V* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1725 
What the Wayne Co., N. Y., Farmers Did 
How They Put Principle Above Party 
Last week we made a brief reference to the out¬ 
come of the campaign waged by the farmers of 
Wayne Co., N. Y.. against Charles H. Betts, a candi¬ 
date for the Assembly. Mr. Betts finally secured a 
majority of 327 against a party majority of 5.71S last 
year. Under ordinary circumstances a political can¬ 
vass in a rural county of New York would not inter¬ 
est the voters in Maine or California, hut it is safe 
to say that this election attracted attention in every 
State in the Union. 
That was because this election finally turned upon 
a question which politicians now consider the most 
important one for next year’s campaign. Is it pos¬ 
sible for Eastern farmers to put their own business 
and its higher principles above their parti / preju¬ 
dices f Mr. Betts saw fit to test that question out 
by inviting what is known as a “showdown.” There 
was no good reason why he should have been nom¬ 
inated for the Legislature to represent a purely agri¬ 
cultural county. We think that a part of his motive 
was a cynical belief that however much farmers 
might complain and talk they would never translate 
their complaint into votes. The farmers had made 
public protest against Mr. Betts through the Grange 
and the big horticultural societies. Here was the 
chance to show the politicians that this was mere 
talk—that when put to the “acid test” the farmers 
would come hack like good little boys and vote the 
straight ticket. The only trouble was that Mr. Betts 
and not the farmers got the acid. We think Mr. 
Betts, like most other politicians, honestly felt that 
this was true. For years they have felt a private 
contempt for the men who have kept them iu power 
—often against their best inclinations. So he deter¬ 
mined to show convincingly that “the average farmer 
will vote for a yellow dog on the ticket” rather than 
for his best interests off the ticket. We have heard 
these politicians make that very remark. 
It did seem like a sure thing. Wayne County is 
considered “rock-ribbed and unchangeable” for the 
party. Only one local newspaper could be found to 
oppose Mr. Betts. The others all dodged or openly 
supported him. They did not dare do otherwise 
through fear of a loss in patronage. Mr. Betts had 
control of all the party organization—a model ma¬ 
chine for the purpose. The opposition had little if 
any organization, no campaign fund, and that hope- 
less feeling which always accompanies repeated de¬ 
feat. Most of the farmers in that section have been 
taught to believe that the present Administration is 
fully responsible for our present troubles, and that it 
was their duty to pile up the biggest possible major¬ 
ity for the ticket as a rebuke! Thus there never was 
a condition in New York State which seemed to 
offer a surer chance for the election of a man like 
Mr. Betts. 
The It. N.-Y. did not share the l>elief that these 
Wayne County farmers are quitters. We know them 
too well. When they asked Mr. Betts to resign we 
believed that they meant what they said, and we 
knew they would stand for it. All we did was to ask 
the question “Do Wayne County fanners want to be 
represented by Charles //. Bettsr There was no 
abuse, no false issues—only that one question put up 
to the intelligence of Wayne County farmers. They 
answered it. The Grange asked each of the parties 
to nominate a farmer. The Democrats responded by 
naming Fred W. Cornwall, one of the best-known 
farmers in the county. Mr. Cornwall made his can¬ 
vass—not as a Democrat but as a man and a farmer. 
Mr. Cornwall avoided “politics” and personalities. 
He went right out among the people with the simple 
proposition that he was a farmer; he knew what 
Wayne County farmers wanted, and he would stand 
for their rights before any other consideration. Un¬ 
der the circumstances a vote for him meant a vote 
for farming and what it stood for. Having no old 
organization they had to make a new one, and the 
churches and the Granges furnished it. We have 
no space here in which to tell the wonderful story of 
that campaign. It will all come out a little later. 
But it was wonderful how the power of the poli¬ 
ticians melted away. The Republican candidate for 
Supreme Court Judge received 9.459 votes—a major¬ 
ity of 5.072. Mr. Betts received only 7,516, a ma¬ 
jority of but 327. Eight of the county towns re¬ 
pudiated Mr. Betts—something never done before to 
a party ticket. The town of Lyons gave Betts 634 
majority. All of Wayne outside of that one town 
gave Cornwall 300 majority. It is safe to say that 
the farmers of Wayne County outside of the three 
villages gave at least 1.000 majority in answering 
the question about Mr. Betts in the negative. 
