1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
rH£ HEW YORK STATE SRAHOE 
riiESIDENT’S REPORT.—The New York State Grange 
held its twenty-eighth annual session at Poughkeepsie, 
N. Y., February 5-8. The regular sessions were held 
under the fourth degree of the Order, but an open session 
was held Tuesday night, and during a part of the session 
Wednesday afternoon. State Master E. B. Norris read 
his annual report the first day. In reference to Grange 
work he earnestly urged the organization of Pomona 
Granges. If the County Granges are in a state of ac¬ 
tivity he claimed that there would be no dormant subor¬ 
dinate Granges. The farmers are realizing that the 
Grange offers the best and most progressive ideal of 
cooperation, and that its advanced methods of instruction, 
both socially and educationally, place it preeminently in 
the front of all farmers’ organizations. He also urged 
the importance of the degree work in the councils. In 
the matter of taxation and legislation, he said that the 
zealous activity of the members sometimes lead into 
labyrinths of entanglement that it becomes difficult 
(luickly to emerge from. Let the Grange, he said, study 
well all the bills that are presented, and if any are found 
practical, indorse them, and leave nothing undone to push 
them to a speedy passage. There is no one thing so hard 
to solve by legislation as an equitable tax bill that shall 
do justice to all classes. He spoke a good word for the 
Department of Agriculture, for the farmers’ institute, 
and for the State Fair under the present management. 
He referred also to the injury done the dairy interests 
of the State by the fraudulent imitation of dairy pro¬ 
ducts, and spoke a word in favor of the Grout bill. The 
adoi)tion of free rural mail will, he said, rank as the one 
grand achievement of the Grange. It was adopted in 
spite of the opposition of the political managers of both 
parties, but the trial proved to the Post Office Depart¬ 
ment that it was not only a great boon to the American 
faimcr, but also a saving of money to the Department. 
He indorsed the action of the National Grange in its 
opposition to the Subsidy bill, because farmers’ products 
liave to go into open competition with the world, and 
he did not believe in their contributing a penny for the 
ship-builders’ trust. He opposed the proposition to irri¬ 
gate western lands at Government expense, and uttered 
a word of caution against the trusts. He also made a 
vigorous protest against the expenditure of $62,000,000 by 
the State on the canal. 
SECRETARY' AND CHAPLAIN.—Secretary Giles made 
a very satisfactory report on the condition of the Grange; 
1 } new Granges were organized, and one reorganized 
during the year, and several others are under way for 
fuganization. There are 524 Granges now in the State; 
■14 counties are represented, 29 of which have Pomona 
Granges. Jefferson County stands at the head, with :]2 
Granges and 4,875 members. Steuben has 31 Granges, 
Chautauqua 28, with 3,679 members. Wayne has IG 
Granges, with 3,028 members; averaging 200 members to 
the Grange. Oswego has 30 Granges, with 3,087 members. 
Wolcott, Wayne County, has the largest subordinate 
Grange, with 759 members. The total membership of the 
State is 49,029. Treasurer's report was equally satisfac¬ 
tory; showing a balance on hand of $13,897.33. The second 
day was largely taken up by reports of subordinate of¬ 
ficers. J. E. Knapp, Ceres, of Denmark, made an in¬ 
teresting report, principally dealing with the advantages 
of the Grange. Mrs. W. W. Streever, Pomona, of West 
Milton, recounted the progress of the Grange, and dealt 
with rural matters generally, and among other good 
things said that while the farmers are always cautious, 
they never will let caution interfere with legitimate pro¬ 
gress. l^ady Assistant Steward, Ylrs. W. W. Ware, 
of Batavia, told of some excellent charitable work done 
by the Ladies’ Aid Society in connection with the Staf¬ 
ford Grange. This Grange appropriates $3 a month, and 
the money is used by the ladies in making clothing for 
the poor and needy. Overseer Geo. A. Fuller, of Phila¬ 
delphia, made some good suggestions for Grange work, 
and gave some strong advice to farmers generally, the 
main feature of which was “push.” Chaplain A. H. 
Dewey, of Manchester, made a report of his year’s work. 
He made a point from Bible history to show that the 
righteous men and women of the Old Testament times 
were the original Grangers. Steward Chas. A. Mann, of 
Breakabeen, insisted that it was everybody’s business to 
bring into the Grange farmers who would be benefited 
by the Order. He urged that wherever farmers’ institutes, 
or farmers’ gatherings be held, the teachers and children 
of the public schools should be invited, and programmes 
required for their entertainment. The boys and girls of 
the present are to be the Grangers of the future, and he 
wanted to start their education for the work now'. As¬ 
sistant Steward J. J. Bell, of Deposit, claimed that the 
Grange is now only in its infancy, and that this organiza¬ 
tion will enable the farmers of the country to exert a 
united influence for the benefit of just legislation. Gate¬ 
keeper M. J. Harding. Hornellsville, and Mrs. W. H. 
