Norwich bulletin., 1921-07-01


 getting so numerous tAese days, that it is difficult 10 keep track of them all. Or to know whether they are always gen. uine or occasionally faked. confess that I don't know what the National Board of Farm Organizations IS. for in- stance. But it's secretary, Charles Ly- man. states that it has two million mem- bers. If that be true it is quite a bunch. Especially if they are all practical farm CTS
 HSweter, i am just at this minute less interested in this national board" or h its possible size than l am in a fresh illustration which Secretary Lyman has ] dug out of Where the Money Goes We farmers know from sad experience that, when we want 10 buy something at the st7re-sonething made or produced else w-here--1ve have te.pay an exorbitsns not 70 say a piratical price. We also know that when we have something os our own 70 seii We can't -st any better if as good price as we got before the war. Ev- oTythlng VIC must buy is dear every thing we can sell is cheap. strnns 10 say. the city workman who helps make some of the goods We have to buy and who has 10 buy son1e of the things VIC produce. makes an exactly similar complaint. He is tremendously overcharged for products originating on the farm. yet. at the same time, gets no fair proportion of the price which farm- CTS eventually pay for tae goods he helps usnufactiire
 Secretary Lyman has made a little computation, based on these assertions and the facts they enabled him 10 bring 70 light Taking present prices for both tarm-produced goods and farm-consumed goods he f7sn= that when Ta -r.a- Da,-y Slo0 for some shop or factory made com modHy he pays on an average S35 for Inc commodity he buys and s65 to the railroads and the urofteers that pass it To him.
 Per contra, when the city workman vsho hei7ed make the commodities which Inc farmer bought pure ases for his own fsruiiy's consumption s100 worth of food which the farmer produced. he pays s62 70 the railroads and the in-between prof iteers. and only s3S ever reaches the farmer. -t
 Thus" says Mfr Lyman. tout of the f2oo spent-s100 hy-t the city man and 9i00 by the farmer-other husinesses eet Sl24 for merely moving around the commodities bought" This leaves only 'Ia actually paid for the goods them selves. =. Y,
 An of this Is just fresh nIustrs4ion i- slightly different terms. of the o,d complaint against cur exiating system of distribution. We are tolerahle efficient 1 producing and making things We farmers produce every year a good many ti'iioH dollars worth of c-ors and live stock for foods Ss0 GOO 900 .000 T-o4tn. ono report makes it The vvorkrren of '1' shops and factories produea 2 good many billions more Of mantfsctrred geods. There are enough Of both sorts 70 go all 'round-enough and 3 surplus 70 spare for abroad Moreover. the foods arc produced and the manufactured roods made at fairly reasonable costs. Cp Co this point we ore all abou. as ef- acicnt as shouli be asked.
 But when you come to the next stngs. lfat ot distribution. you get into mud iied maze which is neither efficient nor economical nor even tolerable. It is a iabryrinthine No-Thoroughfare. It is a mammoth Circumiocution Office. Ij is the most imposing example in all modern life of How Not 10 Do It.
 lt is not efficient for 1t does not bring producer and consumer within arms reach of each other. Instead. 1t holds ftem constantly farther and farther apart. and throws ever increasing difi- cnities in the way Of their meeting.
 lt f5 not economical for it charges you more for merely passing the cup into your hands than the total value of cup and contents, both-more than cup ana contents both cost 1t to start with.
 It has nnaIlY become SC intoIeraSIe taat revolt Is springing up in many dif- feront quarters. Almost all the farm, orEanizations to which l have referred are born in hostility to 1t and nurtured Co uEht against it Here and there dis. tineily labor organizations are also beginning to descry their real enemy md 10 aim their blows at l.
 To all crusades Of this character we can cheerfully giva out best wishes. Tt ali movements seeking 10 reduce the real cost Of living 5y cutting out the wastes and robheries of an iniquitous system oi a!d.
 Eot. after ali, H is in the future ei wiGe-s7read individual action that thu best hope Hes Organization is a DOW. -rtul ally. Sometimes. however, l fesl that we are moderately inclined to uu- loo much dependence upon it. I aRret with you. of course. that a million men all pulling together, will effect more thar Inc same million can, pulling and hauin. n different directions and sometine zgainst each other.
 But the inevitable tendency of organ izntion Is. not only to bring men to fol low their leaders but what Is quite dif serent, 10 depend upon those leaders an, iie down on the job themselves. I Snoolcs knows that he is one of a milIio, nulling on certain rope, he is apt f. relax when the sun gets rot and hi palms begin 10 blister. "Just one won 5o missed" he argues so drops his hol and lies down by the roadside fo a snooze. Nor will one be much missed But when scores and hundreds an, housands feel the same way and do tn ssmo thing. 1t too often happens tha he outcome is disastrous. X few devote saders will keep on pulling but behin hem the slackened rope will trail i highway dust between two ranks c rosdssde slsegsrs.
 Tt is still true and always will be tha hose "who would Dc free themselve must strike the blow" Orgznizatio VIII never toke the place of individus -onvsction and determination. All it ca do Is 10 co-ordi1,te such individual qua 'tcs into active alliance and thus con 1ine their Aggregate effectiveness. But .s no substitute for them.
 have recently read Q disuatch froS Houlton, Me. Tetch quotes the price ( potstoes 10 farmers of sotAhern Aeoos took codnty al forty cents a barrel Som of tho surplus has been Staken care ( by starch factories but 45. .o00 barrels perfectly good potatoes are said to hay been dumped on the fields by potato EroWeTs of that one county to rot an be plowed in for fertilizer.
 kiEht there Is indicated to me enc ( the disadvantages of specialized faru,io. Aroostook county seems to be natural Il sdApeed to potatoes Hence it's farmer