1274 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
October 21, 1922 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
Washington, Oct. 2. Samuel A. Carl¬ 
son. Mayor of Jamestown, X. V.: Guy F. 
Allen, former acting Treasurer of the 
Failed States; James It. Mansfield, engi¬ 
neer. and 24 others, were indicted today 
by Ihe Federal Grand Jury on charges of 
conspiracy to commit an offense against 
the United States and of using the mails 
to defraud. 
The charges grew out of the sale of 
stock of Birmingham Motors, James¬ 
town. N. Y., a common law trust of New 
York State, by which it is asserted per¬ 
sons were defrauded in different cities. 
Alleged misrepresentations as to the 
financial and other conditions of the busi¬ 
ness are set forth in the indictments.— 
Daily Paper. 
'We have had many inquiries from 
prospective investors in this swindle, and 
have invariably advised 'our readers not 
to touch it. We had not the evidence of 
the swindle during the past year when 
the inquiries were made, hut we were 
confident that any money turned over to 
the bunch of promoters would be lost, 
regardless of whether the promoters started 
out with the deliberate intention to swin¬ 
dle. This is the rule of stock invest¬ 
ments peddled by slick-^ougued stock 
salesmen in country districts. Therefore 
we say don't put money into stock sold by 
salesmen. If they are not swindles they 
are at least too highly speculative for 
the farmers to put their savings in. 
Referring to your comments on "The 
Delay in Cashing Checks,'’ a farmer is 
no further from a bank than his It. F. D. 
box. It is very irritating and most un¬ 
fair for a farmer or anyone eTse to try to 
do a banking business on other persons’ 
checks, as is so often done in rural com¬ 
munities, The town clerk here is an 
extreme Illustration of this habit. I 
have had check for dog license kept until 
December (given in March), and this 
year's lias not returned yet! Why should 
not all have a hank account? It is a 
great help in many ways. 
Massachusetts. J. D. coisxhekgkk. 
We have always advised farmers to 
open an account in their local bank. It 
is true that deposits of checks may be 
made by mail with even less loss of time 
'than by personal delivery, and quite as 
safely. We have also always advised 
prompt collection of checks as a conven¬ 
ience and protection. At the same time 
farm conditions differ from city condi¬ 
tions. Banking is a part of the routine 
of a city business man’s daily life. With 
a farmer it is an incident, and the strict 
rules that apply to one should not he 
made an essential for the other. 
There was a paper printed at Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., called the Woman's Na¬ 
tional Magazine. They put out adver¬ 
tisements for stories and poems, and 
would pay cash on acceptance. They 
wrote me several letters, saying, "If you 
have any more poems on hand, perhaps 
we could use them now, and askitig me 
in the first place to send them $30 to 
buy a share in their business; then they 
came down to $25. Is there any way of 
collecting moucy out of that publishing 
company for rny poems if they used them, 
and they obtained them through the mail 
under false pretenses? I. c. 
Ohio. 
There is no hope of getting the sub¬ 
scriber’s poems or payment for them. 8o 
many complaints were received that the 
Post Office Department made an investi¬ 
gation of the affairs of this Woman's Na¬ 
tional Magazine, Washington. D. C. The 
result was that they were debarred from 
use of the mails, and all letters t<> them 
were marked “Fraudulent" and returned 
to the senders. The fact that they want¬ 
ed to sell stock to customers indicates 
that this was their main purpose. They 
worked up an interest by soliciting poems 
and traded on that interest to sell the 
stock. There is no hope of getting the 
subscriber’s poems or any payment for 
them. 
Do you know anything about the Swain 
Promotional Agency, Chicago. Ill., whose 
contract. 1 am inclosing? I have a song 
lyric which I would like set to music and 
published. I have had a little experience 
with fakers and feel reluctant about 
trusting these people. a. 0. 
New York. 
The contract provides, among other 
things, for a listing fee of $10 for each 
song, and a “certificate of guarantee” ac¬ 
companies the contract, which guarantees 
the author an income of at least $1,000 a 
year from the sales of each song. No 
responsible concern could or would make 
such a guarantee. It’s a fake on the face 
of it. Swain Promotional Agency 
responsibility that we can find. 
I am inclosing a letter which I received 
from Ansonia Music Company, New York 
City, and would ask you if they are hon¬ 
est. I wish your advice before replying 
to the letter. I do nor wish to get. taken 
in by any fraud. g. c. n. 
Maine. 
The Ansonia Music Company leads 
those receiving the literature expect the 
company will pay 10 cents per 100 for 
mailing music and circulars, and asks 
$2 for a working outfit. This is similar 
to many schemes offering work at home. 
After the money is sent for the outfit, 
then the victim learns that she is only to 
be paid on the basis of amount of sales 
resulting from the advertising matter 
mailed. This is one of the many forms 
of “work at home" schemes. 
JCtitchrK' 
o \Uim 
"Will you please explain the difference 
between commission merchants and those 
who are not charging commission? Do 
commission men give a little more for 
eggs, then charge the commission, or do 
those who do not charge the commission 
pay a iittlo less? We ship to both par¬ 
ties; those who do not charge commis¬ 
sion get their pay some way. we suppose. 
