878 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
July 8, 1022 
Things To Think About 
The object of this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on farm 
matters. Not long articles can he used—just short pointed opinions or suggestions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does not always endorse what is printed here. You might 
call this a mental safety valve. 
Navy Yard Workers and Debts 
Several of our readers have written us 
to know if employment, in the Navy Yard 
under the Government exempts the em¬ 
ployee from the collection of a debt. In 
several cases men who claimed they 
worked in the Brooklyn Navy Yard had 
failed to pay their >onrd bill. In trying 
to collect the landlady is told that such 
employment grants immunity from finan¬ 
cial obligation. The statement, having- 
been repeated with some iusistance, we 
wrote to the Commandant of the Navy 
Yard and asked him about it. lie said 
that such employment in no service what¬ 
ever grants immunity, and then adds the 
following: As a matter of fact, the Navy 
Department has issued a standing order 
. which, in substance, states that the Navy 
Department does not desire to continue 
in its employment a person who will not 
pay his honest debts. The Navy Depart¬ 
ment. however, does not recognize gar¬ 
nishee proceedings against or assign¬ 
ments of wages on the part of its em¬ 
ployees. and any wages earned by its 
employees are invariably paid to th^u 
by the Navy Department’s officials. 
The Everlasting Taxation Question 
I am glad to see that article on page 
772, in llope Farm Notes, in regard to 
taxes. I think the Hope Farm man is on 
the right track when he says that land 
should be taxed according to selling value. 
If that day ever comes I think that it 
will have a tendency to stop some of the 
land sharks from operating around the 
small cities and villages. 
I think the country towns are over 
valued as a rule. Here in this place, a 
small city of 20,000 or so, I can find a 
dozen or more farms that are growing to 
brush because they are held for big prices. 
If a man buys a building lot and puts a 
house and garage on it at a cost of .$3,000 
or so be is taxed for full value. The man 
who sold him the lot may have a farm 
next door, with house, barns and other 
outbuildings, 50 acres more or less, and 
not be taxed for much more than the 
value of the buildings. I think if they 
were taxed according to the price they 
ask for the building lots they would make 
a great crutety. 
I have a piece of woodland that is 
taxed almost twice its selling value, but it 
is in a small town of 1,000 or so. I find 
lots of other small towns are taxed the 
same way, while near the cities you are 
not taxed near the selling value. 
Connecticut. martin l. Andrews. 
The Pheasants Capturo a Farm 
I live a short distance from New York 
State Pheasant Farm. There is a section 
within a radius of about two miles that 
has been taken over by the State as a 
game preserve surrounding their farm. 
There is part of my farm in this preserve. 
It was taken over without my consent. 
Pheasants are being raised by the thous¬ 
and ou this farm, and allowed to escape 
over the surrounding country. They have 
become so plenty for the past couple of 
years that I am suffering much damage to 
corn after planting. They will follow me 
and take out hill after hill. I replanted 
it last year and they dug it up the second 
time. I sent in a bill for damages to the 
game warden, but lie has never appeared 
to make an adjustment. What can I do 
in a case of this kind? Wo have tried to 
shoot them, but had no success. J. E. o. 
New York. 
"We submitted this case to the Conser¬ 
vation Commission at Albany, and all the 
satisfaction we got is the following, and 
that is not satisfaction at all for the 
farmer whose crops are destroyed: 
The Legislature of 1016 enacted a law 
which provided for setting apart a tract 
of land as a game refuge surrounding the 
game farm af Sherburne, Chenango Coun¬ 
ty, X. Y., which law became Section 366-a 
of the Conservation Law, while Section 
366. State Game Kefuges, added by Chap¬ 
ter 02 of the I jaws of 1914, and amended 
by Chapter 400 of the Laws of 1017. pro¬ 
vides that “no person shall take or dis¬ 
turb fish, birds, quadrupeds, trees or 
plants on game refuges.” Under the. cir¬ 
cumstances, I know of nothing your cor¬ 
respondent can do while the law remains 
as it is. HERBERT F. PRESCOTT, 
Secretary to the Commission. 
Why Remain an Alien? 
