!»* RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Great Fear of a Law 
T HE reasons given by the lawyers of the League 
for refusal to raise the price of milk for June 
and July are not conclusive or convincing. In sup¬ 
port of their contention that the act would be un¬ 
lawful they point to two suits recently filed under 
anti-trust laws to prevent combinations in restraint 
of trade.. One is the notorious live poultry com¬ 
bination in New York City. The other is the inter¬ 
state oil combinations. They say that these laws are 
not new, and that the Committee of Fifteen and its 
creator (which included the President of the 
League) probably knew the law and that the obvious 
purpose was to commit the League to an unlawful 
act. 
In tire first place, the laws under which these suits 
are filed exempt farm organizations from their re¬ 
strictions. In the second place, if there were no ex¬ 
emptions the penalty for selling milk for less than 
the cost of production would hardly break even a 
1924 dairyman. In tire third place, the gain to dairy¬ 
men for the two months alone need not be less than 
$2,500,000, and for that amount they could afford 
to take the alleged chance. 
The law is not new; neither is the argument. Fif¬ 
teen years ago, when a committee of the Dairymen’s 
League called on Bordens to talk about the price of 
milk, the Borden company was as much afraid of 
these laws as John D. Miller is now. Its officers 
would talk anything from weather to politics, but 
it was so much afraid of the law it would not even 
mention the word “price” in a whisper. With little 
more -than an excuse for an organization in 1916 we 
raised the price, fought for it ‘and got it. We 
proved that making an increased price was workable 
and we forgot if it was illegal. 
Though the Committee of Fifteen is not a Rural 
New-Yorker committee, it has no apologies to make 
for the committee. The conference that created it 
was composed of as high a class of dairymen as can 
be found in the territory, and this includes the 
League delegation. The need of it was publicly ex¬ 
pressed by President Slocum in his own official 
organ. To his credit he helped get it together, and 
through his representatives he approved every step 
of it His members voted in the first meeting for the 
increase of .price. To invent the argument now that it 
was all a scheme to commit the League to an un¬ 
lawful act is, to say the least, a strain on credi¬ 
bility. 
August Milk Prices 
L AST week the sales committees of the milk 
groups were in New York to consider prices for 
August. On Monday there seemed to -be prospects of 
a substantial increase over June and July. There 
was some suggestion of $2.80 for Class I milk, an 
advance of 2 cents a quart. No one expected to x - each 
this price except by a more or less common consent. 
The Class I price last year for August milk .was 
$2.43 to August 15, and $2.73 for the remainder of 
the month. 
The prices as fixed last week for August were as 
follows: 
The Pool continues its July prices without change. 
The Non-pool Association, Class 1, $2; Class 2, 
$1.70; Class 3A, $1.55. 
Sheffield Farms, Class 1, $2; Class 2, $1.70; Class 
3, $1.55; Class 4, market. 
It provides that if other groups advance prices 
during the month, the price committee is to return 
and make a corresponding adjustment. 
The price reported for Chicago is $2.60. 
LATER: Since the above was in type and a few 
copies run off the League has announced a change of 
20c on the Class 1 price, making it now $2.06. Other 
classes unchanged. 
Successful Co-operation 
T HE following notes from the Hudson River 
Fruit Exchange, Milton, N. Y., indicate good 
co-operative ideals and successful business: 
“Expediency has had no place—nor will it have 
in the policy of the Hudson River Fruit Exchange, 
Inc. In its history of 13 years present advantage 
has never outweighed a possible sacrifice of good 
will. 
“The combination of high ideals and branded fruit 
unexcelled for quality and pack is an enduring one. 
It has won the favor and support of all discrimin¬ 
ating buyers and will continue to attract those who 
believe that commercial character is a tangible asset 
and an assurance of reliability. 
“Hudsonia brand apples and pears—grown in the 
lower Hudson Valley—are made dependable by a 
system of rigid inspection and grading that insures 
absolute uniformity.” 
