1911. 
441 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
The Savings of a Lifetime Lost in 
a Day. 
Though I do not see your paper I under¬ 
stand you have been exposing the transac¬ 
tions of E. G. Lewis and his business as¬ 
sociates of University City, Mo. I feel 
it a duty I owe to the public to relate my 
experience with these men, in the hope 
that it may save others from being victim¬ 
ized as I have been. “I will a plain un¬ 
varnished tale deliver,” contenting myself 
with stating facts and leaving my readers 
to draw their own inferences. Let me pre¬ 
mise by saying that I am a minister, old, 
in broken health, and no longer able y 
earn a living. In casting about for a sa 
and profitable investment for the little v > 
had been able to save, we (my wife and 
noticed, in the National Woman’s Daily, eu- 
ited by E. G. Lewis, an advertisement by 
the Realty and Development Co. They 
wanted to borrow money to improve their 
real estate, and offered their note at six 
per cent., with ample real estate security. 
We sent them $200, and after waiting about 
two months finally got tbe note. This was 
in .Tune, 1909. We have that note still, but 
have never received any interest except for 
the first six months, which was payable in 
advance, though one payment was due last 
June and another in December. We have 
written several times about this, both to 
the Realty and Development Company and 
the Savings Trust Co., trustees, but no at¬ 
tention to our demand has been given by 
either. Last Summer at the request of 
the Realty and Development Co., we sent 
them our pass book to have the interest 
credited, and it has never come back, though 
we have written about it several times. This 
pass book contained the only evidence we 
had of another claim against them, and so 
we are not now able to prove that claim, 
otherwise than by our own affidavits. In 
May, 1910, before our suspicions were 
aroused we sent the Realty and Develop¬ 
ment Co. $600 more. We had to wait 
about five months, wrote several letters and 
threatened exposure before we could get the 
notes for this. We wrote two letters to 
E. G. Lewis, the president, personally, 
but never received any answer to either. 
We wrote four to the company, two of 
which were not answered, and the other 
two merely said that they had been de¬ 
layed in sending out those notes, but hoped 
to send them soon, but have never given 
any reason for the delay. 
Soon after receiving the notes we received 
a circular describing certain debenture 
bonds which they were issuing to refund 
and consolidate all the debts of all their 
half dozen companies. They asked us to 
exchange our notes for these bonds, which 
were to bear two per cent, the first year 
and increase at the late of one per cent, 
per annum till it reached six per cent. By 
this time we had lost all confidence in 
them, but they had our mouey, and the 
only question for us was bow we could best 
get it back. With much hesitation we finally 
decided to exchange the $600 and sent the 
notes to the Trust Co. as requested. Again 
we had to wait nearly three months and 
threaten exposure, but finally the bonds 
came, one for $500 and one for $100. But 
the conditions were so changed as to make it 
practically a new contract. The circular 
described them as five-year bonds, with all 
the net earnings of ail the companies to 
be divided during the five years, then large¬ 
ly increasing the income. The bonds proved 
to be 10-year bonds, and the earnings were 
not to be divided till the end of the 10 
years. We immediately sent them back and 
demanded our notes. In about a week the 
$100 bond came back with no explanation 
whatever of the change. We promptly wrote 
positively refusing to receive the bonds 
and peremptorily demanding our notes. To 
this we have received no answer, though 
there has been ample time. The notes and 
the $500 bond the Trust Co. still have, 
and all we have to show for our $800 and’ 
nearly two years’ correspondence and worry 
is a bond for $100 and a note for $200 on 
which we can get no interest. To a young 
man the experience might be worth what 
't has cost us, but to an old man, poor 
and unable to work, it comes too high. You 
are at liberty to publish this over my name. 
Eagle Grove, la. p. E . voiik. 
