‘P* RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1549 \ 
A Discussion o£ Some Recent Investigations 
AN UN 8 AT I8FACTORY INVESTIGATION.— 
Farmers can find little comfort, or hope in the in¬ 
vestigation of the Department of Farms and Markets 
now under way. It has all the earmarks of the 
ordinary investigations of the past, the purposes of 
which have been to appease public protest h.v public 
inquiry of the facts, hut always stopping just short 
of the testimony that would reveal the causes of 
abuses. The public complaint is stilled by the as¬ 
surance and hope that some reform will be worked 
out, and when the crisis is passed we find the same 
old political mill running in the same old way. 
POLITICAL CAPITAL.—The present inquiry has 
developed into an attempt by partisans to make 
political capital, first by one side and then by the 
other. As one example, we had the story last week 
of the failure of the Department to protect the public 
against unfit foods because Governor Smith vetoed 
a certain bill said to be designed to place private 
cold storage warehouses specifically under the juris¬ 
diction of the Department. The impression to be 
created was that the Department was helpless with¬ 
out this legislation, that the Legislature was anxious 
to control storage houses, and that the Department 
desired authority to do so, but the Governor, favor¬ 
ing the private interests, vetoed the enabling legis¬ 
lation. 
CONTINUED INSINCERITY.—Let us be under¬ 
stood. As between these contending factions to 
camouflage the public we have no choice. There is 
strong evidence to support the conclusion that each 
speaks the truth about the other; that both parties 
make only a pretense to serve the public, and that 
both really protect the big intei’ests that supply 
campaign contributions. We will show that there 
is sufficient law now to inspect storage houses 
of every kind, and to get any information needed 
under oath. The Governor could, if he were so 
inclined, compel the enforcement of these provisions, 
and in not. doing so he has neglected liis duty as 
chief executive of the State. At the same time the 
Legislature and the Department do not. come into 
the argument, with any better record. The Depart¬ 
ment neglected to enforce the ample laws it. has, and 
it actually favored the cold storage concerns by 
abrogating the only law that ever stopped their 
practice of selling cold storage eggs as fresh-laid 
eggs at fresh-egg prices. The Legislature during the 
last two sessions refused to pass bills before them 
that would cause a real regulation and control of 
the storage and speculation of food. Following are 
the provisions prepared and presented by us at the 
request of Senator Wicks, and once approved by 
the agricultural committees, and there twice neg¬ 
lected by the Legislature: 
Require the owners or operators of all cold storage 
warehouses within the State to make verified monthly 
reports on the first day of each month to the Depart¬ 
ment of the kind and volume of food products taken in 
or discharged during the mouth preceding, and the 
amount of each kind or variety on hand on the last day 
of the month, and in addition the commissioner shall 
have power to make rules and regulations in regard to 
the storage of food or food products. 
Require every person, firm or corporation that buys 
food products for the purpose of holding or storing such 
food products for future sale, to report to tin 1 Depart¬ 
ment within 10 days after such purchase the kind, quality 
and amount of such food products purchased and the 
price paid or agreed to he paid therefor. 
EFFICIENT CONTROL NEEDED.—With the 
passage of those and enforcement of these provisions 
and the measures of publicity provided, storage and 
speculation in foods would be easily and efficiently 
controlled. The Legislature has shown no disposition 
to cause a publication of all the Information in re¬ 
gard to food storage and food speculation, and until 
we have such publicity the cost of food will be low 
at the farm and high at the city store. 
ENFORCING EXISTING LAWS.—The law vetoed 
by Governor Smith may or may not have facilitated 
the getting of information from private cold storage 
houses: but the laws we now have are sufficient- to 
got complete information and contain full authority 
for publicity. The Council of Farms and Markets 
or its authorized agents can subpoena the head of 
any of these houses and examine them under oath, 
and compel them to reveal all the facts. Tt: can 
enter any warehouse, public or private, where food 
is stored, make inspections, examine records and 
books, take samples, and make regulations. Tt has 
full authority for full publicity of all the facts, as 
well as to initiate legal actions in the courts for 
violations of its regulations and general laws. 
THE DEPARTMENT’S POWER.—The following 
references to the Farms and Markets law reveal the 
powers and duties of the Department in these in¬ 
stances: 
Section 20a (1) Investigate the cost of food pro¬ 
duction and marketing in all its phases. 
Section 4. Investigate the storage, marketing and 
distribution of food sold, offered for sale, stored or held 
within the State. 
Section 5. Collect, and disseminate accurate data and 
statistics as to the food produced, stored or held within 
the State, the quantities available from time to time, 
and the location thereof. 
Section 36 (2). There may he published bulletins: 
As to the sources, supply and prices of food, their 
storage and dissemination at different places and loca¬ 
tion of the available supply thereof. 
Section 38. The Department shall have full access 
to all places of business, factories, farms, etc., used for 
the sale, transportation and storage of food; may ex¬ 
amine and open any packages, and take samples. 
Section 39. Power to administer oath and compel 
testimony. 
