M 
Editorial Page of the American 
American 
Agriculturist, January 
20 , 192 > 
Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm .' Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
BiRGE Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. VONDERLEITH . . . Circulation Manager 
contributing EDITORS 
Herbert E. Cook .... Flow Handle Talks 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Corner 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
George T. Hughes .... Investment Adviser 
Dr. S. K. Johnson .... Veterinary Adviser 
OUR ADVERTISEMENTS GUARANTEED 
The American Agriculturist accepts only advertis¬ 
ing which it believes to be thoroughly honest. 
We positively guarantee to our readers fair and 
honest treatment in dealing with our advertisers. 
We guarantee to refund the price of goods pur¬ 
chased by our subscribers from any advertiser who 
fails to make good when the article purchased is 
found not to be as advertised. 
To benefit by this guaranty subscribers must say: 
“I saw your ad in the American Agriculturist” when 
ordering from our advertisers. 
Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3,1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. Ill January 20, 1923 NO. 3 
Stand by the League 
F or a thousand years before the founda¬ 
tion of America the principle of demo¬ 
cratic institutions where all men have equal 
rights was more or less of a theory. The 
founding of America was a great experiment 
to see whether that theory had any practical 
application. The American Civil War put 
the principle of political freedom to the 
final test of blood and firmly established it 
upon a basis which will endure to the end of 
time. As we remember that terrific struggle 
taking place between Americans, most of 
them farmers, and the terrible feelings of 
uncertainty and suffering which they were 
enduring, we can have some understanding 
of the feeling that inspired those immortal 
words which Lincoln delivered at Gettys¬ 
burg. When he said: 
“Fourscore and seven years ago our 
fathers brought forth upon this continent 
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi¬ 
cated to the proposition that all men are 
created equal. 'Now we are engaged in a 
great civil war, testing whether that nation, 
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, • 
can long endure.” 
As people struggled for a thousand years 
to gain political liberty, so they are strug¬ 
gling now for economic freedom and in this 
struggle there is no one so much interested 
in the final results as the farmer.^ For years 
he has been working on the principle^ that 
the way to earn economic freedom is by 
cooperation. That theory is now being put 
to test. In the next few months, farmers 
will determine whether cooperation is merely 
a much talked-of theory or whether it has 
actual practical application. . As Lincoln’s 
words applied to the political struggle, they 
apply equally well to the present one. We 
are engaged in a great economic struggle 
to see whether the principle of cooperation 
dedicated to the proposition that those who 
work are entitled to just share of what they 
earn, testing whether that principle can long 
endure. 
Particularly from now until the end of the 
February cancellation period will the mem¬ 
bers of the Dairymen’s League Cooperative 
Association be put to a test to determine the 
stuff they are really made of. If they secede 
from the League as the Southerners seceded 
from the Union, confidence will be destroyed 
not only among dairymen, but in all other 
lines of cooperation and the busine^ of farm 
marketing will be set back many years. 
Without doubt there are farmers in the 
League territory who would make better 
leaders than some of those now in charge of 
League affairs. Without doubt the League 
has made many mistakes. On the other 
hand, it has been doing a pioneer work and 
mistakes were unavoidable and the fact re¬ 
mains that it has achieved results. It is a 
crude machine, to be sure, but it is an im¬ 
provement over old-fashioned methods and 
it cannot be made better by smashing it. 
As for its officers, time and opportunity for 
making needed changes will come in due 
course. 
But the immediate job is to save your 
business by standing by it and by working 
out your problems in your organization from 
within. The membership of the League have 
a great responsibility and they will be equal 
to it. 
Committee of 21 Receives Support 
EPRESENTATIVES of the Committee 
of 21 are finishing a long list of meet¬ 
ings which has been held in practically every 
rural county in New York State to discuss 
the suggestions which the Committee has 
made for the improvement of rural schools. 
This series of meetings makes the second 
time that the Committee has been over the 
State to get in touch with the rural people 
on the school question. The first time mass 
meetings were held in many different coun¬ 
ties to get opinions and suggestions from 
the people on which many of the Committee’s 
recommendations for school improvement 
are based. 
