American Agriculturist, August 11,1923 
89 
Bradfute Addresses Eastern Farmers 
Albany Meeting Brings Together Farm Bureau Men of Northeastern States 
Y idea of the fundamental pur¬ 
pose of cooperation in general 
and of the farm bureau in par- 
_ _ ticular is that you should each 
help everybody else and that everybody else 
should help you.” This was the fundamental 
thought of 0. E. Bradfute, president of the 
American Farm Bureau Federation, speak¬ 
ing at a meeting of the northeast group of 
Farm Bureau Federations held in Albany 
August 2 and 3. One hundred 
and fifty farm men and women 
were present from all of the 
New England States, New 
York, Delaware, Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey. 
Mr. Bradfute said that the 
best definition of the way to 
cooperate is first to so adjust 
yourself that the other fellow 
can work with you. “The atti¬ 
tude,” he said, “that the great 
industries other than agricul¬ 
ture are scheming and work¬ 
ing all of the time against the 
farmers is wrong. The great 
industries work for themselves 
and that is just what we as 
farmers must do. We must 
apply the same business prin¬ 
ciples in modern farming'that 
make other business successful. 
The solution of our problems 
lies within our own power and 
in our ability to stand shoulder 
to shoulder in working them 
out ourselves.” 
In speaking of the work and 
possibilities of the farm bureau 
organization, President Brad¬ 
fute said that in the past farm¬ 
ers have often come to meet¬ 
ings, discussed their problems, 
passed resolutions and gone 
home. “And there the matter 
ended, for there was no way 
of carrying the thought of those 
resolutions on to the nation and 
expressing the problems of 
agriculture to all of the people 
in such a way as to get action. 
It is the first purpose of the 
American Farm Bureau Fed¬ 
eration to bring the nation’s 
attention to the problems of 
agriculture. We believe that 
this has been done recently as 
never before for farmers and 
their representatives are asked, 
and even begged to come and 
sit around the table with busi¬ 
ness men and others and tell 
what agriculture wants.” 
In outlining the problems 
which seemed to Mr. Bradfute 
to be the most difficult ones facing farmers 
to-day, he said that the greatest problem of 
all is organization itself. Agriculture must 
solve its own problems to a very great ex¬ 
tent, and there is no way to do this except 
through cooperation. The growth of organi¬ 
zation, however, “will depend largely upon 
its ability to solve the other problems. There 
should be no organization for organization 
sake.” 
In discussing transportation, Mr. Bradfute 
pointed out that it affects every farmer in 
the United States and that the difficulty of 
getting his products to market and supplies 
back to his own farm was one of the limiting 
factors in his business. He said that finance 
and marketing were tied up together and 
then showed what had been done in the way 
of securing better credit for farmers and 
how necessary this credit was. 
President Bradfute gave considerable time 
to the discussion of the wheat problem, say¬ 
ing that “there was too much excitement 
about wheat, which was resulting in forcing 
it on to the market too fast.” Furthermore, 
farmers producing many other commodities 
are having just as many troubles as the 
wheat farmers. He outlined the plan of the 
Farm Bureau Federation to solve the wheat 
problem by holding back in warehouses and 
granting to farmers warehouse receipts on 
THE THIRTIETH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF THE UNITED STATES 
Calvin Coolidge and his family—left to right, Calvin, Jr., John C. Coolidge, 
the President’s father, John, and Mrs. Coolidge 
which they could borrow money at the bank. 
He was very emphatic in his statement that 
no price-fixing for wheat or other products 
would ever succeed. 
In discussing marketing, Mr. Bradfute 
said that farmers were good producers, but 
poor salesmen. “What would you say of 
Ford, if he made seven thousand automobiles 
a day, filled his warehouses, and then went 
on filling the streets of Detroit with them, 
without any sales machinery whatever for 
putting them on the market ?” 
The only exception that his audience took 
to President Bradfute’s fine constructive talk 
was to his over-emphasis on the needs and 
importance of Western farming to the ex¬ 
clusion of proper consideration of farm af¬ 
fairs in the East. This lack of consideration 
of the great agricultural empire of Eastern 
United States was decidedly emphasized by 
M. C. Burritt, Director of Extension of the 
New York State College of Agriculture. Mr. 
Burritt struck a responsive chord in his 
audience when he emphatically stated that 
New York and its adjoining States are 
among the greatest States in the production 
of farm products and in the placing of those 
products on the markets through successful 
cooperative organizations. He made it plain 
that the American Farm Bureau and other 
national organizations were not giving our 
Eastern problems enough con¬ 
sideration. 
Mr. Burritt also gave an in¬ 
teresting account of the rise 
and fall of several national 
farm organizations, pointing 
out that no national organiza¬ 
tion could long succeed if it 
were based on economical ap¬ 
peal alone. 
H. E. Babcock, manager of 
the G. L. F. Exchange said 
that cooperative buying of 
farm supplies is one way out 
of our present depression. To 
succeed in such buying, there 
must be “adequate working 
capital, efficient and expert 
management, and large volume 
of business.” No buying or¬ 
ganization should be developed 
unless the farmers are willing 
to meet all of these require¬ 
ments. 
Howard W. Selby, manager 
of the Eastern States Ex¬ 
change, outlined the history 
and work of that New England 
farmers’ buying cooperative 
and showed that that organi¬ 
zation had made steady growth 
during the last five years. 
Mrs. A. E. Brigden, presi¬ 
dent .of the New York State 
Federation of Home Bureaus, 
in a fine talk, said that woman 
wants to feel that she is of 
some real use in the world; 
she wants to be a helper. “How 
can the farm woman best serve 
the agriculture of the United 
States?” was her theme. “No 
matter what we think is the ob¬ 
ject of the work that we are all 
doing, whether it is on the farm 
or in the factory, the real ob¬ 
ject is to make better American 
homes. Home-making is a pro¬ 
fession, and there is too little 
training in our schools and in 
our homes for the girls and the 
young women for this profes¬ 
sion.” 
In speaking of the need of 
children having more milk, 
Mrs. Brigden said: “Too many farmers are 
more interested in keeping the milk can full 
than they are in giving their children 
enough milk. Sometimes they will keep the 
milk out for the young calf, but not for the 
young child.” 
W. E. Skinner, general manager of the 
National Dairy Show and the World’s Dairy 
Congress, to be held October 5 to 13, out¬ 
lined in an interesting talk what a farmer 
might expect to see at the Dairy Show. 
A resolution was passed late in the even¬ 
ing of August 2, extending the congratula¬ 
tions of the farm men and women present 
to President Harding in his apparent re¬ 
covery from his recent illness. But before 
many of those present had retired, the sad 
news came that the President had died. 
In his opening address on August 3rd, 
resident Bradfute delivered a very fine 
to the dead President. 