CAUSES OF INACTION.—With the State admin¬ 
istration backing the Department in a demand for 
full reports no storage bouse would dare refuse it, 
because the law now gives ample authority to make 
inspections and examine books and records and to 
compel testimony, with penalty for perjury. When 
both sides have the power, both admit the need of 
action, and nothing is done, is it not clear that there 
are causes for inaction that neither side is ■willing 
to reveal? 
POLITICAL ASSETS.—Everyone knows that dur¬ 
ing both Democratic and Republican administrations 
the Department of Agriculture lias been used as a 
political asset. In the past, as now. it has had 
capable and honest men In the service; but they 
were and are powerless to control the system under 
which they now work. In all its history it probably 
was never so completely broken clown as now under 
this new irresponsible council system. The investi¬ 
gation gives an opportunity to get at the real trouble, 
and to provide a real reform. So far it indicates a 
purpose to make one or more individual sacrifices 
in the hope that the bad system may be continued 
for the benefit of whoever may, through official posi¬ 
tion, have the power to use it. In our judgment 
there will be no profit in the punishment or removal 
of an individual. The system is at. fault, and while 
it lasts no man can resist if and stay in the service. 
The system must be changed: and the authority to 
do it right is the united voice of the substantial 
farmers of the State. 
Shall the Farmer Go Into Politics 
This Farmer Answers the Question! 
A RADICAL DEPARTURE.—In The R. N.-Y., on 
page 1349. someone comes out urging farmers to go into 
politics. This is surely a radical departure from any 
farm paper. Anyone who has followed the farm press 
for the last 40 years knows to a certainty that their 
policy always has been to discountenance any political 
discussion whatever, and aside from this paper we farm 
writers know right well that any mention of things 
political or matter pertaining to law-making meant 
elimination of that article immediately, and even The 
R. N.-Y. has generally been very careful what it printed. 
Due credit is heartily given this, and a few contem¬ 
poraries which have used their every influence in favor 
of farmers’ co-operation, and laws and amendments to 
keep the combining farmers out of jail. Yet even today 
the agricultural editor who speaks up for reasonable 
agricultural law is a rare specimen. One very reliable 
paper seems to hold a brief forjthe packers; all of them 
kick in for better roads, and everybody digs at the con¬ 
solidation schemes of the Albany school ring, but never 
in my recollection has anyone ever come out flat-footed 
before in favor of the farmer protecting himself through 
his voting power. 
PARTY VOTING.—In the town where I spent my 
early years the old hardshell farmer voted according to 
his convictions, regardless of his interests, and in the 
one village the workingmen made a big noise also. But 
any old idler around town could beat the best man on 
the hills any time, unless this farmer spent his money 
freely with the boys. Yet at that time the rural vote 
outnumbered the town two to one nearly. What was 
clearly to be seen in a little rural community is what 
lias always held true in this country, and the farmer who 
votes one way and his neighbor the other has about as 
much to say in regard to candidates as do the old fellows 
sleeping their last sleep in the old cemetery. Personally 
I have no use for government by any class, either capital 
or labor, and it is quite likely that a strictly farmers’ 
government would be unsatisfactory in the end. This 
country has progressed to the front rank of all nations 
by free and unrestricted thinking, and if we are to go 
on to our destiny the scheming for class advantage must 
be strictly eliminated. 
NATIONAL TENDENCIES.—For some 35 years in 
my recollection before the last decade this country was 
undeniably run from the capitalistic standpoint, and 
speaking strictly from the standpoint of the rural people 
it has been disastrous. It is true that capital has built 
enormous cities and public works, developed mines, man¬ 
ufactories and the immense transportation system that 
goes with them, and placed this country on the map of 
the world. Yet anyone who will travel the back country 
cannot help but mourn the sight of deserted homes, de¬ 
caying farms and small villages, and the millions of 
acres of formerly productive land now lying vacant, 
except for the crow and the woodchuck, and grow lag 
up to brush, briers and golden rod, while the great man- 
built: cities howl for food. Where one has been bred 
and raised and spent a half century among the hills the 
pen is a poor instrument of expostulation. Government 
builds great agricultural colleges, and in sight of their 
towers are thousands of acres of vacant and nearly 
worthless lands. We spend millions of dollars for farm 
advisers, yet few farmers make day wages. We unite 
and organize and join any number of societies and asso¬ 
ciations, yet the young “beat it” and the workers leave, 
until our farm population in the older States is but a 
fraction of former times. 
AN EVIL SYSTEM.—Looking back, say 20 to 30 
years, one cannot help but curse the heartbreaking 
conditions which kept the farmer and his help grinding 
14 hours each day, and sent the women and children to 
the fields, yet. even with the utmost sacrifice of wasted 
lives and poor living thousands of farms sold on the 
mortgage, millions of dollars in second mortgages were 
a total loss, rural valuations tumbled one-half or more, 
and produce sold for little or nothing after it was raised. 
At the same time the honest worker in any trade was 
a beggar and a suppliant to hold his job at any wages. 
So much for government by uncontrolled greed and 
exploitation. 
