421 
We Are Opposed to the Wicks Bill 
Because 
T. It entirely neglects the present agricultural 
ncecis of the State. It revives and re-enacts archaic 
and useless laws, and entirely neglects farm needs 
of the present time. It revises dairy laws to the in¬ 
terests of dealers and manufacturers and to the det¬ 
riment of producers and consumers. 
II. The city consumer is as thoroughly neglected 
as the country producer. It provides for a monopoly 
of distributing privileges by large dealers in the city. 
Tnder it producei's would have but one buyer; con¬ 
sumers would have only one source of supply. The 
monopoly once establishefl on this basis, small deal¬ 
ers would be eliminated and we could never estab¬ 
lish another system with even a semblance of com¬ 
petition in it. Under it two or moi’e farmers could 
not legally join in the shipment of a car of hay or 
a case of eggs. Two families in the city could not 
jointly buy a barrel of apples and divide it between 
themselves. 
III. It leaves the distribution and sale of food 
exclusively in the hands of commission dealers, 
wholesalers, jobbers and retailers?, which has de¬ 
veloped our present system of speculators and man¬ 
ipulators, to control supply and prices of foods. This 
system will discourage production in the future as it 
has in the past, and does in the present. It means a 
contiiuiance of the S.l-cent dollar to the producer and 
the 05-cent to the dealer. This license to the mid¬ 
dleman is restrained only by investigation and legal 
processes. We have had these in the past and they 
never have and never will increase returns to the 
producer, nor reduce the cost of food to the con¬ 
sumer, 
IV. The Department of Foods and Markets seeks 
to reduce the cost of distril)ution by eliminating 
speculation and useless middlemen, and effect a di¬ 
rect distribution from the producer through a whole¬ 
sale terminal market direct to the retailer and the 
consumer. It proposes to demonstrate this possibility 
by actually making the sales and distributing the 
goods in sufficient volume to standardize the service. 
It would compel an economic and efficient system, 
and force di.stribution at a fair cost by actually do¬ 
ing a small pei’centage of the work. The Wicks bill 
would continue the system of waste, extravagance, 
speculation and monopoly, which has brought on the 
present food crisis, and which has operated to dis¬ 
courage production on the farms, and to curtail con¬ 
sumption in the cities. Its present remedy is further 
reduction of consumption, which means a still further 
discouragement to production. The Department would 
reduce the cost of di.stribution and divide the saving 
as equitably as possible beteween producer and con¬ 
sumer, The reduction of cost to the housewife 
would increa.se the consumption and’ the increased 
demand would encourage greater production. It 
would cause farms to be operated to their full ca¬ 
pacity, and increase their production, their equip¬ 
ment and their value. The Wicks bill destroys the 
functions of the Department that work to this end, 
and perpetuates speculation and the toll of super¬ 
fluous middlemen. The counsel of the Wicks Com¬ 
mittee contends that no economy can be effected in 
distribution. If his logic is to be accepted, be might 
as well tear up the Wicks bill, and the meml)ers of 
his committee should pack their grips and go home. 
Y. The Wicks bill attempts no restraint of the 
waste re.sulting now from an enforcement of the ex¬ 
isting laws by the New York City Board of Health 
tlirough the ruthless condemnation of food products, 
q’bis reckless condemnation of food is a heavy bur¬ 
den to the producei’. It needs correction. The Wicks 
l)ill leaves it as it is. 
VI, A large wholesale terminal market on the 
east bank of the Ilnd.^jon River, in the Borough of 
Manhattan, is a necessity for an economic system of 
distribution of food in New York. It should be ac- 
ces.sible by ship and boat, and to every railroad cen¬ 
tering in the city. The authority in the Department 
to e.stablish such markets is destroyed, and no pro¬ 
vision is made for them in the Wicks bill, nor in the 
West Side improvement contract by the city. 
A'll. The Wicks bill invites donations from pri¬ 
vate individuals to be used for State purposes. Such 
(bmations coixld only be made by men of wealth or 
large estates?, which frequently make such gifts with 
:i purpose inconsistent with the interests of the peo¬ 
ple. They are a danger and have been embarrassing 
in the past. The Federal Oovernment from its expe¬ 
rience has abandoned them. The State of New York 
.should not invite this danger of a sinister influence. 
VIII. The commission created in the Wicks lull 
imposes a greater Ixurden of expense on the State. 
It takes the initiative and the authority and the re¬ 
sponsibility away from the heads of Departments, 
and with this destruction of authority and re.spon- 
sibility of an individual head, it also destroys the in- 
■Che RURAL NEW-YORKER 
oentive of individual recognition for meritorious or 
distinctive service. 
IX. q’he Wicks bill is deficient in sincerity. Its 
authors claim to continue all existing functions of 
the Department of Foods and Markets, but in contra¬ 
diction to this claim it declares that it does not pro¬ 
vide terminal or retail markets. They claim in one 
place that it authorized arbitrary fixing of price.s. 
