V 
American Agriculturist 
FARM—DAIRY—MARKET—GARDEN—HOME 
‘‘Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 For the Week Ending January 20, 1923 Number 3 
David Lubin, Prophet of Agriculture 
A Picturesque Leader in the Struggle for a Fair Deal for the Farmer 
ILL you make history with 
me?” 
It was a challenge which came 
without introductory formali¬ 
ties to a young Italian patriot at Pisa, some 
years ago. The speaker was a middle-aged 
man, with deep-set, kindly eyes in a worn 
but finely-modeled face. The young Italian 
listened, fascinated as the speaker went on, 
and later wrote of that memorable talk: 
“He started from way back, and in a 
rambling talk, relieved by singular and pic¬ 
turesque expression, traced down the ages, 
the everlasting struggle between town and 
country, between thq industrial and the rural 
population, showing how the latter, though 
more numerous, more virile, and the eco¬ 
nomic and military backbone of 
the State, has nevertheless been 
the ‘under dog’ in the struggle, 
politically outwitted and econom¬ 
ically exploited more or less 
everywhere. 
“The ideas were not new to 
me, but he spoke with such 
warmth of conviction, his eyes 
shot such fiery .glances, that all 
diffidence which the eccentricity 
of the person or of the approach 
might have inspired melted away. Indeed, 
(1 felt strongly attracted to this man, ob¬ 
viously moved by a deep sense of injustice 
to be righted, of good to be accomplished. 
And he won m.y assent more and more when, 
analyzing the phenomena, he assigned the 
cause of the inferiority to the defective or¬ 
ganization of the agricultural classes. He 
was speaking to a convert. ” 
He Took Up the Farmers’ Fight 
The man whose devotion to this struggle 
of the farmer had led him to turn his back 
on a comfortable middle-age in America and 
to become practically an exile, in failing 
health, derided as a crank, but gradually 
winning European acceptance for his cher¬ 
ished plan of world-wide reform, was David 
Lubin. The challenge to help make history 
which so thrilled the eager young Italian, 
came from the lips of this unusually modest 
and self-effacing man in the first, flush of 
victory after he had finally obtained an 
audience with Victor Emanuel, King of Italy. 
The King, himself fired by the enthusiasm 
which animated this prophet of a new order, 
had promised to take .the initiative in found¬ 
ing a world Chamber of Agriculture. 
The dramatic story of Lubin’s long strug¬ 
gle to bring his plan before the ruler of 
some great power, is told in his recently 
published biography* written by Olivia Ros¬ 
setti Agresti, who joined the ranks of his 
converts as secretary during the Italian cam¬ 
paign and who went with him through the 
exciting days of alternating success and re¬ 
verse which made up the rest of his life. 
What had proceeded that climax to Lubin’s 
career is told by Signora Agresti with the 
sympathy that makes her account seem to 
* David Lubin, a Study in Practical Idealism, by Olivia 
Rossetti Agresti, with frontispiece and foreword by William 
Roscoe Thayer. Little, Brown & Company, publishers. $3.50. 
be from first-hand knowledge. The man who 
was to be one day regarded as one of the 
really great Americans—as indeed, a figure 
of international importance—was born of 
humble parents in a little town in Russian 
Poland. Named after the mighty King David, 
the boy was further believed to be set apart 
for service because of an incident which hap¬ 
pened when he was only four days old. The 
wick of a Sabbath candle fell on the cheek of 
the baby, lying by his mother’s side, and 
made a deep burn which left a scar for life. 
A learned Rabbi, visiting the home, inter¬ 
preted this as a sign that the boy was set 
apart for God’s service and his mother’s firm 
belief in this omen, according to her son, in- 
fiuenced his whole subsequent life. 
