1911. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
118^9 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
The Congressional investigation in St. 
Loais last month brought out some de¬ 
tails of the methods used by E. G. 
Lewis to separate country people from 
their money. In the report of the hear¬ 
ing, No. 37, page 3281, Inspector Stice 
testified as follows from his investiga¬ 
tion in 1905: 
Mr. Lewis was president of the Lewis 
Publishing Company. He was editor of the 
Woman's Magazine and Frank J. Cabot of 
the Woman’s Farm Journal. He promoted 
the sales of stock in the People's United 
States Bank largely and principally through 
these publications as editor and President 
and as an individual. The account of money 
received from sales of stock was first car¬ 
ried on the books of the Development and 
Investment Company. T would like to have 
the Committee see that account for the 
purpose of showing the manner in which 
the account was carried. 
From the beginning of 1904, February 18, 
nearly a year before the bank was char¬ 
tered, E. G. Lewis as an individual bor¬ 
rowed from these funds and reloaned to the 
Publishing Company. No record exists 
which authorized the officers of the De¬ 
velopment and Investment Company to 
make any of these loans to Mr. Lewis. 
The loans of the Lewis Publishing Co. were 
steadily increased, and after the organiza¬ 
tion of the People’s United States Bank on 
April 22, I90o, they were consolidated 
in one loan of $400,000, and a part of that 
amount of money of the investors in the 
stock of the People’s United States Bank 
was used in the erection of the beautiful, 
octagonal building at University City and 
for current expenses. I propose to show 
that $375,000 of this money was irretriev¬ 
ably gone so far as these bank stock holders 
were concerned from the day the $400,000 
loan was taken by the bank. • 
Upon the appointment of Mr. Fred Essen 
as receiver of the bank, Mr. Lewis set 
about to obtain from the stockholders of 
the bank, assignments of stock, using as an 
argument that by so doing these persons 
would be secured against all loss and made 
capital of what he termed the assassination 
of the bank by the officers of the Post 
Office Department. Secretary of State of 
Missouri, the press, politicians, and all 
those whom he has termed his enemies. 
At this stage the original circulars 
sent out by Mr. Lewis to secure the 
assignment of the stock in the People’s 
United States Bank were put in evi¬ 
dence and cover some 38 pages: 
Question-—You did not testify, did you, 
that Mr. Lewis was drawing $20,000 a 
year salary from any of these companies? 
Answer—Not at that time. No sir. 
Question—Nor at any time? 
Answer—Yes sir. 
Question—Drawing $20,000? 
Answer—After January 1, 1906, $500 a 
week. 
The stock of the Lewis Publishing Com¬ 
pany was increased $2,300,000. Mr. Lewis 
gave his personal notes to the Lewis Pub¬ 
lishing Co. for $2,000,000. By exchanging 
Lewis Publishing Co. stock thus obtained 
for the outstanding stock in the People’s 
United States Bank, he became a claim¬ 
ant against the receiver of the People’s 
United States Bank. The assigned bank 
stock was surrendered to Mr. Essen, re¬ 
ceiver, and for every dollar of bank stock 
surrendered. Mr. Lewis received from the 
receiver 85 cents of assets. 
Mr. Lewis accepted all the paper he held 
in his corporation at par, so that when 
the transaction was completed Mr. Lewis 
held the paper as an individual and the 
notes of the Lewis Publishing Co. were 
turned over to himself as president of the 
Lewis Publishing Co. to cancel. 
Lewis was given credit for the amount 
of his individual note by the Lewis Pub¬ 
lishing Co., no money having been passed 
since the original loan was made. 
After the transaction was completed The 
Lewis Publishing Co. had a very distant 
obligation in the way of outstanding pre¬ 
ferred stock, whereas the direct obligations 
of the time and demand loans had disap¬ 
peared and the Lewis Publishing Co. was 
thereby given a new lease of life. 
