893 
The Proposed Milk Plan Made Clear 
In a recent issue you outline your plan for the han¬ 
dling of the milk business. As your plan is not en¬ 
tirely clear to me, will you print your plan in a more 
detailed description as to how you would handle the 
surplus, and pay for the different grades; what you 
would do to get the different groups to work together; 
whom you would suggest for the head of the grouped 
producers; and a more comprehensive description of 
the whole plan? w. c. riddell. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
HE essence of the plan referred to by Mr. Rid¬ 
dell is in the proposal to sell dealers their re¬ 
quirements of liquid milk and no more, through 
written contract, and take care of the surplus our¬ 
selves. The rest is merely the machinery of or¬ 
ganization to put this proposition in working order 
and keep it in operation. The ideal plan is impos¬ 
sible now. 
Any plan adopted just at this time must deal with 
five groups as they are, and the immediate aim 
must be more money for milk—now. Our sugges¬ 
tion is to leave the several groups as they are, and 
have them enter into an agreement with each other 
to sell all the milk through one agency, which we 
will call a milk exchange. It will consist of one 
representative of each of the five groups. The ex¬ 
change will hire a business manager who is not one 
of its members, and he will execute all the business 
of the exchange under the direction of its five mem¬ 
bers. He will negotiate the sale of liquid milk and 
cream, and specify in the contract that the dealer 
will take his requirements from the exchange at 
the price agreed upon. The dealer will then have 
no surplus, and under the contract he cannot bring 
milk and cream from outside the territory to flood 
the market. The contract will also specify a price 
for raw milk and for pasteurized milk, so that farm- 
owned plants will have a definite price basis. Deal- 
< rs and farm associations will continue to run their 
shipping plants as now, but when farmers leased 
their plant to a dealer the lease will contain a 
clause to vacate the lease automatically in the event 
of a failure to agree on milk prices. 
The exchange will keep out of the retail business, 
and deal with the distributors at all times in a fair 
and equitable way in accordance with good busi¬ 
ness practice, but it will keep its farm-owned plants 
and equipment in good condition, and be prepared to 
furnish milk in its own way to the city in an emer¬ 
gency. The emergency will exist only when dealers 
refuse to pay a reasonable price for liquid milk and 
cream. 
The milk produced under city regulations and left 
over after the dealers are supplied on such con¬ 
tracts will be the surplus. The business manager 
and the exchange will dispose of this surplus to the 
best advantage as prices of by-products and condi¬ 
tions warrant. He will use available farm-owned 
plants to manufacture it into butter, or cheese or 
other products. He probably would find it good 
business to sell some of it to general manufacturers 
for manufacturing purposes only. He will get for 
it just what it is worth made into by-products in a 
world market, and make the collections. 
The returns will go to the group management or 
to the producers direct as the groups require. 
The exchange will create a fund by an assessment 
on all milk; and utilize this fund to equalize the 
returns to producers whose milk is manufactured 
as surplus. 
The purpose here is to treat all dairymen alike, 
and get a better return for milk. We would do this 
by efficiency, economy and good business. Succeed 
in this aim and the producers will see to it that the 
groups work together. 
We have no one in mind to head the groups as 
business manager. He should not be connected with 
the present groups, but he should be a man not past 
middle life, with a record of successful accomplish¬ 
ments. It would require a big strong man of broad 
vision and executive ability sobered with the grind 
of business experience, and tempered with a sense of 
fairness and justice. Such men are not usually look¬ 
ing for a job, but one can be found. 
An essential part of any co-operative plan is full 
and detailed information to the member. To this 
end provision must be made to give the agricultural 
press access to all facts and records. 
This is an emergency plan to stop warfare and 
to put the dairy industry back on its feet without 
disturbing the autonomy of the existing groups. One 
objection to it is that it creates more machinery 
when we already have more than we need, but for 
the present we must deal with conditions as they 
are. The exchange or selling agency will involve 
new expense, but it should save the groups enough 
to more than cover its cost and it should add many 
millions to the total milk returns. 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
The Committee of Fifteen went straight to the 
pressing need. It recommended a common standard 
and an increased price. 
It proposed first aid to a bleeding industry. A 
tourniquet will not cure a ruptured blood vessel, but 
it prevents the patient from bleeding to death until 
better treatment can be applied. If we put the com¬ 
mittee’s plan in force for July we can then progress 
to a more formal arrangement as suggested above, 
and finally develop a real co-operative dairy organi¬ 
zation. 
