1912. 
THE RURA.I> NEW-YORKER 
647 
LARGE PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
[Editor’s Note.—U nder this heading we intend to 
have discussed questions which particularly interest 
country people. We do not agree with all that our 
correspondents say, but we shall give men and women 
who possess the courage of conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think about certain things which interest 
country people]. 
A number of Eastern readers have asked 
why Senator Jonathan Bourne of Oregon 
was not sent back to the Senate. Mr. 
Bourne is one -of the most progressive Re¬ 
publicans at Washington, and it was sup¬ 
posed that Oregon would be only too glad 
to return rather than recall such a man. 
It is not easy to understand conditions 
on the Pacific coast, but wo wrote some 
of our readers for opinions. Ilei’e ai’e fair 
samples of replies. We want to know all 
about these things, for it seems likely that 
in the future Senators are to be elected 
or at least named by popular vote. Wo 
wish to get away from the politician d 
learn what the plain voters think. 
The Personality of the Candidate. 
Mr. Bourne undoubtedly is a man of 
marked ability and great influence in the 
Senate. He had been honored by excep¬ 
tional positions on the committees and lias 
secured a great deal of beneficial legislation 
for this State, and it seemed very desir¬ 
able to return him to the Senate. But. on 
the other hand, he has a past record here 
that never came to light iu his Senatorial 
campaign, as the papers have always re¬ 
frained from mentioning his personal affairs. 
But so many remenber him as a man 
about town and a general all-round sport 
in the early days that they feared a refor¬ 
mation had not been entirely completed, 
lie is a spender, extravagant in his habits, 
haughty and hard to approach. He has 
spent very little of his time in Oregon, 
preferring to travel around with apparently 
a more congenial crowd. 
Mr. Selling, who was nominated, has been so 
prominently identified with Oregon for many 
years that he has won a host of friends. 
Scarcely a charitable organization but what 
has felt the benefit of his kind heart. He is 
the first to respond when trouble comes, is 
very accommodating and will go out of his 
way to do a favor: is a splendid business 
man and has amassed a large fortune. Quiet 
and unassuming and easily approached; the 
lowliest beggar knows that he would meet 
with a kind response from Mr. Selling. • 
There were only two objections to him 
raised during the campaign ; one, his inex¬ 
perience ; the other, that he was a Jew. 
The State formerly had a Jewish Senator 
in the person of Joe Simon, and the race 
prejudice seemed to be strong in the Sen¬ 
ate, and he was unable to accomplish much. 
The people at large have felt the same way 
toward Mr. Selling, but they apparently 
have waived all the prejudice and as he is 
nominated he will undoubtedly be elected. 
From the above argument, it is plain to 
be seen that there is one reason, why Sena¬ 
tor Jonathan Bo'urne was defeated—the per¬ 
sonality of the candidates. c. B. w. 
Portland, Oregon. 
A Combination of Results. 
A good many are asking the question 
“Why did Oregon fail to express its desire 
to have Senator Jonathan Bourne returned 
to Congress?” It cannot be gainsaid that 
he has been an excellent servant of the 
State, has accomplished almost more than 
was expected of him, and by the rule ‘ one 
good term deserves another,” should have 
been the emphatic choice of the people this 
year. But political factors are many, and 
the people are sometimes captious or un¬ 
appreciative. Jonathan Bourne in the days 
of “queer” politics in Oregon played the 
game according to the rules. He was looked 
upon as a political adventurer, and when 
the people decided upon him as their first 
Senator 'under the new plan, his selection 
was accounted proof of the impracticability 
of the system f£s enemies had pointed out. 
