1912. 
<THTS RURAL NKW-VORKER 
329 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Between 20 and 40 miners 
employed in a mine of the Wichita Coal 
and Mining Company, a mile east of Lehigh, 
Oklahoma, lost their lives February 22, 
when fire broke out in mine No. 5. When 
the fire was discovered word was sent 
through the mine ano more than 100 
walked out, or overcome by smoke, were 
carried out by rescuers. 
Fire fanned by a gale February 22 de¬ 
stroyed the plant of the Barrett Manu¬ 
facturing Company, a roofing concern, at the 
foot of Smith street, Brooklyn, N. Y., 
crossed to the feed warehouse of the S. 
W. Bowne Company to the north and on 
the other side of the street and gave the 
fire fighters who answered five alarms a 
lot of anxiety for awhile. The fire caused 
about $300.000 damage and the flames from 
it eonld be seen all oyer that part of 
Brooklyn. 
Much damage was caused in and around 
New York City February 22 by a hurri¬ 
cane which at one time attained' a velocity 
of 110 miles an hour. It was the greatest 
gale that ever struck the city. Suburban 
trolley lines, electric light and telephone 
systems were put out of commission by 
fallen poles and broken wires. Up the 
State snow and wind combined to cause the 
worst train blockade for many years. 
The Federal Grand Jury at Cincinnati, 
O., February 22, announced the indictment 
of 50 individuals and corporations. Thirty 
officers, employees and former employees of 
the National Cash Register Company at 
Dayton, Ohio, were indicted for alleged vio¬ 
lation of the Sherman anti-trust law. It is 
charged that in pursuit of competitors some 
employees of the Cash Register company 
used bribery, cut prices and formed mythi¬ 
cal companies, made machines to imitate 
those of rivals, maintained a “knockout'’ 
department where registers of other com¬ 
panies were exhibited to their injury and 
have driven all but five competitors out of 
business. The charge of violating the inter¬ 
state commreee law by collecting on ship¬ 
ments more than provided in the estab¬ 
lished rates is made against the Adams 
Express Company. There are 11 counts in 
this indictment. 
Houston, Tex., suffered the most destruc¬ 
tive fire in its history February 21. More 
than a dozen of the city’s most Important 
industrial enterprises are in ruins, 200 
buildings, including factories, are in ashes 
and approximately 1,000 persons are home¬ 
less. The most conservative estimate 
of the loss Is that it will reach at least 
$7,000,000. The insurance carried will not 
exceed 40 per cent. Except for a few who 
suffered minor burns and bruises, no casual¬ 
ties attended the fire. The industrial plants 
destroyed include three cotton compresses, 
together with 55.000 bales of cotton, a syrup 
factory, a pencil factory, two rite mills, a 
cotton picking plant and three lumber 
yards. The compresses and cotton alone 
were valued in excess of $5,000,000. An¬ 
other building destroyed was St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, church and academy. 
Twelve lives are known to have been lost 
in the widespread snow and sleet storm 
February 25-26, taking in virtually the en¬ 
tire country from the Rocky Mountains to 
the Atlantic Coast and which assumed its 
worse proportions over the Missouri Valley, 
sweeping far to the Southwest, developing 
into tornadoes and damaging much property 
in Arkansas and Mississippi. Reports from 
the West, particularly Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa, New Mexico, Colorado and Missouri, 
show the storm resulted in the worst traffic 
conditions of the winter. In Kansas several 
trains were lost. In a double tornado which 
swept parts of Lincoln, Jefferson and 
Arkansas counties, Ark., ten lives were lost 
and at least twenty-five persons were in¬ 
jured seriously. In the Mississippi tor¬ 
nado at the town of Gluekstndt, fifteen miles 
north of Jackson, there was great damage 
to property. In Chicago two deaths are 
attributed to the storm. 
