Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
491 
A Farmers* and Laborers* Party 
Will you lend the influence of your paper in au effort 
to organize a farmers’ and laborers’ political party, pro¬ 
vided the same is based upon a platform embodying only 
reasonable and just principles and demands? 
Michigan. M. B. F, 
NO POLITICAL ORGAN. — Tiie Rural New- 
Yorker cannot, become the organ of any narrow 
group, association or party. No official organ can 
ever rise to influence or power in the service of the 
public. An official organ is necessarily the spokes¬ 
men of an official group. Its views must be their 
views. Its policies must be their policies. The of¬ 
ficial organ, therefore, can never serve the public. 
The Rural New-Yorker must always be free and 
independent. It is committed to truth and justice; 
to the best interest of the farm and the farmer. It 
can recognize no other master. 
THE QUESTION, however, naturally suggests 
itself to our good friend because we have repudiated 
the admonition that farmers must stay out. of poli¬ 
tics. Fanners cannot escape the effect of polities. 
r J hey never did in the past, they never will in the 
future. When they were completely out of politics 
they were slaves and serfs, and peasants. It was 
only as they assumed a part in polities that they 
wore aide to demand a measure of independence and 
freedom, and economic justice. It is only as their 
power in polities is demonstrated that the full possi¬ 
bility of their social and economic aspirations can 
he realized. 
FARMERS AND POLITICS.—To this end we at 
times defend or condemn political measures and sup¬ 
port or oppose political parties or candidates: hut 
we could follow them only so long as by doing so 
we served the best interests of agriculture. When 
we advise farmers to take part in politics, we mean 
that they take active part in all community and 
public affairs, from the school to the State capital 
and the White House. It does not mean a selfish 
hunt for office, hut a stand for office is one of its 
privileges. It may, under proper circumstances, be 
one of its duties. 
THE FARMER AND LABOR.—In a limited way 
there is a conflict of individual interest between 
the farmer and commercial labor. Labor wants 
cheap food. The farmer wants a fair price for it. 
But as groups and in u broad way their interests 
are common. Both are interested in a large produc¬ 
tion and large consumption of food. Both are 
concerned in a reasonable cost of distribution. Any¬ 
thing that encourages larger production, full con¬ 
sumption. and equitable distribution, serves every¬ 
one. It is only when selfishness interrupts the nat¬ 
ural order of things that justice is defeated and the 
best interests of all are impaired. For three-quarters 
of a century labor had a just grievance against the 
selfishness of capital; but in this reconstruction 
period since the war. organized labor has in many 
instances abandoned its pride of efficiency in pro¬ 
duction. and has assumed the mistaken position 
that the loss it. produces, the better for labor. The 
theory is that there is about so much work, and the 
loss each man does, (lie more men will he employed. 
Industry is handicapped with petty, hut expensive, 
rules and nonsensical arbitrary restrictions. No 
bricklayer is allowed to drive a nail in a board; no 
plumber may turn a nut on a steam pipe. The 
capacity of the best man cannot exceed the poorest, 
and even the sons of the workmen themselves are 
denied the privilege of voluntary apprenticeship 
in the father's trade. There are exceptions. Indi¬ 
vidual workmen realize the error of restricting pro¬ 
duction, hut they arc more or less controlled by the 
system; but (lie most, discouraging part of it all is 
that the rank and file of labor believes that it serves 
its own interests through these policies in restricting 
production. 
LABOR AND WEALTH.—That a particular group 
does profit for a time, no one will deny; but that 
this policy can become permanent or embrace all 
labor is impossible. No industry can long survive it. 
For the most part the wealth of the world is perish¬ 
able. It cannot be long kept out of use. Therefore 
we produce annually just about what we consume. 
There is little surplus* There is no way to produce 
wealth except through labor. If labor were not ex¬ 
pended on it. it would not he wealth. It must be 
plain, therefore, that when a worker cuts his pro¬ 
duction to one-half, ho cannot enjoy and consume 
the full portion, except at the expense of some other 
worker. If all reduce production one-half, all must 
eat and wear and enjoy one-half the former portion. 
LABOR CREATED CAPITAL.—Before there was 
any capital, labor created it. By this we mean the 
labor of hand and head of all who contributed to 
production. If the world consumed all it pro¬ 
duced there would he no capital. Capital is what 
is saved. It is the difference between production and 
consumption. It is those who produce and save who 
create capital. It is true that by craft and cunning 
some acquire what belongs to others. It is also true 
that some are industrious, ambitious and prudent. 
