Tht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
I 159 
The Chicago Milk Situation 
The Prairie Farmer gives the following account 
of the milk situation at Chicago: 
“Farmers of Chicago dairy district were startled 
last week by the announcement that the Milk Market¬ 
ing Company had cut the price of September milk to 
$1.50 a hundred—a reduction of SO cents from the Au¬ 
gust price of $2.30» and the lowest price paid in anj 
mon'th since the famous milk strike of 191G. 
“This drastic cut in price—which farmers and in¬ 
formed consumers alike realize puts the price far below 
the cost of production—was made only after it became 
apparent to the directors of the marketing company 
that there was no other way to save the company from 
disaster. A large percentage of the members have re¬ 
pudiated their contracts and were shipping direct to the 
distributing companies. This was done to avoid paying 
the heavy assessment or “differential" levied by the pro¬ 
ducers’ company. 
“Tin* trouble came to a head in June, it will be re¬ 
membered. when it became necessary to levy a oO per 
cent assessment 'to help make up a deficit that had been 
growing for several months. This heavy assessment 
came as a complete surprise to the members, who had 
been kept in the dark as to the business affairs of the 
company, never having been given even the barest 
financial statement. Bad management contributed to 
the deficit, which even the heavy .Tune assessment failed 
to wipe out. 
“By the middle of August desertions from the com¬ 
pany, which were said to be* encouraged by the big dis¬ 
tributing companies, had become so numerous that it 
was apparent that the remaining members could not 
carry the burden of the company’s running expenses 
and the differential. This differential is a deduction 
levied against the higher priced milk that goes to Chi¬ 
cago to equalize the price with that of the surplus milk 
which is made into butter, cheese and condensed milk. 
“In making the drastic cut in price the directors of 
the marketing company removed the incentive for mem¬ 
bers to desert, and they hope to close up the ranks and 
recover the ground they have lost. 
“At a big protest meeting at Dundee August 29 the 
directors of the marketing company were severely crit¬ 
icized and a prediction was made that a milk famine 
in Chicago would result. Creameries and cheese fac¬ 
tories would meet the September whole milk price, the 
farmers said, and they would have the skim-milk and 
whey to feed. 
“Prairie Farmer's advice to the dairy farmers of the 
Chicago district is the same now as before—stick to 
your marketing company. With all its mismanagement, 
you would be worse off without it. The present situa¬ 
tion can be traced directly to the plan of proxy v<"Mug, 
which has no place in a farmer’s company. By tlw col¬ 
lection of proxies incompetent officers have been able to 
keep themselves in office. Our advice to every member 
is to do his own voting in the future, or if that is not 
possible, to give the proxy to a neighbor who will vote 
it as you direct. 
“At the next annual meeting of the marketing com¬ 
pany a new set of officers and directors must be put in 
charge. If that is done, and if they are the right men. 
and if the changes in the constitution recommended at 
the Elgin meeting August 12 are adopted, there is still 
opportunity to save the marketing company and through 
it to solve the milk marketing problem of the Chicago 
dairy district.” 
If the Chicago difficulty has the effect of stirring 
tin; milk producers up to the point that they will take 
permanent control and responsibility for the associa¬ 
tion. the experience will be a cheap investment for 
them, no matter how expensive it may seem just 
now. The results of co-operative work cannot be 
shifted by the members to other shoulders. The 
success or failure of co-operation will depend on 
farmers themselves. Tt is as much a part of the 
farm operations as planning tin* crops, or directing 
the hired man. If the members realize this, and per¬ 
fect their organization and give it the amount of at¬ 
tention that would be required to sell the product 
individually, there can be no proxy voting, no failure 
to account, no extravagance or waste, and no 
mismanagement in the organization. When these 
things occur, it simply shows that the members as a 
whole neglect their responsibility to themselves. 
They have the power to secure constant and full 
information and promptly to correct any abuse ox- 
neglect. Co-operation can be fully successful only 
when they scrupulously perform this duty. No 
farmer would think of abandoning his farm because 
the hired man was lazy or corrupt or incompetent. 
