335 
N. Y. Federation of Agriculture 
In the Winter of 1917 the New York State poli¬ 
ticians were on the aggressive. They planned a 
drive on the agriculti;ral interests of the State. 
Their one great big eighteen-ponnder bomb was the 
Wicks bill. The farmers of the State were on the 
defensive. They met the enemy in the Senate 
Chamber in a hearing on the bill and the politicians 
were defeated. The l>omb exploded without effect. 
The foul and noxious gases escaped harmless 
through the ventilators of the Capitol. 
If the farmers had then followed up their victory 
they might have demanded an unconditional sur¬ 
render of the politicians and secttred such legisla¬ 
tion as was necessary for their interests, or at all 
events they might have prevented, as they had so 
far prevented, the enactment of all legislation, but 
the politicians approached them with olive branches. 
They made suggestion as to the leadership of one 
farm organization and then to another, and finally 
by allurements, sed^lcti^•e pi-omises and trickery in¬ 
duced the farm leaders to ai»prove legislation that 
has now virtiiall.v brought the agricultural interests 
of the State to the brink of ruin. 
At Syracuse last week farmers met to organize 
their protest against the State regime that has been 
imposed on the State by the vicious system of legisla¬ 
tion inaugurated last year by politicians and under 
such sinister and decei>tive auspices. This time the 
farmers were on the aggressive. Tlie politicians 
Avere on the defensive. The sentiment at Syracuse 
was merely a crystallization of the sentiments and 
])rotests expres.sed b.v farmers in public meetings, by 
the dairymen at I’ti<-a. l)y the fruit growers at 
Rochester, by the State (trange the previous week 
at Syracuse, and by the I'arm Bureau Associations 
at Ithaca, The burden of these resolutions was that 
Governor Whitman and Senator Brown had deceived 
the farmers; that under the pretense of enacting 
legislation to take the Agricultural Department out 
of politics they had actually devised legislation to 
.submerge not only the Agricultural Department, but 
the Foods and ^larkets Department completely in 
politics; that instead of appointing farmers as (tov- 
ernor Whitman had promised, recommended by 
farm organizations in the State, to control the Farm 
and Market Council, he had entirely ignored their 
recommendations; he failed to request their advice, 
and he appointed men to the place without farm 
experience for purely political reasons. The appoint¬ 
ment of Charles II. Betts, a third-rate ])olitician. to 
the position of secretary of this board, was espe¬ 
cially condemned and his resignation demanded. The 
Senate was also request(Ml not to confirm Governor 
Whitman’s appointments to ’the Farm and Markets 
Council. 
The Syracuse Convention of the Federated xVgri- 
cultural Societies of the State went further and 
demanded a repeal f)f both the food law and the 
Fiirm and Market law, because as expressed the 
laws failed to take these departments out of politics 
lait plunged them deeper and deeper into tlu' mire 
of politic.s. 
It is also a well-known fact to men familiar with 
the society that the Whitman influence in this State 
has dominated the Federal Food Commission AA'ork 
in the State under Mr. Hoover, and the Federal 
regime came in for its share of criticism Avith the 
State regime. A pi-otest Avas voiced against price¬ 
fixing. against the conscription of farm labor, against 
the propaganda to restrict the consumption of milk 
and other foods by saving propaganda, and a de¬ 
mand made that the members of the Federal Food 
Commi.ssion be men of some fai*m experience. 
The suggestion to organize the State Avith a vieAV 
of putting at lea.st 50 farmers into the next I.egis- 
lature struck terror to the hearts of the politicians 
Avho attended the convention, but Avith the aA'OAved 
purpose of controlling the expression of Avratli 
against Governor Whitman in .so far as possible. 
The.y apparently succeeded in modifying expre.ssion 
as far as the former resolution aa-us concerned to the 
extent of leaving Governor Whitman's name out of 
it, but there is no ditliculty in reading betAveen the 
lines, and Avhat Avas omitted in the resolution Av.as 
expressed Avith double emphasis by many speakers 
on the floor of the convention. The resolutions had 
sufficient pep Avithout names. 