IMPROVED CONDITIONS.—In the last 10 years 
conditions have improved, (’onsumption has well caught 
up with production, owing to decline in the West as 
the land got poorer and tenants multiplied and the 
partial abandonment of thousands of acres in the East 
and South. Such of us as have stayed and have kept 
up the land and equipment have done well, and thou¬ 
sands of poor men have taken up these old farms and 
paid out at the low valuation, which in this section at 
least is not on the average over one-third of what the 
land was worth 40 years ago. In the Central West 
many men have become comparatively wealthy, and 
lands have increased in valuation beyond their wildest 
dreams. Many of those people are selling o\it and buy¬ 
ing farms in this part of the country. The past is 
done, but will not be forgotten as long as we stay here 
who toiled long hours in all weather for a pittance to 
produce crops that sold for a song, while the cities grew 
with every convenience and the capitalist waxed fat 
at our expense. But wealth is down and labor is in the 
saddle, and we of the farms must face new conditions 
and new exploiters with good faith and faces turned 
toward the future that this, our country, goes on to its 
appointed destiny. 
LABOR COST.—In this section we have some back- 
to-the-landers, and one neighbor, for the Summer only, 
is a union man of the inner circle, high up in the coun¬ 
cils of his class, a well-posted man, according to his 
point of view, and well able to say it. So I am able 
to see both ways. Always do these men say they are 
well pleased to see the farmer get his, provided the 
workmen get wages to correspond. Of course here is 
a good chance for argument, yet when we taxpayers 
pay the bills.for the railroads, or buy machinery, cloth¬ 
ing or anything into which labor enters largely, we are 
very s«*e that the pay envelope is well padded.' Be that 
as it may. labor in the industries is paid far beyond 
what the farmer can bid, figuring on prices paid for 
delivered produce. Whether the workman can live in 
the style he wishes on the wages of this day is beyond 
me, but it is very sure that farm labor is deserting.' and 
many of the farmers themselves are going to the cities, 
attracted by a wage scale that is far and away beyond 
anything we can make on the land. This is a fact that 
admits of no argument. The point I wish to make is 
this: W ith all their altruism and talk of brotherly 
love of the toiler, labor today is using every argument 
and straining every nerve to induce a Socialistic govern¬ 
ment to use its influence to reduce living costs, or in 
other words, * prices on the eats.*’ And they are suc¬ 
ceeding but too well, as anyone realizes who watched 
the market reports recently, or attempts to dispose of 
stock or produce at the present time. 
A DANGEROUS POLIOY.—Many of the plans and 
arguments of the labor leaders are similar to those which 
have reduced Europe to anarchy and despair, and if 
carried to conclusion will infallibly reduce a great and 
progressive country to the level of the beasts. Capital 
is certainly taking a definite stand, and occasionally a 
farm organization, by its officials, gives out a few reso¬ 
lutions, but the mass of the farmers are apathetic, while 
the others fight over our birthright like dogs for a bone 
Most farmers have been ground bv the millstones of 
wealth until today they say. why marry? But with 
capital up a tree and labor yelping it is no time for the 
great agricultural class to sit on the feuce and vote one 
way or the other, as did the fathers in the old times of 
torchlight processions and barbecues. In theory we 
should be a happy, God-feariug country, jogging on our 
way, with everyone having the best possible chance for 
liberty and pursuit of happiness. In practice we see 
the urbanite using every means in his power to reduce 
prosperity in the country, and even a President who 
thinks he can tell us when we can get up in the 
morning. Politically, the farmer is supposed to be 
negligible ; but not so long ago he expressed his displeasure 
over the reciprocity law in no uncertain terms, and it 
is hardly safe to ignore him entirely or believe he exists 
simply that the city man may eat cheap feed. For one 
I have no use for new parties or for strictly agrarian 
movements, but believe the farmers should get together 
with leaders of the type who are pushing the labor move¬ 
ment, and who are amply able to protect our great 
agricultural interests any time or anywhere. It is very 
sure we never get what we have no nerve to go after; 
no one hands you anything unless you dig. and there is 
no use kicking unless we make good the kick, or no use 
whining without we make ourselves heard. Certainly 
a loss of a billion a year on wheat aud the same on the 
present declines in produce values is enough to make 
anyone sit up and take notice. At the same time wealth 
accumulates in the great cities and labor gets the highest 
wages ever known, while farming is anything but an 
attractive proposition, as witness how quickly everyone 
who can gets away. 
FIGHTERS NEEDED.—I believe our agricultural 
press, must fight the battle of special interests as does 
the city press, and our farmer leaders must stiffen their 
backbone, and the whole rural community rise up and 
go after what is rightfully theirs. Farms are poorer. 
We no longer have a great reserve of fertility to draw 
on to tide us over hard times. Timber and even cord- 
wood is no longer a dependence. Our young people go 
to school and the country women decline to serve longer 
as field hands, aud what labor there is demands a decent 
Wage. We must receive a fair recompense for our 
produce or stop production. b. l. Hathaway. 
New York. 
