1900 
357 
THK KUKAL NKW-YORKER 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—The British steamer Virginia, from Cuba 
tJ Baltimore, went ashore on Diamond Shoals, N. C., May 
2; live of the crew were rescued by the life-saving sta¬ 
tion, and 16 went adrift in a small boat, and were rescued 
later, after much suffering.The North Peak of 
Mt. Lassen, Cal., is thought to be in a state of volcanic 
activity. Rumbling noises and heavy smoko come from 
the mountain.United States District Judge 
Lochren, of Minneapolis, Minn., has decided that, the rati¬ 
fication of the treaty of peace between the United States 
and Spain made Porto Rico American territory and sub¬ 
ject to the Constitution of the United States without any 
further act of Congress. The decision was given in the 
case of Raphael Ortiz, a Porto Rican, who is seeking re¬ 
lease from the State prison at Stillwater, on the ground 
that his trial for murder by a military court was un¬ 
lawful, because as an American citizen he was entitled 
to a trial by jury.Wm, C. Endicott, ex-Secre- 
tary of War, died at Boston, May 6, aged 73. His only 
daughter is wife of Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial 
Secretary.In Chicago, Ill., May 5, a lire which 
started on the surface of the Chicago River partly de¬ 
stroyed one bridge and required a severe fight, to pre¬ 
vent damage to packing houses and lumber yards. The 
fire was caused by the ignition of oil poured into the 
river.A conference of labor representatives was 
held in New York May 7, to devise means of securing 
legislation to restrict immigration, and to amend the 
Chinese Exclusion act so as to include Japanese in its 
provisions.An extensive tire ravaged the docks 
and sheds of the Standard Oil Company at Bayonne, N. 
J., May 7, destroying one ship, three barges and three 
lighter; loss $500,000.A terrific storm swept over 
San Antonio, Tex., May 7, causing a loss of $100,000 by 
destruction of property.A number of tornadoes 
swept Saline, Ellsworth, and Barton Counties, Kas., May 
G. Several deaths were caused by the storms. 
New discoveries have been made of rich quicksilver de¬ 
posits in Brewster County, Tex., and a big rush of pros¬ 
pectors has begun.The burning of a furniture 
factory at Atlanta, Ga., May 7, caused a loss of $200,000. 
.... Dr. Edwin M. Heath died at Winsted, Conn., 
May 8, of tuberculosis. He was inoculating a calf with 
tuberculin, when the instrument slipped and the point 
penetrated his own leg. Symptoms of tuberculosis ap¬ 
peared in his own system in a few days, and medical 
science was unable to cure him.A despatch 
from Kingston, Jamaica, says that the United Fruit Com¬ 
pany is going immediately to expend over $500,000 on its 
sugar plantations in Cuba. The output, which is expect¬ 
ed to be 1,000 barrels a day, will, it is said, revolutionize 
the sugar industry of the West Indies.May 8, 
three children were burned to death in a forest fire which 
swept over Rainton, Clearfield County, Pa. The village 
of Corbett, Potter County, was wiped out by a forest fire, 
and two persons lost their lives.Destructive 
storms passed over a wide area May 7. Jerseyville and 
Eureka, Ill.; Marysville, Mo., and Vincennes, Ind., suf¬ 
fered much property damage. 
CONGRESS.—May 3, the Senate passed the Army Ap¬ 
propriation bill.The House passed, May 3, the 
Free Home bill, which provides that the Government 
shall issue patents to actual settlers in agricultural lands 
of Indian reservations opened to settlement. By the 
terms of the bill the Government assumes the payment 
of the purchase price to the Indians and changes the ex¬ 
isting law, relative to agricultural colleges, so as to in¬ 
sure the payment of the endowments, which heretofore 
have come out of the sale of public lands, in case of de¬ 
ficiency. These payments involve $1,200,000 annually. Of 
the 29,000,000 acres in Indian reservations opened to settle¬ 
ment, for which the Government is to pay or has paid 
$35,000,000, about 8,000,000 acres have been taken, and about 
2,000,000 are supposed to be still available for agricultural 
purposes. The appropriation for the National Guard was 
increased in the House form $400,000 to $1,000,000. 
May 9, the Senate went into secret session to consider the 
armor-plate question. This was due to the results of a 
test of a new projectile, which goes through a 14-inch 
plate of Harveyized armor. The House adopted Mr. 
