354 
American Ascriculturist, April 21,192S 
School Bill Receives United Support 
Organizations and Individuals Ask Passage at Large Legislative Hearing 
AS announced last week, a joint hearing 
/% was given by the. Senate and As- 
/" sembly Committees on Education 
JL JL of the New York State Legislature 
on Wednesday, April 11, on the Downing- 
Hutchinson Rural School Bill. This bill con¬ 
tains the suggestions of the Committee of 
Twenty-one. There was an immense amount 
of interest in the hearing as shown by the 
large attendance of several hundred people 
who filled the Assembly Chamber. 
The opposition to the bill spoke first. 
There were several speakers who voiced their 
objections to the proposed legislation. Most 
of them were rather vague, not making any¬ 
thing clear in their talks except that they 
were opposed to the suggestions of the Com¬ 
mittee of Twenty-one and to the Rural School 
Bill. Several of these speakers discredited 
themselves and their whole argument with 
the audience, and particularly with the Leg¬ 
islative Committee, by attacking the sin¬ 
cerity and honesty of the Committee of 
Twenty-one and the leaders of the various 
farm and other organizations. A very good 
talk was made,, however, by Mr. D. B. Deven- 
dorf, a farmer of Montgomery County, who 
voiced his objections clearly and courteously. 
Mr. Devendorf was particularly opposed to 
having the law passed this year. 
We have never attended a legislative hear¬ 
ing where those in favor of the passage were 
as representative as those who spoke for this 
Rural School Bill on April 11. Mr. Albert 
Manning, Secretary of the Dairymen’s 
League Cooperative Association, Inc., and 
Master of the New York State Grange, made 
it plain that the resolutions on education 
passed by the last State meeting of the 
Grange at Syracuse were, with one exception, 
exactly in accord with the proposals in the 
Rural School Bill. During the hearing, rep¬ 
resentatives of several Pomona Granges sub¬ 
mitted resolutions passed by their Grange, 
endorsing this legislation. Mr. Enos Lee, 
President of the New York State Farm Bu¬ 
reau Federation, said that this great organi¬ 
zation of farmers was back of the School Bill 
and urged its immediate passage. Mr. N. F. 
Webb, speaking both for the Dairymen's 
League Cooperative Association, Inc., and the 
G. L. F. Exchange, of which he is now presi¬ 
dent, said that these organizations were in fa¬ 
vor of the immediate passage of the School Bill. 
Mrs. A. E. Brigden, President of the New 
York State Federation of Home Bureaus, 
read the names of representative women of 
the State who were present at the hearing 
from different counties and sections, sent 
there by women’s organizations which they 
represented, to place themselves and their 
organizations on record in favor of this bill. 
Mrs. Brigden said that the rural women of 
this State are particularly interested in 
getting for their children better educational 
opportunities, that everybody knows such 
opportunities must soon be provided, and 
that the women are beginning emphatically 
to ask, “Eventually, why not now?” Mrs. 
Brigden was further supported in this state¬ 
ment by representatives of the League of 
Women Voters and by a representative of 
farm women of Dutchess County. 
Mr. Peter Brady, an officer in the New 
York State Federation of Labor, urged the 
immediate passage of the Bill, saying that 
people in the cities fully realize that some 
of their best blood comes from the country, 
and that all would suffer if there were any 
lack of educational opportunities for coun¬ 
try children. A representative of th^ Ameri¬ 
can Legion stated that this organization 
urged the passage of the Rural School Bill, 
feeling that equal educational opportunity 
was one of the fundamental ideals of this 
country which mexnbers of the Legion had 
lately defended in the World War. Com¬ 
missioner Graves of the New York State De¬ 
partment of Education stated that he favored 
this bill because it was sound educationally 
and because it had originated with repre¬ 
sentatives of the people. 
Mr. MacManus, a school district superin¬ 
tendent from Otsego County, in leading op¬ 
position to the Bill, stated that the district 
superintendents of the State were opposed 
to this legislation. A score or more superin¬ 
tendents who were present vehemently and 
emphatically denied this statement, stating 
that a majority of the superintendents of 
the State favored the Downing Bill. 
Many other organizations and prominent 
individuals were present to give their sup¬ 
port, including the New York State Teach¬ 
ers’ Association, the New York State Agri¬ 
cultural Society, the Dairymen’s League 
News, tlie American Agriculturist, Mr. 
Morgan Garlock, President of the Eastern 
States Milk Producers’ Association, Mr. 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., a representative 
farmer of Scoharie County, and farmer 
delegations and individuals from many rural 
counties. 