A few weeks ago we printed last year’s vote in 
the Wayne County towns. When these figures ap¬ 
peared some of our friends were ready to give up, 
for it seemed impossible to perform the miracle of 
wiping out that 5.718 majority! But some of us be¬ 
lieve that uear miracles at least are possible to those 
who will have the true faith and courage to do their 
duty. Here ai-e comparative figures to show what 
these Wayne County farmers did. The women in 
particular used their ballots as they used their scrub¬ 
bing brushes when the hired man tries to walk 
across the clean floor without wiping his boots on the 
doormat. Did you ever, in your life, see a more 
complete wipe-up with the ballot? Just compare the 
votes in these farm towns: 
,-1918 
1 
—191! 
>-\ 
Towns. 
Whitman. 
Smith. 
Cornwall. 
Betts. 
Arcadia . 
. 1.295 
478 
991 
1.392 
Butler. 
. 329 
S3 
282 
189 
Galen . 
362 
617 
790 
Huron . 
. 207 
91 
304 
212 
Lyons . 
. 1.016 
544 
598 
1.231 
Macedon . 
. 506 
217 
437 
447 
Marion . 
. 447 
56 
162 
268 
Ontario . 
167 
429 
367 
Palmvra . 
. 785 
289 
464 
519- 
Rose . 
. 386 
99 
428 
219 
Savannah . 
. 337 
129 
183 
290 
Sodus . 
. 810 
321 
774 
646 
Walworth . 
. 399 
96 
292 
223 
Williamson .... 
. 537 
124 
390 
268 
Wolcott . 
. 665 
256 
83S 
455 
Total. 
3.312 
7.189 
7,516 
And there is no possible chance for any argument 
about the meaning of it. Mr. Betts called for a 
“showdown” and he got it. That 6.000 majority 
turned to the dust and ashes of a poor little 327 at 
his touch. He will go to Albany as a fully dis¬ 
credited politician. But for the campaign which he 
forced upon the party the old scarecrow that farm¬ 
ers will not vote for a principle might have been 
used for years. That 327 majority has ripped the 
“scarecrow” up, and he will get few thanks or favors 
from the politicians for showing up this old fraud. 
Now we knoic that New York farmers will stand by 
their word; they can and will put principle above 
party. The world knows they mean business, and 
when they took their hoes and chased Mr. Betts off 
the farms into the protecting shadows of the town 
vote they did the best day’s work for New York 
farming that has been done in many a year. It will 
never be forgotten. 
Eastern Dairy Conditions 
S the dairy business in the Eastern States gaining 
or losing? We have spent much time in following 
up that question. We find both a loss and a gain. 
Without question many small dairies have been 
given up. Many other dairies have been reduced in 
size by selling off the poorer cows and raising fewer 
heifers. The idea in most of these smaller dairies 
is to reduce the herd to a point where one man and 
his family can care for it. The high cost of food and 
the hired help question have been mostly responsible 
for the sale of cows. On the other hand, some 
dairies are larger than ever before. These are on 
farms where there is fair capital or credit to pro¬ 
vide modern equipment and pay the price for farm 
labor. Milking machines and modern improvements 
are used, and the farms are run much like a factory, 
with full power. Such farms are increasing their 
cows, so that there is a movement both ways. With¬ 
out question the smaller dairymen are feeling the 
pinch. Their places are being taken by fruit grow¬ 
ers or gardeners, who put in a small, choice dairy 
to provide Winter work. Such men are mostly sup¬ 
plying cream instead of whole milk. Our estimate 
would be a loss of about 15 per cent of cows in the 
Eastern dairy districts. As these cows are mostly of 
poorer grades the decrease in amount of milk is less 
than 10 per cent. 
Great Apple Yield 
T HERE have been some remarkable farm per¬ 
formances this year. In some cases the season 
has brought disaster to farmers through bad weath¬ 
er, labor troubles and fearful expenses. This com¬ 
bination has driven hundreds out of the business. 
On the other hand, we have plenty of cases where the 
season’s outcome has been the most prosperous in all 
the history of the farm. Here is a sample report: 
I have been thinking for several weeks you might be 
interested in what our orchard yielded, especially the 
McIntosh. We have 12 acres of apples that were 
planted eight years ago last Spring; 120 of the trees are 
McIntosh. Last year we picked and marketed 600 one- 
bushel hampers. This year, from the same trees, we 
picked and marketed 1.300 one-bushel hampers, after 
being pretty severely thinned. Our friends who know 
about it think it is wonderful. 
