11 ) 11 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1230 
OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY. 
In May last Senator E. Burton, Ohio, 
estimated that the E. G. Lewis League 
scheme was $800,000 in debt, and that 
in addition to this Lewis admitted de¬ 
benture indebtedness to the members 
individually of $1,200,000, making a to¬ 
tal of two million dollars against his 
League. In his testimony before the 
Congressional Committee in Washing¬ 
ton Lewis protested dramatically against 
this statement and testified that the 
League was not in debt. 
In the Lewis paper of December 16th, 
John H. Williams says this League has 
the following obligations: 
Mortgage . $156,810 
Liens and Chapter House indebted¬ 
ness . 25,000 
General indebtedness . 150,000 
Subscription Certificates outstand¬ 
ing . 500,000 
making in all $831,810, showing that 
Senator Burton’s estimate was actually 
thirty-one thousand dollars short of 
Mr. Williams’ admissions, and if we add 
the $1,200,000 on debentures, the indebt¬ 
edness of his so-called League exceeds 
the two million dollars estimated by 
Mr. Burton and disputed by Lewis. 
Mr. Williams also says: 
The value represented by the building 
and grounds of the Art Academy cannot 
be held for any of the debts of the League, 
excepting for the mortgage on it of $156,- 
810, because it is held by the University 
City Art Museum Society in trust. 
Certainly the good women are getting 
a lesson in high and crafty finance from 
the start. This is probably considered 
a necessary part of their business edu¬ 
cation. We wonder how many of the 
good women who have been allured by 
Lewis’s schemes will be edified by this 
clever device to escape honest debts. 
There is one little incident that 
neither Mr. Williams nor Lewis has yet 
confided to his League members. We 
refer to the suit that was filed by the 
Wallace Co. against the individual mem¬ 
bers of the League to secure payment 
for spoons, or at least against a few 
of the members as individuals. They 
are not told that it is the opinion of 
attorneys that this being a voluntary 
association, the members are believed to 
be liable for the indebtedness against 
the League. The women, of course, 
will remember that Lewis promised 
them in print that the League would 
have no indebtedness. It would seem that 
this is a matter of sufficient importance 
to merit the consideration of the mem¬ 
bers, but we have looked in vain for 
any reference to it in the Lewis paper. 
In his testimony before the Congres¬ 
sional Committee Lewis said that the 
League was merely a subscription 
agency. He has made the same an¬ 
nouncement in other places. He now 
says that the League cannot be a suc¬ 
cess as a subscription agency alone. He 
wants to make them selling agents of 
other things as well as subscriptions, 
while Williams and probably the strug¬ 
gling publishers who sent him to St. 
Louis would confine their activities to 
soliciting subscriptions for the papers 
concerned. 
While testifying to the Congressional 
Committee that the League is merely a 
business organization for ; etting sub¬ 
scriptions, he tells the women them¬ 
selves that they have been held in the 
background by men and treated “in¬ 
ferior things, not quite human.” He 
wants to give them business experience. 
As a matter of fact, they are getting the 
experience all right. He gets the money. 
Mr. Williams gives a table to show the 
money sent him on the League scheme 
for memberships from December, 1907, 
to December, 1911. It amounts to $2,- 
416,383. The Congressional Committee 
asked him if he made an accounting of 
these funds. He promptly and forcibly 
replied there was by public account¬ 
ants. This, if true, would be news to 
some of the members. As a matter of 
fact, Mr. Williams says in the paper re¬ 
ferred to that it is not true. He says 
it is impossible to give accurate figures. 
Public accountants usually give definite 
and accurate figures, and we have seen 
a private letter from Mr. Williams in 
which he says it was not considered 
wise to make the statements he had 
promised. 
Taking their own statements the 
women have sent in nearly two and a 
half million dollars on this scheme alone 
in four years, and owe all told over 
$2,000,000. They were told they would 
have millions of endowments and an in¬ 
come of $20 to $30 annually for life, be¬ 
sides other benefits valued at $1,000 for 
each member. The losses of the Lewis 
concerns are estimated at not less than 
$8,000,000. Now Mr. Lewis proposes 
that these women sell papers and other 
products that he proposes to manufac¬ 
ture to make up all this loss. Stripped 
of all romance, if this is not his proposi¬ 
tion, we would like some one to define 
just what his latest scheme is in plain 
English. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—F. Olnoy McCormick, head 
of the McCormick Company, Inc., of Phila¬ 
delphia. who pleaded gnilty to using the 
mails to perpetrate a fraud, was sentenced 
December 13 to serve two years in the At¬ 
lanta Penitentiary and pay a fine of $1,000. 