Of course, not all approve the suggestions 
for school improvement which the Committee 
of 21 is making, but rural people are pretty 
nearly unanimous that there has been a sin¬ 
cere effort made to work out a school pro¬ 
gram which will lead to better educational 
opportunities for country boys and girls, and 
judging by the sentiment of those who at¬ 
tended recent meetings, there seems to be 
at least a majority of farm men and women 
who are in agreement with the fundamental 
recommendations of the Committee’s report. 
Prices Determine Production 
AN Ex-Secretary of Agriculture recently 
jTAmade the statement that during the war 
the farmers of America increased the num¬ 
ber of acres under cultivation by forty mil¬ 
lion ; increased the number of head of live 
stock by eighteen million and at the same 
time sent one million of their boys to war. 
In the same statement he said that all that is 
needed to increase production is an increased 
price for farm products. 
We have before us a letter from a sub¬ 
scriber on this same subject who says: “Have 
we forgotten that when millions of our men 
were removed and more food was needed with 
which to feed the world it was promptly 
forthcoming? Are we unaware that when 
the price of any given commodity approaches 
the cost of production the farmers promptly 
bring it down by flooding the market with 
that particular article? If farm products 
sold even fairly profitably the labor now 
available would swamp every city in the land 
with a bewildering surplus and every in¬ 
telligent American knows cheap labor means 
agricultural ruin.” 
The history of agriculture is completely 
filled with examples of increased produc¬ 
tion following increased prices. No longer 
ago than November, 1922, there was a seri¬ 
ous shortage of milk. One not acquainted 
with the dairy business would think that the 
only way to increase the milk supply is to in¬ 
crease the number of cows. But the facts 
are, at the present time, only two months 
after the shortage there is an oversupply of 
milk. Why? Because the price during No¬ 
vember, December and January was com¬ 
paratively good. The farmers took better 
care of their cows and fed more grain, thus 
increasing the supply for each animal, mak¬ 
ing a large increase in total with the nat¬ 
ural result that the price will have to come 
down again. If those who are constantly 
wondering about lack of production on the 
farm, about the boys leaving the farms for 
the city and of the need of bringing in more 
farm labor from Europe, would give a lit¬ 
tle more study to economic facts, we would 
have less foolish talk about the danger of 
over production. 
Must Be Measured by Service 
T he final test of whether the future mar¬ 
ket business of farming is to be run by 
the usual business agencies or by Cooperative 
Organizations depends entirely upon which 
can render the more service. We believe 
there is a place for both. Take the Grange 
League Federation Exchange, commonly 
known as the-^G. L. F.,” for example. This 
cooperative organization which has for its 
purpose the cooperative purchase of farm 
supplies is of tremendous value to every 
farmer. Its business is increasing in vol¬ 
ume; it handles only the highest quality 
product and it is teaching farmers the value 
of quality, but its greatest use to its farmers 
is its indirect influence on the supplies the 
farmer buys, whether he buys therrv from 
the G. L. F. or from some other source. 
In a conversation with a retail feed dealer 
recently, he told us that farmers had little 
appreciation of the great eifect that the 
G. L. F. business was having upon the whole 
farm supply market in keeping the cost of 
feed and other supplies within teasonable 
limits and in making it necessary for every 
dealer to improve the quality of his product 
in order to meet the G. L. F. competition. 
We hope that farmers will appreciate this 
indirect service and see to it that the co¬ 
operative organization gets enough volume 
of business to maintain a strong organiza¬ 
tion without a too high overhead expense on 
the supplies handled. At the same time we 
know that there is appreciation on the part 
of farmers for the good service that has 
been rendered by many feed and other local 
dealers and we do not think it to the interest 
of agriculture to have all of these dealers 
eliminated. We do not think the manage¬ 
ment of the G. L. F. would, if they had the 
opportunity, eliminate them. In fact there 
are many dealers already working with the 
G. L. F. * The dealer who is content with a 
reasonable profit, who is on the job to serve 
his farmer customers all of the time and 
who takes a constructive instead of a de¬ 
structive attitude toward cooperative com¬ 
petition will have a welcome and a safe place 
in the farm supply service. 
Quotations Worth While 
Avoid debt as you would the devil.— 
Henry Ward Beecher. 
^ ^ ^ 
Genius is one per cent inspiration and 
ninety-nine per cent perspiration. —Edison. 
He who reforms himself has done more 
toward reforming the public than a crowd 
of noisy, impotent patriots. 
