It* RURAL NEW.YORKER 
1709 
Some Suggestions for Dairymen’s League 
Would yon give your opinion of the contract the 
Dairymen’s League officials are asking its members to 
sign? I myself have signed this contract, but several 
of my friends criticise me severely for doing so. If this 
contract doesn’t meet with your approval would you 
offer some suggestions to modify it or supply a substi¬ 
tute? ^ J. B. 
Dutchess Co., N. 
ERSISTENT INQUIRIES. — Inquiries of this 
kind are numerous and persistent from all 
parts of the milk territory, from dairymen who 
have and from those who have not already signed 
the contract The volume of letters from dairymen 
who on their own initiative positively refuse to sign 
the contract in its present form indicates that the 
contract must he changed or abandoned. The dis¬ 
cussions and vote at local meetings in various places 
also indicate this. Even if more than 50 per cent 
of the members signed it, there would he enough 
refusing to do so to defeat the purpose of it. One 
of the directors said that the intention is to drop 
the Dairymen’s League and replace it entirely by 
the Co-operative Milk Association. That could bo 
done if all the League members transferred them¬ 
selves to the association, but a large element evi¬ 
dently will not do so under this contract, and to 
insist on going ahead with it in this form would he 
to invite, a division that all wish to avoid, and that 
must be avoided. Changes are being considered, and 
under the circumstances will in all probability be 
made, if the contract form is to be followed. 
THE MILK POOL.—The pooling plan is one way 
to put all members on the same basis as to price. 
If adopted the plan would also make it possible 
to collect the League funds without the help of the 
dealers, whose services in this particular have been 
ethically unsound and practically expensive. Many 
members, however, object to the delay in making 
returns, and assert they want the returns to come 
to themselves direct, or to their local branches, but 
they are willing to pay a percentage or a rate per 
hundred pounds to divide up with members who 
have a loss on surplus. Sentiment often creeps into 
business, and confidence is always an important fac¬ 
tor. These two points, pooling and collecting of 
dues, need to he worked out in some way; but in 
any event the recognition of the principles is a dis¬ 
tinct gain. The California fruit growers receive all 
checks direct from the buyers, and collect dues and 
make a division from the locals. The locals send a 
check as levy is made on them to the central body 
to cover its expense. 
OBJECTIONABLE POINTS. — There are three 
other points in the contract that are objectionable to 
some members in their present form. It gives the 
management authority to commit the members to 
obligations for the purchase of land, buildings, equip¬ 
ment, interest and other expenses without limit as 
to time or amount, and to make assessments on the 
milk to meet these obligations. It also authorizes 
the management to borrow money on the credit of 
the association and membership without limit as to 
the amount borrowed, the interest to he paid, the 
purpose for which the money is to he used, or the 
time the loan is to he made or the time it is to run. 
Another objection is the provision by which the 
member waives all right of a legal accounting, ex¬ 
cept for fraud, and binds himself to accept the re¬ 
turns made him. Members realize that without the 
records they would not in any event be able to show 
fraud, and could never demand an accounting. If 
is not necessary to assume any lack of confidence ir 
the present management to justify an objection to 
these provisions. At any future time a new man¬ 
agement may, through improvidence or fraud, bur¬ 
den the members with obligations beyond their re¬ 
sources. If the authority to make monthly assess¬ 
ments on the milk was all, it would uot be so bad, 
because the members would have a prompt check on 
such assessments, but debts that, run into the future 
are more serious. There is, however, nothing in the 
contract to cause concern, provided some of the pro¬ 
visions are modified or the interests of members are 
safeguarded in some other way. 
SUGGESTED CHANGES.—Our suggestions would 
he to create immediately a committee to dm ft a 
constitution and by-laws for the League. This com¬ 
mittee should represent the strongest and most suc¬ 
cessful dairymen in the territory. The board of 
directors should be represented, but a large majority 
should lie members who hold no office, because the 
constitution and by-laws are the restrictions and 
limitations that the members put on the offiehils. 
The constitution and by-laws should contain, among 
other definite details, the following provisions: 
1. Prescribe the form of government under which 
the organization is to operate, and forbid all sub¬ 
sidiaries. 