McCormick conducted a money lending 
business. He advertised that he would 
lend money to any one having sound col¬ 
lateral security. In several instances Mc¬ 
Cormick sold the security almost imme¬ 
diately after it had been pledged, hoping 
that its value would drop. Invariably Mc¬ 
Cormick stipulated in the loan contract 
that he could sell the collateral at the end 
of a year from date. McCormick attracted 
the attention of persons in need of ready 
money by describing his business “The 
Millionaire House of McCormick.” 
Legislation which will double the fees 
now obtained from automobiles in Massa¬ 
chusetts and which will give Boston a part 
of the revenue will be recommended by 
Gov. Foss to the incoming Legislature. The 
amount derived annually from automobile 
taxes is about $475,000. 
Virginia’s annual Fish Commission re¬ 
port shows that Virginia, with a gross in¬ 
come of $7,500,000 from the fish and oyster 
industry for the year ended September 1, 
1911, now leads all States in the fish in¬ 
dustry, surpassing even Massachusetts, 
with her great cod and mackerel catches. 
These figures do not include the deep-sea 
catches or mackerel and blue fish, which, 
if added, would increase the total by a 
million or more dollars. 
John B. Stanchfield, as counsel for the 
American Tee Company, appeared before 
Justice Blanchard in the Criminal Branch 
of the Supreme Court at New York, De¬ 
cember 15, and paid a $5,000 fine which 
was imposed upon the corporation after it 
had been found guilty of maintaining a 
monopoly in 1909. The case was tried be¬ 
fore _ Justice Wheeler. Upon a motion of 
William McQuaid. Deputy Attorney-Gen¬ 
eral. three indictments for the same offence 
against several directors of the company 
were dismissed by Justice Blanchard. 
The snow was five feet deep in the Lime¬ 
stone country. South Dakota, December 18. 
Deer are being driven by the snow into 
the foothills, and are greatly harassed by 
the coyotes, and in some cases the younger 
of the animals have been killed. In Per¬ 
kins County a pack of buffalo wolves is re¬ 
ported to be doing damage to stock. 
On the first count of an indictment in 
which he had been found guilty on six 
counts the Rev. Frank W. Sandford. leader 
of the Holy Ghost and Us Society, was 
sentenced December 18 to 10 years in At¬ 
lanta Federal Prison by Judge Clarence 
Hale of the United States District Court 
at Portland. Me. The specific charge on 
which the Shiloh leader was sentenced is 
that of causing the death of Geiorge 
Hughey, a member of his flock, who died at 
sea. by failing to furnish provisions during 
thd recent 17 months’ cruise of the yacht 
Coronet. This was the first of six counts 
in the indictment found by the Federal 
Grand Jury. Judge Ilale continued the 
others, leaving Sandford still open to sen¬ 
tence on them should the authorities care 
to take such action at any time. 
The constitutionality of the Illinois 
statute to indemnify owners of property 
from damage occasioned by mobs or riots 
was upheld December 18 by the Supreme 
Court of the United States. Several cases 
brought under this law are said to be 
pending in the Illinois State courts, in¬ 
volving claims for damages aggregating 
many millions of dollars. During a strike 
in Chicago on July 16, 1903. a srx-story 
building owned by Frank Sturges was at¬ 
tacked. Under the mob law Sturges recov¬ 
ered from the city three-fourths of the 
damage. The city then appealed to the 
Supreme Court, on the ground that the law 
was unconstitutional. 
The Government filed in the Federal 
Court at Los Angeles, Cal., December 18, 
a suit to dissolve the so-called Plumbing 
Trust. The allegations are made in a bill 
in equity that the Pacific Coast Plumbing 
Supply Association “and others” have con¬ 
spired since 1907 to restrain trade and in¬ 
terstate commerce. 
The largest inland ship lock in the 
world, called the Black Rock lock, has just 
been completed at Buffalo, N. Y. A Phila¬ 
delphia company did the construction work 
at a cost of $1,250,000. The contract was 
let by the Government in 1908, construc¬ 
tion being started in the same year. The 
lock is 600 feet long, 70 feet wide, 24 feet 
deep and overcomes a lift of five feet. It 
is considered one of the greatest engineer¬ 
ing feats along the great lakes, being big 
enough to carry the largest freighter on 
these waterways. There are five pairs of 
lock gates, each of a depth of 32 feet and 
a width of 37 feet. The gates are of steel 
construction, operated by Niagara Falls 
power. 
