1912. 
HOI 
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 alt that our 
correspondents say, but wo shall give men and women 
who possess the courage of conviction an opportunity to 
say what they think auout certain things which interest 
country people]. 
I HAVE DECIDED MY VOTE. 
Up to the past week I have been a 
Democrat; while Mr. Wilson was not my 
choice in the Baltimore convention, I had 
intended casting my vote for him, for I 
think he is a clean man, but after reading 
Mr. Roosevelt's speech at Hartford, Conn., 
September 2, I feel it my duty to vote the 
Progressive ticket. Roosevelt has pledged 
himself so strongly to carry out the very 
things that the country needs most that 
I think it the duty of everybody to lay 
aside party and help start the ball rolling. 
The cooperative loan system The R. N.-Y. 
has so often advocated, and which Mr. 
Roosevelt assures us that if the Progressive 
party gets in control they will try to 
get in operation, is one of the greatest 
needs of the country, as can be seen on 
every hand. The constant flow of emigra¬ 
tion to Canada shows this. The number of 
rented farms and the cry of the “back-to- 
the-landers” surely must be a sign of 
something wrong, and that there is help 
needed. There can be money loaned to 
dig canals, build railroads and otherwise 
for facilities to greater production. They 
can issue bonds for almost any desired 
length of time for such purpose. Why not 
loan money where it will produce* the 
goods to be hauled, thereby creating a 
source of payment for these improvements? 
Some no doubt will say it is too much 
of an undertaking, and that it would not 
pay. The way 1 look at it is that if 
there is a hard-working family in the city 
who can scarcely make both ends meet, 
they could buy one of those rented farms 
on the long-time loan system, one that is 
producing, we will say, $200 worth of 
crops per year, the tenant having to work 
out to make a living. The place is grow¬ 
ing up to bushes and otherwise deteriorat¬ 
ing. If the family is backed up so they 
can live on the place 10 years and at the 
end of that time be producing five times 
as much as the tenant produced, and the 
place worth five times as much as when 
he bought (of course any loan system 
would see that improvements were looked 
after), would not the increase in value 
of the property pay? If it would not, 
then how does Canada make it pay? 
Then again, right here is where we can 
hit the trusts, if they must be hit. If I 
have a thousand bushels of wheat and can 
borrow money to enable me to hold it 
until the price advances, while I shall not 
be forming a trust, I shall be regulating 
the price. When we get a loan system 
of this kind and sell direct to the con¬ 
sumer the trusts will fade away without 
having to be “busted.” We can go on 
forever seesawing with the tariff and 
neglect to improve the conditions to pro¬ 
duce the goods, and let three or four 
middlemen in between the producer and 
consumer and the 'high cost of living -will 
go on the same as ever. Cutting the tariff 
only increases the middlemen's plunder. 
Maryland. p. f. skinnek. 
Fair Credit for Farmers. 
Last week we sent the following letter 
to the leading Presidential candidates: 
“Dear Sir:—We consider the question of 
fair credits for loans on farm property of 
supreme importance at this time. At pres¬ 
ent our National banks are not permitted 
to loan money on real estate security, but 
they do loan freely on stocks and bonds of 
industrial enterprises. We feel that in 
this way the business of agriculture is 
often subjected to what we consider unfair 
discrimination. Farmers need capital with 
which to conduct their business, the same 
as manufacturers, merchants or carriers. 
Will you be kind enough to tell us if you 
will favor legislation which will give farm¬ 
ers as fair a chance to obtain credit as is 
given to other industrial classes?” 
Thus far we have received the following 
letters. Mr. Taft has not noticed the 
letter: 
The Progressive Candidate. 
As Colonel Roosevelt is at present away 
campaigning, I have been asked to reply 
to his mail. 
The Progressive party desires explicitly 
to improve the rural banking accommoda¬ 
tions and the improvement of rural credits. 