Much feeling has been aroused in the 
textile strike at Lawrence, Mass., by the 
notion of the authorities there in prevent¬ 
ing strikers from sending their children out 
of the city to people who will care for 
them. Both police and militia were em¬ 
ployed February 24 to prevent this, and 
much disorder resulted. President Taft or¬ 
dered an inquiry into conditions at Law¬ 
rence February 26, particularly the ques¬ 
tion as to whether constitutional rights 
have been denied. Three investigations, all 
having to do with the authority of the 
textile strikers to send their children to 
other cities to be cared, for, are now nnder 
way. United States Attorney Asa P. 
French, of Boston, acting on instructions 
from Attorney General Wickersham, is con¬ 
ducting one probe, while Attorney General 
James M. Swift, of Massachusetts, has com¬ 
menced another at the request of Governor 
Eugene N. Foss. A third was provided for 
by the District Court February 27 and a 
Congressional investigation is also under 
consideration at Washington. 
A heavy snowstorm played havoc with 
the transportation in and out of Montreal 
February 26-27. Owing to the tremendous 
weight of snow on the roof of the Canadian 
Pacific roundhouse at Outremont the roof 
collapsed. The loss is estimated at about 
$60,000. Several engines in the shed were 
damaged. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Bankers of eight 
states—Ohio, Texas, Illinois, North Caro¬ 
lina, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and 
Minnesota—will join in asking Congress to 
enact legislation for the personal instruction 
of farmers in better methods of agriculture. 
Eebruary 28 a committee of bankers from 
these States and from the National Bank¬ 
ers’ Association met in Washington to urge 
Congress to appropriate money for the sal¬ 
aries of expert agricultural teachers and 
demonstrators to work with farmers. 
It was officially announced February 24 
that the 10-year pooling plan of the Burley 
Tobacco Society had been successful, thus 
insuring the life of the society. The State¬ 
ment says that more than one hundred 
thousand farmers in Kentucky, Ohio and 
Indiana have come into the pool and enough 
acres of tobacco have been pledged to carry 
the society through for the life of the 
10-year agreement. The statement also 
gives the number of warehouses and fac¬ 
tories to be built, the principal expenditure 
being a fatcory in Louisville to cost not less 
than $2,500,000. 
A new State organization, the New York 
State Federation of Floral Clubs, was 
formed at the Cornell State College of 
Agriculture February 23. It represents 
about four thousand florists of the State. 
The ^officers elected are : President, William 
F. Kasting, Buffalo; vice-president, Charles 
B. Weathered, New York; secretary, John 
Young, and treasurer, W. A. Adams, Buf¬ 
falo. 
THE EXPRESS INVESTIGATION.—“De¬ 
mand for transportation charges on prepaid 
shipments must cease. The complaint of 
this practice of express companies is uni¬ 
versal, and a remedy for It must be found.” 
This ultimatum was laid down by Com¬ 
missioner Lane to the express companies 
February 26 after the resumption of the in¬ 
vestigation of the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission into the rates, methods and prac¬ 
tices of the companies. J. H. Bradley, vice- 
president of the American Express Com¬ 
pany, explained the instructions of his com¬ 
pany as to the efforts it required of its 
agents to refund overcharges to shippers. 
Senator Gardner, of Maine, introduced a bill 
under which the government would take over 
the properties of express companies and 
operate them as a part of the postal service, 
extending the service to the rural delivery. 
The measure indicates the probable cost of 
taking over the properties as follows: 
Real property .$14,932,169 
Equipment. 7,381,405 
Materials and supplies. 138,210 
Advance payments on contracts. 5,836,606 
Franchises, goodwill, etc. 10,877,369 
Total .$39,165,819 
While the balance sheets of the com¬ 
panies show other assets of nearly $150,- 
000,000, Senator Gardner argues that these 
are not devoted to express service, and that 
this property might be retained by the 
corporations without impairing its value. 
