191-’. 
THE RUKiVfc SttW-YOREER 
70 7 
LARGE PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
[EiUT'fR's Noth.—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 wc 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]. 
THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE. 
Will Roosevelt bo nominated? To the 
average reader who has followed in the 
papers the story of recent primary nomi¬ 
nations, this question might seem foolish. 
State after -State through its primary has 
declared positively that Roosevelt is the 
Republican favorite over Taft. With this 
expression of popular will, how then can 
Roosevelt fail of a nomination V The an¬ 
swer brings up one of the most interesting 
and important things connected with popu¬ 
lar government. It is generally conceded 
that had it not been for these primary elec¬ 
tions, Mr. Taft would have obtained 90 per¬ 
cent of the delegates in the Republican 
convention. Under the old system of 
caucus and local conventions, the average 
voter had no chance to control. We must 
remember that now the -primaries are over, 
anotlK-v form of political work begins. It 
is now a matter of wire-pulling and per¬ 
sonal influence upon delegates. From the 
best reports we can gather, neither Presi¬ 
dent Taft nor Mr. Roosevelt can be sure 
of a majority of the delegates. The bal¬ 
ance of power seems to be hold by Senator 
La Follette, and he may or may not be 
able to dictate the nomination. Most of 
onr country readers fail to recognize the 
fearful bitterness which is found against 
Mr. Roosevelt in the towns and cities. It 
is impossible to understand this feeling 
without living among the men who express 
it. The so-called “money power’’ of the 
large cities is almost uniformly against 
Roosevelt. The men who represent it are 
not particularly favorable personally to 
President Taft, hut they hate Mr. Roose¬ 
velt with a hatred which means trouble 
either for him, or for themselves. The 
power which these men have will tie ex¬ 
erted against him at the Chicago conven¬ 
tion. Were it a question of a popular 
country-wide primary, there could be no 
doubt about the nomination of Mr. Roose¬ 
velt. but in a convention with shrewd, 
long-headed and unscrupulous men pulling 
the wires, no one can say what will hap¬ 
pen. Without question some of the ablest 
political manipulators that ever lived in 
this country are determined to beat Mr. 
Roosevelt, if they can. We must remem¬ 
ber. too, that the -delegates for Mr. Taft 
are as a rule of a different character from 
those on the other side. They are what- 
are known as “regulars.” strong party men 
who hang together and can be absolutely 
depended upon to vote as they are told. 
On the other hand, Mr. Roosevelt's or¬ 
ganization is a new one. and the Progres¬ 
sive Republicans cannot be held together 
as easily as the regulars can. To go back 
to history for an example take the time 
when General Grant tried for a third.term, 
lie had a band of a little over 300 dele¬ 
gates. mostly from the Bouth. They hung 
together day after day, and on the last 
ballot, in the face of sure defeat, 300 of 
them voted for Grant. The opposition ha^l 
a majority, but it was scattered, and its 
leaders could not agree definitely either 
upon a candidate or a policy, until when 
completely tired out, Garfield, an outside 
man. was nominated, in the coming con¬ 
vention we judge that the Taft delegates, 
like those for Grant, will hang closely to¬ 
gether. for the very life of the old machine 
policy is at stake in this contest. It looks 
now as though Mr. Roosevelt would be 
nominated anyway, either by the regular 
convention, or in another convention of 
those delegates who support him. There 
is so much feeling in the matter, and so 
many strong people have grouped them¬ 
selves back of what Mr. Roosevelt stands 
for, that it seems inevitable that he must 
give them a chance to vote for him on one 
ticket or another. As we have stated, the 
Democrats cannot well select their candi¬ 
date until the Republicans have acted. This 
seems to put them at a disadvantage, but 
the tierce battle between Taft and Roose¬ 
velt has made it impossible for them to 
act otherwise. 
THE NEW JERSEY PRIMARY ELECTION. 
The .primary election law in New Jersey 
is regarded as the fairest and in most re¬ 
spects the best that the Eastern part of 
this country has yet tried. We have had 
many questions from readers regarding its 
workings and results. In order to be fair 
w<? submitted some of these questions to 
voters representing all sides of political be¬ 
lief. The following answers represent a 
fair statement of public opinion. 
Is the primary law satisfactory? 
Not entirely so, but a great improvement 
over- former attempts to nominate candi¬ 
dates. 
