‘It* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1561 
Rearrange the Tariff Rates 
O NE important statement in President Coolidge’s 
recent address to the land 'grant colleges seems 
to have been entirely overlooked, or at least neg¬ 
lected. It was to the effect that while not generally 
known we import considerably more farm and food 
products than we export. To appreciate the economic 
effect of this fact it is necessary to understand that 
one year with another our entire trade with foreign 
countries must balance. We must buy in foreign 
countries just about as much as we sell to them. 
The more farm and food products we import the 
more manufactured products we can sell to pay for 
them. Considering gold as a commodity, and that 
is the way it is considered in international trade, 
there is no exception to the above general rule ex¬ 
cept in the payment of expense for foreign travel, 
and the payment of interest and principal of for¬ 
eign debts. Our foreign travel bills become a debt 
on our side of the account. Before the war we had 
interest and principal accounts to pay abroad. These 
obligations were paid by the export of our goods. 
These debts were all paid during the war, and now 
Europe owes us several billions. The amount is 
increasing i-apidly, through new loans. The interest 
on these loans, and finally the principal of them 
will have to be paid. We have already more than 
our share of the gold of the world, and to acquire 
more would serve only to further world economic 
disturbance. The annual amounts due us, there¬ 
fore, will have to be settled by accepting the im¬ 
portation of more goods than we export. 
It is important to the industrial classes here to 
decide what kinds of products to export and to im¬ 
port in payment of them and of the debts due us. 
The national 'government has it in its power to en¬ 
courage one kind of goods or another through tariff 
schedules. Clearly it would be to the benefit of 
agriculture to put a high tariff on all importations 
of farm and food products to prevent their importa¬ 
tion, and to save the home markets for American 
farmers. Farmers would then be in a position to 
export their surplus products, and the economic law 
alone would advance prices here above the cost of 
production. The farm products exported would then 
be paid for by the importation of manufactured pro¬ 
ducts at lower prices than we now pay, provided the 
tariff on them were removed or reduced. 
On the other hand, the high tariff on foreign man¬ 
ufactured goods, and a light tariff or no tariff on 
farm products, makes it possible for manufacturers 
to control a large part of the export trade, and to 
make their own prices for their goods in this coun- 
tiy. The foreign farm and food products coming 
into this country help pay for the manufactured 
goods exported. They also pay the interest on our 
foreign loans. 
President Coolidge could not well go into the sub¬ 
ject in detail. We think, however, that his language 
at this time is significant, and that it was given as 
a plain intimation to farmers that they are not get¬ 
ting a square deal in tariff schedules when more 
farm products are shipped into this country than we 
export. We do not think that the President intend¬ 
ed any intimation that farmers should change from 
one party to another in the vain hope of better 
treatment. We take his words as a suggestion to 
them to watch the figures and to demand of their 
own party leaders and party administration fair 
treatment for their industry in the tariff laws. 
Back to Economy 
RESIDENT COOLIDGE devoted most of his 
message to Congress to a discussion of economy 
in government expenses. The President made this 
economy plea the chief issue in his campaign for re- 
election. The people understood it, and gave him 
the largest popular vote ever given any candidate. 
This shows that the people demand a cut in public 
expenses, and they want men in office who will apply 
the pruning knife without fear. This nation is 
spending too much money. It is in the position of a 
family living beyond its income, and spending money 
for show and for non-essential things. It must face 
the situation honestly, and cut down the running 
expenses, or lose the home, or else live a dishonest 
and distracted life of dodging creditors or inventing 
excuses for putting them off. Children raised in 
that sort of a family will in the majority of cases 
turn out to be grafters, sycophants or debt dodgers. 
They will end up by living upon friends or relatives. 
In a larger way a spendthrift, luxury-loving nation 
cannot produce men and women of thrifty and abid¬ 
ing character. There is every reason, moral as well 
as economic, why this nation should support Presi¬ 
dent Coolidge in his fight for economy. It requires 
courage in these times even to preach economy, but 
a much finer courage is needed to practice it, in the 
face of the modern easy-going way of regarding pub¬ 
lic money. The President set us all an example 
when he rode from Washington to Chicago on a reg¬ 
ular train and saved the government several thou¬ 
sand dollars by not ordering a special train for this 
service. Of course there are people who will sneer 
at this act, and call it small and petty business for 
the executive of a great nation. Let them sneer. 
