"Che RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
/ 
945 
To the New York Legislature 
Now Meeting in E:.tr» Se.'sion 
T.ESSONS OF THE PAST.- During the last reg¬ 
ular session you made a terrible muss of the agri¬ 
cultural food and market laws of this State. The 
chaos is complete. The special session is a slight 
ackjiowledgement of the havoc you created at ihe 
regular meeting. After a year of investigation and 
an expense of more than .^25,000 the Wicks commit¬ 
tee, the Mayor’s committee and the Perkins com¬ 
mittee jointly produced the monstrosity known as 
the Wicks Pill number one The plain farmei*s 
killed that bill. Their protest should h-’ve been 
enough to kill the principles which it „:-o!ited. 
but it did not. You attempted to save the face of 
the committee and accomplish some of the same pur¬ 
pose in the second Wicks bill, under the title of 
Farm and Markets creating a commission of 10 
commissioners. This bill escaped general opposi¬ 
tion because on its face there was nothing to it, and 
you alleged it was intended to take the Agricultural 
Department out of i)olitics. That is an accomplish¬ 
ment devoutly to he wislied, but the record since 
has justified the suspicions of those v>ho questioned 
your sincerity in this puri)ose. The pretense served 
to pass the bill; but the law exists only as a plague 
to everyone concerned. 
RTIT.L ANOTHER COMMISSION.—Dissatisfied 
with tlie Wicks bill number two, you created an¬ 
other commission of nine members to do what the 
Farm and Market Commission was designed to do. 
Tills Food Supply Commission you iirovided witli an 
appropriation of $500,000. Not satLsfied with that, 
you created still anotlier commission of seven mem¬ 
bers, with an appropriation of .$1,500,0(X), ami 
clothed it with authority over the Food Supply 
Commission. Not yet satisfied you proposed still an¬ 
other commission of three members to supersede 
all tlie others, with anotlier appropriation of .$!,- 
.500,000. This failed to pass the regular session, but 
It has been proposed in virtually the same fon.i for 
the special se.ssion. With It all the old laws and 
tlie old single-headed departments are yet in force 
and operation. 
DEFECTIVE LEGISLATION.—During the regu¬ 
lar session, you rejected all the constructive legis- 
latiqn suggested on this subject; and iiassed meas¬ 
ures only to make matters worse. In the case of 
milk you rejected the farmers’ Towner bill that 
would reduce the cost of delivering milk, and gave 
dealers authority to sell skiip-milk without regula¬ 
tion, and permitted them to adulterate milk for 
manufacturing purposes. A practical bill to save 
waste of food in the city markets failed, and money 
is spent lavishly to prevent waste in the hom/s 
where there never Is enough to go arouii 1. If the 
new Farm and Market law created by t.ie second 
Wicks bill is rlgbt, and It has take n tlie Agricul¬ 
tural Department out of politics, why not organize 
it, and do the work for which it was intended? Is 
the law a fa-iure or do you not want the work 
taken out of jiolitics? You caniu t escape one or 
the other conclusion. As a matter cf fact you must 
know that the chaos has been caused by an attempt 
to circumvent farmers’ crltieisu and at the same 
time to maintain the purposes s night in the original 
Wicks bill. That purj ose was to restrict the au- 
tliorit.v iind activity of the Department of Foods 
and Markets and to create a hard and fast mon¬ 
opoly of food distribution, particularly of milk, in 
this State. 
DISASTROUS SUGGESTIONS.—The plans have 
miscarried because of the farm oppo.sitlon, and the 
confusion has resulted from the lacK of sincerity 
in substituting new measures. The pre.senc propo.sal 
is even more monstrous than the original Wicks 
bill; and every legislator who votes for it will ex¬ 
press his contemiit for the farmer intei’ests of this 
State. The effect of it would be equally disastrous 
to the city consumers. We are charitable enough 
to believe that the proposition is made in ignor¬ 
ance of its effects, and witliout any comprehensive 
knowledge of tlie practical agricultural needs of 
the State. Your system of reaching legislative con¬ 
clusions at Albany is a tragedy. It i.s inconceivable 
that individual members would knowingly and de¬ 
liberately vote for mea.sures to confu><e and embar¬ 
rass the majority of the people of the State, and the 
only reasonable conclusion is that you do it under 
a political system that leaves you no Individual 
choice of action. 'Phis is not a sulllcient excuse for 
you. You have it in your power to change the sys¬ 
tem and the people will look to you to do it. 
GE’rriNG DOWN TO FACTS.—If you would be¬ 
gin right, you will legislate all the above mentioned 
commissions out of existence, and create no new 
ones. Then define the duties and scope of the pres¬ 
ent departments so that their work will not over¬ 
lap, and each one will perform the duties that nat¬ 
urally come under its line of work. Give these de¬ 
partments all the power and authority that is need¬ 
ed to accomplish rc.sult.s, and give them untram¬ 
melled the means to get result.s. Cut politics out 
of the Agricultural Derartment by all means, and 
keep it out of the others, and hold the heads re¬ 
sponsible for results. J f the departments are not 
headed right now put n.nv men in their places. If 
they are not organized right, see that they are or¬ 
ganized and manned free fro:u political influence. 
No new law is required. The law now existing is 
Ready to Bounce a Pest 
(Bepro<l\. 'ed Ire i N. Y. Evening Telegram) 
sufficient to accomplis any result required. Prac¬ 
tically all it wants is n. uiey and your sanction to 
enforce it. The money .being dribbled away by 
commissions and extra sessions would put eflicient 
work under the law as it stands well under way. 
Wliile revision of the mar. et law is not necessary, 
n )W that you are at it, a ••light revision of the 
right kind may be made with good i-esults. 
