Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1483 
The Child Labor Amendment—And 
Children 
O N the theory that the governed should have 
something to say about the laws under which 
they are to live, it would seem as if the children 
ought to be heard. The following letter was sent out 
from the George Junior Republic at Freeville, N. Y. 
This “Republic” is composed of children who will be 
obliged to make their own way in the world. The 
letter was sent to the men who represent Tompkins 
County in the Legislature: 
WORK OR ITS ALTERNATIVE 
Dear Sir: We don’t know, of course, whether you 
will represent our Assembly at the next session of the 
State Legislature or not, but if you do, we, the under¬ 
signed boys and girls of the George Junior Republic, 
between 16 and 18, urge you to vote against the pro¬ 
posed Child Labor Amendment to the United States 
Constitution because it includes youths between the 
ages of 16 and 18 years in the child list. While we are 
young, we protest that we are not children. We are 
capable of aiding our parents in the struggle of keeping 
the wolf from the door should the necessity arise. Some 
of us find that we are even physically stronger than our 
parents and much more capable of assuming the rigor¬ 
ous responsibilities of providing for the household. 
Others of us find that force of circumstances has com¬ 
pelled us to provide for ourselves. What are we going 
to do if this amendment passes? The alternative in 
this case seems to be children’s home, poorhouse or 
State Reformatory. This prospect is not pleasant to 
contemplate. We find that the advocates of this amend¬ 
ment make no provision for the emergencies we have 
recited. 
If you represent us at the next session of the Legis¬ 
lature we pray you not only to vote against the pro¬ 
posed amendment, but also use your influence with 
other legislators to do likewise. 
Children Hunting for Jobs 
T HE following item is taken from the Elmira (N. 
Y.) Star-Gazette. The same conditions may be 
found in most other towns and cities. We regard 
this effort to obtain employment as one of the most 
helpful indications of a vrorthy ambition that we 
know of: 
Principal Frank M. Edson of the Southside High, 
asks the assistance of the business men of Elmira in 
making it possible for ambitious young men and women 
to work their way through high school. Mr. Edson 
states that he knows of a number of students who 
would be unable to continue in high school but for posi¬ 
tions after school and Saturdays. Principal Edson has 
issued the following statement, expressing his senti¬ 
ments : 
“Many boys and some girls are enabled to attend our 
high schools because of the work which they are doing 
before or after school and on Saturdays and on other 
holidays. This work includes the carrying of papers, 
clerking, working on milk wagons, selling articles from 
door to door, and many similar jobs. 
“The Southside high school is organizing this work 
on a systematic basis. The names of all pupils requir¬ 
ing work in order to remain in school are listed, to¬ 
gether with the time available and the sort of work de¬ 
sired. Then a list is compiled of all places which are 
available. Requests for these pupils are made by the 
merchants and others desiring help. The school is de¬ 
sirous of obtaining as large a list as possible of avail¬ 
able places that the worthy pupil may be given the 
necessary aid.” 
The Farm Bureau in Ontario County 
A S noted on page 14.37, a number of farmers in 
Ontario Co., N. Y., sent petitions to the County 
Board of Supervisors, asking them not to continue 
appropriations for the Farm Bureau and its allied 
organizations. The supervisors very properly ap¬ 
pointed a day for a hearing at the courthouse in 
Canandaigua, where all could be heard. That is the 
good American way of getting at these things. A 
great crowd gathered on November 11. It overflowed 
the courthouse and was finally adjourned to a larger 
hall. 
The story of what happened at this meeting varies. 
Most of the newspaper reports that we have seen 
seem rather prejudiced in favor of the Bureau. We 
should judge that the backers of the Bureau were 
better organized, and thus able to present their case 
more compactly. The leader of the opposition was 
ill, and unable to attend, and a hasty reorganization 
of forces had to be made. As nearly as we can get 
the figures, about 2,000 people signed the petition in 
favor of discontinuing the appropriation, while the 
Bureau claims a membership of 651 in the report of 
1923. 
The opposition apparently spent much of its time 
in giving individual opinions about the value of the 
Farm Bureau, while the other side replied in kind 
by attempting to show what the Bureau has done to 
justify its existence. The printed reports would in¬ 
dicate that for some reason the discussion drifted 
away from the real and only serious point in the con¬ 
troversy. Why should the Farm Bureau receive 
public money for its work while the Grange and 
other similar farm organizations must hoe their own 
row? That is the only question that seems debata¬ 
ble at this time. As it stands, the Farm Bureau en¬ 
joys the special privilege of securing public funds. 
