Published  by 
The  Rural  Publishing  Co, 
N  333  W.  30th  Street 
New  York 
The  Rural  NewYorker 
The  Business  Farmer’s  Paper 
Weekly,  One  Dollar  Per  Year 
Postpaid 
Single  Copies,  Five  Cents 
VOL.  LX XV. 
NEW  YORK,  NOVEMBER  4,  191G. 
No.  440: 
The  35-Cent  Dollar 
What  It  Is  ;  How  It  Was  Started 
I  have  been  told  that  the  origin  of  the  term  “the 
35-cent  dollar,”  meaning  that, the  farmer  received  but 
35  cents  of  the  consumer’s  dollar,  has  been  ascribed  to 
The  Rural  New-Yorker.  If  this  is  true,  will  you 
kindly  tell  me  when  the  phrase  first  appeared?  To  what 
do  you  credit  the  widespread  Use  of  the  expression  at 
present?  I  had  a  hazy  impression  that  it  was  due 
largely  to  Its  appearance  in  the  “Report  of  the  Mayor’s 
Market  Commission  of  New  York  City,”  but  1  fail  to 
find  reference  to  it  in  a  casual  perusal  of  the  report. 
HAROLD  J.  CLAY, 
Office  of  Markets  and  Rural  Organization. 
WE  plead  guilty  to  starting  two  phrases  which 
have  worked  their  way  into  popular  thought. 
These  are  “the  35-cent  dollar”  and  “The  Apple  Con¬ 
sumers’  League.”  About  15  years  ago  the  writer 
was  asked  to  analyze  the  commission  returns  made 
that  a  few  farmers  with  a  special  location  received 
practically  the  entire  consumer’s  dollar,  as  they 
could  trade  direct.  Other  farmers  actually  received 
less  than  10  Cents  of  the  dollar  which  was  finally 
paid  for  their  produce.  Some  products,  like  eggs 
or  butter,  showed  a  closer  margin  between  consum¬ 
er  and  producer.  Others,  like  fruit,  showed  a 
mighty  contrast.  On  an  average  of  thousands  of 
actual  cases  we  found  that  the  farmer  received  less 
than  34  cents  of  the  dollar  which  the  consumer  fin¬ 
ally  paid.  There  were  GO  cents  which  always  stuck 
on  the  fingers  of  the  handlers. 
Now  we  felt  that  here  was  the  foundation  fact  in 
the  trouble  which  was  eating  the  heart  out  of  farm¬ 
ing,  and  filling  the  farmer  with  discontent  and  dis¬ 
couragement.  That  old  farmer  at  the  fruit  meeting 
had  it  right.  Men  and  women  were  trying  to  pay 
will  about  the  decadence  of  the  republic.  It  is  still 
a  fact  that  if  you  can  get  the  truth  of  any  vital 
question  into  the  mind  and  thought  of  the  people 
they  will  finally  settle  it  right.  It  is  also  true  that 
you  cannot  put  a  false  statement  into  the  minds  of 
the  people  and  have  it  remain  there  permanently. 
So  we  started  the  campaign  of  the  35-cent  dollar. 
At  first  no  notice  was  taken  of  it.  We  kept  right 
on  illustrating  it  first  in  one  way  and  then  in  an¬ 
other.  Then  came  a  lot  of  wise  men  to  prove  that 
there  was  no  such  thing.  We  kept  right  on, 
for  we  found  that  every  one  of  these  “statisti¬ 
cians”  was  in  some  way  employed  by  those  who  were 
fingering  the  G5  cents.  Then  came  ridicule  hot  and 
blasting.  We  kept  right  on,  for  we  knew  the  thing 
was  taking  hold.  Our  answer  to  all  critics  has  been 
the  challenge  to  find  any  farmer  who  has  sent  goods 
A  Herd  of  Milk  Makers  Celebrating  the  Raise  in  Milk  Prices.  Fig.  561 
to  fruit  shippers  in  the  Hudson  Valley.  We  collect¬ 
ed  hundreds  of  commission  men’s  returns,  and  fig¬ 
ured  out  carefully  what  the  grower  received.  Then 
we  bought  sample  goods  at  retail  and  compared 
prices.  It  was  evident  that  when  a  housewife  in 
the  city  spent  one  dollar  in  buying  this  fruit,  the 
farmer  who  produced  it  and  paid  the  cost  received 
a  fraction  over  34  cents.  We  went  over  the  figures 
again  and  again,  and  they  were  always  the  same. 
We  gave  these  results  in  a  paper  before  the  old 
Eastern  New  York  Horticultural  Society,  and  a 
farmer  stood  up  in  the  meeting  and  said: 
‘7  see  note  whg  I  cl o  not  pan  my  mortgage.  1  am 
obliged  to  settle  for  it  in  100-ccnt  dollars,  while  I 
am  paid  in  85-ccvt  dollars!” 
That  was  the  beginning  of  it.  We  made  a  busi¬ 
ness  of  investigating  this  chain  of  cash  transactions 
between  the  consumer  and  the  producer.  We  found 
their  debts,  raise  and  educate  tlieir  families  and  do 
their  honest  duty  as  citizens  on  a  35-cent  dollar ! 
The  struggle  was  too  much  for  them,  and  they  were 
going  down  under  it.  The  05  cents  of  the  consum¬ 
er’s  dollar  always  turned  up  finally  in  the  town  and 
city  in  the  hands  of  the  interests,  which  have  al¬ 
ways  tried  to  control  and  subdue  the  farmer.  The 
boys,  made  strong  and  virile  under  the  hardships 
enforced  by  the  35-cent  dollar,  went  down  tlie  hills 
to  town  in  order  to  get  their  fingers  on  a  share  of 
the  05  cents. 
Here  was  the  great  industrial  tragedy  of  farm 
life — the  35-cent  dollar.  It  was  all  the  more  pitiful 
because  the  farmers  did  not  fully  understand  what 
they  were  doing  or  where  this  money  went  to.  We 
know  of  only  one  way  in  which  a  great  public  wrong 
can  be  made  right.  That  is  to  put  the  truth  of  it 
right  into  popular  thought.  You  may  say  what  you 
to  be  sold  on  commission  to  show  up  his  returns. 
We  are  to  find  the  consumer’s  price  and  compare  it 
with  what  the  farmer  received.  The  Department  of 
Agriculture  took  hold  of  the  thing  and  demonstrated 
our  case  by  figures  and  definite  cases. 
The  result  of  all  this  is  that  the  35-cent  dollar 
has  been  put  into  popular  thought.  Dozens  of 
“economic  fallacies”  have  been  started  and  have  oc¬ 
cupied  the  public  mind  for  a  time,  but  in  the  end 
truth  and  common  sense  killed  them.  “The  35-cent 
dollar”  has  not  been  driven  out  of  popular  thought, 
and  never  will  be,  because  every  farmer  who  keeps 
books  and  watches  prices  knows  that  it  is  a  real 
thing,  and  he  will  back  his  own  experience  and  his 
own  figures  against  all  the  “statisticions”  and  the¬ 
orists  or  politicians  who  ever  come  down  tire  road. 
These  four  words  happened  to  put  in  forcible, 
concrete  shape  the  thought  which  centuries  of  trade 
