744 
Iht  RURAL  NEW. YORKER 
May  19,  1923 
Oakland 
and  Known 
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  be  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. 
A  Discussion  of  the  Farm  Situation 
Having  read  with  interest  the  contribu¬ 
tions  of  II.  R.  Perry,  Burton  Coon  and 
Mrs.  Wjllcox,  under  the  head  of  “Three 
Ideas  of  Farming,”  on  pages  505-500,  1 
would  like  to  make  a  few  observations  on 
the  subject  that  suggest  themselves  to  me, 
a  lifetime  farmer. 
I  believe  Mrs.  Willcox  clearly  and  con¬ 
cisely  states  the  condition  of  the  average 
farmer,  and  I  also^  believe  the  average 
farmer  is  as  efficient  as  any  other  class 
of  people  if  from  none  other  than  the  rea¬ 
son  that  he  is.  working  for  himself,  and 
that  it  is  natural  to  be  more  interested 
•  in  one’s  own  business  than  another’s.  I 
also  think  it  no  more  fair  to  judge,  the 
average  by  the  now  and  then  more  suc¬ 
cessful  farmer  than  it  would  be  to  judge 
the  average  city’s  citizen  by  the  million.- 
!  aires  it  produces.  Being  of  an  optimistic 
nature,  I  have  been  guilty  time  and  again 
as  charged  in  Mrs.  Willcox’s  first  para¬ 
graph.  My  enthusiasm  being  formed  some¬ 
what  by  the  articles  that  usually  appear 
in  the  late  Winter  and  early  Spring  in 
some  farm  and  other  papers,  telling  in 
glowing  terms  of  the  bright  prospects  for 
the  season  just  ahead,  calculated,  as  I 
now  believe,  to  encourage  a  generous 
production,  to  find  my  hopes  blasted  oft 
times  in  the  Fall  by  low  prices,  occasion¬ 
ally  by  short  crops  and  the  lean  years 
eating  up  the  fat  ones. 
I  think  1  have  had  average  success  as 
a  farmer,  and  while  not  in  the  bankrupt 
claws,  I  feel  that  my  efforts  have  received 
nowhere  near  the  reward  they  would 
have  in  some  other  lines  of  business,  com¬ 
mon  labor  included.  I  am  engaged  mainly 
in  dairying,  and  our  days  run  from  4  a.m. 
to  7,  8  and  sometimes  9  p.m.  In  figuring 
as  we  are  allowed  to  in  computing  our 
income  tax.  I  find  for  the  year  1922,  after 
allowing  four  iter  cent  for  money  invested, 
that  I  have  a  return  for  my  personal 
labor  of  15  cents  per  hour,  based  on  a 
1.3-hour  day,  allowing  five  hours  for 
.  Sunday  chores,  about  half  the  pay  a  com- 
>  mon  laborer  got.  I  was  charged  for  work 
-  done  at  the  shop  at  the  rate  of  .$1  per 
hour,  taking  nearly  seven  of  my  hours  to 
pay  for  one  of  theirs.  In  1921  I  received 
no*  labor  return  and  three  per  cent  on  in¬ 
vestment.  I  do  not  see  where  we  are 
going  to  benefit  by  the  recent  short-term 
loan  law.  He  that  could  get  credit  there¬ 
by  could  get  it  before,  so  does  not  need 
i  it,  and  my  experience  is  that  it  is  haz¬ 
ardous  to  depend  on  credit  to  finance 
farm  operations,  though  at  times,  through 
’  misfortune  or  other  stress,  one  Tias  to 
i  borrow. 
There  is  one  thing  that  I  cannot  see 
the  justice  of.  and  that  is  in  the  proposal 
!  to  subsidize  the  shipping  interests  so  that 
they  can  meet  foreign  competition,  while 
the  best  they  can  do  for  the  farmer  is  to 
give  him  a  loan  and  get  him  in  shape  for 
another  squeeze  when  the  time  comes 
right.  I  do  not  want  to  be  understood  as 
favoring  a  subsidy  for  farmers  any  more 
than  for  shipping,  but  the  proposal  to 
give  outright  to  one  and  only  loan  to  the 
■  other  seems  manifestly  unjust  to  say  the 
least,  but  that  seems  to  be  about  the 
kind  of  a  deal  we  usually  get. 
