<889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
304 
NEW LEGISLATION NEEDED CONCERN¬ 
ING MONOPOLIES. 
No. 5. 
PRESIDENT W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
In the last number we noticed that the only 
just ground on which our great carrying, 
lighting and communicating companies can 
justly hold their rights of way, public fran¬ 
chises and virtual monopolies, is that they 
may, and provided that they do, serve 
the public impartially, reasonably and well. 
But the public has been so lax in maintaining 
its own rights that the corporations have 
naturally grown arrogant, and restive under 
legal restraint. The Interstate Commerce 
Law was fiercely opposed and is still sullenly 
and only partially obeyed. There has been a 
fierce fight in Iowa over the legislation of last 
winter, which, to say the least, was not in¬ 
tended to be unjust to the railways,and which 
seemed needed to relieve our agriculture and 
manufacturers, almost impoverished, as the 
vast majority of the people believe, by freight 
rates that favor Eastern centers of commerce 
and manufacture, the mills of Minneapjlis, 
the grain fields of Dakota and the ranches of 
the great West beyond us, to our own im¬ 
poverishment in Iowa. 
One principle seems to have escaped the 
notice of the people and to have been kept 
very quiet by the corporations, viz, that traf¬ 
fic increases directly with the increase of pop¬ 
ulation and wealth along any given line and 
at its termini. But the cost of carrying, 
above “ fixed charges” of road equipment 
and operating, varies inversely, or nearly so 
with the numbers or quantities carried; that 
is, the greater the population, the industries, 
the wealth along a line, the less the actual 
cost for carrying per ton or person. A street 
car line may lose money in a small city at a 
five-cent fare, but fairly “coin” money in a 
large one at the same fare. The money thus 
“ coined,” that is, all above a fair compensa¬ 
tion for capital, skill, labor and enterprise, 
belongs not to the corporation but to the peo 
pie, for they have created tho cities, laid out 
the streets aud increased the population and 
wealth; and the streets and highways used 
for intercommunication by these companies, 
belong to the people. The highways of com¬ 
merce are one of the few classes of property 
held in common by the people, one of 
the few instances of communism that has sur¬ 
vived under civilization and apparently must 
survive. The surplus money, therefore, which 
is “ coined ” by the use of these thoroughfares, 
above fair dividends on investment, should be 
left in the hands of the people by a gradual 
lowering of fares and rates and a gradual im¬ 
provement in the qua'ity of th9 service. Our 
street car aud other public carrying and serv¬ 
ing companies, as things are now, often serve 
the public wretchedly, at high rates, and at 
rich profit to themselves. All future charters 
at least should either be for much shorter 
time, or else should fix a sliding scale of rates 
and service graduated for and with increase 
in population. That this can be done is shown 
by our Post-Office system. Through this sys¬ 
tem our National Government has, for at least 
fifty years, served the public efficiently and 
well, at just about actual cost year by year, 
working constantly and steadily with increase 
of population and wealth towards a maximum, 
of efficiency and a minimum of cost. Not 
fifty years ago it took two weeks and cost 
two shillings to get a letter from Bos¬ 
ton or New York to Ohio or Indiana 
Now it takes one day aud costs two 
cents. It soon will cost us but one cent, 
and yet our Postal System wid be self-sus¬ 
taining as it has long been in most of the 
Northern States. Lightning trains exclu¬ 
sively of postal distributing cars, and steel 
arms reachiug forth to catch mail sacks sus¬ 
pended in mid air, have almost reached the 
maximum of efficiency aud speed; while the 
control of this vast postal monopoly “ by the 
people and for the people ” has also, all the 
time, in spite of changing administrations and 
political corruption, worked steadily towards 
a minimum of cost. Does any one believe that 
undt r our past laws any private corporation 
would have served the public in this matter 
so cheaply aud so well? Compare the high 
prices charged by telephone companies, and 
the wretched service coupled with high rates 
charged by our telegraph companies. For 
three years our college in Iowa, with five 
telephone instruments in as inauy depart¬ 
ments, all connecting directly with the 
telegraph office, has found the tele¬ 
graph almost worthless, important mes¬ 
sages often arriving or going so tardily 
as to lose their value and even cause much 
damage and inconvenience. But all public 
carriers of freight, passengers or communica¬ 
tions, and all corporations given by law or 
charter a right of way with monopoly, or vir¬ 