A few simple provisions wil. d.>: 
(1) Require a promiit report inder oath of all 
speculative purchases showing avI •■'•e bought, price 
paid and where stored. 
,^(2) Re<piire monthly reports fru.- all stoi'age 
Cackling Geese Saved Rome, But it Will Not Save Ship.'i and Food 
(Uoproduced from Newark, Olilo, Dally Advucutei 
houses, cither public or private. 
(3) Reipiire reports of transportation companies 
when needed to show movement and delivery of 
goods. 
(4) Close private food exchanges ard boards of 
trade, just as tlie other bucket shops that gambled 
in stocks were closed. Stop the gamble in food too. 
Do not confuse business with gambling or speenla- 
tion. The line is well defined. Ru.sine&s stops where 
sec.ecy begins and speculation begins where pub- 
lici ‘’fops. 
(5) . 'u,.' 'y tlie Market Department v/i.h funds to 
demonstrate economic cost of distribution. It will 
not cost much and it will solve the distribution prob¬ 
lem. One hundred thou.sand dollars in a revolving 
fund would standardize tlie cost of milk dlstriluition 
in New York, and lie worth millions annually to 
producers and consiniiers of milk. 
THE REAL 'rESlI-'I'he test of auy Federal or 
State food law is the reduction in the cost of dis¬ 
tribution. It must secure a full supply of food by 
paying the farmer enough to encourage him to work 
the farm to its full capacity. It must increase con¬ 
sumption by reducing the cost to the consumer. 
You must take enough food from the farm and 
carry It to the city consumer to demonstrate the 
cost of the service. Creating commissions will not 
do this. To do it economically, you must provide 
markets and storage facilities. This will cost con¬ 
siderable money, but it will be worth many times 
the cost. It will be like changing transportation 
from ox teams to steam railroads. 
A SIMPLE PROBLEM.—We do not want any ex¬ 
pediencies in this work. A system that is good for 
Avartinie Is good for times of peace. We are con¬ 
fronted all the time with the simple problem of 
full production and economic distribution. We want 
r.o complicated system or multiplicity of commis¬ 
sions at any time. Open a free 'channel for the dis¬ 
tribution of food from the producer to the consum¬ 
er. See that the cost of operation In this channel 
is no more than it should be. Make the profits of 
the distributor no more than the profits to the pro¬ 
ducer. In this way you will establish prices under 
the law of supply and demand. You will give the 
producer a fair share of the consumer’s dollar, and 
Avhen you do that the American farmer will feed 
the world. 
Express Companies and “ CojiscA vation'* 
During .Tune the Department of Foods and Mar¬ 
kets received from the farmei*s via the lines of the 
Adams Express Company 541% cases of eggs on 
consignment for sale. Of these 179 cases arrived 
In damaged condition; in this numher of cases 1(55 
dozen were broken, 311 1-6 dozen stained and 49 1-G 
dozen stolen or missing. 
During the same month the Department received 
via the American Express Company 714 cases of 
eggs of which 201^4 cases arrived in damaged con¬ 
dition; in this number of cases l(19i/4 dozen were 
broken, 101 dozen stained and 17 dozen stolen or 
missing. 
I’ractically one-third of the total number of cases 
of eggs arrived in damaged condition. The express 
companies have now Issued a regulation which was 
filed with the rublic Service Commission, to the 
effect that they will not consider claims for ad¬ 
justment in any case where the damage does not 
exceed 1% dozen of eggs in a 30-dozen case. 
The Department on behalf of shippers and con¬ 
sumers has filed a complaint and protest against this 
regulation. Under it employees of the express com¬ 
pany may steal, remove or break a dozen and a 
half eggs in every shipment and the producer would 
have no redress. Of coui'se every egg broken re¬ 
duces the supply and raises the price to the con¬ 
sumer, Aside from this the losses to the farmer 
discourage production and the lessened supply 
moans advanced prices fo the consumer. 
This year appeals have been made to the farmer 
to increase his production of food as a patriotic 
duty. One-half the world seems to be lecturing the 
other half about conservation of food and yet in 
the crisis of a short supply, the express companies 
go merrily on destroying and wasting one of the 
best kinds of food in the world, and deliherately 
refuse any redress to the victims of their wanton 
destruction. 
The Milk Situation is Acute 
That was a splendid editorial on the milk situa¬ 
tion on page 87S. Dairymen must have three dol¬ 
lars a hundred for three per cent, milk this Win¬ 
ter or $3.25 for that testing 3.5 per cent., which 
seems to lie about the average for city milk deliv¬ 
ered to eonsuniers there. This is nearly seven cents 
a (piart. It is believed to bo perfectly possible for 
such milk to he delivered at 12 cents and make a 
good profit. Wdiat The R. N.-Y. says about the 
licague taking hold of the pasteurizing plant ques¬ 
tion in the city and furnishing milk at about nine 
cents or less seems too plain for discussion. The 
League should act and should select a man of ex¬ 
perience for that particular job. I.et dairymen take 
some stock in the plant if need he in case the money 
cannot be had otherwise. Only put it through and 
do it efficiently and wifJi energy. .Some life is need¬ 
ed in it, and no dela.v. Milk ought to he furnished 
tlio consumer as cheai'ly as possible and the two 
estimates that I made may be ent if possible. Far¬ 
mers liavo got to do their own work of salvation. 
No one is really interested for them. Politicians 
and tlie public alike only want what they can get 
out of them. Townspeople urge production for their 
profit, not for the farmers’ profit. Townsmen may 
lie patriotic, but not as they want country folks to 
be. Get that pasteurizing plant going right away. 
n. H. L. 