Colonel Roosevelt personally has always 
considered the farmer and the wage earner 
to be the two classes of people that should 
be most adequately cared for, and whose in¬ 
terests should be especially looked after. 
GEORGE EMLEN ROOSEVELT. 
The Democratic Candidate. 
In Governor Wilson’s absence, I beg to 
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
October 7 with reference to farmers’ cred¬ 
its. In a speech delivered by the Gov¬ 
ernor at Williams Grove, Pa., to the farm¬ 
ers, which appeared in the Philadelphia 
Record on August 30, he said with refer¬ 
ence to farmers’ credits : 
“The trustees represent also the big 
bankers in whose hands our banking sys¬ 
tem lies to be manipulated, and no Re¬ 
publican administration, no Republican 
Congress, has attempted to serve the 
farmer as he ought to be served in the 
matter of credits. It is practically im¬ 
possible for the farmer to borrow money 
on the kind of securities ordinarily de¬ 
manded at the banks. It does not serve 
his purpose to borrow it for the short 
periods insisted upon by most bankers. He 
needs, rather, long credits, and he needs 
them on his own kind of security. He 
can’t be mortgaging his farm every time 
he needs a little money. Other countries 
have discovered how to assist him. An ad¬ 
mirable system of agricultural societies has 
been developed in Ireland, and an excellent 
one in Germany, and the present Demo¬ 
cratic Congress has done nothing better 
than to provide for a careful investigation 
of this subject with a view to early fiction, 
so that the law may be fitted to the crea¬ 
tion of these new instruments of business 
which the farmer so much needs and ought 
to have. 
“Moreover, everything that relaxes our 
present stiff and stupid system of tariff 
taxation not only multiplies the markets in 
which the farmer may buy, but also brings 
the farmer very near to his natural partner 
and associate, the merchant. The mer¬ 
chants, by the way, constitute another 
large class of consumers. Their interest is 
tq see trade quickened and varied and mul¬ 
tiplied the world over, and they are the 
natural allies of the farmer. So are the 
manufacturers, if they but saw the real 
meaning of our time and the real limita¬ 
tions within which they are pent up. If 
our markets are not multiplied and our 
doors are not thrown open, I do not see 
how the farmer and most of the rest of 
us are to avoid being overwhelmed by the 
rising tide of domestic prices. We are 
told that prices are rising the world over, 
but if you look into the matter you will 
find that it is not so. They are rising in 
high tariff countries, but not in low tariff 
countries. 
“And if the farmer is indeed a partner 
with the rest of us, we shall give him 
good roads and better transportation, and 
we shall link the markets and the fields 
together in every possible way.” 
J. N. TUMULTY, 
Secretary to the Governor. 
The Fate of Co-Operation. 
I notice that Roosevelt or his people 
in their platform make this point: “Nearly 
50 per cent of the price of agricultural 
products paid by the consumer goes into 
the pockets, not of the farmer, but of vari¬ 
ous middlemen, and over half of what 
is thus paid to middlemen is needless, can 
be saved by wise business methods—intro¬ 
duced through both law and custom—and 
can therefore be returned to the farmer 
and consumer.” 
Will you pardon me if I make the sug¬ 
gestion that practically every cooperative 
movement which it has been my fortune 
to watch has been organized under a cor¬ 
porate law, and the managers or directors 
have watched it along until the original 
owners have paid for its establishment 
and taken the losses, if losses there were, 
until its foundation was secure, and then 
have taken the business over if it proved 
profitable as a corporate enterprise? It 
seems to me that this sort of thing should 
be stopped, for small investors have 
watched this work out in this way until 
they have no faith in cooperative work or 
companies. I am not a lawyer, and I 
have no lawyer friends who are not more 
in sympathy with corporate laws than they 
are with cooperative laws, in fact I don’t 
think there are any such things on the 
statutes or anywhere else as cooperative 
laws or customs. Why would it not be 
well enough to call attention to this, and 
begin to study what is needed to save the 
life of a cooperative institution if it does 
happen to be a profitable concern? g. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—A. C. Gould, an Alaska 
mining man, who arrived at Seattle, Oc¬ 
tober 13, told qf the finding of a valuable 
piece of ambergris by Dr. Elliott and 
George Bowes near Seward a few weeks 
ago. Elliott and Bowes were on the 
launch in Seward Harbor, when their way 
was barred by a large whale. They stopped 
the launch and watched the animal until 
it swam away, leaving on the surface of 
the churned water a lump of ambergris 
weighing 52 pounds. The find was taken 
to Seward, where it was valued at $40 
an ounce, or $33,000. 