Although he has earned another com¬ 
mission. his past history rankled in the 
minds of some and he had no powerful sup¬ 
port in the State. Of the two principal 
papers, the Oregonian (an excellent news¬ 
paper but reactionary in politics) has all 
the time been his keen enemy, and during 
his whole term of office has minimized his 
accomplishments and abused him. The 
Journal, calling itself independent, but 
leaning toward the Democracy and usually 
quite fair, instead of supporting him for 
his championship of the “Oregon system” 
as it should, has damned him with faint 
praise. Now realize how Oregon with the 
rest of the West, felt about the Payne- 
Aldrich tariff and that it could hardly for¬ 
give Bourne for his vote favoring it_; then 
take account of the fact that he did not 
return to Oregon during the campaign to 
claim his right to another term, a process 
which seems necessary in these days when 
it is expected that the man shall seek the 
office, and it will be seen how easy it was 
for him to lose out. Notwithstanding the 
result, as a whole. Multnomah County 
(Portland) returned him a good-sized 
plurality, in spite of the fact that his prin¬ 
cipal rival, Ben Selling, is a popular mer¬ 
chant in Portland. It should be added 
that by his philanthropy and public spirit 
Mr. Selling has become well known and 
popular and this is what counted rather 
than any fitness he may develop to repre¬ 
sent this State in the United States Senate. 
Oregon. c. F. B. 
He Did Not “Mix” Enough. 
Senator Jonathan Bourne is a good man, 
deservedly popular in western Oregon, and 
should have succeeded himself as the next 
Senator from this State, his record un¬ 
tarnished by graft, and his patriotism un¬ 
doubted." his broad grasp of the growing 
needs of an advancing civilization and his 
intense love of justive among all people 
constitute him a progressive of high order. 
Then why was his candidacy not sustained 
by the average voter at the primary 
April 19? 
The highest success in agriculture—the 
harvest test—is not attained by thorough 
preparation of the soil, the adaptation of 
seed to both soil and climate, nor to the 
surrounding fence, though these are highly 
important adjuncts, but there must be con¬ 
stant care, eternal vigilance to guard 
against all enemies; even a slight breeze 
which may cause a breach in the fence 
and consequent disaster and failure. Ac¬ 
cording to the press dispatches Senator 
Bourne announced his candidacy, accom¬ 
panied with the statement that he deemed 
it unnecessary to make a personal canvass. 
His field extended over the whole State, 
and eastern Oregon is where defeat over¬ 
took him ; his home, western Oregon, real¬ 
izing his worth, proved loyal. The fence 
problem. When Gov. Chamberlain’s can¬ 
didacy for the Senatorsliip was in embryo 
he delivered a Fourth of July oration at 
Jacksonville, the county seat of Jackson 
County, in which he disturbed no funda¬ 
mental principles of party contention but 
interspersed with shrewd but pleasing 
anecdotes and touching with a masterly 
hand the salient points of the Roosevelt 
administration, neither compromising him¬ 
self or his party. Passing from the ros¬ 
trum to the baseball enclosure opposite. 
+ aking the bat in his hands and holding it 
in position so the pitcher could easily hit 
it, then circling the diamond the inverse 
way to the home plate, he scored a politi¬ 
cal fence. Had Senator Bourne visited 
eastern Oregon, shaken hands with the 
“boys,” saying “You people are my people 
and I am desirous of aiding you in all 
legitimate ways,” he would most probably 
have escaped the “iceberg.” C. v. 
Wanted an Oregon Man. 
The people of Oregon prefer to f rep¬ 
resented in Congress by one of our own 
number. Jonathan Bourne has all his 
financial interests in the New England 
States, and he is working for the interests 
of that part of the country more than this. 
Most of the people from this western coun¬ 
try came from the Eastern States, but this 
is a big country, and when the people get 
here they look at things as they are here. 
When we send a man to Washington we 
want him to do something, and we have 
such a man in Representative W. C. Haw¬ 
ley, who has just been unanimously chosen 
at the primaries for another term. Sena¬ 
tor Jonathan Bourne pays taxes in Oregon 
to the amount of just $2.50. The man Ben 
Selling, whom we have chosen in his place, 
is doing ’ business here among us, and is 
interested in the welfare of the State. He 
is a Jew. and believes in God and is 
pledged to follow the higher law, and this 
cannot be said of the present Senator. 