In the transaction there was a loss of 
15% which Mr. Lewis has said over and 
over again he would and did assume. Let 
us see whether he did or not. 
In this particular transaction Mr. Lewis 
turned over to the receiver bank stock 
amounting to $441,170.47. 
He received from the receiver Lewis 
Publishing Co. notes for $375,000. 
He received credit on his individual 
note from Lewis Publishing Co. by sur¬ 
rendering notes to the Lewis Publishing Co., 
$375,000. 
Balance of his note then due, $65,176.47. 
There was a subsequent dividend of 
2%% credit on note $11,029.41. This left 
a loss to be assumed by Lewis of $54,147.06. 
The first step toward liquidation of the 
note was to increase the salary of the 
President of the Lewis Publishing Qo. 
$200 per week, or $10,400 per annum, ef¬ 
fective January 1, 1906, and the increase 
was applied to his note; other credits of 
a similar nature will be shown by other 
witnesses. 
It appears therefore, that Mr. Lewis did 
not assume this loss but the Lewis Pub¬ 
lishing Co. did. 
This much is offered at this time to show 
the Committee that there was on the part 
of the corjxmation controlled by Mr. Lewis 
and himself, a determination to hang on 
to the money of the public by hook or 
crook, and it is further evidence of an in¬ 
tent to defraud, and the inspectors would 
be justified in recommendation of a fraud 
order against this corporation. 
There was no such recommendation and 
the Post Office Department took no action 
against the Lewis Publishing Co. on ac¬ 
count of its business methods. 
The total net loss of this company up 
to the present time exceeds $1,500,000. 
There were never any dividends earned, 
but a steady, ever increasing annual defi¬ 
cit. The stock has never had any actual 
value. The public lost by investing in this 
stock approximately $2,000,000, about 
$1,400,000 having been transferred from 
the People’s United States Bank. 
You see the situation. A publishing 
company with $1,200,000 stock is not 
paying expenses, but the stock is in¬ 
creased to $3,500,000. This extra stock 
is bought on a note of the president of 
the company, and then traded for stock 
in a bank worth 85 cents on the dollar, 
promising that the new stock is worth 
a dollar, and also promising to make 
good the 15 cents loss. By this move 
the old bank stockholders become pub¬ 
lishing company stockholders, and be¬ 
sides having a worthless stock, they are 
forced to pay the 15 cents themselves 
through an increase of the president’s 
salary. It should be remembered that 
this all occurred before the Post Office 
Department interfered with the second- 
class mail privileges of the Lewis pub¬ 
lications. It is shown in other testi¬ 
mony that Lewis charged the bank not 
only for the advertising in his papers to 
get the money to promote the bank, but 
that he also charged for the space used 
in editorials for the same purpose. And 
yet the testimony is that the publishing 
company was always run at a loss; that 
it never earned any dividends. After 
10 years of continuous schemes to col¬ 
lect money from country people, the 
company is finally bankrupt and Lewis 
brazenly tells his dupes that their losses 
were due to the Post Office Department 
and The Rural New-Yorker. But 
there are his own books which show ac¬ 
cording to the unrefuted testimony of 
the inspectors that his publications were 
run at a loss from^start to finish, and 
were valuable to him only as the means 
of maintaining a “sucker list” for the 
collection of money to further fake and 
fraudulent schemes. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—All November cold weather 
records in Texas were broken November 
t, ' Tb , e , m ercury ran from zero in the 
I anhandle to 25 above. It is feared that 
most of the Winter vegetable cron was de¬ 
stroyed. 
'1 wo persons were injured and property 
loss estimated at $500,000 has resulted 1 
from a lire November 30 at Gainesville, Ga. 
Eight buildings were burned. 
The plant of the Fultonville Silk Com¬ 
pany at Fultonville, N. Y„ was totally de¬ 
stroyed by fire November 30, causing a loss 
of $200,000 and throwing 200 hands out of 
work. The loss is covered by insurance. 
