1912. 
THE RURA.I> NEW-YORKER 
©81 
RETRIAL OF THE LEWIS CASE. 
Judge Charles A. Willard of the 
United States District Court of Minne¬ 
apolis, Minn., was appointed by the 
Court of Appeals on September 2 to sit 
in a retrial of the case of the Postoffice 
against E. G. Lewis, of St. Louis, for 
alleged use of the United States mails 
with an intent to defraud. The date of 
the trial has not been fixed, but we un¬ 
derstand it will take place some time 
between now and the Christmas holi¬ 
days. 
It will be remembered that on the 
previous trial, which took place during 
March and April last, after having been 
out for 72 hours, the jury failed to 
agree and was discharged by Judge 
Amidon, who conducted the trial. Nine 
of the jurymen were reported as favor¬ 
ing a conviction of Mr. Lewis on all 12 
counts of the indictment, while three 
of the jurymen refused to discuss the 
merits of the case, but stolidly voted 
from first to last against conviction. 
Judge Amidon’s charge would indicate 
that he shared the conviction of the 
nine jurors. On this account Lewis’ 
attorneys raised a howl in protest of 
Judge Amidon conducting the retrial, 
with the result that the Minnesota judge 
was selected. We failed to see any men¬ 
tion of the new trial in the Woman's 
National Weekly published since the ap¬ 
pointment was made. Evidently Mr. 
Lewis is not anxious that his devoted 
women should have the information that 
he is again to be brought to the bar of 
justice. 
THE NEW YORK STATE FAIR. 
Tire New York State Fair has 'grown to 
be a great exposition. We can easily re¬ 
member the year when a visitor could in a 
single day, cover all the exhibits and obtain 
a fair idea of them. It is doubtful if the 
average visitor could make anything like a 
fair study of this year's fair in the six 
days of the exposition. There was a con¬ 
stant round of attractions and the exhibits 
of machinery, live stock and farm products 
have grown far away from the older fair. 
There was noticeable improvement this 
year in the fruit exhibits. The old plan 
of a contest between the two great associa¬ 
tions of fruit growers has been abandoned 
and in place of it, there were more ex¬ 
hibits of Oranges and County organizations. 
The arrangement of the fruit halls was 
greatly improved and the new cattle barn 
or hall was a vast improvement over the 
old dark sheds. Exhibitors still persist in 
keeping their cattle blanketed. Visitors 
want to see how the stock looks. They 
are not so much interested in heads, feet 
and tails sticking out of a garment made 
by sewing feed sacks together. The new 
is crowding out the old. In front of one 
of the newer buildings stood an old man. 
We have seen him—a familiar figure—at 
the State Fair for 20 years. lie stood 
looking out over acres of automobiles 
parked near the entrance to the grounds, 
while over his head sailed a flying machine 
carrying its passenger with the speed and 
grace of a great bird. The shrug of the 
old man's shoulders as he turned away 
from the scene was characteristic of the 
men and customs which are marching off 
the stage. It would be impossible to do 
justice to such an exposition in any ordi¬ 
nary report. We shall take up the various 
departments and try to show how they 
reflect the tendencies of New York farming. 
Philadelphia Market Investigation. 
Director Cooke, of the Philadelphia De¬ 
partment of Public Works, has issued a 
report on the high cost of living in that 
city and recommended remedies for the 
present condition. He finds that the chief 
causes are profits of the middlemen and 
transportation difficulties. He suggests the 
development of a through trolley freight 
system covering the farming districts 
within 40 miles of the city, with adequate 
trolley freight terminals, so that produce 
may be shipped direct from the producer 
to the consumer or to municipal retail 
stores: and strict regulation of existing 
markets. Mr. Cooke finds that many city 
peddlers and jobbers monopolize the public 
market stalls, calling themselves farmers, 
and that comparatively few actual farmers 
come to the city to sell their produce, as 
the wagon hauls are too long. With ade¬ 
quate trolley freight and transfer service 
many more farmers would patronize the 
markets. In many cases now trolley 
freight has to be transferred from the 
terminals to the market by trucks, thus 
greatly adding to the cost. In other in¬ 
stances trolleys bringing freight from a 
distance have no freight arrangements with 
the city lines, or the cars are of a dif¬ 
ferent gauge or wheel flange, so that they 
cannot bo used on the city tracks. All of 
these difficulties cause one or more extra 
handlings of the produce. Mr. Cooke be¬ 
lieves that the city has power to regulate 
the markets and the methods of handling 
foods, so long as the result is for the 
benefit of those most interested, the con¬ 
sumers and producers. 
