15 
Mr. Betts Goes Geo. Ward One Better 
WluMi (iovenior AThitman repudiated his public 
]iledge to the fariuers of New York State, and ap¬ 
pointed a State Food (’onuuission of politicians, it 
was thought that since the coniinissioiu'rs had no 
knowledge or experience with the. food jtrohleiu, a 
secretary with sonu' practical exi)erience would he 
apjiointed to do the work. 1 )isai»iwintinent and as¬ 
tonishment. not to say resentment, followed the 
announcement that ('has. Ilighway-Manmil Tletts. 
ofr sugar-he('t-ifr).r)0 fame, was to he the secretar.v. 
If there was any doubt of his unfitness for the i)lace. 
Mr. lietts removes it. Hear him 'in his own i)ai)er; 
.Mr. Dillon .says thiit r.-inncrs ought to luivc a high 
piicc for their milk, and then he .’oiiis hands with the 
labor organization and declares that the working man 
in Now. York and the jioor should he able to inirch.ase 
milk at nine cents a (piart. .Inst how Mr. Dillon can 
make milk "high” for the farmer and “clieap” for the 
consumer transcends intelligent comprehension. This 
editorial mountebank has been trying to rid(' two horses 
jit the same time with the usual result, that he has fallen 
between the two horses and lost his job. 
Tliis is the real Issue in the farm-food problem. 
:ind Air. Dotts does not recognize it even when he 
stumble.s against it and stubs his own toes. l>ut he 
puts himself where he belongs-—on the side of the 
milk trust, and food speculators, genei’ally. If Air. 
Ilc'lts and his ()()() commisdon cannot I'oduce 
the cost of distribution of food, what service can he 
give the j'eople of the Statc'V According to his own 
"intelligent compirhension" this cannot be done, 
and his only service can he to comitel the farmer to 
lake les.s. which w:is his first and onl.v service so far, 
or per.suatle the consumer to pay more, which is a 
daily occurrence. 
AIV. Detts accuses ns of bringing farmers and con- 
snmers itt)gether to fool them. Did anyone before 
over hear of a third party bringing rwo of his dupes 
together for the i)urposos of deceiving them? For 
the purpose of delusion it wtu-e truly better to follow 
Air. Bett.s’ i)lan and keep them apart. When they get 
together they may ask why it costs (m cents to pass 
a dollar's worth of food fi'om one to the other; and 
Air. Betts <loes not want to answer that (piestion. 
Air. Betts has proved altogether roo much. It is 
the same argument that drove (Jeorge AY.-ird out of 
the AVicks committee last year. If the argument 
is sound, there is no use of food commissions or 
food secretaries, or i(;l..‘!00,(t00 appropriations. Dur¬ 
ing the past year when farmers have been demanding 
a profitable market for wasting products, and city 
Avnmen have been rioting for cheai)er food, we wei'e 
told by the B(‘ttses, and the Perkinses ;uid tin* AAniit- 
inins that when emergency laws were jmsscl specu¬ 
lators and profiteers would he controlhal and f.anners 
would hiive a mai'ket: and city women would have 
cluaiper food. For some months we have load the 
Laws with iirincely appro]irlatlons. The farmer’s 
markets have not im]»rove(l. and in-ices to comsumers 
have gone on climbing highei’ .and higher. The 
only I>e])artment in the State that siiecnlators feared 
lias lieen desti’oyed. Sjiecailators and juaifiteers smile 
and sneer in tuiai at the iiei'sn.asive atfemi»ts to induce 
liiein to forego big jirolits. Now the siiokesman of 
llie commis.sion virtually tells ns (hat the piamiise of 
jiractical results was a mistake or a fake; th.at the 
commission, including its .scaaadaly. Is inirely orna¬ 
mental ; and the .'i!1..'!0().P0() must lie for entertainment. 
If there is any .^ane re.ason why Air. Betts and his 
I'olitical associates .slionld st.ay on a food commission 
after that argument, it does not ajipeal to "intelligent 
conpirehension.” 'I'he logic of his own ai’gument is 
that he ought to pack u]) his gri]). quit the coveted 
"job" and .go home. 
