1012. 
S1V 
THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
LARGE PUBLIC QUESTIONS. 
[Editor's Note. —Under 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 oL* conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think auout certain things which interest 
country people]. 
THE EXPRESS COMPANIES CORNERED. 
For the past few years The R. N.-Y. has 
shown repeatedly how the express companies 
are robbing the people. Starting with a 
carpet hag carried by a man who traveled 
between New York and Boston, the express 
business has grown so that last year the 
total business amounted to $169,000,000. 
In some cases these companies have fig¬ 
ured a profit of over 500 per cent on the 
actual amount of money invested. 
Wind and Water. —Unlike most corpora¬ 
tions, the express companies have very 
small actual assets. They do not own cars 
or railroads, and they pay to the railroads 
about half of what they pick up from the 
public. Their chief tangible assets arc horses, 
wagons, furniture, and the few buildings 
which they have erected in the larger 
towns. Iii addition to this their money 
is largely invested in stocks and bonds, 
most of these being in railroad companies, 
or other express companies. Every dollar 
of this money has been taken out of the 
public in exchange for a poor and unsatis¬ 
factory service. There is hardly a family 
in the United States that has not had 
cause to complain of the express service 
both in exorbitant rates and aggravating 
delays. The Interstate Commerce Commis¬ 
sion finally took hold of this matter, and 
made a thorough investigation running over 
three years. They examined and compared 
over 600.000 different express rates, and 
millions of way bills and receipts. As a re¬ 
sult the Commission recommends a revolu¬ 
tionary treatment of the companies, some¬ 
thing which should have been doue years 
ago. In order to understand the compli¬ 
cation of this express business we must 
know how the railroads are interested. 
Railroad Contracts. —The express busi¬ 
ness is divided up among 13 companies 
which have slowly consolidated and frozen 
out the smaller concerns. These companies 
do not own cars or railroads of their own, 
hut they make a contract with the largo 
railroad companies, a sample of which is 
given on page 816. These contracts com¬ 
pel the express companies to levy a rate 
which shall be twice the tariff of the rail¬ 
way freight rates, and tbe express com¬ 
panies pay over to the railroads one-half 
(more or less) of this sum. Thus the 
railroad companies get their full price and 
divide up with the express companies, and 
under such an agreement there is prac¬ 
tically no chance for competition or for a 
reduction of rates. 
Simplified Rates.— There are many 
complaints about the express business, some 
of which are worse than others. First of 
all, no agent seemed to know just what 
the rate should be to a distant point. You 
paid what he said in case the package was 
prepaid, and the chances were good that at 
the other end another charge would be 
made. It was almost impossible to have 
this money returned. To overcome this the 
Commission rules that hereafter, the United 
States is to be divided into blocks ; each of 
these will he about 50 miles square ; that is 
one degree of longitude iu length, and one 
degree of latitude in width. All the ex¬ 
press stations inside of one of these blocks 
will have the same rate to any station in 
any other block, and a man sending an 
express package say from Syracuse, N T . 1'., 
to Harrisburg, Pa., will know the rate be¬ 
tween his block, and the Harrisburg block, 
aud no other can be made. 
Double Charging.— To overcome the nui¬ 
sance of double charging, the Commission 
will compel the express companies to show 
different colored labels. If the charges are 
paid in advance, a yellow label must be 
used, and this would he evidence that noth¬ 
ing more could be collected. If a white 
label is used, it is evidence that the 
charges have not been paid, and if no label 
at all is put on, the package must be 
delivered without charge, and the express 
company is responsible for the mistake. 
Direct Routes.— Another cause for com¬ 
plaint, and a just one, is the nuisance of 
shipping packages in the most roundabout 
way so as to make an exorbitant charge, 
and give different companies a large piece 
of the pie. The Commission orders that 
this must be stopped. The package must 
now go by the most direct route, and a 
shipper has the right to say which way it 
shall go. This would be one of the best 
things connected with the reform, because 
this habit of shipping in a roundabout way 
in order to obtain a double rate has led 
not only to a loss of money, but to the loss 
of goods. These are the most important 
reforms demanded by the Commission, but 
there are others which fit in with them. 