Buckley, of West Groton, reported on their respective 
duties. 
SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE.—Dr. W. H. Jordan was 
the principal speaker at the open session Tuesday night. 
He talked principally on the scientific side of agriculture, 
and repeated the plea that he has made in other parts of 
tile State, and before other bodies of farmers, for the 
leaching of primary elements of agriculture in the com¬ 
mon schools of the State. Some things that the Doctor 
said about agricultural papers were apparently mis¬ 
understood by some members of the audience. It is 
true that after discussing them, he said that some of 
them were not w'orth what they cost, but this did not, 
to our mind, imply a condemnation of all, but rather a 
suggestion for discrimination in the selection of them. 
There are some papers with agricultural titles that every 
thinking farmer, as well as Dr. Jordan, knows are agri¬ 
cultural only in name. We suppose that Dr. Jordan, in 
talking on the subject, would say that there are experi¬ 
ment stations that are hardly worth what they cost, and 
literature often issued from these stations that is not 
worth what it costs, but he would not on that account 
condemn all experiment station work nor all experiment 
station literature. 
MATTERS.—'The latter part of Wednesday 
afternoon session was occupied by James Wood, of Mt. 
Kisco. His subject was the proposed $62,000,000 State 
canal, and he gave some arguments against the propo¬ 
sition that will be rather hard to dispute. In part, he 
said that Governor Roosevelt has thrilled and pleased 
the people of the State by a proposed retrenchment and 
reduction of State expenses, but the proposition for an 
enlarged canal is so tremendous as to make insignificant 
any reduction that could possibly be made in State ex¬ 
penses. The bill is a misnomer. There is not a lock on 
the old canal, nor a bank along it, nor a bridge across it 
that can be utilized in the new proposition. The real 
purpose is for a new canal. To say that it is an im¬ 
provement of the old one is a deception. Judging by the 
past, $62,000,000 is only a basis to start on, and by the 
standard of other experiences it must be expected that 
it will cost anywhere from 50 to 250 per cent more.. The 
commission already intimates that it will probably require 
$100,000,OuO, and it can safely be estimated that it would 
cost in the neighborhood of $ 200 , 000,000 before completed. 
Every man who was bold enough to oppose the propo¬ 
sition, he said, is charged as being in the employ of 
railroads, and he wanted to make it clear on the start 
that for himself he never was employed by any railroad, 
never expected to be employed by any railroad, has 
always paid his fare when traveling on the railroad, and 
never asked for or received a pass for riding on any 
railroad. He then reviewed the progress made in trans¬ 
portation facilities, starting with the bundle of furs 
carried on the backs of the Indians to the first shipload 
exported from Yonkers in this country across the water. 
Next came the pack-horses, then the wagons over the 
State roads, then the canals, and finally the railroads. 
The Erie Canal was completed in 1825. The first railroad 
of the State was built three years afterwards and ran 
from Albany to Schenectady. In 1842 the line was com¬ 
pleted from Albany to Buffalo; in 1851 to New York. 
The railroads do practically all the transportation now. 
The Erie Canal reached its maximum of transportation 
in 1880, yet in 1882 it abolished tolls and made the canal 
free. That is, free to the owners of boats, but the tax¬ 
payer has been paying the toll ever since. Every man* 
who pays a dollar of tax helps pay that toll. We pay 
$2,500,000 of canal toll every year. The farmers are pay¬ 
ing their share of this in order that the western grain 
may be shipped into the eastern markets to compete with 
the product of the New York State farmers. This is 
what has helped reduce prices of farm products, and has 
taken 50 per cent out of the value of farm lands. The 
farmer of the East is paying the freight on the other 
man’s product, thus helping the other fellow to drive 
the New Y'ork farmer out of the market. Then he went 
on to show that the handling of freight by the railroads 
is simply a “survival of the fittest.” The canal only 
transported 2,145,000 tons of freight last year; the rail¬ 
roads 40,000,000. The competition between railroads, he 
said, has compelled them to employ talent to reduce the 
cost of the transportation. This cost is only one-third 
of what it was in 1870. He quoted from a report of a 
committee which investigated this matter for the Eng¬ 
lish railroads, because in this report there could be no 
purpose of falsifying the figures. 'This showed that in 
1855, the cost of transportation over the New' York Cen¬ 
tral was 3.72 cents per ton per mile. In 1899 the cost of 
transporting one ton one mile had reduced to .59 of a 
cent. Advocates of the canal claim that this is because 
the canal forced the reduction; but referring to the same 
report it is shown that in 1882 the average rate over the 
railroads of the United States for transporting one ton 
one mile was 1.236 of a cent. In 1898 the same average 
was .75 of a cent per ton. A further proof that the 
canal had nothing to do w'ith this reduction is shown 
from the fact that in 1865 the average cost of passenger 
transportation over the New York Central w'as 2.026 cents 
per mile. In 1899 the average rate per mile was 1.82 cents. 