He would promptly discharge the man and look for 
a competent successor. The co-operative work is a 
part of the farm work, and the same simple business 
policy will work successfully in one case as in the 
other. 
The Dairymen’s League recent Bulletin says that 
the reaction from the New York City advertising 
has shown favorable results. From now on less 
money is to be spent in New York City papers and 
J. N. Darling in Washington Post 
This cartoon, from the Washington Post, is headed 
“It used to be customary for the Prodigal Son to 
return home before killing the fatted calf." This 
expresses the sentiments of many Americans regard¬ 
ing the famine situation in Russia, but this country 
will help by sending both food and money. If the 
people on the other side would help eat up our big 
corn crop both Europe and America would be better 
for it. 
more in outdoor work and in papers of the smaller 
cities. 
Of the Chicago situation the Bulletin says: 
The Chicago Association sold its milk for September 
for $1.50 for 3.5 per cent milk. This price has had an 
adverse effect in bearing down prices all through the 
Central West, including Ohio, with the result that a 
large amount of cream is now coming into our markets 
from outside territory and being sold very much under 
what must be received for cream if sold at League 
prices. 
The Jerseyman Who Shot Straight 
LOn page 1109 we gave a newspaper account of the 
ease of Ilenry Woiohon of Magnolia. N. J., who shot 
and killed a chicken thief. We now have the following 
statement from Mr. Wo'xolion’s daughter Elizabeth, 
which we submit for the consideration of readers. We 
have written the county prosecutor for further details, 
but he has hot yet replied.] 
We have resided on a farm at Magnolia, N. J.. for 
i 
J. X. Darling in New York Tribune 
This is taken from the New York Tribune and 
illustrates some of the “spread” between the steer 
and the scales. There might well he some connecting 
wire between the packer and the retail butcher, for 
in many cases they are one and the same—much like 
the old connection between the brewer and the 
saloonkeeper. 
the past Id years, each year losing more chickens than 
the year preceding. Up to January of this year our 
chicken house had been about 75 ft. distant from the 
house, but around the first of the year our baru was set: 
on fire, and burned to the ground, and we had a new 
barn built, and also moved the chicken coop up near the 
house, about 25 ft. away. Since then we have had 
our chickens stolen at least five times, 20 or 25 at a 
time. 
Up to August 19 we had about 50 spring chickens, 
when on that night 20 of the best were taken, which 
were sold, and my father was to have taken them to the 
buyer the next morning. The next Friday night my 
father sat up all night and watched for the thief, but 
his vigil was in vain, for no one came that night. 
The next night, August 27. or I would better say the 
next morning, the 28th. when my brother was returning 
home from a carnival, as he neared the house In* 
thought he heard a noise as if someone were ripping 
boards from our chicken house. (My father boarded over 
the door so as to make entering more difficult, and just 
left a small hole for the chickens to come in and out.) 
lie rushed up to my father’s bedroom and told him, and 
he took his gun and was soon at the chicken-yard gate, 
where he. too, heard the boards being ripped off. He 
called, “If you’re a man. come out. Come out and sur¬ 
render. If you don’t come out I'll shoot." As tlie per¬ 
son made no answer, and fearing that he might get 
shot, my father blazed away, and the thief fell to the 
ground, making two little groans. It is believed death 
was instantaneous, but doctors were summoned. 
The moment after the shut was fired a negro woman 
was on the scene. There is a colored settlement near 
Magnolia, and we knew the victim as soon as a light 
was turned on him. The colored woman wanted to 
know who lie was, and when she found out sin* said she 
knew him and would take him to his mother. We 
wouldn’t allow him to be moved. Later she was ar¬ 
rested, as she was found to have been waiting for this 
thief with a horse and wagon ready to carry away their 
loot, as usual. 
My father was taken to the court house, but the next 
day released under $5,009 bail,, furnished by the Ml. 
