RURAL NEW-YORKER 
623 
The Country Milk Company 
A Discussion of the Milk Question 
We are considering the building of a shipping and 
manufacturing plant by the dairymen to cost .$25,000 
to $40,000. with the expectation that the milk would be 
taken by the Country Milk Company of your city. 
The question to us is, what chance has this company 
to establish and keep a good market in New York? 
Will the consumers patronize this or will they back the 
companies already established? In other words, are the 
citizens of New York City antagonistic to the farmers, 
as we are led to believe from the city papers? Also, 
how will your city Board of Health and other officials 
consider this movement? We are loth to invest so much 
money unless the prospect is good to stay in the busi¬ 
ness and make a profit. On the other hand, unless some 
escape is possible from the uncertain acceptance of the 
prices of the present buying company (Borden’s) a 
large part of the co\vs will be turned off. Will you 
kindly advise us of the prospects of the Country Milk 
Company? K. s. ir. 
New York. 
AN IMPORTANT :\IATTER.—Wo have avoided 
detailed discus.sion of this subject in the hope that 
wiser counsel would pi*evail with time. This hope is 
not encouraging now'; and if nnw'ise policies are 
pursued they may involve serious re.snlts and losses 
that could be avoided by prudent foresight and capa¬ 
ble management. There is so much inquiry at this 
time w'e believe a general discussion will he wise; 
and if anyone takes a view at variance with ours, 
we shall be glad to publish it in order that all 
opinions be expressed and the wTsest counsel prevail. 
THE COMPANY.—^The Country Milk Company is 
a corporation to sell milk for farm-owned county 
milk companies. These companies are its stockhold¬ 
ers. Its capital stock is .$50,000; and about $20,000 
has been paid in. It bought the equipment and 
wholesale business of one of the Mutual-McDermott 
city plants. The president of the League is its presi¬ 
dent. The vice-president of the League is its treas¬ 
urer. 
REASONS FOR OPPOSITION.—We were opposed 
to the organization of this company. We believe it 
ought to he abolished and all the hn.siness done by 
the DaiiTuien’s League. The League can serve all its 
members. The company can serve only a small part 
of them. All of the members of the League help the 
company members by prestige and intlnence and 
capital. Yet the company member^s are favox*ed at 
the expense of the others. The company milk will 
he sold first and to the best paying customers. When 
there is a surplus the other producers will suffer in 
comparison. Since the company was organized the 
big dealers di.seriminate against the farm-owned 
plants, and these plants are forced to sxxbscrihe for 
stock in the company. The company does not buy 
the milk. It is simply pooled, and if no sale is found 
for it, the plants must manufacture it at home. This 
Is the case now. When collections are not made 
promptly in the city, producers must wait for their 
money. There is an evident venture in all this, not 
to say hazard; and there are possibilities of losses 
In inefficient or selfish management. Some plants 
W’hich w’ere really opposed to the plan, have joined 
the company because after putting up the eiiuipment 
they had no other outlet for the milk. Probably 
most of them feel that in this way they help the 
general milk situation. We do not believe that they 
were influenced by any purpose to profit by the sac¬ 
rifices of other members, though, w'e believe, such 
Avould be the result, if the plan succeeded. It is 
part of the result already. Ultimately they might 
be the heaviest losers themselves. But the greatest 
danger comes from the distrust and suspicion of fav¬ 
oritism and selfishness that it suggests, and from the 
fact that it retards the development of the League 
and endangers it. If the company succeeds, at best 
it can only take the place of the League. Both can¬ 
not develop together, and the League has greater 
possibilities of success than the company. 
THE CONSUMER’S ATTITUDE.—City consumers 
have little choice of evils. Big dealers tell them that 
farmer.s’ milk is dirty and dealers’ milk is better. 
Prices are the same, and they stick to the old 
dealers. If the company lowered the price, it would 
get the trade, but it does not. While the Country 
:\Iilk Company and the dealers play together the 
consumer has no choice, but begins to accuse the 
farmer of conspiring with his ancient enemy, the 
dealer. This situation is responsible for all the an- 
tugonism of the city consumer to the producer. As 
yet there is little of it. During the milk fight, the 
consumers favored the farmers. "While the company 
keeps the rules wdth the dealers, there will be little 
open opposition from them. The Board of Health has 
always been unfavorable. When the cost of delivery 
is reduced, they will make trouble; but the con¬ 
sumers would then he interested, and their influence 
would he decisive. 
