7ht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1101 
The New York Senatorial Situation 
W HO was this mail who said that women would 
not take the ballot seriously, and would be 
dictated to when it came to voting? The chances 
are that he is a "terminal bud,” with no wife or 
daughter or near relatives. Up in Washington 
County, N. Y., delegates to the Republican State 
convention were divided about equally between men 
and women. They each received a letter asking what 
their action will he provided the name of Senator 
William M. <'alder comes up for renomination. 
iVbost of these delegates replied, though a few dodged 
the question, and we give below typical replies from 
women and similar replies from men. The contrast 
is very significant. 
WHAT THE WOMEN SAY 
If I get a chance to vote for anyone better than 
Oalder, I'll be glad, for I think he is an awful old jelly¬ 
fish. but the only chance I have may be to vote for 
some one worse. 
****** 
I should certainly vote against Senator Calder or any 
one opposed to prohibition, on the ground that only by 
so doing could I represent the sentiment of this county. 
# * $ * * * 
I am not in sympathy with Senator Calcler’s views 
on prohibition, and would not, of course, favor his re¬ 
nomination if he persists in the stand he has taken. 
WHAT THE MEN SAY 
I believe that the leaders of the Republican organi¬ 
zation of the State know the situation thoroughly as to 
who should be nominated for the office, and I shall be 
governed by what they decide is for the good and suc¬ 
cess of the Republican party. 
♦ ♦♦♦♦♦ 
In reply to your question as to my support of Mr. 
Calder, I will say that I am sort of open-minded in the 
matter. Mr. Calder has stood for some good as well as 
some things that were not so good. 
****** 
I do not know now how I should vote on the ques¬ 
tion of the renomination of Senator Calder. It would 
depend largely upon who the candidate against him was. 
That is a clear-cut illustration of the difference 
between the average woman and the average man 
on any question wherein any principle is at stake. 
The women know just what they want. Their minds 
are made up, and they will go directly to the point. 
The men are “sort of open-minded.” waiting to see 
liow the "organization" stands and what jobs there 
may be in it. During the two years since woman 
secured the voting privilege slie has made great 
headway in understanding "polities” and realizing 
her power. The various political "clubs" in city and 
town have made most noise and the casual observer 
might be led to think that city women are far ahead 
of their country sisters in political activity. The 
exact reverse of this is true. Quietly, but none the 
less thoroughly, eouutry women have been thinking 
ard organizing until they have become a great politi¬ 
cal power. They know what they want, aud are not 
in the least afraid to go right after it. 
As for Senator Calder, we have told the political 
managers the exact truth about him. He has no real 
personal following up the State. No one cares for 
him except as it means some personal advantage. 
There is nothing about liis record or bis personality 
to inspire enthusiasm or even deep respect. If he 
is renominated lie will he the deadest and most un¬ 
popular candidate put up by the Republican party 
since Judge Folger ran against (trover Cleveland 
for Governor. At the same time truth compels us 
t‘> state that at this moment it looks as if the politi¬ 
cians will brave public sentiment and force the 
Senator upon his party. 
The Hoover Administration and Farmers 
In a recent issue you made reference to the load 
Herbert Hoover had imposed on the farmers. Will you 
please explain? l. e. 
New Jersey. 
ART I ME ACTIVITIES.—Mr. Hoover was ap¬ 
pointed head of the Food Administration 
during the war as most of tts think through the 
influence of the meat packers. Some of his subordi¬ 
nates were designated by the same influences before 
he was advised of his own appointment. The Food 
Administration was organized almost exclusively by 
tho packers, the wheat exchange and middlemen 
generally. The principal exceptions were soon either 
forced to resign or shorn of authority. The admin¬ 
istration might have been described as an organiza¬ 
tion of middlemen. They so completely dominated 
it that distribution became a close monopoly in their 
hands. No fanner could buy or sell except through 
them. One of the most promising and genuine co¬ 
operative organizations in New York State was 
forced to suspend because it could not get permis¬ 
sion to operate. The existing middlemen were given 
a complete monopoly. Commissions were doubled, 
and with the increased prices middlemen’s profits 
not only doubled in rate, but also in volume, increas¬ 
ing the profits from three to five times the pre-war 
averages. 
DISTRIBUTION BY FARMERS.—At the begin¬ 
ning of tlie war we had advanced to a general recog¬ 
nition of the need of an efficient and economic distri¬ 
bution of food by means of farm co-operative organi¬ 
zations in the control of producing farmers. The 
general complaint was thatthe breach between pro¬ 
ducers and consumers was too wide; and the pur¬ 
pose was to reduce the cost of distribution and in¬ 
crease the farmer’s share of the consumer’s dollar. 
