Jht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
705 
Bitter Struggle Over Canning Crop Prices 
. A Statement of the Case 
F ARMERS of Western New York are developing 
tlieir foresight relative to certain crops which 
they are raising. This is especially true of the can¬ 
ning crop industry. Men who have raised canning 
crops, especially peas, state that for a period of B> 
years this crop has rendered them no money for the 
capital and labor involved. Realizing this,' one year 
ago they organized canning crops associations under 
various names under article Id-A of the membership 
corporation law throughout the canning territory. The 
first object of this association was to determine whal 
the canning crops which they were growing were cost¬ 
ing them, and by using a comprehensive system of de¬ 
termining costs, any factor which might be involved 
could be changed from year to year and the price could 
be very readily arrived at. This survey was made in a 
very impartial way. As a matter of fact, the farmers 
requested that the canners assist in the survey, so 
there would be no possibility of it being reported as a 
biased report. This the canners refused 
to do. and so the survey was carried on 
by the New York State Canning Crops 
Growers’ Association and the New York 
State College of Agriculture. Some 
very illuminating facts were brought 
forth. Tt was shown from these figures 
that the farmers were able to make a 
little money last year, due to the un¬ 
usual yield, which was the largest in 
the history of the pack, but if the 
average conditions were considered the 
remuneration to the farmer would have 
been comparatively slight. In view of 
the fact that the price of seed has not 
been reduced by the caliner, the price 
of labor has been but slightly reduced, 
and the other factors involved have 
been so slightly reduced, the farmers 
applied their experience to the figures 
which they had at hand and agreed, at 
a meeting in Rochester, to ask $7<’, per 
ton for their peas. This price was $Ri. 
or I lie price of the cost of the seed per 
acre, over what the canner was offer¬ 
ing. The canners. in conference with 
the farmers, refused to grant the $70, 
and have attempted by various means 
to secure acreage sufficient to operate 
their plants and their viners. 
Livingston County, like many other 
counties in Western New York, has a 
large membership in their Growers’ As¬ 
sociation. and the power of organiza¬ 
tion was felt. At a meeting in Gene- 
seo, on April 11. they agreed that they 
would sit tight fur their price, or grow 
some Spring cereal which involved less 
labor and less risk than the canning 
crops. Since that time there has been 
a great deal of controversy between 
canning representatives and farmers, 
and many inducements offered farmers 
to break away from their organization. 
With very few exceptions, however, 
this has not been accomplished, and 
while many men immediately adjacent 
to the factory find themselves some¬ 
what handicapped, they are holding out for the good 
of the organization of which they are a part. Much 
space has been used by the press discussing both 
sides of the question and advertising money has been 
spent by the canners to belittle the organization, 
especially the Farm Bureau, which was the organiz¬ 
ing force in establishing the Growers’ Association, 
the same as it has been in establishing the wool 
growers’ organization and other allied organizations. 
The latest development is an open letter in the Mr. 
Morris Enterprise from a man who has not the 
courage of his convictions to sign his name, a copy 
of which follows. This letter has been answered by 
I’>. E. Brophel of Leicester, president, of the Living¬ 
ston Growers’ Co-operative Association. Inc., in the 
Picket Line I’ost of Mt. Morris, another weekly paper, 
copy of which follows. k. a. f. 
The Case Against Organization 
The writer has uo financial interest in the question 
on either side. If the canners go broke, he won’t lose 
accent, and if tire farmers lose out.’no loss will fall upon 
him except such loss as comes to every citizen of a 
community whenever somebody starts a fight. He owns 
no canning stock at all and no farm lands in this vicinity. 
It has become the style lately to get some smart fellow 
to come to town with a printed schedule and a silver 
pencil to figure costs for the farmer. This fellow talks 
glibly about “personal labor” and .“overhead expenses" 
and “farm statistics.” It was a wise guy who once said 
“Statistics are fiction of the dullest kind.” You can get 
statistics to prove anything you want to prove. He 
will tell us. to a cent, just what it costs to raise and 
harvest a ton of peas, for instance, but you and I know 
that the cost of a ton of peas is different on every farm 
in Livingston County. The cost of any crop depends 
upon a lot of things which uo fellow with a silver pencil 
and a table of statistics can possibly solve. So we may 
say roughly that the cost of any crop depends upon two 
things—land and brains. 
The land is different, and it is tilled by different sets 
of brains. So when one farmer makes the public state¬ 
ment that he cannot afford to grow peas for less than 
$7ti a ton he is probably telling the truth ; but so also 
is another farmer who claims he can do the same thing 
at a profit for $G0. 
The law of supply and demand is still working. It, 
keeps longer hours than the farmers, and it never takes 
a vacation. Whenever the price of an article gets too 
high, people refuse to buy it until it drops to its proper 
level. We are witnessing just this situation in the shoe 
and clothing trades right now. Shoes and clothing are 
necessities. People must have them, and still they re¬ 
fuse to purchase, and all the wealth and power of manu¬ 
facturers and dealers combined can't start the public 
buying. 
Food is also a necessity, but there are so many kinds 
of food that we have a wide choice. We could live quite 
comfortably, for instance, if we nevpr at.e another 
spoonful of peas; so why pay fancy prices for peas 
with potatoes at 40 cents? 
It. looks very much like this to an outsider; If the 
farmers try to sell peas at a price so high as to net a 
profit to a few incompetents, there will be no peas sold, 
and the many farmers who could make «i profit at a 
lower price will be compelled to raise crops for which 
tlieir land is not suited, and for which they will have to 
take a long chance on the market. 