As  I  understand  the  matter,  we  are 
up  against  something  off  the  same  sort 
of  competition  the  shipping  interests  are. 
If  I  am  rightly  informed  we  have  to  find 
an  outside  market  for  approximately  one- 
third  of  our  farm  produce  in  competition 
in  the  foreign  markets  with  the  rest  of 
the  world.  As  President  Taft  stated  when 
he  was  advocating  his  reciprocity  treaty 
with  Canada  a  number  of  years  ago,  “It 
would  not  hurt  the  American  farmer, 
as  his  prices  were  made  in  Liverpool,  and 
that  he  got  the  Liverpool  price  less  the 
freight  and  commission,”  observation  of 
which  will.  I  think,  prove  it  generally 
true.  'When  the  foreign  demand  is  good 
we  may  expect  good  prices,  and  when  it 
is  poor  we  may  expect  Iqw  prices,  short 
crops  and  industrial  prosperity  in  this 
country  having  but  a  limited  effect  alone. 
Organization  is  popularly  heralded  as 
the  cure-all  for  the  present-day  ills  of 
the  farmer,  but  its  benefits  are  limited 
and  largely  nullified  by  the  fact  that  the 
price  received  for  the  surplus  we  are 
obliged  to  export  largely  makes  the  price 
for  all. 
We  are  encouraged  to  look  hopefully 
to  the  time  when  home  consumption  will 
absorb  our  surplus,  but  I  believe  it  to  be 
a  long  way  off,  as  our  possibilities  for 
increased  production  are  very  great  it 
given  any  reasonable  reward.  But  if 
the  time  should  come  when  consumption 
equals  or  exceeds  our  production,  I  be¬ 
lieve  we  will  have  to  meet  the  competition 
of  the  world  in  our  home  markets.  We 
have  now.  it  is  true,  a  supposedly  protec¬ 
tive  tariff  on  farm  products,  which,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  we  are  now  on  an 
export  basis,  can  be  of  little  benefit  to  us. 
When  the  time  conies,  if  it  does,  when  we 
can  benefit  by  a  protective  tariff  on  farm 
products,  I  believe  its  benefits  will  be 
denied  us,  as  the  consuming  public  in  its 
demand  for  cheap  food  will  insist  on  free 
trade  in  farming  products  as  a  business 
proposition,  and  as  there  is  no  sentiment 
in  business  and  also  as  we  are  outnum¬ 
bered  two  to  one,  we  shall  be  obliged  to 
submit. 
For  the  last  half  century  or  more  the 
farmers  have  been  urged  to  support  an 
economic  policy  that  would  build  up  the 
infant  industries  of  the  country,  and  in 
so  doing  provide  a  home  market  for  their 
products,  which  has  resulted  up  to  this 
time  in  their  prices  being  foreign  made, 
and  giving  the  infant  the  advantage  of 
homemade  prices,  which  advantage  said 
infant  seems  to  have  utilized  to  the  ut¬ 
most. 
The  only  remedy  I  can  see  lies  in  the 
adoption  of  an  economic  policy  which  will 
give  us  foreign-made  prices  on  what  w*e 
buy  as  well  as  on  what  we  sell ;  but  as 
that  would  not  be  acceptable  to  our  man¬ 
ufacturing  and  industrial  world,  it  is 
useless  to  look  for  any  relief  therefrom, 
so  we  shall  have  to  continue  to  make 
money  by  selling  for  a  less  price  than 
we  can  buy  at. 