While the bill introduced February 26 
does not fix rates, Senator Gardner offers 
figures showing that express charges in this 
country are now 16 times freight charges, 
and indicating that under the postal sys¬ 
tem this ratio could be reduced to about 
five and one-half to one, and at the same 
time the express business would be ex¬ 
tended to the entire country. A bill which 
would direct the Interstate Commerce Com¬ 
mission to make valuations of all the ex¬ 
press, telegraph and telephone companies 
in the United States, and that the Presi¬ 
dent take steps to obtain ownership by the 
government of all such properties, was in¬ 
troduced by Representative Sabath, of Illi¬ 
nois. 
THE PRESIDENT ON POSTAL AF¬ 
FAIRS.—President Taft February 22 sent 
to Congress with a message of approval 
the report of the Commission on Second- 
Class Mail Matter prepared by Associate 
Justice Hughes of the Supreme Court, A. 
Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard, and 
Harry A. Wlieeler. The report in general 
sustains the position of the Post Office 
Department that there should be an in¬ 
crease in the rate for newspapers and mag¬ 
azines. It advocates doubling the present 
rate of one cent a pound, making the rate 
two cents a pound on the bulk of second- 
class matter. As regards the present cost 
of the service the commission finds that the 
expense, exclusive of general charges, is 
about five and one-half cents a pound on 
paid-at-the-pound matter. The commission 
rejects the proposal of Secretarv Hitchcock 
that magazines should pay a higher rate for 
their advertising portions. The President 
praises highly the administration of Sec¬ 
retary Hitchcock, but dissents from his 
recommendation for government ownership 
of telegraph lines. 
COMMERCE COURT.—After hearing an 
exhaustive argument February 24 by Senator 
Poindexter of Washington in advocacy of 
his hill to abolish the Commerce Court, 
the Senate Committee on Interstate Com¬ 
merce fixed March 1 as the date for con¬ 
sidering the advisability of such legislation 
at this session. Considerable sentiment 
in favor of the abolition of the court was 
manifested, but it is believed the Senate 
will await the action of the House before 
taking any definite steps. Several bills 
have been introduced in the House looking 
to the abolishment of the court. Senator 
Poindexter told the committee the Commerce 
Court had exceeded its authority. He read 
from reports of the Interstate Commerce 
Commission to substantiate his charge. It 
was not so much on account of this fiact, 
however, that he insisted upon the abolition 
of the court. He argued against any 
centralized power to deal with such mat¬ 
ters as come before the Commerce Court. 
He said it would inevitably lead to usurpa¬ 
tion of both authority and jurisdiction. 
Senator Townsend of Michigan wanted to 
know if Senator Poindexter favored wiping 
out the court before the United States 
Supreme Court decides whether It has ex¬ 
celled its authority. Senator Poindexter 
declared he favored its immediate abolition 
NOTES ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
Post at, Savings Banks. —Our postal sav¬ 
ings banks began with the organization -of 
one bank in each State and Territory Janu¬ 
ary 3, 1911. The number -of postal banks 
had increased to 400 by June 30, 1911, with 
deposits of nearly $700,000. By January 1 
1912, the number of hanks had reached 
nearly 7,500, with deposits exceeding $11,- 
000.000. All the first and second class post 
offices are postal banks now, and by March 
1 it is expected that all the third class 
post offices will be postal savings depositor¬ 
ies. After that date the system will be ex¬ 
tended to the fourth class post offices, 
40.000 in number, as rapidly as possible, 
and by the close of 1912 if the plans of the 
Postmaster-General are realized every money 
order office in the country will be opened 
for deposits of money. Deposits are coming 
in now at the rate of about a million dollars 
a week. This is a remarkable showing for 
what was started as an “experiment” by 
the postal bank law of June 25, 1910. 