The politicians Avere again Avhipped by the farmers 
in Syracuse as they Avere in 1917 in the Senate 
Chamber in Albany. Again they are holding out the 
olive branch to the farmer. Again they come Avith 
sinister suggestion and allurement and promise. 
They Avill fail. The farmers have had their lesson. 
They are in no humor to be trifled Avith again. They 
Avill accept no pretenses. They Avill take no chances. 
They will make their own terms. They Avill fix 
their OAvn demaiuhs. They Avill put enough men in 
■Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKe/r 
the Legislature to do their will without watching, 
and if fifty men acting as a balance of poAver are 
unable to .secure the right kind of agricultural meas¬ 
ures for this State in the interests of both producers 
and consumers of food, then Ave will undertake to 
put a ma.iorit.v in the Legislature that Avill do .so. 
Saved! The Life of the Robber Hen 
What_ does The R. N.-Y. think of the Federal order 
prohibiting licensed poultry dealers from buying pullets 
and egg-laying hens during the period ending April .30? 
New Jersey. ii. m. av. 
No matter about Avhat Ave think. Here are the 
facts, and the effects as we ."ee it. 
The meat packers control a large bulk of cold 
storage eggs. I’p to December 15 this season cold 
slor.ige eggs could not l»e legall.v sold in Ncav York 
State and cit.v except Avhen marked Avith the Avoi-ds 
“cold storage’’ on the shell. At that time the storage 
houses Avere bulging Avith eggs. This Iuaa' Avas en¬ 
forced and the storage eggs Avere selling at 42 to 45 
cents per dozen. After Mr. Dillon retired from the 
l>epartment of Foods and ^larkets, the hiAV Avas not 
enforced, and the cold storage eggs Avere sold all 
over the city at 65 cents per dozen under the dis¬ 
guise of “strictly fre.sh State eggs.” To make the 
deception all the more complete, the Food Commis¬ 
sion cards Avere displayed Avith the eggs. The pack¬ 
ers st)ld their cold stor.age eggs at a liberal profit, 
but the reall.v fre.sh eggs that Avere being produced 
in the cold Aveather on grain at .$4 a hundred dropped 
from 10 to 15 cents a dozen. Producers AA'ere .so dis¬ 
couraged they sold the hens to saA'e loss. This 
promised a reduced suppl.A’ of eggs again in the 
Si)ring. Avhen ])ackers Avill again AA'ish to stock up for 
next Winter's su])pl,A' of cold storage eggs. No mat¬ 
ter Avhat the intent of the order, the result Avill be to 
compel fanners and poultr.vinen to keep hens over 
the Spring laying season AA'hether it pays them to do 
no or not. It Avill also result in an increased Spring 
.supply of of eggs, and a loAA’er iirice, to the adA’an- 
tage of the ])ackers. 
Then again, the packers virtually control all the 
dressed chickens noAV in cold storage. They control 
the supply ev(>ry year. The order against the .sale of 
liA-e chickens remoA’es all competition from them, and 
tlu'.v can clean out their storage houses at their OAvn 
prices and terms. Not only that, but the oi’der 
against killing noAV Avill put more chickens on the 
market'again Avhen the packers again Avant to buy 
chickens and foAA’ls. VieAA'ed from any angle, the 
packers Avin. and producers and consumers lose. 
Incidentall.A", Mr. George Ib I’riebe, aa’Iio aaus long 
associated AA'ith the packing industry and now a ( hi- 
cago poultry and egg dealer AA’ith some past record, 
is in charge of this part of the Food Administration. 
If there is any better Avay to discourage production 
than the means adopted, the other AA’a.A' has not been 
yet suggested. 