2. Define the duties and authority of officials, and 
the limitation of their powers. 
3. Adopt a definite policy for the business of the 
organization. 
4. Limit the amount of indebtedness that the man¬ 
agement may contract without the authority of the 
membership expressed in a referendum vote. 
5. Authorize the management to borrow money 
on warehouse receipts only, and proride that the 
proceeds of such loans he used only to pay producers 
for milk. 
0. Provide that all records of milk sales he open 
to the Inspection of members or their representa¬ 
tives, and for the publication of data that will 
enable every member to calculate his own returns. 
7. Require a full report of all meetings to be kept 
by the secretary, preferably by stenographic notes, 
and a comprehensive synopsis of it kept on file, and 
published. Give members free access to all records. 
8. Provide for the election of an audit committee 
by vote of the members to audit the accounts and 
publish detailed, itemized financial reports. 
0. Assume responsibility for the sale of all the 
milk offered for sale by all the members and treat 
all members under similar circumstances exactly 
alike. 
10. Place the business of the League in the hands 
of an experienced business manager, hired by the 
hoard, and subject to its general direction. 
11. Demonstrate the cost of delivering milk in the 
city under the most economic system, and encourage 
competition in distribution by supplying pasteurized 
milk to independent dealers, as a means of increas¬ 
ing consumption and avoiding surplus. 
12. Provide mi election system by which each 
member will have the convenience and privilege of 
a secret vote by ballot for officers and policies of 
the League. 
13. Incorporate the local branches and encourage 
them to build and operate local plants, and to de¬ 
velop a local consumption and sale of milk on their 
own responsibility, provided the milk does not go to 
condenseries and is not shipped for consumption or 
for manufacture. 
14. Submit the constitution and by-laws to a refer¬ 
endum vote of the members for approval, and if 
there are majority and minority recommendations 
on any provisions, submit both aud let the majority 
decide. 
SOME ADVANTAGES.—With the League so or¬ 
ganized there will he no need of new plans, or new 
contracts. The officials will know just what they 
have authority to do, and the membership will know 
at all times just what obligations they have incurred. 
Full and correct information of ail the affairs of the 
organization, and a sure voice in its management, 
will hold the active interest of the membership and 
spare it from any weakness from within, as well 
as to fortify it against any force from without. It 
is a.good sign that the members are showing vigil¬ 
ance and initiative. Even if they were in error, 
their activity would he a gain. Their concern is as 
much to perfect the organization as to safeguard 
themselves. With that spirit dominating, the pres¬ 
ent may he disturbed, but the future is safe. 
Wage Costs in Milk Prices 
Now and then the daily papers grasp the farmers’ 
industrial problem and present it properly. Here 
is one case from the New York llerald: 
What makes the high prices? Well, consider the 
baby’s milk. 
Milk distributors’ figures show that in this City of 
New York the quantity of milk delivered to consumers 
every day is about 2,700,000 quarts. The value of this 
milk at the farm is about $235,000. 
But in the City of New York the milk wagon drivers 
aud similar distributers of those 2.700.000 quarts a day. 
not counting clerks, etc., get about. $36,000,000 a year 
for putting the bottles on your doorstep. This looks 
like about $120,000 for every week day. It looks like 
about 41/3 cents for the milk wagon drivers’ wage 
cost in your bottle of milk. 
Now the milk wagon drivers are demanding another 
$£-.000,000 a year in wages. This looks like a total of 
about $140,000 for every week day. It looks like about 
514 cents a quart for the milk wagon drivers cost in 
your bottle of milk. 
The thousands of dairymen engaged in supplying the 
2.700,000 quarts of milk a day to New York City have 
to buy their farms, buildings, machinery and other 
equipment, have to buy or raise their cows, have to buy 
their feed for them, have to milk them, and have to 
handle the milk until it starts on its journey to market. 
On all that investment of land, buildings, stock, equip¬ 
ment, supplies, and for all their work and all their risk 
those dairymen farmers supplying the 2,700.000 quarts 
a day to New York get in gross receipts $235,000. The 
milk wagon distributers in this town get in net wages 
for putting it on your doorstep about $120,000 a day, 
and now demand about $140,000! 
