1893 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
417 
THE PROSPECT. 
No question about taxation has lately attracted such 
keen and widespread interest throughout the country 
as the proposed imposition of a national income tax on 
incomes above a certain figure. One of the chief points 
urged by its opponents is that through the trickery 
and perjury of those liable to it, it would never amount 
to enough to make any material increase in the rev¬ 
enue. Under the act of 1864 levying such a tax, the 
Government collected the following amounts during 
1866: 
Dividends on bank stock.$4,240,690 
Dividends on Insurance steck. 783,882 
On salaries of United States officers. 3,717,366 
Dividends on railroad companies. 3,461.769 
On Incomes exceeding SHOD and under $5,000, at 5 p. c... 26.046,760 
On Incomes of $5,000 and over, at 10 p. c. 34.501.li6 
On Incomes of ca al and turnpike companies. 230,567 
$72.- 82.160 
Then the population of the country was hardly 
35,000,000; now it is about 67,000,000, and wealth has 
increased in much greater ratio than population. In¬ 
deed most of the large fortunes have been either 
wholly accumulated or enormously increased since 
the close of the war. It is fair to suppose, therefore, 
that an income tax on the above basis would yield 
considerably over double as much now as it did in 1866. 
t X t 
The people of South Carolina are said to have con¬ 
sumed last year 1,500,000 gallons of liquor. The busi¬ 
ness fixtures of the saloon keepers who sold this 
liquor were valued at §3,000,000, while their actual 
profits could not have been less than §1,000,000. The 
new “ Dispensary Law,” of which we have previously 
spoken, promises to wipe out of existence the liquor 
business as at present conducted and transfer this 
profit, or a greater one, to the State. The bill is said 
to be the result of a compromise. A majority of the 
people of South Carolina wanted Prohibition, but 
many considered it impracticable at present and were 
willing to accept the proposed step as an experiment, 
believing it would help because it takes the profit out 
of the ordinary rumseller’s hands. There are several 
rea ons why we are particularly interested in this 
bill and desirous of keeping track of it. It was 
formulated and pushed through the legislature chiefly 
by farmers. It is a measure designed to relieve tax¬ 
ation. If in any way successful it is likely to be 
copied in many other States. Farmers and temper¬ 
ance people generally will therefore be specially in¬ 
terested in it. ^ ! ,, 
The law provides that on and after July 1, the man¬ 
ufacture, trade or exchange of all intoxicating liquors 
must be done by the State. The Governor is to appoint 
a commission to take charge of the liquor trade under 
regulations to be made by a Board of Control to con¬ 
sist of the Governor, State Comp^joller and Attorney- 
General. In the purchase of liquors, preference is to 
be given to State manufacturers and brewers. All 
liquors must undergo a chemical analysis. The com¬ 
missioner must make a statement under oath of the 
liquors sold, with quantities, prices and to whom sold. 
Places where the liquor is sold are called dispensaries— 
not saloons. One is established in each county seat 
where a majority of the freeholders desire it. In the 
large cities three or more are located. These dispen¬ 
saries can sell whisky only in sealed packages—not 
less than half a pint or more than five gallons—no 
package to be opened on the premises. 
X t X 
No person can act as county dispenser who has ever 
violated the liquor laws, nor can the keeper of any 
hotel, eating house or place of amusement, or any 
druggist hold the ofiice. The State Commissioner 
must be a temperance man. The first appointed com¬ 
missioner is said to be a total abstainer—his wife 
being an official of the Woman's Christian Temper¬ 
ance Union. In order to buy liquor a person must 
make out a written application, giving his name and 
residence and the reason for his buying the liquor— 
the dispenser reserving the right to refuse the appli¬ 
cation entirely. Druggists can buy the liquor at 10 
per cent above the cost price, but must use it only for 
making medicines, extracts, etc. No druggist can 
make a patent medicine of a questionable character, 
or one containing a large proportion of liquor. Social 
clubs may not keep supplies of liquor for distribution 
among members. No person can buy more than one 
supply on the same day. The profits fr jm this busi¬ 
ness are to be divided equally between the county and 
the State. The authorities may appoint spies and de¬ 
tectives to see that the new law is obeyed. 
