7ht RIjRAL NEW-YORKER 
837 
“Class Legislation” and Agricultural Law 
There lias been much loose talk lately about the 
co-operative laws, both Federal and State, which 
were passed to enable farmers to organize business 
enterprises. Since farmers have really begun to 
make use of these laws, so as to protect themselves 
in their business of producing and selling, other in¬ 
terests which have done this business for them (at 
a great price) have begun to stir themselves. Their 
plan is to frighten farmers by saying that these co¬ 
operative laws are unconstitutional. That is in¬ 
tended to frighten farmers. Then they are claiming 
that all these laws represent “class legislation.” The 
object of that howl is to increase the hitter feeling 
between consumers or city men and the farmers. 
Some of our readers appear to be a little troubled 
about this, but the following study of this legislation 
should put their minds at rest Never bother about 
the “class legislation” part of it—go ahead and 
organize. 
A Study of the Co-operative Laws 
Part I. 
T am very familiar with the position taken by the 
eanners regarding contracting with the canning crops 
associations of the State. The canning crops industry 
is very interesting as it relates to the methods of con¬ 
tracting between canner and grower. Personally, I had 
some experience a number of years ago in such con¬ 
tracts. The eanners, naturally, employed expert solici¬ 
tors to procure contracts. These gentlemen would make 
representation of the possibilities of crop production, 
making it appear very attractive; their statements of 
crop production, however, when proven out for reason¬ 
ably large acreages, fell far short of the represented 
production. Their statements were based upon the 
possible yield procurable in garden spots or other highly 
favorable conditions. In other words, I cannot say they 
actually made false statements, but they did not tell the 
whole truth. I am rather of the opinion a similar 
practice is carried on and is in vogue at the present 
time. However, this method of exploitation which was 
carried on from one district to another, as the common 
expression goes, “catching suckers,” had been carried 
nearly to its limit before the advent of canning crops as¬ 
sociations. The farmers having discovered the prices 
which they w r ere obtaining were not sufficiently remu¬ 
nerative to render them attractive, with the aid of the 
College of Agriculture, carried on cost, accounting, which 
proved that it was not wise to continue under such con¬ 
ditions. Naturally under the conditions Avhich prevailed 
since the advent of the Farm Bureau and the active 
work of farm organizations, the farmers sought to re¬ 
lieve themselves of this condition through organized 
effort, and the organization of canning crops associations 
began in Niagara County in the Winter of 11)20. 
I was called to Lockport to offer suggestions. I 
found they had already started to circulate agreements 
which the farmers were to sign in which the grower 
agreed not. to grow any canning crops for less than at 
stated prices. I took the position immediately that this 
was conspiracy, and whether they would be protected by 
the amendment to the Donnelly act or not, that it was 
wrong, and they should cease to make such contracts. I 
advised them to organize associations under Article 
13-A, and that the grower, instead of making a contract 
agreeing not to grow for less than certain prices, should 
authorize the associations thus incorporated, and of 
which he was a member, to sell or contract his crops. 
This work advanced very rapidly, and spread through¬ 
out the canning districts of the State of New York. 
Assistance was rendered by the associations in making 
contracts in most instances directly between the farmer 
and the canning company, the association receiving 1 per 
cent commission. However, this did not prove entirely 
satisfactory and it was deemed better to centralize the 
efforts and have the associations make contracts direct 
with the canning companies, agreeing to furnish them 
whatever acreage of crops they desired, it devolving 
upon the association to procure from their members the 
acreage which they had contracted to deliver. The 
contract stated that in the event of the inability of the 
association to procure the required acreage by a certain 
date, the canner was at liberty to go out and secure 
such acreage. This, of course, is what the eanners and 
the eanners’ attorneys are claiming is “class” privilege 
and unconstitutional. 
First, I wish to call attention to the fact that Article 
13-A of the membership corporation law was enacted in 
1918; that the acts relating to monopoly and combina¬ 
tions were passed in 1890, 1892, 1897. 1809. Therefore, 
the act of the Legislature, Article 13-A, Chapter 055 of 
the Laws of 1918, and amended by Chapter 485 of the 
Laws of 1019, took precedence over any provisions of the 
Donnelly or other acts. Under Article 13-A, the Legis¬ 
lature has authorized individuals or those engaged col¬ 
lectively in agricultural, dairy or horticultural pursuits, 
to form corporations, “not having capital stock or con¬ 
ducted for profit” for the purpose of acting as agent for 
its members or any of them, performing for them ser¬ 
vices connected with the production, manufacture, pre¬ 
servation, drying, canning, storing, handling, utilization, 
marketing or sale of agricultural, dairy or horticultural 
products produced by them and for the agricultural, 
dairy or horticultural purposes of such members, or for 
performing for them services connected with the pur¬ 
chase or hiring for or use by them of supplies, includ¬ 
ing live stock, machinery and equipment, and the hiring 
of labor, or any one or more of the kinds of service spec¬ 
ified in this section.” The act is very specific in the 
powers it grants; it specifies who may he members of 
such an association; it denies the right of the corpora¬ 
tion to accumulate surplus profits which may be de¬ 
clared as a dividend. It specifies very clearly the rela¬ 
tionship between the member and the association. It 
further specifies what contracts and agreements may he 
made between associations for carrying out the pur¬ 
poses of the corporation, and even authorizes several as¬ 
sociations to join in using the same agency, which agen¬ 
cy may be another corporation organized under any of 
the co-operative acts of the State. In all these respects 
the Legislature has granted to the farmer the right to 
form such a corporation, and to enter into these rela¬ 
tions for the specific purpose of becoming more efficient 
in production and distribution of the agricultural pro¬ 
ducts. The law conforms specifically to the provisions 
of the Clayton amendment of the Sherman anti-trust 
law, and therefore is not conspiracy under the Federal 
law. It is in conformity with the usages of the Western 
associations which have been enacted to comply with 
requirements of the Federal statute, and which acts 
have been decided in the United States courts and have 
been declared constitutional. chari.es k. white. 