In another line they tell us that they do not interfere 
with the law of supply and demand. They say they 
will .substitute a monopoly for the present chaotic 
and non-regulated conditions, and yet insist that 
they do not provide a food dictator. On one page of 
the digest of their bill they tell us they do not fix 
prices of food at wholesale or retail, and on the op¬ 
posite page they tell us that they do fix prices. They 
tell us that they continue the Department of Foods 
and Markets as it is, but in effect they strip it of 
every vital function with which it is endowed. 
Lastly they inject into a serious State problem an 
element of the most subtle humor. They Assume 
straight faces and solemn demeanor and tell us there 
are no politics in the Wicks bill. 
IMasquerading as a producers’ and consumers’ 
measure, the Wicks bill is a sugar-coated sedative to 
soothe the protests of the people against this specu¬ 
lative system until the monoiwly in food distribu¬ 
tion is made complete under its provisions. This 
is not an ordinary contest between individuals and 
measures, it is a fight to preserve and strengthen a 
speculative money-making system at the expense of 
the people of the State. It attempts to destroy the 
only possible means of encouraging production and 
increasing consumption—the only agency capable 
of checking the increasing cost of living. It is an 
attempt to make monoiwly complete. The differences 
are fundamental. No wonder farmers and consumers 
everywhere are in arms against it. The promoters 
of it will try every effort to put it through. Farm 
sentiment will not defeat it. This is a test of farm 
strength and farm influence. The time is short. At¬ 
tend the hearing at Albany on the 20th and protest 
against it. It ought to be the biggest farm day 
Albany ever saw. If you cannot go, make your 
Senator and Assemblyman and the Governor know 
your opposition to the Wicks bill. 
Support the Towner Milk Bill 
The Towner-Smith bill provides for the establish¬ 
ment of a milk market, receiving and distributing 
station.s, pasteurizing ixlants and creameries in any 
part of the State. The purpose, of course, is to es¬ 
tablish such a plant in the City of New York under 
the supervision of the Department of Foods and 
Markets. Premises may be l)OUght or rented, milk 
and cream may be sold, and surplus that occurs, if 
any, may be manufactxxred into butter, cream or 
other by-products. The l)ill carries an appropriation 
of $.300,000 for establishing the creamery, or as 
mxxch thereof as may be necessary, and provision is 
made to pay the interest, xxp-keep and sinking fund 
annually out of the profits, so that the money may 
all be paid back to the State within a p'^riod of fifty 
years. 
The purpose of this measure is to demonstrate that 
milk may l)e distributed in the City of New York in 
bottles through the grocei’y stores, butcher stores, 
delicatessen stores at a saving of two to four ceixts 
per qxxart over the pre.sent method of distribxxtion. 
q’he stores are anxious to deliver the milk to the 
houses at a profit of one cent a quart. They now buy 
thp milk when they can get it from the large dealers, 
and are obliged to pay 11c and 12c per quart for it, 
so that they are obliged to charge the consumer a 
cent more for a bottle than the dealei’s charge for 
direct delivery. It is easy to understand that tlie 
stores woxxld be glad to buy the milk at eight cents 
a qxxart and sell it at nine cents, or even buy it at 
nine cents and sell it at ten cents. I’liey are anxious 
to get the milk. The demand exists as soon as the 
supply is ready. 
The good will and sympathy of the consumer was 
the best as.set that the producers had in the city 
during the. October milk fight. They even bore the 
first advance of a cent a quart good-naturedly be¬ 
cause they knew that the farmer got it. and they 
came to realize that the farmer deserved moi'e, and 
that he must have it to keep xxp a sufficient supply, 
bxxt when the dealers put aaxother advance of a cent 
a qxxart on the consumer, she resented the new ad¬ 
vance aixd naturally felt aggrieved that an advance 
of one cent to the producer should cause an advance 
of two cents to her. With a pasteurizing plant in the 
city, milk can be distributed to these stores and sold 
to the consxxmer at from 8c to 9c a qxxart. with a 
reasonable and sufficient profit to everyone con¬ 
cerned. To do this would be to get right down to 
practical economic Ixusiness in the distribxxtion of 
milk. It would be an argument in itself that no milk 
magnate could answer or dispute. They know it can 
l)e done, and that is why the organs and defenders of 
the milk trust are making sxxch hysterical efforts to 
defeat the bill by attacking the Department in other 
ways, and particularly by advocating the Wicks bill, 
which woxxld take away fx*om the Departmeixt the axx- 
thority to establish the milk market. Consximers all 
over the city are demanding this measxxre. Well 
they may. If all the milk of the City of New York 
was di.stribxxted on this basis a saving of two cents 
a qxxart woxxld amoxint to mox’e than twenty million 
dollars every year. In the Senate this is Towner Bill 
No. 434, in the Assembly it is Smith Bill No. 942. 