For instance there have been many cases 
where a package sent to a distant office lias 
been allowed to remain for weeks or months 
in storage with little effort to notify the 
owner to come and get the goods. Under 
the Commission’s rule the express com¬ 
panies are obliged to name the office where 
they will take up and deliver the goods, 
and they will be obliged to extend this 
service in the future. 
Lower Rates.—A reform in rates is also 
ordered, the reduction being largely upon 
the smaller packages. For example, the 
present rate on a five-pound pael*age from 
New York to Philadelphia is 35 cents; the 
Commission will reduce this to 23 cents. 
The present rate on a 10-pound package 
between New York and Boston is 45 cents ; 
under the new rate this will be 28 cents. 
It costs at present 75 cents to send a 
25-pound package from New Y’ork to Pitts¬ 
burg ; under the new rate this will be 52 
cents, while the rate on a 100-pound pack¬ 
age will remain very much the same, ex¬ 
cept on the longer shipments. The local 
rates within 25 or 50 miles, and the towns 
or cities, will be reduced 30 per cent or 
more on the smaller packages, and this 
will mean a large increase in the business 
between farmers and consumers in the city, 
as has been the case iu Europe and England 
with parcel post, in fact the new sched¬ 
ule of rates has been devised largely with 
this end in view. Tt was found under the 
old system that the rates had apparently 
been arranged to make the shipping of 
small packages as expensive as possible, 
and play into the hands of the commission 
men and middlemen by giving a compara¬ 
tively cheaper rate for the larger packages. 
This of course discriminated against the 
direct trade between the farmer aud city 
consumer. 
Fight It Out.-— There are many details 
about this which should be explained, and 
we shall sec that they are made clear 
through the Summer. It must be under¬ 
stood that this is merely an order compell¬ 
ing the express compauies to show cause 
why these new rates and rules should not 
go into effect. They will have until the 
sixth of October to show such cause if they 
can. hut the facts against them are so clear 
that is is doubtful if they try anything of 
the sort. How tliis change in express rates 
will affect the parcels post legislation is 
something of a problem. Unquestionably, 
the tremendous fight for parcels post has 
aroused public attention and led to this 
order. Without this battle, a reform of the 
express companies would have been held 
back for 25 years more, but probably the 
exposure of this extortionate express prop¬ 
osition will make the American people more 
convinced that they should run their own 
express business, aud this will probably 
lead to the ultimate passage of the Lewis 
bill for buying up the express property. 
EVENTS OF ThE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Three men were killed and 
two score persons injured in a wreck ou the 
Intercolonial Railway at Grand Lake, Nova 
Scotia, July 10, when the engine of the 
Maritime Express left the track and plunged 
down <in embankment into the lake, dragging 
with it the mail and express car and piling 
the baggage cars up ou the track. The 
wreck is believed to have been caused by 
a defect in the engine. The track was ap¬ 
parently all right. None of the passenger 
cars left the rails, and none of the passen¬ 
gers were severely injured, hut some of the 
trainmen were seriously hurt. 
Fire that did damage estimated by the 
police at $100,000 started July 10 on the 
third floor of the six-story building at No. 
70 Wooster street, New York, and extended 
to the top floor. 
Nine members of the Chicago “butter and 
egg trust’’ have been summoned to appear 
before a Master of Chancery in the civil 
action which the Federal government has 
brought against the board of which they 
are members. They are charged with “fix¬ 
ing” the prices of butter and eggs without 
regard to the supply and demand. The 
men will be asked to reveal the secret 
methods by _ which they have managed to 
keep the price of butter and eggs in Chi¬ 
cago and the Middle West higher to the 
consumer than, in any other part of the 
country. They are also charged with set¬ 
ting low prices to the producer. It is said 
that the summons for the members of the 
board is a step preliminary to criminal 
prosecution which the government has been 
contemplating for some time against the 
board in conjunction with the Elgin Board 
of Trade on a charge of operatiug in re¬ 
straint of trade. 