As Others See the East 
TThe fireeder/t’ Gazette prints an interesting article by 
.Tames E. Dowd—a record of> travel through various 
parts of the country. A part of this article—referring 
to conditions in New York State—is printed below. It 
is unusual to have such articles appear in Western 
papers, for there is, without doubt, a distinct movement 
from the West back to the cheaper lands of the East..] 
I am a native of Noav York State. Naturally T 
was interested in its agriculture. We skirted the 
Canadian line, drove through the Adirondacks, and 
emerged into the St. Lawrence Valley, where we 
found conditions different from those existing during 
my boyhood. Then Northern New York was the 
highest-priced farming section of North America. 
What, happened to all this region, when, after the 
Civil War, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and 
the Dakotas attracted the rising generation, is an 
oft-told story. Competition by the products of these 
new and wondrously fertile areas meant ruin for 
the Eastern farmer, whose land deteriorated in value 
so rapidly that, he was impoverished in the same 
ratio that corn-belt farmers have recently been en¬ 
riched. Current literature teems with descriptions 
of abandoned New York and New England farms. 
While much of it was excessively colored, if not 
actually mendacious. Eastern farmers felt Western 
competition so keenly over a period of several de¬ 
cades of excess food production that agriculture 
thereabouts no longer yielded reasonable profits. The 
farm in Lewis County, N. Y., which my grandfather 
cleared, sold in 1.871 at .$137.50 per acre, gold. Dur¬ 
ing the long period of liquidation its value steadily 
decreased, until last year a Pole bought it at $25 
per acre, this transaction indicating what has hap¬ 
pened during the past half century over much of the 
Eastern farming region. This role, an industrious, 
intelligent man, actually produced sufficient, live 
stock, milk and general crops on that farm the first 
year of his occupancy to net $42 per acre above 
operating expenses. It is not a high-grade farm, 
even on the New York standard, but better land is 
available at $40 to $50 per acre, prices which are 
attracting hundreds of Western tenant farmers, who 
realize that they have scant hope of acquiring corn- 
belt farms at the present scale of prices. We found 
much of this cheap New York land passing into the 
hands of Norwegians, who make good farmers, and 
in a few years will redeem New York’s reputation 
by adding materially to the food supply. I saw 
scores of good New York farms, somewhat run down, 
but susceptible to use of clover and Alfalfa, that 
may be had for $100 per acre. The sheep industry 
should thrive on the cheap lands of New York and 
New England now that Western production of wool 
and mutton has been reduced. I remember the time 
when Northern New York was full of sheep, which 
were largely, responsible for the large wheat yields 
of the Civil War period. Eventually the sheep will 
come back in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and 
New England, facilitating the process of rehabilitat¬ 
ing agriculture. This kind of farming now affords 
the young man without capital his only opportunity 
to get a farm and pay for it. 
Provincialism is promptly dispelled by a jaunt 
into neighboring regions, whose resources and people 
we do not understand. After my trip through the 
cotton belt, the Atlantic coastal plain and the stone- 
girt northeastern section of the United States, T be¬ 
lieve that the time is not far distant when these 
cheap lands, available in many localities at $25 to 
$50 per acre, will by reason of their proximity to 
markets and the increasing food needs of the popu¬ 
lation more than double in value. For live stock 
husbandry they are at this moment unusually invit¬ 
ing to the homeseeker. 
Do We Need a Farmers’ Party? 
I have given the subject pretty constant thought 
through the Winter months and Spring days, and have 
come to the conclusion that the vast chasm between 
the farmer, producer and the city consumer is very 
largely social. Also 1 think the farmer is not a very 
smart man. even though he knows a great deal, lie is 
like some of my Leghorn hens, who eat enough to keep 
their bodies in fine shape, but not enough in addition to 
make them produce the proper amount of eggs. I really 
believe , that the solution of the farmers’ troubles will 
come only through the organization of a radical farmers’ 
party, the strength of which would spell victory to the 
party that would really aid the farmers. All a farmer 
can do now is to rave impotently. g. e. m. 