Ephraim and Haddonfiekl Mutual Pursuing and De¬ 
tective Company, of which my father is a member. 
ELIZA BET 11 WO 1,011 ON. 
Let Chicken Men Bunch Up 
Your editorial concerning Mr. Woiohon, on page 1109, 
has interested me very much. It is about time the 
poultry producers took some radical action to put a 
stop to the extensive campaign of robbery which seems 
to be the plan of some gang of specialists in poultry 
thievery, and I think that all poultrymcn, large and 
small, should lend a hand to help each other. Mr. 
Wolohon’s is but one instance in a thousand. It was 
brought to light because lie killed a man in protecting 
his own property. But how many more cases were 
there, like the Cox Cro Farm which lost 5.000 broilers 
this Spring about which the public in general are 
ignorant ? 
Cannot the countrymen throughout the entire nation 
band together in some sort of affiliation to protect them¬ 
selves. both within and without their own ranks? All 
other labor, with the exception of the so-called “white- 
collar men" is unionized. Poultry raising is a distinct 
profession, and cau easily be affiliated. If such were 
possible we would be protected not only from the pes¬ 
tiferous bands of marauders, but from men like Mason, 
who conducts his baby chick business from a different 
city almost every year, and has a new name each sea¬ 
son. The bad in an industry always has more influence 
than the good, and it will not take many such men to 
run the chick business to the ground. 
Do you not think some sort of union among poultry- 
men possible? We need it. as the business is so very 
great and the flocks are necessarily so exposed and so 
easily accessible to thieves. R. 0. 
Lakewood, N. J. 
R. N.-Y.—We do think so, and this ease which Mr. 
Woiohon must defend ought to bring the matter to a 
head. The recently organized co-operative egg selling 
association in New Jersey should be extended so as to 
cover such things. 
♦ How Farmers Caught two Auto Thieves 
The following note is taken from the Sehuylervilh* 
(N. Y.) 8 tar fiord. The reader who sends it to vis 
says: 
Personally. I think it shows three lessons: 
1. That a shotgun and ammunition are good prop¬ 
erty. 
2. That a criminal can be arrested by a farmer and 
held for the sheriff. 
3. That justices are not particularly interested in 
making crime odious. 
“Residents of North Argyll*, organized on short notice 
as a law and order committee, captured two young men 
in the act of stripping an automobile of tires and parts 
early Sunday morning and held them at the muzzle of a 
shotgun until the arrival of Sheriff Brown, who was 
summoned by telephone. The youths were Frank Lang 
and Louis Flanders of Thomson. They were held in 
bail for appearance before the Washington County 
Grand Jury. It is believed that the pair are respon¬ 
sible for one or more other automobile looting expedi¬ 
tious in the vicinity of North Argyll*. 
“Friday morning A. G. Skellie of North Argyll* went 
out to find that his car had been completely stripped of 
all removable parts during the night. The news was 
circulated about the neighborhood, and a couple of 
nights later when Mrs. Robert Smith, who chanced to 
be up late, heard a car coming along the road she put out 
the light and watched. She saw the car stop at John 
Rice’s barn, and called her husband. Mr. Smith got his 
shotgun and roused a couple of neighbors. The posse 
went to the Rice barn and ordered the visitors to put up 
their bauds: There was no resistance, and Lang and 
Flanders were carefully watched until the arrival of the 
sheriff. When the surprise occurred they were engaged 
in removing the tires from Mr. Rice’s car. In the car 
they drove were parts said to have been taken from an¬ 
other car. 
“The youths w*ere taken to the Hudson Falls jail and 
held for* a hearing Monday. When seen by a reporter 
there Sunday they said that they had been drinking be¬ 
fore they undertook the robbery, and blamed tbe booze 
for their trouble. 
“On being arraigned before Justice Richards in Hud¬ 
son Falls Monday they were represented by Attorney 
Fred Bratt of Fort Edward. A charge of third degree 
burglary was preferred and they were released on $250 
bail each for appearance before the grand jViY.” 