We can add little to that simple and 
pitiable tale of the loss of a lifetime of 
savings in the hope of providing against 
the wants of old age. It is in the 
face of such records that Mr. Lewis at¬ 
tempts to bluff the National Govern¬ 
ment out of an investigation of his 
methods of getting money from country 
people through the agency of the post 
office facilities. If his paper has any 
other function than the exploitation of 
the Lewis schemes to collect money in 
this way, we have not discovered what 
those other functions are. Lewis is now 
making a desperate effort to induce the 
Postmaster General to admit his paper 
as a weekly to second-clas'S mail privi¬ 
leges, and equally strenuous efforts are 
being made to head off the inquiry of 
such transactions as the above by the 
Federal Grand Jury. Decent people 
whose blood boils against such outrages 
as described above by Rev. Mr. York, 
should write Frank H. Hitchcock, Post¬ 
master General, Washington, D. C., and 
protest against the use of the U. S. mails 
for such purposes; and at the same time 
write Hon. Geo. W. Wickersham, At¬ 
torney-General, Washington, D. C., and 
insist on the investigation of the Lewis 
schemes by the Federal Grand Jury, 
ihis is a duty you owe to decency and 
honesty, whether you have lost money 
by Lewis or not. Strengthen the hands 
of the Government officials by the as¬ 
surance that you do not want the agen¬ 
cies of your Government used to swindle 
old people out of their savings. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Thirty or more men were 
caught March 15 at Nashville, Tenn., in 
the collapse of the J. II. Fall building that 
was gutted by fire on March 5. Eleven 
were rescued alive. All but a few of the 
men caught under the pile of brick, stone 
and mortar were negro laborers. 
Charles College, four miles above Ellieott 
City, Md., burned March 16. When the 
fire began the students and faculty joined 
in the fight against the flames, but though 
they organized a bucket brigade they made 
little impression upon the fire. St. Charles 
College was a classical boarding col¬ 
lege of the Catholic Church. The site, em¬ 
bracing 700 acres, was given by Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton, who laid the corner¬ 
stone. The loss is estimated at $300,000. 
Insurance, $175,000. 
Indictments were returned at Chicago, 
March 16, against nine men in connection 
with the Alaska coal land frauds by the 
'Federal Grand Jury. The men indicted 
are A. C. Frost, a Chicago capitalist; George 
*1. Seward, receiver of the Frost estate; 
Pierre Beach, secretary of the Alaska Cen¬ 
tral Railroad and a Chicago lawyer; Frank 
Watson of Seattle, Wash.; George A. Ball 
of Muncie, Ind. ; Duncan M. Stewart of 
Seward, Alaska ; Henry G. Osborne, Toronto, 
Ont.; Gwynn L. Francis, Toronto, Out.; 
Francis II. Stewart, Toronto, Ont. The 
land involved is said to be valued at 
$ 10 , 000 , 006 . 
The Pennsylvania State Supreme Court 
March 16 refused a change of venue to 
Frank N. Iloffstot, president of the Pressed 
Steel Car Company and of the German 
National Bank of Allegheny, who is un¬ 
der bribery and conspiracy indictments in 
connection with the Pittsburg graft cases. 
Iloffstot in his petition set forth that 
he is a resident and citizen of New York, 
and president of several large industrial 
plants and that he feared because of his 
connection with labor troubles at his plants 
in Allegheny county and because of pub¬ 
lications concerning the graft exposure he 
would be unable to get a fair and impartial 
trial in the courts of Allegheny county. The 
petitioner also made an unsuccessful at¬ 
tempt to have the indictments against him 
quashed. 
More than one hundred citizens of New 
Orleans have been summoned before the 
grand jury to give testimony as to al¬ 
leged frauds in the election held recently 
for a justice of the Louisiana State Su¬ 
preme Court. A curious feature is that 
Judge W. B. Somerville, who was elected, 
had no oppositon. The fight is being made 
by the Good Government League against 
alleged “ring politics.” It is alleged that, 
notwithstanding the lack of opposition to 
Judge Somerville, ballot boxes were 
“stuffed” and other irregularities practised 
in order to maintain a fraudulent voting 
strength. 