These are some' of the reasons 1 voted for 
another ipan to take J. Bourne’s place, and 
the results show that others had some rea¬ 
sons for choosing another man. One of the 
strange things is that the western people 
know the East and its people, while the 
people who live in the East do not seem to 
know very much about this great western 
country nor its people. There are some 
pretty wild things being done here in the 
West, but the power to right them is being 
put in the hands of the people, and they 
will be righted in a short time. The peo¬ 
ple of the world are getting better when 
they are compelled to be so; it is coming 
slowly but it is being done. d. f. 
Senator Bourne was defeated principally 
for the following reasons: 
1. His vote on the tariff was indefen¬ 
sible. His best friends cannot and do not 
try to defend his course on this. 
2. His advocacy of the parcels post was 
made the subject of a mistaken campaign 
by the country storekeepers. They made a 
strong body of fighters, and their influence 
was thrown against him in the mistaken 
idea that the parcels post would put them 
out of business. 
3. The old-time gag was used by his op¬ 
ponents to divide the vote. If there had 
been but the two candidates he would have 
won in spite of the other reasons, but two 
other candidates drew enough votes from 
the progressives to elect his fake pro¬ 
gressive opponent. Mr. Selling. The city 
of Portland went strong against Selling, 
showing that it was the farmer vote that 
defeated Bourne. Now they are talking 
Dane, the Democrat, and it is an even 
chance that Oregon will have another 
Democrat in the Senate, as Portland will 
go for Dane even stronger than it did in 
the primaries for Bourne. 
4. Bouime should have come to Oregon 
and explained his actions, as well as to tell 
the people the true status of affairs and 
not leave it to a press that was bought up 
by his opponents, only one paper in Port¬ 
land being outspoken for him. The Ore¬ 
gonian is absolutely discredited in the city, 
but it still has some influence with the old 
timers in the country. In the city it is a 
safe bet to vote the opposite to the way 
the Oregonian advises. n. h. 
At the present writing I can report a 
favorable Winter on young trees, the older 
ones suffering some. I remember one year 
on our 20-acre Elberta block losing 900 
three-vear-old trees. They bloomed out and 
then withered and died. Our setting of 
buds is good—over one-half of them start¬ 
ing. Barring accidents we are looking for 
a good peach crop here. w. w. d. 
Youngstown, N. Y. 
We have been getting something more 
than the 37 cents of the dollar lately out 
of our potatoes, as we received $1.40 per 
bushel at the' grocery in Battle Creek. 
Many tubers froze and many were not 
gathered because of weather conditions last 
Fall, which accounts for the price. We 
picked ours up in the mud but they kept 
well. Most of the farmers in this part of 
Michigan are plowing up all or most of 
their wheat and putting in other crops, as 
what did not freeze is infested with in¬ 
sects. ' G. C. C. 
Climax, Mich. 
We have had a very wet Spring here, 
and are behind with all farm work. Oat 
sowing is two weeks late, and only about 
half the"ground broken for sod. No sod 
was plowed during the Winter, as the 
ground w T as deeply frozen all the time. 
Wheat and grass, owing to frequent rains, 
and warm weather, are growing rapidly, 
and young clover of this year’s seeding is 
In good shape. The soil is too wet to work, 
but man£ farmers are almost ready to plow 
wet and trust to getting the ground worked 
down before clods form, while others are 
in no hurry because they fear that if the 
corn were planted the weeds would take it. 
