Tht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
703 
Cost of Life to Postal Employes 
T HE following statement was sent by R. M. 
Baker, postmaster of Boston, to Senator Walsh 
of Massachusetts. We print it in order that our 
readers may have a statement of the argument back 
of the demand for increase of compensation, and 
also get an idea of the cost of city life: 
I inclose you an itemized expense account which I 
am sure will interest you as being the minimum 
amount a month, and also per annum, on which a 
postal employe with a small family of not over four 
persons (many of them have families greater than 
this) can live in a normal, healthy, self-respecting 
manner in the Boston postal district today. 
I have investigated the matter as carefully as I pos¬ 
sibly can. and am personally quite shocked at the 
amount which I find, as a result of the investigation, 
is necessary for the above purpose. 
Unless the employes of the government are paid an 
adequate compensation it will be found an impossi¬ 
bility to secure a satisfactory type of individual for 
entrance into this service. I know you will agree with 
me that the situation calls for immediate correction. 
Itemized expense account for man, wife, and two 
children : 
Rent . 
F ood . 
Clothing . 
Fuel and light . 
Carfares and lunches . 
Household equip, upkeep . 
Recreation . 
Insurance and savings . 
Doctor . 
Dentist . 
Papers, magazines, and incidentals... 
Laundry .-. 
Church . 
Total 
Month Annum 
$37.50 $ 450.00 
05.00 7SO. 00 
30.00 360.00 
12.50 150.00 
15.00 1SO.OO 
8.50 102.00 
8.50 102.00 
12.50 150.00 
2.50 30.00 
2.50 30.00 
5.00 60.00 
2.50 30.00 
1.00 12.00 
$203.00 $2436.00 
The School Battle and Its Lesson 
T HE last hours of the Downing school bill were 
full of adventure and excitement. After the 
great Albany hearing on March 19 it was well m- 
derstood that the opposition had out-voted and 
out-voiced the backers of the bill. The Assembly 
would not dare to pass the bill in the face of the 
rural protest. There then appeared a new element 
in the form of a strong lobby composed of women 
representing the Woman’s League of Voters. This 
is largely an organization of well-to-do city women. 
So far as we can learn they have little strength in 
the country, and very little real knowledge of rural 
life. Most of the leaders seem to have nothing to 
do except to promote legislation, and apparently 
they had an abundance of money to spend. At any 
rate they descended upon Albany prepared to prac¬ 
tice all the old tricks of the politicians and a few 
new ones. There are men backing the school bill 
who know the farmers’ habits and psychology, and 
they must have viewed this invasion with dismay. 
They must have known only too well how country 
people and country women in particular would re¬ 
gard such an effort. We are told that at least one 
of these leaders hires a French governess to teach 
her own children. 
The original backers of the bill knew they were 
beaten, but these women persisted and, without 
question, did their cause more harm than good. The 
daily papers were filled wih misleading reports, and 
leaders in the Legislature w r ere misquoted. Mem¬ 
bers of the Legislature were pestered—in fact those 
lady politicians overdid their part. The Downing 
bill was slumbering in the rules committee of the 
Assembly. A caucus of the Republican members 
was finally held—this brought out practically all of 
the members representing rural counties. Out of 
S3 px-esent our report is that only five spoke in its 
favor, and it was decided to kill the Downing bill 
by leaving it in committee. Then a new commit¬ 
tee was appointed to confer with the Depai'tment 
of Education and if possible prepare a new bill or 
new amendments which would make the bill “per- 
missive.” Finally such a bill was prepared, but no 
one seems able to tell us just what it meant. Most 
of the Assemblymen never saw it—yet they were 
asked to drop everything and put it through. In 
the closing hours of the Legislature this amended 
bill passed the Senate 26 to 25—a strict party vote. 
Exactly the same Senators last year passed the 
original bill 42 to 8! The bill was then rushed to 
the Assembly, and few of our people will ever know 
what efforts were made to put this bill over. The^e 
women politicians demanded that the Assemblymen 
pass a bill which practically none of them under¬ 
stood or had even read. They knew that the pass¬ 
age of such a bill would only add fuel to the flame. 