The Interstate Commerce Commission 
March 17 made known its interpretation of 
the long and short haul section of the 
amended railroad regulation act. The com¬ 
mission holds that rates and fares of the 
same kind should be compared with one 
another, trans-shipment rates should be com¬ 
pared with trans-shipment rates, proportion¬ 
al rates with proportional rates, excursion 
fares with excursion fares and commuta¬ 
tion fares with commutation fares. The 
commission defines a proportionate rate as 
one which applies to part of a through 
transportation which is entirely within the 
jurisdiction of the act to regulate com¬ 
merce ; that is the balance of the transpor¬ 
tation to which the proportional rate ap¬ 
plies must be under a rate filed with the 
‘commission. The principal application of 
the interpretation of the long and short 
haul section relates to trans-shipment 
freight matter. This character of freight 
moves from one point to a water point and 
is then carried by water to its destination. 
In substance the commission holds that 
the rate on transshipped freight thus 
shipped may be lower between the two land 
points than freight similarly shipped but 
intended for consumption at the terminal 
point. 
One man was killed and 300 head of cat¬ 
tle were burned to death March 18 in a 
fire which destroyed a square block of pens 
in the Union Stock Yards at Chicago. The 
body of the man was found in the wreck¬ 
age' of a viaduct that fell. Various com¬ 
mission firms owned the cattle destroyed. 
The loss was $25,000. 
The Judiciary Committee of the California 
Senate has recommended the passage of a 
bill designed to prevent Asiatics from ac¬ 
quiring land in California. 
The plant of the Monarch Cold Storage 
Company at Cass and Michigan streets, 
Chicago, was destroyed by fire March 19, 
entailing a loss estimated at over $1,000,- 
000. About 30 firemen were overcome by 
smoke and escaping gases. Large quanti¬ 
ties of eggs and fish were stored in the 
building. 
George H. Munroe was sentenced by Judge 
Hough in the United States Circuit Court, 
New York, March 16, to three years in 
Atlanta penitentiary after a jury had de¬ 
clared lmn guilty of using the mails to 
defraud in selling his Marconi stock and 
stock in the United Shoe Shining Com¬ 
pany. The jurymen found Munroe guilty on 
fifteen of the counts in the indictment upon 
which he was tried. These counts had to 
do with the sale of the Marconi stock and 
that of the Shoe Shining Company. On 
the count involving the sale of stock in his 
Sovereign Realty Company the verdict was 
not guilty. He could have received a max¬ 
imum sentence of five years on each of the 
fifteen counts. Munroe’s case was the 
first of the big get rich quick cases in¬ 
volved in the Post Office Department’s re¬ 
cent activities to be called for trial, and 
there was great satisfaction felt at his 
conviction. It was brought out in the 
course of Munroe’s trial that in three years 
from 1903 to 1907 more than 150,000 shares 
of stock in the English Marconi company 
were sold by Munroe and more than $1,250,- 
000 turned in for it in checks, drafts, money 
orders and cash by the people of this coun¬ 
try. Munroe, it appeared, split these re¬ 
ceipts, giving his agents, of whom the chief 
was Horace G. Robinson, 50 per cent, com¬ 
missions. His own profits were more than 
$700,000, and in addition thousands of 
shares in Canadian, Argentine and Australi¬ 
an. companies were sold, but these transac¬ 
tions did not figure in the trial. What 
Munroe has done with the profits of his 
scheme the Post Office authorities have 
never discovered. In court he was rather 
shabbily dressed, and had the appearance 
of a man without means. At one time 
he had a country house at Southampton, a 
house in Fifty-seventh street and a private 
suite at the Waldorf, but, according to the 
testimony- of -his -lawyer, he was so hard 
up in 1908, after the harvest had been 
reaped, that in an effort to get some real 
Marconi stock to deliver to the importun¬ 
ate sol< * a11 llis furniture and borrowed 
$(.000 from his brother. Dr. John A. Mun¬ 
roe of Saranac Lake. There was absolutely 
no explantion of where the money had gone, 
however. The Marconi shares were sold 
at from $10 to $15 a share. They could 
have been bought in England for $2.50 a 
share, but not even this was done in many 
cases, upward of 13,000 shares being unde¬ 
livered. Munroe possibly would have es¬ 
caped after this blew up had he not re¬ 
turned here from Canada last Summer and 
launched a new one under the title of the 
Shoe Shining Company. Then the 
lost Office pounced upon him. 
