Iht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1583 
Paying for a Monopoly 
T HE Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association 
lias announced tlie purchase of the Clover 
Farms milk business, consisting of seven country 
plants, and the city distribution business. The 
League takes the country plants and the Borden 
Company gets the city end of the business. Clover 
Farms did principally a bottled milk trade, and its 
retirement now still further centers the bottled trade 
in the hands of Bordens and Sheffield Farms. 
It is general information in milk circles that the 
League has also bought out a larger and more im¬ 
portant dealer doing business in Brooklyn, and that 
the announcement will be made later. 
•No statement is given of the price paid either by 
the pool or by Bordens, nor of the volume of busi¬ 
ness taken over, but the purchase is announced as in 
line with the general policy of the pool management. 
This official group policy is of vital concern to the 
whole dairy industry in the New York milk shed. 
As such it certainly should be fully, frankly and 
fairly discussed in the interest of dairymen. We 
propose so to discuss it. and we want, first, to leave 
no doubt about our position. 
This paper harbors no favor and no dislike for 
any milk dealer, organization or official group. It 
appraises dealers, organizations, leaders and official 
groups in proportion to their service to the farm or 
to the degree in which they do it harm. Its concern 
and devotion is for the milk producer, rich or poor, 
no matter where he lives, or to what group he is 
allied. 
It is devoted to the principle of co-operation for 
dairymen which it has advocated for half a century. 
Since it helped dairymen put the old League on its 
feet in 1916 it has cherished a friendship for that 
organization and for the dairymen whose confidence 
and support made its early success possible. In the 
true sense of disinterested service the League and its 
members have no better friend. At times it seems to 
be their only true friend. Balked in its efforts to 
put the control of the LesPgue in a majority vote of 
its members, and defeated in its vigorous and per¬ 
sistent fight to keep the League independent and 
free from alliances with the milk trust, The It. N.-Y. 
expected a costly experience, but frankly it had lit¬ 
tle conception of the awful price dairymen 
were to be called upon to pay for present policies. 
It could not lend itself to deceptions and exploita¬ 
tion of dairy farmers then. It cannot do so now, 
but give us the League or any other dairy organiza¬ 
tion under the control of members Lilly informed, 
and The R. N.-Y. will back it to the limit of its 
power and its resources. 
The logical perfection of the official pool policy as 
announced would be a complete monopoly of milk 
distribution by the Borden company. There is noth¬ 
ing surprising in this objective, from the Bordens’ 
side of the partnership. It has been their well- 
known cherished ambition for years. A complete 
monopoly by purchase with corporation money, how¬ 
ever, had its prudent limitations, and progress was 
consequently slow. Attempts to acquire an easy 
monopoly by legislation failed. The scheme to ac¬ 
quire the coveted monopoly now with the money and 
implied consent of milk producers, who have here¬ 
tofore always opposed it, must be an unexpected 
triumph and surprise to themselves. It is as far as 
we know the first time in the history of the world 
where a large body of widely distributed producers 
have deliberately sought to limit the market for 
their own product to one abhorrent monopoly. Eight 
years ago an emissary of the milk trust, disguised or 
deluded, proposing to organize a farm association 
for the purpose of creating a distributive monopoly 
for Bordens, would be driven out of every barnyard 
in the State at the point of a pitchfork. He is no 
safer now when his real purpose is known. 
The Borden company does not merit a monopoly 
privilege at the hands of dairymen. For years pre¬ 
vious to 1910 it set the price of milk and drove dairy 
farmers to desperation. Previously its cohorts de¬ 
feated every attempt of dairymen to organize, and 
it was the last to surrender in the 1916 fight. Just 
six hours after the settlement it began to lav plans 
to capture the League through its leaders, and to 
gather the fruits of it into its own basket. It made 
a pact with the executive committee and bought 
what farmers had gained with a mess of pottage. 
The experience of the Country Milk Company fol¬ 
lowed, and the old League was scrapped. 