The New Tax Bill 
RESIDENT COOE1DGE finally signed the new 
revenue law under protest. He criticized some 
features of it, but said it is an improvement over 
piesent condition of Federal taxation and evidently 
the best law possible to obtain at this session. Per¬ 
haps the best criticism of the bill is that while it 
reduces Federal taxes it presents no real scientific 
plan for a permanent system. It is evident that 
more and more of our public revenues will be de¬ 
rived from income taxes, and there should be some 
permanent system based on definite scientific prin¬ 
ciples so as to obtain public funds with least friction 
and hardship. A large part of the discussion in 
Congress arose over the rate of surtax proposed. 
Secretary Mellon argued for a maximum surtax 
of 25 per cent, his theory being that a lower rate 
for this tax "would induce the rich to invest more 
of their money in popular business enterprises, while 
a high surtax would drive them to tax-exempt se¬ 
curities, so that the government would lose revenue. 
There are about thirteen billion of these tax-exempts 
now in the country. Congress would not listen to 
this, but made a high limit of 6 per cent normal tax 
and 40 per cent surtax, thus taking nearly half of 
the large incomes unless they come from tax-ex¬ 
empt securities. The most important item in the bill 
is the immediate reduction of 25 per cent of Federal 
taxes for 1923. If the entire tax was paid on March 
35 there will be a refund from the government. If 
half was paid in March, no payment need be made 
in June, and if one-quarter was paid in March, half 
the June payment may be taken out and one-quarter 
each of September and December. On the whole 
the general plan of the bill seems to be that of re¬ 
ducing the tax on smaller incomes and maintaining 
the high rates on the large ones. Many of the so- 
called nuisance or luxury taxes have been cut out, 
and most people of moderate incomes will find their 
Federal taxes quite a little reduced next year. The 
bill, however, is not satisfactory to the larger busi¬ 
ness interests, and a campaign will be started at 
once to change the bill in the next Congress. The 
great bulk if not practically all of the income tax is 
paid by about 4,000,000 persons out of a population 
of 310,000,000. The reduction will not therefore 
prove any particular benefit to what may be called 
the rank and file of the people. 
Country Milk Inspection 
AIRYMEN are beginning to ask why they 
should not have representation in the matter of 
dairy inspection at the farms. A quite general com¬ 
plaint is that the city inspectors are not consistent, 
One inspector tells the farmer he must have things 
fixed up in a certain way, and the next one tells 
him that way is all wrong and demands new changes 
involving new expense. There is no disposition to 
avoid any regulation essential to the production of 
clean milk; but there is a wish to know just what 
the regulations are, and that they be consistent, no 
matter who the inspector may be. After having 
complied with the requirements of one inspector, it 
is discouraging and exasperating to be ordered by 
another inspector not to ship milk until the original 
alterations are all done over again in a new way. 
It is suggested that the dairy organizations might 
have inspectors to accompany the city inspectors and 
keep written records of the requirements at each 
farm. This could be arranged with the city board 
of health, and could not fail to improve the inspec¬ 
tion. It would surely avoid much of the country 
feeling against the board of health which the city 
authorities have been anxious to allay of recent 
years. We have always contended that the respon¬ 
sibility for clean milk at the farm rested with the 
producer, and that regulation should be directed by 
local inspectors who would approach the farm in a 
friendly way instead of imposing unnecessary ex¬ 
pense and hardships. We believe the city board of 
health would welcome this suggestion and we feel 
sure it would ultimately work out a saving to the 
city and to the producer. 
Approves Dairy Unity 
Dear Mr. Dillon : I am very much interested in com¬ 
munications that appear from day to day in newspapers 
and in your journal; I believe the action now taken 
is the right one. The conditions that have prevailed 
tor the past year have been unfortunate, to say the 
least. This, in a great measure, is due to the inability 
ot the people at interest working together as in other 
businesses of like character. Now that a start has been 
made, I hope the men who have been appointed on 
these committees wall work out a plan that will be for 
the general good. In talking in this way, I am not 
talking for the producer alone but for the' business in- 
terests of the country wherever milk is produced ; bank- 
ers, merchants and everyone who is in a way commer¬ 
cially interested in the welfare of the community. Our 
bankers and business men do not seem to understand 
that anything that cuts down the farmers’ purchasing 
power i» hurting them as much or more than it is 
hurting the farmer. The farmer can get along, but he 
has no purchasing power, so long as he is forced to 
sell his product, his own labor or the labor of bis 
family, for less than cost. No business can stand con¬ 
ditions of that kind. Eet us hope now that a turning 
point has been reached, that the past will be forgotten 
and build for the future. In that way, a turn in the 
unfortunate conditions which now prevail will be made 
and we will all have better times. paul t. BRADY. 
