The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-12-03

| price Of our own product. Well, you
know what the result was; and now
we are prepared, like men, to say to
these dealers, I'VE are not coming to
your Office any more, we are not going
to obey orders; we will invite you to
come into conference with us and
agree to a fair and decent price for
our product, and if you don't want to
do that you can't have it." That is
what other business men do. That is
what corporations do and that is what
all kinds of business do. Well, what
happened to us You know it is
curious thing that there have been in
prices of all kinds of commodities; to
raise prices, to fix prices, to hold
prices, but has anything ever been
done about it? Oh, yes, we have the
Sherman Act and we have few other
things of that kind, but was it very
noticeable that any particular thing
you had in mind decreased in price
any? If you know of such an example
as that, 1 would like to see you after
this meeting and have an affidavit
made out; I'd like to hunt that article
up and get the facts.
But when the Dairymen's League
was organized and it stepped on the
dealers and affected their interests,
why it was suddenly discovered that
| this was absolutely most iniquitous
and most wicked proceeding on the
part of the farmers. What right had
they to get up and say that the con-
sumner in New York City should pay
more for his bmilk? That was the
argument. Therefore, being ignorant,
and therefore necessarily wicked, they
had devied an organization to fix and
raise the price of milk. Accordingly,
that eminent district attorney in New
York, Mr. Swami, has induced jury
of our fellow citizens there to indict
seven members of the League. Mind
you, that was after the national gov
eminent and Mr.. Hoover and every
body else had told us to go ahead and
organize and protect our interests, and
that that was the thing for us to do
New York State, through it's State Adj
ministration said, go ahead and or
lganize; that is what you ought to do"
And what happened? The minute we
organized we were threatened last
winter and fall by prosecutions both
from the Federal and State and city
governments. That is what happened.
And this indictment by the jury in
New York came after the decision OF
the Federal Milk Board of New York
State, appointed for the purpose of in
vestigating the prices fixed by the
Dairymen's League nNew York, to
ascertain whether they were fair.
After five weeks of investigation
Mr.. Hoover told me himself that he
would guorontee that this Federal
/ H.,
tual cost of production of milk, would
add to that a fair and decent profit
to the dairy farmer. We are content
with that and we went under the pro-
visions, voluntarily, of this proposal
made by the Food Administration at
Washington. What happened? They
not only endorsed the prices set by
the League last October but they said
we didn't aske enough; that we were
not making any money; and they have
raised the prices of the league for the
month of January.
Now in the face of all that, come
these perfectly foolish indictments OF
the officers of the league for consplr-
acy. Well, am frank to say, gentle
men. l haven't much doubt that we
smashed the Donnelly Act, so-called
in New York to thousand splinters;
we began it when we first made the
move and we have kept it up ever
since. What will be the outsome OF
it, l am not prepared to say. can
only say to you that if 1 were one OF
the seven 1 shouldn't lose a wink OF
sleep over it at all-they are not losing
any in New York, can assure you.
We are speaking about dairy or
CARNATIONS. Now this is dairy or
eanization. but. gentlemen, this is also
a scientific organization; this is an
organization designed to enable you to
get together and discuss matters
which pertain to the betterment of
your herds, the increasing of your pro-
duct, the fertility of your soil, and
things of that kind. The organization
j that l have in mind is a cooperative
organization. There are others, but