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American Agriculturist, December 15, 1923 
Editorial Page of the American 
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 
E. C. Weatherby. ...... Circulation Manager 
contributing staff 
H. E. Cook, Jared Van Wagenen, Jr., H. H. Jones, Paul Work, 
G. T. Hughes, H. E. Babcock 
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Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the Post Office 
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VOL. 112 December 15, 1923 No. 24 
The Unfortunate Milk Situation 
N October 2£, the Board of Directors of 
the Dairymen’s League Cooperative As¬ 
sociation set the price for November Class I or 
fluid milk at $3.45 per hundred pounds. On 
November 12, a special meeting of the League 
Board of Directors reduced the price 65c per 
hundred, or from $3.45 to $2.80. Later, the 
December price was also set at $2.80. 
Previous to the League reduction, the Sheffield 
Farms Company demanded, or the Sheffield 
Farms producers voluntarily made, a reduction to 
$3.05 for November milk, which was 40c a hun¬ 
dred pounds under the first price of $3.45 set by 
the League. This evidently started the price 
cutting, for the League felt that it could .not 
maintain its own market while there was a large 
volume of other milk coming into the market a,t a 
figure so much lower. 
Not to be outdone in the merry game of selling 
the farmers’ milk at the lowest possible price, as 
soon as the League reduced its price, the Sheffield 
Farms made another cut to $2.58, or 22c under the 
present. League price of $2.80. At the same time, 
the companies reduced the price to the consumer 
in the city one cent a quart. But, as is generally 
the case, the consumer did not get the full benefit 
of the 65c reduction to farmers. 
Although considerable energy is being wasted 
by both the poolers and non-poolers in trying to 
put the blame for this unfortunate situation upon 
each other, neither party has emphasized one of 
the chief causes of the whole trouble, which is 
TOO MUCH MILK. 
During the month of September, 1921, there 
was received a daily average in New York City in 
whole milk, cream and condensed milk the 
equivalent of 3,792,480 quarts. In September, 
1922, this daily average had grown to 3,872,280 
quarts; and in September 1923, we shipped into 
New York City the equivalent of 4,119,120 quarts 
of milk per day. During the first ten months of 
1923, the increases over the same period of 1922 
are 1,431,723 forty-quart cans of milk and 24,934 
forty-quart cans of cream. 
If dairymen insist in crowding the last possible 
pound of grain into their cows and constantly 
keeping cows that never have and never will pay 
their costs of production, it can have but one 
effect upon the milk market, and that is to lower 
prices. But even with this oversupplied market, 
the price might have been maintained at this time 
of the year when the retail price of milk is always 
high if the producers and their organizations had 
worked together and applied just a few elementary 
principles of cooperation. This is the time for 
plain speaking. The utterly foolish and terrifically 
expensive warfare among the producers them¬ 
selves and their organizations is costing dairymen 
of this section millions of dollars. 
The League is probably right when it asserts 
that it was forced to reduce its price in order to 
meet the competition of producers not in the 
organization. But if it made its reduction in 
order to take a whack at the non-poolers, the 
action was, in our opinion, absolutely wrong. 
The fundamental duty of the League or any 
other organization of farmers is to sell the 
milk of its members for every cent that can be 
extracted out of the market for it. It may be 
hard for a pooler to feel that he is helping to hold 
the umbrella over his non-pooler neighbor, but he 
should not forget that when he lowers the um¬ 
brella to spite his neighbor, he also lets the rain 
in on his own head. 
Nor do we hold any brief for those producers 
who first lowered the price. It does not matter 
who started it; it is all a costly foolish business, 
and all a result of an absurd situation which exists 
here in the East, particularly in New York State, 
to which American Agriculturist has called 
attention several times. There are at least four 
milk producers’ organizations, including the 
Dairymen’s League Cooperative Association, 
Sheffield Producers, the Eastern States Milk 
Producers and the Non-pool Organization, all 
working independently of each other and at cross¬ 
purposes, each group meeting the organized 
dealers separately and each trying to set its own 
price entirely irrespective of all the other milk 
coming into the city. 
No one of these groups has anywhere near the 
majority of the milk. No one group can control 
the situation. The result is chaos in the market 
and it will continue to be chaos until some kind 
of a working scheme of federation and coopera¬ 
tion among the milk organizations is developed. 
Is it not time that dairymen insisted upon a little 
cooperation that really cooperates? 
The President’s Message 
T HE long-awaited and eagerly expected first 
message of President Coolidge, “The Silent 
President,” was delivered to the joint session of 
Congress at 12:30 P. M. on Thursday, December 
6th. When the President had finished reading his 
message, no one could have any doubt as to his 
position on practically all of the leading national 
and international problems which now confront 
the country. Briefly summarized, his position oi^ 
some of these outstanding problems was stated 
as follows: 
TAX REDUCTION. “It is possible to make a large 
reduction in the taxes of the people. I have no hesitation 
in declaring this to be paramount. ... A proposed plan 
has been presented by the Secretary of the Treasury which 
has my unqualified approval.” 
