1074 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
October 10. 
Hope Farm Notes 
The man I would like to have in 
front of my fire to-night would he a 
voter in New York—a man with whom 
I could talk freely and be understood. 
Why New York? Because I think a 
voter in that State has this Fall a 
privilege which comes to most men opce 
in a lifetime. We are well satisfied to 
live in New Jersey. I hope to be a 
Jerseyman to the end of my days, but I 
wish I could vote by affidavit this year 
in New York. My vote would go for 
Oscar S. Straus for Governor and I 
should feel that I was making the right 
sort of history by voting. 
Now I would talk to my New York 
friend if he were here about like this: 
You have not known me before to name 
any particular man that I really longed 
to vote for. Most men are either tied 
up to a cause which you cannot entirely 
endorse or else a cause which you can 
endorse is tied to a man of whom you 
are a little suspicious. I see men come 
and go blinded by prejudice or. as they 
think, with sight magnified by principle, 
each confident that the man of his choice 
should be elected. I have learned not 
to argue against such conviction, but to 
give the truth as I see it and let them 
think it over. For all that most in¬ 
telligent men need to do is to think 
along the right way and you may trust 
them to do the rest, if they are left 
free to do it. I name Mr. Straus now 
as the man I would like to vote for 
because he seems to me to represent 
better than the other candidates the two 
great things we as farmers need in 
public life. These things are—ideals 
and business. 
An old farmer at the New York State 
Fair put it about this way: “I shall vote 
for Mr. Straus because this is the first 
time I ever had a chance to vote for 
just that kind of a man. I voted for 
Fremont and have never missed an elec¬ 
tion since, and I have never before 
known a man like Mr. Straus to be 
nominated for a large office. Should he 
be defeated I shall never again have 
such a chance.” 
“But what do you mean by “that kind 
of a man?’” I asked him. “I mean a 
great business man who knows how to 
handle large affairs. They could not 
fool such a man at Albany. Then I 
mean a great lawyer who never took 
any ‘graft’ and who has given away 
more than his share of money and time 
and power. I mean a man who under¬ 
stands human nature and \\ho is honest 
and genuine in his desire to help people 
and yet has sense enough not to go up 
in the air with impractical promises and 
schemes. There is no reason why Mr. 
Straus should ever graft or steal; he 
has no political debts to pay and no 
man, either Barnes or Murphy, or any¬ 
one else from A to Z can put the tip 
of a little finger on him.” 
This expresses the ideal which we 
will agree is needed in public life. You 
might be willing to argue this state¬ 
ment at some political meeting where 
an orator in good voice gave us the 
old-time party arguments, but what have 
you to say here as we sit into the night 
before my fire? States are not saved, 
evils are not rooted out, the world is 
not made better at political meetings or 
what comes out of them. The real 
enduring work is done and the great 
problems are to be settled around the 
firesides and in the homes. That is the 
way it was done when I was a boy or 
young man. It may not be so much so 
now, because the politicians and what 
they stand for have come more and 
more to the point of letting us talk and 
discuss while they decide public policies. 
And that is just why a man like Mr. 
Straus ought to be at Albany. I have 
no unkindly word for any candidate 
this year. The very fact that the new 
party put up a strong man has com¬ 
pelled the other parties to do the same 
I am going to ask you to-night to tell 
me honestly if you think these other 
candidates with their political connec¬ 
tions could possibly carry to Albany the 
political ideals which we know Mr. 
Straus can and will take. I wish my 
friend the missionary were here to tell 
you what Mr. Straus did when the 
Turks threatened to drive out the mis¬ 
sions or kill their keepers. I wish some 
of the young men I know who have 
been helped to education and ambition 
and business could be here to tell you 
their story. It is true, my friend, you 
never in your life before had the chance 
■ to vote for just such a man. 
And then there is the business side of 
it, and here we Jerseymen may join 
you. The great business question for 
farmers is not the tariff or the trusts. 
These are incidentals of the 35-cent 
dollar. Give us a fairer share of that 
dollar and with the money we will 
provide such a trade in necessities and 
luxuries that country buying will domi¬ 
nate business. Now a large proportion 
of our 35-cent dollars are made in New 
York City. The cluster of hungry 
mouths at the point where the Hudson 
floods into the Atlantic is to decide the 
future of our Eastern agriculture. Here 
are the figures giving the most accurate 
estimate possible of the human beings 
to be found grouped around the Hud¬ 
son’s mouth 
In 1910. 4,810,000 
1920. 7,000,000 
1930. 9,800,000 
1940. 13,700.000 
1950. 19,250,000 
I believe this a true estimate and 
not three per cent of these people will 
ever produce any food. There are al¬ 
ready about 250,000 people in this 
group so well-to-do that they rarely ask 
the price of food which suits their 
fancy. 
