•Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
859 
The Dairymen’s League Needs New 
Leaders 
OUT IN TITE OPEN.—Stune: b 3 * our revelation of 
bis coiuiectioii with the milk tinist to conceal from 
fainners Itis abject surrender to them in the May 
and June jil'ices of milk, R. D. Coopei*, as head of 
the executive committee of the l>airymen’s League, 
has at last found opportunity to covertly align him¬ 
self with the milk trust interests in an open, per¬ 
sonal political attack on l\rr. Dillon. While to those 
rot familiar with selfish intrigue, the real purpose 
ma^- not be apparent, no one who is familiar with 
Ibe facts will be surprised at the despicable part he 
takes in it. 
TTTE FACTS? IXVOLTED.—We have no personal 
quarrel with Mr. Cooper. Farmers who came in 
contact with him have observed his vanity, his envy, 
and his incompetency. Members of the board have 
demanded his resignation, and committees from sev¬ 
eral parts of the State have been with difliculty re¬ 
strained from a public demand, for his resignation. 
We have held this sentiment in check in the hope 
tliat wise council will control after a full and free 
discussion among members of tbe League affairs. 
We have hoped until now to avoid pei’sonalities; but 
since Mr. Cooi>er has 
chosen to resoi’t to them 
he must abide by tbe 
consequences. 
THE INITIAL Cf)N- 
T RO YERSY. — At the 
very beginning of the 
milk war R. D. Cooper 
and his associates .se¬ 
verely criticized .Tohn Y. 
(lerow, then president 
of the I) a i r y m e n ’ s 
liOague, and forced his 
resignation. At a criti¬ 
cal time, in the midst of 
the 1916 fight, he openly 
fought President Brill, 
and, failing to force Mr. 
Brill’s resignation, he 
was arbitrarily ousted 
by :Mr. Cooper and his 
associates. These men 
never proposed to fasten 
the milk trust yoke on 
the necks of producer 
and consumer as he is 
i-eported to have pro- 
]M)sed, and in the judg¬ 
ment of the men who 
are in po.ssession of the 
facts, the resignation of 
.Mr. Cooper at this time 
is more Imperative to 
the future of the League 
than anj' other one thing 
that has transi)ired 
since its organization. 
AN ARBITR.\RY ATTITUDE.—‘TJpon what 
meat doth this our Cmsar feed, that he is grown so 
great?” A weak King of France once an.swered 
his complaining sul>jects: ‘‘The State I I am the 
State I” Mr. Cooper would criticize and depose 
other oflicers. but an^' word of advice to him or com- 
]»l!iint of his acts he would have people believe is 
an act of treason to the League. In his own stupid 
dreams he is the League. He deposed I’resident 
Brill for le.ss than half the cause of his May and 
.Tune contract with Borden’s. He was con.scious of 
his surrrender, because he tried to cover up and 
disguise its provisions b.y an attempt to make it 
api)ear that the surplus losses would be paid by 
non-members. Brill at least told the truth; Cooper 
did not. 
THE POINT AT ISSUE.—But wo are not con¬ 
cerned about Mr. Cooper or his personal abuse. We 
are concerned about the permanent success of the 
Dairymen’s League. Mr. Cooper wants a dj’uastj' 
in its management. We want it democratic. He 
Avants to rule it individually as its head. We Avaut 
a constitution and by-laws to define its policies, 
atithorize the powers of its officers and limit their 
authority. He wants the president to he the Avhole 
thing. AVe Avant him to obey the directions of the 
organization, Avhich he does not do. We Avaut the 
officers’ duties and salaries fixed by the members, 
lie Avants them to define their own duties, and vote 
their own salaries. We Avant financial reports to 
shoAv just AA'hat each officer draAvs in salary and ex¬ 
pense in detail. Tlie December meeting demanded 
this. AA’e have tried to get the figures to publish, 
and Air. Cooper refused to let us have them. He 
T'as not published them. We now publicly demand 
the facts. In aucav of Air. Cooper's recent disjjosi- 
tion to distort facts, we uoav demand this reiiort 
from a disinterested accountant. This is simply giv¬ 
ing voice to a demand Horn dairymen that Ave ha\’e 
heretofore Avithheld. Now we are going to have it. 
THE LEAGUE POLICY.—There has been no 
attack on the Dairymen’s League, and he knows it. 
No one knows it better. The expressed policy 
of the League is to treat all its members alike, to 
distribute milk economically; to keep tbe influence 
of the milk trust out of the affairs of the League; 
to l)uild up the dairy interests of the State by a 
largo consumption and large production, and a mar¬ 
ket for all the milk. Air. Cooper opposes each and 
everj' one of these purposes. He has aligned him- 
.self Avith the trast. He has publicl}' repeated his 
ambition to become a milk dealer himself. This pur¬ 
pose AA’e believe e^lains many things that heretofore 
farmers have not been able to understand. We now 
publicly cballenge Cooper to go before any rep¬ 
resentative gathering of dairymen of the milk ter¬ 
ritory and discuss principles and policies for the 
League. In the meantime farmers familiar with 
affairs in this State for .60 years or more, and aa-Iio 
read the anonymous circulars mailed Avith his 
aiithorit.v knoAA" that the personal statements in them 
are false, knoAvingly made so by the man who wrote 
them. 
Milk Prices for July 
On .Tune 25 the Federal Alilk Commission again 
met aud fixed a i^rice for .July milk. We liaA-e been 
unable as j'et to find Avhether or not the big manu¬ 
facturing companies that AvithdreAV from the com¬ 
pact Alay 1 have again become a pai’ty to it or 
not. The price fixed to producers is $2.25 per hun¬ 
dred for thi’eo per cent milk in the 150-milo zone. 