It could not be claimed that the canal had caused this 
reduction, simply because the canals carry no passengers. 
'I'he railroads, he said, have made the first reduction in 
freights, and the canals were obliged to follow. He 
ridiculed the idea that 5Vz per cent of the total tonnage 
carried by the canal could have any influence on the 
cost of transportation. He went on to show besides that 
since 1882 the railroads of the State had paid into the 
State Treasury $40,000,000 in taxes, while during this time 
I he taxpayers of the State had paid to the canals $2,700,000, 
without including the $9,000,000 which he was first inclined 
to say had dropped into the ditches, but w'hich on sec¬ 
ond thought he revised to say, went into the pockets of 
designing politician.s, and this, he insisted, was the key 
to the whole situation. It w'as not that the men behind 
this proposition cared for the canal, nor for the reduction 
of rates, but for the pickings they could get out of such 
an enormous appropriation. He disposed of the argu¬ 
ment that the progress made by the State of New York 
over other States since the Revolution w'as traceable to 
the canal by showing that the canal was not built until 
1825. and that in the census of 1820 New York State had 
already taken the lead of other States in the Union. To 
the claim that w'e need the canal in order to build our 
industries of the State, and especially the iron indus¬ 
tries, he showed that if the iron ore were shipped 
through the canal entirely free it would build up no jron 
industries along the route of the canal, because of" the 
expense of getting coal in these sections. The iron in¬ 
dustries must always bo located where there will be the 
least expense in getting the ore and coal together. New 
Y’'ork and Buffalo, he said, were the only sections of the 
State that were calling for the canal, and in his analysis 
of the situation he failed to find any very good reason 
why the people and business men of those cities should 
make any demand for it. There are not to exceed a 
hundred men employed on the canal located at Buffalo, 
and for every ton transported over the canal during last 
year the City of New York paid $1.19. If the people of the 
City of New York understood the situation they would 
be as much opposed to it as the farmers now are. There 
was certainly no question about the feeling of the farm¬ 
ers on this subject. There was not a delegate from 
any county in the State that favored the proposition. 
RESOLUTIONS were introduced condemnlT>g the barge 
canal scheme; one favoring the election of United States 
.Senators by a vote of the people; others in favor of the 
postal savings banks, and one opposed to the Subsidy 
bill; one favoring the giving of elective franchise to tax- 
115 
paying women; another opposing the bill allowing saloons 
to remain open nights and Sundays at the Pan-American 
Exposition at Buffalo; one opposed the repeal of the law 
relating to Instruction on the effects of alcohol in public 
schools; another in favor of repealing the Saturday half¬ 
holiday; one favoring a law to prohibit the stopping of 
trains on railroad crossings. The resolution was intro¬ 
duced indorsing the action of Governor Odell in reducing 
State expenses; another condemning fake and immoral 
shows at county fairs, and one indorsing the administra¬ 
tion of Commissioner Wieting, and recommending his 
reappointment. d. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—January 31 an explosion in a cigar-box 
factory in New York City caused a costly fire, the loss 
amounting to .$1,500,000. Three persons were badly injured, 
and the blaze lighted up the whole city. It is supposed 
that the explosion w'as caused by fine cedar sawdust. 
.... At Baltimore, Md.. January 31, the burning of 
a zoological show killed 50 lions, 20 bears, and more than 
200 other wild animals. The property loss was $200,000. 
.... January 31, the health officers discovered 19 cases 
of smallpox among Italians in New York tenement houses. 
New cases continue to be reported nearly every day. 
.... The explosion of a lamp in a dwelling at Mil¬ 
waukee, Wis., February 2, caused the death of six per¬ 
sons.At Pittsburg, Pa., February 2, one person 
was killed and five others made seriously ill by eating 
pork said to be doctored with some preservative. 
At Petroleum, W. Va., a disastrous railroad wreck oc¬ 
curred .January 26, six trainmen being killed. 