Our 35-cent dollars are made in this 
great city because the food we produce 
is mostly dumped into it without order, 
organization or protection. From every 
sense of right this great market should 
be organized and held for New Yorkers 
and the rest of us whose farms na¬ 
turally drain into it. Can you not see 
that as a campaign issue this plan of 
organizing the New York market for 
those who should naturally secure it 
is the largest and most direct thing 
that has yet been thought of? 
Suppose the Standard Oil Company 
or some other great corporation ob¬ 
tained the monopoly privilege of con¬ 
trolling and organizing the New York 
markets and the food products grown 
east of the lakes. Following their suc¬ 
cess in handling oil or other things 
such a company would secure needed 
capital, improve methods of production 
and transportation and cut down the 
cost of distribution. The result would 
be that if the profits were divided 
evenly food would cost less than now 
and the producers would obtain 50 per 
cent more than they do now. The 
waste and the graft would be added, to 
the 35-cent dollar and make it 50 cents. 
The spending of that extra 15 cents 
would change the history of this 
country. 
Well, granting that is so, what has it 
to do with the election of Governor? 
More than you think. Something of 
this organization and control of the 
great market must and will be done 
before many years. The market be¬ 
longs to those who pay taxes and give 
moral and political support to the sec¬ 
tion which may be said to drain into 
the Hudson or the lakes. Those people 
should control it and profit fairly by it. 
If they do not do so, it will be con¬ 
trolled more and more by corporations 
and railroads from distant farms to 
the disadvantage of local farmers. 
There can be no question about that:— 
either what I may call the local farms 
will be improved and made more pro¬ 
ductive through the local development 
of this great market, or great corpora¬ 
tions will feed the city—drawing sup¬ 
plies from far distant lands—from the 
Pacific or foreign countries. I want 
the vast profits which would go to such 
great corporations distributed among 
our local farmers. It can be done if 
the man who governs New York will 
develop a State policy which has this 
end in view. 
What do I mean by such a State 
policy? Something of a renewal of 
the feeling which made the Erie Canal 
possible. The task seemed out of reach 
at first, but Governor Clinton and others 
had faith in it and they talked and 
wrote it into thought of the people. 
Then it became a habit to believe this 
great work could be done. Then it 
became a fixed and enduring faith. Un¬ 
consciously the powers of the State and 
of the people concentrated upon this 
work—and it was done. Now the or¬ 
ganizing of this great New York mar¬ 
ket means more to New York farmers 
than the Erie Canal ever did. There 
must be a man like Clinton to organize 
public thought until it becomes endur¬ 
ing faith that the feeding of the mil¬ 
lions at the Husdon's mouth is to prove 
the salvation of New York farms. That 
man must have vision and a deep 
knowledge of history, he must have 
human nature to know the fundamental 
needs of farming and great business 
instinct to grasp the essentials and not 
waste time and thought upon imprac¬ 
ticable things, and he must be the type 
of man who is not seeking future per¬ 
sonal benefit in such plans. Now, I 
have outlined the sort of man needed 
for this great work. Tell me, in all 
honesty, if the other candidates measure 
up to Mr. Straus in ability and equip¬ 
ment to start this thing properly? 
I have met Mr. Straus personally and 
I know that he has this matter in his 
mind. He knows the need of it and 
also the fearful size of the job. He 
knows as I do that it will take years 
to work such a thing out. Farmers 
must have some means of obtaining 
capital on easier terms. Thousands of 
acres of land must be drained. The 
dozens or hundreds of societies or or¬ 
ganizations must be brought together in 
one strong body. Markets and stores 
must be started in the cities to handle 
New York products under their brand. 
The commission men must be regu¬ 
lated and supervised just as well as the 
National banks. This is a man’s job— 
a half-century job—but some big and 
strong man must start it. All he 
can do to begin with is to go to 
Albany and make this one of the 
leading State issues. When it once 
gets into the thought of the people the 
rest will follow. The question of loans, 
drainage, education and organization 
will follow and work themselves out. 
You never can start this thing with a 
man at Albany who has for his main 
object some scheme for helping his 
party elect a Senator or getting jobs 
for his friends. It seems to me that 
by a strange and almost miraculous turn 
of events the hour has struck for New 
York farmers to start along the road to 
fulfillment. As my friend said, they 
never before had the chance to vote 
for just the sort of man that Mr. Straus 
has proved to be. They have voted for 
practically every other sort of man and 
here they are still walking around the 
.old, worn-out issues like a horse on a 
sweep power. It is hard to go around 
and around in this way while the poli¬ 
ticians take out the grist and carry it 
to the pleasant town of Get There up 
on the hill. Why not break away 
from this job and take the road for 
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