1893 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
673 
THE PROSPECT. 
Three years ago most of the duties on fruits with 
which California products competed were increased 
under the McKinley tariff ; now, in spite of the tend¬ 
ency among the dominant party to reduce or abolish 
import duties, especially on agricultural products or 
“raw materials,” Representative Geary, of California, 
has just introduced a bill into Congress, which, while 
in most cases proposing no change from the present 
rates, provides for a tax of 2% cents per pound on 
Zante currants, now free. It also seeks to advance 
the duties on oranges and lemons from 13 and 25 cents 
respectively per box to 30 and 60 cents, and, instead of 
a duty of 35 cents per gallon on olive oil, it proposes to 
levy one of $1.40 on the product in bulk and $3 per 
case on oil in bottles containing not more than one- 
sixth of a gallon eacb, and 70 cents a gallon on oil that 
cannot be rendered fit for table use. A strong oppo¬ 
sition has arisen against the measure even among 
those who favor a fair degree of protection for other 
agricultural products. For years the facts with regard 
to the enormous profits of California fruit raising have 
been widely published in trade papers and reports. 
Fruit lands, we have been told, were paying, a few 
years ago, $250 to $1,200 per acre annually, or even 
more. The man who held 10 acres of such land had a 
fortune. Since then the price of land has greatly 
risen so that the percentage of profits has, of course, 
correspondingly decreased, but it is claimed that Cali¬ 
fornians cannot, therefore, demand that the profits of 
fruit culture shall be increased on account of the in¬ 
crease of capital represented by the land. Moreover, 
as the matters now stand, California has already driven 
Turkish prunes and Spanish raisins out of the home 
markets, while imported oranges cannot compete with 
those from that State and Florida. Her olive oil has 
been sold here above the price of imported oil, and her 
lemons can easily compete with the foreign product, 
but she cannot as yet produce enough of either oil cr 
lemons to supply the domestic demand. Even without 
any increase in the tariff, it is boldly asserted that 
California will in a few years drive all Mediterranean 
fruits out of the American markets. Why, then, it is 
asken, should California horticulture claim a degree 
of protection not accorded to any kindred industry in 
that State or any other nart of the country ? 
i X X 
The White Cap idea of forcing up the price of cotton 
by preventing the ginning and marketing of the crop 
until the price reaches 10 cents per pound, has spread 
from Mississippi to Louisiana, two ginhouses having 
already been burned in Bienville Parish, while notices 
have been placarded on the others, notifying the 
owners that they must discontinue ginning until 
further orders, under penalty of cremation. To say 
nothing of the lawless violence of such a proceeding, 
was there ever such idiotic folly ? The country at 
large and Louisiana in particular are suffering from 
financial stringency and business depression and these 
outlaws threaten to still further paralyze business in 
their section by preventing the sale of the staple on 
which the welfare and all the industries of the com¬ 
munity depend. The parish of Bienville produces 
about one six-hundreth or .0015 per cent of the cotton 
crop ; 10 times as much as it raises is burnt every year 
on its way to market without affecting the price a 
fraction of a cent; if the whole crop of the parish rot¬ 
ted in the fields, the world would not be aware of it. 
In view cf the competition from the cotton fields of 
Russia, India, Egypt and other parts of the globe, 
what effect can the lawless action of a handful of dis¬ 
guised outlaws in the Louisiana backwoods have upon 
the price of one of the most important crops of the 
country in the markets of the world ? The State 
authorities should take prompt and vigorous action 
with regard to these rascally nincompoops. In some 
of the States arson is still a capital offense ; and any 
person who burns a ginhouse because its owner in¬ 
sists on the right of carrying on a legitimate business 
should be promptly pursued, arrested and punished to 
the utmost extent of the law. 
i t X 
The late train robberies in Indiana and Michigan 
have excited more public attention than usual in re¬ 
gard to such outrages. Recent statistics show that 
during the first six months of this year there have 
been, throughout the country, 71 attempts to wreck 
trains and 31 attempts to rob them. Contrary to 
common expectation, the train-wrecking business is 
most prevalent, not in the “ wild and woolly West,” 
but in the older settled States. Massachusetts and 
Illinois head the list, followed by Ohio and New York. 
Considerably more than half the attempts to wreck 
trains have been made in these States. The only ex¬ 
planation is that the mileage of railroads is greater 
in them than in the others, and that tramps, who are 
responsible for most of these dastardly outrages, are 
most numerous in them. Again, the geographical 
distribution of the attempts to rob trains offers 
another curious feature. Here Iowa heads the list, 
the Indian Territory and Oklahoma together being on 
the same footing. Texas follows closely, and then 
come Kansas and Nebraska Six-sevenths of all the 
accomplished and attempted train robberies occurred 
in these four States and two Territories. The fre¬ 
quency of such crimes in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas 
is attributed mainly to the virulent denunciations of 
railroad companies by the Populists. For years they 
have been vilified as public enemies to be despoiled 
by heavy taxation and compulsory reductiou of rates, 
so that the popular respect for their property rights 
has been weakened, and the impression has gone 
abroad that it is no great crime to rob a railroad cor¬ 
poration. Indeed, there is a popular disposition to 
regard train robbers in the light of heroes, and to in¬ 
flict a minimum of punishment upon them. The grow¬ 
ing frequency of such outrages forcibly demonstrates 
the pernicious nature of such doctrines, and the need 
of caution on the part of the leaders to be more tem¬ 
perate in the use of incendiary language. 