The Federal inquiry into the alleged 
manipulation of the butter and egg market 
by the Chicago Butter and Egg Board 
was resumed July 16 before Master in 
Chancery Morrison. Members of the board 
were put on the witness stand with a view 
to delving into secret methods charged 
against the organization in collaboration 
with the Elgin Board of Trade iu order 
to control prices ou the products. The 
two hoards are accused of conniving in the 
maintenance of fictitious market values. O. 
E. Williams, a member of the board, was 
examined by Albert G. Welch, Assistant 
United States Attorney. He denied the 
existence of an agreement among the di¬ 
rectors whereby fictitious market values were 
created. He admitted, however, that there 
are times when the market is operated 
by means of margins, as in wheat and 
trading in other commodities. 
According to a report of Dr. C. W. G. 
Rohrer, acting chief of the Bureau of Com¬ 
municable Diseases of the State Depart¬ 
ment of Health, there are 28 cases of 
pellagra in Maryland, at least three of 
which had their origin in the State. The 
eases are scattered over the State. 
Seven men are dead as a result of an 
explosion of gas in the Panama mine of 
the Ben Franklin Coal Company, on the 
outskirts of Moundsville, W. Va., July 11. 
Two miners were taken out seriously 
burned. The explosion took place in the 
second section of the mine, about half a 
mile from the shaft. Only nine men were 
at work in the second section at the time 
of the explosion. About 150 men are em¬ 
ployed in both sections of the mine, but 
the miners at work in the first section 
were protected from the explosion by a 
thick wall. 
There has been a total of 13 cases of 
bubonic plague iu the island of Trinidad 
since March 29. when the first case ap¬ 
peared this year. Of that number nine 
persons died, two recovered and two are 
now convalescing in the hospital. Six of 
the 13 cases were outside the town of 
Port of Spain. Two fatal cases have oc¬ 
curred at Havana. From San Juan, Porto 
Rico, it is announced there are no new 
cases. The war on plague-carrying rats is 
going on everywhere throughout the two 
islands and at all American posts where 
vessels trading with the West Indies touch. 
The Health Commissioner in Norfolk, Va., 
has appointed six otiicial rat catchers, and 
pays a bounty of five cents for every rat 
killed. Employes of city and State health, 
boards at New Orleans began a “rat sur¬ 
vey” along the river front July 12. proposed 
and now being directed by Dr. John II. 
White of the United States Marine Hos¬ 
pital Service to protect the city from bu¬ 
bonic plague. 
Cablegrams from Cordova. Alaska, state 
that the recent earthquakes shook up the 
gigantic Miles and Childs glaciers. They 
are discharging more ice than ever before 
as a result. Immense ice chunks, many 
weighing thousands of tons each, are con¬ 
tinuously falling into the Copper River. 
The detonations can be heard for miles. 
The tourists remain at Timber Line on 
the river’s bank to avoid being drenched 
by huge waves caused by the dropping ice. 
The earthquake shocks were heavy at 
Kennecot. hut the Bonanza and other mines 
were undamaged. 
The New York Grand Jury is investigat¬ 
ing a series of transactions in Long Island 
real estate put through by the Jackson Bros. 
Realty Company, formerly of the Times 
Building and now of 507 Fifth avenue, 
and Edgar R. Jackson, the head of the 
incorporated realty firm. The investigation 
was taken up on a complaint made to 
the District Attorney by Winfield Scott 
Libby of Libby & Dingley of Lewiston, 
Me., heavy owners of water power and 
public utilities as well as large mills in 
the State of Maine. The total amount 
which figures in the story told by Mr. 