The Wastes of Distribution 
DFl.AYFD SIIIPAIFNTS.—AVheu the now sup- 
jire.ssed De])artment of Foods and Alarkets was first 
organized, and began to throw light on the methods 
of farm food distribution, we all remember what a 
howl of Indignjint iirotest went up in unison by mid- 
illemeu and transiiortation companies. The Aler- 
cliants’ .Association especially expi-essed its righteous 
indignation that a body of high-class business men 
should he libeled, as its spokesmen said, by a State 
otiicial, and appeals were m:ide to the (tovernor to re¬ 
move him from ollice. AVe Jilso know that wi,'<er coun¬ 
sel iirevailed at the time, and more subtle me.ans were 
used to accomplish the desired restilt. But rejie.-ited 
exiiosures have had re.snlts, and information now 
'■omes from other sources. liisten to this from the 
New York Sun: 
For ton days porisliable food stuffs wore not boing 
I'olivorod, and vast (luantitios of stuff woi'o so iiilod up 
that it was imiiossible f'" consigiioos to got at tlioin. 
Huinoa hons. jiigoons and jioultry shii)pod alivo in cratos 
wore found doad or dying from 'hiingor and oxiiosuro, 
and lots of othor food was spoiling. 
The reporter wanted to get photographs, hut the 
superintendent of Adams Fxjiress (Company Avould 
not permit it. Arthur AA'illiains, the Federal Food 
Administrator, requested the express officials to do 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
what they could do to right condition.s, but they 
claimed it was due to the holiday crush. 
THU PKODT'CUR LOSES.—(')f course, there is 
extra business at holiday time, hut it is the hu.siness 
of exiu-ess companies to he ready for it, and to 
handle it. They got a valuable franchise for that 
purpo.se. But it is cheaiier to let food .spoil .than 
to employ men and teams .to handle it, especially 
since the men who produced the food and .shipped 
it stand the loss. Oertificates fi-om the board of 
health to show that the food was similed will he all- 
sullicient to place the responsibility on the farmer. 
FIXINH THE BLAAIE.—AYhy .shouldn’t it he so? 
The l.aws and regulations have been made by city and 
trans])ortation otlicials and middlemen, and are now 
administered by otlicials of their choice. AA^e have 
Inid a lot of i>ropaganda to jiledge wonum to save 
food and to induce farmers to jiroduce food. It is 
going on yet. Farmers have already produced more 
than they can sell to advantage, and many of the 
pledged women never have food enough to go around 
the t.alile. Yet this distribution .system, uiqiledged 
and uncontrolled, wastes more food in a day than 
the average woman does in a lifetime. But it is 
some gain that the city pa])ers found the waste and 
tell about it. 
The Mayor’s Milk Committee Reports 
T>r, (’has. E. North, as chairman of the Alayor’s 
Canqiaign City Alilk Commission, has made a report. 
AA’hy the report should he made now that election is 
over does not appear in the report or out of it. The 
rejiort admits that it cost f.irmers more to make 
milk than the dealers i)aid thpm for it during the 
year 1P17. hut Dr. North •thinks it is the farmers’ 
fault and In* has a remedy. He thinks milk could 
he iii'oduced at a cent a ipiart less than it now costs. 
He would increa.'^e the average number of cows 
kejit on the farm from l.'l to ."»0. He would kill off 
all the small milkers and kee]) nothing hut large 
lirodnction cows. He would huA'e them give one 
deahir a monojioly of the food snjipl.v. 
.Tust how he would suddenly rejilace small milkers 
with cows of large lu’oduction is left to the imag¬ 
ination. His jilan, if ])ut in immediate oi>eration. 
Avould jtrohahly reduce the milk siqijily one-half, hut 
ho does not tell ns how he would make up the loss. 
Alachines cjin he made after a model, hut cows are 
living things; and, while everyone knows the value 
of good cows, the sudden destruction of the small 
milkers would he no small calamity to the milk 
suiijily. 
