Oic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
839 
Farmers Must Do It Themselves 
CITY ATTITUI^E.—A lai’ge element of city busi¬ 
ness and financial interests contends that farming 
is an occupation that never has paid, cannot be ex¬ 
pected to pay, and never ought to pay. They do not 
want it to pay. They have a certain sentimental 
interest in the farm, and a certain pity for the 
farmer. They are willing to throw him a bone oc¬ 
casionally to keep him going, but they do not want 
the farm on an economic business basis. They do 
not want to pay enough for the products of the 
farm to pay for the labor and the investment. They 
are willing to spend a little money to teach the 
farmer how to grow two blades of grass where 
<»iie grew before, but they want to do it so that they 
can buy the two at the cost of one. They want to 
keep^the farm dependent and farmer poor. They 
do not mind a little generosity occasionally to keep 
the farm going so long as the operation of the farm 
does not attain to the dignity of a paying business. 
THE FOOD CRISIS.—Fiitil now this sentiment 
was more or less dormant. It existed, but it did 
not find very general expi-ession. The present food 
crisis brought it out, and today it finds expression 
in various ways. It complicates the food distribu¬ 
tion problem, and will make longer the work of re¬ 
form, but it will not alter the final result. Farm¬ 
ing will be put on an economic basis. The products 
of the farm will be sold for enough to pay for cost 
of production and a reasonable profit, just as the 
factory does. It is the only way city people will 
be able to get food. It is the only sure way to meet 
the present food crisis. It is the only way to .se¬ 
cure production in .sufficient volume to feed our 
own city population and the men in the European 
trenches. ' 
AN ECONOMIC FALSITY.—The notion that 
farming is an occupation that ought not be expected 
to pay comes from city-bred men who know noth¬ 
ing of the farm and its problems and influences. 
The number of such men is natui-ally increasing. 
Many of them inherited their business and fortune. 
They need enlightenment. Some of them are men 
of considerable influence, and this accounts for 
much of the sentimental nonsense and idiotic med¬ 
dling with farm matters since the war crisis ma¬ 
terialized. 
GENUINE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED.—It is plain 
enough from this state of affairs that the real 
farm problems must be worked out by farmers 
themselve.s. The city man’s interest in the farm 
is not to build up the farm or enrich the farmer. 
Some of them want cheap food for employes, others 
want cheap food for speculation and profits. Every 
investment of a dime is made with the expectation 
of getting back a quartei*. As the days go by and 
the situation develops this purpose becomes more 
and more apparent. The tendency is apparent in 
Congress. In some degree, from Federal and State 
legislatures and administrations. It is apparent in 
the sugge.^tions of food regulations, control and 
l»rice making. In this they are headed straight for 
trouble and chaos. Through it all is the insignifi¬ 
cant concession to the farmer, as a means of atone¬ 
ment for the license given exchanges and gamblers 
and the system generally for the privilege of regu¬ 
larly robbing him. Farmers need not look for any 
liermanent relief from these sources. Their only 
relief is their own organizations, developed on a 
strictly economic business basis and controlled by 
themselves. 
Delay in Food Legislation 
For weeks now Congress has haggled and fought 
over what is known as the “food bill.” Long ago 
President Wlilson expressed his desire that Herbert 
C. Hoover should be appointed as food director, and 
Mr. Hoover offered to serve without compensation. 
The President evidently thought that Congress 
would promptly give the needed legislation to en¬ 
able Mr. Hoover to carry out definite iflans for 
handling the food problem. Congress has done 
nothing of the sort, and even now it is impossible 
to tell just Avhat they will do. The hard fight 
comes over the powers Avhieh should be placed in 
the hands of the Administration. One side calls 
for arbitrary powers Avhich would enable the Presi¬ 
dent to dictate places, put an embai’go upon food 
if need be, seize the food in storage and force it 
upon the public markets, or force it into trade, and 
control the situation much as is done in Germany. 
Opposed to this program are the members of Con¬ 
gress who object to such arbiti’ary powers. They 
Avill not give up, if they can help it. a right which 
they feel belongs to Congress, and they oppose put¬ 
ting .such unrestricted power into the hands of the 
Executive. The probable outcome is a compromise. 
Slome sort of food legislation is certain, and it will 
probably be drastic, but the oppo.sition to the Presi¬ 
dent's program is strong, and Congress Avill en¬ 
deavor to retain at least a share in the control of 
this big question. In any event the time has come 
to stop talking and debate and do something. The 
speculators and buyers are already at work get¬ 
ting control of this year’s crop, and unless .some one 
can have- immediate power to sh\it them off they 
Avill gain control of the situation, and hold up both 
the producers and the consumers, thus robbing the 
people at both ends. 
City Control of Milk Business 
The folloAving letter is from a farm-fired man 
now at the head of a successful national business: 
I noted that Rorden’s have bought out two or three 
of their largest competitors. Fine. Let them do it. 