at Benton, Pa.. March 26. Sixteen thou-’ 
barrels of whiskey were consumed. 
sand 
oemu uciiiuio til WIUS KG’ 
The total loss will reach' 
Had the government tax 
whiskey the loss would 
double. The bondhouse, 
stories high, was one of 
in the country. 
nearly $1,000,000. 
been paid on this 
have been almost 
which was eight 
the most modern 
• ^ evv ' ork Grand Jury returned three 
indictments March 21 against William J 
i ummins for stealing a total of $335,000 
from the t arnegie Trust Company. Mr. 
Cummins pleaded not guilty and was re¬ 
leased after he had put up'a $50,000 bail 
bond. The Grand Jury finds that Cummins 
was guilty of grand larceny in using for 
his personal benefit the proceeds of a loan 
obtained from the Nineteenth Ward Bank 
and the \ an .Norden Trust Company on 
the understanding that the money was "to go 
the Carnegie for a specific purpose. Al- 
tnougn the money was secured by Cummins 
ana others on their apparently unsecured 
personal demand notes, there was an agree¬ 
ment that _ the Carnegie Trust Company 
should receive the proceeds. The allegations 
on which Cummins is indicted can be put 
simply this way: In April, 1910, Cum¬ 
mins and his associates learned that cer¬ 
tain loans which had been made by various 
banks on tho security of stock of the Nine¬ 
teenth Ward Bank and the Twelfth Ward 
Bank were in such a condition that if they 
were not immediately paid off the collateral 
held as security would be sold. It was 
desired by Cummins and his associates that 
such stock should not be sold on the 
open market for fear it would affect ad¬ 
versely the institutions whose stock was 
being sold and other institutions known 
to be interested in those two. They there¬ 
fore made arrangements to obtain money 
from the Nineteenth W’ard Bank and the 
Van Norden Trust Company for the pur¬ 
pose of paying off these loans and releasing 
the collateral. To raise the money needed 
to finance the transaction certain notes 
were given to the Van Norden Trust Com¬ 
pany and the Nineteenth Ward Bank ag¬ 
gregating $335,000. While these notes were 
apparently unsecured demand notes of the 
individuals whose names appeared upon 
them the agreement as a result of which 
the loans were made was that the Carnegie 
Trust Company in each instance should re¬ 
ceive tho amount advanced on the various 
notes, aggregating $335,000. It is alleged 
that Cummins transferred this money to his 
own personal account. 
The New Jersey House of Assembly 
March 21 passed the Geran election bill 
by a vote of 34 to 25. Six hours argument 
and discussion interspersed with personal¬ 
ities and occasional disorder preceded tbe 
final passage of the measure. The passage 
of the Geran bill is a victory for Gov. 
Wilson scarcely less notable than his bring¬ 
ing about the election of James E. Martine 
to the United States Senate. The bill is so 
radical a departure from any legislation 
heretofore attempted in this State that it 
aroused the oppositon of organization Re¬ 
publicans and Democrats. The bill provides 
that all election officers, of whom there 
are nearly 5,000 in the State, shall pass 
civil service examinations. Candidates for 
election officers may be nominated by any 
five voters of the respective parties. The 
Democratic and Republican parties are to 
have two officers on each district board, 
to be chosen by lot from those passing the 
civil service examination. The bill extends 
the direct primary to include the nomina¬ 
tion of candidates for Governor and Con¬ 
gressman, and all delegates, including those 
to the national conventions. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Gov. Wilson of 
New Jersey has approved the Myer milk 
standard bill, which at a hearing March 17 
before the Governor was opposed by repre¬ 
sentatives of several north Jersey boards 
of health. The bill reduces the quantity 
of solids required in milk from 12 per cent, 
to 11% per cent. Farmers generally were 
in favor of tbe bill, their chief argument 
being that Holstein cows will not give milk 
containing 12 per cent, of solids, although 
Holstein milk is regarded as of rich quality. 
