The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
733 
Action for School Meeting Day 
I have followed with interest and approval your 
long fight for right in the school question. With school 
meeting only a short way off, and the necessity for 
action imperative, I am writing, as clerk of our rural 
school district, for any suggestions that may lead to 
unified State action in the fight to come. Any infor¬ 
mation you can give, or suggestions leading to con¬ 
certed action, resolutions, appointing of delegates to 
future meetings, etc., will be helpful. 
I believe absolutely in a better education for the 
farm child, and better rural schools, but do not favor 
the Albany brand of improvement that would turn out 
in bunches and strings, like frankfurts, a lot of pupils 
stuffed with the Lord knows what, a lot of impractical 
knowledge that would fit our future generations for 
factory workers, leaving the farms, the true home of 
American democracy to foreigners of a type who will 
never make true Americans. V. T. c. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
HIS is but a sample of many other letters. 
Our people feel that, having won their school 
fight as a group of volunteers, they should now or¬ 
ganize and drill as an army, prepared for future 
campaigns. That is the most important thing for 
us to do now, and we favor the plan of starting on 
school election day this year. We would make it 
one of the great social and community events of the 
year. Instead of having half a dozen voters gather 
for a perfunctory meeting, let us all plan to get out 
every resident of the district. Instead of trying to 
wish the office of trustee upon some one, as we would 
play a joke, let us try to select the best qualified 
man or woman in the district, and then take a 
pledge to hack that officer up to the limit. All this 
means that we must take our school problem serious¬ 
ly—even more seriously than we do the election of 
President. For, in its direct effect upon our social and 
political fortunes, this school problem looms larger 
than a national election. We suggest that the wom¬ 
en of the district get up a good supper. Trade fol¬ 
lows the flag, and men will follow a good meal. Use 
every reasonable device to get the people out, and 
thus turn what is too often a joke into an impor¬ 
tant proceeding. 
When the crowd comes, let the school officers or 
their friends have a definite program. The object 
is to get together and organize. If we are to hold 
our local schoolhouses we must prove our willing¬ 
ness to improve them. If the “authorities” do not 
like “the little red sehoolhouse” we can paint it 
white, and improve it so that no one will dare take 
it from us. Get the company to talk the situation 
over frankly and clearly, with the idea in mind that 
first of all must come a true community spirit and 
pride in the school. And we must organise. We ad¬ 
vise forming a district branch of the New York 
Rural School Improvement Society. In order to fa¬ 
cilitate such a movement we print the constitution 
which is being adopted in many districts. It is sim¬ 
ple and clear, and no one can object to it. The dis¬ 
trict units will be grouped into county organiza¬ 
tions, and these federated into a State society. This 
has been already formed, with James G. Greene of 
Brighton, president, and D. Boyd Devendorf of Am¬ 
sterdam, N. Y., secretary. The system, when com¬ 
pleted, will give us a powerful organization, suen 
as was never seen before. Join! 
ARTICLE I—NAME 
The name of this organization is the Rural School 
Improvement Society of Common School District No. 
.Town of...County, N. Y. 
ARTICLE II-OBJECT 
The objects of the society are (1) the preservation 
and constructive development of the existing schools in 
common school districts along lines approved by the 
majority of the taxpayers and patrons, in co-opera¬ 
tion with the educational authorities, (2) the retention 
of the fundamentals and traditions of the common 
school education, (3) the promotion of the convenience 
and welfare of pupils, (4) the stimulation of interest 
and pride in school buildings and grounds, (5) main¬ 
tenance of a tolerable State, county and district tax 
rate for school purposes, (0) proper appreciation of the 
necessities, the value and the possibilities of the one 
and two-room schools in the open country. 
ARTICLE III-MEMBERSHIP . 
Any resident of said District No.. or taxpayer 
therein, is eligible to membership. Any non-resident of 
the district who is not a taxpayer therein may become 
a member without power to vote. 