, The New York State Education Build¬ 
ing at Albany has been dedicated and 
thrown open to the public. So far there 
has been an expenditure of about $5,500,- 
000 to erect, furnish and equip it, includ¬ 
ing books for the new State Library. New 
York is the first State in this country so 
to recognize the cause of education as to 
establish a separate building for such a 
public purpose. The construction cost $3,- 
500,000, furnishings and furniture, includ¬ 
ing lighting, mural decorations and library 
equipment, $1,200,000, while about $300,000 
so far has been spent in assembling books 
to replace the burned State Library. The 
State Education Building provides quarters 
for the administrative offices of the Edu¬ 
cation Department under the Regents of 
the University and State Commissioner of 
Education Andrew S. Draper, for the State 
Library, for the State Museum, and in ad¬ 
dition for an auditorium witn a seating 
capacity of 1,000. 
Caught by the unexpectedly early closing 
of navigation on the Iditarod steamboat 
route, a party of court officers, headed by 
United States Judge Fuller, is stranded 
near the mouth of Shageluk Slough, in a 
remote part of the lower Yukon district 
of Alaska. In response to an appeal for 
help Attorney-General Wickersham has 
cabled orders to Fairbanks that an attempt 
be made to send a relief expedition from 
Nulato, on the Yukon. In t.h*» party are 
Judge Fuller, Court Clerk Ilage, Court 
Stenographer Rowson, Deputy Marshal 
Snow, two guards and two prisoners, one 
of whom is Campbell, convicted of murder. 
All were passengers on the steamboat Little 
Delta, which was loft high on a sandbar 
by falling water. There is plenty of food 
aboard the steamboat. 
Encouraged by the success of the 20 
convicts led by the notorious Butch Dal¬ 
ton, who escaped from the State Peniten¬ 
tiary at Rawlins, Wyo., October 12, 10 
others, headed by Anton Pasquales, serv¬ 
ing a life term for murder, overpowered 
the turnkeys and liberated themselves, Oc¬ 
tober 13. Two weeks before the convicts 
in the prison lynched a negro convict and 
in doing so secured the keys to the cells. 
The keys were recovered, but the case with 
which they were secured induced the con¬ 
victs to make an attempt at escape. 
Twenty prisoners made a break and es¬ 
caped. Nine were recaptured before they 
reached the mountains. At the second at¬ 
tempt nine got among the hills and can¬ 
yons and a regular man hunt was organ¬ 
ized. 
Many letters have been introduced in 
the dynamite trial at Indianapolis. The 
letters are said by the Government to have 
been written by the defendants in arrang¬ 
ing for explosions for six years. They were 
taken from the files of the International 
Association of. Bridge and Structural Iron 
Workers. It is on'their contents and on 
extracts from the union’s monthly maga¬ 
zine and Ortie McManigal’s confession that 
District Attorney Charles W. Miller an¬ 
nounced the prosecution would base its 
charge that a conspiracy for the illegal in¬ 
terstate shipment of explosives on passenger 
trains knowingly was entered into. Mc- 
Manigal will not be Called as a witness until 
after 700 exhibits have been identified. His 
confession implicates others and also deals 
with the blowing up by him personally of 
21 open shop plants, scattered from Bos¬ 
ton to Los Angeles. Six hundred more wit¬ 
nesses already have been subpoenaed by the 
prosecution. Counsel for the defense, 
headed by Senator John W. Kern, have 
stated a great number of witnesses will 
testify as to the character of the labor 
union men on trial. 