Postal Banks Abroad.— The first postal 
bank system in the world was secured for 
England in 1861 by Mr. Gladstone. Bel¬ 
gium and New Zealand followed in 1865; 
Canada in 1868; Italy and Japan in 1875; 
France in 1881; Austria in 1883; Cape 
Colony and Sweden in 1884; Holland and 
Hungary in 1886; Russia in 1889; Egypt in 
1891 ; the Philippines in 1906; and last of 
all the United States in 1910. The success 
of the postal hank in all these countries 
explains why we needed no “experiment” to 
convince the American people of the need 
and value of a public savings bank. In 
spite of these object lessqns of other na¬ 
tions it took a tremendous pressure on our 
“servants” in Congress to enact into law 
this much needed legislation. Farmers and 
laborers for years have advocated postal 
banks without results. Fostmaster-General 
Wanamaker nearly a quarter of a century 
ago strongly recommended postal banks in 
his Teports to Congress, lie sent letters 
of inquiry to the postal departments of 
the European powers, and the answers 
stated “the postal hanking system reached 
the rural communities wncre other hanks 
did not supply the need ; that postal banks 
were universally popular; that there was 
no opposition to them from the private 
banks as they did not reach the same class 
of customers.” 
But all of this information had no effect 
upon our Congress. Was it because of any 
lack of interest in the question on the 
part of the farmers and laborers? Or was 
there some other reason for onr waiting for 
a half century after England adopted the 
postal bank before we tried the “experi¬ 
ment?” Those who understand the situa¬ 
tion know that the opposition came from 
our banking interests. For half a century 
they prevented the passing of any law that 
would, as they believed, decrease tlicir busi¬ 
ness. They held hack the enactment of the 
law till the common people made a demand 
that could not be refused by Congress, and 
then the banking interests were powerful 
enough to have written into the law certain 
provisions that have made the law peculiar¬ 
ly to their advantage, and now they are 
more than anxious that the system shall 
be extended as rapidly as possible. 
Tiib Postal Bank Law.— The postal 
bank law provides that the deposits shall 
be turned over to private banks at a rate 
of interest of not less than two and one- 
quarter per cent per annum, the rate of 
interest to be uniform throughout the 
United States. This means that hanks in 
all parts of the country get this money from 
the Government at just 2% per cent. Banks 
will not compete for it, as there is no com¬ 
petition .in the banking business when it 
comes to a matter of this kind. The Gov¬ 
ernment pays the depositors two per cent 
per annum and it is probably safe to say 
that it will cost the Government all the 
difference between those two rates of inter¬ 
est to pay the actual expense of handling 
the business. There will be no profit to 
Uncle Samuel. But there will be a profit 
to the private banks. All of this money 
will be theirs at 2(4 per cent without ex¬ 
pense of clerk hire to collect it. They will 
turn around and loan it out to their cus¬ 
tomers at six, eight or 10 per cent, or in 
some cases on short time loans at 25 per 
cent interest. Anyone familiar with loans 
knows the rates charged. Suppose as an ex¬ 
ample a note of $25 is shaved at the bank. 
The note was drawn for seven per cent. 
9 he interest is taken out in advance and 
a fee charged often that makes the actual 
interest 25 per cent. The banks no longer 
oppose the postal hank now and it Is plain 
to see why we hear no more of it as an 
“experiment.” 