ARTICLE IV-OFFICERS 
The officers shall be a president, two vice-presidents, 
a secretary and a treasurer. They shall perform with¬ 
out compensation the duties usually performed by such 
officers. The secretary may also be the treasurer. Such 
officers shall be elected annually, at the date of the 
annual school meeting. 
ARTICLE V—DUES 
The annual dues shall be 25 cents for adults and 10 
cents for minors. Out of the dues collected from adult 
members the treasurer shall remit 10 cents per paying 
adult member to the treasurer of the Rural School 
Improvement' Society of. County. The vote 
of any member in default in payment of dues shall be 
rejected at any meeting, if challenged for that cause. 
Dues are payable at the time of joining and thereafter 
at the time of the annual election of officers. 
ARTICLE VI— MEETINGS 
The annual meeting shall be at the date of the annual 
school meeting in the district. Other meetings may be 
called by the president, or any two of the other officers. 
A meeting shall be called by the secretary on the writ¬ 
ten request of five members, at which only such busi¬ 
ness shall be transacted as is specified in the request 
and in the notice of the meeting. Notice of any meeting 
may be given by posting the same on the sehoolhouse 
and in four other conspicuous places in the district, at 
least three days prior to the meeting. 
ARTICLE VII—AMENDMENTS 
This constitution may be amended at any meeting by 
a two-thirds vote of the members whose dues are paid, 
provided notice of such amendment is included in the 
notice of the meeting. 
Pool Milk March Prices 
T HE gross price for pool milk announced last 
week was $1.88 per 100 lbs. for 3 per cent 
milk. The expense was 8c and for certificates of 
indebtedness 5c, leaving the net cash return to pro¬ 
ducers $1.75. 
The actual gross price per 100 lbs. figured out on 
the class prices and the volume reported for the 
month in each class was $2.1477; the gross price 
reported, $1.88; not accounted for, .2677. 
The total volume of pooled milk was 195,316,1S7. 
At .2677 per 100 lbs. the difference is $522,861.43. 
This is in addition to the Sc per 100 lbs. for ex¬ 
pense and 5c for certificates of indebtedness. 
This loss of $522,861 as recently explained by 
Mr. Slocum and Mr. Sexauer is due to losses in 
operation of some unprofitable plants and to the 
necessity of cutting of Class 1 pirices to maintain 
markets. For March it amounts to $1.68 per 100 
on all the Class 1 milk handled in the League plants. 
It is well also to recall that Mr. Slocum believes 
that this loss will increase as long as present com¬ 
petitive conditions continue. The record is an elo¬ 
quent appeal for the dairy conference approved 
two weeks ago by the heads of the four dairy groups 
in the territory, and which we hope will soon be 
able to function. 
Order in Production Again 
One feels fairly (lazed after reading Mr. Slocum’s 
interview on page 657. He calmly confesses after al¬ 
most three years’ operation of the pool that if they 
“were held accountable for present results, it would 
be classed as a failure;” that although the League is 
practically free from competition from without the 
territory, nevertheless “all dairymen are losing money.” 
He considers “stabilization” essential to success, and 
at least 90 per cent of the production in the territory 
must join up to make that stabilization possible. He 
does not expect to get the necessary 90 per cent, but 
is only “hopeful that they come in,” and he compla¬ 
cently adds that “we are very well pleased with pro¬ 
duction as it is.” Well, he may be pleased with it, 
and Borden’s are doubtless pleased with it, and Shef¬ 
field Farms is pleased with it, but I doubt you will 
find one single working dairyman in the whole terri¬ 
tory who is pleased with it. 
Mr. Slocum’s sole solution is “for all dairymen to 
get solidly behind one organization,” and when lie 
says that he means his own. He has stated repeatedly 
that the League would join any conference looking to 
consolidation provided always it was understood lhat 
the League selling plan was not to be changed. In¬ 
asmuch as the selling plan is all there is to the Co¬ 
operative Association at present this is in effect an 
invitation to join the pool “as is,” or stay out. What 
inducement does I he League offer dairymen outside 
the pool to come in other than the privilege of sharing 
the lowest price and the highest selling cost of any of 
the milk-selling organizations in this territory? 