The null was owned largely by the estate 
of John II. Starin. Probably it will not 
bo rebuilt in Fultonville, as negotiations 
are pending for moving the plant to Schen¬ 
ectady. 
Counsel for the indicted meat packers, 
who are fighting for a postponement of a 
trial of their clients until they can test the 
validity of the Sherman Anti-Trust act, 
December 2 delivered to United States Dis¬ 
trict Attorney Wilkerson copies of briefs 
which will be filed with the Supreme Court. 
It is considered doubtful that the Supreme 
Court will interfere. 
Five men, including the master of the 
vessel, were killed, two were terribly in¬ 
jured and eight were rescued in a thrilling 
manner December 3 when the steamer Dia¬ 
mond was blown to pieces by a boiler ex¬ 
plosion in the Ohio River near Davis Island 
dam, five miles below Pittsburg, Pa. 
Fire which caught in the engine room of 
the power house of the Texas State Peni¬ 
tentiary at Huntsville, December 4, de¬ 
stroyed all of the buildings except the main 
cell structure, where the long term convicts 
are confined. The losses aggregate about 
$600,000, with no insurance. No lives were 
lost. When the fire began not a prisoner 
attempted to escape. Those in cells were 
released and put to work on the fire, and 
not one sought freedom. The volunteer de¬ 
partment of the penitentiary did excellent 
service. 
James B. McNamara pleaded guilty to 
murder in the first degree in Judge Walter 
Bordwell’s rourt at Los Angeles, Cal., De¬ 
cember 1. His brother. John ,T. McNamara, 
secretary of the International Association 
of Bridge and Structural Iron Workers, en¬ 
tered a plea of guilty to having dynamited 
the Llewellyn Iron Works, in Los Angeles, 
on Christmas Day, 1910. James B. Mc¬ 
Namara's confession clears up absolutely 
the tragedy of the explosion and fire which 
October 1, 1910, wrecked the plant of “The 
Los Angeles Times,” and caused the death 
of 21 persons. For 19 of these deaths the 
McNamara brothers were indicted, and J. 
B. McNamara was on trial specifically for 
the murder of Charles M. Haggerty, a ma¬ 
chinist, whose body was found nearer 
than that of any other to the spot where 
the dynamite was supposed to have been 
placed. December 5 J. B. McNamara was 
sentenced to life imprisonment, and J. J. 
McNamara to 15 years, both in San Quen¬ 
tin prison. Ortie McManigal has confessed 
that he dynamited the power house of the 
Omaha Sreet Railway because non-union 
steel workers were being used in the con¬ 
struction work. The Omaha explosion took 
place on July 22. 1910. The street railway 
company was building a new power house 
and non-union men were raising the steel. 
The regulation clockwork arrangement 
used by the men on their other wrecking 
expeditions were used here. The building 
was only partly wrecked when the dynamite 
exploded. McManigal left the city the fol¬ 
lowing afternoon, and did not return until 
March of 1911, when he came back and in¬ 
vestigated a new court house which was 
being built by a non-union firm. Two days 
after his second arrival in Omaha the court 
house was dynamited and several thousand 
dollars damage was done. McManigal de¬ 
nied that he was the cause of this ex¬ 
plosion, but Chief Donahue expects now 
that he will confess to this dynamiting 
also. 
Tod Shriver, the American aviator, was 
killed during a flight at I’once, Porto Rico, 
December 2. He was making a flight over 
that city in a Baldwin monoplane when he 
lost control of the machine while making a 
turn. He fell 200 feet and died a few min¬ 
utes after he struck the ground. 
The success of reindeer in northern 
Alaska is causing the Canadian Government 
to introduce them into the Yukon territory 
for the benefit of the natives. Shipment of 
Labrador reindeer has been started to¬ 
ward the Mackenzie Valley via Edmonton. 