tual monopoly, should be compelled by law or 
charter to do the same thing the government 
does, improve their service and reduce their 
rates with the growth of population and 
wealth, instead of rendering, as now some¬ 
times, a minimum of service at a maximum 
of cost to a grumbling public. Let the 
public grumble to some purpose or else 
stop grumbling. Let the watchword be, 
“ A maximum of efficiency, 
A minimum of cost 1 ” 
and let it ring through the land till all these 
corporations that form a part of the great 
circulatory system of our commerce, have 
heard and heeded it. If our great corpora¬ 
tions choke the breath, and stop or check the 
coursing life-blood of commerce, the instinct 
of self-preservation will make our government 
throw off that grip even if it has to destroy 
its foe, private monopoly, and manage its own 
circulatory and respiratory systems. To 
drop all metaphor: if our government cannot 
compel these corporations to serve the people 
economically, impartially and well, it will 
have to revoke their charters, refund their 
actual capital, and itself do the work they re¬ 
fuse to do economically and properly. In 
Indiana the legislature passed laws reducing 
telepnone rates. The companies threatened 
to withdraw from the State, and the legisla¬ 
ture lost back-bone and grew weak-kneed. In 
an eastern city the council fixed rates; the 
telephone company refused service; tne 
council ordered the streets and air cleared of 
all poles and wires; and the telephone com¬ 
pany saw that it was cneck-mated. These 
companies forget that their franchises from 
the State are most valuable. In the game be¬ 
tween the State and the monopolies it has it¬ 
self created, there can be no doubt which will 
be check-mated if the game is played to the 
end with clear head and steady hand. But 
the state must not give away all its “ pawns ” 
at the start. 
State Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa. 
V: 
MORE ABOUT TESTING MILK FOR 
BUTIER-FAT. 
NO. II. 
The more light shed on the composition of 
milk, the more intelligent manipulators of it 
become convinced that the proportions of fat 
and caseine to each other are quite uniform 
in their relations in the milk of common cows 
that have fair treatment as to food, drink and 
care. The chief variation—when there is any 
—is in the percentage of fat, and in its vary¬ 
ing proportion with caseine in the course of 
one, two or threo days at a time, and it is a 
curious and notable fact that when, for sudden 
cause, these temporary variations come, the 
average per week is substantially uniform. 
That is to say, if a cow suddenly withholds 
butter-fat in her milk so that it falls below 
the normal yield, she is quite sure within two 
or three days to swing it above the normal 
yield for a day or so. It would seem from 
this that there is no really great loss from 
sudden and temporary causes, that is not paid 
up later on. It would seem as if somewhere 
in the economy of the cow she stored up, in 
some place of safety, the valuable fat while 
her fright or other temporary cause lasts, aud 
disgorged it bountifully afterwards, to restore 
the equilibrium. We are not able to explain 
tho reason of this, it being among the un¬ 
solved questions about that wonderful ma¬ 
chine—the cow. 
But the fact of general uniformity of the 
proportion of fat to caseine in milk is so well 
established that, in measuring the commercial 
value of it, we may well take the most valua¬ 
ble element in it, and the one subject to most 
variation in percentage in proportion to the 
other commercial element. That element is 
the fat. W e may with the more propriety do 
this, because it makes generally about 12 bj 
times as much of the value of 100 pounds of 
nnlk as the caseine does, and the further fact 
that the caseine, being more uniform, and not 
worth more than two cents per pound, in any 
event, does not, we might almost safely say 
cannot, vary the value of itself in each 100 
pounds of milk more than two cents ere the 
cow giving it basso proved her worthlessness 
as a dairy animal that she should be started 
on her way to the butcher’s block, at short 
notice. The fat, then, constituting fully 93 
per cent, of every dollar of value in milk, 
may justly betaken as the measure of the val¬ 
ue of it for butter-making without a question; 
and for cheese-making there is no other prac¬ 
tical and rapid method of measuring its value 
for that purpose than ascertaining the fat in 
it. No matter what those who do not see the 
point may prattle about the utility of some 
umpire to measure the per cent, of caseine in 
milk, yet it has not come to light, or need 
it come. Tne more men and nations know 
about milk, the sooner do they come to the 
conclusion that the butter-fat is a near enough 
criterion for measuring its value for any com¬ 
mercial purpose whatever. 