Wo do not. agree with all of that. It is true that 
social and class distinctions lie at the bottom of some 
of our troubles. One remedy for that is to stop aping 
the manners and customs of the city people, as too 
many of us do. Let us be big and independent 
enough to break away from habit and start finer 
ways of living which shall be characteristic of 
country life. Lighting the henhouse in Winter has 
made all the difference between laying and lying 
down on the job with many a Leghorn hen! If 
during the laying season with food before her a 
Leghorn will not eat. enough—there is something the 
matter with the Leghorn. She should enter a chicken 
pie. There are thousands of farmers who have done 
something beside "rave impotently.” These Califor¬ 
nia egg men with their organization; the Jerseymen 
who are following them; thousands of farmers who 
have learned to cut out the middlemen through or¬ 
ganization. They are not raving—they are saving. 
There is quite general belief in the Middle West that 
unless the present Administration does something 
reasonable for the relief of farmers there will be 
another great wave of Populism sweeping through 
the West like that of 25 years ago. The trouble in 
the past about such a movement has been the in¬ 
ability of Eastern and Western farmers to find a 
common ground of radical policy. When Populism 
swept the West it never made any great impression 
in the East. There is already a difference of policy 
in the Farm Bureau, the Eastern members swinging 
more and more to conservative ideas. We should 
not stand waiting for any distinct farmers’ party to 
save us. There are still many ways in which we 
can do it ourselves. 
Profiteering in Ice Cream 
On page 78.8 you say the cold weather is responsible 
for the slump in the ice cream trade. I think you are 
in error as to the cause of the slump. Personally, I 
think it is due to the most shameless profiteering seen 
in any generally used commodity now being sold. 
When sugar was selling at. 28 cents per pound and 
milk and cream were costing 50 per cent more than at 
present, ice cream sodas in New York were raised from 
10 cents to 22 cents, and in the country towns from 
(5 cents to 17 cents. Ice cream by the plate was 
raised 30 to 40 per cent, and the size of the portion 
served was reduced. 
Now, with sugar back to pre-war prices and dairy 
products cut in half, they still hold to these wartime 
prices, and in each town there is usually an understand¬ 
ing among the dealers to maintain them. And if you 
are in the confidence of one of these people he will ad¬ 
mit to you privately that in every ice cream soda at 17 
cents there is a net profit of 10 cents. 
In passing through Middletown, Orange * County, 
N. Y., last week on an O. & W. train, a boy came 
through, during the stop there, selling little cubes of 
ice cream, cut at least 12 to the quart, at 15 cents each. 
On the return trip next day, at the same point, they 
were selling the same thing and charging 20 cents— 
anything the traffic would bear. 
Consumption of dairy products is curtailed in this 
way just as is the consumption of apples—by shame¬ 
less charges to the consumer. In common with thou¬ 
sands of others, I would like to eat a. baked apple for 
lunch, but when chain restaurants cut apples in half 
before baking them and charge 15 cents for the half, or 
25 cents with “cream,” we pass them up. 
Let the farmers establish ice cream plants and out¬ 
lets for the product and consumption will be increased 
and' quality improved. Howard goldsmith. 
New York. 
A New York Wool Producer Talks 
Farmers in our county and neighboring counties 
have been selling their 1920 clip of wool this Spring 
at right around one-quarter the cost of production, and 
their 1921 clip at around one-third the cost of produc¬ 
tion. These are serious times for the tlockmasters of 
our nation. During the month of March, 1921. 200.- 
OOO.O(K) lbs. of foreign wool were dumped in our mar¬ 
kets, to beat the emergency tariff on wool. Hence any 
benefit to the growers must be long deferred, on account 
of the huge amount of foreign wools now on our mar¬ 
kets, estimated' at, around 500,000,000 lbs., brought 
in and still unconsumed, since November 1, 1920. Our 
annual domestic clip is estimated at around 000.000.000 
lbs. and with a large part of our domestic clips of 
1920 and' 1921 still on hand, our wool, both foreign 
and domestic, on hand at this time is very large, around 
1,400,000,000 lbs., according to estimates of men well 
posted. 
We hope the “truth-in-fabrics law” may be speedily 
enacted. This will be a protection against fraud to 
the whole people of our United States, as well as pro¬ 
tecting tlie wool grower from unfair competition with 
the shoddy goods, now put out as a counterfeit, for all- 
wool goods, supposed by the buyers to mean “goods 
made from 100 per cent virgin wools.” 
From my own flock I have this season (Spring. 1921) 
sold 30 right good registered' rams for slaughter at 
$200 for 30. In 1918, 1919 or 1920 such a lot would 
have sold for right around $1,500 for stock rams, to go 
to the Southwest. I could see no prospect of a local 
demand) to take my rams, and the likely prospect of 
rams selling at near a paying basis in the Southwest 
now seems dubious. However, I am going to risk send¬ 
ing a carload to the Del Rio ram sale, Texas, June 22- 
24. They started on the long journey June 4 (cost of 
transporting $10 per ram). c. o. pattridge. 