Bishop Stringer, of the Church of England, 
has gone from Dawson to Ottawa to induce 
the government to purchase Alaskan rein¬ 
deer for the Klondike and Yukon natives, 
who are greatly in need of occupation. 
Game is becoming scarcer, too, necessitat¬ 
ing the substitution of grazing animals for 
flesh-eating dogs. Yak from the Andes may 
be introduced along with reindeer. 
While the snowstorm was at its height 
early December 4, about 400 horses and 
half that number of wagons belonging to 
the United States Express Company were 
destroyed by fire in the stables at Hender¬ 
son and Eighth streets, Jersey City, N. J. 
Two firemen were seriously injured and a 
number of poor families were driven from 
their homes by flames. They were cared 
for by the Salvation Army. The fire caused 
a loss of nearly $1,000,000, and possibly 
cost the life of Frederick Auckney, a negro 
in charge of the stable’s hospital. After 
discovering smoke in a refuse pit, Auckney 
rang the building’s alarm signal, and then 
tried to turn loose some of the 600 horses. 
He was not seen again. Other employees 
drove 200 animals to the street. 
Los Angeles, Cal., women, voting for the 
first time in a municipal campaign follow¬ 
ing their recent enfranchisement in Cali¬ 
fornia, piled up a majority December 5 for 
the Good Government ticket that left the 
Socialists far behind. Incomplete returns 
from nearly all precincts in the city give 
Alexander, Good Government candidate for 
Mayor, 87,105; Harriman, Socialist, 50,827. 
Mrae. Caroline Severance, mother of wo¬ 
men’s clubs, and more than 90 years of 
age, was one of the early voters, casting a 
ballot for the first time after almost three- 
quarters of a century of struggle for suf¬ 
frage, much of that time as a contempor¬ 
ary of Susan B. Anthony and others. Mrs. 
Isabella C. Pease, 90 years of age, was 
carried to the polls. The confessions of 
the McNamaras and the disclosures in con¬ 
nection with the jury bribing had much to 
do with the defeat of Harriman, who, al¬ 
though not directly involved, was one of 
the attorneys for the McNamaras and 
therefore lost followers when the dis¬ 
closures came. But the women, after all, 
showed themselves the foes of Socialism. 
The vote c ast—140,880—was tremendous 
for Los Angeles. 
At the recent meeting in this city of the 
Federation of Jewish Farmers plans for 
ousting the middleman from the city trade, 
in Jewish produce, were discussed. Some 
30 farmers took part in the debate in an 
odd mixture of Hebrew and German and 
Russian. It was suggested that the Fed¬ 
eration found and finance either a chain of 
small stores or one great store on Hester 
street, where Jewish people could buy di¬ 
rect, that a regular trade-mark be used on 
all goods coming from the Federation’s 
farms, and that the members of the Fen¬ 
eration become shareholders in the store or 
stores, thus established. 
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE.—In the 
message transmitted to Congress Decem¬ 
ber 5 the President makes the following 
points: Defends Sherman act as inter¬ 
preted by the United States Supreme 
Court, opposing the repeal or destructive 
amendment of the statute. Suggests that 
Congress pass a Federal incorporation law 
and supplemental legislation that “would 
describe and denounce methods of compe¬ 
tition that are unfair.” Proposes the crea¬ 
tion of executive 'bureau or commission for 
supervision of corporations chartered under 
Federal law. Declares decree in Tobacco 
Trust case “effective.” Would point out to 
the business community “what must lie 
avoided.” Combinations of capital allowed 
to become Federal corporations, he says, 
should be subject to rigid supervision as to 
stock and bond issues. Such organizations 
not to bo exempt from prosecution under 
the Sherman Anti-Trust act. Record of 
trust prosecution : Seven under Harrison’s 
administration, eight during Cleveland’s 
second term, three under McKinley, 44 un¬ 
der Roosevelt, and 37 (so far) under Taft. 