The advocates of the bill insisted that the 
new law would not result in any lowering 
of the quality of milk sold. 
M. W. Savage filed suit March 18 in the 
Federal Court at St. Paul, Minn., for $40,- 
000 against the American Express Com¬ 
pany for an alleged injury to a tendon in 
the leg of Rena Patch, daughter of the 
famous Dan Patch, said to have been re¬ 
ceived while the animal was en route from 
Chicago to Grand Rapids, Mich., on July 
17, 1910. Chicago officers of the express 
company refused to allow an attendant to 
accompany Rena Patch in the express car 
between the two cities. “The high temper" 
of the horse made an attendant necessary,” 
alleges the petition for judgment. When 
the racer arrived at Grand Rapids she was 
useless for racing, and she has been useless 
since, declares Mr. Savage. The suit will 
be tried in the April term of court. 
Farmers’ institutes have been held at 300 
places throughout New York State during 
the Winter season, beginning on December 
1, 1910. State Agricultural Commissioner 
Pearson says that they have been exceed¬ 
ingly well attended, and promise to be 
productive of beneficial results. The Agri¬ 
cultural Department recommended the adop¬ 
tion of a plan for holding a few institute 
schools, which was agreeably received, with 
the result that about 10 of these schools 
were held this year at accessible points, and 
as near big centers of population as pos¬ 
sible. These lasted three and four days, 
and they were conducted by the strongest 
corps of teachers that could be secured. 
Though the farmer’s institutes closed March 
18 two more of the schools are to be held at 
Schenectady and at Glens Falls. 
A meeting of all the farmers’ institute 
conductors, with State Agricultural fom- 
missioner Pearson, was held at the State 
Agricultural College, Ithaca, March 17, to 
discuss tbe work for the next season’s work, 
and the devising of improved methods to 
be employed. One of the methods it is 
proposed to put into effect next season will 
be the adoption of a “follow-up” plan by 
which the representatives of the Agricultur¬ 
al Department will keep in touch with the 
few selected farms where the most ap¬ 
proved scientific methods are being intro¬ 
duced, so as to facilitate the adoption of 
these new methods in their best forms and 
to create examples which will be of value 
to the community. 
Annual meeting of Connecticut Boo-Keep¬ 
ers’ Association will be held at Hartford,. 
April 14, Y. M. C. A., 10.30 a. m. Every¬ 
body welcome. 
A special meeting of the Illinois Cattle 
Feeders’ Association was held in Morrow 
Hall, Agricultural College, University of Il¬ 
linois, Urbana, March 31. This meeting 
was called in response to an invitation ex¬ 
tended by the Animal Husbandry Depart¬ 
ment of the university to cattle feeders to 
visit the Experiment Station feed lots and 
inspect the steers used in the cattle feed¬ 
ing experiment just closing. This experi¬ 
ment is of particular interest to cattle feed¬ 
ers because it throws much light upon the 
question of feeding corn silage to fattening 
steers. Corn silage is being fed in various 
combinations with and without other rough- 
ages. The other roughages used were clover 
and Alfalfa hay and corn stover. Another 
feature of the programme was a general 
discussion on the feeding of corn silage to 
beef cattle and on silo construction. .Mr. 
J. T. Alexander of Chicago valued the cat¬ 
tle on the basis of the Chicago market and 
gave the Association a talk oh the market 
situation. 
SH0RTSVILLE FARMERS’ DAY AND 
INSTITUTE. 
When we had our farmers’ institute at 
Manchester last December, several of the 
business men of Shortsville came over, 
Shortsville and Manchester being less than 
a mile apart. A short time after one 
of these men asked me why we do not 
have an institute here. I told him it, was 
because the people of Shortsville had never 
asked for one, shortly after I received a 
letter from the business men’s association of 
Shortsville asking me to see if I could not 
get an institute for Shortsville. I made 
the request to Commissioner Pearson and 
he told me that owing to the lateness of 
the request and lack of available men, the 
department could do nothing for us, so I 
proceeded independently. From Geneva I got 
the services of Profs. Parrott, Stewart, Hed¬ 
rick and Hall ; and from Cornell Profs. Tuck 
and Rice, and Miss Clara Browning; aso T. 