Gould it be repealed? 
Never. The desire is to make it more 
effective. The principle lias come to stay. 
What proportion of the Republican vote 
came out? 
In some cases 50 per cent, in others 
less. Under the old caucus system about 
10 per cent would have settled it. 
What would have been the result under 
the old caucus system? 
Taft would have had every delegate and 
Wilson would probably have been defeated. 
What proportion of tile Roosevelt men 
voted at the primary? 
From a number of estimates we should 
say 90 per c-ent. 
How about the Taft men? 
'Probably not over 40 per cent voted. 
Why more of one than the other? 
The Roosevelt men art- enthusiastic. Their 
candidate appeals to the imagination. They 
are hustlers and full of energy, with sen¬ 
timent to urge them on. Taft appealed 
to no man’s imagination. It was impos¬ 
sible to get excited over him or what he 
said. Many felt that New Jersey is na¬ 
turally “conservative” and thus sure to sup¬ 
port Taft, and so they grew -careless and 
did not vote. 
What was the chief cause of their not 
voting? 
Probe lily disgust at the personal char¬ 
acter of the contest between Taft and 
Roosevelt. There was a feeling of regret 
that the President ever went on the stump. 
He is -entirely -out of place at such work, 
and not adapted to It. 
Will the New .Jersey Republicans support 
either candidate solidly? 
Tniposible to answer, but our answers 
suggest, that they would not. If -Governor 
Wilson should be nominated the conviction 
of most of those who answer our question 
is ’that he would surely carry Now Jersey. 
Mr. Roosevelt received about 30 per cent 
of the vote of Now Jersey Republicans. 
No one knows what the other 70 per cent 
will do. That uncertainty is one of the 
things sure to go with primary nominations. 
It will smash up party lines, and that is 
why the wise old political bosses are fight¬ 
ing it. That -contest, in New Jersey not 
only gave Roosevelt his victory, but it drove 
hundreds of political “leaders* - out of 
power. Nothing else except death or dyna¬ 
mite could have taken them out. They 
will sulk and take a vacation, and the 
loss of their “influence” will be felt this 
Fall. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Four buildings, including 
two hotels, were destroyed by a lire which 
threatened the entire village of Highland 
Falls. N. Y., May 30. The damage is esti¬ 
mated to be about $100,000. 
Wilbur Wright, the first man to fly in an 
aeroplane, died of typhoid fever at Payton, 
O., May 80. Tie was born April 16. 1867. 
near Millville Ind., the son of Bishop Mil¬ 
ton Wright, of a sect of the Methodist 
Church. He got his early education at the 
public schools, and although after that 
time be received many honorary degrees 
from institutions of learning it appears 
that the high school completed his imparted 
education. Orville, the brother, was born 
four years later at Dayton, Ohio, and he 
received a. similar education. In early child¬ 
hood the partnership was formed which has 
been ended only with death. The boys 
learned the printing trade in the office -of 
a little church paper conducted by their 
father. They became compositors, but 
showed their genius by the perfecting of a 
little printing press, built by them, which 
worked for years. They gave up printing 
to open a little bicycle repair shop in Day- 
ton. and built bicycles of their own design. 
Later they became interested in airships, 
which have made them famous. 
One man was killed, a 10-year-old boy 
lies at the point of death, and 15 persons 
were severely injured May 30 at an aviation 
meet at the Meadows race track, Seattle, 
Wash., -when I. Clifford Turpin, who was 
swooping across the field in a Wright aero¬ 
plane at a speed of 50 miles an hour, 
tilted his machine to avoid beheading an 
unknown man and crashed into the grand¬ 
stand. Turpin had made several circles 
of the course and was taking a downward 
flight preparatory to landing. An unknown 
man in the crowd ran across the track 
directly in the path of the machine. The 
aviator, seeing that if he continued on his 
course he would behead the man with 
rhe propellers of his machine, quickly threw 
on his lever, tilting the machine to one 
side and caused it to rise slightly from 
the ground. A stiff breeze which swept 
around the corner of the grandstand caused 
the aircraft to swing right on toward the 
main seats in the stand. Turpin, seeing 
this second danger, threw off his power, 
but the aeroplane fell into the front tier 
of boxes, wounding several persons. Be¬ 
fore any one could catch hold to stay it. 
the craft fell backward onto the heads of 
the crowd in front of the stand. Turpin 
remained seated until the machine fell to 
the ground, when lie was thrown out. 