“The Anti-Trust act,” says the President, 
“is the expression of the effort of a free¬ 
dom-loving people to preserve equality of 
opportunity.” Not the purpose of the sta¬ 
tute to confiscate property jind capital of 
offending trusts. Mere size no sin against 
the Sherman law. It is only when the pur¬ 
pose or necessary effects of the organiza¬ 
tion and maintenance of the combination 
of great size are the stifling of competi¬ 
tion, actual and potential, and the enhanc¬ 
ing of prices and establishing a monopoly 
that the statute, is violated. Merging of 
two or more business plants necessarily 
eliminates competition between units thus 
combined, but this elimination is in con¬ 
travention of statute only when combina¬ 
tion is made to secure control, enhance 
prices and create monopoly. 
N. Y. SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS MEET. 
The fifty-sixth annual convention of 
School Commissioners and Superintendents 
was held at Albany as a special session, 
“Rural Education Section,” in conjunction 
with the New York State Teacher’s Asso¬ 
ciation, November 27, 28 and 29. On the 
27th there were round table discussions 
with State officials in the education depart¬ 
ment. The important meeting of the con¬ 
vention occurred November 28, Commis¬ 
sioner Wingate of Schenectady presiding. 
Dr. Andrew S. Draper, Commissioner of 
Education, was the first speaker, having as 
his subject “What is Expected of District 
Superintendents.” 
“You have been appointed superintend¬ 
ents of the rural schools; there are 207 of 
you—almost twice as many superintendents 
as there were school commissioners. The 
old districts were so large that real super¬ 
vision was impossible. Putting two dis¬ 
tricts where there was one before is an 
important factor in inci’easing th« ef¬ 
ficiency of supervision. The education de¬ 
partment expects that you will be free and 
independent school superintendents. It 
cannot be said too often that the- schools 
are to be kept free from all political or de¬ 
nominational partisanship. Officers of the 
schools are to assert this and exemplify it; 
the school organization is to offend none; 
it is to count upon the support of ail. It is 
one of the strong points of the new law 
that it excludes the uneducated from these 
superintendents. Efficient superintendents 
must have knowledge, not merely of the 
technical rules of grammar, arithmetic, etc., 
but of the world’s store of literature. If 
you have that, your grasp upon administra¬ 
tion, and courses of study, and methods of 
teaching, and all such, will come very 
quickly and easily. But if you are long on 
frills and pretense, and short on the sub¬ 
stance of knowledge, if you are without the 
elements of intellectual growth, your rising 
sun will soon be obscured by a cloud and is 
even likely to drop out of the heavens very 
suddenly. There is a direction in the law 
that you hold meetings of trustees and ad¬ 
vise them and counsel them in relation to 
the interests of the school. That is an im¬ 
portant provision. Get the trustees to¬ 
gether and talk over buildings and teachers 
and courses of study. Embrace every fair 
opportunity to quicken public sentiment; 
have a sane appreciation of educational 
values; remember that not half that is 
learned is in text-books. Make certain that 
children are trained soundly in English and 
in simple mathematics. Adjure teachers to 
train children to respect labor and to do 
things. Encourage the schools to interest 
the pupils in agriculture, mechanical and 
home-making industries. This will work 
no harm to reading, writing and numbers," 
but rather- to their advantage. It will 
broaden the higher schools, or at least 
concentrate their intensiveness upon work 
that has the largest claims. The vital 
need of the educational work of this coun¬ 
try is the training of pupils in manual and 
vocational efficiency. Interest the children 
in animal life; a boy who can break a colt 
is not untrained. What helps the hand 
helps the head and the heart. Let the boy 
get waked up about something.” 