No reference has been made apparently to surplus. 
There is api)arentl 3 ' no provksion to take care of a 
dairyman (or a community) AA'ho finds himself Avith- 
cut an outlet for milk. Appeals are made to us 
almost daily to find a customer for milk b.v men and 
associations that liaA'e lost their outlet under one 
circumstance or another. The natural Summer 
scarcity aa’III probably remedy this iu time, but for 
the present they take losse.s. 
The commission fixed the folloAving prices for 
consumers: 
Grade A bottled milk, retail, 16 cents a quart; Grade 
A bottled, retail, 0 cents a pint; Grade B bottled, retail. 
Iff cents a quart; Grade B bottled, retail, 7 cents a pint; 
Grade B bottled, sold to stores. 11% cents a quart and 
6% cents a pint; Grade B bottled, sold by stores, 12 
cents a quart aud 7 cents a pint: loose milk, sold to 
stores, 8 cents a quart; loose milk, sold by stores, 9 
cents a quart; loose milk, sold at wholesale iu quantities 
of ten gallons or over. 10 cents a quart; loose milk, sold 
at Avholesale iu quantities uuder ten gallons, 10% cents 
a quart. 
Thi.s still allOAvs the dealer 8.2 cents for the de¬ 
livery of Grade B milk, aud 10 cents a quart for 
the delivery of Grade B in bottles. For the grade 
of milk sold iu Ncav York the cost of a 40-quart can 
laid on the platform in the cit.v is $2. The dealer is 
alloAved to charge .$.‘>.20, or .$1.20 profit. A dealer 
handling 500 cans makes .$600 a day. For .Tuly the 
price to the consumers through the stores should be 
eight cents for loose milk, and bottled milk could 
Avell be sold through the stores for 10 cent.s. 
T. Elkiu Nathans, the secretary of the Dealer.s’ 
Association, has made ii protest against the prices, 
alleging that the commission was influenced by the 
sale and publicity of seven-cent milk by tbe Gountry 
Alilk Company, through the activities of Air. Van 
Son Avith Avhat help Ave could give him for the month 
of June. Pussyfooting with the enemy has never 
benefited us in any Avay. We do sometimes make a 
gain in a fight. It Avill be observed that loose milk 
by the gallon to restaurants and hotels costs 10 and 
10% cents for .Tuly. 
I come doAvn Ninth Avenue in NeAv York every morn¬ 
ing. In April I always saw children carrying home a 
pint or a quart of loose milk. During .Tune I see them 
Avith two quarts. It was most satisfying to ob.serve this 
increase in the use of milk by poor families Avho couhl 
not use the larger quanties at 10 to 12 cents, the 
former price. k. g. P. 
NeAv York City. 
Cheap delivery is the key to the milk i)roblem. 
We lijive noAV demon¬ 
strated Avhat can be 
done. AVe must keep 
doing it. . 
Daylight Saving on 
the Farm 
With a feAv exception.s 
the farmei’s AAere re.id.A' 
to take up AAith the sug- 
gestiou to turn the 
clocks ahead aud “save 
an hour of daylight.’’ 
Noav and then Ave find a 
stubborn one Avho re¬ 
fuses to make the 
change, iu .-ill the voca¬ 
tions. I haA'e in mind 
one iu the employ of 
the Ncav York Central, 
who declares that “they 
can’t fool me; I knoAV 
what the right time is, 
but r.ailroad time is so 
and .sol" But most of 
us feel that the onlj’ 
thing to do is to fall in 
line Avith any of these 
suggestions Avhich are 
intended for the great¬ 
est good of the gre.atest 
numiter. IIoAvever, for 
the farmer. I cannot 
see hoAV Ave have really 
gained anything. ()ur 
custom lias lieen in 
the ]iast to start out 
iu the morning just as soon as it is light during 
the .Summer mouths, and in the F;ill long Itefore sun¬ 
rise. and AA'e can hai'diy see liou" aa'o are saA'ing much 
daj'light to get out an hour earlier and do our morn¬ 
ing chores by lantern light, and then to quit Avliile 
the .sun is still three hours high and have the even¬ 
ing chores done tAvo hours before dark! 
During haying Ave are .sure that this Avill prove a 
great loss of valuable time, for all Avho knoAv any¬ 
thing about farming knoAv that it is the last foAv 
hours of daylight Avbich are mo.st valuable iu caring 
for hay. Avhile iu the early morning, aud until n'early 
noou, in fact, not much is often accomplished. The 
same is true Avith the bean crop; nothing can be done 
iu Avorkiug them till the dcAV is entirely dried off, for 
any moisture on the plants encourages the spores of 
anthracnose to spread. This applies to a greater or 
less degree in a great deal of our farming operations. 
The latter part of the day is the most desirable for 
many kinds of farm Avork, and it is too much to 
expect or ask that the hired man or the farmer him¬ 
self is going to obserA'e the neAA^ time in the earij' 
morning and then improve the latter part of the day 
as Avell, for that Avould be the eight-hour system in 
earnest—eight hours in the forenoon and eight in 
the afternoon! And even the most enthusisatic 
daylight saver Avould not stand for that indefinitely. 
So Ave find that as time goes on many of the farmers 
Avho Avere Avilling to make the change Avhen it was 
flr.st suggested, after giving it a fair trial, are going 
back to the old Time in actual practice, even though 
they do not change tbeir clocks, i. c. H. cook. 
Genesee Go., N. Y. 
