their  work  to  State  issues.  They 
do  not  interfere  with  county  officers  or  with  T’resi- 
dential  or  Congressional  nominations. 
WHAT  IT  MEANS.— Such,  in  brief,  is  the  history 
of  this  remarkable  movement.  Tt  is  different  from 
anything  which  lias  come  before,  since  no  third  poli¬ 
tical  party  has  been  formed.  The  State  primary  law 
has  enabled  these  farmers  to  gain  control  of  one  of 
(lie  great  parties  and  use  it  for  its  purpose.  These 
North  Dakota  farmers  are  very  hopeful  over  the 
future.  They  believe  the  State  should  do  certain 
work  for  the  people  and  they  will  give  the  experiment 
a  fair  and  sure  trial.  We  believe  they  will  win  the 
election  and  that  they  will  give  the  world  a  great 
object  lesson  in  “government  of  the  people  and  by  the 
people.”  They  should  have  the  support  and  sym¬ 
pathy  of  all  farmers  throughout  the  country,  for  this 
is  the  same  old  fight  over  the  35-cent  dollar. 
To  what  extent  coukl  these  methods  be  applied  by 
Eastern  farmers?  Our  conditions  are  quite  different. 
We  have  a  much  larger  town  and  city  population,  and 
a  vast  army  of  people  who  are  living  on  the  income 
of  invested  money  for  which  they  never  worked. 
TliesC  people  are  usually  moral  cowards  when  it 
comes  to  social  improvement,  through  political  action. 
They  dare  not  run  any  risk,  even  though  they  know 
that  their  money  is  invested  in  enterprises  of  ques¬ 
tionable  morality.  Our  farmers  would  have  more 
trouble  in  organizing  such  a  campaign,  yet  it  is  pos¬ 
sible,  and  we  believe  the  time  is  approaching  when 
something  of  the  sort  must  be  done.  The  recent  ex¬ 
perience  iu  the  milk  battle  has  start  led  every  poli¬ 
tician  in  the  State.  No  one  ever  expected  that  those 
dairymen  could  bang  together,  or  learn  how  to  go 
on  picket  duty  so  effectively.  What  they  did  was 
wonderful,  and  the  politicians  sec  in  it  a  power  of 
thorough  and  stubborn  organization  which  makes 
them  shake  their  beads.  Then  too,  the  city  people 
sided  with  the  farmers  just  as  soon  as  they  under¬ 
stood  the  situation.  We  have  letters  here  from  city 
men  who  say  their  families  will  willingly  go  without 
milk  until  the  fight  is  settled  right.  As  for  issues — 
that  State-owned  terminal  in  North  Dakota  will  pro¬ 
tect  farmers — and  State-controlled  terminals  in  New 
York  city  will  save  our  own  fanners  from  robbers  and 
parasites.  There  are  many  other  things  in  which  tlie 
interests  of  Western  and  Eastern  fanners  run  on 
parallel  lines.  We  may  as  well  start  our  campaign 
this  year.  That  is  why  we  put  up  the  issue  of  the 
Foods  and  Markets  Department.  This  is  the  first 
real  attempt  to  put  what,  we  may  call  business  punch 
into  marketing.  Do  you  want  it  to  develop  or  not? 
T.et  us  take  tills  iq*  as  the  first  point  of  our  political 
program  and  make  it  an  issue  by  refusing  t<>  vote 
for  any  candidate  for  office  in  (he  State  of  New  York 
Who  will  not  pledge  himself  to  give  this  Department 
a  fair  chance! 
Co-operation  in  Washington,  D.  C. 
By  a  Former  Chairman  in  the  Home  Club 
Part  TY. 
FARM  PRODUCTS.— Tlie  writer  maintained  dur¬ 
ing  his  chairmanship  of  the  food  supply  committee, 
that  tlie  Home  Club  could  afford  to  pay  farmers  a 
little  more  than  the  ordinary  wholesale  prices  of¬ 
fered  in  the  local  market,  in  order  to  encourage 
them  to  deliver  their  produce  directly  to  the  Home 
Club  from  their  farms  near  Washington.  The  farm¬ 
ers  who  looked  into  the  matter  were  informed, 
however,  by  parties  more  interested  in  maintaining 
high  retail  prices  than  in  saving  money  to  clerks, 
that  if  they  (the  farmers)  were  caught  in  the  act  of 
October  21,  191C. 