Rounding Up the Auto Hogs 
I have just read your brief editorial on the light- 
fingered aufoists who destroy and steal other people’s 
property. The inclosed leaflet will show you how the 
Mountain Grange (Pa.) has cleared this group of town¬ 
ships of the parking pest that it has been suffering 
from. If farmers will recognize their proprietary rights 
in our highways and assert them, and call to their help 
the courts to help maintain them, we need not suffer as 
we do. Since July 1 the townships of Kingston, Exe¬ 
ter and Franklin have scored practically a 100 per cent 
victory over the parking nuisance, with but few arrests. 
The courts have in every case either fined or committed 
the parkers. They have grown to a mere fraction of 
the former number, and that in three weeks time. We 
have now asked for and received the appointment of 
three special rural police to serve as needed in making 
permanent the results secured, geo. e. stockwell, 
Wyoming, Pa. Mountain Grange. 
T HE way these Granges did it was to pass a strong 
resolution giving all these “parkers” and in¬ 
mates of “kissing parlors” and “private courting 
halls” a plain, blunt hint that if they did not get out 
they would be put rout with no gentle hand or boot. 
This was printed in a neat little pamphlet, and on 
the outside this appears: 
This 
Is 
Your 
Third | 
Warning ■ 
This is handed you by a 
Granger! 
The members of the Grange make it their business 
to hand these little pamphlets to all strangers who 
©tart to “park” in that district. And these Grangers 
do not come, hat in hand, saying, “Won’t you please 
move on!” They hand that paper, and, in their eye 
and hand and attitude, he who runs may read fight 
and the “parkers” very wisely get out. That is a 
sort of organization that organizes. 
Milk Supply of Columbus, Ohio 
The bulk of the milk supply for Columbus comes from 
a zone around Columbus whose radius is about 30 miles. 
In two places it dips into a territory as far as 70 to 125 
miles, with milk stations at these points. 
We have one firm who is using the glaso-lined tank 
with very good results. The milk is received at that 
station and pumped from the vat directly into this type 
vat we spoke of, which is on a truck, and is transported 
to the station here in the city, where it is pasteurized 
and bottled. The temperature will only vary from two 
to four degrees in transportation, and is giving very 
satisfactory results. 
No party can sell milk in the city of Columbus with¬ 
out first making application to the Columbus Board of 
Health to sell milk. Ilis dairy must meet certain sani¬ 
tary restrictions and he must have a’ cow barn and milk 
house, also a water-tight floor and gutter, tight ceilings, 
3 sq. ft. of light per cow, and kept clean at all times. 
Milk houses must be located near an adequate water 
supply, cows must be apparently healthy and clean. 
The milk must be milked clean and cooled to a tempera¬ 
ture of 65 degrees, and less than 1,0(X),000 per c-.c. bac¬ 
teria when delivered to the plant. This milk must be 
checked by a recording thermometer and the bacterial 
count to be under 100,000. All parties handling the 
milk from the time it is dumped into the pasturizer un¬ 
til the time it is bottled must have a health certificate. 
This is condensed as much as possible, but gives the 
essentials for the milk supply of Cplumbus; that is, for 
milk to be pasteurized. 
Milk to be sold as raw milk In Columbus must be from 
milkhouses and barns a© above described, with the addi¬ 
tion of some efficient way of sterilizing the milk equip¬ 
ment, buckets, bottles, cans, etc., and the herd must be 
tuberculin tested. All parties handling the milk must 
have a health certificate. The bacterial count must be 
no more than 100,000, and free from sediment. 
Columbus, O. dr. e. c. O’DELL. 