A FRANK STATEMENT.—Now that the subject 
is open we may as well treat it with entire frank¬ 
ness. This federation of farm-owned milk plants 
with a selling agency in the city was conceived long 
hefoi’e the League got into operation. It required 
the success of the League to make it possible, and 
then it was not needed. Nevertheless the plan was 
revived last year when the Milk Producers’ Market¬ 
ing Association was formed, and further developed 
recently in the organization of the Coxintry ililk 
Company. It seems to have been a scheme of the 
executive officers of the League. Some of the promi¬ 
nent directors have said they knew nothing about 
it, hut men in the confidence of the officials admit 
that the pui’pose was to create an official milk busi¬ 
ness and to increase official incomes. This seems to 
have been at least one of the results. The president 
of the League is also president of the Country :Milk 
Company. Last year his salary was $5,000 and ex¬ 
penses. This year it has been increased to $7,500, and 
he draws $2,000 more from the Country Milk Com¬ 
pany. Roth the Marketing Association and the com¬ 
pany ai’e in a way .«;nbsidiaries of the League; hnt, 
of course, the League could do any business that 
either or both of the subsidiaries can do. Under 
present conditions the League does not develop any 
new customers in the city. Small dealers helped 
win the 1010 fight. They are now disappearing. The 
city business has become moi’e and more of a 
monopoly by the big dealer.s. 
A VIRTUAL MONOPOLY.—Under the milk trust 
lilies one dealer is not permitted to encroach on the 
customers of another, nor allowed to reduce prices 
to increase its customers. These rules are followed 
by the Country Milk Company. It therefore cannot 
increase its output very much; and can do nothing 
to reduce the cost of distribution or to increase 
consumption. It is to all intents and purposes a 
member of the milk trust. It pays the producer no 
more than the other dealer.s. For milk above 3.0 
per cent fat it pays le.ss than the established price. 
It cuts the price where it can, like other dealers. 
It charges consumers* the high limit. Its producers 
pay one cent a hundred to the League; and the 
plants pay two per cent extra for selling commis¬ 
sion. 
FURTHER DISADVANTAGES.—The company is 
involved and complicated in organization. It has 
small paid-in capital. It is without bank credit, or 
business rating. The bonding companies would not 
is.sue a bond to guarantee its contract to deliver 
milk to the city. It is not in a position now to take 
on more milk from the new plants. Knowing this 
situation it would be criminal to encourage farmers 
to make investments that promise only discourage¬ 
ment and loss. Anyway, they are entitled to all the 
facts so that they may act intelligently. The com¬ 
pany has a good city plant; hut a trade for only 
a part of the milk of its iiresent owners. Tiider 
present policies it can safely take no more. 
DEFICIEKCIES OF OUTLET.—Under present 
conditions the League has no means of developing 
an outlet for milk. It turns that function over to 
the company, and the company is “regular” witli the 
dealers. The League does not make prices to the 
producer. It turns this function over to the Federal 
Milk Commission; and everybody feels that that 
commis.sion is influenced l)y the big dealers. The 
wider it makes the difference between the producer 
and consumer, the easier it will be for the Country 
Milk Company to do business. 
THE RETIRING MANAGER.—Mr. N. A. Van Son, 
the manager of the company, has now resigned. He 
is yet in charge, but expects to be relieved soon. He 
is the only practical city milk man in the organiza¬ 
tion. If he were absent or disabled even for a few 
days things would not go well with the company 
business. It will not be easy to replace him if he 
persists in his purpose to resign. Of course, a capa¬ 
ble man may be found; but there are not many of 
them to bo picked up in New York untainted with 
trust methods. 
FARM-OWNED IT.ANTS.—We have always advo¬ 
cated the building of farm-owned milk plants. We 
do so now. They are the backbone of the League. 
Both must be developed, if dairy industry 
of the State is to be maintained, but under the 
situation for the present moment there is no en¬ 
couragement to build local plants, except the hope 
of the future. The League does not sell their milk; 
the dealers refuse to buy it; and the Country Milk 
Company, the only other outlet, does not have de¬ 
mand for it, nor money to pay for it. The present 
need is for a policy and an organization that will 
encourage them and make them profitable. 
NEEDS OF THE FUTURE.—Next week we shall 
try to show how the League can encourage the build¬ 
ing of farm-owned milk plants by reducing the cost 
of distribution, increasing the consumption, and de¬ 
veloping an outlet for all the milk at prices based 
on the supply and demand. In the meantime we 
readil.y concede that it is llie luivilege of anyone to 
go into the milk business, hut when officers oC the 
League elect to do .so, wo believe they should resign 
their positions in tlie Dairymen’s League. 
Efforts of the State Constabulary Force 
On April (>th the New York Federation of Agri¬ 
culture held a meeting at Walden, Orange County. 