Dr. T. E. Finnegan, third assistant com¬ 
missioner of education, who has charge of 
the new district superintendents, spoke on 
“Obligations and Opportunities of District 
Superintendents,” emphasizing Dr. Draper’s 
advice, and devoting himself more to the 
technical matters of the new office, such as 
powers and duties, etc. Dr. Finnegan gave 
statistics, aiRong which it may be of inter¬ 
est to know that there are among the 207 
district superintendents 42 college gradu¬ 
ate's, 20 graduates of the State Normal 
College, 92 graduates of State normal 
schools, 25 holding life certificates and 28 
permanent certificates. The average teach¬ 
ing experience Is 20 years. There are 39 
women elected and 50 commissioners re¬ 
elected. One of the difficulties is the small 
school of less than 10 pupils, of which there 
are 1,400, each with a valuation of $20,000 
or less, throughout the State. Dr. Finne¬ 
gan said that the term of office begins on 
January 1, which is a holiday, but on the 
2d at 9 a. m. each superintendent should be 
at the door of some school house. 
O. ,T. Kern, superintendent of the Winne¬ 
bago Connty schools, in Illinois, occupied 
the afternoon with an excellent colored 
storeopticon lecture on “The Front Line of 
Country School Improvement.” After the 
lecture Dr. Finnegan answered questions 
that the superintendents pnt to him. The 
main feature seemed to be as to what the 
State would allow as expenses. The 
answer of the State seemed at first to be 
rather narrow, as l)r. Finnegan said that 
the superintendents were not to hire their 
horse of a brother or their wife and charge 
it to the State. However, the general 
opinion of the superintendents is that the 
State Comptroller will he reasonable in this 
detail. 
On Wednesday morning was the business 
meeting, election of officers, etc. The body 
of superintendents desires to be separate 
and so do not continue with the massive 
teachers’ association, but meet independ¬ 
ently; next year probably at Utica and 
perhaps in January. . A number of dis¬ 
tricts have raised the salaries of their 
superintendents. One good instance of 
what is being done up-State is Erie County, 
whose old commissioners reelected receive 
$800 increase, and the new* men $600 in¬ 
crease. The valuation of the districts rais¬ 
ing $800 is, respectively, $18,578,404, 
$6,302,782, $4,811,000. Those raising $600, 
$10,103,164 and $6,643,140. M. 
Coming Farmers’ Meetings. 
Winter Short Courses. Cornell University, 
Ithaca, N. Y., November 28-February 23. 
N. Y. State Fruit Growers’ Ass’n, Ro¬ 
chester, N. Y., January 3-5. 
N. Y. State Dairymen’s Ass’n, Clean, 
December 12-13. 
New Jersey Horticultural Society, Free¬ 
hold, December 12-13. 
Illinois Agricultural Society, Urbana, Ill., 
December 12-14. 
Maine Live Stock Breeders’ Association, 
Orono, December 14-15. 
Eastern Fruit Growers’ Ass’n, Raleigh 
Hotel, Washington, D. C., December 12. 
National Mid-Winter Sheep Show— 
Omaha, Neb.. December 13-16. 
Farmers’ Week, Kingston, R. I., Decem¬ 
ber 25-30. 
Farmers’ Short Course, Burlington, Vt., 
December 20-February 24. 
State Farmers’ Institute, Manhattan, Kan¬ 
sas, December 26-30. 
Farmers’ Week, New Brunswick, N. J., 
December 25-.Tanuary 1. 
Farmers’ Week, State College, Pa., De¬ 
cember 27-.Tanuary 3. 
American Breeders’ Ass’n, Washington, 
D. C., December 28-30. 
Farmers’ Short Course, Ames, Iowa, Jan¬ 
uary 2-13. 
Farmers’ Short Course, Columbus, O., Jan¬ 
uary 2-February 23. 
Farmers’ Short Course, Amherst, Mass., 
January 2-March 8. 
Farmers’ Short Course, Durham, N. H., 
January 4-March 8. 
Farmers’ Week, Purdue Tniversity, La¬ 
fayette, Indiana, January 8-13. 
Vermont Dairymen’s Ass’n, Burlington, 
January 9-11. 
Farmers’ Week, College Park, Md., Janu¬ 
ary 8 15. 