Others prefer ease and present comforts and indul¬ 
gences. Those save for the future. These spend as 
they go. The former are bound to control the cap¬ 
ital. They should be willing to share the fruits of 
it with those who helped create it. But capital, no 
matter by whom controlled, benefits everyone, labor 
included. The .workman, therefore, who would re¬ 
strict production or destroy capital is an enemy to 
himself. 
TIIE FARMERS’ POSITION.—The important 
trade of the world is between farmers as one group 
and the rest of the world as another group. This 
trade is now just as distinct as if the groups were 
assembled on opposite sides of a straight line, and 
the trade hack and forth across the line. Farmers 
now send food and raw material which costs them 
from three to 10 days' labor across the line and get 
back products representing one day’s labor. To 
keep up this uneven exchange farmers work 14 hours 
a day. They work holidays and full union time on 
Sundays. On the other side of the line, city labor 
works, with few exceptions, not to exceed seven 
hours a day on an average, with all holidays and 
Sundays. Politics and political parties have de¬ 
veloped all these conditions, and now maintain them. 
They could not exist without political favor. 
A SQUARE DEAL NEEDED.—We want to see 
this system changed, to give the farmer a square 
deal. We want equal pay for equal work. Is com¬ 
mercial labor ready to recognize the justice of this 
principle? Is it willing to standardize its wages in 
terms of agricultural value? In other words, will it 
work a full day in the shop for a full day on the 
farm? This would be a wise policy for both laborer 
and farmer. The policy would soon result in putting 
our great, horde of non-producers and loafers and 
speculators and grafters to work. Then it would not 
matter whether the money price of their labor was 
high or low. Yalue in the final exchange would he 
equal. Each would enjoy the full fruit of his own 
labor, no more, no less, wherever situated. And no 
idlers to feed. 
When the farm labor party adopts this policy we 
will support it. 
The Milk Diet 
The more we study the "milk diet” as a cure 
or restorative, the more remarkable it seems. We 
cannot understand why most of our ordinary phy¬ 
sicians laugh at or attack this simple and harmless 
method of resting and recruiting the body. The 
facts regarding its value have been established be¬ 
yond any doubt in hundreds of cases, and the more 
we know about milk tiie more evident it becomes 
that it is the nearest to a perfect food of any solid 
or liquid now known to man. We have become con¬ 
vinced that a very large proportion of the people we 
know personally—those who have reached or passed 
middle years—are eating too much meat. In many 
cases their trouble comes because their teeth are 
defective. If they would substitute milk for a por¬ 
tion of the meat they consume, their health would 
improve and their value to the world would he in¬ 
creased. When we started out to try to help increase 
the consumption of milk it was chiefly an effort to 
help the dairy industry. We know, as everyone 
who gives thought to the subject must know, that 
milk is the great natural food for young people. We 
did not at that time realize the wonderful powers for 
body building and healing which this life-giving 
fluid contains. Now we know that increased con¬ 
sumption of pure milk will mean not only help to a 
deserving industry, but a wonderful benefit to man¬ 
kind. 
Total meat (including provisions and poul¬ 
try) . 067.200.000 
Fish . 162,240.000 
Milk . 1,728,480,000 
Cheese . 57,440.000 
Eggs .. 187,200.000 
Fats (including butter). 237.120.000 
Cereals (including breadstuffs).1.872,000.000 
Vegetables . 2.077.920.000 
Fruits . 748.800.0tX> 
Sugar . 343.200,000 
Tea and coffee. 93,000,000 
Total.8,455,200,000 
It seems that the daily consumption of milk is 
797.552,440 quarts, requiring 420.000 cows and 40.000 
dairy farmers to supply it. Tn addition to this, the 
I ovt uses each year 300.000 cases of 48 16-oz. cans of 
condensed and evaporated milk. The meat supply 
alone is given as follows: 
Beef . 448.092,133 
Veal . 115,911,118 
Lamb, mutton, and goat. 135,499.333 
Fork . 231,039,802 
Total fresh meat. 931,142,387 
Total meat provisions. 343,387,818 
Total all meat stuffs, lbs.1,274,530.200 
It is not generally known that 5.091.964 head of 
live animals are annually received here. As for meats 
in cold storage during the Winter, there is rarely 
over four to six days' supply on hand, while during 
the Summer such supply might last six to eight days. 
