riiiiiiiiimmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii 
3^4 
7ht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
March  10,  192:) 
Delivers  the  Goods  Quicker  and  Cheaper 
at  the 
cMarht! 
Th.  Speed  Wagon  gets  right  to  the  heart  of 
rural  haulage  requirements.  In  design,  ca¬ 
pacity  and  operation  it’s  the  made-to-order 
vehicle  for  farm  service.  For  it  combines — 
Fleetness — which  brings  the  profitable 
markets  nearer,  measured  by  time. 
Power — for  the  hills  and  rough  stretches. 
Traction, —  for  sand,  mud,  snow  and 
plowed  fields. 
Ruggedness , — insuring  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  miles  of  service. 
Economy, — without  a  parallel,  based  on 
low  purchase  price,  unusually  small  de¬ 
preciation,  and  low  running  costs. 
Manufactured  (not  assembled)  by  Reo  in  its 
entirety.  Supplied  in  twelve  standard  body 
styles, — all  convertible.  More  than  75,000 
in  use.  Capacity  500  to  2500  pounds. 
Chassis  price  $1185. 
REO  MOTOR  CAR  COMPANY 
Lansing,  ^Michigan 
iiimmimimiimmiimimiifimiHiimmmimiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmi!; 
THE  BEST  BIRTHDAY  PRESENT  1 
For  any  reader  of  THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER  is  an  E 
AUTOGRAPHED  COPY  | 
of  | 
Hope  Farm  Notes  | 
|  THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER  has  nearly  a  | 
=  A  million  readers.  Every  day  in  the  year  is  birth-  E 
5  day  for  hundreds  of  them.  They  are  all  interested  E 
E  in  Hope  Farm  and  the  book  given  on  their  birthday  E 
E  would  be  a  permanent  gift — always  remembered.  E 
|  The  Hope  Farm  Man  will  write  his  name  | 
E  in  all  such  gift  books  if  desired.  Order  a  few  days  | 
E  in  advance  and  the  book  will  be  promptly  mailed.  = 
E  RURAL  NEW-YORKER,  333  West  30th  St.,  New  York  .  = 
E  GENTLEMEN— Enclosed  find  remittance  for  $1.50,  for  which  send  me,  postpaid,  a  = 
—  copy  of  “  Hope  Farm  Notes.”  “ 
Name . . 
Town . . 
—  State . R.  F.  0.  or  Street  No .  ^ 
nimmiimimimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuinmmmmiiiiiiiiiiimmimimmmmiiiimimimiiT 
Things  To  Think  About 
The  object  of  this  department  is  to.  give  readers  a  chance  to  express  themselves  on  farm 
matters.  Not  long-  articles  can  he  used — just  short,  pointed  opinions  or  suggestions. 
THE  RURAL  NEW-YORKER  does  not  always  endorse  what  is  printed  here.  You  might 
call  this  a  mental  safety  valve. 
Is  This  Neighborly  Feeling? 
I  was  much  interested  in  the  inquiry 
made  by  “L.  M.”  about  connecting:  pri¬ 
vate  wire  on  electric  line,  as  published 
on  page  236.  You  say  “Why  worry  over 
it?”  I  will  state  the  case  in  our  neigh¬ 
borhood,  and  also  another  one  which  was 
related  to  me,  and  you  can  judge  if  it  is 
right  for  others  to  connect  on  private 
line  under  these  circumstances. 
Fifteen  of  the  neighbors  around  me 
have  built  and  turned  over  to  the  elec¬ 
tric  lighting  company,  free  and  clear,  a 
line  to  serve  us  with  electricity.  Four  of 
the  other  neighbors  have  refused  to  con¬ 
tribute  to  the  erection  of  this  line,  bnt 
some  of  them  say  they  can  connect  after 
without  paying  anything,  which  is  true, 
but  is  such  action  creditable  to  them? 