Why is it any more entitled to this privilege than the 
Grange? What has it done to justify the county 
supervisors or the Federal government in giving it 
public support when evidently only a small proportion 
of country people belong to it? Why should it not 
be expected to live and work on fees from its mem¬ 
bership, as other organizations must do? Has it 
justified its special privilege by doing a class of 
work which other organizations cannot or will not 
do? 
As we see it, these are the questions which should 
be debated at such a hearing. Some of those who 
opposed further appropriations in Ontario County 
took pains to say that they were not objecting to the 
work of the Bureau, but they thought it unfair to 
tax all the people to support an organization which 
admittedly was of benefit to only a few of the citi¬ 
zens. So far as we can see from the reports,* the 
backers of the Bureau made little effort to answer 
that argument, beyond trying to show that the Bu¬ 
reau work is of general benefit. At the close of the 
meeting the supervisors adjourned without taking 
action. The matter will come up later. We are told 
on one hand that the supervisors are sure to appro¬ 
priate about $10,000 for Bureau work, while the 
other side claims that at home the supervisors will 
find the sentiment very much stronger than at the 
hearing. At any rate, we believe that this question, 
once opened, must now be settled. The Bureau must 
show that its work is such that it is entitled to the 
special privilege of a public appropriation. The de¬ 
mand for economy in public expenses is in the air. 
The last election is regarded as a mandate for trim¬ 
ming down public expenses. All the way from 
Washington down to Podunk Corners the pruning 
knife and saw will be used, and we think every in¬ 
stitution or organization making use of the tax¬ 
payers’ money must stand up and justify its exis¬ 
tence. There is one singular thing about this con¬ 
troversy in Ontario County. Our remembrance is 
that this county was quite slow in starting the Coun¬ 
ty Bureau. For quite a time the supervisors refused 
to appropriate the money. Finally a group of farm¬ 
ers made a county issue out of the matter, and after 
a rather warm campaign elected supervisors pledged 
to grant the money. Now it seems to be true that 
some of the very farmers who w'orked hard for this 
original appropriation are now working to stop it! 
Our information is that while the political organiza¬ 
tion of the county favors the appropriation, a ma¬ 
jority of country people oppose it, but are lacking in 
cohesive organization. 
The Art of Advertising 
O NE of the wonders of business development dur¬ 
ing the past quarter century has been the part 
played by advertising. All sorts of things are now 
sold through advertisements, and many farmers have 
become quite expert in offering their goods. The 
following, taken from a recent issue of a city paper, 
shows how trade is being developed in the country: 
Cooked Virginia 
HAM 
A man’s Ham. Rich—tasty 
—happily satisfying with 
the delightful more-ish fare¬ 
well—matured for months— 
the old Virginia Brown 
Sugary Crust tucked around 
the tender juicy meat. The 
palate responds with delight 
to this appealing oppor¬ 
tunity. 
It is probable that a cooked ham of good quality 
will sell to better advantage than a raw one. During 
the Winter a number of our readers offer sausage, 
headcheese, potcheese, candy and other homemade 
foods, and when the quality is high and a uniform 
standard is maintained, considerable business may 
be done. 'Some years ago the great bulk of the bak¬ 
ing and making of clothing was done in the country 
by farmers’ wives. That business has gradually 
been taken away to town, so that too frequently the 
farmer and his family will be left without any in¬ 
come-producing labor. That condition often makes 
one of the hardest situations in farm life, and one 
of the great needs of the country today is a profit¬ 
able Winter job for the farm family. 
Fruit Notes from Southern Ohio 
In 1923 nearly all kinds of fruit were failures, or 
light crops, except the Rome Beauty apples, which were 
all too full, and the Spring of 1924 brought forth full 
crop prospects for almost every kind except the Romes, 
which generally had light bloom. With seasonable 
weather they all developed in fine shape where well 
cared for, and the small fruits sold well; cherries were 
so full that trees broke down with the weight of the 
fruit in some cases, and there was not enough demand 
on the markets to take the offerings at a fair price, and 
not enough labor to pick all the fruit either, and likely 
20 per cent of the crop rotted before it could be picked. 
But perhaps it was just as well, for we had all we 
could sell to advantage. Early apples came on in such 
enormous quantities that the price went to the bottom, 
and many of them were not harvested for lack of help 
and a market to pay a living price. We never tried to 
pick up the good drops this year, which used to be our 
custom. Then peaches came on, and we had plenty of 
them to market every day at a fair price for the good 
grades, but the poorer ones went low and hard to sell. 