At the close of this hearing, there could 
be little doubt with the members of the Leg¬ 
islative Joint Committee, or with anybody 
else who approached the situation with an 
open mind, of the tremendous amount of 
representative sentiment throughout the 
State in favor of the immediate passage of 
this legislation. It is, of course, impossible 
for anyone to predict whether or not it will 
pass this year. The political situation which 
results in a deadlock between the Senate and 
the Assembly makes the passage of any law, 
no matter how desirable, e.xtremely doubt¬ 
ful. The hearing was valuable in bringing 
out the great need for this legislation and 
the large amount of constructive support 
there is for it, all of which means that the 
bill is certain of passage either this year 
or next. 
“Merchandise and Avoid Market Gluts” 
Aaron Sapiro's Message to Empire State Potato Growers at Rochester Meeting 
P RACTICALLY the entire meeting of 
the Empire State Potato Growers’ 
Association held on April 11, in the 
Chamber of Commerce Auditorium 
in Rochester, was given over to the discus¬ 
sion of marketing of potatoes with Aaron 
Sapiro, counsel of several successful Cali¬ 
fornia farm cooperatives, holding the center 
of the discussion. His discussion of cooper¬ 
ative marketing of potatoes held the assembly 
of the 400 growers present, spellbound. He 
set forth the principles of cooperative mar¬ 
keting in a definite, concrete manner, leav¬ 
ing no doubt that cooperative marketing is 
a piece of real intensive high-powered busi¬ 
ness. 
In opening the meeting. President K. C. 
Livermore of Monroe County presented in 
a concise way the main problem that faces 
the potato growers to-day. He said, “The 
lack of sufficient volume makes it difficult 
to operate at a sufficiently low cost to make 
the enterprise efficient. Therefore it is most 
apparent that a State-wide organization must 
be perfected, if orderly and profitable mer¬ 
chandising of potatoes is to be effected.” Fol¬ 
lowing the introductory remarks of Mr. 
Livermore, Mr. Sapiro was introduced and 
held the floor for the greater part of the 
remainder of the meeting. 
In 'opening his address and before going 
into the discussion of the construction of the 
cooperative, Mr. Sapiro paid high tribute to 
the Dairymen’s League Cooperative Associ- 
tion, saying that it was one of the greatest 
cooperative accomplishments in the world, 
especially when there is taken into considera¬ 
tion the difficulty in handling such a highly 
perishable product as milk. 
According to Mr. Sapiro, of all the cooper¬ 
atives in California and the Pacific Coast, 
there are only two that have not been through 
the process of reorganization. Many have 
rebrganized repeatedly, each time eliminating 
an undesirable feature and finally arriving 
at the ideal. Mr. Sapiro said: “There is no 
disgrace in failure. It is a disgrace to fail 
when we have the right plant before us to 
use as a basis. In organizing a cooperative, 
it is as essential to study failures as well as 
successes, for by eliminating those factors 
that allow failure we are able to eliminate 
just so much danger of ultimate disaster. 
No farmer should join the cooperative simply 
because his neighbor is a member or a 
neighbor wishes him to. He should join be¬ 
cause he wants to.” 
The Aim of Cooperative Marketing 
The aim of cooperative marketing was de¬ 
fined by Mr. Sapiro in just four words— 
“Stop dumping, substitute merchandising.” 
To elaborate his idea he used the potato sit¬ 
uation of 1922 in Maine. Early in the season 
forecasts of a huge crop were distributed 
among growers by speculators. Many of 
the farmers were scared into digging their 
crop early with the thought in mind that 
they would be able to sell their crop and get 
“out from under” before the crash came. The 
result was a glut on the market. Even the 
speculators were over-fiooded with the crop 
and in their haste to dispose of their hold¬ 
ings, less they suffer a loss, allowed them¬ 
selves to be bid against and whipped-sawed 
by the consignment brokers who bid the 
crop down with the result that "the market 
broke. Digging was stopped and 70,000,000 
bushels rotted in the ground. Nothing more 
than a normal crop actually moved into con¬ 
sumption and it was this crop that moved 
into market that should have set the price. 
As a matter of fact the price was set by the 
crop that was dug as well as the 70,000,000 
bushels that rotted, a price far below the cost 
of production. Had there been a clear-cut, 
thoroughly planned scheme of merchandising, 
the undug crop would have established the 
price and there never would have been a glut 
on the market. The surplus would have 
been rented out to other markets. 
The Maine growers have now organized 
on a State-wide basis. Over 60 per cent who 
control over 50 per cent of the crop (a neces¬ 
sary factor in cooperative marketing) have 
signed long-term pooling contracts. They 
are going to grade their crop and make d 
study of markets. Hithertofore, Maine 
growers apparently considered there were 
only two markets for their potatoes in the 
whole world. New York and Boston. Under 
. {Continued on jmge 360) 
( 
k 