X X X 
Tiie Rural New-Yorker has frequently had occa¬ 
sion to denounce that old swindle, the Louisiana Lot¬ 
tery, and to warn its readers against its allurements. 
As its pernicious career is drawing to a close, 
several imitators more fraudulent even than their 
prototype, have started into baneful existence. Of 
these the most notorious is the Louisiana State Loan 
and Trust Company, with headquarters in New 
Orleans. This bogus concern says on the back of its 
circulars that its “certificates ” and “loans” can be 
cashed through the following New Orleans banks: The 
Hibernia National, the Southern National, the Ameri¬ 
can National and the Germania National. The officers 
of all the institutions, except the first, deny that they 
know anything about the concern, and of course they 
have never authorized it to use their names in any 
way. The circulars are dated September 5, but the 
Hibernia National went out of business four months 
before that date ! The swindlers say that Henry 
Baptiste had the luck to draw $20,000 and that he had 
received the money ; but no man of the name is known 
at the address given—814 Esplanade Avenue. Another 
“certificate” for $7,500 drawn at the July drawing, is 
said to have been cashed through the Merchants’ 
Bank of New Iberia, but investigation shows that the 
Merchants’ Bank of New Iberia failed in 1884 ! It 
appears that the concern has done a very heavy busi¬ 
ness throughout the country, but especially in the 
South, chiefly through the express companies ; but it 
is one of the most unscrupulous, mendacious and 
brazen swindles ever sprung on the gullible public. 
X X X 
Mr. Ferris, who designed the great Ferris wheel at 
the World’s Fair, has this to say about the practical 
future of electricity: 
I am persuaded that modern life will be absolutely revolutionized 
so far as Its practical, evary-day life Is concerned, within the coming 
10 years; and electricity largely will accomplish It. Within a few 
years every waterfall or available bit of water power will be chained 
and converted into electric force. Along the highways will run 
electric lines on which you will find not only passenger, but express 
and freight trains. These lines will ply between the principal cities 
and towns of the country. They will gather up the products of the 
farm and dump them at the freight offices of the great trunk lines. 
The electric car will bring the farmer his mall, and, Instead of being 
the lonesome affair that it Is nowadays, the farm of the future will 
be In close touch with the town and city. Electricity will run our 
street cars, turn our macnlnes, heat our homes and bulldlDgs, do much 
of our chemical work; by electricity we will cook, and for that mat¬ 
ter do everything that Is now done by steam and coal. 
This may seem like wild talk, but few people in this 
century are better qualified to discuss the question. 
The distribution of force about the country would tend 
to break up the great cities and inevitably bring about 
a fair distribution of wealth. Monopoly of wealth 
comes from monopoly of force. Let the latter be 
broken up and the former will fall. 
X X X 
Everywhere among shippers the tendency is tow¬ 
ard a cheap, yet strong, gift package. Many are the 
devices thought out to cheapen the cost of such a pack¬ 
age. The latest thing in this line is a sugar barrel 
made of -strawboard sides with wooden ends. The 
strawboard is chemically treated so that it will hold 
water. They will hold 250 pounds of crude sugar, and 
at the great Chino factory in California 1,C00 will be 
needed every day. These barrels cost about half as 
much as ordinary cooperage barrels, and can be made 
of any size and to hold any product, wet or dry. 
X X X 
From the pulpit the preacher month after month and 
year after year, teaches the same lessons of piety and 
morality. In different words he holds the same truths 
before his audience as instruction for the rising gen¬ 
eration and a reminder for their elders. The news¬ 
paper, too, recurs again and again to important topics 
of discussion to enforce its views on them by iteration 
and reiteration. New York State spends $3 ; 000,000 a 
year in money and labor for road improvements, or an 
average of $50,000 for each county. Scientifically ex¬ 
pended, that amount would build each year seven miles 
of good macadam road in each county, or pay interest 
on enough money to build 140 miles. Which would 
be, in the end, the moi e economical plan—to pay the 
money out in dribblets for unsatisfactory work unsys¬ 
tematically performed, or to raise a respectable 
amount by the issue of bonds so as to enter upon a 
thoroughly systematic course of road improvement 
and let future generations who will enjoy the good 
roads help to pay the principal and interest ? Then 
the heavy annual expenses of repairs of wagons and 
harness will be avoided, as well as the extra wear and 
tear on horses, and the extra outlay needed to keep 
more of them than would be needed on smooth roads. 
