1899 
THE RURAL NEW.-YORKER 
645 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—Dr. Edward Bedloe of Pennsylvania, 
United States Consul at Canton, China, has been suspend¬ 
ed and is on his way home for official inquiry. It is as¬ 
serted that he granted American register to a vessel en¬ 
gaged in carrying arms to the Filipino insurgents. Dr. 
Bedloe is a man of high standing, and his friends do not 
believe the allegations against him. . . Highwaymen 
held up a stage coach at Horseshoe Bend, Idaho, August 
21, and secured $5,000 in gold dust belonging to a Chicago 
man. . . A law passed by the last Michigan Legisla¬ 
ture requires physicians to report to the health office all 
cases of consumption, classing the disease as contagious. 
Doctors generally refuse to obey this law, and one promi¬ 
nent physician has been fined $50 for his violation of it. 
The case will be taken to the Supreme Court. . . Judge 
Henry Hilton, lawyer and merchant, widely known 
through his association with A. T. Stewart, died at Sara¬ 
toga, N. Y., August 25, aged 75. He had a fine collection 
of fancy stock at Woodlawn Park, his Saratoga home, 
and had one of the finest private collections of paintings 
in America. . . A number of boys at Doylestown, Pa., 
have made a practice of coasting down a steep trolley 
track on a hand-car. August 25, the car jumped the 
track, killing one boy and injuring 22 others. . . Con¬ 
cord, N. II., was visited by an earthquake shock August 
25. . . At Peck, Fla., August 27, the district attorney 
and six deputy marshals attempted to arrest whitecaps 
who assaulted Postmaster Crum. Eight men were ar¬ 
rested, after some trouble, but after this, armed men re¬ 
sisted the marshals, and no strangers were allowed to 
enter the settlement. The postmaster was guilty of ap¬ 
pointing a colored man as his deputy, and for this he 
was brutally beaten and carbolic acid poured upon his 
lacerated flesh. . . August 26-27, trouble continued at 
Darien, Ga., and the district was under martial law. The 
negroes, heavily armed, had taken to the swamp. . . 
Forest fires are destroying quantities of timber in Wy¬ 
oming and South Dakota. They cannot be checked with¬ 
out rain. . . Four men were killed in a brickyard at 
Catskill, N. Y., August 26, by the fall of 200,000 bricks in 
a faulty kiln. . . A cloudburst in Baltimore, Md., Au¬ 
gust 26, flooded the streets and did much damage to prop¬ 
erty. . . The steel framework of the new Coliseum 
building in process of erection on Wabash Avenue, Chi¬ 
cago, fell without a moment’s warning August 28. Six 
workmen are dead, three missing, and seven injured, 
some of them fatally. It is believed that the sand in 
the foundations shifted and unsettled the bases of the 
arches, but lack of braces is also blamed. The collapsed 
structure was 204x172 feet and was to be 85 feet high. The 
old Coliseum building on Sixty-third Street, Chicago, col¬ 
lapsed while being built in 1895, and was totally destroyed 
by fire afterwards. . . St. Agnes' Convent, Sparkill, N. 
Y., was destroyed by fire August 28. Two children died 
from fright, one woman from shock, and one from fire; 
two nuns were mortally injured, five others wounded, and 
more than 20 children hurt. The convent was an orphan¬ 
age, and greater loss of life was averted by the heroism 
of the sisters, and the fact that the inmates had a daily 
fire drill. . . The Interstate Commerce Commission, in 
deciding an important case involving relative rates on 
export and domestic traffic in grain and grain products, 
decides that carriers must publish the rate for export 
transport, and that intermediate points must have equal 
rates. . . Rioting broke out again in Cleveland, O., Au¬ 
gust 29. Cars were derailed and stoned, and the crews 
dragged off and beaten. . . Mrs. Eyler, principal of the 
Girls’ Industrial School at Trenton, N. J., gave bail Au¬ 
gust 29 to answer the charge of cruelty to a former in¬ 
mate of the school. The charge is preferred by the Pas¬ 
saic County, N. J., Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 
to Children. . . Alarm has been caused in Arizona by 
the Apache Indians going on the warpath; they are pur¬ 
suing the Zunis. . . August 30, another street car was 
blown up by dynamite in Cleveland, O., seriously injur¬ 
ing six passengers, three of whom were women. . . Au¬ 
gust 30, a passenger train on the Erie Railroad was 
wrecked at Arlington, N. J., by two freight cars, loaded 
with stone, which had broken loose and dashed down a 
steep grade. One man was killed and 24 hurt. 