The  continued  drift  cityward  is  viewed 
with  apprehension  by  many,  but  the  city 
seems  to  find  places  for  all  comers  by 
shortening  the  working  day  and  limiting 
the  individual  output,  and  as  there  is  a 
large  portion  of  the  world  awaiting  agri¬ 
cultural  development,  notably  South 
America,  Africa  and  other  portions  in 
varying  areas,  we  would  not  starve  if  all 
the  United  States  farmers  should  move 
cityward,  and  as  ocean  freight  rates  are 
comparatively  low,  the  ends  of  the  earth 
are  as  near  our  large  markets  in  that  re¬ 
spect  as  we  that  live  a  few  hundred  miles 
inland. 
Mr.  Coon  evidently  would  have  us  dis¬ 
card  money  considerations  and  take  our 
pay  in  contentment,  etc.,  but  it  will  not 
pay  taxes,  neither  is  it  legal  tender  at 
the  bank,  nor  in  the  purchase  of  the  neces¬ 
saries  uf  life,  lie  cites  the  contentment 
of  the  European  peasant  and  the  patient 
Asiatic  as  an  example  for  us,  but  fails 
to  say  that  their  contentment  is  the  result 
of  their  ignorance.  Keep  the  American 
farmer  in  the  same  ignorance  and  he 
would  undoubtedly  be  as  contented  as 
they.  The  various  educational  move¬ 
ments  of  the  last  decade  or  more,  agri¬ 
cultural  schools,  etc.,  have  tended  to  en¬ 
lighten  the  farmer,  and  have  gotten  him 
in  a  state  of  mind  where  he  wants  as  good 
as  the  other  fellow  has,  instead  of  its 
teaching  him  to  grow  two  blades  of  grass 
to  sell  for  the  price  of  one,  as  was  thought 
would  result,  as  one  would  think  by  the 
trend  of  their  teaching. 
I  largely  agree  with  Mr.  Burton  on 
the  question  of  the  Farm  Bureau,  as  I 
do  not  think  the  benefits  commensurate 
with  Ihe  cost,  and  but  for  their  occa¬ 
sional  bulletins  and  newspaper  accounts 
of  their  meetings,  would  hardly  know 
there  was  such  a  thing. 
Mrs.  Willcox  deplores  the  fact  that 
farmers  will  not  more  fully  co-operate 
but  I  believe  they  are  doing  as  well  along 
that  line  as  we  have  a  right  to  expect. 
We  do  not  expect  them  all  to  be  of  the 
same  political  faith,  nor  religiously ; 
neither  should  we  expect  them  to  be  more 
fully  agreed  on  the  subject  of  co-opera¬ 
tion.  Just  plain  human  nature  I  take. 
And,  again,  I  think  many  are  expecting 
more  of  co-operation  that  in  the  nature 
of  things  we  have  a  right  to  expect,  and 
to  place  blame  where  it  does  not  right¬ 
fully  belong.  I  saw  by  your  editorial  you 
classed  Mrs.  Willcox  with  the  disgruntled 
ones.  Now  if  the  other  class  is  composed 
of  peasants  and  Asiatics,  put  me  in  the 
disgruntled  class,  too. 
To  sum  up  the  matter,  I  shall  have  to 
agree  with  her  that  the  prospect  for  farm¬ 
ing  is  not  bright,  and  that  we  have  no 
reason  to  expect  anything  different  from 
what  past  years  have  averaged,  and  that 
farmers  as  a  class  will  always  have  to 
trail  along  behind  the  cities,  the  same  as 
they  have  since  the  dawn  of  history. 
New  York.  fred  a.  Cummings. 
Competition  from  “Agriculturists” 
I  do  not  farm  my  farm,  but  use  it  sim¬ 
ply  as  a  Summer  home.  There  are  often 
in  your  paper  letters  from  city  men  who 
have  bought  farms  and  are  using  them  as 
playthings,  or  farming  for  their  health. 
