The RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1408 
September 4, 1920 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Did that Italian peddler pay his bill? 
Surely he did. He came in the market 
one night with a big roll of money and 
paid in cash. With all respect for his 
bank account, we prefer the money. 
Are all as honest as that? 
No, but most of them will pay. It is 
better to do a cash business. Some of 
them would like to dodge or delay pay¬ 
ment, but the reputation for doing so 
would hurt them. Most of them are well 
known in the market, and if they shirk 
payment they are soon spotted. There is 
a sort of rough honor among these dealers, 
and they will live up to it. At the same 
time a cash business is safest. 
Is the market improving? 
Not much. Sweet corn still brings a 
fair price, but apples and tomatoes are 
very cheap. At times tomatoes have been 
down to '35 cents a basket. It is reported 
that the Delaware growers refuse to de¬ 
liver at the canneries for less than 50 
cents. If they cannot get that they will 
let the fruit rot on the ground. We have 
a good crop, and as fairly as I can figure 
they cost over 50 cents a basket to pro¬ 
duce. We have had a great crop of 
Wealthy apples, but they strike a market 
filled with culls and windfalls, and bring 
very little. 
Discouraged, we suppose? 
Not a bit. We simply push a little 
harder to get our stuff off. We took our 
chance, put up our money and raised a 
good crop. The market, which we could 
not control, has beaten us, and we now 
expect to lose money on the season’s work. 
If anyone is to be definitely blamed I 
suppose we should take our share, for we 
took a chance on future prices, much as 
people do on wheat futures or stocks. 
Thus we are not growling publicly, but 
—never again ! We have done our share 
contributing to the nation’s food supply 
at a loss. 
But what could you■ have done? 
Saved the labor of all but one man. some 
$500 worth of fertilizer, a great bill for 
packages of seeds, and various other 
items. In that case we should have 
seeded everything except a few acres of 
corn and a garden, kept more hogs to 
pasture the grain and left the orchards 
in sod. In this wet season we should 
have had a good apple crop, and the sav¬ 
ing on labor and fertilizer would have 
meant a profit and much less worry. As 
it is, all hands have worked themselves 
down to worry without any adequate 
return. 
But what would the world do if all 
followed that plan? 
I do not know, and I begin to feel that 
I do not care! We have had our lesson, 
and I think “the world” needs one in 
like manner. I think the lesson must be 
rubbed in until the people fully under¬ 
stand the part which the farmer plays in 
human society. When I first saw New 
York most people did understand that, 
for thousands of city folks were only one 
generation removed from the farm. Now 
with another generation sewed up in 
brick and stone, people have little idea 
where their food comes from, or who 
works to produce it. As they do not seem 
able to learn through heart or brain I 
think they must learn through their 
stomach. 
But is not that a very narrow view to 
take? 
I am not going to stop and argue 
whether it is or not. I never really saw 
anything “cut any ice” unless it was nar¬ 
row. If someone wants to tell me why 
I should continue to produce food at a 
loss I am willing to listen, but I do not 
agree to accept the argument. I will, 
however, agree to work at a loss if other 
industries will sell their products as 
cheap comparatively as our farm prices 
are! T notice that most other industries 
are able to control prices and also the 
output. We are unable to do either un¬ 
less we follow the example of the Amer¬ 
ican Woolen Company and shut down 
when a surplus seems likely. 
Where do you place the blame for the 
present trouble? 
Why, I can get a dozen reasons for it 
■—all from men who think they know. 
My neighbor says it is all due to the 
Democratic Administration. Another 
neighbor says it is due to the Republi¬ 
cans, because they control Congress and 
will not let the poor Democrats save the 
country. You may take your choice on 
that. Personally, it seems to me that the 
present Administration is about the 
feeblest specimen of law enforcement I 
have ever known. Yet, as judged from 
their record fin New York State) in food 
law enforcement, I do not see that the 
Republicans are any better. I do think 
the politicians of both old parties are 
largely responsible for our present mix- 
up. because they have lacked the courage 
to stand up and face the real issues. For 
either party on their record to promise 
any reform in profiteering or food hand¬ 
ling is, in my opinion, pure “bunk,” and 
no one knows it better than these same 
politicians. 
But who is responsible for what has 
happened? 
We are chiefly responsible. By “we” 
I mean both producers and consumers. 
We have exhausted our political strength 
fighting over what I call third-class issues 
which do not directly affect us. We let 
the politicians select the issues for us, 
and out of the 110 million people in this 
country you may count on the fingers of 
one hand the leading public men who are 
not tjed up to some selfish interest or 
prejudice which comes in ahead of the 
rights of the people. The biggest and 
most vital issue in this world today is 
the production and distribution of food 
and fiber, but let any public man under¬ 
take to get down into the heart of it and 
tell the truth, and see what becomes of 
him. You can no more cure the trouble 
from which our business suffers through 
either of the present political parties than 
you can cure a case of heart disease by 
rubbing liniment on a man’s back and 
giving him ginger tea! 
