1912. 
405 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
Why do you not tell us more about the 
E. G. Lewis trial and of the Washington in¬ 
vestigation? VICTIM. 
Pennsylvania. 
Probably not more than three or four 
to the thousand of our people are di¬ 
rectly interested in the details of the 
Lewis cases, except as showing methods 
by which people are led to part with 
their money, and this with the moral 
feature has already been covered, and 
the principal purpose attained. Our 
people are not in further danger. To 
report the details of these trials and 
hearings would fill The R. N.-Y. for 
months without anything else, and it 
only repeats much of the information al¬ 
ready published by us. 
In the criminal trial last week F. V. 
Putnam, a former treasurer of Lewis 
concerns, and A. D. Radert, an account¬ 
ant who examined the Lewis books, tes¬ 
tified that the Lewis Publishing Co. was 
losing money and insolvent when notes 
and stocks were being sold to readers 
of the papers. Mr. Radert testified that 
the company lost during the years 1908, 
1909 and 1910 an average of $33,211.03 
per month, and for the three years $1,- 
195.597.19. During this time it was ad¬ 
vertised as one of the largest and most 
profitable publishing houses in the world, 
and the notes described as a first-class 
secured investiment. A 15-per cent divi¬ 
dend was declared in 1909 on preferred 
stock, and 2 l / 2 per cent actually paid. As 
the people who bought the stock then 
were to get the 15 per cent dividend, 
some people were induced to buy the 
stock. Advertisements were read to 
show that Lewis promised that the seven 
per cent notes could not be issued in 
excess of $450,000 on one building or 
$150,000 on the other or $600,000 in all. 
Mr. Radert testified not only that notes 
in excess of these figures were issued in 
both cases, but that two series of un¬ 
secured notes, known as A and B, were 
also issued and sold to the amount of 
over $600,000, making a total of $1,500,- 
643.19. Many of the people who got 
these unsecured notes thought they were 
getting secured notes. Putnam testified 
that he told Lewis at the time that he 
thought $600,000 too much for the prop¬ 
erty ; but nearly double this amount 
of notes were issued. 
The first victim to testify was A. 
Russell, Clinton, la., 84 years old. He 
sent Lewis $14,000; of this $12,000 was 
for seven per cent notes of the Pub. 
Co. When the notes matured he sent 
them in and got the unsecured notes in 
place of them. He thought he was get¬ 
ting secured notes. Other witnesses who 
lost money through the Lewis schemes 
testified as to their experience. They 
thought they were getting secured notes, 
but found later that the notes were un¬ 
secured, and failed in their efforts to 
get the money back. Mrs. A. D. Tyler, 
70 years old, of Osseo, Mich., told of 
her former faith in Lewis, and the send¬ 
ing of $200. When sickness came she 
pleaded to get it back, but never got it. 
She received a letter asking her to send 
in the note and state whether she wanted 
bank stock or cash. She said cash, and 
got an interim receipt. For three years 
she tried to get her money, but failed. 
The note was found marked paid. The 
judge, after carefully reading the ad¬ 
vertisements, ruled that they were am¬ 
biguous, and could be interpreted two 
ways as to the notes. This was taken 
as a strong point for the Government. 
It has been charged that much of the 
Lewis literature was cunningly prepared 
to appear to say what it really did not 
express. It is reported that 75 witnesses 
from all over the country are in St. 
Louis to testify of their losses. The trial 
will probably take a month. 
The Receiver Cases. 
In the meantime Judge McPherson 
has entered final decrees in the fore¬ 
closure and bankruptcy cases, and the 
property is ordered to be sold and the 
proceeds distributed to the creditors. 
Three competent appraisers have been 
appointed by the court to appraise the 
property under oath. This includes any 
property held by E. G. Lewis, his wife, 
his brother and the Art Museum So¬ 
ciety. The special master, Walter D. 