Every f.-irmei*. whether dairyman or not, owes it to 
the farm to see that his I’epi’esentatives in the Legis¬ 
lature support these bills. 
New York Farmers Are True 
The good sense and the good jxidgment of the New 
Yoi'k farmer was never sxxbjected co a more stren¬ 
uous test than just now at this present time. No 
American farmer ever met the test with greater 
credit to himself and his business. Never before 
have the farmer and his leaders been abxxsed and 
. 'viled as they ai’e abxxsed and I’eviled now. Thi'ow- 
i:ig dust in the eyes of the people and raising false 
and ii*yelevant issues ai’e the usual instiniments of 
the tricksters to mislead the public, to attx*act the 
people from the vital issues, and to either defeat 
measures for the pxxblic good, or to secure legisla¬ 
tion for their own sinister and selfish purpose, but 
it is doxx'btfxxl if these instruments of craft and 
cunning xvei*e ever before used in such abundant 
volume, and with such virulent force as they are 
being used now to destroy the State Department of 
Foods and Markets, and to .secure the pa.ssage of 
the Wicks bill. Thei’e is a constant stream of lies, 
innuendo and misrepre.sentation poxii’ed oxxt on the 
public through every possible channel of expression. 
Frantic efforts are being used to reach and to in¬ 
fluence the mind of the farmer because he is and 
has been the strength and support of the Depart¬ 
ment, and if he could be alienated fi’om it the tri¬ 
umph of the despoiler would be complete. The at¬ 
tempts to confuse the farmer and to weaken his con¬ 
fidence in the Department have 'been subtle and al¬ 
luring, bxxt the skill, and the tricks, and the lies, 
and the treaelieiy, the malice, jealou.sy and egotism, 
have been in vain. The farmer has had correct in¬ 
formation. The New York farmer has had his own 
shai’e of criticsim and abuse, bxxt no one has yet 
reason to impeach his candor or his jxxdgment when 
based on correct information. And so he smiles at 
it all; he .sees through the dust and the smoke and 
the mists, and he stands firmly behind his organi¬ 
zation, his neighbor.s, and his friends. 
Prices for Milk and Feed 
April first will soon be here, at which time new milk 
prices for the Summer will be inaugurated. With the 
retail price remaining stationary, the price of feed 
higher now than for December, many farmers forced 
to buy hay in April that were feeding their own grown 
hay and .silage in December, why in the name of all 
business common sense, should the milk producer take 
less for his product in Ai)ril than December? 
It is estimated by the dealers in wholesale milk that 
the increased price won by the dairymen through the 
guidance of the Dairymen’s League has amounted to 
ten million dollar.s-. q'he unexpected increase in the 
price of feed, the higher cost of labor to produce milk 
and other overhead charges incidental to its produc¬ 
tion has in actuality, no guesswork, cost the farmer 
twice that sum right here in the 'State of New York. 
A brother Holstein breeder in the State of Wiscon- 
.sin says his December milk check from IG cows wa.s 
I have considered my.self some little milk- 
maker, keeping along with a yearly average of 10,000 
lbs. per cow regardless of age or number, but I have 
never garnered such a milk check as that. If reported 
correctly, that eminent statesman Chas. W. Wicks, 
said at the meeting of the N. Y. State Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, held at Albany in .lanuary. “iMy committee con¬ 
vinced the producer that he should have more for his 
product, and by stilTeping the backbone of the farmer, 
he got an increase of ten millions in this State.” Ho 
also takes the credit for convincing the consumer he 
should also pay more; bis friends the dealers prompt¬ 
ly raised the price two cents a quart, by which they 
will garner twenty millions while paying' out ten inii- 
lions to the farmer. 
It is a tragedy in the life of a farmer that such 
things must occur. By his united effort he won a great 
victory, when I say united I mean the efforts of tin* 
Dairymen’s liCague in conjunction with Mr. Dillon and 
the Foods and Markets Department of New York, and 
no other source. The producer won ten millions. B\ 
the manii)ulatoin of the feed market, he paid out 
twenty. The dealer paid an extra cent and received 
two cents from the consumer, in cash. So when tliese 
public-spirited statesmen braj^ about helping the far¬ 
mer. call their attention to the sequel. 
A farmers’ institute speaker said here in this town. 
“’There is no economy in making butter in the farm 
bouse.” Why not? Does he mean we .should prove 
traitors to our vocation and buy oleo? It will be a 
sad day for the dairy industry when the tax on col- 
(U'ed oleo is reduced from 10 to two cents a pound. If 
people wish to eat oleo. let them eat it in its natural 
color, but ‘“bounce” any dealer selling it for butter. 
Orange Co., N. Y. ueo. e. iiowell. 