Since article on page 640 under above 
heading was written, this correspondent 
lias replied to the question. The follow¬ 
ing extracts are made from his letter : 
“You ask me to give you one good rea¬ 
son why an alien should not become a 
citizen. Well, this is a personal, but a 
fair question, and I will answer it. In 
my case it is because I am an English¬ 
man, and to take your oath of citizenship 
in its present form would be lying. No 
man could have a greater admiration and 
love than I have for these United States, 
but I am not an American; I am an 
Englishman. I do not believe that the 
hope of the world rests in the so-called 
alien, and that, the constant stream of 
people passing to and from each conn try 
is_ of incalculable importance, and that 
without it we would all in the course of a 
few centuries become a lot of Chinamen 
or Australian bushmen." 
Labor Unrest 
Mr. Reynolds, on page S14, says the 
“privileged few” own the coal, ore, tim¬ 
ber, quarries, water power and every¬ 
thing. I saw in the New York Times a 
few days ago that over 140,000 people 
had their money invested in the Penn¬ 
sylvania Railroad. Thousands of these 
are women school teachers and railroad 
workers. Glen Alden Coal Company, 
which is the company just separated from 
the I>. L. & W. K. 1L, has thousands of 
stockholders. 
Look into the books of savings banks 
and see the hundreds of millions of the 
people’s money invested in the bonds and 
mortgages of our big companies. Ninety 
out of every 100 workers in the United 
States today can save, even a farm hand 
at .$20 per month can save. Cannot we 
teach these workers to leave silk shirts 
and stockings, and cannot wc teach the 
housewife how to save the vast quantities 
of food wasted each day? Look at the 
asbcaiis and you will see where a large 
sum goes. 
Look at the hundreds of millions that 
the workers spent in the saloons in years 
past. These poor fellows did not know 
what compound interest on savings de¬ 
posits meant. I, myself, have worked on 
farm, railroad, in shop, in United States 
Army, and came into the world bare¬ 
footed. I carried for years my lunch in 
my hack pocket, while fellow workers 
spent 35 cents for theirs. I never had a 
pull, just worked and saved; put my 
money in savings bank, learned from the 
daily papers how to invest. Now my 
money is working for me. I own shares 
in coal mines, railroads, oil fields, Gov¬ 
ernment bonds, water, gas and electric 
light companies; own a small lot of tim¬ 
ber land. 
Please. Mr. Reynolds, I do not want to 
lose all this. I am afraid such an article 
as you wrote is just simply waving a red 
flag. c. s. 
An Alien’s Excuse 
Your answer to V. II.. page 640, in¬ 
terested me, and your asking for one good 
reason for remaining an alien. Here is 
a reason; although you may not consider 
it a good one. I leave it for your consid¬ 
eration: When application for citizen¬ 
ship is first made, the applicant loses a 
day’s work. When liis two witnesses are 
first examined, throe days more (one 
each). In the preliminary examination, 
three more, aud the final, three more, and 
then the new citizen loses another to go 
and receive the papers; total, 11 days. 
Now, although the applicant may not 
grudge the loss of the time, it does not 
seem to ho quite fair to ask his friends to 
hear such a loss. Added to this, the 
applicant is treated with a very unkindly 
hrtisquoness by the official in charge, who 
is as sarcastic and domineering os a king 
or kaiser might lie. 1 speak of an agent 
of Newark, N, J., and know whereof I 
speak, because I went through it all aud 
am proud of my citizenship, but would 
like to see it made just a little easier for 
future citizens. benj. scott. 
New Jersey. 
Use of a Proprietary Article 
Oil page 620 there was a question about 
using n proprietary article. A woman 
found l liat a certain commercial powder 
gave her relief from corns. The powder 
was not sold for any such purpose, hut 
the woman desired to buy it oil the regu¬ 
lar market, put it in Hew containers and 
sell it as a corn cure. She wanted to 
know if it. would lm lawful to do so. As 
we understood it, this commercial remedy 
was a patented preparation, and in that 
view of the case this woman would have 
no legal right to make use of it as a corn 
cure. A lawyer who has had long ex¬ 
perience with pa tents points out the fact 
that there is no law which would prevent 
anybody from buying any commodity and 
repacking it under a new title unless the 
original product is the subject of a patent. 
Unless the proprietary product has been 
patented, it could ho analyzed, put to¬ 
gether by anyone, and sold as desired. 
In fact, we are told that this is a common 
practice in all trades. While the legal 
right to do such a thing might be clear, 
it does not seem to us that the moral 
right is equally evident. We think that 
a person who puts a product of this sort 
on the market should have reasonable pro¬ 
tection, so that it cannot be handled as 
this woman intended to use it. 
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