Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1896-10-01
A Creamery Lesson.

why the price Of butter is falling of
affecting so seriously one Of Dickin
son courty's best industries. Cream
cry butter has sold here all summer
at 16 cents, at least 4 cents lower
than ever before. He explained thai
the price OF butter was low, because
thousands Of laboring men in the
cities being out Of employment were
not eating butter, but were buying
oleomargarine and other cheap imita'
tons Of butter.
The manager went on to explain
that a ceamery in Kansas, Nebraska
or Iowa depended upon the big cities
for its customers. In small towns
many Of the people keep cows of their
own, but in the big cities such as
Denver, Kansas City, Omaha, St.
Paul, Minneapolis and Chicago, where
thousands Of laborng men are gather
ed, the farmers find their best Gus
toners not only for dairy products
but all the other food products OF the
! farm. The families Of these laboring
men are extravagant eaters and ex-
travagant buyers Of farm products
when they have the money to buy
with.
When the laboring men in these
cities are employed they consume
vast quantities Of butter, eggs, flour,
meal, beef and poultry. The thou
sands OF creameries in Kansas, Iowa
and Nebraska had more orders for
their product than they could supply
before the Democratic panic stopped
the industries in the cities and threw
the laboring men out Of work. In
the last two years the demand for
for food products have been less and
less, showing that the families of the
laboring men in the cities are grow
more and more economical in their
consumption Of food.
In long conversation with the
manager Of the creamery, these farm
ers gathered the idea, as they had
never understood it before, that the
food-producing farm is dependent
upon the food-consuming city for its
market and that the price Of food and
the demand for it depends upon the
employment at good wages of the
laboring people of the cities. This
much the farmers had already under
stood in general way, but they had
never stopped to realize the far more
important truth, that the manage
ment Of these great labor employing
industries devolves entirely upon the
trained business minds of the heads
of these industries whom the Popo-
cratic orators now denounce as"pluto-
Gratis" and "enemies of the common
people" 1t is very fine sport for elo-
quent oflice-seeking politicians to de-
nounce the men who manage the
labor industries, to call them "pluto-
Gratis, f" "goldbugs," "robbers," sop
and other offensive names,
but after all these eloquent speeches
have been delivered and after all this
talk has had its effect
upon the farmer mind, the truth, the
great truth, still remains that the
mind of the business man must orig
mate all the plans for the employ
ment of idle labor, and whether these
industries are little by little enlarged
each year, employing more and more
men, or whether they are little by
little narrowed each year, employing
less and less men, depends, not upon
the judgment or the political views
of the men employed, but upon the
Judgment of the men who employ.
When the farmers in the country and
the laborers in the city suffer them
selves to be led into some great ma
tional movement which the business
mind believes is dangerous, then this
business mind, in order to protect
The interests over which it presides,
begins the process of narrowing its
operations to suit the new conditi )ns.
To open the mills will give these
aborers employment.
To open the minis will not.
Which do creamery patrons PREFER
IT. Z. q nn~~1s.k