We think it shows the sincerity of the man, and 
further, it sets the finest example to many of the 
small, inflated souls who seem to lose all idea of 
personal economy when they get their fingers on a 
dollar which someone else works for and provides. 
This tendency is found not only in those Who work 
for the government, but in those who are supposed 
to represent private organizations of farmers. Many 
of these are people who at home or in any ordinary 
capacity would be forced to live humbly and figure 
tbeir expenses with great care. When, however, 
they become “manager,” “director,” or some other 
official in an organization where money is contribut¬ 
ed by working members, the lid blows off and these 
officials acquire habits of spending which would soon 
bankrupt them if reduced to private life. 
Some years ago, at a farmers’ meeting, we met a 
farmer who took a leading part in the discussions. 
At dinner time hfe disappeared. We found him off 
in a corner eating a lunch which he had brought 
from home. A few years later we met the same man 
at another meeting. At the dinner hour he walked 
into the leading hotel, ordered a dinner which cost 
$1.25, tipped the waiter, bought a good cigar and 
had his boots blacked. 
“Getting up in the world,” we suggested. 
“Oh, no; I’m a director and delegate now. and my 
expenses arc paid!” 
In a small way that is what has happened on a 
much larger scale in many of the co-operative so¬ 
cieties. It ,is now back to simple living or ahead to 
bankruptcy! 
The fact is that millions of dollars paid into sup¬ 
posed co-operative organizations have been squan¬ 
dered through extravagant expenses incurred by of¬ 
ficials. In many cases men are paid three times as 
much as they could earn in any private enterprise 
run on strict business principles, while their ex¬ 
penses often run five times what they would pay out 
of their own pockets if they were forced to earn 
their money at some regular job. Not all of them 
are as bad as that, but who can deny that the ten¬ 
dency is to spend the hard-earned money of farmers 
who try to co-operate is growing? All these large 
salaries and expenses come finally out of the milk 
pail, the cotton bale, the egg basket and the hill of 
potatoes. The lesson taught by President Coolidge 
comes home to the men who represent these farmers’ 
societies. Let them be first to emulate the Presi¬ 
dent’s example, and cut down their expenses. It is 
only a question of time before they will be cut any¬ 
way, and their own work of reducing expenses will 
be very much gentler than that of the public when 
it once starts, as it is sure to do, on a campaign of 
economy. 
Great Value of Drainage 
We are getting in our tile drains. I enjoy putting in 
tile about as much as anything, because of the great 
improvement it makes in the land. I do not know but 
a man who invests in tile drains now at, present costs 
and present prices for farm products needs a guardian, 
but we have to have a little faith in the future, and we 
have never yet invested any money this way that we 
afterwards regretted. 
HAT is from a farmer of long experience, who 
has put in many thousand feet of drain tile. 
Through the influence of these tiles he has seen wet, 
spongy land, incapable of producing anything but 
weeds, bullfrogs and mosquitoes, turn into rich, open 
soil, capable of producing 300 bushels of potatoes or 
75 bushels of corn per acre. There are acres of such 
land in any farm community where Nature has cre¬ 
ated a veritable Treasure Island by draining the 
plant food from the hills into it. Men go on buying 
manure or fertilizer with which to work the thin 
uplands, when all this wealth lies in the swamp. 
Time was when farmers had such faith in farming 
that they borrowed money to buy tile drains with 
which to improve these swamps. The investment 
paid wonderfully. Most of the farm land in Michi¬ 
gan was dried out of the swamps in this way. Now 
we have come to a time when, as our friend says, a 
man who spent money for tile drains would be con¬ 
sidered fit for a guardian. A tile drain is now the 
clearest evidence of faith in the future of farming. 
We believe that the future will justify just such 
faith. 