The heaviest snowfall in the Texas Pan¬ 
handle in seven years was falling Decem¬ 
ber 19. Three feet of snow was on the 
ground. All Rock Island and Fort Worth 
and Denver trains were late. The snow 
is general and extends to El Paso, which 
has had its third snow In two weeks. The 
Gila Valley of southern Arizona had the 
first snow in a decade or more. The 
weather is not extremely cold and wheat 
growers are jubilant, while stockmen don’t 
fear heavy loss unless the temperature 
drops. 
A stampede to the head of Sixty Mile 
River, in Alaska, is in progress as the re¬ 
sult of a rich gold strike there. The news 
was brought by John Matson, who told of 
getting two and a half ounces of gold, 
worth nearly $40, from a .bed rock space 
five by eight feet. Many old prospectors 
have started over the 130-mile trail to the 
new diggings, which are 20 miles from the 
Alaskan boundary. The belief prevails that 
another Klondike has been discovered, and 
Dawson was almost depopulated December 
18-19. Fancy prices were paid for dogs 
and outfits by stampeders to Matson’s dis¬ 
covery. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The National 
Wool Growers’ Association convention ad¬ 
journed at Omaha, Neb., December 16, after 
re-electing the old officers, selecting Chey¬ 
enne as the meeting place next year and 
adopting resolutions demanding the reten¬ 
tion of a protective tariff on wool and 
pledging a fund of $20,000 to $30,000 to 
carry on the fight to protect the wool grow¬ 
ers’ interests. 
For the first time in its history the Liv¬ 
ingston Grange, Caldwell, N. .1., has se¬ 
lected a woman as its Master. She is Mrs. 
Augusta Fund, wife of Tax Collector Fund. 
Mrs. Fund has a comprehensive knowledge 
of farming. 
The Pennsylvania Grangers, who con¬ 
cluded their State convention at Scranton 
December 16, have great hopes for the suc¬ 
cess of the cooperative plan which was 
adopted formally by the convention and 
which the executive committee now will 
try to put through. The plan is said to be 
one of the most ambitious cooperative pro¬ 
jects ever proposed. The State organiza¬ 
tion, which includes 65,000 members, has 
sanctioned a plan that contemplates the 
formation of a central corporation under 
the management of the State officers, that 
will act as a parent concern to subsidiary 
cooperative corporations to be formed by 
the county Granges. The main body will 
buy factory outputs of farm implements, 
fertilizer and other merchandise used on 
the farm, thus getting the lowest possible 
price. This merchandise then will be dis¬ 
tributed among the subsidiary corporations, 
where needed, and will be sold to the 
farmer without the various commissions 
and profits of middlemen tacked on. The 
State body also will find for the Grange 
members favorable markets for their farm 
produce. In the subsidiary cooperative 
stores the same method of merchandising 
will be used on a smaller scale. To make 
cooperation a success the Grangers are 
seeking to interest the trades unions in 
the project and conferences already have 
been held by Grange leaders with officers 
of organized labor. 
Plans for a great agricultural conven¬ 
tion to be held in Albany from January 16 
to 19 were made December 18 at a meeting 
of representatives of the New York State 
Agricultural Society, the New York State 
Breeders’ Association and 95 county and 
town fair societies. Governor Dix is ex¬ 
pected to speak, and addresses also will be 
delivered by men from Massachusetts, New 
Jersey, Ohio and Canada and by the may¬ 
ors of Des Moines. Iowa, and Indianapolis, 
regarding their efforts to reduce the cost 
of food products by bringing producers and 
consumers togethci*. The_ principal topic 
to be discuss(Ml will be prices of food pro¬ 
ducts. The special topic of the State Breed¬ 
ers’ Association meetings will be the im¬ 
portance of livestock in New York State. 
The county and town fair societies will 
hold their business meetings as usual, and 
in a joint session with the State Agricul¬ 
tural Society will consider ways in which 
their exhibits may be made of greater edu¬ 
cational value. ’ Experts from this and 
other States will address them. The con¬ 
ference December 18 was attended by R. A. 
Pearson, State Commissioner of Agricul¬ 
ture ; Gilbert M. Tucker and Edwin II. 
Chapman, of Albany; George W. Sisson, 
Jr., of Potsdam; A. E. Brown, of Syracuse; 
F. \V\ Sessions, of Utica; T. B. Wilson, of 
Hall; Edward Van Alst.vne. of Kinderhook, 
and A. Denniston, of Washingtonville. 