The Secretary of the Interior has requested the Secretary 
of State to correct, through United States representa¬ 
tives. reports circulating in several foreign countries, 
that (he United States Government is ofTering $10,000 to 
men w'ho will marry Indian squaws. Scores of letters ac¬ 
cepting this alleged offer have been received from France 
and Germany and one from Russia.A big busi¬ 
ness building at Pittsburg, Pa., collapsed February 4, 
and flames completed the work of destruction, the dam¬ 
age amounting to $200,000.An explosion of gas 
and dynamite in a mine near Scranton, Pa., February 4, 
killed one man and injured others.An expres.s 
car on the Pennsylvania Railroad was rifled between 
Philadelphia and New' York February 3, the robbers se¬ 
curing about $4,000.Two persons w'ere killed and 
three fatally injured in a hotel fire at Binghamton. N. 
Y’’., February 5.The Masonic Temple at Toledo, 
O., W'as burned February 5; loss $150,000.The 
centennial anniversary of the installation of John Mar¬ 
shall, of Virginia, as Chief Justice of the United States, 
was commemorated February 4 in Washington. In the 
presence of the President and his Cabinet, members of 
the Senate and House, the diplomatic corps and other 
distinguished guests, an oration was delivered by ex- 
.Vttorney-Gencral Wayne MaeVeagh. Chief Ju.sticc Fuller 
Iiresided and made an addre.ss.In Chicago, 
saloon keepers w'ere arrested February 1. charged with 
keeping their saloons open on Sunday. 
CONGRESS.—The House passed the Agricultural Ap 
propriatlon bill January 31. The feature of the day’s 
proceedings was a revival of the anti-polygamy crusade, 
and a sharp passage between Messrs. King, of Utah, and 
T^andis, of Indiana. The latter secured the adoption in 
Committee of the Whole of an amendment providing 
that no money should be paid to the Agricultural Col¬ 
lege in Utah until the Secretary of Agriculture was sat¬ 
isfied that no trustee or teacher in the institution prac¬ 
ticed polygamy. The amendment was afterward stricken 
out in the House.January 31, the Senate passed 
the Army Reorganization bill.The House, Feb¬ 
ruary 4. passed the Senate bill to create a commission 
to adjudicate the claims of United States citizens against 
Spain, W'hich the Government of the United States as¬ 
sumed by the treaty of Paris, after having amended the 
bill so as to refer the claims to the Court of Claims. 
. . . . The Army appropriation bill, making provision 
for the army under the plan of reorganization recently 
enacted, was completed February 4 by the House Com¬ 
mittee on Military Affairs, and reported by Chairman 
Hull. It carries approximately $118,000,000, as against 
estimates of about $130,000,000, made by War Department 
officials. The total of army appropriations, general and 
deficiency, last year, w'as $119,000,000. Chairman Hull says 
the present bill w'ill be ample, and will not entail a de¬ 
ficiency measure later. The contingency appropriation 
of $1,000,000, to “meet emergencies constantly arising,” 
was struck out by the committee. 
PHILIPPINES.—Fierce fighting has been occurring in 
the Island of Leyte. In Luzon fighting continues, and 
quantities of arms are being seized.In the 
Province of Iloilo, 50,000 Filipinos have sworn allegiance 
to the United States. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Schuyler Worden, the origi¬ 
nator of the Worden grape and Worden Seckel pear, died 
at his home in Oswego County, N. Y., January 20, aged 90. 
The horticultural commissioners of Orange Co., Cal., 
have instituted a quarantine against Florida and Louisi¬ 
ana nursery stock on account of the alleged prevalence 
of an imsect known as the White fly (Aleyrodes Citri) on 
the stock. 
Heavy snow throughout Kansas February 2 will bene¬ 
fit the wheat greatly, as the State has been swept by 
drying winds for four weeks. 
Great bush fires are causing appalling loss to farmers 
in Australia. While the thermometer stands at 115 to 
120 in the shade, and deaths are frequent from heat 
apoplexy, hundreds of families have been burned out. 
Many marvelous rescues were made. One man in a 
farmers’ wagon drove 169 persons from the fire circle 
and sure death three miles to a river, where they all re¬ 
mained immersed with their mouths and noses only 
above w'ater until the fires had passed over them. Miles 
of grain have been destroyed, and great droves of sheep 
and cattle have perished. 
Advices from Pittsburg state that the price on cut 
nails has been raised five cents per keg, making the rate 
to jobbers now $2 per keg in car lots. This Is due to the 
recent advance in wire nails. 