For the city. Dr. North approves of the Perkins 
plan .to divide the city into zones and give dealers a 
ino)io])oly of the distribution in each zone. He thinks 
this would effect savings to reduce the cost of dis¬ 
tribution another cent a quart. AA’hy there should 
he a monojioly to induce milk dealers to collect hills 
and gather iqi bottles and save waste generally, 
does not apjiear. Neither does he emphasize the 
fact that the monopoly would drive all independent 
milk dealers out of the business and leave the field 
entirely to the milk trust and leave the producers 
with one customer for the New York City milk 
.SU]»])1.V. 
AA’e confess that we are giving this report more 
attention than it merits. Nobody had any contidence 
in the committee when it was first proimsed, and its 
lirocoedings would have destroyed any confidence 
that might have existed when it began. 
A ToAvn Man Talks 
On page ]2t).S "D. B. D.” states the facts about 
the workings of the new school law in this 
county also, hut in villages having a high school it 
is hut just the expense of maintaining that .school he 
a])])oi‘tioned throughout the town; as heretofore we 
who are residing in .such villages had the pleasure 
of cheerfully jiaying (or otherwise, as the mood 
struck ns) the entii-e expense of such a school, which 
was ojien to any outside the district. Our budget 
always touched the .$2,000 mark, whereas the l•ural 
schools adjoining paid not over .$2.">0 or thereabouts, 
'fo illustrate, in my daughter’s graduating cla.ss there 
were six, and the writer was the onl.v jiarent repre¬ 
sented b.v the cla.'^s contributing one cent in taxes 
towai'd this school. Eventually many schools will he 
closed and centralized, no doubt, which is both a 
good and ii had idea, according to location, etc. But 
more important, T think, to the country .schools, is 
the repeal and aboli.shing of this u.seless, confusing 
ami very expensive physical training program of 
contortions midway between those of a gymnast and 
a jiugilist. In one-room ungraded country schools 
there is enough changing of cla.sses to keep things 
moving without taking four other times daily to dis- 
■tract the inqiils’ attention from their work. The 
average conntr.v l)o.y or girl who does chore.s, then 
walks a mile through snowbanks, needs rest rather 
than exercise at school. Confine this .scheme to cities 
where it is practical, and cut out such nonsense from 
the rural .schooLs, and “D. B. D.” will see that from 
.$2,000 to .$.'>,000 is saved in his county taxes at once. 
This phy.sical director work, just the suiierintend- 
ents’ salarie.s, costs the .schools from .$.") to .$10 ;ui 
hour, and the job is generally held down by some 
politician whose expert knowledge consists chietly in 
drawing his .salary. n. 
Creene Co.. N. Y. 
Another 35-Cent Dollar 
On page 14.50 of Tiik H. N.-Y. one of your corr cspoiid- 
ent.s tells of having been ottered .$3.0i> per cwt. for 
buckwheat. In this connection I thought perhaps the 
enclosed bill might be of interest to you as showing 
the retail price of buckwheat flour in this city. Upon 
iiKpiiry of two of the other leading groceries in the city 
1 vvas told that buckwheat flour was very scarce this 
.\e<ii, and that the early frost killed it,” so they wore 
imable to supply an.v. ()uite a wide margin between 
• .c and 12e. How is the !)c accounted for, I wonder? 
C. V. o. 
This writer .sends a grocery .store slip charging Md 
cents for three jionnds of buckwheat flour. The 
nine cents goes to pay for milling and handling, 
though there is some credit for the feed offal. 
Slowly hut surel.v the cit,y people come to realize 
that there is such a thing as the .‘liA-cent dollar. ’Phe 
"economists" who economize with figures at govern¬ 
ment exiiense cannot .see it, but women who must 
economize with flour have no trouble in finding it. 
Try it on a loaf of bread. AVeigh the loaf and tigun* 
that a .scant .SO per cent of the weight is flour. .A 
14-oz. loaf contains 11 l-,5 oz. of flour. (Jet the prices 
of the bread and figure what 11 1-5 oz. of flour 
brought to the farmer with wheat at .$2.12 for (!() 
])ound.s, and 270 ])onmls i-equired for a hari'el of 
flour! 
