1906. 
429 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—A strike was called May 2 which promises 
to tie up the building Industry of Chicago, just as the 
wreckers started the demolition of old structures for new 
buildings valued at $0,000,000. in the loop district. One 
thousand structural ironworkers quit, and will precipitate 
the first important labor disturbance in the building trades 
since the 1900 lockout. In the loop district the Summer 
promised an actual investment of $15,000,000 in new 
blocks. The Ironworkers demand $5 a day for eight hours’ 
work. The contractors offer $4.f50 for four months and 
$4.80 for the rest of the year. Asid° from affecting directly 
four-fifths of the mechanics in steel and iron construction 
work, the strike will throw out of employment several 
thousand other building workmen. The strike of the mould¬ 
ers has in some measure subsided, about one-half of the men 
being back at work, the employers having in the majority of 
cases signed the scale. ... A general strike of the 
building trades is threatened in Lynn. Mass., as the result of 
the announced determination of the members of the Lynn 
Master Builders' Association to maintain the open shop. 
Two hundred and fifty carpenters and nearly as many ma¬ 
chinists are put, while smaller numbers are out in the plumb¬ 
ing, painting and lathing trades. . . . John R. Walsh, 
former president of the defunct Chicago National Bank, ac¬ 
cused of making a false report to the Comptroller of the 
Currency and misapplying $3,000,000. waived examination 
May 3 before United States Commissioner Mark A. Foote, 
and was held to the Federal Grand Jury under bonds of 
$50,000. Previous to the hearing Mr. Walsh's attorneys 
had been informed by the District Attorney that the Gov¬ 
ernment intended to push the case and would agree to no 
further continuances. . . . May 4 10 persons were killed 
and a number injured by a head-on collision between a mail 
train and an express on the Pennsylvania railroad near 
Springfield Furnace. 18 miles from Altoona. Pa. Owing to 
a freight wreck on the Middle Division, the trains were run¬ 
ning over a short cut. and a misunderstanding of orders 
caused the second wreck. . . . Italian strikers battled 
for an hour May 5 in Passaic, N. J„ witji the police force, 
fire department and volunteer deputies. Three Italians who 
were shot are > n the hospital, one of whom is likely to die. 
Several policemen were injured by brickbats. Thirty-two 
prisoners are awaiting trial in Passaic county jail. 
CALIFORNIA.—It is proposed that San Francisco shall 
issue municipal bonds in the sum of $200,000,000, to run a 
series of years, and the payment of which is to be guaranteed 
by the United States. The money is to be used in rebuilding 
the burned sections and otherwise rehabilitating the city. 
To Issue such a loan it will be necessary to amend the 
charter and have the Legislature remove any other obstacles 
that may be in the way. Next to electric lighting, the street 
car system is making the most rapid prpgress in restoring 
its lines. All able bodied men must go to work or leave the 
city. This dictum of Chief of Police Dinan will be strictly 
enforced. The relief work and distribution of food and 
clothing is attracting a certain element to the city which 
does not want to work, while some already there prefer to 
live on the generosity of others. Chief Dinan has determined 
that those who apply for relief and refuse to work when it is 
offered them shall leave the city or be arrested for vagrancy. 
The police judges have suggested the establishing of a chain 
gang and putting all vagrants and petty offenders at work 
clearing up the ruins. Business is being rapidly resumed by 
retail tradesmen throughout the destroyed sections of the 
city. It is believed that many more bodies will be uncov¬ 
ered as the ruins are removed. May 4 the relief committees 
began to Bel anxious about the food supply, and expressed 
their desire for outside aid. 
THE COAL STRIKE.—Peace lias come from the conven¬ 
tion of delegates assembled at Scranton representing the 
three anthracite districts of the United Mine Workers of 
America. When the convention reassembled May 5 John 
Mitchell read the report of the sub committee of the scale 
committee, which recommended that the men return to work 
under the provisions of the strike commission, provided that 
there be no discrimination against the men who obeyed the 
suspension order and that the union men have their jobs 
back. Mr. Mitchell followed this with an address in which 
he set forth his reasons for favoring the recommendation, 
and told the men that he preferred the award of the strike 
commission to the restricted and partial arbitration offered 
by the operators. A feeling of deep thankfulness that the 
threatened anthracite strike has been averted prevails 
throughout the region. Mine workers generally now declare 
that they were decidedly opposed to a strike because they 
did not think it was justified by the conditions. 