Coles, will send out notices to all credi¬ 
tors indicating when claims must be in 
for allowance. Creditors who request it 
will have blanks sent them to prive the 
claim in proper form. This will save the 
expense of an attorney. John D. Will¬ 
iams has at last abandoned his pretense 
at reorganization. He makes a state- 
THE KUKAb 
ment in which he is reported as saying 
that secured note holders of the Publish¬ 
ing Co. and of the real estate company 
will probably receive about 50 per cent 
of the money paid for them, and stock¬ 
holders of the bank a little more, except 
notes secured on Section 4, which had a 
prior mortgage, and the country cred¬ 
itors held notes against a second mort¬ 
gage. It is doubtful if these notes have 
any value. Other stockholders, note¬ 
holders and general creditors to get 
nothing. The report of the court ap¬ 
praisers will be more definite. All 
Mr. Williams can do now is to 
draw a commission from creditors who 
realize on their claims through the 
receiver. If he were working for the in¬ 
terest of these creditors, as he alleges, 
he would go home. These notes are 
simple claims, and the creditors can col¬ 
lect the money on them direct from the 
receiver and save the commission to Mr. 
Williams. He can do nothing for these 
creditors that cannot be better and safer 
done by the officers of the court. 
It has been a sad waste of hard 
earned money. The publishing company 
alone is in debt $2,123,329.17. Add to 
this $3,500,000 for stock, the greater part 
of which went for debts, and we have a 
total of nearly six millions. Not a 
single one of the concerns was solvent 
when we attempted to collect the claims 
sent us. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Under instructions from 
Superior Judge William P. Lawler the jury 
in thet rial of ex-Mayor Eugene S. Schmitz 
at San Francisco returned a verdict of not 
guilty March 5. Under Supreme Court in¬ 
structions Judge Lawler must dismiss all 
of the indictments against all of the de¬ 
fendants in the so-called gas and other 
cases. Judge Lawler declared that there 
was no evidence at the trial to connect the 
defendant with the crime of bribery, with 
which he was charged ; that even if Abra : 
ham Reuf had testified, there could still 
be no evidence, and under the law as inter¬ 
preted by the Supreme Court of the State, 
even if a jury should return a verdict of 
guilty he would be forced to sot it aside. 
This ends the graft cases. There are still 
pending many indictments in Judge Dunn’s 
court, but these will be dismissed. 
The Senate Codes Committee at Albany 
voted March 6 to report the Griffin bill pro¬ 
hibiting real estate and other investment 
concerns from issuing profit sharing bonds 
to a greater amount than 80 per cent of 
their equity in the reftl estate, of 80 per 
cent of their net assets. Such concerns 
would be placed under the supervision of 
the State Banking Department should the 
bill become a law. 
March 5, at the Congressional inquiry into 
conditions at Lawrence, Mass., C. F. Lynch, 
Commissioner of Public Safety, of Lawrence, 
took the stand and began testimony seeking 
to justify the course of the authorities. He 
asserted that the testimony previously given 
and the published accounts of the strike 
conditions had been "exaggerated.” Sev¬ 
eral witnesses testified as to the condition 
of children sent to New York by their par¬ 
ents for care during the strike. One trained 
nurse who took charge of 119 children tes¬ 
tified that all were in need of food, several 
were sick, most of them in rags, and only 
four out of the 119 had any underclothing, 
though it was bitter! cold. 
The wane of the sailing vessel on the 
high seas was illustrated recently when the 
Philadelphia Vessel Owners’ and Captains’ 
Association went out of existence, after 39 
years of activity. The directors of the As¬ 
sociation, in recent years extensive owners 
of sail-tonnage, find that their vessels have 
nearly all been lost in the last few years; 
and as those that remain are few in number, 
there is no further need for the Association. 
Members said that no better evidence of 
their losses was procurable than the work 
of this Winter’s gale in the stretch of At¬ 
lantic Coast from Cape Hatteras to Cape 
Cod. They said that the property de¬ 
stroyed in this short stretch alone in the 
last three months had amounted to $6,000,- 
000. The opening of the Panama Canal 
will take away all of the. business of the 
sailing vessels which have been rounding 
Cape Horn. Because of the scarcity of 
schooners, the demand for sailing tonnage 
is greater to-day than at any time in the 
last 25 years. Freights on coal March 6 
- were $1.40 a ton to Boston and $1.50 to 
Portland, Me., a higher rate than has been 
paid in years. 
The- trial of George Graham Rice, Ber¬ 
nard H. Scheftels and the other members 
of the brokerage firm of B. II. Scheftels & 
Co., charged with using the mails to de¬ 
fraud in the sale of Ely Central Copper and 
other mining stocks, had lasted more than 
four months when it came to a sudden ter¬ 
mination at New York, March 7. Rice 
and Scheftels pleaded guilty and the four 
other defendants weer discharged. 'Judge 
Ray sentenced Rice to serve a year in the 
penitentiary on Blackwell’s Island and sus¬ 
pended sentence on Scheftels. Rice will 
have to serve only between seven and eight 
months, for Judge Ray arranged that he 
should be credited with the two months 
or more that he has already served in the 
Tombs since his arrest following the jury 
bribing disclosures. In addition Rice will 
get five days off each month of his sentence 
for good behavior. 