Horses. $100 to $300; cows. $30 to SCO; 
hay, $10 to $20: straw. $8; wheat, $1 10- 
corn. 95 cents; oats, 55 cents per bushel! 
No manure sold by farmers, but farmers 
haul it from Buffalo and in most cases 
get it for the hauling, in some instances 
pay $1 per horse per year. No silage sold 
here and not much used. Farmers are 
going out of the milk business on account 
of restrictions imposed by the Department 
of Health of Buffalo, which forbids the 
use of wet brewers’ grains, without which 
farmers say they cannot sell milk at prices 
offered. 10 cents per gallon. j. h. k. 
Wi' ,s 'Mnsville, N. Y. 
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 givo men and women 
who possess tiie courage of conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think about certain things which interest 
country people]. 
Senator Bourne aud Postal Graft. 
The R. N.-Y. was very much inclined to 
find fault with the farmers of Oregon last 
Spring for their failure to support Senator 
Bourne in the primary campaign. This 
has been brought back to my mind by an 
editorial in the issue of August 24 of The 
R. N.-Y. wherein you take to task Senator 
Penrose of Pennsylvania for using the 
franking privilege to send political matter 
through the mails into Massachusetts. 
Senator Bourne in the primary campaign 
last Spring used the same privilege to send 
some of his speeches, made in the Senate 
and printed by the Government, to the 
voters of Oregon in all parts of the State. 
To make matters worse the “Corrupt Prac¬ 
tices Act” in force in Oregon limits the 
expenditure of candidates for office, an act 
for which Bourne claims the credit. This 
naturally gave him an unfair advantage 
over his rivals. You also gave him credit 
for remaining in Washington, attending to 
his legislative duties, instead of returning 
to Oregon to look after his campaign. As 
a matter of fact Bourne has never made 
a campaign speech, at least not since his 
election to office. His campaign work is 
mostly underground and out of sight, but 
quite effective nevertheless. 
Our Progressive politicians from Roose¬ 
velt down are just like all other brands— 
much more concerned about the other fel¬ 
low’s sins than about their own. The trick 
of shouting “Stop thief!" is about as old 
as time. When you come right down to 
tno bottom of the matter the breaking 
down of the old political system was not 
due so much to the system as to the sloth- 
and indifferent citizenship behind it; 
citizenship that has been willing to let 
politicians run the country so long 
their own business was not interfered 
rather than fight for their political 
have all the latest frills in up- 
government here in Oregon, 
would take a powerful microscope 
any difference between the old 
politicians and the new. or to 
snow that we are any better governed 
anyone doubting this should read the re- 
report of the vice commission on the 
rp , conditions in our city of Portland. 
I he attempts that have been made to im¬ 
prove our political conditions by new legis¬ 
lation have simply been attempts to cure 
our political diseases by doctoring tho 
™^- pt i? ms ’ A . s , wp11 attempt to cure small- 
pox by anointing the surface eruptions. 
The seat of the trouble lies much too deep 
«?-«tn m CUre A >y . nny mere change in political 
"Improvement in our political 
conditions, to be at all permanent, will 
nave to come from an awakened and en- 
ligbtened upright Christian citizenship 
that can and will fight for its liberties 
Mich a citizenship, instead of crying for 
now weapons, will effectively use those al- 
at hand. The question that must 
i« or, , 4 10 m ], nd , of , ev ery patriotic citizen 
or f r r 7 y '!T k such a citizenship, 
or doos it only need an awakening? Time 
alone will tell. E . b 1uman 
Oregon. 
R. N.-Y —In the same mail as the above 
conies part of a package bearing the frank 
Congressman .Tames M. Cox of Ohio 
contained a pamphlet on the proposed 
amendments. We oppose these forms 
of postal graft—no matter who stands 
them—and we shall expose them 
possible. 
ful 
a 
the 
as 
with 
rights, 
to-date 
hut it 
to show 
brand of' 
cent 
moral 
We 
State 
ready 
arise in 
of 
r l’h is 
Ohio 
for 
wherever 
Northwestern Canada Wants Reciprocity. 
One of our correspondents reports hear- 
ing from a friend in Western Canada We 
print the following note to show whiit the 
<anadian government and the railroads are 
doing for settlers and what the Canadians 
hope to obtain through reciprocitv with 
this country : 
“He says that ho has $G00 saved, and 
when he gets it up to $1,200 he will take 
UP a tract and go in for farming and fruit 
raising on the half crop plan ; that is tho 
railroad will sell him land and he is to 
pay for it by Installments of half his crops 
until it is paid for The purchaser agrees 
to crop at least 50 per cent of tho land 
bought. This heads off land speculation. 