X X X 
Such, in brief, is this much-talked of law. The 
present liquor dealer will be driven entirely out of 
business. There can be no open bar-room where men 
can lounge and drink. A man may drink liquor if he 
likes, but he will have to go on record as a drinker, 
and “trusting for the di inks ” will be unknown. The 
vast prefit that now goes into the saloon keeper’s 
pocket will go into the State’s treasury to reduce 
taxes. The liquors furnished will evidently be of 
better quality. The theory of the law is all right, but 
can it succeed ? The rum trade has a strong “pull,” 
and will fight hard for its life. If South Carolina 
were a country of itself, with no outside laws to con¬ 
flict with its own, a bold and fearless man like Gov¬ 
ernor Tillman might force this law through to suc¬ 
cess. The danger will come from without in the 
inter-State commerce law. Can the State prevent the 
shipment and sale of liquors in their original pack¬ 
ages? This liquor law provides that all liquors 
shipped into the State must bear the certificate and 
seal of the State Commissioner. All packages shipped 
without such certificate will be regarded as intended 
for unlawful sile, and common carriers handling 
them are to be liable to a fine of $500 for each offense. 
In this the law is thought to raise an issue with the 
United States Supreme Court. Those who oppose the 
law claim that they will have a right to ship in liquors 
from outside the State and sell them in their original 
packages. This would injure the State’s business in 
many ways. j. ^ j. 
We have explained this proposed scheme at some 
length because it promises to define the g' eat temper¬ 
ance issue of the future. Should it make even a par¬ 
tial success in South Carolina, there is reason to be¬ 
lieve that many other States will give it a trial. The 
plan, even at its best, will not give us Prohibition, 
nor is it an ideal temperance measure. It does one 
good thing, viz.: it takes the profit of the rum trade out 
of the hands of saloon keepers. It also requires a 
drinking man to register and advertise himself as 
such. No people in the country are more vitally af¬ 
fected by the saloon evil than are farmers. It seems 
to us that all woo recognize the danger in the rum 
traffic may unite in wishing success to the South 
Carolina experiment. 
X t X 
The reckless real estate and “improvement” booms 
of Argentina and Australia which have caused disas¬ 
trous financial crises in both countries and ruinous 
money stringency throughout the rest of Christendom, 
have to a certain extent been outdone by the boom 
that has just collapsed at Sioux City, Iowa. Within 
the past six weeks over a dozen corporations, syndi¬ 
cates and individuals have gone under for an aggre¬ 
gate indebtedness of over $18,000,000, with assets 
which at present appear to be of comparatively trifling 
value. Of these, the Union Loan and Trust Company, 
with a capitalization of $1,000,000, has failed with 
liabilities amounting to from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000 
Among the foremost other concerns which have failed 
for from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 are the Union Stock 
Yards Company; the Sioux City Dressed Beef and 
Canning Company ; the Terminal and Warehouse 
Company; the London and Sioux City Finance Com¬ 
pany, and several other institutions of more or less 
speculative character. Then among the individual 
failures of “ Napoleons of Finance” is D. T. Hedges, 
with liabilities of probably $5,000,000, and.nominal 
assets of $2,247,000, but the receiver puts their actual 
value at not over $300 000. A. S. Garretson, John 
Horneck and James Booge have also each failed for 
probably over $1,000,000, and their assets won’t cover 
ten per cent of their indebtedness. 
X X X 
Sioux City, situated on the left bank of the Mis¬ 
souri, 500 miles west of Chicago, in the decade be¬ 
tween 1880 and 1890 increased in population from 
7,200 to 39,000, or 413 per cent, beating all its Western 
rivals. With its various “additions” the city stretches 
13 miles along the river and extends six miles inland. 
Between the real city and the city limits are broad 
areas of pasture lands, here and there mutilated by 
incomplete bits of street openings and skeleton buil.l- 
ings that will never be finished. Nine railroads pass 
through the place, while an elevated railroad, 80 
miles of pavement and splendidly equipped cable lines 
afford the finest local transportation in the country. 
Magnificent private residences and stores grace the 
town, together with one of the largest stock yards in 
the West, and the largest linseed oil mill in the world. 
For years every scheme that human ingenuity could 
devise, as well as all the powers of printer’s ink, has 
been used to attract settlers and overpraise the place 
—all with the object of booming suburban real estate 
and lending a fictitious value to stocks, bonds and 
other securities to be foisted on Eastern and Euro¬ 
pean investors. \ \ \ 
The money was all conjured from the pockets of 
thrifty farmers and tradesmen, as well as capitalists 
in New England and the other Eastern Slates, and 
also from trans-atlantic investors, chiefly English. 