The Constitutional Convention at Colum¬ 
bus, O., March 7, adopted a proposal to 
permit women to participate in all elections. 
This proposal will be submitted to the men 
voters. Of the 109 delegates voting, 76 east 
ballots for equal suffrage. There are 119 
delegates in the convention. 
James McGrane of MeDougall, New York, 
claims the distinction of being the first man 
to cross Seneca Lake with a traction en¬ 
gine. McGrane moved his engine, separator 
and clover cutter from MeDougall to the 
NEW-YORKER 
home of James Laffey, north of Geneva. 
The engine, which weighs seven tons, made 
no impression on the ice, according to Mc¬ 
Grane. 
Complete returns from election for Mayor 
at Seattle, Wash., March 6, give George 
F. Cotterill 31,655 and Hiram C. Gill 31,010, 
a majority for Cotterill of 645. All Social¬ 
ist candidates were defeated. Cotterill, the 
Mayor-elect, is widely known as the national 
head of the Independent Order of Good 
Templars. He also has national prominence 
as a prohibition speaker. When the cam¬ 
paign following the primaries of February 
20 was begun no practical politician 
thought that Cotterill had a chance to win 
owing to his views in favor of single tax, 
municipal ownership and prohibition. How¬ 
ever, the fight became a repetition of that 
of last year, when Gill was recalled from 
the office of Mayor by the votes of the 
newly enfranchised women. The women 
and the churches took an active part assert¬ 
ing that Gill’s election would mean the 
restoration of the gambling and vice dis¬ 
trict. The single tax amendment to the 
charter was beaten. 
Cattlemen are heavy losers by a Blizzard 
that swept the Oklahoma Panhandle March 
6-7. It is said that 40 per cent of the live 
stock men will be hard hit by the storm. 
The cattle drifted with the storm until 
stopped by fences or other obstructions and 
then were snowed under and died. Thirty 
cattle were found dead in one snowdrift, 
and 30 under another. Fourteen colts were 
lost by one rancher, and whole herds are 
reported missing and probably have met a 
like fate. - It is said that in Oklahoma the 
soil is in the best condition since the 
Spring of 1909, and although there is a 
slight deficiency for the year, wheat, barley 
and other early crops are certain to be as 
good as normal. 
Representative Sulzer has introduced a 
bill into Congress to make all apples sold 
in the District of Columbia conform to a 
standard. An apple barrel by his bill must 
have a capacity of not less than 7.056 cubic 
inches, and apples would be divided into 
three classes—A, B and C. lie proposes 
that any fruit of the first class must not 
be less than 2% inches in diameter, must 
be of normal shape and not specked, in¬ 
sect bitten or worm eaten. Every dealer 
there would have to label his apple barrels 
United States standard or be fined $1 for 
each barrel. 
Seven are dead and 13 injured as a re¬ 
sult of a fire which gutted the plant of the 
Radford Sash and Door Factory at Winni¬ 
peg, Manitoba, March 10. The fire itself 
was a trivial one at the start and was being 
successfully handled by an engine company 
with one stream of water until several 
barrels of naphtha exploded, wrecking the 
building and spreading the fire in all di¬ 
rections. The work of rescue was made 
doubly dangerous by the dozens of live 
wires which were sizzling in the pools of 
water and charging them with electricity. 
A number of firemen had to be removed to 
the hospital on this account. After the ex¬ 
plosion the blaze was a most spectacular 
one, illuminating a large portion of the 
city and spreading rapidly to blocks on each 
side. The loss is figured at $150,000, in¬ 
sured. 
Six men died in a fire that charred the 
Barnett House, a 10 and 15 cent lodging 
house at Clark and Harrison streets, Chi¬ 
cago, and the Salvation Army Hotel, known 
as the Evangeline, adjoining it, March 9. 
An investigation by the building inspector 
and the coroner disclosed an alleged viola¬ 
tion of fire regulations and an inquiry has 
been ordered. When the firemen arrived the 
stairways in the buildings were choked with 
men trying to fight their way to the street. 
The property loss was comparatively slight, 
the deaths being due to smoke. 