Last Winter about 40 vegetable growers 
attended the Farmers’ Week meetings at 
Cornell. Twenty-seven of them, feeling that 
much could be gained by occasional meet¬ 
ings and by united effort in many direc¬ 
tions, organized the New York State Vege¬ 
table Growers’ Association. The youthful 
society has been busy during the year, and 
the membership has more than doubled. An 
exhibit along lines hitherto unattempted 
was made at the State Fair, showing com¬ 
mercial packs of vegetables, as distin¬ 
guished from displays of mere. specimens. 
This is regarded as a mere beginning in a 
Work that can develop indefinitely. Com¬ 
mittees are now at work gathering infor¬ 
mation on several topics of such vital im¬ 
portance to producers as marketing, co¬ 
operation. experiment station work, and 
others. The results of these studies are 
to be presented at the second annual meet¬ 
ing of the association, which will be held 
at Ithaca February 20 to 22. At the same 
time a number of successful practical men 
from within and without the State are to 
present papers on vegetable topics. _ The 
programme is fast taking form, and will be 
issued late in January. For copies of the 
programme, drop a postal to Paul Work, 
secretary, Ithaca, New York. 
NEWS FROM ALBANY. 
Amendments to tub Constitution.— 
Lack of interest was shown by the people 
of the State in the questions calling for 
amendments to the constitution, for the 
total vote upon them as compared with the 
vote of 1910, shows that nearly half a 
million voters simply disregarded them. 
But sufficient interest was displayed to de¬ 
feat the proposal to increase the pay and 
mileage of the legislators by 151,914 votes. 
A majority of 123,664 of those voting evi¬ 
dently believed the Governor receives 
enough salary now. for they refused to 
sanction a proposed doubling of his pay. 
All seven of the proposed amendments 
were lost, and only the proposition provid¬ 
ing for barge canal terminal facilities and 
issuance of bonds not to exceed $19,800,000, 
was carried, and that only had a majority 
of 4,416 votes. 
Spending $19.800.000.—The moment it 
was officially declared 'that the proposition 
to issue bonds for this amount to afford 
barge canal facilities had been approved 
by the people, the State Engineer began 
work on the proposition’s purpose. Docks, 
storehouses and freight depots will be built 
in New York, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, 
Buffalo and the smaller towns and cities 
along the canal. Engineer Bensel declares 
that in his opinion the people of the State 
as a whole will be benefited by the adop¬ 
tion of the proposition, as it will serve to 
build up the commerce and manufacturing 
interests. If the barge canal is ever com¬ 
pleted. and there are those who express 
their doubts, it is to be hoped that farmers 
living along its lines may be benefited by 
some kind of cheaper transportation than 
they at present enjoy. But if it is true, 
as has been stated, that the New York Cen¬ 
tral is gradually acquiring all of the canal 
boats, there is but little hope of any relief 
in rates. 
The Law’s Delays. —Of course it is too 
much to expect that the legal profession 
will ever come forward proposing that re¬ 
forms in procedure be enacted so that 
justice may be meted out promptly and 
swiftly. It would result in a diminishment, 
many times, in their fees. But there is 
one class of cases that is constantly coming 
vup, which when considered by the layman 
always makes his blood boil—the delays in 
the execution of sentences of capital cases, 
especially where the murders committed 
have been of the outrageously brutal type. 
A ease in point is that of the youth, 
Wolter, who on March 24, 1910, under 
circumstances peculiarly atrocious, mur¬ 
dered a girl of 15 years, seeking employ¬ 
ment as a stenographer. Wolter was on 
trial, adjudged guilty and sentenced to die, 
but by the law’s delays, under guidance 
of a skillful lawyer, the execution of the 
penalty has been put off until some time 
next year. However, it is gratifying that 
there is no more doubt but that justice 
will be had, even after a lapse of nearly 
two years, for the Court of Appeals re¬ 
cently confirmed the decision of the lower 
court. 
Schedule Time. —-Figures are nearly 
always interesting, but sometimes hard to 
believe. It does seem, somehow, that when 
one is in a hurry to arrive at his destina¬ 
tion the particular train one has ..taken is 
sure to be late. Yet the figures just issued 
by the Public Service Commission shows 
that during the month of October 84 per 
cent of the 63,265 trains run came into 
their destinations on time. Of the 16 per 
cent of late trains it is cheerfully related 
that the average delay of each late train 
was 23.8 minutes, and it is consoling to 
learn that the average delay for each train 
run was only 3.7 minutes. 