May 31 one of the city councilmen of 
Atlantic City, N. .1.. was arrested on charge 
of accepting a bribe, and four other coun- 
cilmen confessed to similar accusations. 
It is believed that many others are in¬ 
volved. The local political ring and its 
affiliations for three years past has com¬ 
mercialized every municipal improvement or 
function. It has dealt in streets, new and 
old, street openings, street paving, sewer¬ 
ing, ditching, which was u $1,500,000 job: 
permits and franchises of all kinds, and 
privileges of every description. Also by 
confession it has been learned that bv the 
extraordinary powers of the 17 council- 
men or the majority of them who stood 
with the combination there has been a 
steady traffic in excise licenses by means 
of holdups and extra demands, that all 
places of amusement have been similarly 
treated and that the sums received from 
irregular places of resort, gamblers and 
others brought iu large sums continuously 
to the powers. 
A heavy snowstorm raged in Leadville 
and Lake county. Col., May 31. Tt began 
with a severe hailstorm, which did much 
damage to greenhouses and windows. At 
noon five inches of snow had fallen. 
Fire from an unknown cause was dis¬ 
covered June 2 in the assembling room 
of the Lion Automobile Company at Adrian, 
Mich. The plant, with a stock of cars 
valued at nearly $200,000 was completely 
destroyed, making a total loss of half a 
million dollars. Fireman Christian Schoen, 
a veteran, was killed by a falling wail, and 
Lee Robb, a volunteer member of the hose 
department, was badly injured and may 
die. 'The Lion company was organized 
three years ago with a capital of $300,000, 
owned mostly by Detroiters. Throe hun¬ 
dred men were employed. 
Three fires in the downtown district of 
New York Jnne ‘3 paused a total loss of 
nearly $200,000, put over 30 firemen out 
of commission, and in each ease gave the 
department a hard battle before being 
extinguished. The 30 firemen were ren¬ 
dered nnconsciovrs at a fitv- at -70 Murray 
street. Fumes from burning chemi¬ 
cals and drugs were responsible. Tile loss 
was $10,000. Two alarms were sent in. 
The tired company had hardly ended their 
labors when they Were called to a, lire in a 
seven-story loft. building under the Brook¬ 
lyn Bridge. Smoke tied up ‘trolley traffic 
on the bridge for an hour. Two firemen 
were injured. An early fire caused a loss 
of $100,000 to dry goods firms in the six- 
story loft building at 12 White street. One 
fireman was injured by flying glass. The 
entire district was threatened at one time. 
Three alarms were sent in. 
Five persons perished as the result of 
being overcome by gas fumes in a grain 
well at the dairy of Jacob Sachs, iu Fair- 
mount, Cincinnati. O., June 4. A fireman. 
Henry Esterniann. who wont into the pit 
to got out the bodies, was also overcome 
and lies in the City Hospital in a serious 
condition. The dead are: Mrs. Anna 
Espeiagge, Mrs. 'William Rooster, Jacob 
Sachs, Joseph Niehroff and Robert Atkins. 
Four of the victims forfeited their lives in 
efforts to rescue Jacob Sachs, the first vic¬ 
tim. Esterniann was overcome while being 
lowered into the well. The firemen then 
used grappling hooks and brought the 
bodies to the -surface. The pit, or well, 
was used by Sachs for storage of wet malt 
feed, which he fed to his milch cows. The 
grain had fermented and generated the 
gases. A ladder was the means of entrance 
and exit. 
The trial of William T. Wintemute, who 
was arrested on August 10, 1910, for vio¬ 
lating the postal laws in the sale of min¬ 
ing stock, began in New York June 4 be¬ 
fore Judge Holt in the United States Dis¬ 
trict Court. Wintemute has been out on 
$5,000 bail most of the time since he was 
arrested. The postal inspectors who have 
worked up the ease against Wintemute say 
that lie made at least $400,000 out of pro¬ 
moting various mining companies and in¬ 
ducing his customers to go from one bogus 
company to another. The case against 
Wintemute covers 1907, 1908 and 1909 
when he had his office in tile Whitehall 
Building and was selling stock in the Red¬ 
man Mining, Milling and Smelting Com¬ 
pany, claiming to have mining property in 
Arizona, and in the Gold Run Mining 'and 
Milling Company, a $3,000,000 corporation 
with property at Boulder, Col. The chief 
witness against Wintemute June 4 was 
John C. Callahan, State Auditor of Ari¬ 
zona, who held the same office when Ari¬ 
zona was a Territory. Mr. Callahan testi¬ 
fied that he had made a search of the 
records and couldn't find that the $3,000,- 
000 concern in which Wintemute stock was 
sold upon the appeals of Wintemute had 
ever been incorporated. 