Postal Banks in New Zealand. —It may 
be of interest to study the methods -of this 
progressive people and learn how they man¬ 
age their postal banks. Instead of turning 
the money received in their postal banks 
over to private banks, to be in turn reloaned 
by them, the money is loaned direct try their 
Government to its citizens at low rates of 
interest on long time, or Is used in building 
public works. There are two classes of 
loans to citizens. There is the long-time 
loan on real estate at 4% per cent interest 
for 36 y-i years. Payment for the loan is to 
be made semi-annually in 73 payments of 
equal amount. Think what that would 
mean to our farmers and laboring men in 
buying and paying for a home. There is no 
huge fee in securing the loan, as has often 
been the case in this country. The value 
of the property is already known from its 
assessed value on the tax rolls. If a prop¬ 
erty is assessed too high in the estimation 
of its owner, and is reduced at his request, 
his estimate is the basis for any loan he 
may desire from the Government. This 
tends to a fair assessment of real estate. It 
is an automatic valuation of property. Every 
man is willing, yes anxious, to pay his just 
tax. Would that were always true in the 
United States! Another kind of loan is the 
short-time loan of 10 years at the rate of 
4 Vt per cent interest payable semi-annually, 
and the principal payable in a lump sum 
at the end of the 10 years. Again the Gov¬ 
ernment sells its lands on long time with no 
payment down and aids in the building of 
the home. It also leases its lands on what 
is termed perpetual leases. Before these 
laws were put into operation, farmers and 
laborers were paying as high as 10 per cent 
on mortgages. Now private banks charge 
no more than the government. Were such 
a law in force In this country it would 
mean a saving in annual Interest charges 
of something near a billion dollars. It 
would mean much in the problem of the 
high cost of living. 
Public Works in New Zealand. —Part 
of the money deposited in the savings bank* 
is used by the Government in purchasing 
lands for division and sale to settlers, in 
building highways, in construction and 
operation of railroads, telegraphs, tele¬ 
phones, operating a parcels post system, 
and in other public works. The welfare 
of all is the motto of New Zealand, Instead 
of the building up of great fortunes on one 
hand and struggling poverty for others. The 
farmers and laborers are in control in the 
law-making bodies of their country. In this 
country we fill our Congress with lawyers 
and wonder why we get nowhere in so many 
matters in which the common man is inter¬ 
ested. When we get wise enough, to vote 
right we will get what we want. 
The postal savings bank should be patron¬ 
ized as soon and to as full an extent as 
possible by people of small means. It is 
not all we would like in the way of relief 
but it will help. Anyone over 3 0 years may 
open an account. Not over $100 can be 
deposited in any month, and the limit any 
person may have to their credit is $500. 
One cannot use the account as a checking 
account, hut it is a safe place for your 
money. The faith of the United States is 
solemnly pledged to the payment of the de¬ 
posits. One can draw any part or all of 
lus deposits at any time. After opening 
an account in person one may make other 
deposits by mail or by some, representative. 
The strongest feature of the postal bank i* 
its security. Millions of dollars have been 
lost in private banks, often taking the entire 
savings of a lifetime, leaving an individual 
without a dollar in the world and not able 
to earn a dollar. Sometimes a widow has 
lost even all the life insurance loft by her 
husband and has small children to support. 
Usually it is the people of small mean* 
that are the worst victims of bank failure*. 
By all means take advantage of the postal 
savings bank. Postal banks are absolutely 
safe. There are deposits of over a billion 
dollars in government postal savings bank* 
scattered all over the world and no de¬ 
positor has ever lost a dollar in the 50 
years of the history of postal banks. 
Sherwood Pension Bill.— The Sherwood 
I )ollar-a-Da,y” pension bill passed the House 
of Representatives in Congress early in last 
December. Its friends hoped it would pass 
the Senate and be signed by the President 
in time for its being given to the old sol¬ 
diers as a Christmas present. Instead it 
has been buried by the Senate Committee 
on pensions. The Sherwood bill would call 
for about $75,000,000 annually and as the 
President is talking economy it would not 
do to pass such a bill in the Senate and 
embarrass the President with the necessity 
of signing or rejecting the hill. Therefore 
the Senate committee on pensions is consid¬ 
ering several pension bills, none of which 
Will carry more than half the appropria¬ 
tion called for in the Sherwood bill. The 
Senate is taking plenty of time, but will 
doubtless do something for the old soldier 
if it appears that the old soldier vote will be 
necessary. Both parties are playing politics 
these days, and what they do is colored 
somewhat by its effect on the coming cam¬ 
paign and election. 