After  the  line  is  up,  the  company  can¬ 
not  refuse  them  service,  but  if  the  rest 
of  us  took  the  same  stand,  there  would  be 
no  line  for  anybody.  These  people  are 
well  able  to  contribute.  The  same  thing 
has  happened  in  two  different  neighbor¬ 
hoods  near  here  in  the  past  three  years. 
Another  instance  to  which  I  think  you 
will  say  the  builder  of  the  line  is  right 
in  trying  to  keep  others  from  connecting 
factures  00  per  cent,  and  everybody  was 
satisfied — that  is,  everybody  worth  con¬ 
sidering.  The  farmers  grumbled  a  good 
deal,  but  farmers  are  never  satisfied,  any¬ 
how. 
Then  the  two  workmen  demanded  an¬ 
other  50  per  cent,  advance,  to  which  the 
capitalists  agreed,  again  advancing  prices 
60  per  cent.  Did  the  farmer  unite  to  put 
up  the  prices  of  their  crops?  Oh,  no : 
the  Sherman  anti-trust  law  covered  this 
island,  and  under  this  law  no  combina¬ 
tions  (of  farmers)  are  permitted.  So  the 
two  farmers  continued  to  undersell  each 
other  and  give  their  crops  to  the  two 
workmen  and  the  two  capitalists  for  any¬ 
thing  which  these  good  men  were  willing 
to  give  for  them. 
But  the  two  workmen  were  still  dis¬ 
satisfied.  “We  will  get  the  farmers  to 
help  us  get  another  boost,”  said  they,  and 
they  went  to  the  farmers  and  found  them 
bewailing  their  hard  lot.  “We  toil  from 
morning  till  night,  but  it  takes  all  we 
can  raise  to  pay  for  the  things  which  you 
and  the  capitalists  make.” 
The  workmen  shed  tears  of  sympathy. 
“It  is  all  the  fault  of  those  wicked  cap¬ 
italists.  Let  ns  join  together  and  down 
This  shows  two  of  our  subscribers,  A.  11.  King  of  Maine,  and  W  m.  King  <  utter  of 
Pennsylvania.  William  is  showing  his  grandfather  how  to  pull  ’em  out  of  the  lake. 
You  may  call  him  a  success  as  a  five-year-old  fisherman.  He  is  one  of  our  livest  sub¬ 
scribers  at  live  years  old,  and  ought  to  be  with  the  paper  for  80  years  at  least.  II is 
uncle  is  a  college  president,  and  when  William  found  how  little  the  Doctor  knew 
about  cows,  pigs  and  all  the  other  farm  ornaments,  he  decided  to  send  The  It.  N.-l. 
to  the  college  president  as  a  farm  missionary.  Suppose  all  our  readers — from  five  to 
75 — were  to  show  such  an  interest  in  their  relations — and  in  The  It.  N.-Y.. 
with  his  line.  The  electrician  who  is 
wiring  my  house,  lives  1.200  ft.  from  the 
main  line  in  a  new  suburb  near  here,  and 
he  tried  to  induce  several  of  his  neigh¬ 
bors  to  go  in  with  him  and  build  a  line 
to  their  homes.  He  got  the  poles  free 
from  the  telephone  company  (discarded 
ones)  and  all  the  cost  to  be  shared  among 
them  would  be  about  $60.  They  refused. 
He  has  the  poles  set  himself,  and  is  now 
trying  to  get  the  lighting  company  to 
permit  him  to  put  up  a  wire  sufficient 
only  for  his  own  use.  Do  you  think  the 
rest  are  justified  in  trying  to  make  use 
of  liis  wire?  MRS.  franklin  a.  smith, 
Ohio. 