New r Jersey. mrs. john h. Barclay. 
It is wonderful. John H. Barclay has probably 
taken more prizes for fine fruit than any other Jer- 
seyman. Mrs. Barclay cooked Wolf River apples in 
such a way that they took first prize as baked fruit. 
That is a more wonderful performance than growing 
fine McIntosh! It has been a particularly good sea¬ 
son for all who had a crop of fruit. Some of the 
returns are almost beyond belief. In one of our own 
orchards the lady of the house selected two Baldwin 
trees for her own. The fruit from these two trees 
sold for $100! One of our readers, after indifferent 
success with mushrooms through several seasons, 
tried them again this year and produced such a crop 
that we hardly care to print the figures. He hap¬ 
pened to strike just the right combination of crop 
and price. There have been many such reports. We 
have never known such a season wherein came true 
stories of dismal failure, side by side with extrava¬ 
gant success. It seems hardly fair to print the story 
of either extreme without making the reason for it 
clear. And it is one of the hardest things to do that, 
because the average citizen cannot understand how 
others can do things which seem impossible from his 
experience. 
New York Farm Bureaus Speak Out 
A special meeting of the New York State Federation 
of Farm Bureau Associations was held at Syracuse 
Nov. 7. 1919. The purpose of the meeting was to con¬ 
sider the advisability of New York State’s participating 
in the organization of a National or American Farm 
Bureau Federation and to pass specifically on the pro¬ 
posed constitution for such an organization. The propo¬ 
sition wa6 not new to the delegates. The idea of a 
national organization was developed at the annual meet¬ 
ing of the New York State Federation, held at the Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture, in February. 1919. Each delegate 
was given an opportunity by roll call to express him¬ 
self. Practically every man had something constructive 
to offer in regard to the national plan. Before the roll 
call was half over it was evident that New York State 
Farm Bureau Association members stand squarely be¬ 
hind the idea of a State Federation, and the further 
development of a national organization of farmers in¬ 
terested in Farm Bureaus. It was also evident that 
New York State farmers have certain definite ideas in 
regard to the objects and program of such a national 
organization., and that these ideas do not accord with 
some radical ideas that are in the air. 
The meeting was attended by delegates from 54 of the 
55 agricultural counties in the State, who represented 
a County Farm Bureau Association membership of 
67.000 farmers. 
In the first place, the New York State delegates to 
a man believe that the primary object of the national 
organization should be to establish and build up an 
independent association of farmers in every agricultural 
county of the United States to give local direction to 
the Farm Bureaus. They further believe that the 
national organization should seek to develop machinery 
to represent and protect the ^economic and legislative 
interests of agriculture, particularly through correlating 
and consolidating the efforts of organizations that now 
exist for these purposes. They insist that no attempt 
shall be made to solicit membership to the national 
organization until its board of directors has formulated 
a program and a budget. On the basis of these ideas 
the delegates of the New York State Federation of 
County Farm Bureau Associations will go to the 
National Conference at Chicago committed to the fol¬ 
lowing program. 
I. Organization : 
A. An independent association of farmers in every 
agricultural county in the United States to give locril 
direction to the County Agricultural Agents. 
B. A State Federation of County Associations to co¬ 
operate aud advise with the State College of Agriculture 
in every State. 
C. A national organization of State Federations to 
co-operate with and to bring the influence of real farmers 
to bear on the United States Department of Agriculture. 
II. Service: 
A. Economic: (11 By the collection aud presenta¬ 
tion of facts pertaining to world-wide agricultural con¬ 
ditions; (21 by supporting and developing specialized 
commercial bodies of farmers for trade purposes. 
B. Legislative; (11 By suggesting needed legisla¬ 
tion; (21 by gathering and disseminating the facts as to 
proposed legislation. 
III. Americanism : 
Bv assisting to correlate and consolidate the best 
efforts of American farmers through their existing or¬ 
ganizations to the end that their interests may be 
brought together in a single non-partisan group capable 
of expressing the ideals of American farmers in a 
national agricultural policy that will enable the best 
citizens to continue to live on the farms of the nation. 
H. 