A Suggestion About that Fruit Building 
In regard to the new horticultural building at 
Geneva, I have a suggestion to offer. Perhaps it has 
been mentioned before, but I have not seen it. The 
experiment stations at Geneva and Ithaca have been 
consolidated. I worked two years at Geneva and grad¬ 
uated at the Agricultural College, so I am familiar with 
both plants. Why not really consolidate them? The 
soil and climate at Ithaca are not favorable to the 
growth of fruit. Both are favorable at Geneva, which 
lies in a fruit belt. Make the headquarters for this 
work at Geneva. The equipment for animal husbandry 
is very much superior at Ithaca. Why duplicate this 
work on a smaller scale at Geneva? The same may be 
said of plant pathology and bacteriology. Move these 
three departments to Ithaca, where they belong, any¬ 
way, and there would then be plenty of room in the 
present building for a strong department of horticulture 
and entomology, with one pathologist to work on fruit 
diseases. 
The present buildings certainly are overcrowded, and a 
new building will be needed unless some such shift is 
made. Much of the work at the two stations is in 
duplicate, and it hardly seems necessary. 
THEODORE E. GATY, JR. 
It. N.-Y.—That is worth considering. The point is 
that practically all the reports from fruit growers yet 
received voice a desire for better facilities at Geneva— 
either a new building or some new arrangement. There 
is very little opposition thus far. 
Dairy Figures and Certificates 
In regard to your article, “Let Us Face the Milk Sit¬ 
uation,” in the current issue of your paper, I wish to 
say I am a pooler and am credited on my October 
statement with 5,395 lbs. of milk, test 3.8, pool price 
$2.25, certificate of indebtedness $5.40, pool expense 
$4.80, amount of check $111.13. Please explain to me 
the 31.6 cents which you claim are unaccounted for. 
Here is the way I figure it: 
$111.13 -i- 53.95 = $2.06. Pool price $2.25 — $2.06 
= 19 cents ; 10 cents for certificates + 9 cents = 19 
cents. 
How many non-poolers have 10 per cent of their 
milk checks on deposit, bearing 6 per cent interest? 
New York. v. B. n. 
E though we had made this matter plain, but 
we will try again. With all the October 
pooled milk sold in the volume and at the price pub¬ 
lished in the different classes, the League should 
have received $3,583,789.15. The total volume was 
1.581,258.03 hundredweights, or $2,266 per 100 lbs. 
The League returned $1.95 per 100 lbs., gross. Hence 
there was 31.6 cents on each 100 lbs. not accounted 
for. Your fat differential for 3.8 milk was 32 cents. 
So your price would be $2,586 in the 201-210-mile 
zone, if all the pooled milk was sold and returned 
for at published prices. You did not go far enough 
back to begin figuring. 
No active pooler has an investment in the certifi¬ 
cates paying 6 per cent. Many non-poolers now have 
such investments. They are the 17,000 former pool¬ 
ers who have withdrawn. The interest and prin¬ 
cipal on their certificates must be paid by the 37,000 
active poolers who remain. 
The League can legally make no profit as now 
organized. It gets its money to pay interest and 
principal by deductions on the milk bills of active 
members. If it increases the price of milk to mem¬ 
bers it gives them a service which is equivalent to 
interest or dividend. If it does not increase tin* 
price, then the active member gets no income or ben¬ 
efit on the capital investment. 
When a .member withdraws and becomes a non¬ 
member he stops paying in, but continues to draw 
interest out of the fund deducted from the active 
members who remain in the pool. When the certifi¬ 
cates are redeemed, he gets his money out of the 
same fund. 
The active member accepts a deduction monthly 
for certificates. At the end of the year he gets a 
part of this back for interest, and when the cer¬ 
tificate is paid he gets back the other part of the de¬ 
ductions taken out of his milk bills. lie must always 
pay in during the year what he gets back at the end 
cf the year. When the membership and total vol¬ 
ume of pooled milk is reduced, the active member 
must accept deductions to pay himself interest and 
principal on the certificates, and also to pay those 
who withdrew. 
It is plain, therefore, that the certificate is de¬ 
signed to favor the man who withdraws and becomes 
a non-pooler, and adds to the burden of the member 
who sticks. 
This is no criticism of the certificates. It is an 
attempt to correct misinformation and to help dairy¬ 
men to understand the certificates. All dairymen 
are concerned in any phase of the dairy business, 
but the active patrons of the pool are most vitally 
concerned in this, because they bear the burden, and 
they alone can demand changes that will lift the 
increasing load from their shoulders. 