It would prove the contention that the proponents 
of the bill were trying to “put something over” and 
arouse the anger of rural people to a white heat. It 
does not seem possible that men who have the faint¬ 
est idea of the character of our farmers would 
counsel such a movement. This final attempt to 
change the bill after insisting that they would never 
do so, and then trying to push an ill-considered 
amendment upon the people, will simply intensify 
the feeling against the proponents of the bill, and 
make it far more difficult to effect a fair compro¬ 
mise. The Assembly wisely I’efused to be a part of 
such a scheme, and the bill died in committee. 
The women politicians who are lai'gely i*esponsi- 
ble for this blunder insist that they will be back 
next year with the same tactics. Very well; our 
folks will be ready for them. We now understand 
what we must do, and we will proceed to organize 
as farmers never before were organized in New 
York State. No greater tribute was ever paid to 
the power of our country people than when the New 
Yoi-k Assembly stood firm in the face of the strong¬ 
est lobby gathered at Albany in yeai*s, and refused 
to have a part in taking advantage of country peo¬ 
ple. For it meant the meanest sort of advantage to 
push that amended bill through without explanation 
or study. The farmers could not be there. They 
had their work to do—but in the words of the popu¬ 
lar song, “Though absent they were not foi’gotten.” 
It was a great battle and it has taught us a mighty 
lesson. Farmers now know their power as volun- 
teei’s on the defensive. Now they must organize, 
drill themselves into one army and take the offen¬ 
sive.. 
Co-operation 
O NE fundamental principle, at least, must be 
maintained if farm co-operation is to be perma¬ 
nent and successful. The members must appi’ove its 
plans and dii’ect its policies. This privilege of con¬ 
trol, moreover, must not be merely academic. It 
must be real. The members must actually perform 
the functions of control. The essence of good gov¬ 
ernment in co-operation, as in democracy, is in the 
ballot. The by-laws of evei’y farm co-operative as¬ 
sociation should provide in detail for a simple but 
complete aiTangement so that the members can vote 
annually to elect its management, and as often as 
they wish and circumstances waiTant in referendum 
on policies and unusual expenditures. The vote 
should be invariably by ballot, direct or by mail, and 
strictly secret. In election there should be provis¬ 
ions for at least two candidate for each position, and 
pi'ovision should be made to insure repi’esentation 
to minority groups. It should also be made easy for 
substantial groups of the membership to call for a 
refei’endum. Of course the fairness of the vote and 
the count must be secured beyond any possibility 
of doubt. 
As a coi-ollary to this proposition, the members 
must be fully informed. No man can form a coi - - 
rect judgment without correct information. To 
vote intelligently the voter must be well informed. 
The records should always be open to members, and 
in the case of a central organization, with members 
far removed from its seat of activities, the secretary 
should be directed to give full and detailed reports 
of the proceedings and of the finances. At the be¬ 
ginning and during times of smooth sailing, these 
details may seem trivial or useless, but these are 
just the times to develop orderly procedure. A 
share in the management will give membei’s con¬ 
fidence, avoid suspicions and encourage individual 
interest of members in the work. It is the only hope 
of avoiding splits in the organization. With a minor¬ 
ity group rule the independent member has no 
choice but to submit or get out. Establish a ma¬ 
jority rule and, if defeated, he will stick, in the 
hope of bringing the majority to his side next time. 
He will patronize fairness. This is the policy of 
true co-operation. 
New England Milk Matters 
A COMMITTEE recently appointed at an all-New 
England dairy conference considered two pro¬ 
posed forms of dairy organization to handle New 
England milk at a meeting on April 11 in Boston. 
One suggestion was to organize a larger association 
to cover all New England with centralized control 
and ownership of plants and implements of distribu¬ 
tion. The other plan presented was a federation of 
many small local associations now existing and to be 
organized. This plan was advocated by E. S. Brig¬ 
ham, the popular Commissioner of Agriculture of 
Vermont. A majority of the committee, however, 
favored the centralized plan. 
The New England committee could profitably 
study the history of centralized associations before 
finally adopting this form. This form failed utterly 
in Oregon, it is now in the throes of a second failure 
in Chicago, and it has not kept members together in 
New Yoi’k. It has no i*ecord of permanent success 
wherever tided out, either in Eui’ope or America. 
The successful farm co-operative experience the 
world over has been under the form of organization 
recommended by Commissioner Brigham. Ilis plan 
is built from the ground up. It stai’ts with the 
fanner, and he controls it from beginning to finish. 