According to his statement, the Canadian 
Pacific and Grand Trunk roads hold land 
grants of from 12,000,000 to 18 000 000 
acres each. Where they are now con 
I1 "‘ cedar and balsam trees from 
1 . 2( J to_ 200 feet high are cut to clear the 
right of-way The G. T. P. is constructing 
a chain of hotels at scenic points such as 
Jasper Park (forest reserve). Roche Mietto 
£° t 1 A P o« Dg J' * nd Mt Robson. The latter 
is 14 ,20 feet high, and has never been 
ascended to the peak, although both the 
Alpine Club and the government offer large 
rewards for so doing. This Summer a 
party got above the 10.000-foot line, but 
could not reach the summit. It is ex¬ 
pected that the road will be through so as 
to make transcontinental connections bv 
next Summer. Immense quantities of 
produce are awaiting transportation At 
one place on the Fraser River he saw im¬ 
mense log storehouses from 300 to 000 
feet long filled and over 7,000 tons of baled 
haj piled and covered with canvas It is 
waaTreciprodly.” 108 ’ N< "' ,bw ' st 
A State Produce Exchange. 
There 
may be a few persons who wonder 
why we make a Federal eommissionman's 
bill one corner of our farmer's platform 
They would not wonder if they knew how 
small shippers have been robbod 
honest commission 
by dis- 
morchants. The demand 
nation wide. California 
so far as to demand a 
to be controlled by tho 
California law the poo- 
legislation. and one of 
to be thus settled is a 
for such a hill is 
people have gone 
produce exchange 
State. Under the 
pie vote on direct 
the first measures 
measure contemplating a State exchange to 
help eliminate the extortionate profits of 
useless middlemen. Signatures are now be¬ 
ing obtained for sueh a law and it will 
probably pass—the first State effort to han¬ 
dle produce 
“The object of the State Produce Ex¬ 
change measure is, theoretically, to elimi¬ 
nate the middlemen and bring tho produc¬ 
ers of the State into direct contact with 
the consumers. It is the theory of the 
promoters that the adoption of the meas¬ 
ure will reduce tho cost of foods from 
one-fourth to one-half and after the first 
two years the State management will main¬ 
tain itself. A State Produce Exchange 
League has been formed to aid the initi¬ 
ative campaign and through it the petitions 
for the new statute have been circulated. 
This league originated among producers of 
the San Joaquin Valley, principally about 
Turlock, whose crops rotted on the ground 
several seasons it is asserted, because mid¬ 
dlemen’s organizations excluded tliem from 
the markets, except at losing prices. 
Powers of Commission. 
“Section 10. The said commission shall 
have power, and it shall be its duty, 
to organize, manage, control and carry on 
the business of receiving on consignment, 
selling and shipping to dealers aud con¬ 
sumers within or without the State of 
California, all agricultural, horticultural, 
dairy and farm products, and products 
manufactured or processed therefrom, 
which shall be grown, raised, produced, 
processed or manufactured within the State 
of California. 
“Section 12. The said commission shall 
have power and it is hereby made its duty, 
to receive, care for, as .far as practicable 
preserve, sell, dispose of and distribute all 
produce of every kind and nature consigned 
to it under the provisions of this act sub¬ 
ject, however, to its rules and regulations, 
which rules and regulations shall provide 
the conditions and requirements under 
which said commission will receive con¬ 
signments, and as to the amount and 
quantity thereof, which it may from time 
to time be able to receive and handle, and 
for such other matters as in the judgment 
of the commission may be necessary.’ 
“The commission is to provide a State 
label for all goods handled by it and imi¬ 
tation or mutilation of this iabel is made 
a misdemeanor. 
“Under its provisions the commission 
may receive and distribute or sell any 
California product, or food resulting from 
tho manufacture of California products and 
may establish markets wherever it deems 
it necessary for tho distribution of the 
stocks. 
“It is claimed by the promoters that it 
is not hostile to retailers, but is rather 
a help to them, as the enormous profits 
now demanded by the middlemen leave 
little margin for the retailer.” 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—United States Attorney Asa 
P. French announced September 5 that he 
had received orders from Washington to 
proceed with the inquiry into the dynamite 
“planting” in Lawrence during the textile 
strike there last Winter. William M. 