New York Milk to Chicago 
I.ast Ave<4v it Avas reported from up-Stato that 
Borden’s :Milk Com])any Avas shipping milk from 
Gortland Count.A’, New York, to the Chicago market. 
The price fixed by the ililk Commission to be paid 
producers at Chicago Avas .S2.7:l per hundred from 
November 1 to July 1. The NeAV York price is .$.‘I..‘14 
per hundred. The railroads are congested. Freight 
is delayed and shipments of feed and other farm 
supplies are almost impossible to get in the Fast. 
The railroads have been taken over by the Federal 
Government to facilitate movement of foods and 
other products. There is an abundance of milk pro- 
duqed in the vicinity of Chicago for all its needs, 
yet if this report be time—and it comes from sub- 
.stantial authority—the Borden’s Company seem to 
lind a Avay to heap pei’fectly unnecessary burdens on 
the railroads for fast-moving freight, and Avhile un¬ 
able to pay the Western milk producers a reasonable 
price for their milk, seem to find it convenient to 
ship milk that costs them a cent and a half more a 
(piart to tUat market. 
The Chicago Commis.sion seems to have been 
made up largely of city interests. It is claimed that 
it ignored the cost of production entirely, and that 
its onl.v conccum seemed to be for the price to the 
consumer, but it handled the distributors Avith tender 
consideration. It accepted their evidence at its face 
value and gave them a substantial increase. They 
re.1ected the producers’ figures and loAvered their 
price. The average for February 1 to July 10 is 
reported at The consumer pays 12c, the 
farmer gets 5c and the distributor gets 7c. 
There is some report that the farmers are con¬ 
templating a plan to pasteurize and distribute their 
OAvn milk in the city of Chicago. There is abundant 
reason for their doing so, and sufficient assurance 
of rhe success of the plan. If they Avould go ahead 
with their equipment and charge themselves up with 
one cent a quart to pay for it, they would soon OAvn 
their own plants. They Avould be selling milk 
cheaper than the consumers in Chicago now pay, 
and the.v Avould be netting higher prices for 
themselves. 
As Shown at “Farmers’ Week” 
Having rctiiriKHl from that Ncav York farmer’s annual 
outing, conference, and short course in agriculture of¬ 
fered at Ithaca in February of each year, and known 
as Farmers’ M eek, I am intere.sted in comparing the 
si)irit of that gathering AA'ith that shoAvn in previous 
years, for never, since ’76, has the spirit of our country¬ 
men ’been a matter for greater concern than in these 
opening months of 191,S. Never, at any time, has the 
Avhole Avorld leaned as lieaA’ily upon the shoulders of the 
American farmer as it does today. 
An innoA'ation at this conference Avas the forum, at 
Avhich the farmers AA’ere iuvit(Hl to talk back—and they 
did. This bit of the Aveek’s i)rogram showed, as did no 
other part, AA'hat aa'us in the minds of the farmers pres¬ 
ent. Stage settings and the formal courtesies of the 
occasion Avere for the moment forgotten Avhile they tried 
to get at the heart of things. 