As a poor emigrant boy on the East side 
of New York, young David soon ceased his 
schooling and at twelve was at work. The 
cry of “Go West, young man!” came after 
a while to his ears, and three years in 
the wilds of Arizona made him strong in 
body, developed his keen resourcefulness and 
taught him the lore of the pioneer and the 
philosophy of the dweller in the desert. It 
was a many-sided, matured young man who 
at twenty, drifted to the coast of California 
and there entered commercial life. Entered 
it, be it said, with a spirit of fairness and 
justice which was a new note in the trading 
- and barter of that crude, adventurous coun¬ 
try, where men made or lost a fortune over 
night and where money and lives alike were 
held cheap. Young Lubin, firm in the teach¬ 
ings of a Godly mother and his own deep- 
rooted instinct for absolute justice in even 
the smallest transactions, announced his 
modest start as proprietor of a struggling 
little shop by hanging out the first “One 
. Price Only” sign seen in the West. Small as 
the shop was, and meager the living won 
from it, Lubin by that step doomed the old 
sharpster method of haggling over prices. 
His fame as an honest merchant gradually 
spread, he carried his principles of equity 
to customers and employees alike into his 
larger ventures, and in time he inaugurated 
the mail-order business as we know it to-day, 
and was well on his way to becoming an ex¬ 
tremely wealthy citizen. 
But all this business career took into no 
account the continual urge towards service, 
the inner conviction that he was a man set 
apart to give his life for others. Lubin all 
his life long was student, a thinker; the 
rapid growth of the West had caused much 
injustice and his keen, analytical mind was 
constantly revolving the problems of his sur¬ 
roundings. After a great deal of such think¬ 
ing, he felt that he had reached the funda¬ 
mental fact in deciding that the condition of 
the farmers determined a country’s real 
prosperity. 
Never a man to argue a subject with 
which he was not thoroughly familiar, he 
turned his back on commercial success, 
bought a farm and started out to learn the 
business, literally “from the ground up.” 
How he fought for equitable railroad rates— 
even making a fiying trip to New York and 
bearding the most stubborn president in his 
den—how he organized the fruit growers, 
educated public opinion, stormed the citadels 
of Washington and used the county-house, 
the store, the rural paper, the farm gate or 
the grange as his pulpit, makes 
a story of tremendous effort and 
a large proportion of success. 
Final Success and Accomplishments 
A trip abroad widened Lubin’s 
own horizon; he began to see how 
the fortunes of farmers the world 
over were inextricably linked and 
gradually there took shape in his 
mind' the idea of a sort of in¬ 
ternational court of justice for 
the farmer and more a clearing house 
which would give him the benefit of mod¬ 
ern business methods both in production 
and marketing. 
The story of Lubin’s fight in America, of 
the opposition from enemy interests and his 
own government, is one of discouragement 
and defeat. The story of his fight abroad, 
culminating in his successful interview with, 
the King of Italy, is one of amazing patience 
and undaunted faith which finally won out 
triumphantly. The International Institute 
of Agriculture was founded—through what 
vicissitudes it requires a volume to tell—and 
Lubin saw it, hampered though it was 
by jealousies, bureaucratic systems and nat¬ 
ural human deficiencies, actually function¬ 
ing. The eloquence and tireless patience 
which finally achieved this end focussed on 
the Institute the attention • of all Europe 
and made the name of Lubin famous alike 
in Italy, France, Austria, Germany and 
Russia. 
International crop reporting, cooperative 
systems of rural credit, the stabilizing of 
ocean freights and new systems for direct 
marketing, are all concrete outgrowths of 
Lubin’s lofty ideal to secure justice between 
men in their economic relations. In many 
other directions his influence was and still is 
felt to a remarkable degree. Yet so self- 
effacing was the man in his lifetime—he bit¬ 
terly disliked publicity, in spite of his belief . 
in aggressive campaigning for an idea—that 
even when he was alive he rarely got full 
credit for his achievements, while after his 
death his name seemed destined to be for¬ 
gotten almost over night. From this final 
ingratitude of a country which, even in his 
hour of success, never gave him more than a 
grudging recognition, his devoted boigrapher 
has saved him. 
CvJ 
One Who Did Much 
F ew who read this ever heard of David Lubin, yet farm peo¬ 
ple owe him much. The crying need of country folk the 
world over is for unselfish leaders and David Lubin qualified. 
Miss Elliot’s article on this page will tell you how. 