Then, have the city take over the milk business, and 
take possession of Borden’s, Sheffield and all the rest 
at fair valuation. Let the city make six per cent, per 
annum on its investment, and all profits exceeding this 
to be divided between producer and consumer. I sus¬ 
pect that it would not be a difficult thing to save at least 
half of the cost of distribiiting the milk here in New 
York. If the city did all the business there need be 
no duplication of routes. There would be no more 
bad debts than there are in the collection of water and 
gas rents. Establish depots at convenient locations, 
and if people come and get their milk it would make a 
tremendous saving. 
Then again, the city Avould be in position to control 
it from source of supply until delivered to the con¬ 
sumer's kitchen, and thus insure cleaner, better, more 
healthful milk than people have been permitted to buy 
heretofore; and that, I think, Avould be the primary rea¬ 
son why the city should control the milk supply and 
distribution. It would be bought and sold on its per 
cent, of fat and other food values. Five per cent, milk 
is worth more than three per cent. milk. Then, with 
your large terminal markets for all other foodstuffs, 
and control of cold storage facilities, New York would 
be insured an adequate and better food supply at fair 
prices. B. 
New Jersey. 
The logic of this letter is unanswerable. If a 
monoi)oly of any business is desirable in one con¬ 
cern to save waste and expense, then the saving 
should not all be absorbed in extra profits of the 
I)rivate concern. It is only thi'ough community 
consent that the private corporation can secure the 
monopoly, and secure the benefits for a few limited 
individuals. 
We do not contend now for or against the mon¬ 
opoly. Our contention is that if Ave nunst have the 
monopoly, then it should be a city or State mon¬ 
opoly so that all of the people profit from the sav¬ 
ing, instead of giving all the advantage to a few, 
Avho u.se it only to discourage production and de¬ 
crease consumption by fixing Ioav prices to the far¬ 
mer and exacting high pi-ices from the consumer. 
New York School Law 
Is it possible that while the public was giving its 
attention to crop production as a patriotic duty, that 
.some one rushed through the Legislature that revolu¬ 
tionary education bill? It was not smspected by coun¬ 
try folks at all at this time. Was it the Education 
Department that did the trick, and did it slick? There 
is universal disgust among our farm folks over the 
situation, but the deed is done, and some think that 
surely democracy is disappearing. Many feel that 
democracy is on the decline even now while we are en¬ 
gaged in Avar for democracy throughout the Avorld. 
Farmers will no longer have a voice in school affairs 
except ill a few local instances. They have had little 
voice in any other matters for a long time. They did 
have something to say about milk prices last Fall it is 
true, but it cost them something. It is difficult to 
see how they can esciipe obeying the village board in 
school affairs from now on. It seems that there is to 
be a board of five members in the township, and that 
only three of these can be from any one district. Only 
three! Why not all from the village if the village is 
to have a majority? If this report is correct then it 
is certain that it is the deliberate intention of the 
Avriters of the bill that the village shall take the whole 
matter of education affairs out of the hands of the 
country folks. There are some good features in the 
bill, but there should not be more than two members 
of the board from one district. If the authorities were 
afraid that farmers might have too much to say about 
the village school, they should have protected that 
school by not including it with the country districts. 
That ought to have been done anyway, unless the 
village is under eight hundred, or better still under 
five hundred inhabitants. It is all wrong to take the 
control of rural schools out of the hands of the rural 
people. Some of us have been hoping that the rural 
school would yet be able to make a nucleus for better 
community life in the country. It seems that the now 
defunct country church will have to be resurrected for 
that purpose, or it can never be done. ii. n. l. 
Seven Cents for Boston Milk 
THE NEW SCHEDULE.—Beginning July 1, the 
standard price for the bulk of the milk delivered in 
Boston will be seven cents per quart, according to the 
program of the New England Milk Producers’ Associa¬ 
tion, and for nearby milk, that is milk shipped from 
points within 40 miles of the city, the price will be 
to 81/4 cents. From the Boston milk price is de¬ 
ducted the freight charges in arriving at the net re¬ 
ceived by shippers. The same prices will prevail in 
the market centres of Providence, Worcester and 
Springfield, and the .schedule' adopted will no doubt 
control the price largely throughout this territory. 
THE MILK ASSOCIATION’S WORK.—With a 
membership including fully one-half of the commercial 
milk producers, the association feels confident that the 
strong underlying features of the cost and supply will 
permit these plans to be carried through according to 
program. The powerful, well organized and well dis¬ 
tributed membership of the present is quite a differ¬ 
ent thing from the lopsided haphazard association of 
a few years ago. Those who have followed the milk 
market for the past 30 years recall how weak was 
the organization mo.st of the time, with a few hundred 
members who paid their dues and two or three thou¬ 
sand others who often could not be relied upon for 
dues or for anything else because of the loose-jointed 
nature of the whole concern. In those days the best 
part of the secretary’s time was spent in trying des¬ 
perately to collect enough money to pay his own sal¬ 
ary and a little more if possible. The majority of 
shippers were more ready with criticism than with 
support; delegates came at random to the Boston 
meetings. They confined their efforts to the Boston 
market territory and often were snubbed and more or 
less politely ignored by the closely organized and pow¬ 
erful ring of Boston contractors. The wonder is that 
the producers were frequently successful in getting 
enough moi-e for their milk to enable them as a class 
to worry along somehow and keep in the business. 