Tawney’s resolution, asking for information regarding 
the manufacture of oleo. 
CUBA.—There is a discrepancy in the accounts of Chas. 
F. W. Neely, Chief of the Bureau of Finance for the 
Postal Department of Cuba, amounting to $G1,7G5. The 
deficit may be enormous. July last year the receipts 
showed a falling off of about $12,000 from the average 
of the months previous, and this shortage has been kept 
up ever since. It appears that about that time Director 
of Posts Rathbone gave orders for the destruction of 
$411,000 worth of surcharge stamps, on account of the is¬ 
sue of a new stamp. This work of destruction was left 
in the hands of Charles F. W. Neely and his assistants, 
but it is now believed that none of those stamps were 
destroyed, the theory being that they were sent out with 
the new stamps. Neely has been arrested and released 
on $20,000 bail. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The following officers have 
just been appointed by the New York State Fair Com¬ 
mission: J. H. Durkee, Sandy Hill, general manager; H. 
A. Moyer, Syracuse, superintendent of grounds; S. C. 
Shaver, Cobleskill, secretary; A. E. Brown, Batavia, 
treasurer. Mr. Durkee is well known as president of 
the State Association of County Agricultural Societies; 
Mr. Moyer is owner of a large stock farm, and both Mr. 
Shaver, Cobleskill, secretary; A. E. Brown, Batavia, 
societies. Ira Sharp, of Lowville, will be superintendent 
of machinery, and Oscar J. Lewis, of Schodack Centre, 
superintendent of poultry. 
A pool comprising 2,931 fleeces of mohair was sold at 
Corvallis, Ore., last month for 2S cents a pound. The 
total weight of the lot was about 10,000 pounds. 
The twenty-fifth annual convention of the American 
Association of Nurserymen will be held at the Chicago 
Beach Hotel, Chicago, June 13-14. 
The American Rose Society will hold an exhibition at 
the Eden Musee, New York City, June 12-14. 
The prohibition of the importation of cattle from South 
America has caused consternation among shippers and 
butchers in Scotland. The prices of cattle and sheep have 
advanced to the highest quotations since 18S2. The frozen 
meat trade is expected to reap the benefit, and it is an¬ 
ticipated that an attempt will be made to defeat the 
Board of Agriculture’s decree by shipping Argentine cat¬ 
tle to Antwerp for slaughter and transshipment to Eng¬ 
land. 
Last year the State of Pennsylvania paid $28,000 to 
farmers for tubercular cattle. 
The First New York Beet Sugar Company, of Utica, 
has gone into the hands of a receiver. The reasons as¬ 
signed for the failure are that neighboring farmers did 
not raise enough beets to supply the factory, and the 
capital invested was not sufficient. 
The German Reichstag adopted a resolution May 7 for¬ 
bidding subsidized steamers to convey to German, Bel¬ 
gian, and Dutch ports, agricultural products which com¬ 
pete with German agriculture, except tobacco, beeswax, 
skins, hides and wool. 
The two leading agricultural societies of Great Britain, 
the Royal Agricultural and the Highland Agricultural, 
have amalgamated. They will establish a national ex¬ 
amination board, and will grant prizes and diplomas to 
farmers after examination. 
John Davis Williams French, of Boston and Andover, 
Mass., died recently. He was well known as a breeder 
ot Ayrshires; was one of the founders of the Ayrshire 
Association, and served as an officer of that society in 
several capacities. lie was also president of the Bay 
State Agricultural Society, and held office in the Massa¬ 
chusetts Board of Agriculture and the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society; was a trustees of the Massachu¬ 
setts Agricultural College, president of the New England 
Milk Producers' Union, and secretary of the American 
Forestry Association. 
Major Levi Wells, Pennsylvania Dairy and Food Com¬ 
missioner, resigned his office, the resignation taking ef¬ 
fect May 1G. The State Grange was planning to demand 
his removal, in consequence of the recent oleo disclosures. 
There was a heavy frost in the upper Hudson Valley 
May 9; the peach and strawberry crop is badly damaged, 
if not a total loss. It is thought that apples escaped. 
On Long Island and in New Jersey ice formed in exposed 
places, and tender vegetables of all kinds were injured. 