Of butter. 15S.327.512 lbs. are required for the year, 
the balance of the fats figured in the above table 
being various forms of oleo. The heaviest item in 
vegetables is potatoes, 733.600,000 lbs.; the next 
largest, onions, 107.106.300 lbs., with sweet potatoes 
next 
Strange as it may seem, the heaviest fruit item is 
oranges—1,868.589.026 lbs., or 72,969 carloads. Ap¬ 
ples come next, with 350.973.000 lbs.; grapes third, 
with 136.363.500 lbs. Compared with meat, the peo¬ 
ple of New York are not large consumers of fish. 
One part of this report discusses the probable 
length of time that New York could exist with rail- 
read transportation entirely suspended. It concludes 
that the milk supply could not he kept up, and that 
live stock and live poultry would fail. The supply 
of fruit, vegetables, and general farm products could 
be kept up by motor trucks, and there are good sup¬ 
plies of grain, canned goods, eggs, etc., on hand. 
The item of eggs alone is enormous. There is au 
average daily consumption of 5,254.804 eggs, and 
they come from more different 8tates than any other 
product. Another remarkable thing is the vast 
stretch of country required to furnish the food for 
this great city. Meat from Patagonia and fish 
from Labrador, pineapples from Hawaiian Islands, 
tea from China, sugar from the island of Java, 
peaches from Africa, melons from Venezuela, dates 
from Syria—all are sent to this great market to he 
consumed by its people. Very small quantities of 
food are sent away from New York. It is practically 
all needed here. If we were to add to this total the 
vast amounts of coal and oil consumed in this great 
city, the figures would be startling. And yet the 
grandfathers of men now living can remember when 
New York cooked its food and kept itself warm with 
cord wood brought from New Jersey and rhe Hudson 
5 alley, while one of its chief exports consisted of 
butter, often with oysters packed in it. 
As evidence of the way all the world is now con¬ 
tributing to America's food supply, the following is 
taken from the morning papers: 
Bosxox, March 22.—The State of Texas and the new 
Kingdom of Egypt are engaged in an onion race. The 
g.ial is the Boston market and the winner will receive 
the best price for onions. Since the freezing of the first 
Texas crop, onions have been sold in New England at 
almost famine prices. 
Two steamships are raring across the Atlantic under 
forced draught from Alexandria with full cargoes of 
Egyptian onions. Texas farmers and dealers are doing 
everything in their power, reports here said, to help 
mature the Texas second crop so they can get their 
onions here before the ships arrive. 
The Stomach of New York City 
What is known as the Port of New York handles 
food to 8.000.000 men. women, nml children. That 
represents the food requirements of 6.000.000 adults. 
All sorts of estimates have been made as to the 
amount of food required for this mighty army— 
l-early six times as large as the entire population of 
the country at the outbreak of the Revolution. Last 
Fall the Governors of New York and New Jersey 
united in asking the Port Authority to figure it out, 
if possible. We now have the following table show¬ 
ing the annual food consumption of this port, which 
includes New York City and parts of Northern New 
Jersey: 
q’hc following tabic shows the estimate of the annual 
food consumption of the port district population of 
S.000,000 (6.240.000 “equivalent adult males”) with 
the quantities stated in pounds: 
New York State Notes 
Delaware County is beginning to flow with maple sap. 
A large portion of the bushes were tapped the past week. 
One farmer tapped 1.500 trees, and got 50 barrels of 
sap ar the first gathering. Practically all <>f the com¬ 
mercial bushes which had not contracted their product 
last vear are in the Maple Sap Producers’ Association. 
I heard an amusing sidelight on the sap pool Wednes¬ 
day in the hotel dining room at Walton, where the ques¬ 
tion of maple syrup was being discussed, as to price, 
amount quality, etc. The waitress, who was evidently 
connected with the management, said they had pur¬ 
chased their syrup from a farmer who was not in the 
pool. One of the traveling men spoke up with an air 
of disgust, and said: "They will be pooling postage 
stamps next!” 
Madison County is beginning to prepare lierself as 
hostess to the State Holstein Association, which has a 
sale at Kariville this Spring. It is surprising what 
pluck breeders have. 1 met a young farmer the other 
day who had his entire herd wiped out with tuberculosis. 
They were not ordinary stock, but producers of superior 
standing. Steuben County has received a county appro¬ 
priation of $4,000 to help finance an organization to 
carry on tuberculosis eradication work. A. 
