1418 
f 
[ 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Ton mnember what I said last week 
about the 35-conk dollar? 1 mentioned 
that economic trouble very confidently, 
with a feeling that it bit into the lives 
of farmers everywhere. There are ot her 
things beside pride which run 1<> a fall, 
* for last week I found a place where there 
really seems to be no such thing as a 
36-eent dollar. In fact one man told me 
in dead earnest that he got a 110-cent 
dollar or everything lie sold ! 1 think he 
was al»< mt right. 1 tut the absence of the 
35-con t dollar and the efleet, of this ab¬ 
sence upon local life and business seemed 
t.o provj‘ everything we have ever said 
about the slow economic suicide of a_l>usi- 
ness system which permits any 35-cent 
dollar to exist. 
jj* »!. *V sj» 
Lancaster. Pa., is the place where tliCy 
have taken the 35-coiit. dollar by the neck 
and hanged him until lie is dead. The 
city is a sound and solid community. On 
entering it you get the impression that 
you have come upon a prosperous and 
good-natured place. There is no wild 
rushing to and fro. People who walk 
about those clean and well-kept streets 
seem to know just where they want to 
go and travel as if they knew their ticket 
was paid for. Here is a place with per¬ 
haps as much actual property per capita 
as any city of its size in the country ready 
to acknowledge that the farmers of Lan¬ 
caster County have made the city pros¬ 
perous. and that they really own it finan¬ 
cially. You will find very few sneers 
about farmers or references to “'hayseeds’’ 
in the Lancaster papers. References to 
farming are usually very respectful. This 
is because the farmers practically control 
the local food supply and do not share 
the consumer’s dollar with any middle¬ 
man. Surely the man who brings your 
dinner in one hand and carries a good 
roll of money in the other is one to he 
cultivated—not h a rrowed. 
* * * S> * 
Two things will strike the stranger in 
Lancaster as very evident. The city is 
short on grocery and butcher shops and 
very long on market baskets. I walked 
through several streets without seeing a 
single place where vegetables, eggs or 
fruit were offered for sale. In most other 
cities every block is decorated with sev¬ 
eral of such stores, for there is where 
much of the 05 cents will be taken out of 
the dollar. In the evening as Well as in 
the morning it seemed to me as if every 
other woman I met was carrying a big 
market basket. They were not dainty 
little bags or baskets, but big substantial 
hampers with handles which hung on the 
elbow in (lie old. substantial way. And 
most of them were solidly filled with 
sweet corn, apples, potatoes, fruit—any¬ 
thing which the solid wife of a good 
provider wanted for dinner. Those men 
and women did not carry the big baskets 
with any appearance of servitude or em¬ 
barrassment. They rather seemed to 
think the basket was a badge to freedom. 
They were not the victims but the heroes 
of a habit which had made both farmer 
and housewife free from the middlemen. 
When the 100-oont dollar works into the 
farmers’ hands you will lind printed on it 
beside the face of the “immortal Oeorge” \ 
the picture of one <>f those big market 
baskets. For I judge that there will 
always he 35-oont dollars in the world so 
long as housekeepers are too proud to 
fight social laws <>r fashions and thus 
refuse to lug a big basket around. In 
Lancaster it is the fashion to lug such a 
basket—hence lliere is no 35-oont dollar. 
For it is evident that so long as women 
refuse to carry the market basket or do it 
them wires both they and the producers 
will pay a big middleman's tax. I am 
satisfied that the chief reason why Lan¬ 
caster County “leads all the rest in 
agricultural wealth is because the house¬ 
wives and the farmers are tied together 
by a market basket. 
***** 
The block on which the courthouse is 
built is a big one. I should say as a 
guess that the sidewalk around it is nearly 
half a mile long. On Tuesday evening 
nearly all of this sidewalk, except on the 
main street, was crowded close with 
farmers who were retailing produce. Some 
of thorn were selling direct from wagon 
nr car. while others had set up little 
tables or stands where their goods were 
displayed. There were all sorts of sales¬ 
men and all sorts of goods. There was 
a sweet-faced old lady with her neat 
Quaker bonnet. Next to licr was a little 
girl hardly able t<> make change, while at 
the next stand would appear some mem¬ 
ber of a religious sect with great beard, 
hair cut long just above bis ears, and 
books in place iff buttons on bis clothes. 
As for goods—every conceivable form of 
food that could be produced in IVnnsjl- 
vania seemed to find a place in this open 
market ; Several women were selling lit¬ 
tle homemade pies, and cookies. I was 
told that frequently the farmers will boil 
great kettles of corn meal mush, lei it 
cool, cut it in slices and bring it to lliis ‘ 
market., where it finds ready sale to the 
last mouthful. I even saw at one place 
a litter yff kittens—and they were evi¬ 
dently sold—not as food however I hasten 
to say 1 1 The favorite articles sold that 
evening were fruits, like apples and 
peaches, vegetables of all sorts, eggs and 
butter. You could, however, find any¬ 
thing you wanted from a dressed chicken 
to a pickle or a plate of “Liberty cab¬ 
bage.” 