The “Cardiff Giant,” a stone image pur¬ 
ported to be a petrified human being of 
great stature, unearthed at Cardiff, N. Y., 
in 1864, and exploited by the late Calvin O. 
Bott until it was discovered to be a fake, 
will figure in court to settle litigation 
brought by Mrs. Frances Lawrence, of 
Fitchburg, Mass. Mrs. Lawrence, adminis¬ 
tratrix of the estate of her husband, Sum¬ 
ner Lawrence, claims that $893 is due to 
her for the storage and care of the “giant.” 
In her declaration she admits that the 
"giant” has been in possession of the fam¬ 
ily since 1867, and that the owners agreed 
to pay $40 a year for its care. The statue, 
she avers, was taken away in 1901, and at 
that time $500 was paid on the account of 
$1,000 due. 
New York authorities recently caused the 
arrest in this city of Elmer E. Good, a 
Buffalo lawyer, and John II. Fonda, of 253 
West 13th street, on Federal indictments 
charging use of the mails to defraud. Both 
men have pleaded not guilty and are now 
out on bail. Fonda is president and Good 
is alleged in the indictment to be counsel 
of the “Union Association of Heirs of 
Anneke Jans Bogardus, Edwards and Web¬ 
ber Estates,” a New York corporation. The 
indictments charge that the association has 
been representing to persons through the 
mails that they were entitled to valuable 
parcels of land in this city of which they 
were being deprived. The supposed Anneke 
Jans heirs were assured that Trinity Cor¬ 
poration has a large block of land in the 
heart of the city that is rightfully theirs. 
The indictment also charged that the united 
association of heirs has been falsely rep¬ 
resenting to various persons that the heirs 
of “one Edwards, one Webber and one 
Delamater” had been deprived unlawfully 
of possession of land on Manhattan Island, 
and that as a part of the alleged fraudulent 
scheme the defendants were causing actions 
to be commenced in the New York courts 
which should be noticed for trial and put 
on the calendar of the courts for trial. It 
was alleged as part of the scheme that 
the “trial of said actions should be deferred 
and delayed as long as possible, and that 
when said actions should be actually 
reached for trial the same should be dis¬ 
missed by the courts” for failure to prose¬ 
cute. The indictments charge that the de¬ 
fendants have been obtaining money from 
many persons, chiefly living at great dis¬ 
tances from New York for the pretended 
purpose of carrying on the litigation for 
the purpose of recovering these alleged 
valuable tracts of Manhattan real estate 
for the rightful owners. The Anneke Jans 
heirship has been a jest in New York for 
more than half a century except to the 
dupes who put up money to pay attorneys. 
Since 1847 the courts have not given the 
claimants the slightest encouragement. 
A special Canadian Government commis¬ 
sion lias ordered that the whole town of 
Frank, in Alberta, be moved as a protec¬ 
tion against rock and snow slides. There 
are 3.000 inhabitants. Nine years ago in 
a slide there 84 lives were lost. For several 
days previous to March 11 rock and snow 
had been tumbling down the side of Turtle 
Mountain, at the base of which the town of 
Frank is situated. 
March 12 there were 14 inches of snow 
at Kansas City, Mo., more than ever be¬ 
fore in the record of the weather in Kan¬ 
sas City, except on February 11, 1894, when 
the snow was 15 inches deep. This storm 
was the thirty-eighth snowfall this Winter. 
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad 
was the one railroad operating trains 
through the West, as the Union Pacific, the 
Missouri Pacific and Rock Island roads were 
tied up by drifts. D. C. Stelson, of Pueblo, 
Col., and his bride, who were married at 
Lincoln on March 9, rode to Salina, Kan., 
March 12 on a snow plow, there being no 
train on which they could make the trip. 
Prosecution of the sugar trust under the 
Sherman act began in New York March 12. 
In his opening address to the jury in the 
Federal District Court Henry A. Wise, 
United States Attorney, left no doubt that 
the Government in the prosecution of the 
five sugar men now on trial before Judge 
Hand would lay particular stress upon the 
activity of John E. Parsons, the aged for¬ 
mer counsel for the American Sugar Re¬ 
fining Company, in the alleged conspiracy 
that led to the closing of the Philadelphia 
plant of the Pennsylvania Sugar Refining 
Company. Mr. Parsons knew that the loan 
of the American Sugar Refining Company 
to Segal on condition that it secure to the 
corporation control of the Pennsylvania 
Sugar Refining Company would defraud the 
minority stockholders of the Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Wise said, because he refused at first 
to sanction the transaction unless those 
minority holders consented, though he 
changed his mind when he was told that 
he could deal with the voting trust certifi¬ 
cates, a majority of which could be ob¬ 
tained. 