No one can rationally doubt that it is the 
correct way to measure its value for butter¬ 
making; for all the other solids go for nothing 
in making butter; but they do go into the by¬ 
product of skimmed-milk that finds its way 
into the pocket of the producer, either through 
skim cheese, or in feeding it to animals. For 
cheese-making the three to four pounds of 
caseine in 100 pounds of common milk are 
worth from six to eight cents, and vary but 
little from two cents’ difference from year’s 
end to year’s end, not enough to justify the 
expense of finding out how much the caseine 
does vary from day to day In cheese-making. 
We come to the conclusion, then, that to de¬ 
fine what shall be the total amount of solids 
to con=titute it standard milk, is not only a 
useless endeavor, but in practice a futile one. 
The sugar of milk and the caseine are both 
so nearly of uniform proportion to the fat, 
when cows are in health and in normal con¬ 
dition, or they are lost in manufacturing, or 
if not lost in the cheese, are of so little com¬ 
mercial value that the practical man can’t 
afford to hunt for them, and they must there¬ 
fore be inferred in milk for domestic use, and 
the caseine must be inferred in cheese. 
The fat, then, being the chief element, and 
the practical and just criterion by which to 
measure value, milk-testers that determine the 
per cent, of fat, are the only on»s we need to 
concern ourselves about. This is the conclus¬ 
ion of the practical men, the voice of the sav¬ 
ants , the uncomprehended truth for the old 
fogies to stumble over, and for the prattlers 
to allege, who darken counsel with unmean¬ 
ing words, and suggest that a substance 
should be measured when there is no way 
practically to measure it, and if there were, it 
would be of no more use than a method to 
measure the bark on cord wood. That the fat 
measures the essential value of th Q milk, is the 
meaning of most chemical determinations; 
the meaning of the laetocrite, on which tens 
of thousands have been spent; the meaning of 
the test churn for either weighing or oil meas¬ 
ure; and to come plump to the point, is the 
meaning and the mission, of the simple and 
effective method of testing milk for butter- 
fat, known as Prof. F. G. Short’s saponifying 
and oil test, that has been so broadly in 
dorsed as truth telling, by both the Wisconsin 
and New York State Experiment Stations. 
Not to advertise th ! s non-patented article, 
that anybody may make and use, but to 
broadly discuss its application to the great 
dairy industry, will be the leading thougnt 
of the next paper. “Wisconsin.” 
Btarket Buies. 
TROPICAL FRCITS. 
Oranges and lemons are in great profusion 
everywhere. From the mammoth wholesale 
houses, down to the Italian nobleman’s push¬ 
cart, they are piled high in golden mounds. 
The largest and finest are sold “ 10 for a 
quarter,” and from this they range to “ 25 for 
25 cents.” Bauauas, red aud yellow, ripe and 
luscious, are in full supply, and at prices that 
place them within the reach of all. Pomelos 
aud lemons are plentiful and cheap. The ba¬ 
nanas with which the Gothamites tickle their 
palates, come chiefly from the West Indies 
and Central America. 
The crop has been particularly prolific this 
spring. The feature of the supply has been 
the fruit turned out from the plantations at 
Baracoa, in Cuba. The Cuban planters have 
developed a regular boom in the cultivation 
of the fruit, and are uow making an ambi¬ 
tious bid for the patronage of the American 
market. 
A cargo was landed in New York from Bar¬ 
acoa on Tuesday last that consisted of be¬ 
tween 6,000 and 8,000 bunches, shipped as a 
sample of what the plantations could turn 
out. It was a very exceptional shipment,aud 
created a genuine stir in the market. The 
fruit was reported to be of fins flavor, and 
was noticeable for its large size. Several 
times before banana shipments have been re¬ 
ceived from Baracoa, but they were nothing 
to compare in quality or quantity with last 
week’s importation. 