It early developed a plan with the then president 
of the League to load their old country plants on 
farmers’ shoulders on a monthly installment pay¬ 
ment plan, with a 25-year option on the milk and a 
city monopoly of its distribution. A little timely pub¬ 
lic! tj’ of the scheme and the farmers’ protests trip¬ 
ped up that scheme. Once committed to it and a 
number of payments made, dairy farmers would 
have been tied hand and foot for a quarter of a cen- 
.tury. Yet the striking similarity of that plan with 
the scheme now developing cannot escape any ob¬ 
server. Everything expected in the first plan is 
realized in the present scheme. In both cases farm¬ 
ers pay high for the plants in installments taken 
out of the milk bills. In both cases Bordens gets 
all the milk at its own price. In both cases the 
Borden company advances towards a complete mon¬ 
opoly of distribution. If one mind did not design both 
plans, then two minds worked to the same end. 
The Borden company forced a beggarly price on 
dairy farmers previous to 1916. It worked zealously 
to keep down the price during the war. It has been 
officially admitted that it has been making its own 
price for milk substantially since the war. Consid¬ 
ering the purchasing power of the dollar, milk has 
never before been so low as it is just now, and the 
Borden patron receives substantially 50 cents per 
100 lbs. less than producers for other distributers. 
Many of their best patrons have been producing at a 
loss. Others are simply 'broke, and the condition 
of the industry is extremely serious. On the other 
hand, the Borden company is making the biggest 
profits in its history. 
We find nothing in the record to justify the official 
pool policy. We do not believe that dairy farmers 
in the pool or outside of it would knowingly and 
willingly pay for Bordens’ monopoly. 
Martin H. Glynn 
E x-governor mlvrtin ii. glynn died sud¬ 
denly at his home in Albany on December 13 
of heart dilation. His age was 53 years. 
Born and bred a poor boy in Columbia County, he 
earned and paid his own way through college, and 
through his own personal effort became a lawyer, 
editor, publisher, orator, statesman and one of the 
best read men of the State. His practice in law was 
limited, but he was distinguished in all of the other 
capacities. At the age of 26 he was elected to Con¬ 
gress, where he served two terms with distinction 
and commendation from several public bodies, in¬ 
cluding the New York State Grange. He was State 
Controller in 1907, and carried the State with $22,- 
000,000 of deposits through the panic of that year 
without the loss of a penny. 
In 1912 he defeated James W. Wadsworth, Jr., 
and was elected Lieutenant-governor. When Gov¬ 
ernor Sulzer was impeached Glynn became Governor 
and served out the remaining year and some months 
of the term. As Governor he supervised the draft¬ 
ing of the workmen’s compensation law, and secured 
its enactment, and also the direct primary law. lie 
is classed as one of the four great Governors of the 
State, with Tilden, Cleveland and Hughes. 
In 1921 he gained international fame by bringing 
Lloyd George and De Valera together. This confer¬ 
ence adjusted the dispute of 700 years’ standing be¬ 
tween England and Ireland, and resulted in estab¬ 
lishment of the Irish Free State. 
To us his most distinguishing merit was his great 
sympathy for the people of the farm. It was for 
farmers that he insisted on the State Land Bank, 
which, while never developed for them, served as a 
model for the national farm loan system later pro¬ 
vided. Economizing elsewhere lie insisted on liberal 
appropriations to pay farmers for condemned cat¬ 
tle. The Department of Foods and Markets which 
was established through his personal insistence, was 
the first State department of the kind, and commit¬ 
ted the State to the aid of farmers in the marketing 
of their products. It was farm legislation of the 
most progressive class. There were men who as¬ 
sumed that his favors to farmers were inspired by 
a hope of political preferment, but those in his inti¬ 
mate confidence can testify to the sincere impulses 
of his kindly heart and fertile mind for the comfort 
and welfare of the farm home. / 
School Meeting, Syracuse, December 31 
T HIS is the last call for the meeting of the Rural 
School Improvement Society. r fhis meeting 
will be held in the Assembly Hall of the Syracuse 
Courthouse at 11 a. m., with afternoon session at 
2 p. m. Each county may send five voting delegates, 
but all are invited to come and advance their views. 
A new set of officers will be elected, and a full pro¬ 
gram arranged for. 
The chief points to be considered are enforced 
consolidation and tax equalization. A strong effort 
will be made to repeal Sections 128 and 129 of the 
educational law. A plan will be offered for equal¬ 
izing taxes which will provide for the reasonable 
support of country districts under a State-wide plan. 
There will also be considered plans for improved 
training classes for teachers and qualifications of 
superintendents. 