Many State legislators had recognized the need and 
gave encouragement to legislation, more or less 
crude, to help create legal machinery to enable 
farmers to soli their own products as a legitimate 
part of the process of production. We had estab¬ 
lished the principle and were developing the prac¬ 
tice of doing it ourselves. 
CHANGED POLICIES.—Then came the war and 
the Hoover administration. The whole policy was 
changed. Every other industry was represented at 
Washington except the farmer. The farm committee 
was told bluntly enough that there was nothing for 
it to do in Washington, and as farmers their duty 
was to go home and produce. Prices of farm pro¬ 
ducts were either arbitrarily fixed bv Mr. Hoover 
or manipulated by him below the basis of supply and 
demand. There were no such restrictions on the 
things farmers had to buy. The policy that farmers 
were to distribute for themselves and establish 
prices on demand and supply was reversed. The 
policy was adopted that farmers must confine them¬ 
selves to production and leave distribution and price- 
making to professional distributors or middlemen. 
Quite naturally this governmental policy was re¬ 
flected in many of the farm organizations. Farmers 
took their patriotic duties as producers seriously. 
They did not threaten to strike. They did not even 
dispute or protest. Believing that in a national dan¬ 
ger others were actuated by patriotic motives like 
themselves, they associated the new regime with war 
and expected it would end with the restoration of 
peace. By the close of the war, however, this policy 
was firmly established. The breach between pro¬ 
ducer and consumer is wider than ever before. The 
farmer’s share of the consumer’s dollar was never 
less than it was during the war or now. Trices to 
the farmer have declined in many cases below the 
pre-war level; hut costs to the consumer have been 
maintained. Surplus is made a permanent feature. 
In consequence labor demands wartime wages. The 
cost of supplies and transportation is in turn high, 
and the farmer must give up more and more of the 
things he produces for the things he must have to 
maintain the farm and the home. 
This is the load that the Hoover administration 
imposed on the farm. 
Water Used as a Fuel 
T is probable that before long our people may be 
solicited to invest in the stock or bonds of a new 
enterprise. The coal strike and the increased diffi¬ 
culty of obtaining fuel have driven many chemists 
to tlie study of new ways of heating, and a new 
plan has just been announced. It is proposed to 
separate tlie oxygen and hydrogen in ordinary water 
and combine with oil, thus making a gas which will 
burn readily and give an intense heat. The process 
has been worked out in the laboratory, and the gas 
can certainly be produced on a small scale. As water 
is one of the cheapest substances in nature, there 
will naturally be a strong argument in favor of such 
a process, for if water and a small quantity of oil 
can be made In burn in a practical way we can all 
see great possibilities of emancipation from striking 
coal minors and expensive coal and oil. We expect 
that this discovery will soon be capitalized, and that 
the public will bo invited to invest in it. Anyone 
who does so must understand that he is simply tak¬ 
ing a chance on paying for an experiment, which 
may or may not prove successful. While the gas 
has been made from water and oil. engineers are 
divided in tlieir opinion regarding the practical 
value of the scheme. It may be the first step in a 
revolution which is to change many of our modern 
methods of heating, for if water can be made to 
substitute for coal we can all understand what it is 
going to mean to the world. On tlie other hand, it 
may turn out to be merely a large laboratory experi¬ 
ment. useful for demonstration work, but well-nigh 
useless for practical purposes. In any event, long 
years and great sums of money must be spent in 
testing or developing, and our advice to small in¬ 
vestors would be to stick to some sure thing. Better 
a Liberty bond at low interest than slavery to some 
big promise that never matures. 
A Fuel Administrator For New York 
OVERNOR MILLER called the Legislature to¬ 
gether for a special session and proposed a 
drastic plan for handling the fuel situation. There 
was some verbal opposition, evidently for political 
effect, hut after a short display of fireworks both 
brandies of the Legislature voted unanimously in 
support of the bill which tlie Governor had prepared. 