But what will cure the trouble? 
Nothing on earth but a change in 
human nature—on the part of both 
farmers and consumers. For years we, 
as farmers, have fought each other and 
tried each to match our own little farm 
against the entire market. We have been 
too anxious to make the present dollar at 
any cost without considering that a dollar 
spent reasonably today may make $10 
tomorrow. We have not invested our 
earnings in the farm, but have sent, them 
off to invest in stocks or bonds which 
simply built up the town and city, and 
made new bait to lure our boys and girls 
and our capital away from the farm. 
For example, take my own farm. Had I 
spent more time in draining our wet fields 
and seeding more cover crops and hauling 
more 'black dirt out of the swamps I could 
this year have grown even larger crops 
with far less cost of fertilizer! Then we 
all raise what we can and dump it onto 
the market, each for himself, culls and 
all—anything that will bring a little 
money. We have not known up to within 
a few years what our crops cost, or what 
others are doing. Now all this has be¬ 
come a part of human nature. No poli¬ 
tical legislation can change that. We 
hare got to do it ourselves. 
But can it ever be done? 
Yes, for it is being done here and there 
all over the country. The Dairymen’s 
League has started it, and met with some 
success. I can name many cases where 
farmers have organized to control their 
market. They do not always succeed, 
but they slowly realize the need and the 
meaning of discipline, the proper use of 
capital and the fact that they must drop 
their personal prejudices and get together. 
That is what I mean by changing human 
nature. It is said to be an impossible 
thing to do. If that is true we must 
harness human nature and make it work 
as a double team. 
And the consumers? 
They are also very largely responsible 
for our troubles. The "human nature” 
of the city consumer is more selfish and 
shallow and hateful than that of the 
countryman. One day on the Paterson 
market fine tomatoes were down to 25 
cents a basket. A woman walked right 
by the wagon for h quarter of a mile to 
a store and bought a can of tomatoes for 
18 cents. People buy .$15 shoes, 30-eent 
collars, “soda” at 11 cents and other 
luxuries in proportion without a murmur, 
and then growl like bears at any fair 
price for food ! Every grocer must sup¬ 
port a lot of “dead beats.” They run up 
a bill, and then run away from it. The 
grocer gets it back in two ways. lie 
charges more to the people who pay cash 
and he beats down the producer for what 
he buys. Of course he cannot beat down 
the big food handlers. Their prices are 
fixed. But there will come a time when 
the market is crowded. Then the store¬ 
keeper buys for almost nothing and holds 
up the consumer for the full price. For 
some years now consumers in the factory 
towns have been buying recklessly. Now 
they are beginning to curtail. They are 
keeping up purchases of high-priced man¬ 
ufactured goods, but fighting food prices 
bitterly. I think the Government through 
its failure to control the Cuban sugar 
crop is responsible for the high price. 
The people are so angry over this high 
price that they refuse to buy sugar. They 
are using less of it as candy, for cooking 
and for canning. That action is reflected 
in the market for our fruit and some 
vegetables, for the home canning trade 
has become enormous. The loss of this 
home canning trade has increased the 
market surplus for fruit, thrown it back 
upon us and hurt prices. This means 
cheaper supplies to the big cauners, who 
can buy for almost nothing, unless, as in 
Delaware, the farmer refuses to sell below 
a stated price. Then next Winter, with 
a shortage in home canning, these cheaply 
acquired goods will mount up in price. 
If these consumers could have canned 
without sugar and bought their usual 
quantity, the price of fruit would have 
been held, and with the new sugar crop 
the dealers would have been forced to 
come down. 
What part do the middlemen play? 
Like most of us, they are after the last 
dollar, and they get it. I spend no time 
cursing the middlemen, though they have 
steadily robbed us. If they are thieves it 
is because “we” (producers and con¬ 
sumers) permit them to practice thievery. 
I know what they do to get our produce 
for less than its value, and then sell it 
for more than it is worth. The middle¬ 
man is a human being, and in our present 
state of civilization he is entitled to a 
fair share of the cost of distribution. The 
trouble with the world is that he gets 
more than his share. We cannot make 
him disgorge by swearing at him or plead¬ 
ing with him— we have got to do it our¬ 
selves ! 
That's all right—but how? 
First, change human nature and get 
together in support of our business. I 
am told that on the board of directors in 
many large corporations are men who 
hate each other personally with a hatred 
which you and I can hardly understand. 
Yet. when any question concerning the 
rights of the corporation comes up these 
men drop their personal differences and 
vote together. I think, as farmers, we 
must learn how to do that. In the next 
place we have got to put what is called 
“the fear of God” into the hearts of our 
law-makers. “The voice of the people is 
the voice of God.” 
Just what do you, mean by this “fear 
of God r 
I mean the conviction in the hearts of 
our public men that they have got to 
serve humanity and not their party alone. 
In the end the politicians are not. masters. 
They are very humble servants. They 
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O N HIS 200 acre farm, near 
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Schultz is operating this GMC 
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Regardless of weather this truck 
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