The State Food Commission was represented here by 
its chairman, Joim Mitcheli, a man introduced as an 
‘ industriai statesman.” He Avas listened to Avith re- 
.'■•pect, for his name has long stood in the public mind 
as that of a man who has devoted his life to the uplift 
of labor through orgiinization His hearers believed him 
when he said that he Avas glad that farmers had organ¬ 
ized. Mr. Mitchell, nevertheless, received a mild heck¬ 
ling, but the vote of respect tendered him before he left 
the platform shoAA’ed that the heckling AA’as directed not 
at him, but through him to those who AA’ere resx)onsible 
for ids appointment. , 
It AAas cA’ident that running through the minds of 
those who listeiu'd Avere such tlioughts as these: Wliy 
A\as this man placed at the head of a commission that 
Avill have to do chiefly Avith the production of food—for 
there can be no (piestion of distribution until production 
is first provided for’/ Are there no industrial statesmen 
whose lives h.ave been .spent, not in the coal fields, but 
in the cornfields of our country’/ :Must American farm¬ 
ers look to (.ther industries for leadersliip in their oAvn 
particular province’/ Our country lias been struggling 
with a coal famine that has cost the farmer dear, but 
AAC IiUAe not asked that a farmer be iilaced at the head 
of the fuel administration. It i.s struggling Avith a food 
famine whicli is likely to cost the Avhole world dear, 
and the food administration of our State is headed bv a 
maii'from the coal mines. Why’/ ^ 
We aiijiremate the need for ‘every possible effort that 
can be i>ut forth in the production of food ; Avhv then 
may we not select our captains from those among us 
who have fir.st hand knowledge of .the difficulties to be 
overcome.^ Be are told that we are the bone and sinew 
of the nation; we believe that Ave possess some of the 
brains akso. B e believe, fiirtlier, that our bones and 
sinews can best be directed by the brains that have long 
lieen on the .lob. Mr. Mitchell we honor for Avliat he is 
and AA’hat he has done, just as others Avho have been 
placed over us avi' despise, not so much for Avhat they 
are toi’ Avhat they represent—the exigencies of pold- 
nc-s. \\ by are Ave not recognized as men capable of at 
least sharing in our own organization and leadershin, 
instead of being treated as children, to be cajoled 
threatened, flattered, and inqilored in turn, but always 
to be led/ 
There is no doubt in my mind that the farmers of 
xMHV lork .State tace the coming .season in a spirit of 
c epression. iSatural obstacles to the needed production 
they Avill overcome, if humanly possible, but the arti¬ 
ficial barriers placed in their way by the blunders of 
those over them they resent. And the resimtment 
arises, not because of their losses, not because they feel 
that all blunders may be avoided, but because they feel 
that they have been denied a voice in the management 
of their own attairs. The broken promises of those 
AA^ho have promised them representation upon boards 
of control in their oaaii field haA’e aroused a feeling dan¬ 
gerously near vindictiveness. Hardship and sacrifice 
for their country’s sake none Avill face more cheerfully, 
but hardship and sacrifici* imposed Avholly from AA’ithout 
AVill be accejited by no class in this country, for their 
necessity Avill not be taken for granted. 
The farmer feels that tho.se Avho are charged Avith 
fixing food prices are flinching ’before the poAver of the 
organized consumer and trusting to the impotence of 
unorganized production; that they are afraid of food 
riots in the cit.A’, but beliei’e that appeals to patriotism 
and the Avorld’s great need Avill quell anv threateiuHl 
uprising of those Avho must produce the ‘food. They 
have definiteiy and deliberately broken their promise t'o 
fix the price of certain foods at a point that Avould 
alloAV a reasonable profit upon the cost of production, 
and they have as deliberately broken their promise to 
give protiucers representation upon the boards which fix 
these prices. 
Upon the spirit in Avhich the farmer enters upon his 
Spring’s Avork Avill depend largely the harvest that Avill 
be gathered in the Fall. The wrongs of May cannot be 
righted in October, for the season Avill not be repeated. 
As the farmer looks upon his potatoes frozen in his 
cellar becau.se there Avas no market for them at any 
price, he Avill refuse to ploAV again for potatoes. As he 
accepts a check for milk less than the proven and ac- 
knoAvledged cost of production, he will again consign his 
heifer caives to the block. As he pays another feed 
bill, and remembers the promises of a reduction Avhich 
Avere made, he Avill again invite the cattle buyer to his 
barn. 
It may Avell be that human wisdom cannot prevent 
some of the losses which the farmer suffers; it is not bc- 
.Aond the principles of ordinary justice and equity that 
he shall be called into the councils of those who attempt 
to regulate his business and be given an equal voice 
with his fellows in the management of his own affairs. 
AI. B. DEAN. 