FARM AND GARDEN.-Migrating Potato beetles 
stalled a train on the Long Island Railroad August 
25. . . The American Association of Breeders of 
Thoroughbred Horses perfected a permanent organiza¬ 
tion in New York, August 25. Gen. W. H. Jackson, 
of Belle Meade Farm, is president, and O. H. Chevault, 
of Lexington, Ky., secretary and treasurer. . . It is 
estimated that the cotton crop will be short 30 per cent. 
In some parts of the cotton belt, the crop has suffered 
from excessive rain, in others from storms and floods, 
and in other places drought, hot weather and rust have 
injured it. . . At Burlington, Iowa, six dairymen are 
being prosecuted for using formaldehyde to preserve 
milk. . . Henri de Vilmorin, head of the great French 
seed firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie, died August 22. 
He was a distinguished hybridist, and writer on horti¬ 
cultural subjects. . . D. M. Ferry, the well-known 
Detroit seedsman, has given $8,000 to Yassar College, 
to found a scholarship in memory of his daughter. . . 
New Jersey farmers in the canning district are har¬ 
vesting a big crop of tomatoes, for which they will get 
$7 a ton. . . The Farmers’ Association met at Had- 
donfield, N. J., August 26, to protest against the pay¬ 
ment of toll, and to demand their rights on the Camden 
and Haddonfield turnpike. . . The Department of 
Agriculture is endeavoring to stimulate sugar-beet rais¬ 
ing in Oregon. . . The first new wheat of the season 
was received in Seattle, Wash., August 22. It was No. 
2 bluestem, quoted for export at 58 cents, and tested 
E7y 2 pounds to the bushel. . . A committee of 70 farm¬ 
ers is making arrangements for a great harvest festi¬ 
val at Castle Rock, Pa. . . The City Sanitarian at In¬ 
dianapolis will publish in tne newspapers the names of 
milk dealers who use formaldehyde. . . Hem> J. 
Crocker’s offer to the grape growers of California to 
pay them $12 and $14 a ton for their grapes, provided 
they will sign a contract at those figures covering a 
period of seven years, was formally indorsed by repre¬ 
sentative growers at a meeting held in conjunction 
with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. . . A 
poultry show will be held at New Westminster, B. C., 
beginning October 4. . . The United States Society 
of Beekeepers will open their annual meeting in Phila¬ 
delphia, September 5. The officers of the association 
are: President, E. Whitcomb, Nebraska; Vice-Presi¬ 
dent, C. A. Hatch, Ithaca, Wis.; Secretary, Dr. A. B. 
Mason, Toledo, O.; Treasurer, Hon. Eugene Secor, 
Forest City, la.; Directors, E. R. Root, Medina, O.; 
W. Z. Hutchinson, Hinsdale, Mich.; E. T. Abbott, St. 
Joe, Mo.; Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, Ill., and C. P. 
Dadant, Hamilton, Ill. . . Representatives of the 
Japanese government have been visiting Lexington, 
Ky., for the purpose of purchasing horses for Japan. 
PHILIPPINES.—The Sultan of Sulu has agreed to fly 
the American flag, both at home and abroad. Our 
Government will continue the pension formerly paid to 
him by Spain; it is 10,000 pesos, or about $4,600. . . The 
steamer Saturnus, coasting under the American flag, 
has been beached at San Fernando, and it is said that 
the crew have been murdered by the insurgents. . . 