Moreover, every farm near a fine highway would in¬ 
crease in value, while the owners could readily at all 
seasons take advantage of any change to their advan¬ 
tage in local or even distant markets. No class in the 
community gains more than farmers from good roads ; 
is there any other that objects so strongly to the taxa¬ 
tion needed to defray their cost ? 
t X X 
The Cordage Company, better known as the Binding 
Twine Trust, which ignobly collapsed a few months 
ago, has been reorganized on a broader basis, and 
wants to be known henceforth as the Cordage Trade 
Mutual Protective Association. Its professed object is 
to secure “ absolute control of sisal and other raw 
materials, with the incidental purpose of regulating 
the prices of the manufactured products.” The old 
Trust failed mainly because it rashly and recklessly 
tried to ruin the John Good Cordage and Machine 
Company by underselling it, because Good obstinately 
refused to join the monopoly. 'Having secured patents 
on various devices for making “ cordage,” he was able 
to turn it out cheaper than they could, and hence was 
with safety able to meet the competition which proved 
ruinous to his opponents. He has now invented and 
patented a new spinning machine which, while occupy¬ 
ing the space of half an ordinary desk, will do the 
work of the machine now in use which weighs about 
2,250 pounds and consists of over 200 parts. Moreover, 
he declares that it will save two cents per pound on 
the manufactured product and revolutionize the entire 
industry. Having utterly defeated and nearly finan¬ 
cially ruined his competitors and holding them now in 
his power owing to the superior efficiency of his old 
and new inventions, he has assumed the position of 
“head-center” of the new organization, whose mem¬ 
bers are to have the exclusive benefit of these inven¬ 
tions “ on satisfactory terms.” It will thus be seen 
that the new monopoly, having got rid of all competi¬ 
tors, is far stronger than the old, which was always 
hampered by several, including Good, the most exten¬ 
sive individual manufacturer of “ cordage ” not only 
in the United States, but in the world. Having a 
giant’s strength, will the new concern use it like a 
giant ? All experience with such monopolies lead us 
to make an affirmative answer. The farmers through¬ 
out the country, with good reason, complained bitterly 
of the exactions of the old concern ; and, in spite of 
the promised decrease in the cost of production, it is 
not unlikely that they will have still s'ronger reasons 
to complain more bitterly of those of the new. 
X X X 
The elevator owners of Minnesota are not happy. 
As related sometime ago in The Rural, they brought 
an action before Judge Willis to restrain the State 
Warehouse and Railroad Commission from erecting 
the State Farmers’ Elevator at Duluth, for which the 
legislature had appropriated $120,000, and judgment 
has just been rendered against them, so that the farm¬ 
ers will soon have a fine elevator of their own in com¬ 
petition with those of the monopolistic companies. 
Moreover, like their brethren in South Dakota, of late 
they have been issuing certified checks, drafts and due 
bills to be used instead of United States currency in 
payment for grain, and the United States offi -ials now 
declare that 10 per cent tax must be paid on all such 
substitutes. The banks also have been using this 
“ wild-cat” form of currency, and are liable to the 
same penalty. This is the same tax imposed on the 
State bank notes, and there appears to be no doubt of 
its legality. The movement to relieve the money mar¬ 
ket by this expedient has been very widespread 
throughout the country, but it has everywhere been 
checked by the action of the United States authorities. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
Shropshire sheep of the best strains can be had of our old friend, 
Frank L. McElheny. Black Creek, N. Y. 
Buookside Poultry Farm, Columbus, N. J., Is offering prize stock 
Pekin ducks. It’s the place to get them. . 
8teel rooeing Is sure to keep out the wet, and will last about as 
long as It Is kept well painted. The Curtiss Steel Roofing Co.. Niles, O.. 
can furnish It. 
The firm of P. K. Dederlck & Co. Albany, N. Y., Is one of the oldest 
In the country manufacturing hay presses. There are thousands of 
their make In service, and they always give satisfaction. 
•MANY farmers have stored their butter during the summer and will 
soon send it to market. It will be well to sell at home If a customer 
can be found. Why would it not be a good idea for, say, a dozen 
farmers to count up the aggregate amount of butter they could fur¬ 
nish and advertise for a buyer for the whole lot? A purchaser could 
be Induced to examine it In this way, and of course, each could 
demand the price the quality of his butter would warrant. But 
whether sold at home or sent to market, don t let It go out looking 
stale. Take off the covering and brine, and freshen It up so as to 
present a neat appearance. Send to A. G. Elliott, Philadelphia, Pa., 
for some parchment paper, cut it tfie exact size of the package and 
cover it. I)o not let it go out or be examined with the old paper that 
covered It during the summer. 