TIIE TRUSTS.—Agents of the Department of Agriculture 
and the Bureau of Labor have just completed an investiga¬ 
tion of the sanitary conditions in packing house districts 
in Chicago and other cities of the West and of the manner 
in which the workers in these concerns are housed by their 
employers. The inquiry was made by order of President 
Roosevelt and was instituted immediately after the publica¬ 
tion of a novel entitled “The Jungle,” which was intended 
as an expose of the packing house industry in this country. 
There is a probability that the laws regulating the Inspection 
of meats for export "will be materially modified as a result 
of the disclosures. Allegations have been made that sub¬ 
ordinate officials of the Department of Agriculture, identified 
with the inspecting force, have winkl'd at some evasions of 
the law. it having been alleged that diseased cattle have been 
slaughtered and made into packing house products under 
their very noses. . . . An investigation into the rela¬ 
tionship between the railroads and the Standard Oil Company 
commenced in Chicago on May 10 before the Inter-State 
Commerce Commission. Hundreds of subpoenas have been 
issued, it is said, for independent oil refiners in Ohio. Kansas, 
and Pennsylvania. Railroad officials from those States will 
also be summoned before the commission. . . . The 
Standard Oil Company hasn't a friend in the Senate. That 
body voted unanimously May 4 to make the Standard a 
common carrier and put its pipe lines under the control of 
the Inter-State Commerce Commission for rate-regqlating 
purposes. Senator Aldrich, because of his advanced position 
on the alphabet, was the first man .to vote aye, and not a 
man voted no. The House, of course, will pass it, too. 
Before the Senate had been in session half an hour came the 
announcement of the President’s message sending in the re¬ 
port of Commissioner Garfield in the inquiry into the unlaw¬ 
ful operations of the Standard Oil Company. That read. 
Senator Tillman promptly put the pending amendments to 
the Hepburn bill before the Senate as the social order. As 
if by retributive coincidence the very first amendment in 
all the amendments that had been prepared for the use of 
the Senators, was that proposed by Senator Lodge putting 
the pipe lii es of oil companies under the provisions of the 
Inter-State Commerce act. Mr. I.odge said that since he had 
introduced the amendment he had received many letters re¬ 
citing abuses under the monopoly enjoyed by the Standard. 
He said that it amounted to a confiscation, as independent 
oil owners could not get their oil transported by the Stand¬ 
ard, and were forced to sell their output at the mouth of the 
well for whatever price the Standard was willing to give. 
President Roosevelt sent his special message to 
Congress, dealing with the Standard Oil Company May 4. 