By offering high rates of interest s nd presenting gor¬ 
geous pictures of the rapid development of the city 
and the tributary territory, and of the enormous re¬ 
sources of the latter, the various financial associa¬ 
tions, all of which have been, it seems, leagued to¬ 
gether, have been able for years to secure all the 
money they wanted. A large proportion of this was 
lent to local speculators and builders, mor gages 
being taken from the latter, and payment of rents 
and interest being guaranteed to the investors. When, 
the other day, owing to the stringency of the money 
market, the Union Loan and Trust Company burst 
like an inflated bladder, 500 bank and insurance com¬ 
panies were reckoned among its creditors, and the 
collapse of some of these, and of the associated insti¬ 
tutions and individuals quickly followed. An enor¬ 
mous amount of knavery, racality and sheer swindling 
of all sorts has come to light since the bursting of the 
boom; and Eastern and British investors will be al¬ 
most the only victims. Sioux City itself, however, is 
splendidly located, and with its vast area of rich 
tributary territory in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and 
South Dakota, splendid river and railroad transporta 
tion facilities and its share of the plunder of outsiders, 
it is sure to recover rapidly from the effects of the 
present disaster. ^ j I 
The cooperative societies of the British Isles held 
their annual congress at Bristol the other day. The 
system has been making marvelous progress of late. 
Formerly it was highly unfashionable ; the wealthy 
classes believed it opposed to their interests, and it 
received no protection from the civil law. Now dukes, 
lords and statesman, bishops, philosophers and minis¬ 
ters of all denominations speak in the highest terms 
of the movement from the platform and in private, 
and the belief is steadily growing that it is the true 
panacea fo the disastrous conflicts between labor and 
capital. Cooperative production and cooperative dis¬ 
tribution are not yet well balanced, however, though 
it is the object of the societies ultimately to produce 
near y or quite all the domestic articles they sell. At 
present they have to purchase in the open market 
most of the goods in which they deal, but cooperative 
workshops are multiplying, and preference is always 
given to their products. There are now 994 societies 
federated together, embracing 821,600 members, and, 
as each member probably represents a family, the 
aggregate societies must represent nearly 4,000,000 
souls, a large proportion out of a total population of 
about 34,000,000, and especially powerful in view of the 
intelligence, thrift and financial and social standing 
of a large proportion of the members. Less than 
half a century has elapsed since the first cooperative 
association was established at Rochdale, Lancashire, 
in 1844, and since then such organizations have multi¬ 
plied in all parts of the country and among all classes, 
and, with a few exceptions, have been eminently suc¬ 
cessful. If the cooperative enterprises of the Grange 
and Farmers’ Alliance, which have so frequently 
failed in this country, would learn a lesson from the 
safe and conservative conduct of the cooperative 
societies of the United Kingdom, there would be much 
less distrust and much fewer losses, accusations and 
recriminations among the members. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Some of the Western veterinarians recommend Gombault's Caustic 
Balsam as a blister and a liniment In case of sprains, spavins and 
kindred blemishes. 
The Great American Tea Company Is located at 31 Vesey Street, 
New York city, post office box 287. The writer has bought his tea of 
this house for several years, and has always got a nice quality at 
reasonable prices. 
J. E Pouter, of Ottawa, Ill., manufactures a very practical and 
easy-working hay carrier and sling. They can be adjusted to lit a 
track of any size and can be seen amonx Mr. Porter's exhibit at the 
World’s Ealr. Descriptive circulars are sent free. 
That Is considerable of a poultry farm at Jamesburg, N. J., known 
as Pine Tree Farm. The buildings cover nearly 2,000 square feet of 
surface, and the fences Inclosing the runs would stretch out for about 
two miles In a straight line. Two thousand purebred poultry are 
kept, and the Incubators arid brooders have a capacity of 20,000 
chickens and ducks a year. There Is a demand in New York city for 
the products of many such establishments, and there Is money In the 
business If properly managed. 
Those who have been drying fruit by solar heat or over the kitchen 
stove, as well as those who do not dry any fruit at all, should send to 
the manufacturers of lrult evaporators, and learn something about 
the conveniences In store for them. We have just been examining 
the catalogue of the Zimmerman fruit evaporators, manufactured by 
the Blymer Iron Works, Cincinnati, O., and find that they make a 
small evaporator for family use that seems to be Just about the thing 
needed. It has a capacity of four to live bushels a day, and we see 
no reason why It could not do the work for several families. They 
make larger ones for factories, and all are used for other purposes 
which are fully described In the catalogue. 
Few things on the farm need to be more carefully selected than the 
windmill. Every farmer may not need one, but no farmer who does, 
can atford to put up a poor one. The Eureka is a mill that we see 
frequently through the car windows as we ride through New York 
State, and we know some that have become landmarks. These mills 
are made In two styles, one of wood and steel, and the other entirely 
of steel. A feature In them Is that the gearing is covered with a metal 
shield, protecting It against the elements. It Is also supplied with 
an effective brake which prevents the wheel from turning when out 
of gear. A good thing about the wooden tower Is that It has an Iron 
plate with flanges turned downward. The plate fully protects the 
tops of the standards which form the derrick or tower, as well as 
strengthens the tower. There Is a tubular four-sided steel tower also 
made for this mill. The Eureka is made by Smith & Pomeroy, Kala¬ 
mazoo, Mich. 