The first Massachusetts Fruit Show is to 
he held November 7-10 inclusive at Hor¬ 
ticultural Hall, Boston, under the auspices 
of the Board of Agriculture and the Massa¬ 
chusetts Fruit Growers’. Association in con¬ 
nection with the Massachusetts Horticul¬ 
tural Society’s Chrysanthemum Exhibition. 
The premium lists aggregate $2000. The 
Massachusetts Fruit Show list takes up 
the box, barrel and package fruit, while 
the plate fruit is covered by the Massa¬ 
chusetts Horticultural Society list, which 
is open to all. Special attention is to be 
given that all may have a fair show, with 
distinctions of commercial, private and 
amateur growers. For further particulars 
address F. Howard Brown, Marlboro, Mass. 
WASHINGTON.—Immediate legislation to 
prevent the promiscuous use of babit-fomi- 
ing drugs was urged by President Taft in 
a message transmitted to Congress May 81. 
The message was accompanied by a report 
from Secretary of State Knox, declaring 
that unless speedy action is taken on 
measures now pending in Congress the 
American Government may he jtistly ac¬ 
cused of being half-hearted in Its effort to 
mitigate or suppress the use of opium ami 
allied evils. The President asserted he 
would not ask the Senate to ratify the 
convention adopted by the recent interna¬ 
tional opium conference until the govern 
ment of The Netherlands had secured flic 
■signatures of 34 additional countries "to tin- 
convention. 'The signatures will be secured, 
it is expected, by the end of the year. 
The Senate by a vote of 36 to 27 May 31 
rejected the report of the conferees on 
the agricultural appropriation bill and sent 
that measure back to conference for re¬ 
vision. The main objection to the report 
came from Western Senators, who objected 
to the action of the Senate conferees in 
yielding to the House. The House objected 
to the Senate amendment directing the 
Secretary of Agriculture to select, segre¬ 
gate and classify agricultural lands in for¬ 
est reserves, with a view of opening them 
to homestead entry and settlement. 
June 3 the House passed the Humphrey 
bill closing American ports to all vessel's 
whose -owners violate the Sherman law. 
and tiie Alexander bill, requiring complete 
wireless equipment on all vessels carrying 
more than 50 passengers, was passed. 
Boths bills went through the House bv 
unanimous vote. The Alexander bill is 
practically identical with the wireless Dill 
which has already passed the Senate. The 
Humphrey bill, which originated in the De¬ 
partment of Justice, provides that no ves¬ 
sel. foreign or domestic, which is in the 
contract combination in violation of the 
Sherman law shall be permitted to enter 
or clear a port of the United States. The 
court may by judgment or decree prevent 
such entrance or clearance and process may 
issue to attach the vessel in order to col¬ 
lect the penalty of $25,000 which is im¬ 
posed on any steamship violating the pro¬ 
visions of the proposed act. The Postmas¬ 
ter-General is also authorized to cancel any 
contract for carrying the mails made with 
any steamship lines whose owners, man¬ 
agers or operators are adjudged guilty of 
a violation of the Sherman law. The 
Alexander wireless bill, which was intro¬ 
duced as a result of the Titanic disaster, 
provides that all steamers of the United 
States or any foreign country navigating 
the ocean or the Great Lakes and author¬ 
ized to carry 50 persons, including pass¬ 
engers and crew, shall not leave any port 
of tin' United States unless equipped with 
wireless apparatus capable of transmitting 
messages for at least 10O miles under all 
atmospheric conditions. It is also stipu¬ 
lated that each vessel subject to the pro¬ 
visions of the hill shall carry at least two 
wireless operators, one on duty at all times. 
An auxiliary power supply independent of 
the vessel’s main electric power plant is 
to be a part of the wireless equipment. 