Pennsylvania. n. m. 
The commission dealer simply receives 
the goods as your agent, and sells them 
for your account. The goods are yours 
until sold, The commission dealer col¬ 
lects the account for you, takes out his 
commission and charges and sends you 
the remainder. 
The dealer who charges no commission 
buys the goods of you. They are his prop¬ 
erty as soon as you ship them. He gen¬ 
erally promises to pay the highest mar¬ 
ket price for the quality of goods shipped, 
hut he is the sole judge of the quality. 
Many, if not all of these dealers, are and 
have been commission dealers. They now 
elect to buy direct because in doing so 
they escape the necessity of taking out a 
commission dealer’s license and bond, and 
are not obliged to submit to the commis¬ 
sion law regulations generally. As a 
class they pay less than the regular com¬ 
mission dealers, but, of course, this ap¬ 
plies only to dealers, and not to houses 
who may buy for their own use or to re 
tail from their own stores. In plain lan¬ 
guage, the dealer who solicits shipments 
and claims he charges no commission is 
skilfully avoiding the law enacted for 
the benefit of shippers, and Ihe farmer 
who ships to such concerns helps defeat 
his own best interests. Many commis¬ 
sion dealers are none too good; but the 
commission-less dealers solicit shipments 
on false pretenses. 
The household timekeeper 
'OLKS who used to set whatever else is needed, 
their minds now set Big It is surprising how of ten 
:n and sleep soundly, Big Ben gets an inquiring 
stfully, confidently. look, and satisfying the 
They know that any way he answers it, day in 
estclox alarm will call and day out, demanding 
2m on the dot; whether almost no attention, 
s at 2 A. M. for the dairy- That’s characteristic of 
in, or later for ’tween any timepiece with West- 
ison chores. clox on its dial. They must 
After it starts the day be able to run on time and 
time, it sees the chil- ring on time before they 
en off to school, times are allowed to wear the 
2 trip to town, meals or name Westclox. 
WESTERN CLOCK CO., LA SALLE, ILLINOIS, U. S. A 
Factory: Peru, Illinois. In Canada: Western Clock Co.,Limited, Peterborough, Ont. 
America 
a Lantern 
Pocket Ben 
S/.jo 
What information can you give me 
about the Mci. l Fast Products Company 
of New York City? I received their cat¬ 
alogue ; they recommend their work high¬ 
ly, as making metal toys of all forms, 
and they would buy all the toys I could 
make Would you recommend them as a 
reliable firm, and what do you think 
about their work? They claim there is 
such a demand for American-made metal 
toys that they can hardly he made fast 
enough for the trade. They say it is no 
get rich-quick work, but a good paying 
business. ,T. V. 
Pennsylvania. 
The Metal Cast Products Company 
has no financial responsibility that wo 
can discover. We know of no market for 
the metal toys, and if there be such a de¬ 
mand as is claimed, the question arises 
why does not the Metal Cast Products 
Company manufacture and sell the toys, 
instead of selling the molds to make 
others rich? We do not advise anyone 
to buy the molds on the expectation that 
this concern will buy the toys. If the 
prospective purchaser has an independent 
market for the toys, that would he an¬ 
other matter. 
in the 
BARN 
in the 
HOUSE 
Provides Electric Power Anywhere 
at Any Time 
— Furnishes electric light in house and outbuildings 
— Generates current to run washing machine, electric iron, churn, 
cream separator, etc. 
— Starts and stops at the press of a button 
— Is absolutely safe, no exposed operating parts 
— Costs little to operate 
— Saves time, labor and money 
ITS A WONDER 
WRITE FOR DESCRIPTIVE BOOKLET 
Prices F.O.n. East Orange, N.J. 
12 Volt HOMELITE without batteries - » $174.00 
12 Volt HOMELITE with standard batteries - 225.00 
32 Volt HOMELITE without batteries * - 178.00 
32 Volt HOMELITE with standard batteries - 245.00 
Liberal Terms 
MANUFACTURED BY 
The Simms Magneto Company 
Ease Orange, New Jersey 
Smith-Meeker Engineering Co. Walter H. Moreton Corp 
123 Liberty Street, New York City 780 Commonwealth Ave. t Boston 
Distributors for Eastern New York, 'New Jersey Distributors for New England 
and Western Connecticut except Western Connecticut 
Yours with enclosed voucher from the 
express company received. Many thanks 
for the same. I hope that the time will 
come when all corporations will have to 
pay within fid days. The State will have 
to do something along that line in tin- 
near fut ure. d. h. h. 
New York, 
As we have said before, this would be 
a good point to take up with the repre¬ 
sentatives at Albany. This claim amount 
ed to only 82. yet the shipper had to wait 
18 months for his money. He was ig¬ 
nored and the claim neglected until we 
took it ui). We believe claims are set¬ 
tled more promptly than they were a 
few years ago, but a record like (his still 
crops out, 