Hillsboro, O. w. E. d. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Serious disorder occurred 
among striking miners at Luzerne, I’a., May 
8-9. At Minersville a shooting affray oc¬ 
curred between foreign miners and State 
constabulary. Although the State laws 
prohibit unnaturalized residents from own¬ 
ing firearms it is said that every foreigner 
in Minersville is a walking arsenal. The 
rains have swollen all the mountain 
streams and the water is pouring into the 
mines. The interference with the pump¬ 
men and firemen has tied up some of the 
collieries and as a result the mines are 
rapidly filling. 
May 10 thousands of acres of cane in 
Fointe Coupge Parish, La., were inundated 
by the break in the Torras levee. This is 
the third successive calamity that the peo¬ 
ple of the Pointe Coup6e have been com¬ 
pelled to face. First came the boll weevil 
that destroyed the cotton crops. The peo¬ 
ple disheartened, turned to planting cane. 
Then an early frost came last Winter that 
destrev'v tuousands of tons of the cane. 
Now t^c; flood is spread over the entire 
parish. Nothing but ruin will be left in 
its wake. Crops this year cannot be 
planted. Prior to this series of disasters 
Fointe Coup6e, then not under “intensive” 
c Iture. produced 64,000 bales of cotton, 
T.900,000 pounds of sugar and 40,000 bar¬ 
rels of corn, besides large crops of rice and 
truck. A new break flooded Vidalia May 
10, the water being four to six feet deep. 
Acceptance of benefits from a railroad 
relief association is not a bar to suit by a 
railroad employe for injuries under the Fed¬ 
eral employers’ liability law, even though 
the railroad and the employe contract other¬ 
wise, according to a decision May 13 by the 
Supreme Court of the United States. The 
decision was announced by Justice Hughes 
in a suit arising in the District of Colum¬ 
bia. The court held that this doctrine was 
true, although the agreement was made be¬ 
fore the law was passed in 1908. 
Victor Louis Mason, an American iden¬ 
tified with extensive mining interests and 
at one time private secretary to the Ameri¬ 
can Secretary of War General R. A. Algor, 
and to his successor, Elihu Root, was killed 
May 13 while making a flight at Brook- 
lands. the English aviation park, with the 
English aviator, E. V. Fisher. Fisher also 
was killed by being pitched out of the ma¬ 
chine when at a height of about 150 feet. 
Fisher was about to give an exhibition and 
picked Mr. Mason as a passenger from 
among the spectators. They circled the 
track once, when, eye witnesses say, the ma¬ 
chine, which was a monoplane, made an 
abrupt turn. It wavered a moment and 
then fell straight to the earth. The sudden 
stoppage in the air threw Fisher headlong 
from his seat. Mason was pinned beneath 
the wreckage, which caught fire, and lie was 
badly burned before being extricated. Phy¬ 
sicians state that both men died almost 
immediately. 
Warren B. Wheeler and Stillman Shaw, 
of Wheeler & Shaw, Inc., and G. Alden 
Whitemore, a clerk, were indicted by the 
Federal grand jury at Boston, Mass., May 
14, on the charge of using the mails in a 
scheme to defraud in connection with the 
sale of stocks of the North American Rub¬ 
ber Company. Wheeler & Shaw were the 
fiscal agents of the rubber company. The 
indictment charged that false statements 
were made regarding the cost of manufac¬ 
turing, the selling price and the net profit 
of the rubber company’s product. 
May 13 a cave-in at the 2,000-foot level 
of tlie Norrie mine at Ironwood, Mich., 
entombed 13 men, six of them living. It 
was hoped to recover these men alive; food 
was being supplied through a pipe, and 
every effort being made to dig them out. 
Many yards of broken timbers, rock and 
ore must be lifted out of the passage and 
a new roof built as the diggers go before 
the entombed miners can be rescued. The 
mine is controlled by the Oliver Mining 
Company, subsidiary of the United States 
Steel Corporation. 