•Pie RURAL NEW-YORKER 
ijt * $ ijt % 
It would he hard to say which were 
keener at a business deal—the farmers 
or the housewives. My guess would he 
that the market basket usually beat the 
wagon or stand. These thrifty house¬ 
keepers had no intention of trading “sight 
unseen.” They knew what they were 
buying or they didn’t buy, and they have 
been able to enforce some trade arrange¬ 
ments which 1 never saw before. For 
example, every ear of sweet, corn bad to 
b exposed. The farmer stripped back 
«>ne side of the husk on every ear so that; 
the corn was fully exposed. The woman 
who was out for her dinner did not in¬ 
tend to buy any worms or half-formed 
kernels, or any of the other multitude 
of sins which a corn husk may cover. 
This sharp, keen buying had enforced a 
grade of honesty which made the seller 
guarantee every potato or peach or pickle 
for just what it was. no more no less. 
No legal requirement could have brought 
about wliat these sharp-eyed queens of the 
market basket had enforced. 
*****! 
The long, broad stops leading up to the 
courthouse were crowded with produce, 
and the farmers were all doing a thriving 
business. One little girl was hustling 
about helping her parents. She wore a 
miniature Quaker bonnet; cut like her 
mother’s. She had left her doll on a box 
behind her as she worked, and tin* little 
touch of finery and love of color which 
some old ancestor had sent down to the 
child was revealed in the bright hat and 
ribbon with which the doll was decked. 
And as her little mistress hustled about 
selling ncaches there sat Miss Dolly in 
her bright hat and her broad woodeuy 
face gazrng upon the busy scene without 
emotion. They must dispense justice with 
an even hand in the Lancaster County 
courthouse if what I saw on the steps 
is typical of it. One man was selling 
apples. He had taken one apple nearly 
half rotten, carefully cut all the decayed 
part out with his knife and put the mu¬ 
tilated remainder of the fruit on top of 
the package where all could see it. I know 
plenty of men who would carefully put 
that piece down out of sight at the bot- 
tom. but this mail put the worst he had 
at the top. It was like laying all your 
cards right on the table. I went away 
wondering whether this sample of honesty 
was just natural human nature or 
whether it had been enforced by these 
bright-eyed buyers who could overlook a 
rotten apple on top. but. never forgive 
one hidden inside the measure. Anyway, 
such a man richly deserves the full 100- 
cent dollar. I saw one big man approach 
his wife—a woman perhaps one-third his 
size—and ask her for some spending 
money. Thereupon site pulled out the 
family purse and gave him what he 
needed. There are various reasons why 
Lancaster County stands at the head in 
farm thrift. 
sj? * sjr sjr * 
Early the next morning we were in 
town again. The sidewalks were still 
crowded as before and the big covered 
market, was also filled. In this big mar¬ 
ket farmers have stalls and sell their 
products as they do in the streets. Some 
heavier articles are delivered, but the 
greater part of the goods will be carried 
in the big baskets. You bump into a 
dozen of them on every block. The farm¬ 
ers charge full prices and customers will¬ 
ingly pay. There can be no question 
about it, hero is a place where the farmer 
secures a full 100-cent dollar, and the 
result of this proves everything we have 
September 27, 1010 
over claimed for what will follow when 
more of the 65 cents now taken by the 
middleman can be given to the farmers. 
Long years of paying themselves for act¬ 
ing as their own middlemen have made 
the farmers of Lancaster County domi¬ 
nant and strong—masters of the situation. 
I cannot say that all of them have made 
the best use of their money, but there can 
be no question that this locality is a shin¬ 
ing example of what will follow when 
the 35-cent dollar is enlarged. Not all 
Lancaster County products are sold in 
this way, hut the surplus wheat, tobacco, 
beef, etc., are all handled to better ad¬ 
vantage because of this experience in re¬ 
tailing. 
***** 
“What do you do unth all your money?” 
I asked that question of a farmer as 
we stood on the street watching the busy 
market scene. For answer he pointed to 
a great, sign in the front of a prominent 
building—illuminated by electric lights: 
Lancaster County's contribution to the 
war: 
5,780 Heroes! 
J,3,876,273 Dollars! 
They tell me there was such a large 
enlistment here that no first draft was 
needed, while money for Liberty bonds 
poured in like a great river. Practically 
all of this $43,376,273 came from dimes 
and nickels taken in on this market as 
payment for doing it yourself. “Come out 
in the country around the farms and 
farmers’ homes, and we will show you 
where more of it goes,” said my friend. 
So next day I got into a ear and went 
whirling through a fat beautiful country 
to see what was done with the 65 cents. 
(Continued on page 1428) 
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