E. Martin of Syracuse, A. P». Katkamier, Jo¬ 
seph Green and L. T. Allen of Macedon ; 
Mr. and Mrs. Levi Redfield of Farmington; 
and Russell R. McLouth of Shortsviire, the 
last six being nearby people, who are 
really doing things. With this array of 
talent coming, we had to have two auditor¬ 
iums and so engaged the M. E. Church and 
the largest hall in town. Then the idea 
came of getting out a small folder, describ¬ 
ing Shortsville, its advantages and indus¬ 
tries and containing the programme. This 
idea grew until it finally reached a book of 
52 pages. In the meantime arrangements 
were made for another hall for exhibits, 
and prizes to the amount of nearly $100 
were offered for farm and culinary prod¬ 
ucts. The advertisement of every business 
man and woman in Shortsville appeared in 
the book, but not one from outside. The 
evening before was nearly a blizzard, but 
the farmers and their families came in 
large numbers, bringing fine displays of 
canned fruits, vegetables, greenhouse prod¬ 
ucts, apples and other fruits. Nearly every 
part of the program was carried out as - 
scheduled, even to the making of a batch of 
concentrated lime and sulphur at noon, which 
tested 33 Baume. The combined attendance 
was between 700 and 800, and tbe first 
farmers’ meeting ever held in Shortsville was 
voted a great success. The 52-page book had 
been sent to 1.400 people and a great many 
people came from out of town. There is a 
movement to make this meeting a permanent 
annual affair and should such be the case 
something larger will be in order next year, 
probably a two-day meeting. 
JOHN Q. WELLS. 
Farm Values in Massachusetts and Idaho. 
The farm figures of the last census will 
show some queer comparisons. Recently 
there came to us in the same mail the 
statistics of Idaho, the Rocky Mountain 
State, and Massachusetts, the New England 
State. We take up these figures side by 
side in order that our people may see how 
they look. 
Massachusetts. 
Value of farm land.. . $104,273,000.00 
Value of buildings. 87,250,000.00 
Value of implements. 11,512,000.00 
Number of farms. 36,512 
Idaho. 
Value of farm land.$219,346,000.00 
Value of buildings. 24.074.000.00 
Value of implements. 10,459.000.00 
Number of farms. 30,741 
The average size of a farm in Idaho is 
171 acres, in Massachusetts 79 acres. The 
average value per acre of farm land in 
buildings in Idaho was. $41.63, while in 
Massachusetts this value was $66.65, the 
increased • value being largely due to the 
greater value of the farm buildings. In 
Massachusetts 18,785 farmers own their 
farms free, while 12.973 were mortgaged. 
In Idaho 18,113 farms were free, while 
there was a mortgage upon 8,909. It may 
surprise some of our readers to know that 
there were 93 farms in Massachusetts with 
over 1,000 acres each, and 318 with over 
500 acres. The bulk of the farms, how¬ 
ever, were small. 20,640 being under 20 
acres. In Idaho there were 252 farms with 
1,000 acres or over, and only 1,908 farms 
under 20 acres. During the past 10 years 
the number of farms in Idaho has increased 
76 per cent and the total value of farm 
land and buildings has increased 518 per 
cent. In the older State of Massachusetts 
there has also- been a gain, although very 
much smaller. The number of farms, for 
example, in the last 10 years increased only 
three per cent, while farm value including 
buildings increased 21 per cent. Another 
striking contrast is shown in tho expendi¬ 
ture for labor and for fertilizer. In 1910 
the Massachusetts fanners paid out $11,- 
747,000 for labor and $1,931,000 for 
fertilizers. In Idaho during the same year 
the labor bill was $6,677,000, while the 
bill for fertilizer was only $21,000. 