The Society is opposed to any blanket bill seeking 
to revolutionize the entire school system at once. It 
will try to present a series of separate bills, each one 
standing on its own merits. We need all friends of 
the rural school at this meeting. That means you. 
At no other meeting in the State can you find such 
opportunity to present your views freely and with¬ 
out reserve. Will you not make every possible effort 
to come and help adopt a sensible program for school 
legislation? 
November Milk Returns 
T HE Dairymen’s League Co-operative Association 
has reported a gross price of $2.35 for 3 per 
cent milk in the 201-210-mile zone for November. 
The deductions are: Expenses 9 cents and certifi¬ 
cates 10 cents, or a net cash return to patrons of 
$2.16 per 100 lbs. 
Sheffield Farms association reports $2.69. 
Model Dairy—non-pool group—reports $2.71. 
Non-pool, Buffalo, $2.80. 
The pool report for November does not give the 
total volume of pooled milk for the month, nor the 
volume in each class, as formerly. It is not pos¬ 
sible, therefore, to give any detailed analysis. 
The Milk Situation in a Nutshell 
My farm is within the zone that furnishes New York 
City with milk. 1 am a producer of Grade A milk 
and am a “pooler,” but deliver my milk to a Borden 
bottling station. On November 25‘ I received returns 
for my October milk, the price paid (not including the 
premium) being $2.31. per hundred pounds or about 
4% cents a quart. The Bordens delivered Grade A 
milk at my home (Brooklyn, N. Y.) for 18 cents a 
quart; that is, I, tim producer, received 4% cents for 
what the consumer paid 18 cents. My milk station is 
about 70 miles from my home. It seems to cost 13)4 
cents a quart to bottle and distribute Grade A milk. 
Permit me to call the attention of your readers to 
two or three grievances of the Orange County (N. Y. > 
dairymen. First: At 4% cents a quart the farmer 
cannot produce milk without a loss. I have held on 
for three years, but am planning to sell my dairy unless 
conditions change. Secondly: It costs too much a 
quart to market Grade A milk. The consumer seems 
to be able to pay 18 cents a quart for Grade A milk, 
and there does not seem to be a “surplusage” of milk 
of that grade. In fact, there are indications that 
Grade A and Grade B are becoming luxuries. The con¬ 
sumer of ordinary income is forced to buy milk from 
his grocer to whom it comes in 40-quart cans and is 
not handled, always, in a sanitary way. Thirdly : The 
cry of “help the farmer” that comes from our legisla¬ 
tive halls, may cause the large grain and stock produc¬ 
ers of the West and the Middle West to rejoice; but 
Ave hear nothing to encourage the dairymen who furnish 
the homes of New York City with good milk. Mean¬ 
while the dairymen are selling their dairies and the 
infants of the city are hungering for the food they 
cannot get. avillis boughton. 
New York. 
Live Poultry Embargo 
IIE New York City Health Department and 
State Department of Farms and Markets have 
declared an embargo on live poultry shipments from 
the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illi¬ 
nois and Indiana. The reason .is the existence of a 
serious disease, said to resemble European poultry 
plague, in shipments from these localities. 
The embargo began December 12, and the dura¬ 
tion is indefinite. A thorough cleaning and fumi¬ 
gation of all poultry receiving places here is going 
on. This will be a good thing anyway, regardless of 
the disease, as everyone knows avIio is familiar with 
the filthy and smelly condition of these places. 
The action of the disease has been peculiar, as 
shipments that appeared to he all right when started 
have shown around 25 per cent of loss shortly after 
arrival here. Some claim that the trouble, or much 
of it, is more the result of over-crowding and im¬ 
proper feeding on the way than to any specific dis¬ 
ease. Closely cooped fowls that are unable to get 
their heads more than a foot above the filth and 
smells of contaminated floors are in a wretched con¬ 
dition. No poultryman with any common sense 
would subject his home flock to such misery. Va¬ 
rious experts are investigating the disease so that 
something definite as to just what the trouble is and 
means needed for stopping it may be known later. 
Meanwhile the usual retail buyers here have put 
up an embargo* of their own, as the Jewish and 
Italian housewives are refusing to purchase chick¬ 
ens, regardless of where they come from. This has 
demoralized the market so that the Live Poultry 
Commission Merchants’ Association has issued an 
order that “No cariot live poultry from any State 
will be handled by receivers in New York, excepting 
cars already here or en route, 