It followed similar meetings in Boughkeepsie and 
Kingston, in neighboring counties. In all these meet¬ 
ings farmers freely criticized the appointment of city 
men from other interests to represent agriculture 
and pas.se(l resolutions reproving Governor Wliitman 
for the use of State funds to pay his personal politi¬ 
cal debts. 
For .some two weeks previous to the Walden meet¬ 
ing two memI»ors of the State Constahnlary were 
registered at one of the Walden hotels, and were 
seen on the village streets. Three or four hundred 
farmers attended the meeting. Early in the evening 
they were ordered by the constahnlary to buy lan¬ 
terns to hang on the wagons. They were threateneil 
with arrest in the event of failure to do so. The 
village stores sold out their supply of lanterns in 
short time. Most of them got home before there was 
any need of a light. 
Wo happened to be in the Capitol at Albany when 
the -Vssembly was debating the State Con.stahulary 
hill. There were no farmers there demanding it, hnt 
one would think from the speeches that the farmer’s 
life depended on the passage of the bill. None of the 
speech-makers said that the duties of otlicei's would 
be to see that farmers bought lanterns to light their 
wagons in early evening on the way home from a 
farm meeting. Of course the State Constabulary 
assumed that the farmers were so blinded by the 
discussions at the meeting that they would be lost 
without illumination from Albany. One man .said 
that the only reason that the experience would not 
cost Governor Whitman ten votes for every lantern 
was that the Governor had no votes there anyway. 
■The New School Law; Now Organize 
for Control 
The uiiexpectod has happened. The “impossible’’ has 
been accomplished. The Township School I.aw has been 
repealed. The Capitol at Albany has been jarred to its 
very foundations, and the Department across the street 
has received a shock, thanks to The R. N.-Y., and a lot 
of men and women all over the State of New York who 
have brought this about and have shown that they are 
not afraid of politicians. Now, on May 7, let the rural 
people rally to the largest funeral ever held in the State 
of New York and pay their last tribute to the deUmet 
Township School Law, and then elect their trustees as 
they did in the past years. 
But a word of warning. We must not rest secure 
in what we have accomplished. There will surely come 
a counter-attack, and you may rest assured that when 
the Department gets its breath there will be another 
lemon hauled out of its sleeve to pass out to us. It seems 
to me there is no better time than when every school 
district is assembled at the annual school meeting, to 
organize as a district to cooperate with a town, county, 
and a State organization. _ Then we can present such 
a solid front that no political power of Kaiserisni can 
put anything on to us we do not ask for. We are told 
that our district schools are to be probed. If there is 
any probing to be done let us do it ourselves. We have 
no confidence in the committee they are to send out. 
It is an ill wind that blows nobody some good. Let 
the experience of the past year be a lesson to us and 
teach us that we must be faithful to our political duties 
and to know whom we are voting for. The people of 
the Htate have never been so personally acquainted with 
their representatives as during the past session of the 
Legislature. If your representatives have been true to 
your wishes reelect them; if not then turn them down. 
But don’t fail to let them know what your wishes are. 
If you don’t instruct them, how are they to know? 
Things have happened in the Legislature during the last 
session that surpass all history. Prayers have been 
recalled. The Township School Law has been repealed 
inside of a year from its passage and legislators have 
been shown up in their true light. c. L. c. 
R. N.-Y.—Let us add this suggestion. Elect the best 
men and women you can find in your town as school 
officers. They must accept as a patriotic duty. We 
must show the possibilities of the old law. Begin by 
putting in the best school officers you can find. 
The Price of Wool 
There is nothing so uncertain as the price of wool. 
•It has never depended on supply and demand, and quo¬ 
tations on it are not regular, as with other products. 
Growers of it are sparsely settled over a vast area, and 
are picked oft' separately. There is quite a variety of 
coarse and fine, and long and short fiber, as well as 
amount of shrinkage in scouring, which is used by 
the buyers for their benefit, but, on the way from the 
grower to its final destination, the manufacturer, it 
goes almost like country butter, all at the same price 
per pound. 
A good many will have wool to sell for the first time 
this Spring, while others will have an increase, and 
this should be kept in mind. Wool is the scarcest com¬ 
modity in the world now. It has always been scarce, 
and regardless of the fact, it has been sold as if the 
market was glutted, because there has been no union of 
education, or of effort among growers. Take only last 
year for instance, and they sold from 25 to 80 cents, 
which shows that some folks gathered a wad of money 
that the men who grew the wool should have had. It 
has always sold too low and the price that clothing 
sells at now would justify a price on wool twice as 
high as ever has been paid for it. 
Uncertainty of price puts every grower, especially 
the small one, in a peculiar position, and you can 
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