A  Fable  for  Farmers 
“Somehow,  there  seems  to  be  prevalent 
the  notion  that  in  some  way  the  farmers 
and  the  labor  element — just  as  if  farmers 
have  ever  been  very  far  removed  from 
labor — are  going  to  get  together  and  do 
things  to  the  rest  of  us.“ 
This  cutting,  taken  from  a  Boston 
newspaper  of  recent  date,  moves  me  to 
send  you  the  following  fable,  which,  I 
believe,  describes  accurately  the  way  in 
which  the  farmer  would  be  benefited  by 
his  proposed  combination  with  labor : 
Six  men  were  shipwrecked  on  a  lonely 
island.  Two  of  them  were  manufactur¬ 
ing  capitalists,  and  they  each  set  about 
making  articles  for  the  other  four  to  use 
Two  of  the  men  were  workmen,  and  were 
eifiployed  by  the  capitalists  to  make  these 
articles.  The  remaining  two  men  became 
farmers.  At  first  the  two  capitalists  com¬ 
peted  with  each  other,  but  they  soon  saw 
the  folly  of  this,  and  united,  forming  a 
corporation.  Did  they  do  this  to  advance 
prices?  Oh,  no;  a  combination  never 
does  that.  It  is  only  formed  to  save  over¬ 
head  expenses.  But  somehow  prices  ad¬ 
vanced  just  the  same. 
So  then  the  two  workmen  decided  to 
combine  and  form  a  labor  union.  And, 
having  done  this,  they  demanded  and  re¬ 
ceived  from  the  capitalists  an  advance  of 
50  per  cent  in  wages.  And  the  capitalists 
then  advanced  the  priee  of  their  manu- 
them.”  So  the  farmers  joined  with  the 
workmen,  and  the  workmen  got  a  100 
per  cent  raise  in  ivages,  and  the  farmers 
got  a  150  per  cent  raise  in  the  prices  of 
what  they  bought.  Now  the  farmers  are 
trying  to  figure  bow  much  it  helped  them 
to  join  hands  with  “labor.”  u.  a.  h. 
The  Autocracy  of  Education  . 
Your  remarks  concerning  the  advisabil¬ 
ity  of  finding  some  way  to  allow  a  prom¬ 
ising  “would-be”  veterinarian  to  pursue 
this  study  without  the  necessity  of  com¬ 
plying  with  the  usual  college  requirements 
certainly  interests  me.  Ho  do  the  words 
of  ,1.  F.  Devine,  on  page  209.  If  you 
ever  succeed  in  securing  a  promise  of  a 
more  lenient  or  human  sot  of  requirements 
from  those  strictly  scientific  directors  of 
any  college,  I  would  be  the  first  to  seek  a 
course  in  veterinary  medicine.  Not  only 
do  I  have  the  necessary  requirements  that 
Dr.  Devine  speaks  of,  but  I  have  actually 
studied  in  college  for  one  semester  as  a 
special  student,  and  received  better  than 
average  grades  in  everything.  Th!s  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  I  had  only  one  te-m 
of  high  school.  Upon  appealing  to  the 
Iowa  State  College  to  consider  my  cas- 
as  a  special  student,  giving  my  grades 
and  extensive  experience  in  handling  and 
treating  sick  animals  on  the  farm,  I  re¬ 
ceived  the  same  sort  of  perfunctory  reply 
you  did. 
I  am  only  27  years  old  and  have  enough 
money  saved  up  to  put  me  through  college 
with  some  outside  work,  but  I  must  give 
up  that  which  I  am  naturally  best  fitted 
for,  and  can  really  qualify  in,  if  only  a 
more  human  view  were  taken  instead  of 
a  certain  number  of  points  being  the 
standard  for  entering.  I  actually  offered 
to  come  on  trial.  If  I  did  not  get  as  good 
a  grade  -as  the  average,  I  would  not  ex¬ 
pect  to  be  allowed  to  continue  my  studies. 
But  that  did  not  alter  their  decision  a 
bit.  If  you  can  find  a  jvay  to  place  young 
men  who  are  naturally  qualified  in  cer¬ 
tain  professions,  but  who  cannot  show 
“points”  enough.  I  assure  you  the  country 
will  have  better  professional  men.  ir.  R. 