The shipments from Florida and Havana 
have both fallen off in the past fortnight, but 
the trade in Florida oranges is occupying a 
mighty large share of the attention of capital¬ 
ists interested in fruit importation all the 
same. The Sicilian growers are managing to 
make a pretty lively time. 
Strawberries, although not a tropical fruit, 
are plenty from Florida and Charleston, and 
are of very fair size and quality. 
Vegetables of all seasonable kinds are in 
full supply. Old potatoes are plenty and or¬ 
dinary grades are selling for about one dollar 
per barrel. Bermudas are becoming more 
plentiful, at lower prices. Onions are in full 
supply, and are selling at merelv nominal 
prices. Very good cabbage, tomatoes, string 
beans, asparagus, etc., are offered. 
TUuiwm’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
S YSTE M and order are the only things in 
the world to make house-keeping a suc¬ 
cess or the reverse. No woman who does al 
her own work can make it run like clock¬ 
work all the time, because there are so many 
unexpected things; but she can at least so ar¬ 
range it that the occupations fit one into an¬ 
other, and she can save many steps by so 
doing. When the work is all higgledy-pig¬ 
gledy—first one job and then another, with¬ 
out any idea of labor-saving—it is not strange 
if the worker is always tired and always at 
work. Lay out some systematic order ot 
work, and then keep to it as far as possible. 
* * * * 
The Rural has already spoken of syste¬ 
matic sweeping instead of having one great 
sweeping day, to sweep one room each day, 
bed rooms and all. It is not so bard to sweep 
a single bed-room, when doing up the cham¬ 
ber work, but it is hard to sweep three or 
four, while dusting is such a long and tedious 
operation that one room at a tim e is certain¬ 
ly sufficient. 
* * * 
The same rules may be observ ed in clean¬ 
ing silver or other bright thing s. It is a great 
deal of work, when one is Die ssed with much 
table gear, to polish every thing at the same 
time. Far easier it is to rub half a dozen 
spoons or so each day, when washiog dishes; 
it takes but little longer at the time, and ex¬ 
pedites the work. We can’t afford to neg¬ 
lect such little aids when there is so much to 
do, an! but one pair of hands to do it. 
* * * 
We think that one of the hardest things to 
keep neat about the kitchen is the dish-cloth. 
It will get to look black and dingy, no matter 
how thoroughly it is rinsed after each dish¬ 
washing. Of course, after using, it should 
always be thoroughly wa shed with plenty of 
soap and hot water, and then hung out to dry. 
Use one cloth for crockery, and another tor 
pots and kettles: they blacken the cloth very 
much, no matter how well washed they may 
be. The careful drying of the dish-cloth 
after each using is very necessary, for damp 
cloths of any kind, lying about the kitchen, 
certainly encourage water-bugs and roaches, 
as well as black-beetles and other insect 
abominations Keep the kitchen sweet and 
clean, and you have the first requisite for a 
wholesome house. 
* * * 
Cleanliness certainly is next to Godliness, 
but some women have a way of making their 
cleanliness so very oppressive that one would 
almost find dirt preferable. Thus Mrs. 
Gargery, in “Great Expectations,” always 
cleaned house when she felt especially vix¬ 
enish, and cleaned her mild and gentle hus¬ 
band completely off the premises. We don’t 
believe in a person who makes her cleanliness 
a pretext for all sorts of dom estic unpleasant¬ 
ness. When exact housekeeping is made a 
means of destroying the harmony of the home 
it looks as if the househeeper thought more of 
her own way than of others’ comfort. It 
may be housekeeping, but it is not home¬ 
keeping. 
* v * 
Could such a thing as a real home exist 
without a woman at its head? We don't 
think so—men may build houses and furnish 
them, but no mere man c ould, unassisted by a 
woman, establish a home. Women are the 
home-making sex, aud sad it is when they 
lose sight of this fact. We always feel sus¬ 
picious and doubtful of a woman who does 
not care for home and home life; there is 
something lacking. And it is noticeable that 
love for, and pride in a home, will keep a 
woman to the right when other influences 
fail. Let us encourage this home feeling, by 
all means, for it is one of the safeguards of 
the nation. 