Libby is about $1,000,000. These trans¬ 
actions involved 520 acres on Long Island 
at prices ranging from $3,000 to $4,000 
an acre. The Jackson brothers are said 
to have bought this land for from $1,500 
to $3,000 an acre. It is also asserted that 
the Libby firm can realize practically noth¬ 
ing on its investments because, as the in¬ 
formation goes, the property is heavily 
mortgaged. These sales were made in 
1909. A warrant is now out for Edgar 
It. Jackson’s arrest. 
While making a flight from Mountain 
View to Palo Alto, Cal., July 13, Victor 
Morris Smith, holder of the world’s ama¬ 
teur speed record in an aeroplane, plunged 
75 feet when wind capsized his machine 
and was killed. Smith was considered one 
of tiie most daring airmen developed on the 
Pacific coast. 
Thirteen persons were killed and 15 or 
20 others were injured in a wreck on the 
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at 
Western Springs, a suburb of Chicago, 
July 14. Coming eastward through a fog, 
with supposedly a clear track ahead, train 
No. 8, a fast mail, ran at full speed into 
the rear of train No. 2, known as the 
Overland Express, from Denver, which 
was standing still on the track, telescoping 
two of the Overland’s Pullman cars. 
A cloudburst, reported to be the most 
destructive in many years, struck St. Louis 
and surrounding cities July 14. The great¬ 
est damage was done at Alton, Ill., near 
the junction of the Missouri and Missis¬ 
sippi rivers. Four persons were drowned 
iu the cloudburst at Alton, when a nine- 
foot wall of water from the Piasa Valley 
raced down Belle and Piasa streets, delug¬ 
ing two homos. The damage to property 
at Alton is $250,000. The Alton gas 
works were destroyed. The flood water was 
seven feet deep in Alton’s streets and two 
miles of streets were destroyed. Several 
buildings were wrecked. There were many 
heroic rescues. Lightning struck many 
buildings in St. Louis and surrounding cit¬ 
ies. A bolt of lightning destroyed the main 
building of the East St. Louis Cotton Oil 
Company, at National City, Ill., two miles 
from East St. Louis. At Kdwaixtsville, 
Ill., the storm caused a property loss of 
$50,000. The heaviest loser there was the 
Banner Clay Works, a St. lxmis corpora¬ 
tion. 
A cloudburst at Denver, Col., July 14, 
resulted in two dead, five injured, one miss¬ 
ing and a property damage of at least 
$2,000,000, and possibly $5,000,000, and 
600 made homeless. The storm extended 
to Longmont, 40 miles away, and did 
much damage to the farming sections in 
the Platte Valley. The highest point of 
the flood, 12 feet, was at the mouth of 
Cherry Creek. Average depth of the flood 
at its height, 10 feet. It will require a 
year to remove all evidence of the flood. 
A campaign against rats has been begun 
in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans 
and other maritime cities, due to the ap¬ 
proach of bubonic plague. Iu California 
ground squirrels are being destroyed, as 
they were found to be infected during 
the former plague period of the Pacific 
coast. 
After having escaped being sent to the 
bottom by ice floes encountered in Bering 
Sea the United States army transport 
Sheridan arrived at Tacoma. Wash., July 
15, with the Sixteenth United States In¬ 
fantry Regiment. For 17 days off St. Law¬ 
rence Island to the west of Norton Sound 
en route to Nome the Sheridan lay ice¬ 
bound, making but 90 miles in this time. 
For 48 hours her captain, Healy, and Pilot 
Ivraersky watched on the bridge of the ship 
and at times the captain stood at the bow 
directing the slow advance of the steamer 
tli rough the ice floes. 
During the hot wave the first two weeks 
of July 67 persons died from the heat in 
Philadelphia, being more than in any other 
city in the country. 