Harlon B. Wheeler, secretary and treas¬ 
urer of the American Sheet and Tin Plate 
Company, when asked to produce contracts 
between the American Tin Plate Company 
and many machine manufacturers caused 
a sensation May 14 at the hearing of the 
Steel Trust suit when he said he could 
not do so because those contracts had been 
burned by his order. The contracts which 
Wheeler said were destroyed are those 
which the Government charges were made 
by the American Tin Plate Company and 
the machine makers of the country, by 
which the American company was to get 
all the product and that no independent 
concern was to get any of the machinery. 
James T. McFarland, tin plate manufac¬ 
turer of North Philadelphia, was the first 
witness in the resumption of the suit to 
dissolve the trust, which is being held in 
the Customs House, New York, before 
Henry P. Brown, a special examiner ap¬ 
pointed by the Government. He testified it 
was impossible for himself or any other 
small tin plate maker to buy special 
brands of tin plate after the formation of 
the American company. As a result of 
that condition, McFarland said, many of 
the small dealers had to go out of business. 
He said he could not continue his business 
unless he signer! a contract with the Ameri¬ 
can Tin Plate Company. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Wilson Reed 
bill, which was introduced in the New 
York Assembly March 7. 1912, and passed 
by the Assembly and Senate, has been 
signed by Governor Dix and becomes a 
law, to take effect July 1, 1912. This law 
provides for tests by count instead of 
weight, the latter being the manner of 
testing seed by the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture and State seed an¬ 
alysts, which will require seedsmen doing 
an interstate business to have two tests 
made, one by weight and the other by 
count. 
The thirty-seventh annual convention of 
the American Association of Nurserymen 
will be bold at the Hotel Somerset, Boston, 
Mass., June 12-14. 
A boycott of American agricultural 
machinery is spreading throughout Russia 
as a protest against the recent abrogation 
by Congress of the Treaty of 1832. The 
American Consul General in Moscow. John 
H. Snodgrass, reports that stores which 
supply agricultural machinery to the peas¬ 
ants have already been requested to buy 
no more supplies from the United States. 
A gift of $1,000,000 from Sears, Roe¬ 
buck & Co. in furtherance of the efforts of 
the Council of Grain Exchanges to improve 
crop productions both in quality and quan¬ 
tity was announced May 10. The money is to 
come in two parts, the first amount being 
$100,000. The gift is made without reser¬ 
vation, except that the donation of the 
remainder of the $1,000,000 shall depend 
upon the results shown by the expendi¬ 
ture of the first sum. The crop improve¬ 
ment committee of the Council of Grain 
Exchanges, which is an association of 19 
of the 25 larger exchanges in the country, 
is in direct charge of the work of soil and 
orop improvement. In the plan outlined by 
J. F. C. Merrill, president of the Council, 
the first sum of $100,000 given by the 
Chicago firm is to be used in sending men 
into each of the counties which shall be 
designated to instruct the farmers of these 
counties. 
The Senate Committee on Agriculture 
May 14 ordered favorably reported the bill 
introduced by Senator Smith, of South 
Carolina, to prohibit trading in cotton 
futures except for legitimate purposes. It 
would provide that each grade of cotton 
contracted for must be specified in the 
contract. Under its terms the sellers of 
contracts for future delivery would have 
the option of delivering one grade above 
or one grade below the grade contracted 
for, the difference in price to be the ac¬ 
tual commercial difference on the day pre¬ 
vious to the contract settlement. The bill 
specifically exempts from its operation 
sales made by types of cotton and restricts 
the act to interstate commerce. It would 
penalize interstate transmission by mail, 
telegraph and express of information as to 
illegal future deliveries. 
WASHINGTON.—The United States Com¬ 
merce Court and the Tariff Board will be 
abolished on July 1. if the Senate concurs 
in and the President approves the legisla¬ 
tive appropriation as perfected by the 
House May 9. Backed by all their fol¬ 
lowing and the Republican insurgents, the 
Democratic leaders passed through the 
House one amendment providing for the 
abolishment of the Commerce Court and 
another creating a new agency to take the 
place of the Tariff Board. This latter fore¬ 
shadows a bill abolishing the board. The 
Commerce Court and the Tariff Board are 
two of the most important creations of the 
Taft administration. 