Following the visit of Gen. Bates to the Sultan of Jolo, 
Datto Mundi, one of the Sultan’s officials, asked per¬ 
mission to proceed against the insurgents, and drove 
them from Zamboango, the capital of Mindanao. . . 
The Red Cross Society has been notified that Aguinaldo 
will release sick Spaniards now held as prisoners. . . 
The rebels were reported to be concentrating their 
forces around Imus, August 30. It is believed that they 
will attempt to recapture the town. An effective block¬ 
ade of Luzon is now being considered. This would pre¬ 
vent filibustering by Chinese and Japanese, who are 
smuggling in arms and ammunition. 
PORTO RICO.—The official report issued by the Su¬ 
perior Board of Health states that there have been 
2,312 burials of victims of the recent hurricane; 1,000 
families are missing, together with their houses. The 
number of destitute persons is put at 250,000. It is esti¬ 
mated that it will require 25,000,000 pounds of rice and 
beans, and 4,250,000 pounds of codfish to allow of a 
ration of a pound a day being issued until the crops 
can be gathered, four months hence. Later reports 
from Gen. Davis received August 26, state that 1,000 
tons of food a week will be required, and that the cost 
for food until the new crop would be $1,500,000. 
CUBA.—Several cases of yellow fever have appeared 
among soldiers in the Cabanas Fortress, Havana, and 
they will be moved to camp. There is little fever in 
the city. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—A yellow fever epi¬ 
demic is spreading along the Mexican coast. . . Pub¬ 
lic schools at Oporto, Portugal, have been closed on 
account of bubonic plague. The disease has appeared 
at Niu Chwang, China. . . August 25, reports from 
Chile stated that property valued at more than $7,500,000 
had been destroyed by recent storms. . . Owing to 
the spread of the revolutionary movement in Santo 
Domingo, the Navy Department has decided to send 
more warships there. . . The Dreyfus trial is con¬ 
tinued and, in the absence of any real evidence against 
the accused, an effort is now being made to show that 
Dreyfus acted with his discredited enemy Esterhazy. 
AN AMERICAN "FARMERS’ FEDERATION .” 
I 1 LAN FOR HOLDING THE CORN CROP. 
Conflicting Interests of Farmers. 
A FARMERS’ TRUST.—All over the country, there 
are farmers who begin to realize that the best way to 
compete with the great corporations and trusts is to 
form combinations among themselves, and this year’s 
movement is along that line. Mr. Walter N. Allen, 
Topeka, Kansas, sends us a long account of the 
Farmers’ Federation of the Mississippi Valley. He 
says that this Federation was started in April, 1888, 
and incorporated under the laws of Kansas with a 
capital stock of $20,000,000. The Farmers’ Alliance, 
which was organized about that time, made a bitter 
fight against the Farmers’ Federation, and finally 
drove it out of business. The charter, however, has 
been kept alive, and the old company now seeks to 
control the output of grain. 
Mr. Allen says that Kansas will produce, this year, 
nearly 400,000,000 bushels of corn; other States of the 
Mississippi Valley also have great crops of this cereal. 
Left to themselves, the farmers will throw this vast 
crop upon the market within a few months. This will 
mean cheap wheat and low prices for cattle and hogs. 
Mr. Allen says that cheap corn always means cheap 
wheat and other food products. A history of the big 
crops of corn in the West shows that, when such 
crops are handled without order the products of other 
cereals will decline in price. He proposes to obtain 
higher prices for all grain and its products by com¬ 
bining to hold back the corn crop. The organization 
will be practically a farmers’ trust. He says there is 
nothing about the charter that conflicts with the In¬ 
terstate Commerce laws or with anti-trust laws in 
any of the States. It seeks only the power to control 
shipments of farm products, and thus regulate the 
supply and the demand. 
A GIGANTIC SCHEME.—Briefly stated, the plan is 
to issue 2,000,000 shares at $10 each. With this capi¬ 
tal, it <is proposed to build yards, elevators, and other 
necessary devices for handling grain at all the larger 
western cities. Those who join the trust agree to be 
guided by the advice of the officers. The company 
will do a loaning and banking business, advancing 
money on crops that are held back, and generally 
using its capital for the benefit of 'its members. 