An Anglo-American combination has pur¬ 
chased a site on the Brisbane River, Bris¬ 
bane, Australia, for the erection of pack¬ 
ing houses to cost $1,750,000. They are 
to have a capacity for 600 cattle and 5,000 
sheep daily. It is hoped that a considerable 
chilled meat trade will be developed with 
America on the completion of the Panama 
Canal. 
The Senate July 13 ousted William Lori- 
mcr of Illinois on the ground that his 
election was tainted with corruption. The 
vote was 55 to 28. In taking this action 
the Senate recorded in history the first case 
where a member of that body has been un¬ 
seated on charges of bribery. 
Western New York Conditions. 
Tlie Western New Y'ork crop situation is 
much varied, but not generally cheerful, 
for the long hot spell has told terribly on 
the growth of vegetation is most places, 
though there are some favored localities 
that are getting all the rain they need. 
Some of the hay escaped the drought and 
it is not now quoted at more than $25 to 
the consumer. The -yield will be above the 
average, clover pretty generally doing well, 
as it is earlier than Timothy. The spec¬ 
tacle of cutting clover down and putting it 
into the barn the same day has been com¬ 
mon, for the sun blazes so that it would be 
too crisp if left to a second day, to say 
nothing of the lost leaves and the damage 
from dew. The old crop of potatoes is now 
gone, but before there are any home-grown 
new ones, which is a very unusual state of 
things. Farmers that had a supply for the 
Spring market were very fortunate, as they 
received as high as $1.65 per bushel for 
them in some instances. The cold Winter 
told on them terribly, as they froze badly 
in cellar. Stores that sold oil stoves closed 
them all out for keeping cellars above freez¬ 
ing. It is predicted that the price will be 
high another year, for the early crop will 
not materialize at ail in many sections and 
if the present blazing weather continues 
long there will he few late potatoes or 
indeed much of anything. I find that the 
farmer who has ben making a good thing 
on fresh eggs is dropping out of the busi¬ 
ness. as he quite often does at this time 
of the year. This is not the way to estab¬ 
lish a regular trade. Many a manufacturer 
or regular dealer will sell his goods at 
cost or even less for a considerable time 
rather than risk losing his customers by 
suspending sales when the market goes 
against him. Eggs are cheap now, and it 
is very hard in this hot weather to keep 
them fresh, but business is business if that 
is the idea. The spasmodic tradesman sel¬ 
dom succeeds. We are finding that cherries 
are not selling at prices low enough to 
commend them to the general consumer, 
not commonly being less than 45 cents for 
a small market basket. This country does 
not make as much of the cherry as Europe 
does, though commonly taking the lead in 
such crops. One reason no doubt is that 
the labor cost is greater, as the fruit picks 
more slowly than almost anything else, 
ispite of the excessive heat aud lack of 
moisture the strawberry crop went through 
in better shape than usual, there being no 
had fluctuations in prices, as sometimes 
occurs. Still there is not much money in 
them to the farmer. When they retail as 
low as. eight cents, as sonic of fair quality 
have, it is hard to see liow anything could 
be got out of them by the farmer. His 
cue is to raise them of such quality that 
he can command 10 cents, hut that is not 
an easy thing to do. It is feared that the 
later berries, raspberries especially, will be 
a very light crop, for the sun fairly 
scorches the young fruit on the bushes. If 
culture is thorough and fairly constant it is 
quite possible to keep garden vegetables 
growing right through a long dry spell, but 
it is not so easy to manage the fruits. 
Buffalo. c 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
Ohio State Fair, Columbus, August 26-31. 
Hartford, Conn., Fair, September 2. 
Lewiston, Maine, Fair, September 2-5. 
Red Bank, N. J., September 2-5. 
Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, Septem¬ 
ber 2-6. 
West Virginia Fair. Wheeling, September 
2 - 6 . 
.Connecticut Fair, Hartford, September 
2 - 1 . 