He attacks the trust as a law violator in forcing rebates 
and special rates from railways, and declares that prosecu¬ 
tions will be instituted in at least some of the cases which 
he cites. The President particularly calls attention to the 
way in which he says the law is evaded by treating as 
State commerce what in reality is inter-Stnte commerce, the 
oil company taking advantage of secret rates in shipping 
its commodity across a State, and comniving with the re¬ 
quirements of the Federal law only long enough to get its 
freight across a boundary. He points out the futility of 
independent concerns attempting to compete with the trust 
under traffic conditions which so favor the monopoly, and 
urges Congress to lodge such additional power in the Inter- 
State Commerce Commission as will permit of the correction 
of abuses. Mr. Roosevelt also says that the railroads should 
be permitted to unite for proper purposes—-that is. the j>ro- 
tection of themselves and the public against the power of 
the trusts. Commissioner. Garfield, in his detailed report 
on the transportation of petroleum, in part says: “THe in¬ 
vestigation Of petroleum transportation by the BuPeau of 
Corporations has been mainly based upon the tariffs and rec¬ 
ords of the railway companies themselves. It has covered 
a large number of the leading railroad svstoms throughout the 
United States. The inquiry was not confined to the bust; 
ness of any one shipper, but covered shipments for selected 
periods over most of the railroads leading out from the im¬ 
portant refining points of the country. The atm has been to 
investigate not the business of a single shipper, but that 
of all shippers, with a view to discovering whether discrim¬ 
inations existed in favor of any. The general result of the 
investigation has been to disclose the existence of numerous 
and flagrant discriminations by the railroads in behalf of the 
Standard Oil Company and its affiliated corporations. With 
comparatively few exceptions, mainly of other large concerns 
in California, the Standard has been the sole beneficiary of 
such discriminations. In almost every section of the country 
that company has been found to enjoy some unfair advan¬ 
tages over its competitors, and some of these discrimina¬ 
tions affect enormous areas. Not only has this resulted in 
great direct pecuniary advantage in transportation post 
to the Standard, but it has had the far more important effect 
of giving that company practically unassailable monopo¬ 
listic control of the oil market throughout large sections 
of the country. 
OBITUARY.—George Herman Ellwanger. son of the vener¬ 
able George Ellwanger. president of the firm of Ellwanger 
& Barry, died at Rochester. N. Y.. April 23, aged 57. Mr. 
Ellwanger was an authority on horticulture, on which he 
wrote in nearly all of a dozen volumes of which he was the 
author. One of his latest works was the revision of “The 
Rose," written by his brother. IT. B. Ellwanger, which Mr. 
Ellwanger brought down to date in 1893. A later and fuller 
edition of this work was in progress at the time of his death. 
His first publication of more than ordinary value was “The 
Garden Story, or I’leasures and Trials of an Amateur Gar¬ 
dener." which was placed on sale in 1889. Two years later 
came “The Story of My House.” and a year afterward, “The 
Gold and Silver.” In 1890 he published “Idyllists of the 
Country-Side. Being Six Commentaries Concerning Some of 
Those Who Have Apostrophized the Joys of the Open-Air.” 
Other works were: “The Pleasures of the Table,” 1902: 
“IntroductioQ to White's Natural History of Selborne, in 
‘The World’s Great Books.’” 1898: “Love's Demesne, A Gar¬ 
land of Contemporary Love Poems." with critical introduc¬ 
tion, 1890. Mr. Ellwanger's literary accomplishments won 
from the University of Rochester the master of arts degree, 
lie was a member of the Pundit Club, the Genesee Valley 
Club and the Country Club of Rochester. He was an hon¬ 
orary member of The National Rose Society of England. 
Mr. Ellwanger was interested in numerous business ventures 
in addition to the firm of Ellwanger <fc Barry, and was one of 
three commissioners of Mount Hope Cemetery. 
CONFESSIONS OF A MAIL CARRIER. 
I have taken Tnrc R. N.-Y. for several years and I see 
by notes sent in that they regard the express companies ns 
a" necessary evil for transferring packages and they have a 
hankering for a United States mail package delivery and 
expect it in time. I would suggest thev look into this before 
they grasp it too hard. I would suggest that the “harpers" 
go 'to some small station on some roads where the mail 
is caught and thrown off at 40 or 50 miles per hour and 
Imagine a package of fouc to 10 pounds being delivered by 
this way of throwing off. and see it go up against a tele¬ 
graph pole, a fence or switch stand. It will do a job that 
a food chopper would be ashamed of. You could not even 
get a smile from Uncle Sam, as you say that is the way the 
express companies do. A MAII. CAMUEit. 
It. N.-Y.—In England eggs and fresh fruit are sent by 
mail and arrive safely. They are not thrown off the cars 
at a speed of 50 miles an hour, but are carried in hampers 
and delivered safely. Neither are express packages in this 
country thrown off trains, though sometimes they look like 
it. The letters may go by fast trains, but the packages will 
be handled properly. It is no argument to say that be¬ 
cause you cannot play baseball with an egg there is no use 
trying to carry the egg! 
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