A desperate lattempt to kill .Colonel 
Theodore Roosevelt failed at Milwaukee, 
October 14, when a bullet aimed directly 
at the heart of the ex-l’resldent and fired 
at short range by a would-be assassin 
spent its force in a bundle of manuscript 
containing the address which Colonel 
Roosevelt was to deliver there and only 
slightly wounded him. The assailant, who 
afterward said he was John Schrenk of 
No. 370 East Tenth street. New York, was 
all but lynched by the excited crowd which 
witnessed his attempt on the life of the 
ex-I’resident. In spite of the entreaties of 
physicians Colonel Roosevelt insisted on 
delivering his address. Schrenk was born 
in Erding, Bavaria. He is 36 years old 
and came to this country when he was 
nine years old with his parents. He had 
been engaged in the saloon business, as 
proprietor and as employe of members of 
his family, nearly all his life, until he de¬ 
cided that it was his duty to kill Colonel 
Roosevelt. Ho said ho had been personally 
acquainted with Roosevelt since the ex- 
President was Police Commissioner of New 
York, in 1895. Schrenk said he was at 
first attracted to him as a political per¬ 
sonage during the recent Republican Na¬ 
tional Convention in Chicago. Then he 
said he began to think seriously of him as 
a menace to his country when he cried 
“Thief!” at that convention. Ho looked 
upon his plan to start a third party as a 
danger to the country, he said. He said 
that his knowledge of history, gained 
through much reading, convinced him of 
this. He declared that he was convinced 
that if Colonel Roosevelt was defeated at 
the . Fall election he would again cry 
“Thief!” and that his action would plunge 
the country into a bloody civil war. 
Joseph V. Ueberall, who is alleged to 
have obtained nearly $40,000 from Li¬ 
thuanian and Polish laborers, was ar¬ 
raigned before Judge Swann, in New York 
General Sessions, October 14, on three in¬ 
dictments charging him with grand larceny. 
He was remanded to the Tombs in default 
of $10,000 bail. Ueberall came to New 
York in 1906. The Austrian Consulate is 
informed that he had just served a two- 
year sentence in Austria when he came. 
He hired offices at No. 31 Broadway, for¬ 
merly the home of the Austrian Consulate. 
He advertised the “Austria Collection Com¬ 
pany, European law, notarial and military 
office, in the former house of the I. & R. 
Austro-Hungarian Consulate General.” Many 
of his fellow countrymen flocked to the 
office, drawn by the fact that formerly it 
was occupied by their Consul. They gave 
to Ueberall their powers of attorney to 
dispose of land in the old country. They 
gave him money with which to send tickets 
to parents, brothers or sisters who were 
left behind. They deposited money with 
him to be sent to friends abroad. In 
every case where it was reasonably safe, 
it is alleged, Ueberall appropriated the 
money to his own use. Ueberall was ar¬ 
rested in Utica, N. Y., several months ago 
for swindling Annie Dombek, a servant, 
out of $350, “good and lawful money of 
the United States.” Unfortunately Annie 
had had her $350 changed into Austrian 
crowns before turning it over to Ueberall, 
and as crowns are not “good and lawful 
money of the United States,” it was de¬ 
clared a mistrial. 
War broke out in New York’s China¬ 
town, October 14, in broad davlight; four 
men were killed, two of these were white 
men and two were Chinamen. Three other 
white men were wounded in the general 
bombardment, one of whom probably will 
die in the Hudson Street Hospital. All 
the white men involved in the casualties 
were innocent by-standers. One horse was 
killed and another badly hurt. The rival 
tongs or secret societies, the Hip Sings 
and On Leongs, are believed to be re¬ 
sponsible. 