BONUS. “Rehabilitation and vocational training 
must be completed. ... I do not favor the granting of 
the bonus.” 
AGRICULTURE. “No complicated scheme of relief, no 
plan of government fixing of price, no resort to the public 
treasury will be of any permanent value in establishing 
agriculture. Simple and direct methods put into opera¬ 
tion by the farmer himself are the only real sources for res¬ 
toration. 
“Indirectly, the farmers must be relieved by a reduc¬ 
tion of national and local taxation. He must be assisted 
by the reorganization of the freight rate structure which 
would reduce charges on his products. To make this fully 
effective, there ought to be railroad consolidations. 
Cheaper fertilizers must be provided.” 
LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND WORLD COURT. 
The President made it clear that he did not favor our 
country joining in the League of Nations, but that he did 
favor the establishment of a World Court. 
IMMIGRATION. “It is necessary to continue a poU 
Agriculturist 
icy of restricted immigration. America must be kept 
American.” 
PROHIBITION. “It is my duty to enforce the laws. 
It is the duty of a citizen not only to observe the law, but 
to let it be known that he is opposed to its violation.” 
FOREIGN DEBTS. “Financial obligations between 
nations are moral obligations.” 
ARMY AND NAVY. “Both of these services should 
be strengthened.” • 
RUSSIA. “We will enter no relation with another re¬ 
gime which refuses to recognize the sanctity of inter¬ 
national 'obligations.” 
SHIPPING. “Government-owned merchant marines 
should be transferred as soon as possible to private 
ownership.” 
Eastman’s Chestnuts 
N one of the registration days this fall I 
stood in line waiting the chance to tell all of 
ray personal history so that Uncle Sara would let 
me vote. Ahead of me in line was a lady whom the 
registration clerk was asking the long list of 
questions. 
“What is your age?” he asked. , 
“Thirty-two,” she replied. 
“Thunder,” whispered the man behind me, 
“if that old maid sees forty again. Ell eat my hat.” 
Maybe he was right, but my sympathy was 
with the lady;. If she gets any pleasure out of 
sticking around thirty-two for the rest of her years, 
why, I say it is nobody’s business but her own. 
Times have changed. An old maid is no longer 
an old maid. After the Civil War, aiid the excite¬ 
ment of Gettysburg, Winchester, Petersburg and 
a hundred other fights, thousands of boys could 
not reconcile themselves to the monotonous hand 
work of the lonesome hill farms in the East. So 
many of them went to the cities and many others 
opened the great West. 
But the girls of the eastern farms were left 
behind. Only the good Lord will ever know the 
tragedy of loneliness and heartache of those many 
thousands of country girls whose chances for a 
natural happy married life went glimmering when 
the boys went to the war or to the West. And the 
worst of it was, all they could do was to patiently 
endure with a meek attitude of folded hands even 
to the extent of being more or less pitied or ridi¬ 
culed as an “old maid.” 
Today it is different, and I for one am glad of it. 
Women have learned to take their place in the 
world’s work as never before and a real old maid 
is as scarce as a Dodo. Not that there are not a 
lot of unmarried women, but they have learned 
how to keep themselves young in spirit at least, 
and how to take part in the world affairs as a 
normal human being until finally along comes a 
man they think they can boss in double harness 
without his knowing it. Then they set about to 
make him propose. 
of no uncertain years, was riding 
recently on a western train when it was held up 
by two robbers. One of them was a tall, handsome 
fellow and the other much shorter and not very 
good looking. 
“Now,” said the tall robber, “we’ll rob all of 
the men and kiss all of the ladies.” 
“Naw,” said the short fellow, “we’ll rob the men 
all right, but we’ll leave the women strictly alone.” 
“You shut up,” said the maiden lady, who had 
overheard the conversation, “that tall man is 
running this train robbery!” 
The United States Department of Agriculture 
in a recent report stated that eight or ten billions 
of dollars must go into the renewal of equipment 
on farms in the next ten years. Since the war the 
farm people have been getting along with as little 
equipment as possible. They have patched up 
the fences and repaired the farm machinery so 
far as they could themselves. This practice 
cannot be carried on indefinitely. New ma¬ 
terial must soon replace much worn beyond 
repair. Therefore, one of the first evidences of 
the farmer’s return to moderate prosperity will 
be increased purchases of farm machinery and 
supplies. This is made all the more necessary 
by the great shortage of labor which necessitates 
the use of a machine in every possible place where 
it is at all practical. 