New York State Cotton. —State Com¬ 
missioner of Agriculture Pearson is al¬ 
ways a source of news to the newspaper¬ 
men at the capital. Recently he told them 
of two experiments in raising cotton in this 
State, which had proved moderately success¬ 
ful. Wm. Powley of Ransomville, Niagara 
County, and .T. A. Findley of Montgomery, 
Orange County, wore the pioneers, and in 
both instances the plants were started 
under glass. The Commissioner stated that 
cotton can be grown with profit on a limited 
scale in this State, but it would ever be 
necessary to start the plants under glass. 
The Orange cotton is said to have been 
of excellent quality, being of the long 
staple kind, and worth 20 cents per pound 
as against about 10 cents per pound of 
the usual Southern variety. Then there 
is the cotton seed. 
Oleo Made at Home. —Albanians and 
Trojans never had the matter of oleomar¬ 
garine brought so closely to their attention 
as last week when they read in their 
morning papers of the arrest in Troy of 
Wilson Eldon, secretary and treasurer of 
the American Stores, incorporated, which 
conducts a chain of six stores in Troy, 
accused with having disposed of 250.000 
pounds of oleomargarine the past year and 
failing to pay the tax of 10 cents per 
pound thereon, amounting to $25,000. It 
is said the internal revenue men have sus¬ 
pected . for some time that oleomargarine 
was being manufactured in this vicinity and 
that a watch was kept on possible pro¬ 
ducers. Of course the oleo was tinted and 
every resident of a. boarding house or 
hotel and some heads of families in the 
capital district are looking with suspicion 
upon the “butter” placed before them these 
days. 
Smallpox Spare. —The slight- outbreak 
of smallpox in Portland and Tompkins 
counties and the isolated case in Broome 
County need not, says the State Board of 
Health, occasion any alarm of a spreading 
of the disease.When notified of the appear¬ 
ance in the southern tier of the dreaded 
smallpox the department at once hurried 
experts there. It was found that the cases 
wore of so mild a nature that it was diffi¬ 
cult to make diagnoses. The usual steps 
for isolation and vaccination were at once 
taken and full provision made against its 
spread. Of course it is always to he feared 
that even these mild eases may take a turn 
to the old-fashioned kind, but the State 
has been most watchful for many years 
past and it is hardly to be expected’that 
the disease will become epidemic. 
Civil Service Examinations. —In the 
middle of next month there will be a chance 
for anyone who cares to try various ex¬ 
aminations for State jobs as inspectors 
of gas meters, $1,200; assistant steam en¬ 
gineer, over $600; elevator man, $900; 
foreman of weaving in State prisons, 
$1,200; foreman tinsmithing, of tailoring, 
of spinning in State prisons. $1,200; in¬ 
spector steam boilers, $1,200; matron at 
Letehworth Village, $900 and maintenance; 
orderly, watchman, and prison guards, $000 
and special agents of public works at $4 
to $5 per day; stewards of State institu¬ 
tion for women, open to women only, 
$1,200 and maintenance. Address State 
Civil Service Commission, Albany, for in¬ 
formation and blanks. 
State to Sell Farms. —New York State 
owns some 250 farms located in 45 differ¬ 
ent counties, the titles of which passed to 
the State by reason of foreclosure of 
mortgages given for loans from the United 
States deposit fund. Away back about 
1836, when the National government was 
not only free from debt but had a surplus 
of cash receipts above expenses, this sur¬ 
plus was divided among the States and 
New York’s portion was in the neighborhood 
of $3,000,000. The State very wisely de¬ 
cided to devote the income from this" sum 
to purposes of education, and that the peo¬ 
ple might have a still further advantage 
from the fund commissioners were ap¬ 
pointed in each county to make loans upon 
farm property and by this means the 
$3,000,000 was spread all over the State. 
The capital of the fund to-day. despite 
many losses, is in excess of $4,000,000 and 
the income during 1910 was $451,344. But 
as the result of failure on the part of 
mortgagees to pay interest and principal 
the State has been compelled to foreclose 
in more than 250 instances, and to-day 
has these properties on its hands. The 
net income from these State farms is only 
about $1,750. although the investment rep¬ 
resents $337,639 of the United States de- 
osit fund’s moneys. Comptroller Sohmer 
has obtained the sanction of the State 
Land Board for the sale of these farms, 
and doubtless they will soon, be placed on 
the market. c. 