Judge Mayer in the criminal branch of 
the Federal District Court at New York, 
October 14, fined Harold R. Wakem of the 
firm of Wakem & McLaughlin, Inc., Chi¬ 
cago freight forwarders, $1,500 and sen¬ 
tenced him to a day’s imprisonment for 
taking rebates. This is the first time 
within the knowledge of the United States 
Attorney’s office that imprisonment has 
been imposed for this offense. Wakem was 
indicted for accepting from William L. 
Divine, import freight agent for the Chesa¬ 
peake & Ohio Railroad, “considerations.” 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The case of 
Henry Weston of Hempstead, I,. I., N. Y., 
against the Nassau & Suffolk Lighting Co., 
for an award for damages sustained in 
houses of carnations and Antirrhinums 
through a leak in the defendant company’s 
gas main, occurring about 40 feet from the 
plaintiff's greenhouses, was decided in the 
Supreme .Court at Mineola, October 8, the 
jury awarding Mr. Weston damages to the 
extent of $1,000. The case occupied the 
best part of two days, and a number of 
witnesses were examined for each side. The 
cause of the damage was clearly estab¬ 
lished. A feature of the defense was an 
attempt to establish a claim that the 
plaintiff was contributory in point of negli¬ 
gence in not reporting promptly trouble 
occasioned by the leak; and that the dam¬ 
age might have been caused through freez¬ 
ing. The evidence, however, proved the 
contrary, and the jury speedily rendered 
a verdict. 
An important meeting of the Florists’ 
and Nurserymen’s Association of Montana 
was held early in October at the State 
Nursery Company’s office at Helena. The 
following officers were unanimously re¬ 
elected : T. E. Mills, president; D. J. Tighe, 
vice-president; A. E. Calmettes, secretary 
and treasurer. Committees were appointed 
to promote the welfare and advancement 
of the organization during the ensuing 
year. General dissatisfaction was ex¬ 
pressed at the very inadequate accommo¬ 
dation provided by the State Fair Com¬ 
mission for housing and exhibiting horti¬ 
cultural products, and resolutions were 
passed asking the Legislature to make an 
appropriation for building a horticultural 
hail at the fair. 
TIIE BALKAN WAR.—A general war in 
the Balkans is now inevitable. Monte¬ 
negrins captured towns in Old Servia, Oc¬ 
tober 13, setting up provisional govern¬ 
ment. They were welcomed as liberators 
by the Serbs. Turkey has rejected the 
proposal contained in the collective note 
of the Powers, and at the same time the 
Balkan League’s reply to the Austro-Rus- 
sian note will express its regret at its 
inability to comply with the desire of the 
Powers, as it does not contain a sufficient 
guarantee for the execution of the pro¬ 
posed reforms. To this reply is appended 
a copy of the note handed to the Turkish 
Foreign Minister demanding that reforms 
in Macedonia in the spirit of Article XX IT I 
of the Treaty of Berlin be begun under 
the control of the Powers and the Balkan 
States, and demanding as a pledge of good 
faith immediate demobilization by Turkey. 
The reforms which the Balkan States arc 
demanding for Macedonia are, in detail, 
as follows: 
Provincial autonomy under Belgian or 
Swiss governor-generals. 
Free education. 
A militia gendarmerie commanded by 
Belgian or Swiss officers. 
The application of these reforms to bo 
by a superior council under the guarantee 
and control of the representatives in Con¬ 
stantinople of the great Powers and the 
Balkan States. Furthermore, the Turkish 
government must undertake to execute 
these reforms within six months and de¬ 
mobilize immediately. 
Greece has mobolized 150,000 automo¬ 
biles. Almost all privately owned motor 
cars have been presented to the govern¬ 
ment to be used in war. Wealthy Greeks 
the world over are contributing large sums 
to the national war chest. Despite the 
fact that hostilities have actually broken 
out between Turkey and the Balkan allies, 
conversations between the great Powers, 
having for an object a localization of the 
war and the prevention of any interna¬ 
tional complications, still continue. 