Tiie bill requires that ocean-going vessels 
shall comply with this provision by Octo¬ 
ber 1, .1912, and that vessels on the Great 
Lakes shall be equipped as stipulated by 
April 1. 1913. Ocean going cargo steamers 
or freighters are allowed until Julv 1. 1913, 
to install the prescribed equipment. The 
bill does not apply to steamers plying be¬ 
tween ports less than 200 miles apart. 
LIVE STOCK INVESTIGATION.—Coin¬ 
cident with disclosures in reports made by 
the Department of Commerce and Labor 
showing that live stock receipts at the 
seven principal Western markets in April 
were greater than those of any April since 
1907. Representative Edwards, of Georgia, 
introduced May 31, a resolution in the 
House ■directing the Attorney General to 
investigate whether there is a beef trust 
responsible for high prices. The figures 
given out by the Bureau of Statistics are 
significant iu view of the fact that the 
packers have contended that the increase 
in prices was due to a scarcity of live 
stock. Not only were the receipts largo in 
April, hut during the whole four months 
of the present year an unusually large 
amount of live stock was received. The 
receipts at the four leading Atlantic sea¬ 
port cities, Boston. New York, Philadel¬ 
phia and Baltimore, also showed an in¬ 
crease over the April receipts in tiie aggre¬ 
gate. Boston alone showing a decline. Be¬ 
cause of the conflicting statements of the 
packers and tiie Government statistics Rep¬ 
resentative Edwards believes there is a 
field for fruitful investigation. lie is of 
the opinion that there is no just reason 
for the advance iu prices, and is deter¬ 
mined to have a full inquiry into the situa¬ 
tion. 
Relative to the receipts, the Government 
report says : 
"Tiie live stock receipts at the seven 
principal Western markets, namely, Chi¬ 
cago. Kansas City, Omaha, St. Louis. St. 
Joseph. St. Paul and Sioux -City, in April, 
were greater than those of any April since 
1907. Furthermore, the aggregate receipts 
of live stock at tiie -seven markets during 
the four months of the present year were 
greater by far than during the same four 
months of any year during the last decade. 
The receipts of April, as well as those of 
March and February, however, having been 
somewhat less than those of January, which 
were unusually large. The receipts iu 
April, 1912, which include cattle, calves, 
hogs, sheep, horses and mules, were 8.23$.- 
600. a gain of more than 3% per cent 
when compared with 3.123,938 head re¬ 
ceived in April, 1911, and a gain of nearly 
45 per cent when compared with 2.234.907 
head received in April, 1910. The total 
receipts at these markets during the first 
four months of tiie present year were 15. 
123,769 head, an increase of 13% per cent 
over the receipts during the same period 
in 1911 and 40 per cent over those in 1910. 
The receipts of meat live stock at the four 
leading cities during April, 1912, were 
684.041 head, an increase over the April 
receipts for a number of years past. Like¬ 
wise. the receipts at these ports during 
the first four months of the present year 
were exceptionally large. The total receipts 
of meat live stock in New York were 377.- 
7508 head in April.” 
Prices for farm produce are about as 
follows: Cows, good milkers. $50; beef 
•cows. 414 to five cents per pound ; steers, 
per pound, six cents: sheep, per head. $4 
to $6; horses, good work horses, $150 to 
$200: hay, per ton, $18 to $20. No silage 
sold: not a good dairy farm within 18 
miles of here that I know of. Oats, per 
bushel, 51 cents: corn. 70; milk, per quart, 
six cents; butter, per pound. 27 cents: 
eggs, per dozen, is cents; -wheat, red, 
$1,107 white. $1.0S. s. n. h. 
Athens, Mich. 
. . . $ 500.0 0 . . . 
The Rural New-Yorker Will 
Pay $500.00 in Cash for 
A Suitable Story of Farm Life 
Such a story should contain about 50,000 words. We want a 
strong story suitable to go with Tiie Rural New-Yorker into 
the homes of its readers. It must be of 
Vigorous Human Interest 
dealing forcibly with some vital problem of country life. 
We must have the manuscript of this story by September loth, 
1912. This offer is open to all, and fuller details regarding the 
story will be given by mail. We invite correspondence with 
authors everywhere. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 409 Pearl Street, New York 