The growers had so many and so much to do that many 
of them did not thin the fruit at all. We had season¬ 
able rains all Summer, and fruit made good size and 
yielded more than the estimates, mostly 50 to 100 per 
cent more than the growers prepared for. Plums were 
plenty, too, and sold at reasonable prices. As city peo¬ 
ple work more and keep house less, they do not put up 
fruit, as used to be the custom, but buy it from the 
grocers in cans, and there is not so much demand for 
fruit to be canned. Those who wanted to put up their 
fruit commenced when the first good ones were to be 
had at a fair price and kept at it till they had all they 
wanted, and at the end of the peach season it seemed 
that there was no demand at all for peaches at even 
half or a third of the price in the rush of the season. 
Then when the Fall and Winter apples started to mar¬ 
ket there was little local demand for any of them, but 
other markets and a light Western crop stimulated the 
buying from outside, and most of the crop moved at 
fair prices, or provision was made for storing the fruit 
for later marketing. It was thought by most growers 
that there could not be a half crop of Rome Beauty in 
this famous Rome Beauty belt, but with a light crop 
and good rains the apples grew and grew till they aver¬ 
aged large and took on a most excellent finish, till they 
were probably the best Rome Beauty that have been 
grown here in many years, and nearly as many of them 
as when there were full crops. 
As most of the apple growers lost money in 1923 they 
decided not to buy many barrels, and when joking 
time came all of them wanted more cooperage. It was 
rushed in and barrels made in a hurry, and most people 
got their fruit picked in time. Apples have hung to 
the trees this year the best I have ever known, well col¬ 
ored early and hung late till they were picked, and if 
they had dropped as early as they have done most years 
lately we would have lost quite a lot, but few dropped 
before they were gathered. We had a good many cool 
nights, but no killing frost on the hills till October 23, 
and no freeze yet, on November 15, and quite a lot of 
apples on the trees yet where they were left. 
U. T. COX. 
The Dairy At Both Ends 
Why is dairy farming so fascinating? I know a 
farmer up-State who pays 35 cents per 100 lbs. to the 
milk truck to have his milk carted to the creamery, 20 
miles away. The farmer carts it 1*4 miles to the milk 
truck and only gets 2 % cents a quart. Another farmer 
has 16 cows and a team of horses. He is making ‘J75 
lbs. of milk a day, and receiving $2.75 per 100 lbs., or 
$7.50 per day. His feed and shoeing of his team and 
other wear and tear expenses cost $3.50 per day. This 
will hardly pay for the feed of cows and. horses, so he 
is practically working for nothing and boarding himself. 
Now the driver who delivers milk to me in a city 
suburb says he makes $65 per week and only works six 
days. That is more than the farmer gets for the milk 
from his herd, feed and labor thrown in. You go past 
one of the company’s plants here, and you see the yard 
parked full of fine autos that the drivers use to carry 
them to work. It seems strange to me that the boss 
farmer who has to manufacture the milk has to snub 
along with an old pair of horses that work seven days 
in the week, while this employe rides around in an auto 
and only works six days a week. Where is the remedy? 
Long Island. n. s. p. 
An Experience with Consolidation 
■Some of the hardships of consolidation, as apparently 
permitted by the present educational law, have recently 
been exemplified in Brewster, Putnam County. 
In the township of Southeast there were three dis¬ 
tricts which sent their children in to Brewster village 
for school purposes. In my own district there are pos¬ 
sibly six or seven children of school age, and if I under¬ 
stand correctly, tuition was paid to the village for their 
instruction. Transportation was taken care of by tax¬ 
ation of the residents of the district. When the matter 
of consolidation was taken up the voters of this district 
were unanimous against it. The American way is to 
permit the majority to rule, but it would look as if this 
idea had not reached the attention of the framers of the 
educational law. At all events the district superintend¬ 
ent announced that, despite the feelings of the people, 
consolidation was necessary, and it was effected. 
When tax bills came out the taxpayers in this district 
found an increase of 500 per cent. At the same time I 
was advised by an official of the village that his taxes 
had been cut down 40 per cent as a result of the consol¬ 
idation. The amount of money involved is, of course, 
not large, but it seems to many people that the power to 
consolidate school districts against the unanimous de¬ 
sire of the voters of the district is entirely un-American 
and' undemocratic, and smacks rather strongly of the 
old Russian autocracy. 
It would be interesting to know the experience of 
other districts which have been forced against their will 
to enter consolidation. u. 
New York. 