Sweet corn and melons w'ere killed, and will have to 
be replanted. The New Jersey fruit blossoms suffered 
severely, the temperature falling so low that ice formed 
on ponds and brooks. 
WHAT IS OLEO MADE OF? 
THE FACTS ABOUT A 8EIPPEKY CASK. 
The Needs of Certain Congressmen. 
Last week we named the members of the Ways and 
Means Committee of the House of Representatives 
who refused to ask the Secretary of the Treasury to 
state what oleo is made of. As this is a matter of 
some importance, we give the following history of it. 
As is well known, there are two bills before Con¬ 
gress which are designed to regulate the sale of oleo, 
and to place a higher taxation upon its manufacture. 
The makers of oleo were given a hearing, at which 
they were asked to tell what their product is made of. 
They refused to answer. It has been claimed that 
they now use large quantities of stearine and other 
fats which do not dissolve at ordinary temperatures, 
and are therefore indigestible. As these men refused 
to answer, the friends of honest butter sent the fol¬ 
lowing resolution, which was referred to this Ways 
and Means Committee, possibly for the purpose of 
killing it off: 
]{C8olvcd, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he 
is hereby, requested to furnish the House of Representa¬ 
tives information concerning the amount and character 
of the material used in the manufacture of oleomargarine 
by the several manufacturers, as shown by the monthly 
duplicates of pages one and two of Form Two hundred 
and sixteen for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, 
oghteen hundred and ninety-nine, also for the month of 
December of the same year, as returned by the various 
manufacturers of oleomargarine throughout the United 
States for the above periods. 
It is easy to see what this resolution means. The 
law compels oleo makers to file each month a state¬ 
ment of the quantities and kinds of material used in 
producing oleo. When the oleo law was passed 14 
years ago, it was mane evident that there should 
be no secrets about the manufacture of the product. 
The resolution called upon the Secretary of the Treas¬ 
ury to give the facts which the oleo makers refused 
to give. 
For some reason, the majority of the Ways and 
Means Committee rejected this resolution. Two mem¬ 
bers, therefore, J. A. Tawney and J. P. Dolliver, as 
was their right, sent in a minority report. Among 
those who voted to kill this resolution is Hon. S. E. 
Payne, of Auburn, N. Y., who represents a district in 
which there are many dairymen. This action was, to 
say the least, suspicious, and there were many who 
thought that no friend of honest butter would refuse 
to support that resolution. The R. N.-Y. wrote Mr! 
Payne asking him why he had voted, apparently, 
against the interest of the man with the cow. We 
offered him a chance to explain his reasons before we 
made any statement about it. Instead of taking ad¬ 
vantage of this offer, Mr. Payne simply refers to the 
report of his Committee, and assumes an injured 
tone, as though he were some privileged character 
whose actions should not be challenged. It strikes us 
that he might easily have made a much better defence, 
but it: he is satisfied, The R. N.-Y. cannot complain. 
The Committee makes only one point, falling back on 
Section 3167 of the United States Revised Statutes, 
which provides: 
If any collector or deputy collector or any inspector or 
other officer acting under the authority of any revenue 
law of the United States divulges to any party or makes 
known in any other manner than may be provided by 
1 
law the operations, style of work, or apparatus of any 
manufacturer or producer visited by him in the discharge 
of his official duties, he shall be subject to a fine of not 
exceeding one thousand dollars, or to be imprisoned for 
not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the 
court, and shall be dismissed from office, and shall be 
ever thereafter incapable of holding any office under the 
Government. 
In Short, the Committee seem to believe that the 
Secretary is prevented by law from furnishing the 
information, and, therefore, they wish to make things 
just as easy as they can for him, by not asking ques¬ 
tions. This is absolutely all these men have to offer. 