Wood, president of the American Woolen 
Company; Frederick E, Atteaux, a promi¬ 
nent business man, and Dennis J. Collins, 
of Cambridge, are under indictment by the 
Suffolk County Grand Jury for alleged con¬ 
nection with tills “planting.” On receipt 
of his orders Mr. French assigned to work 
on the case Kert de Belle, special agent of 
the Department of Justice at Chicago, who 
is now in Boston, and Fred P. Schmidt, a 
local agent of the department. Mr. French 
said that the government’s inquiry will be 
limited to investigation of the planting of 
19 sticks of dynamite in the trucks of a 
freight car which carried a consignment of 
mill goods from Lawrence to Philadelphia. 
A decision that is likely to increase the 
precautions employed by meat packing con¬ 
cerns in guarding their output against in¬ 
fection was handed down by Circuit Court 
Judge Walter C. Noyes in the Federal Dis¬ 
trict Court at New York September 5, 
when he overruled a demurrer filed by 
Armour & Co. in answer to a suit for 
$0,000 damages brought againts them by 
Sophie Kettorer. In this suit the plaintiff, 
who says that she is a German by birth 
and a resident of the Southern District of 
New York, claims to have been affected by 
trichinosis as the result of eating lachin- 
ker, one of the products of the Armour 
company. In their demurrer the defendants 
moved for a dismissal of the suit on the 
ground that the company does not deal di¬ 
rectly with the consumer but sells only to 
the dealer or middleman and that in con¬ 
sequence they are not responsible to the 
consumer. They contended that they owed 
the latter no duty whatsoever except the 
duty owing to all men “to refrain from 
knowingly aud wilfully inflicting injury.” 
Judge Noyes’s decision gives the defendants 
20 days in which to pay the costs of the 
court proceedings, after which they may file 
an answer. 
Eight persons were killed and more than a 
dozen injured at the Vailsburg Motordrome. 
Newark, N. .T., September 8, when the 
motorcycle ridden by “Eddy” Dasha, of 
Waco, Tex., got away from him and jumped 
the railing about the track where the 
bleachers and grandstand join. The motor¬ 
cycle, going at 92 miles an hour, mowed 
down a line of men and boys who were 
leaning over the railing at the edge of the 
track, killing four .and injuring many. 
Hasha was thrown against a heavy upright. 
His nock was broken and his skull was 
fractured. The heavy cycle rolled dowu 
the steeply banked track directly in front 
of the machine ridden by John Albright. 
Albright was unnbic to avoid the other 
machine because of the great speed at which 
he was going, and when his motorcycle 
struck it lie was thrown a distance of 30 
feet, rolling unconscious to the bottom of 
the embankment. He died three hours 
later. Parts of the broken machine (lew 
into the grandstand, striking men aud boys 
and badly injuring them. 
William W. Gale, president of the Gale 
Electric Company, of Now Haven, Conn., 
was instantly killed and his wife badly 
crushed when the automobile which he was 
driving became unmanageable and turned 
over near Amsterdam. N Y., September 8. 
Tlie machine was making close to GO miles 
an hour, when Gale approached the abrupt 
curve just east of Fonda, and unaware 
of the turn of tbe road he did not slacken 
the speed of his car. It skidded, struck a 
stone and turned three complete revolutions 
before bringing up against a stone culvert. 
Mr. Gale was about 45 years old, was sec¬ 
retary-treasurer of the American Rose Comb 
Brown Leghorn Club, of New Haven, Conn. 
Thirty-five people were injured, five of 
them fatally, when a special Lake Shore 
electric car with a trailer attached crashed 
into a brewery truck, four miles west of 
Rocky River, near Cleveland, O., Septem¬ 
ber 8. The ears were crowded with a 
party bound to a clambake. 
Five men were killed and thousands of 
dollars’ worth of damage was done as the 
result of the wreck of a fast freight train 
on the New York Central near Fort Plain, 
N. Y., September 8. The five wreck vic¬ 
tims were boating their way on tho train, 
which was running at high speed when a 
car truck broke. The car left the tracks 
and others to the rear followed, until 20 
or more had crashed together and were 
strewn in all directions, tearing up rails 
and roadbed for hundreds of feet. 