delivering  their  produce  to  the  Home  Club,  they 
need  not  bring  any  more  stuff  to  tlie  wholesale  mar¬ 
ket.  Comptroller  Ryan,  in  bis  latest  report  of 
Home  Club  activities,  states  that  the  cooperative- 
buying  for  the  last  three  months  noted  amounted 
to  ft  1.000,  and  that  the  entire  cost  of  buying  and 
delivering  food  supplies  for  that  period  amounted 
to  9.74  cents  on  the  dollar;  or.  in  round  numbers,  10 
per  cent,  of  the  purchase  price.  For  example,  a  bar¬ 
rel  of  apples  costing  $2  wholesale  could  be  deliv¬ 
ered  at  $2.20.  .Such  apples,  at  ordinary  market 
prices  iu  Washington,  would  cost  the  clerk  $3  to  $4 
by  the  barrel,  and  at.  retail  much  more.  Mr.  Ryan 
says,  however,  that  $15,000  worth  of  produce  could 
have  been  handled  at  the  same  cost,  making  the 
expense  less  than  eight  per  cent,  for  handling.  Thus 
the  farmer  could  expect  to  receive  much  more  than 
the  traditional  35  cents  out  of  bis  dollar  when  deal¬ 
ing  directly  with  the  Home  Club,  as  the  manage¬ 
ment  hopes  may  be  done.  If  the  ideal  of  a  great 
civil  service  buying  club  in  Washington  is  realized, 
the  management  will  doubtless  employ  regular  buy¬ 
ers  to  go  on  the  road  and  contract  for  delivery  of 
entire  crops  directly  with  tlie  farmers,  cash  on  de¬ 
livery.  The  first  step  toward  a  consolidation  of  all 
the  cooperative  mercantile  activities  in  the  District 
of  Columbia  lias  been  effected  by  the  Home  Club 
through  coalition  with  the  Civil  Service  Coiiperators 
(Incorporated)  under  the  joint  management  of  Mr. 
.T.  A.  P.  Farnliam.  The  chairman  of  the  sub-com¬ 
mittee  on  food  supply  is  Mr.  George  Scharf  of  the 
Pension  Office,  and  Mr.  Walter  B.  Frye  of  the  In¬ 
dian  Office  heads  the  “Factory  to  Consumer”  in¬ 
terests. 
FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES.— These  few  facts  may 
serve  as  an  illustration  of  what  may  be  done  in 
other  centers  besides  Washington  toward  giving  -'.he 
consumer  better  and  cheaper  supplies  direct  from 
the  form,  and  returning  a  better  profit  to  the  farm¬ 
er  himself.  Tlie  time  seems  to  be  approaching  when 
the  cream  of  the  farm’s  profits  will  not  be  skimmed 
off  by  the  man  who  never  hoed  a  row  of  corn, 
planted  a  potato,  or  milked  a  cow  in  liis  life,  and 
when  tin*  toiler  in  the  cities  can  feed  and  clothe  him¬ 
self  and  family  cheaper  and  better  than  over  before. 
Middlemen  there  will  always  be,  and  we  must  have 
them,  but  they  will  have  to  be  contented  with  less 
profits  while  giving  better  service.  It  may  be  that 
we  stand  before  a  period  of  great  economic  change, 
and  that  a  strain  will  be  put  upon  our  resources 
that  will  force  everyone  to  more  economy  than  has 
heretofore  seemed  necessary.  It  is  better  to  adopt 
that  economy  before  being  forced  to  do  it,  and  pro¬ 
vide  ourselves  with  a  bulwark  of  strength  to  meet 
any  emergency.  Not  always  will  the  sun  of  pros¬ 
perity  shine  upon  us;  rainy  days  come  to  nations  as 
to  individuals.  But  there  is  no  country  under  the 
sun  that  can  be  made  so  strong,  economically,  as 
Ibis  great  land  of  ours,  where  most  that  we 
use  is  produced  in  all  abundance.  That  very  abund¬ 
ance  has  made  us  somewhat  careless,  but  the  awful 
tragedy  across  I  he  sea  is  already  casting  its  shadow 
upon  us.  and  that  shadow  is  writing  upon  our  walls 
the  warning  that  we  must  prepare  for  trouble  our¬ 
selves  some  day.  If  our  internal  economy  is  all 
right;  if  our  sources  of  production  are  properly 
managed  and  the  products  served  out  with  the  least 
possible  waste  of  substance  and  expense,  we  will 
lie  hard  to  conquer,  and  bold  indeed  would  be  the 
nation  to  try  it.  lindsay  s.  perkins. 
New  York. 
Farm  Storage  for  Potatoes  and  Fruit 
THE  question  of  farm  storage  of  fruits  and  vege¬ 
tables  in  a  climate  like  New  England  is  of  great 
importance.  In  the  potato-growing  sections  of 
Maine  large  and  expensive  storage  houses  have  been 
built,  many  times  adding  materially  to  tlie  expense 
of  the  crop.  These  houses  have  cost  from  one  to 
three  thousand  dollars,  and  are  of  value  mostly  only 
for  the  commercial  crops.  Ill  the  ordinary  farm¬ 
house  of  the  State  there  is  ample  cellar  room  for 
the  vegetables  and  apples  that  are  raised.  When  an 
outside  rollway  is  provided  this  makes  a  cheap  and 
convenient  method  of  storage.  To  some  it  may  not 
seem  right  for  these  vegetables  to  be  stored  under 
living  rooms,  but  with  the  ideas  of  ventilation  that 
now  prevail,  well  curried  out,  there  can  be  no  ser¬ 
ious  objection  to  this. 
Potatoes  may  be  safely  stored  by  digging  pits  in 
the  ground  of  sufficient  size  to  hold  from  100  to  200 
bushels.  When  they  are  so  stored  they  retain  the 
freshness  of  potatoes  just  dug,  as  they  will  not 
sprout  in  such  a  pit.  If  there  is  a  place  near  the 
farm  building  where  the  land  is  of  a  sufficiently  por¬ 
ous  nature  to  permit  of  good  drainage,  pits  of  this 
kind  can  be  dug,  and  tlie  potatoes  stored  in  them 
may  be  removed  on  any  warm  day  in  Winter  when 