The minority proceed to riddle that statement, until 
there is nothing left of it. Read mis: 
A. mere casual reading of this section shows that it 
has no relation whatever to information filed with the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue or the Secretary of 
the Treasury in accordance with the express require¬ 
ment of law. It relates solely and alone to information 
concerning the operations, style of work, or apparatus 
of any manufacturer or producer obtained by a collector 
or deputy collector of internal revenue or any inspector 
or other officer upon visiting such manufacturer or pro¬ 
ducer in the discharge of his official duties. It has no 
reference whatever to any other officers or to any other 
information than that which is obtained in the manner 
specified in the statute—that is, by the personal visita¬ 
tion of the officer. The Secretary of the Treasury is not, 
therefore, prohibited from giving to this House the in¬ 
formation which the law, known as the Oleomai-garine 
Act, Section 5, approved August 2, 1896, expressly pro¬ 
vides shall be filed with him or with the Commisssioner 
of Internal Revenue in respect to the character and 
amount of materials used in the manufacture of this 
alleged food product. The statute relied upon by the 
majority contemplates nothing of the kind. It is simply 
ridiculous to claim that it does, for that claim can only 
be sustained by saying in effect that the Government has 
licensed a person or company for the manufacture of a 
so-called food product, has imposed a tax upon that pro¬ 
duct, and in the interest of the public health has required 
that person or company to make monthly returns to the 
Commissioner of Internal Revenue, showing the char¬ 
acter and quantity of the ingredients used for that pur¬ 
pose. But, notwithstanding all this, it shall not be with¬ 
in the power of either House or Congress to obtain this 
information either for the benefit of the public health 
or lor the purpose of enacting or amending existing legis¬ 
lation respecting the manufacture of this so-called food 
product. 
That seems to an ordinary person the commonest 
sort of common sense, and so is the following: 
If it was the intention of Congress that these returns 
should be made to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue 
and kept secret, so that the public should not know 
what material was used in the manufacture of this pro¬ 
duct intended for human consumption, it certainly would 
not have incorporated a provision, in this same law, 
creating a tribunal for the determination of the question 
of whether or not such materials, or any of them, were 
deleterious to health, for a hearing before this tribunal 
would necessarily be a public hearing, at which all the 
evidence and all the information concerning the subject- 
matter of the investigation would be made public. 
In our judgment ‘the minority does not leave Mr. 
Payne ana his friends even a small knot-hole to crawl 
through, in spite of the diminutive size of their argu¬ 
ment, and the liberal greasing with oleo, when they 
say: 
For these reasons we are constrained respectfully to 
differ from our colleagues on the question of whether 
or not this House and the public are entitled to know 
the quantity and character of the ingredients used by 
the manufacturers of oleomargarine in the production of 
a product intended for human consumption. The anxious 
solicitude of the majority for the trade secrets of the 
manufacturers of oleomargarine, and for the Secretary of 
the Treasury, is wholly unnecessary. The former are 
capable of protecting themselves, and the latter will not 
reply, and in the judgment of his legal advisers, he can 
do so without incurring the penalties imposed by the 
statute relied upon by the majority. 
It certainly is not the business of these Congress¬ 
men to make things so easy for the Secretary. He is 
abundantly able to take care of himself, and you may 
be sure that he would not answer the question if this 
action applied to him. There was not a leg left for 
these men to stand on when the minority got through 
with them. They dragged themselves into the House 
on cracked legal crutches, and were ordered by a vote 
of 126 to 82 to carry out the resolution. This vote 
knocked even their crutches out from under them, and 
left them sitting uncomfortably on tubs of oleo. It 
was a right-hander from the friends of honest butter. 
Mr. Payne appears to be quite indignant that any¬ 
one should dare to ask him to explain his reasons for 
supporting tne oleo makers. 1-Ie says: 
Now, If you desire any further correspondence with me, 
I hope you will omit any covert threats in your letter. 
I have entire confidence in my constituents and have 
never feared to take any position which 1 deemed right- 
trusting always in their intelligence and sense of justice. 
Iso tin eats were written or thought of. Wb simply 
gave him a chance to explain what seemed to many 
dairymen an unfriendly act to honest butter. Mr. 
Payne has represented nis district for many years, 
and like other able and useful men, he seems to think 
that he carries a large share of the intelligence and 
thought of his constituents 4inder his own vest. What 
he most needs is to have some good friend whisper 
in his ear that he is “not the only pebble on the 
beach,” that “there are others” who claim to under¬ 
stand this oleo question, and that the matter of anti- 
oleo legislation is of more importance to farmers than 
his favorite topics of tariff or National shipping bill. 
As no one else volunteers to tell mm so, The R. N.-Y. 
takes the responsibility of doing it, and we have no 
doubt that after this information Mr. Payne will be 
found ip the front rank, supporting the Grout b.-i 
when ft finally comes before the House. 