The bill calls for a fuel administrator, to be ap¬ 
pointed by the Governor, and to hold office during 
his pleasure. This administrator is given power to 
take over fuel and fix its price. lie will distribute 
coal or wood as he thinks best, each consumer being 
left with enough for his "reasonable requirements,” 
and no more. This administrator is given power to 
search all premises for fuel and may take what he 
considers a surplus aud sell it at a fair price. In 
order to prevent hoarding or profiteering the admin¬ 
istrator may take possession of any coal ‘ either held 
or contracted for by any manufacturer, coal dealer 
or any other person in excess of bis reasonable re¬ 
quirements.” He may also seize any coal when in 
bis judgment it is being held for the purpose of un¬ 
necessarily increasing the price. The Legislature 
has created a fund of $10,000,000 with which to 
carry out this legislation. What opposition there 
was to the bill was chiefly based on tlie idea that it 
was not strong or drastic enough, but if the admin¬ 
istrator is a man big enough to operate with courage 
and judgment this legislation ought to help. We 
must all get together and share our surplus of coal 
and wood with others, for this legislation infers to 
eordwood as well as coal. Fuel is like water as a 
human necessity. If those who control either will 
not be human in cases where there may he a scarcity 
of either necessity the law must step in and shake 
some humanity into them. It is estimated that with¬ 
out any regulation New York State people would 
consume 10,000,000 tons of coal more than are now 
promised by the mines. That must be made up by 
( her forms of fuel and by regulating all available 
supplies. 
The Tales of a Traveler 
Part I. 
A GARDEN SPOT.—I have been three days among 
the "abandoned farms” of New York, from Lake Ontario 
to Wbverly, Saugerties and Long Island. The first day 
showed the highest production per farm that I have ever 
seen, and the other two considerable and fine scenery. 
My testimony is that four of us had a trip through tne 
garden of the Lord. There is more Alfalfa within 40 
miles of Caledonia than iu half of Ohio. Some of it 
goes to make cheap milk, and the rest is baled and 
shipped in trainloads. Some is grown everywhere, and 
all other growths were in abundance. The evidence 
was that the soil is fair, and the owners are skillful, 
industrious, untiring workers. 
LONG HOURS AND HEAVY CROPS.—Little hoys 
and girls who had been pulled out of bed too early were 
passing with milk vans, while the rest of the folks were 
doing their best, during long days, to increase the food 
surplus. The object seems to be to produce ;,ll possible 
of the same old things, regardless of ability for later 
care of them, or of the selling price. The nieu had been 
so greedy at planting time that hay and oats, cut and 
uncut, and bay, wheat and oat shocks were bleaching 
and rotting in the fields. Vegetables and fruits were 
so plenty in some sections that not more than half will 
get to market for the little price the known yield will 
make them bring. This evidence came from a man I 
asked about over my way near the lake. He had a 
loaded apple orchard to pick and ship lone-handed. 
THE LOST SURPLUS.—Along the west side of 
Seneca T ake a grower of cherries said he found a place 
for two-thirds of his 40 tons, aud the rest rotted on the 
trees. That is about the proportion of loss iu market¬ 
ing everything grown in the United States, while the 
lost surplus is heralded to cut the price on the two- 
thirds. It is so everywhere. I bought a three-peek 
basket of cantaloupes in Camden. N. .T., for a quarter, 
the kind we paid -0 cents for a half one, and there will 
bo more catsup left in New Jersey fields than would 
supply the whole country. Every follow—except the 
farmer—has struck. Labor and factory are limiting, 
but he is geared for double time and motion, whooping 
up his family, and some one asks why boys leave the 
fa'on. If one-third of these fields were growing fibers 
and sugar there would be money for the farmers in all 
eronp. Then the public would get it. 
NEWSPAPER VIEWS.—I bought a New York 
World while such thoughts were running, and found 
the editor kicking Congress. He asked: "What do the 
farmers think they will do with their 3,000,000.000 
bushels of corn and S00,000.000 of wheat?" I can tell 
him, tariff or free trade They will sell a fraction of 
them so cheap there will bo very little cash to hand 
over for the buying power of the public. Here is a 
headline, identical iu two papers tods : "Slump in 
Grain Again Hits the Farmer." Every one else is hit 
immediately afterwards. No New York farmer can 
grow wheat and count the costs at $1 a bushel. 
CONSTRUCTIVE POLICY.—I want the reader to 
understand that such doctrine is not destructive. Tt 
is constructive. If a man is going to die with a curable 
ailment some one should tell him how to get well. This 
country is sick, and will be sicker, and the above shows 
the remedy, and the only remedy to prevent further 
debilitation. Suppose all tillable land was devoted to 
cabbages. We are working on that plan, only in de¬ 
gree. Tlie surplus kills the price of the cabbage, and 
we must dig up money from somewhere to buy the 
things we can and should grow. Farmers went after 
the nearest dollar until it has shrunken, and now at 
least one-third of them must climb out of cotton, grain 
and vegetable fields, and into fiber or sugar fields for 
the financial salvation of the country. 
Ohio. W. W. REYNOLUS. 
(To Be Continued) 