,TT RKO-GRECIAN WAR.—Turkey sub¬ 
mitted October 15 to the terms of a peace 
protocol arranged with Italy, at Ouchy 
Switzerland. A treaty will follow, which 
will provide : 
For absolute sovereignty of Italy in 
Lybia, without formal recognition there 
of Italy by Turkey. 
For free exercise of religious authority 
by the IChalif. 
For the withdrawal of Turkish regular 
troops from Lybia. 
For an indemnity to be paid by Italy 
equivalent to Lybia’s contributions to th*e 
Ottoman treasury. 
For the restitution to Turkey of the 
captured islands, with guarantees for the 
Christian peoples. 
For the re-establishment of former diplo¬ 
matic and commercial relations. 
That no indemnity be payable by either 
side toward the cost of the war. 
C R OPS 
Potato Outlook. 
( hill Station, Oct. 15.—'Farmers through¬ 
out this section are complaining that their 
late potatoes are rotting badly and their 
bean crop is almost a failure, due to the 
continued wet weather of the past few 
weeks. Winter wheat on the ground is 
looking unusually well for this time of 
the year. 
I he above, from the Rochester Democrat 
and Chronicle, confirms my own observa¬ 
tions in reference to potatoes, beans and 
wheat. You hardly realize how much con¬ 
tinued wet weather we have had. Not 
big rains, but enough to keep everything 
moist, and in addition very little sunshine 
The cloudy days of September were much 
above the average. Same was also true of 
August. c i 
Rochester, N. Y. 
Not many potatoes are being offered in 
this section at present. They were cheap 
about three weeks ago. I understand that 
there has been some kind of a disease in 
this section, and it does not look as 
though there will be as many as we first 
thought. H. r, s. 
Harrisburg, Pa. 
The potato crop in Maine would appear 
to us to be a large one. While some fields 
are not turning out as well as expected, 
others, especially new land, are showing 
heavy yields. There has been some of the 
usual Fall rot but not very serious, we 
think—and on the whole we look for heavy 
crop. This applies also to New Hamp¬ 
shire and Massachusetts. 
Boston. A. H. WEEKS & CO., INC. 
I find that about the southern part of 
Michigan State there is a fairly large crop. 
Better than 125 bushels per acre in nearly 
all places. Central Michigan, about half 
a crop, while in the eastern central part 
of the State about the thumb and close 
*>y there are barely any. This seems to be 
on account of the rains and excessive 
amount of water there. Northern Michigan 
has a fairly good yield and would think 
that, taking all of the north into consid¬ 
eration, there would be an average of about 
100 bushels per acre. Have seen several 
places in Southern Michigan where they 
are turning out 200 bushels per acre. 
Toledo, O. GEORGE WAGER. 
In Western New York we had the prom¬ 
ise of an exceptionally fine crop of pota¬ 
toes, but while they were still growing 
they were struck with blight, and now that 
harvesting has commenced, we find that on 
nearly all low lands there is dry rot to a 
greater or less extent, which is bound to 
make a material difference in the crop of 
marketable potatoes. I do not think, how¬ 
ever, that the rot is going to be serious 
and believe after they have been dug and 
the rot has had an opportunity to develop 
that the remainder will be very fine quality. 
Buffalo, N. Y. B. II. bean. * 
Wheat and oats are usually sold in bulk 
from the machine. At thrashing this year 
wheat brought 90 cents per bushel; mixed 
oats. 26 cents per bushel; white oats, 27 
cents per bushel. A few weeks ago old 
corn sold at 80 cents per bushel; now it 
is 60 cents. Some talk of starting new 
corn at 40 cents per bushel, but the ele¬ 
vators have not given out any statement 
as to price. Many farmers have strf.w 
and hay baled; sell at different times. 
Some keep entire crop of corn ' in cribs, 
selling at different times of year. 
Paris, Ill. e. B. r. 