The writer has been a member of the Grange for 
many years. He has noted with pleasure the efforts 
made to instruct the farmers in the best methods of 
growing crops, stock-raising and all other things a 
farmer needs t« know, but he does not remember a 
single instance where the Grange has gone into the 
business of price-fixing. Price-fixing by any organiza¬ 
tion is a hazardous job. No matter where the price is 
fixed, it is bound to hurt somebody. If it is high 
enough to protect the poor workman, it cuts down 
everybody’s sales to nothing; and if it is low enough to 
create large sales, only those who have had brains can 
make the money. 
One farmer complained loudly because the farmers 
are the only class who do not fix the prices on their 
product. This is a fine argument, but it has one fault 
—it isn't true. ’There are very few commodities on 
which tin 1 producer fixes the price, and most of them 
are patented. The producer may name a price, but he 
can’t fur it. If he names it too high, nobody buys. The 
successful man is he who can name a price high enough 
to get a profit, but not high enough to stop his sales. 
To do this he must know the market conditions in every 
section of the country. He can’t simply name the price 
he would like to get and say: “Take it or leave it." If 
he does, the public will leave it. 
The canners are in the same boat as the farmers. 
They can’t fix their selling price. For several months 
past they couldn’t even name any prices. All over the 
country their sales are at a standstill. Any price which 
they may offer for canning crops is a little better than a 
guess, and past history shows that they have guessed 
too high more often than too low. 
Tt is hard to estimate, without actual knowledge, how 
much money the two canning concerns in this village 
pay out each year right here at home, but it must be a 
tidy sum. Moreover, it. is paid out at the time of the 
year when it does the most good. The local merchants 
will all sa.v “Amen” to that statement. In any fruit 
or vegetable country a canning factory is the biggest 
asset of the community, and it is hard to figure out the 
motives of the men who would try to 
cripple such an institution. 
It is said that many farmers would like 
to accept, the present offers of the can 
tiers, but are restrained by the fact that 
they have signed away their right to dis¬ 
pose of their own property. When they 
did this they doubtless thought they were 
handing over their property to competent 
people. Such things sometimes happen 
to the best of us. We ‘all make mistakes, 
but we get over it after a time. And if 
some farmer found he had made a mistake 
in signing such a contract, and asked to 
have it cancelled, what would you think 
of a man who would meet him with a 
threat of ruin for not. sticking to a bad 
bargain? Is such a bluffer to be treated 
merely as a clumsy fool, or is. he to be 
handed over to the District Attorney to 
be prosecuted for intimidation? 
About 60 years ago the writer’s father 
sold a fine farm in the valley, and up to 
this time the writer has always regretted 
the sale. Now. however, he has no re¬ 
grets. He wouldn’t care to own and op¬ 
erate a farm in a locality where he was 
expected to surrender his judgment and 
his rights into the keeping of somebody 
else; but if he did own a farm here he 
certainly would run it himself. He would 
feel much better toward both himself and 
his neighbors, to go broke on his own 
judgment, than to go broke on the judg¬ 
ment of one or two outsiders. 
AORTCVLTURTST. 
The Organization’s Reply 
There is one element of much interest 
in your letter, and that is that you have 
no farm lands, are not interested in farm¬ 
ing. and you state also that you are not 
interested in the canning industry. If the 
price which the farmers feel they should 
have is arrived at. the price which you 
and other consumers would pay would not 
be materially affected. So I fail to see 
why. from a consumer’s point of view, you 
feel yourself forced into the controversy. 
I wish at this time to deal only with an 
analysis of your letter. You intimate that 
Mr. Norton and Mr. Mills, who made the 
survey, were smart fellows who came to 
town with a printed schedule and a silver 
pencil to figure costs for the farmer. It 
is very evident that you have never met 
either of these gentlemen, or you never 
would have made the assertions which 
you have been so bold as to make in your 
open letter. These gentlemen, who made 
the survey, had absolutely no ax to grind 
one way or the other. They were simply 
after facts, and their method of comput¬ 
ing costs will justify that. Neither of 
these gentlemen came to tell the farmers 
just what it costs to raise a crop, as you 
intimated, but. they came to find out what 
it did cost. It is also very evident that 
you have not read over the survey sheet, or you would 
find that the elements of soils, fertilizer, tools, methods 
of cultivation, and harvesting, which you speak of. are 
all included. I thoroughly agree with you that land and 
brains have a great deal to do with the growing of a 
crop, because the association realizes that, costs vary on 
different farms, and because they realize this the sur¬ 
veys were made on the efficient producer and on tlie 
inefficient man. so that any figure that might, be ar¬ 
rived at was averaged, and is not, as you infer, a figure 
arrived at from the inefficient man. We still recognize 
that the law of supply and demand is still working, and 
we also realize that the law of foresight is still work¬ 
ing. and that any results which a farmer can anticipate 
in the Spring as a result of his years of experience has 
no bearing, whatever, on the law of supply and demand 
Now we come to the question of price fixing. I would 
ask you to answer this question: If I have a commodity 
to sell and you are the purchaser and I state that I 
will sell it for a certain price, and you, as a purchaser, 
feel that you cannot pay it. would you call it price fix¬ 
ing. or would you call it the sale price of the commodity 
which I have for sale? 
You state that the canner is in the same boat as the 
farmer relative to the conditions at. the present time. 
We maintain this has no bearing whatever on the situ¬ 
ation. We feel that raising a crop at a fair margin of 
profit is our business, and canning is the canner’s busi¬ 
ness. but we do not feel it our business to worry about 
what he should get from his jobber. 
If is quite evident from the closing remarks in your 
letter that you arc not familiar with the present day 
Compacting the Soil About the Wheat Plant ■with Corrugated Holler. Fig. 2SO 
Filling the Seed Drill. Fig. 281 