New York State Fair, Syracuse, Septem¬ 
ber 8-14. 
West Michigan Fair, Grand Rapids, Sep¬ 
tember 9-13. 
1 (M 4 SCOnS i a Milwaukee, September 
Detroit, Mich., Fair, September 16-21 
White River Junction, Vt., Fair, Septem¬ 
ber 17-20. 
Illinois Fair, Springfield, October 4-12. 
Hagerstown, Md., Fair, October 15-18. 
International Dry Farming Congress, 
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Congress of 
Farm Women, week beginning October 21. 
National Dairy Show, Chicago, October 
24-Xovember 2. 
Massachusetts Fruit Show, under aus¬ 
pices of State Board of Agriculture and 
Massachusetts Fruit Growers’ Association, 
Horticultural Hall, Boston, Mass., Novem¬ 
ber 7-10. 
Indiana Apple Show. Lafayette, Novem¬ 
ber 13-19; secretary, C. G. Woodbury, La¬ 
fayette, Ind. 
International Live Stock, Chicago, No¬ 
vember 30-December 7. 
GOUNTY FIELD DAYS IN MAINE. 
The State Grange field meetings as ar¬ 
ranged for the different counties by C. S. 
Stetson, Master Maine State Grange, will 
be held as follows : 
August 6, York County, at Bauneg-Beg, 
N. Berwick. 
August 8, Oxford County, at Fryeburg. 
August 9, Oxford County, at Norway Fair 
grounds. 
August 10, Androscoggin County, at or 
near Lake Grove. 
August 13, Sagadahoc Countv. 
August 14, Lincoln County, with Willow 
Grange, Jefferson. 
August 15, Kuox County, at Burketville. 
August 16. Waldo County, at Centennial 
Park, Montville. 
August 17, Kennebec Countv, at Island 
Pa rk. 
August 20, Aroostook County, at Caribou. 
August 21, Aroostook County, at Little¬ 
ton Camp Grounds. 
August 22, Penobscot County, at Orono 
August 23, Hancock County, 'at Blue Hill 
Mineral Springs. 
August 24, Washington Couuty. 
August 26, Somerset County,' at Libby 
Farm, St. Albans. 
August 27. Piscataquis County, at Fox- 
croft Camp Grounds. 
August 28, Somerset County, at Lake- 
wood. 
August 29, Franklin County, at Allens 
Mills. 
Thirty minute addresses will be given 
upon each of the following subjects: Roads. 
The Recall, B. Walker McKeen, and Postal 
Express, C. S. Stetson. The local Pomona 
is expected to furnish other entertainment. 
I never saw the crop so poor in this 
part of the State; unless there is plenty 
of rain there will he no crops here. 
Chenango Co., N. Y. f. s. p. 
Native beef is bringing eight and nine 
cents dressed: pork 6% to seven cents 
live, nine cents dressed. Pigs $3.50; fresh 
dairy cows some as high as $75; $50 to $60 
seems to be the going price. Native horses, 
$150 to $200; sheep at auction early this 
Spring, $4.50 each ; a little early for iambs, 
generally 5% to six cents a pound live. 
Hens 13 to_ 14 cents alive, 20 cents dressed; 
broilers 25 cents dressed. Strawberries 
12% cents. Hay $20 to $22 per ton. We 
raise a lot of beans, apples and onions. 
The beans are mostly of the Yellow-eyed 
varieties, a few pea. Apples do finely 
through this Champlain Valley and islands. 
They color nicely, we are protected from 
any early and late frost, the lake keeps 
that off. Our soil being of a limestone 
nature Alfalfa does well. As to market 
gardening our market is a local one. that is, 
just enough to supply camps and hotel. 
The express rates are too high to ship to 
the city. It is about as cheap for people 
to come here and that helps to get rid of 
our garden crops. We have milk station 
here end they were paying $1.30 per 100 
for milk. f. a. b. 
Grand Isle. Vt. 