MHILL ORGANIZED.—It is different now. In¬ 
stead of a loo.se membership confined chiefly to Ver¬ 
mont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts shippers to 
Boston market, all the six States and including the 
section of Northern New York which ships milk to 
NeAV England are close bound together by a working 
plan which is already proving very effective. There 
are 10,000 members; they have raised $20,000, ami 
they expect most of the remaining shippers will come 
into line dnring the membership campaign being car¬ 
ried on this month. Men are going through the ter¬ 
ritory addressing the organization already formed and 
starting new ones. The present number of locals is 
about 400, Avith US in Vermont and Eastern Ncav 
Y ork, 121 in Maine, and so on. The number in Con¬ 
necticut is only .30 or 40, becau.se that State has an 
independent organization of producers. But this State 
society works in harmony with the general aims of 
the association and keeps local prices at a level which 
removes danger of unsettling the markets of other 
sections with Connecticut milk. Flocking by itself 
in this Avay, a State organization may save something 
in general expense of operation and can handle the 
situation in a section without very large cities and 
not flooded with milk from other States. But some¬ 
thing would seem to be lost by not keeping so closely 
in touch with other market centres. For instance, the 
New England Association, as producers know, besides 
the .small local associations which combine in county 
associations and throiigh them unite in the general a^ 
.sociations, has also five market as.sociations and will 
organize more, no doubt. These market associations 
are composed of delegates from local associations whose 
members sell in the smaller cities. Thus, in the Provi¬ 
dence section for example, if there are 400 members 
of the as.sociation who ship to Providence, they meet 
and elect one in ten of their number or 40 delegates 
who then become the market association for Provi¬ 
dence, and they appoint four of their number as a 
committee to sell the milk, or to handle whatever 
problem may come up. To this committee, the New 
England Association adds one man, and he is likely 
to be useful, because he is also a member of the other 
market association committees and should be able to 
help them from his experience elsewhere. An inde¬ 
pendent State society of cour.se loses this advantage 
among others. But Connecticut people are resourceful 
and may quite possibly be able to show the other 
producers a few points in handling the milk question. 
UNIFORM PRICES.—“Will the new milk price be 
the same in each of the organized market districts?” 
was inquired of Secretary Richard Pattee. 
“Yes,” he replied. “It will be on the seven-cent 
basis, delivered, with extra for nearby milk, and a 
premium added for high test milk. So it may be said 
that the general price for milk delivered in Boston, 
I’roAddence, Worcester, Springfield, etc., will be seven 
to eight cents. We have a Turner Centre market or¬ 
ganization covering the shipping territory of the cream¬ 
ery and milk shipping concern of that name which 
ships Maine milk and cream to a great many places. 
They pay producers by a scale of prices graded ac¬ 
cording to richness andi purity of the milk. We do 
not interfere with that principle, but regard it as the 
fairest way to huy inilk, and likely to eneour.age and 
reward the production of choice milk. A fixed price 
on^^all milk alike tends to a dead level of qu.ality,” 
“How do you reckon the added value of nearby 
milk ?” 
“It is more or less arbitrary, of course, but we 
figure that milk produced within 20 miles is worth 1 % 
cents a quart more than distant milk, and milk from 
within 40 miles is worth one-half cent more than di.s- 
tant milk. Nearby milk is worth more because dealers 
are bidding more for it. The small dealers around 
Boston use nearby milk. They have certain advan¬ 
tages over the large dealers, becau.se they are often 
in direct touch with their producers <‘ind consumers. 
They do much of their own work, and can talk with 
their customers and perhaps take them out in an auto 
to vievv some of their best farms. They do not need 
pasteurizing plants, nor caretakers for their cars, nor 
duplicate cans. They have so many advantages that 
they might run out the big concerns in some sections, 
except that nearby milk costs more, apart from the 
difference in freight. The big dealers see the situa¬ 
tion and have been trying to get the nearby milk in 
order to check the small dealers. We reckon that 
these conditions mak)e this milk woirth the added 
amounts and that it must be sold at that much pre¬ 
mium to prevent the small dealers from cutting the 
retail price.” 
“It is fortunate that producers are in such a strong 
position in this critical time when cost of making milk 
goes up so fast,” concluded Secretary Pattee. “The 
county bureau agents are a great help. Not one of 
them but is in sympathy with the producers. State 
officials also help when they have funds that can be 
used. In Maine the State hired a man to help us or¬ 
ganize. We are not afraid of outside milk. The 
premium for nearby milk will tend to divert local milk 
to local markets because these will pay most for it. 
Most of the shippers will soon be organized in this 
Avhole section, and they say Canadian milk is all 
wanted at home now and to make dairy products for 
export. If the new tariff puts a ten per cent, duty 
on milk, that Avould be half a cent handicap for such 
imports to this country.” g. B. f. 