Mrs. Caroline Bartlett Crane, of Kala¬ 
mazoo, Mich., testifying before the Moss 
committee of the House, May 9, reiterated 
her charges of laxity in the Department of 
Agriculture in enforcing the meat inspec¬ 
tion laws. Representative Nelson, who has 
introduced a resolution asking for an in¬ 
vestigation of the Crane charges, asked 
Chairman Moss to hear further witnesses, 
who. he said, would corroborate the state¬ 
ments of Mrs. Crane. Dr. Harvey W. 
Wiley, former chief of the Bureau of 
Chemistry, and pure food expert of the 
Government, paid a high tribute to Mrs. 
Crane and declared her to be one of the 
highest authorities on meats in the world 
It' is Wiley, Secretary of Agriculture Wil¬ 
son charges, who precipitated the present 
imbroglio. Mrs. Crane charged that the 
officials did not make ante-mortem inspec¬ 
tions of cattle as required by the law. This 
negligence, she said, made it possible for 
diseased, tubercular and blood poisoned 
cattle to go to the abattoir. J. W. Bur¬ 
roughs, a former employee of the meat in¬ 
spection service, made sensational charges 
May 13 before the House Committee on 
Expenditures in the Agricultural Depart¬ 
ment, asserting that impure water from the 
Potomac River was used in the Swift & 
Co. packing house at Cumberland, Md., and 
that packing house conditions in Philadel¬ 
phia were “something awful.” He was the 
first witness called by the committee in 
support of the charges against the meat 
inspection service made by Representative 
Nelson, of Wisconsin. While acting as in¬ 
spector at Swift’s establishment at Cum¬ 
berland, Burroughs told the committee, he 
refused to accept a shipment of 22 hogs 
because they did not bear the mark “U. S. 
inspected and passed.” Ho was directed to 
go to Pittsburg, the point of origin, and 
appear against Swift & Co. He said he 
had never been able to “find out what be¬ 
came of that case.” Philadelphia packers. 
Burroughs continued, violated the law 
which required the establishments to be 
opened day and night to Federal inspectors. 
“The legend ‘U. S. inspected and 
passed,’ ” Burroughs declared “docs not 
amount to anything. It has no value as a 
protection to the consumer if it is placed 
on meat as is done under the present sys¬ 
tem.” 
Four-Horse Evener. —Will you ask some 
of your readers for plans for a four-horse 
set of whiffletrees and eveners for a three- 
section Syracuse harrow, also how to 
arrange lines for a four-horse team set of 
harness? J- F. v 
New York. 
Importing Weed Seeds.— Consul Ingram 
of Bradford, England, reports how danger 
ous weeds are being introduced on English 
farms. The English people are scouring 
the earth for fertilizing materials and 
necessities. Not long since Australian burrs 
were found in wool brought from Kent. This 
was a brand new weed for England. It was 
found that the dust from imported Austral¬ 
ian wool had been sold for fertilizing pur¬ 
poses to some farmers. The seeds were con¬ 
tained in this dust and are spreading in this 
country. In another case a botanist found 
160 species of plants which were new or 
foreign to the country. It was found that 
the seeds were contained in the dust of Im¬ 
ported wools, carried through the sewers of 
the town, and then in brooks and rivers to 
farm fields. Some of these seeds evidently 
came from Mexico and South America as 
well as Australia. Other plants which 
came from Peru and Siberia were carried in 
the dirt which accompanied quantities of 
rags which are picked up all over the world 
and brought to England. Iu another case 
a mysterious plant which proved to come 
from the Azores, was evidently brought to 
a local lumber yard. A large quantity of 
rough wood had been brought from the 
Azores; some of this had been dried in the 
dirt, and the seeds came in this way. 