Investments By New York Farmers 
HERE has been some curiosity expressed as to 
Avliat farmers do with any surplus money they 
may have. M hat investments are considered safe 
and popular? In spite of the reports of farm trou¬ 
bles, many farmers have a little surplus, and they 
are usually wise about investing it. We shall have 
some reports direct from farmers about this. The 
first two printed herewith, are from the Hudson 
Valley: 
there are those who seem to rely T on savings banks 
and interest accounts in national banks. I think there 
i« enough money deposited in them to finance all the 
farmers who should have money loaned them. The 
trouble is that they are on the ground and know the 
i eputation of the would-be borrowers and their security 
and are conservative, but most anyone who is favor¬ 
ably known and had a good proposition can get the 
money right at home from some other farmer. Then 
there are those who will not loan money near home on 
farms, as they have had unpleasant experiences, and 
do not want to get their neighbors in debt to them, 
but loan their money on western farms through some 
agency. I think these people in the long run come out 
about the best. They net 5 to 6 per cent, and losses 
have been few where due caution has been observed 
Many have bought Liberty bonds both on subscrip- 
t ion and also after the war when the slump came. I 
think tew buy stocks or corporation bonds unless so¬ 
licited. It does not pay the regular brokers or bond 
salesmen to canyass the country very much, and it is 
only the promotion chapo that do this, and they have 
loaded some up with tractor and wayside telephone 
stock, also some development company with Troy city 
lots had got some placed. These salesmen are of the 
usual type, and I believe invariably sting their cus¬ 
tomers. 
There are some who loan on Pacific Northwest city 
property and to date, these have turned out well. Some 
have their money in farmers’ companies and usually 
* n no ^ turn out. well. The writer has tried most 
all kinds save the kind peddled by promoters of the 
get-rich-quick type, which to my mind are a sure thing 
to lose money on. I have tried mortgages, stocks, 
bonds foreign and domestic, but have not been skipped 
as to dividend time yet, though sometimes they shrink 
some. I have bought no German marks yet, nor New 
York State farms, thinking to rent the farms and 
make money. j 0 
I know of some farmers who have mortgage's on 
neighboring farms, and some who have Liberty bonds 
I hose who have invested in industrial stocks have had 
their lesson, as they lost all they invested. I am cer¬ 
tain that most up-to-date farmers have a checking 
bank account, and have a savings bank account at 4 
or 4i/tj per cent. I think farm mortgages are the best 
investments which .we nave here, and any young man 
who shows his ability to work and pay for a farm can 
get money on a mortgage at 5 per cent. Many retired 
farmers living in the villages have invested in western 
farm mortgages for years, and I think are well satis¬ 
fied, as the business is usually through loan and trust 
companies who do all the collecting. I do not like the 
idea, as I think the money made here should be in¬ 
vested here. I think farm property here would com¬ 
mand better prices if the money made here had to be 
invested here. We are building houses and fences on 
these western farms, and letting our buildings and 
fences fall down. I hear farmers talk that they are 
raising milk, wool, eggs, pork, etc., at a loss, yet nearly 
every farmer has an auto, and when the Grange Po¬ 
mona meets in Washington County there are acres and 
acres covered with automobiles, and many are not the 
cheap kinds of cars either. I think this talk that farm 
products are being raised at a loss generally sounds 
foolish and it is not true. If it were true we farmers 
would be all bankrupt by this time. 
If A has fancy buildings and high-priced stock and 
every farm tool on the market, does no work himself 
and hires much help, I can see how the overhead 
charges eat everything up. R has necessary buildings 
and tools, good stock, not fancy, does most of the 
work, giving everything his personal attention, and may 
make money where A is a failure. If B has his farm 
well drained and raises 100 bushels of corn and two 
tons of hay to the acre, while A raises 50 bushels of 
com and one ton of hay to the acre, it is easy to see 
that A may be running behind and B may be makin" 
a profit. I have known of several farms owned by 
wealthy people who hire everything done, and I never 
knew one of these farms meeting expenses. They are 
the men who squeal the loudest. They are the men 
who want the Farm Bureau and stick their heads in 
air. I know many farmers who are working alon ,r , 
gradually paying for their farms, adding to their farm 
comforts some improvements, sending their children to 
school and then to high school. They read, study the 
markets, and have a thorough knowledge of their busi¬ 
ness which is available to anyone who i« not too lazy 
to get it. I have no patience with the whining crowd. 
)i. B. p. 