Mr. Allen makes a point that farmers of the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley lose $20,000,000 annually in the matter of 
grain commissions alone. He says that any well- 
equ'ipped commission house in Chicago can sell alone, 
the daily receipts of wheat and corn. He says that the 
buyers and speculators in farm products now own and 
control the interest in the stockyards and grain eleva¬ 
tors. These modern institutions have grown up since 
the War. Formerly the packers, millers and specu¬ 
lators sent agents into the country to deal with pro¬ 
ducers. Now the farmer must deliver into the hands 
of the buyers without agreement as to limit of price 
or contract of sale. He says that the cost of com¬ 
missions for marketing the farm products in the 
Mississippi Valley is over $21,000,000. The Farmers’ 
Federation can do it for $1,000,000. The only way for 
the farmers of the country to secure this $20,000,000 
is to organize and do the business themselves. He 
says that the power that can check or restrain ship¬ 
ments of farm products and hold off the markets of 
this country five per cent less than the daily or 
weekly demand for export, will master the Situation. 
No one can be so thoroughly interested in securing 
this mastery as the man on the farm, who produces 
the grain or cotton. 
ONE OBSTACLE.—A sample of Mr. Allen’s reason¬ 
ing may be found in the following quotation from his 
letter: 
What difference would it make to the consumer 
whether he paid 60 cents or 80 cents per bushel for the 
wheat that makes the flour? It would increase the 
cost of living only 80 cents a year, or less than seven 
cents per month; yet this difference of 20 cents per 
bushel in the price of wheat would put $64,000,000 annu¬ 
ally in the pockets of the farmers of this country, 
$40,000,000 of which would be paid by the foreigners and 
$24,000,000 by home consumers. A rise in the price of 
wages of one cent a day would more than meet this in¬ 
creased cost of living to the consumers in the United 
States. This calculation is based on the supposition 
that we have 70,000,000 population, 40,000,000 of whom are 
farmers, and 30,000,000 belong to other classes; and the 
consumption of wheat in this country is about four 
bushels per capita. 
The great trouble with this reasoning is the fact 
that Mr. Allen writes from the standpoint of the 
wheat or gra'in producer. East of the Ohio River, a 
very large proportion of farmers do not attempt to 
produce their own grain. They buy their flour, also 
vast quantities of western corn. This year, in par¬ 
ticular, they are hoping for low prices of western 
grain, so that they may feed a few steers on the 
farm, as was done in former years. The same thing 
is true of some parts of the South or Middle West. If 
the farmers of the Mississippi Valley combine to raise 
the price of corn, it must be said that they will work 
against the interests of the eastern farmers, whose 
profits will be made through cheap prices for this 
grain. This difficulty of reconciling the interests of 
eastern and western farmers will, we think, prove one 
obstacle in the way of success with such a scheme. 
NEW GRAPE INDUSTRY.—The newspapers re¬ 
ported that a large per cent of the grape crop of Chau¬ 
tauqua County, N. Y., is to be made into grape juice. 
It was stated that the increase of freights made by 
the railroads for carrying grapes was driving growers 
out of the shipping business. They found it un¬ 
profitable to pay freight and commission on sending 
grapes to the city. Therefore, they proposed to han¬ 
dle juice or unfermented wine. We find that this re¬ 
port has been exaggerated. One establishment at 
Westfield will make grape juice from the crop, but 
that will make a small hole in the season’s crop of 
6,000 cars of grapes. Probably not half of one per 
cent of the total crop will be made into grape juice 
this year; yet this may be the beginning of a new in¬ 
dustry for that section. We have contended that, un¬ 
less the railroads and express companies would give 
fairer rates on fruit transportation, the time will come 
when they will lose almost all their freight. The 
growers simply cannot pay the exorbitant charges, 
and they will be driven out of business if the high 
rates be continued; then the transportation com¬ 
panies will see their folly, but it will be too late, 
both for them and for the farmer. 