In the issue of March 15, I made a plea for recog¬ 
nition of the rights of the business dairyman, the man 
who makes milk the year round, whose business is 
dairying, who makes the League possible and who is 
the foundation upon which the League was built and 
is maintained as opposed to the Summer or casual 
producer who uses the pool as a convenience, with no 
assumption of responsibility to his organization or duty 
to his fellow dairymen. It laid down a fundamental 
principle of all good business; to wit; that the sell¬ 
er’s product shall be graded and priced according to 
its value to the trade—not to the seller’s caprice. 
In the interview under discussion this matter was 
introduced by asking Mr. Slocum what he thought of 
the suggestion to standardize production (and of 
course this means to stabilize the market) by paying 
commercial prices for average yearly production and 
by-product prices for irregular production. The an¬ 
swer was that it would increase Winter production 
and until the Winter demand increases they did not 
want to encourage more. They would rather have the 
increase in June. For the reasons stated in the ar¬ 
ticle of March 15, so would the distributors; but also 
for the reason stated there, there need be no Bummer 
increase, at least not more than the seasonal demand 
would easily absorb. And I think he is wrong in as¬ 
suming that a modification of the League’s contract 
obligations along the lines suggested would increase 
the Winter production because: 
1. There are a great many farms so located as to 
make Winter production for the fluid market imprac¬ 
ticable. 
2. There is a large class of farmers who are unwill¬ 
ing to make Winter milk and who, if in order to get 
fluid price in Summer, were obliged to contract the 
year around, would prefer to enter a lower classifica¬ 
tion. 
3. There is a large class of farmers who always do 
and will shy at anything resembling an obligation in 
the way of production. They would quit imoduelng. 
4. It must be remembered that when Mr. Slocum 
says 90 per cent of the milk he means just that—not 
90 per cent of the producers. Probably 75 per cent, 
if not more, of the milk shipped is furnished by less 
than 50 per cent of the producers who are business 
dairymen. Approached the right way by the right 
men with the right arguments does anyone doubt that 
they would not prefer top price for their contracts and 
butter price for their surplus or when short? 
It would hardly be overstating the matter to say 
that probably half the men now producing milk woulil 
be infinitely better off doing something for which their 
abilities really fitted them. Average production proves 
that. 
One condition, that all dairy association officials for 
some unknown reason, and that all distributors’ offi¬ 
cials for very obvious reasons, never mention is the 
current over-production. It has been an obvious fact 
since the war period. You recall when the wheat 
farmers went to Washington seeking relief that Mr. 
Coolidge told them to go back home, to organize and 
to curtail production, and the country agreed it was 
sound advice. That is what the dairy industry here 
must do to achieve profitable production. Better for 
all concerned to have 50 per cent of profit producing 
dairies than 100 per cent operating at a loss. Any 
proposal to further that end merits serious considera¬ 
tion. The League has built up a magnificent organiza¬ 
tion—-it is unthinkable that it should have been wrought 
in vain, but there is a limit to the morale even of its 
members. As long as we have unlimited production 
with a limited market we will have chaos. Orderly sell¬ 
ing can come only as the result of orderly buying. 
Profitable production is absolutely dependent upon 
both. Dairying is a hard grim business—the grimmest 
on earth. The reason for the existence of the Dairy¬ 
man’s League is not to demonstrate the beneficence of 
co-operative organizations but to sell its members' 
milk at a profit. Not ultimately but now. If the gen¬ 
tlemen at 120 West 42d Street once permit that idea 
to penetrate, I think the situation can be saved and 
the League can accomplish that which the founders 
intended it to do. clarence joiinson. 