THE ARBITRATION TREATIES.—Presi¬ 
dent TafFs programme for general arbitra¬ 
tion treaties with Great Britain and France 
and for the promotion of world-wide peace 
was killed by the Senate March 7. By a 
vote of 42 to 40 the Senate eliminated from 
the pending treaties with France and Eng¬ 
land the vital paragraph relating to the 
joint high commission and otherwise cur¬ 
tailed their scope. Advisers of the ad¬ 
ministration acknowledged that the treaties 
are dead and that they probably never will 
be submitted in their present mangled fornt 
to France and England for ratification. Not 
only this, but negotiations that were al-. 
ready under way for similar treaties with 
Germany, Switzerland, Japan and possibly 
one or two other countries are knocked in 
the head as the result of the action of the 
Senate. President Taft’s arbitration plans 
have in fact met with defeat and the Sen¬ 
ate has sustained the views advanced by 
Theodore Roosevelt on this proposition. The 
clause eliminated by the Senate is the one 
that has stirred up all the controversy in 
regard to the treaties. Under it the con¬ 
tracting parties were bound to submit to 
a joint high commission composed of rep¬ 
resentatives of the two countries all dis¬ 
putes on which they could not agree as to 
their being arbitrable. The contracting 
parties were bound further under this 
clause to accept the decision of this joint 
commission as to the arbitrability of any 
question and forthwith to submit it to ar¬ 
bitration. Many members of the Senate 
contended that this clause bound the United 
States to submit to arbitration questions 
involving the Monroe Doctrine, the ad¬ 
mission of aliens to this country and other 
questions of vital interest and national 
honor. In this contention members of the 
Senate were supported by Col. Roosevelt. 
President Taft and Secretary Knox declared 
that the United States would not be bound 
to arbitrate such questions and that the 
Senate would not surrender any of its 
treaty making prerogative in ratifying this 
clause. 
The newly organized Connecticut Aspara¬ 
gus Growers’ Association met at Hartford 
March 15. The principal address was given 
by Chas. W. Prescott, of Concord, Mass., 
one of the largest asparagus growers in 
that State and president of the Massachu¬ 
setts Association. The secretary and treas¬ 
urer is Chas. R. Risley, Silver Lane, East 
Hartford, Connecticut. 
OBITUARY.—Dr. John Bernhardt Smith, 
New Jersey State Entomologist and ento¬ 
mologist of the New Jersey Experiment Sta¬ 
tion. died at New Brunswick, March 13. Dr. 
Smith was born in New Y r ork, November 
21, 1858, was educated in the common 
schools of New York and Brooklyn, studied 
law, and was admitted to the bar in New 
York in 1879. He became a special agent 
of the Division of Entomology, U. S De¬ 
partment of Agriculture, in 1884; was as¬ 
sistant curator of the U. S. National Mu¬ 
seum in 1886, and became State Entomolo¬ 
gist of New Jersey in 1898. He was a 
member of many scientific societies, and 
a prolific writer, contributing to many 
scientific publications, and was the author 
of several books, among them “Economic 
Entomology,” and “Our Insect Friends and 
Enemies,” are perhaps most widely known. 
Dr. Smith possessed a genial and forceful 
personality, and a knaick o)f conveying 
knowledge vividly either in the written or 
the spoken word, which rendered him pecul¬ 
iarly useful in his chosen field. 
I have not attended many sales this Win¬ 
ter, but will tell you as near as I can the 
prices of farm produce. Good work horses, 
$100 to $150; good milch cows, $45 to 
$100; hogs, 5% to six cents; sheep, $5 to 
$8 per head; hay, $12 to $18 per ton. 
Silage not sold. Manure, 25 cents a load. 
Milk, $1 to $1.50 per 100 according to test. 
Barley, $1 to $1.25 per bushel; oats, 47 to 
50 cents per bushel; wheat, 90 cents per 
bushel; rye, 85 cents per bushel; corn, 55 
to 60 cents per bushel; potatoes, $1 per 
bushel; eggs, 25 cents per dozen. 
Gratiot, Wis. j. b. d. 