Initiative and Referendum.— One of the 
most important decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States handed down in 
years is that on the initiative and referen¬ 
dum of a few days ago. The case came up 
on appeal from the State of Oregon. A 
private corporation resisted the payment 
of a corporation tax on the ground that 
the law was enacted by the referendum and 
initiative rather than by enactment of the 
Legislature. The claim was that the Oregon 
law made that State a pure democracy and 
not a republican form of government. The 
Supreme Court by a unanimous decision de¬ 
ckled that the question was purely a matter 
of political expediency, and therefore out¬ 
side the realms of interference of the courts. 
This decision will give a great impetus to 
the extension of direct legislation in all the 
States off the Union and eventually there 
will be a national law covering the initia¬ 
tive, referendum and recall. Then it would 
not take half a century to secure a postal 
savings hank law. Then we could settle the 
tariff question and all the great problems 
in a small fraction of the time it now 
takes. In truth we are making progress. 
F. N. CLARK. 
THE RECENT STURM. 
Our recent storm was a “hummer,” It 
came along after several days of nice 
weather, and royally made up for the pre¬ 
ceding sunshine It began Tuesday night, 
February 20, a little after dark; a cold wind 
sprang up from the east and grow ill rapid¬ 
ity as the night wore on. driving the snow, 
sleet and rain before it in a veritable ha¬ 
zard. The snow was soon succeeded by me 
elect which heavily covered everything and 
Which in conection with the high wind 
caused the extensive damage to fruit and 
shade trees and telephone Uni's. At day¬ 
light the wind fell, a fog overspread the 
landscape, the rain ceased, and the tempera¬ 
ture ran up several degrees. The barometer 
was very low-, another fact indicating, in 
connection with the lull in the storm, that 
the storm center was about over us (south¬ 
western Ohio). As a matter of fact it was 
then over southern Indiana, as the weather 
map later showed us. The real danger 
would come when the storm center should 
pass us and give us high west and north¬ 
west winds so certain to be verv rapid, and 
destructive, with all the sleet on the trees 
Fortunately the ice was loosened by the 
rising temperature and when the west winds 
struck about noon the trees were bare of ice. 
The wind came in driving gusts filled with 
rain, hail and finally snow as the wind Jator 
shifted to the northwest, all the time in¬ 
creasing its speed, probably to 50 or 60 
miles per hour at times, bringing with it 
much colder weather Wednesday night. This 
wind continued 36 hours with snow flurries 
on Thursday. There was no extensive area 
of high baromotel’ following this unusual 
storm so we did not get a cold wave but the 
storm was enough without zero temperature, 
It is an unusual experience for us here for 
the storm centers or “lows” to pass cen¬ 
trally over us as this one did. as their usual 
path is much to the northwest of Ohio. 
When the storms have much intensity, as 
the recent one did. the experience is not 
particularly pleasant. w. e. duckwall. 
Ohio. 
Western Pennsylvania Is having a very 
severe Winter, the thermometer falling to 
zero for days in succession and once to 
25 degrees below. Outdoor farm work Is 
almost suspended, but we are continuing 
the orchard work. The trees are well cov¬ 
ered with fruit buds. We have had a great 
deal of sleighing. Timothy and clover seed 
are higher than ever before, $8 and $13 
respectively. j. c . M- j 
New Wilmington, Pa. 
Onr Pennsylvania Institutes have been 
very well attended, and the interest Is the 
best. Fruit growing, soli improvement, 
dairying and good roads seem to be pet 
themes; also there is renewed interest In 
Alfalfa growing, which is becoming quite 
general over our State. L. h. w. 
We have had wonderfully cold weather 
this Winter, in fact, the “oh i tshioned" 
kind that we hear about but t t most of 
us have never seen before. Vf f of our 
peach growers report their hue 'ed. hut 
occasionally we strike one with llarl.v 
good elevation who thinks ths fruit 
is still safe. I do not think any damage 
has been done to the apples. e. J. t. 
Adams Co., Pa. 