Now  and  then  one  of  these  men  has  a 
boastful  letter  published.  I  wonder  if 
they  realize  what  they  are  doing  by  en¬ 
tering  into  unnecessary  competition  with 
farmers  who  must  make  their  farms  pay 
or  go  broke?  Is  it  right  for  men  to  spend 
$5  to  raise  a  bushel  of  apples,  and  50 
cents  to  produce  a  gallon  of  milk,  while 
they  play  at  farming  for  health  and 
amusement,  and  sell  their  product  in  com¬ 
petition  with  that  of  real  farmers?  I 
know  of  a  rich  woman  owning  a  farm 
who  goes  extensively  and  expensively 
into  strawberries,  and  so  floods  the  local 
markets  that  it  is  hard  for  others  near 
her  to  do  much  at  a  profit  in  that  line.  I 
wonder  if  she  realizes  that  she  is  hurting 
people  who,  in  competition  with  her,  are 
quite  helpless?  o. 
We  have  much  of  this  comment  from 
readers.  Many  practical  farmers  seem 
to  feel  that  the  expensive  crops  which 
these  gentlemen  agriculturists  raise  make 
a  form  of  unfair  competition  for  those 
who  must  depend  on  what  they  grow  for 
a  living.  And  yet,  the  agriculturist  will 
say  that  this  is  a  free  country,  and  that 
everyone  should  have  a  right  to  work  as 
he  likes.  But  is  that  entirely  true?  The 
labor  unions  work  to  keep  down  compe¬ 
tition  in  labor,  and  what  a  howl  there 
would  be  if  country  people  moved  to  town 
and  made  an  effort  to  compete  in  all  kinds 
of  trade.  They  might  probably  hurt  their 
own  business,  but  they  would  also  bring 
many  a  retail  trade  close  to  ruin. 
Foreclosure  of  Mortgage 
1.  If  the  holder  of  a  mortgage  desires 
to  foreclose,  how  soon  after  the  mort¬ 
gage  is  due  can  the  owner  of  the  prop¬ 
erty  be  compelled  to  vacate  the  premises? 
2.  Wlho  owns  the  crops,  such  as  hay, 
corn  and  fruit,  which  is  harvested  some 
time  after  the  mortgage  falls  due?  3.  If 
the  property  is  sold  and  brings  less  than 
the  amount  of  mortgage,  can  the  personal 
property  of  the  mortgagor  be  sold  also 
to  satisfy  the  mortgage?  P.  R. 
1.  It  depends  somewhat  on  the  length 
i  of  time  required  to  foreclose  the  mort- 
1  gage.  If  all  the  parties  are  easily  served 
the  mortgage  can  be  foreclosed  in  less 
time  than  if  the  parties  are  scattered. 
2.  The  ci’ops  which  are  on  the  premises 
at  the  time  of  sale  belong  to  the  pur¬ 
chaser. 
3.  An  action  may  be  brought  on  the 
bond  for  a  deficiency.  This  would  hold 
any  non-exempt  personal  property  which 
the  mortgagor  might  have.  N.  T. 
Mileage! 
The  Touring  Car 
$995 
f.  o.  b.  Pontiac 
Before  you  buy  a  car ,  consider  what  Oakland  gives  in 
addition  to  six  cylinders — an  engine  with  a  15,000 
mile  written  guarantee;  and  a  definite  "Mileage-Basis 
Plan”  which  proves  the  real  quality  of  the  Oakland  Six 
Main  Bearings  -  40,000  miles 
or  more  without  attention 
Valves  -  >  -  15,000  miles 
or  more  without  need  of  grinding 
Connecting  Rods  -  -  -  40,000  miles 
or  more  without  attention 
Cylinders,  Pistons  -  -  15,000  miles 
Special  performance  guarantee 
Gas  Mileage  *  -  -  -  20  to  25  miles 
Tires  -  15,000  to  25,000  miles 
Transmission,  Axles,  etc,,  Life  of  the  Car 
See  the  car — get  detailed  facts  at  your  dealer’s 
OAKLAND  MOTOR  CAR  CO.,  PONTIAC,  MlCH. 
Division  of  General  Motors  Corporation 
