"Hold Your Milk!"

As he tugged at his cow's udders, the ordinary dairyman of the great dairy State of New York had plenty to bother him last week besides keeping Bossy's tail out of his eyes.

For one thing there was the babassu, bassoba, baguassu, aguassu, uauassu or guaguassu, a palm tree that grows in Brazil. From the outcries of the Dairy Union and National Co-operative Milk Producers Federation, the New York dairyman had learned to deplore the babassu, its hefty nuts, the childlike Brazilians who skilfully crack them with axes, the oil pressed from their kernels which is not only an ideal fuel for Diesel engines but also a cheap base for oleomargarine.

In 1934 when dairymen's lobbyists got a 3-c- a Ib. tax on coconut oil and other imported oils suitable for oleomargarine, they completely overlooked babassu. What was worse, the State Department in February 1935 concluded a trade agreement with Brazil promising to impose no tariffs on the babassu nut or its oil for three years starting Jan. 1, 1936.

In his paper the dairyman read that the Department of Commerce had just announced the discovery by a German of a new method of keeping milk for a long time without refrigeration. By sealing the containers with oxygen, a shipment of fresh milk from Rotterdam to Capetown and back was found after 60 days' travel to be "unchanged in taste, nourishing qualities or chemical consistency." Plain was the possibility of future importations of fresh milk from Europe or South America by this method.

Closer to home were graver distractions. Butter prices were skyhigh. New Yorkers at Buffalo, where butter was selling at 37-c- per Ib., were crossing to Fort Erie, Ont., buying the stuff for 24-c- per Ib. in spite of a vigilant campaign by U. S. customs agents against butter-legging. High butter prices did not indicate prosperity for Bossy's boss. On the contrary, drought has parched pastures of New York's great Mohawk Valley, sent feed prices up as much as 70%. Hard as it might be on city folks, it looked as if the dairyman would have to get more for his milk from the processors and distributors. And he needed it bad enough to risk the physical and financial hazards of a milk strike.

New York dairymen staged a milk strike in 1933. Following it, the State passed laws regulating wholesale and retail prices of milk, made it a criminal offense for a distributor to buy or a retailer to sell milk below prices set by the Agricultural Commissioner. Under these regulations wholesale milk prices varied according to the use the milk was put to. Drinking milk was in one class, brought $2.45 per cwt.* Milk to be made into ice cream, butter, cheese brought from $1.20 to $1.90. On the average, after deductions for freight and handling many a farmer netted only about $1.50 per cwt.

The dairymen made least happy by the State scale and the summer's drought were a pair of brothers named Stanley and Felix Piseck. Born in Peru, Ill. of Polish parents, they, still own a farm there, have lived for the past 16 years near Poland, N. Y. where they operate four farms. They led New York's milk strike of 1933 which failed to enlist solid support. This year their agitation for better milk prices has found much more sympathy. They claim 45,000 of the State's 1,000,000 dairy farmers as members of their New York Milk Producers Federation. They claim the support of 40,000 more.

Month ago, to still growing discontent in the cow counties, the State Commission of Agriculture upped the price of fluid milk to $2.70 per cwt., the price of milk for other uses to $2.05. The Pisecks retorted by demanding $3 for all milk regardless of the use to which it was put. Last week they were storming through the State, stumping like politicians for higher milk prices. Of Governor Lehman they demanded a special session of the Legislature to empower the Commission to establish a uniform price. The Governor apologetically declined.

Cried younger Brother Felix Piseck at Delhi: "I'm the last man in this crowd who wants a strike, but if we can't get rid of the classified plan any other way, we must keep our milk at home." There was hearty applause.

Cried older Brother Stanley Piseck: "Be men! We are going to have the masses with us to tear out this crime. Let me tell you brave men of the hills this: Don't be crybabies. Hold your milk!"

Three days later New York City's big milk distributors, including Borden's and Sheffield Farms, boosted the retail price of Grade B milk from 13-c- per qt. to 14-c- per qt., voluntarily raised the price paid farmers for fluid milk to $2.87 per cwt.

A meeting of milk producers in Syracuse retorted by wiring the Governor: "What do you advise to avert a milk holiday? Immediate reply desired." Caught in an election year between his milk-producing and his milk-consuming constituents, all that Herbert Lehman could think of was to order his Commissioner of Agriculture to call a conference.

*A hundred pounds of milk is approximately 47 quarts.

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