A Solution of the Milk Problem 
“The way to organize is to organize.” But that any 
kind of organization is going to be successful is proven 
a fallacy by the admission of the official heads of the 
four dairy groups that they are powerless to remedy 
the deplorable situation now prevailing in the dairy 
industry. 
Successful co-operation must come from the boitom 
up, not from the top down. The members of an or¬ 
ganization must constitute the governing body, not its 
officers. In other words, The R. N.-Y.’s slogan, “We 
must do it ourselves,” must become truly operative, 
not be a mere passive phrase. Therefore, the problem 
becomes a question of “How can we do it ourselves?” 
There is only one way of doing it ourselves, and that 
is by being organized in every section of the country. 
There must be a “local” in every milk-producing dis¬ 
trict, officered by dairymen and affiliated with a State 
organization to federate the locals and carry out their 
orders. The “locals” must decide what is the actual 
cost of producing milk in their respective territories 
and then set a price on it high enough to give them 
a fair profit, and. sell it for that price and no lower. 
The State organization must hold a convention an¬ 
nually, to which accredited delegates are sent by the 
various locals, to discuss the problems of the industry 
and take the necessary steps to remedy evils and make 
improvements in the industry. 
A new organization is not necessary for the accomp¬ 
lishment of the above. Most dairymen are members 
of the Grange, and the Grange can function imme¬ 
diately and push this plan to success. By cutting out 
a few social affairs and getting down to fundamentals 
the farmers in the Grange can improve their situation 
wonderfully; but they must “do it themselves.” 
Some, especially those who like to organize from the 
top down, will declare that the above plan will come 
in conflict with the laws on the question of “in re¬ 
straint of trade.” To such the writer wishes to state 
the fact that every industrial trade union sells the 
labor of its members in such a manner, and what is 
lawful for craftsmen certainly ought to be for farmers. 
In fact, if the farmers permit such an inequality be¬ 
fore the law they deserve to remain in bondage. 
New York. henry a. guertii. 
The Universal School Struggle 
Among the many things of interest which I find in 
The R. N.-Y. are your discussions on education and the 
school question, and remarks such as those about the 
“organizing policy of agricultural educators,” page 638. 
1. At my home, where I own a farm, 90 miles from 
where I am now teaching, the village has lately become 
an incorporated town with powers of local self-govern¬ 
ment. Property owners living on the margin of the 
former school district are left out of the incorporated 
town, because to incorporate them would make the cost 
of town administration too high. However, the taxes 
from this outer margin are still desired for town school 
purposes. The law provides for the annexation of ad¬ 
joining territory to towns for school purposes, but does 
not provide for representation of those annexed terri¬ 
tories on town school boards. 
You see we have, in miniature, the old, old problem of 
taxation without representation. The authorities are 
zealous to have us annexed, representation or not, so as 
to maintain the standard of a graded school. The effi¬ 
ciency of the schools, as the authorities regard it, is 
placed ahead of the rights of the ratepayers in respon¬ 
sible government in school matters. You would be sur¬ 
prised at the number of points we have in common with 
you in your contest in New York State. You are right 
that “more and more of the old responsibility for local 
self-government has been taken away from the people.” 
2. You have some good men in New York State en¬ 
gaged in agricultural research and in teaching. You 
may have some men thus engaged who are not so good. 
Politicians of a certain type are well known the world 
over. Some “agricultural experts” and “agricultural 
educators” are no better than their masters, the poli¬ 
ticians. 
When so-called agricultural experts presume to tell 
farmers how to make money at farming, when these ex¬ 
perts have never farmed successfully themselves, never 
earned a living on a farm, couldn’t farm and wouldn’t 
if they could, one may well question whether they are 
worth what they cost the country. Are not farmers 
and farming exploited in this way sometimes by offi¬ 
cials, and sometimes even by agricultural papers whose 
editors would not farm if they could ? 
To be useful to farmers, must not the movement for 
agricultural education come from them? Or should 
education be handed down to them from the officials? 
Nova Scotia Agricultural College p. j. siiaw. 