It is simple in form, and easily managed. In con¬ 
trol of it themselves, farmers are in a position to 
keep down expenses and to avoid extravagance. The 
simple machinery of the organization is operated 
with little expense. It is a success all over Europe 
and in many parts of America. 
Before the plan of federated local associations is 
abandoned, it would be a democratic plan to give 
New England dairymen an opportunity to study the 
merits of both plans, and then through a referendum 
allow them to decide the form they want for them¬ 
selves. This is true co-operative pi*actice. It is the 
only way to “do it ourselves.” 
Farm Tax Matters 
B EFORE we can know the exact amount of pi-op- 
erty tax as paid by farmers and the percent¬ 
ages paid by them as compared with other classes of 
property, we must have statistics to show the as¬ 
sessed valuation of farm property in each taxable 
division of the State, separate from village and other 
classes of property, that are now included in one 
item in the State reports. In order to obtain ade¬ 
quate farm statistics it will be necessary to amend 
Section 21 of the tax law so that the assessors in 
preparing their assessment rolls shall list farm 
property separate from other property. Also list 
separately forest property, mining property, water 
rights, etc. 
Then Section 61 should be amended to require 
clerks of boards of supervisors to report separately 
to the State Tax Commission the assessment of city 
property, village property, farm property, forest 
property, mining px*operty, water rights, etc., and the 
taxes levied upon each of these different classes of 
property. Then the State Tax Commission in their 
annual report will be able to publish such statistics, 
and farmers will be able to make a comparison of 
their property tax with that of other classes of prop¬ 
erty. 
This is information needed in a study of pi’oblems 
affecting agriculture, and farmers will, do well to 
make a demand for it individually and collectively 
through their organizations. For intelligent work 
we must have accurate information. 
A Wooden-legged Farmer Makes Good 
I am inclosing that said dollar for my renewal, and 
I wish that you were here ; I would like to show you 
what a man past 60 years old who has worn a wooden 
leg for over 50 years and has no boys to help him, has 
done in the last five years on a run-down (but nol 
worn-out) farm. I bought it for less money than it 
would cost to build the house or the barn. There was 
no fence on the place, and the ground was so poor and 
sour that it would not grow a good crop of weeds. The 
man I bought it from only made hay enough to winter 
three head of stock, lie was running a dairy, selling 
milk in town, but he only had one cow, and she was 
dry. 
I have at present 30 head of cattle and three horses, 
and am selling over $20 worth of milk and eggs a day, 
and there are 306 days in ray year. I am not kicking 
about taxes or hard times. In my time I have seen 
wheat sell for 50 cents a bushel, corn 15 cents, oats 12 
cents, hay in the stack at $2 a ton, cotton at 7 cents a 
pound, eggs at 5 cents a dozen, fresh cows at $10 a 
head, wool 10 cents a pound, and fat lambs 4 cents a 
pound. If anyone doubts these prices I can tell you 
when and where. 
My old home is in Elkhart Co., Ind., but I have been 
in 23 of the .States, and have farmed in Indiana, Okla¬ 
homa. Kansas and Pennsylvania, and I will say that 
the East today offers the best chance of any place I 
know to a man who will work with his head and his 
hands. j. d. mather. 
McKean Co., Pa. 
We have several questions regarding legal rights over 
a “spite” fence, which deprives one of light and air. Of 
course we cannot fairly advise about such local cases. 
Get rid of the spite and the fence will come down. If 
the spite cannot be wiped out—a local lawyer is needed. 
Several people write that man and wife have each 
separate pieces of property and they want to combine 
all of it under a joint deed. In such cases our advice 
is to go and consult some good local attorney. Do not 
take any chances on a matter which may mean great 
unhappiness later if any mistake is made now. 
The latest question we have is, “Why was the comb 
put on the head of the domestic fowl? What was its 
original purpose?” Nature never does anything for 
ornamentation. We have had various guesses—but no 
real answer. It seems to be generally believed that the 
hen’s comb was produced by domestication. 
In one of the sketches on Cape Cod we mentioned 
certain African tribes whose people drink sea water. 
Several people have questioned the statement. We 
now have reports of cattle taken from the interior to 
the sea coast, which when sick, drink the salt water and 
are helped by it. There are also cases where cattle 
have been fed on salted fish ! 