Fighting the New York School Law 
Organizing Township Committees 
Tlio ta.xpayers of this townslii]) held a meeting De- 
ceuiber 20 to jirotest against the township .school bill. 
After an animated discussion, a committee of five was 
elected, with Hall Flothier of Silver Creek. N. Y.. as 
secretary. This committee was empowered to draw 
up a iietition against the township school bill to secure 
Its repeal. They will appoint a committee of two to 
see_ that a house-to-house canvass is made with these 
petition.s. AAhy couldn't this or something similar be 
formed m every townsliqi in this State and worked into 
a Slate non-partisan league to see that the farmers get 
a .square deal at Albany? Some of the taxpayers iiaid 
their tax under protest, and the New A’ork Central 
Bailrqad, Penn.sylvania Railroad and South Shore Nat¬ 
ural (las and Fuel refuse to jiay theirs. p. ii. jie\i> 
Silver Creek, N. Y. 
Supervisors of Saratoga County 
On December It) the suervi.sors of Saratoga County 
held their one hundred and twenty-.seventh annual meet¬ 
ing with 11) meiiiber.s ]>re.sent. The following re.solution 
eaiue up for vote and was adopted—12 to 4: 
“Resolved. That it i.s the sense of this board that the 
recent aniendiuents to the .school law, creating a town 
board of education, and for the con.solidation of districts, 
the transfer of luqiils. etc., has not worked to the be.st. 
interests of either pujiil or tax()ayer; that it works to 
the inconvenience of small children and has in effect 
raised the taxes for school juirposes without iiroilucing 
the advantages advocated by its sponsors. Fiirtlier 
‘‘Resoh'ed, That such amenduuuits should be reiiealed, 
and that it is the sens<‘ of this board of supervisors that 
our reiiresentatives iu the Legislature use their best 
efforts to .secure such ajipeal. 
“Resolved, That a cojiy of thi.s re.solution be sent to 
our Senator and Assemblyman.” 
Saratoga County is reiiresentiul in the Senate by 
Ceo. H. AA'hitney of Alechanicsville. Air. AA’Jiitney 
voted /or ihe hill. _ Now that his own county has e.x- 
pressed itself in this way, what can he do but vote for 
repeal? In the Assembly Saratoga County has Cilbert 
T. Seelye of Burnt Hills. The record shows that Air 
Seelye did not vote on the bill. In a letter -to us. Sen¬ 
ator AVhitney says: 
“If convinced that the peojile of mv di.sti-ict were 
honestly opposed to this law, and it seemed not to be 
for the -be.st interests of the district, I should be <• .ni- 
pelled to vote for the repeal of the law.” 
A/oIunteer Work in Organization 
(Jovernor AA’hitnian in his State Fair speech said. “Talk 
i.s cheap: ’tis deeds that count.” Fanners are growling 
all over the State about the new school law, and rightly. 
But wluit are they doing to secure its rejieal? 1 live 
in District No. 8, town of Butternuts, Chenango Co.. 
N. Y’., -and I am canvassing the district and getting sig¬ 
natures to a demand for its repeal to be sent to our 
Senator and As.semblyman in the State Legi.slature. 
.Nobody asked me to do it. nor did anyone order me to 
do it. The way -to make ourselves heard is for .someone 
to do the same-in (-very school district iu the State. 
J. A. MUSSO.X. 
R. .N. Y .—Every district, every town and each county 
should organize. Do not wait—get right out and start. 
The organization will follow. Your Senator is Adon 
I|. Brown of Leonardsville. N. Y. He voted for the 
bill, and in a letter to us .says: 
“AA’hile the township .school law seems to be working 
admirabl.y in certain iiarticulars, there are certain fea¬ 
tures of R which aiijiear to be ineipiitable. As a mem¬ 
ber of the _Senat(‘ Education Committee, I am giving 
close attention to the i)ropused amendments to the law 
and all the ftrguments for and against them. TTitil 
these amendments are peifected and submitted it is too 
early to determine which of them will appeal to my 
judgment.” 
He needs attention. Your Assemblyman is Bert I.ord 
of Afton. Air. Lord voted against the bill and will do 
so again! 