Who would be a dairy farmer? Would the milk 
wagon drivel’s listen to a proposal to change jobs with 
the men who supply the milk? 
Articles of Pooling Contract 
Will you print Articles 11 and 13 of the co-operative 
pooling plan of the Dairymen’s League? 1 * N. w. 
Sinelairville, N. Y. 
These are the items: 
11.—The producer, agrees that said association may 
also receive the proceeds of sales of other producers, 
and that said deductions as herein specified shall be 
uniform as to each producer, so that each producer will 
receive the same price per unit, subject to such equitable 
differentials as may from time to time be established 
by the association; distribution to be made by the asso¬ 
ciation, which is hereby appointed by the producer sole 
arbitrator of the distribution of said sums, and such 
distributions when so made shall be final and conclusive 
and binding upon the parties hereto. The producer, in 
the absence of fraud, hereby waives all his rights in law 
or in equity to an accounting therefor, and this contract 
shall act as si bar thereto in any proceeding taken by 
the producer therefor. 
13.—The producer hereby authorizes the association 
from time to time aud at all times when in its judgment 
such action will promote its efficiency, to borrow money 
in its name and to secure repayment thereof to pledge 
part or all of any unsold milk and dairy products, 
accounts receivable, notes receivable and trade accept¬ 
ances in which the producer has any interest as owner 
or otherwise, the pledgee to be first paid from the pro¬ 
ceeds thereof. 
Notes on Co-operative Grain-Buying 
The following notes are written by a New England 
man who has had long experience in such business. 
.See how they compare with your experience: 
I have been through the mill quite a number of times 
iu a large way and a small way in connection with 
the Grange, and some of the things which I find require 
serious consideration and which enters largely into the 
prospects of success iu such an undertaking are as 
follows: 
The integrity, financial standing and business records 
of both the buyer and consumer require a thorough in¬ 
vestigation, aud nniht be of the best iu every respect 
to insure successful business dealings. After these 
matters have been thoroughly and satisfactorily estab¬ 
lished and the buyers have sent their order and are 
iu need of the goods, the question of delayed shipments 
confronts the consumer. He does not dare to buy in 
any quantity, and must have the local dealer on hand 
to fit in on an emergency. After the local dealer has 
been used a few times as a “jack” at a pinch, the 
unfairness of it strikes all parties concerned aud con¬ 
tributes to the possible chain of unsatisfactory events. 
It is easy to hold the consumers together in co-operative 
buying when goods are arriving on rising markets. 
When they begin to arrive ou falling market, consumers 
stand from under. 
When goods arrive it is necessary to have a man 
of responsibility at the car to see that goods are dis¬ 
tributed and collections made. Consumers will fail to 
arrive ou time. The man at the car soon gets discour¬ 
aged. 
Business undertakings of this kind must be held 
with standard houses in some way, so that buyers may 
be sure of correct grading of goods and responsibility 
iu case things go wrong iu this respect. In the average 
New England community, and I presume this applies 
as well to other communities, local affiliations in a 
business way or otherwise with local dealers contribute 
to increase the difficulty. 
If single buyers could be found who would take 
goods of this nature iu carload lots aud they could 
be consigned directly to one buyer, the difficulty would 
be probably removed, but we find very few dairymen 
in small New England communities who buy to this 
extent. 
We might follow out to final conclusion this problem 
of co-operative buying and see just where it would 
leave local industry, and I think no thoughtful person 
would say that the local dealer can aud should be 
entirely eliminated. If he is not to be eliminated, he 
must have business. 
There are individual cases where co-operation can be 
worked out successfully, but when carried to the p'mit 
in every branch of business undertaking its difficulties 
and problems increase. I have come to the conclusion 
it is well to cover some particular field thoroughly and 
be well established in that before trying much else. 
The Grange of New England has not been asleep in 
this matter, but I have enumerated some of the dif¬ 
ficulties which have arisen from time to time. There 
are many others. n. 