1075 
Protest Against Forced Consolidation 
In Wayne Co., N. Y., forced consolidations have been 
ordered in Marion, Walworth, Macedon Center and 
Palmyra. In Marion seven districts have been ordered 
closed. The people appealed and the appeal was turned 
down by the Department. In this town about 150 chil¬ 
dren are affected living from two to six miles from the 
central school. The reason for the consolidation is that 
the Department forced the village of Marion to build a 
building far beyond their financial ability, and now are 
trynig to make the farmers help pay for 'it. The people 
ot all the districts consolidated in the county have de¬ 
termined to make some effort to show their feelings in 
the matter and have called a mass meeting of protest 
to be held in the Grange Hall, Palmyra, on Thursday 
evening, July 31. We are looking for some legal loop¬ 
hole© that would give us opportunity to demand a re¬ 
hearing, but if we cannot find those we can create pub- 
lie sentiment ngninst some of the powers now held by 
the Department. c. P. fairhanks. 
Rural School Improvement Society. 
T HIS is one of the things the Rural School Im¬ 
provement Society can do. An organized pro¬ 
test is always more effective than any individual 
effort. Here is an effort to force upon these people 
something they do not want, and under an arbitrary 
ruling they must submit unless they can make their 
protest so strong that no public official will dare 
ignoie it. Full organization and the most powerful 
protest are the popular weapons in such a case. 
Such incidents show all of us the absolute need of 
getting together. There must be a branch of the 
Rural School Improvement Society in every school 
district in New York. Start now to get it going. 
There will be another battle for the district school 
next Winter. 
That “ Child Labor ” Amendment 
_ Thank you heartily for your editorial in opposition 
to the labor amendment. Let me give you an illustra¬ 
tion of how badly it would work : 
A neighbor of mine is a widow. She has a son who 
is just about 16. Under the law of this State he has 
been prohibited from working, but now he is out of 
school and can do work in a garden to help support his 
mother, who is not in good health. He loves the work, 
is well fitted for it; he was not getting any good in 
school. Why should the State prohibit him from earn¬ 
ing an honest living? If a young man or a young wom¬ 
an thinks (hat he can do better by either soi't of work, 
he should have the right to choose. For example, in 
the account of Commodore Zeeder, who has just given 
up the command of the “Mauchuria” after being at sea 
for nearly 50 years (see sketch of him. New York 
Times , Sunday, Jan. 13), he says that the studies at 
school were not congenial to him. He wa© not doing 
well at them. At the age of about 13, with the consent 
ot his mother, he left school and became a cabin boy 
on a vessel. The life of the sea appealed to him ; lie 
spent his spare time studying navigation, received his 
captain s certificate at 24, and became one of the dis¬ 
tinguished navigators of the world. If by a compulsory 
law the right of choice had been taken both from him 
and his parents and he had been kept at ©chool until he 
was 18, he would have been spoiled. There is nothing 
more deadening to the growth of the young mind than 
to be kept busy learning by rote lessons which do not 
interest that mind. 
Take the case of a young girl in the city of 16 or 17, 
to whom the school work is distasteful and who i© not 
learning anything of practical value to her. Give these 
girls honest, steady work, and they would be satisfied; 
but if you prohibit that you make the way much easier 
for panders. I do hope you and any others you may be 
able to interest will Consider these suggestions very 
seriously. The amendment has been carried so far as a 
child labor amendment, but young men and young wom¬ 
en from 14 to 17 are not children. No wise parent will 
treat them as such. To think that 500 men at Wash¬ 
ington can act more wisely in regard to their activities 
than they themselves can, or than their parents can, 
seems to me the height of absurdity. 
EVERETT T. WIIEELER. 
The executive committee of the Ohio State Grange 
recently passed the following resolutions regarding 
the proposed child labor amendment. They con¬ 
demn it: 
Because it would give to Congress the power to pro¬ 
hibit or regulate essential and health promoting labor on 
farms of children under 18 years of age. 
Because it would permit an invasion of the home©, 
the local community and the State by the national 
government. 
Because it would entail great and additional expense, 
ever increasing, entirely unwarranted. 
Because it would set up a force of national enforce¬ 
ment officers, duplicating those already in the States. 
Because it would be another step toward a paternal¬ 
istic, centralized government, and we have already gone 
too far in this direction. 
Because involuntary idleness by law would be a step 
toward the demoralization of society and the destruction 
of the government our father© founded. 