The United States navy is to have for 
its exclusive use a vast oil field in Cali¬ 
fornia from which it will obtain fuel for 
its oil burning fighting ships. President 
Taft has withdrawn 37,000 acres of oil 
lands in the Elk Hills, California, for the 
exclusive purpose of serving as a reserve 
source of fuel for the navy. The tract 
withdrawn is adjacent to the Midway and 
McKIttrick oil fields, and tests already made 
indicate that there is present 250,000,000 
barrels, or 25 years supply, at a liberal 
estimate of tbe probable consumption in 
the navy. 
OBITUARY.—Cluis. L. Yates, secretary- 
treasurer and business managed of The 
National Nurseryman and treasurer of the 
American Association of Nurserymen, died 
suddenly at Rochester, N. Y., Sept. 4. 
He was 55 years of age. Prof. John Craig, 
late editor of The National Nurseryman, 
died a few weeks earlier. Ernest Hem¬ 
ming, of Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa., 
has been appointed as the successor of the 
late Prof. Craig. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Twin City 
Poultry and Pigeon Association, composed 
of fanciers from Royersford, Spring City, 
Parker Ford and Linfleld, will hold their 
third annual poultry and pigeon show in 
Spriug City, Pa., November 27, 28, 29 
and 30. A large, well lighted building 
has been secured with more than double 
the floor space of the building used for tbe 
show of 1911. Two hundred now coops 
have been ordered in addition to the large 
number of coops now owned by the asso¬ 
ciation. Harry Wolsieffer, II. M. Kenner 
and John W. Poley will judge the show, 
which promises to be larger than that of 
last season. 
Dr. Wiley’s noted “poison squad” is to 
be imitated in tests on horses and cattle 
at the government's experimental (farm, 
near Bcthesda, Md. “Sulphured oats” and 
other treated grains, the food value of 
which is causing a controversy between 
the pure food authorities and the grain 
men of the Middle West, will be fed to the 
animals for a short period, and on the 
results probably will depend an industry 
of about $30,000,000 a year. 
State Bacteriologist H. H. Waite, of the 
University of Nebraska, has discovered the 
germ which causes the mysterious diseases 
that have been killing horses in Kansas 
and that State, according to a statement 
given out by Governor Aldrich September 
9. The germ is said t’o enter the horse’s 
head through the mouth or nostrils aud 
thence find its way to the brain. Tho germ 
is supposed to diffuse itself through the 
atmosphere as well as hay or other proven¬ 
der. The National Department of Agri¬ 
culture is now eo-operating with State 
authorities in studying the disease. 
The Secretary of Agriculture has de¬ 
cided to establish an experiment station on 
the Manti national forest, near Ephraim, 
Utah, for the study of grazing and water 
protection problems. Already tbe gather¬ 
ing of observations on the relations of 
erosion and run-off to the forest cover has 
begun. Ephraim and other towns in its 
neighborhood have suffered severely from 
floods following violent rainstorms in tbe 
mountains, and it has been proved con¬ 
clusively that the overgrazed condition of 
areas on which the natural vegetative cover 
has been seriously altered is responsible 
for the formation of torrents and the rapid 
discharge of debris-laden flood waters. One 
of the objects of the study will be to learn 
how the maximum of grazing use of nat¬ 
ural forest land can he obtained without 
injury to forest reproduction and stream 
flow. The national forests provide range 
during a part or all of the year for a con¬ 
siderable part of tbe stock produced in the 
Western States. The experts of the de¬ 
partment believe that when the ranges, 
which were denuded by many years of im¬ 
proper use, are restored to a 'normal con¬ 
dition of productivity it will be possible 
to provide feed for a much larger number 
of stock without injury to forest growths 
or watersheds. 
The Rank of the Nation of Uruguay will 
establish local loan banks throughout the 
republic to make loans to farmers requir¬ 
ing financial assistance so that the agri¬ 
cultural resources of the dountry may 
have every opportunity of development. 
The commission charged with the reform 
of the Uruguayan Constitution has begun 
its work. 
Iv 1911, 142.189.329 tons of soft coal 
were mined in Pennsylvania. The number 
of miners employed was 182.053. 
Trespassing Deer. — Regarding New 
Englanders who are “pestered" by wild 
deer, would like to offer a suggestion. As¬ 
suming that the deer belong to tbe State, 
would the farmer not be within his legal 
rights if he would serve notice on the 
State game warden that the deer were tres¬ 
passing and that if they returned they 
would be shot? My idea is that the State 
has no more rights than an individual to 
pasture its stock on my place and destroy 
my crops, and while I could not sue the 
State for damages a.s I could an individual, 
I would be justified in using extreme meas¬ 
ures to protect my property. e. n. g. 
Turner, Ore. 
