THE RURAE NEW-YORKER 
11S6 
1912. 
AGRICULTURAL CREDITS IN EUROPE. 
No. 4. 
The people of Switzerland have about 
400 years’ experience in self-govern¬ 
ment. The majority of the people are 
farmers and laborers, and whatever 
their other shortcomings, they have at 
least learned to use the instrumentalities 
of republican government to further the 
mutual interests of its citizens. The 
Swiss are a sober and law-abiding peo¬ 
ple. They make the laws themselves, 
and each individual is interested in en¬ 
forcing them. The legislature is used 
to give form to the laws the people 
want and demand, but if the legislature 
passes a law they do not want they refer 
it to a referendum vote and kill it, and if 
the legislature refuses a law that the 
people want it is referred to the initiative 
and adopted. Legislators undersuch con¬ 
ditions would become rather subservient 
to public demands. Officers of the re¬ 
public are elected annually, but the Gov¬ 
ernment is administered by bureau offi¬ 
cials, also elected yearly by the deputies, 
but these bureau officials are seldom 
changed, one man being retained at the 
head of a bureau for years, irrespective 
of a change in political administration. 
The budget of the expenses is made up 
each year and a fund raised to meet it, 
so that the Government is not depend¬ 
ing upon an annual appropriation of the 
legislature as with us, directing a cer¬ 
tain proportion or sum to be paid for a 
particular purpose, whether it is all 
needed or otherwise. 
The Republic is composed of 22 can¬ 
tons, corresponding in political divisions 
to our States. Similar to our own State 
experience, the canton banks were origi¬ 
nally banks of issue, but a later law 
created a national bank with the exclu¬ 
sive privilege of issuing currency. This 
national bank, however, is controlled by 
the cantons and the canton banks, and 
the profits of the bank of issue go to 
the canton and canton banks. There is, 
however, a small percentage of the stock 
of this bank held by individuals, and, of 
course, these individuals share in the 
dividends. A feature of the law govern¬ 
ing this national bank is that bills origi¬ 
nating in agricultural transactions, and 
representing agricultural credits, must 
be treated with exactly the same con¬ 
sideration as bills originating in com¬ 
mercial business or other enterprises. 
The national bank of issue does not 
loan money on farm mortgages, but the 
canton or State laws provide canton 
banks especially organized for the pur¬ 
pose of lending money on mortgage to 
purchase or for the purpose of im- 
provment of farm property. The ap¬ 
plication for these loans must be 
made in writing by the farmer 
and must contain a full and de¬ 
tailed report, of the value and general 
conditions of the farm. This applica¬ 
tion must be examined and approved 
by the communal authorities, who some¬ 
what correspond to the county or town¬ 
ship officials with us. They have the 
authority to disapprove or modify or 
reject the report, but if the loan is made 
on their recommendation by the bank, 
and the bank afterwards suffers a loss 
because of misrepresentation in the ap¬ 
plication approved by the communal au¬ 
thorities, then the bank may go into 
court and prove such misrepresentation 
and recover from the commune. If, 
however, the application is shown to be 
correct at the time that the loan was 
made, and the cause of the loss to the 
bank due to other conditions or subse¬ 
quent events, the commune would not 
be responsible, and the loss would fall 
on the bank. The banks are authorized 
to charge per cent, interest on these 
mortgage loans, and 1 per cent, annually 
is collected extra as an annuity to create 
a sinking fund for the ultimate payment 
of the loan. This amortization prin¬ 
ciple is a feature of practically all of 
the most successful land loaning banks 
and associations of Europe. Under this 
plan the Swiss borrower pays 5per 
cent, annually on his mortgage and the 
mortgage is liquidated or wiped out in 
about 41 years. 
The mortgage bank of Switzerland is 
a government cantonal under •govern¬ 
ment control, with branches in various 
communes, and organized like our sav¬ 
ings banks for special purposes. Its 
purpose in Switzerland is the loaning of 
money on farm mortgages. The system 
has the peculiar feature of a communal 
government guarantee for a loan made 
by a government bank to an individual. 
This feature seems peculiar to Switzer¬ 
land. I found nothing similar to it in 
any of the other countries, and it is said 
to be a very satisfactory feature. In 
case of an error by the communal au¬ 
thority in approving an erroneous ap¬ 
plication, the commune has the authority 
by law to take over the claim and pro¬ 
tect its own interest, but few cases of 
the kind arise, and the losses to either 
bank or commune are insignificant. 
Besides these mortgage loans, loans 
are made to individual farmers or to a 
community of farmers for the purpose of 
drainage, fencing, protecting from moun¬ 
tain slides, road improvements, buildings, 
etc., both by the communes—which, as 
stated above, correspond to our counties 
or townships—and sometimes by the 
Federal Government. In these cases the 
application is made out to the commune. 
The money available by the commune 
may not be sufficient in the judgment 
of the officials to justify the full loan, 
but they may make a partial loan of 
say 20 per cent, and then pass the bal¬ 
ance on to the canton. The canton in 
the same way may make a loan of an¬ 
other 20 per cent, and pass it on to the 
National Government, which, for the 
sake of illustration, may make another 
20 per cent. loan. This would furnish 
60 per cent, of the amount required for 
the improvement. In such a case the 
farmer is allowed to borrow the other 
40 per cent, of an individual, and this 
40 per cent, claim becomes a first claim 
on the farm ahead of the commune, can¬ 
ton or national loan, provided the sub¬ 
sidy from the Government and the loan 
are used to improve the land and in¬ 
crease the value of the farm. The loan 
of 40 per cent, must, of course, be repaid 
with interest to the individual borrower, 
but the subsidies or contributions from 
the commune, canton or republic are not 
repaid. These loans are made as sub¬ 
sidies from money collected in the budget 
for the purpose, and are, in fact, gratui¬ 
tous. The various Government divisions 
simply see to it that the money is ex¬ 
pended for the purpose of improvement 
as indicated in the application. During 
the past 15 or 20 years farmers in 
Switzerland have become very prosper¬ 
ous under this system of arm credits. 
JOHN J. DILLON. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—On the ground that he was 
made partly blind by wood alcohol sold to 
him for white wine, a jury before Supreme 
Court Justice Davis in New York returned 
a verdict of $3,500, November 7, for Joseph 
Lessing in a suit against Samuel Syrop, a 
liquor dealer. The court denied a motion 
to set aside the verdict. Lessing sued for 
$ 10 , 000 . 
Andrew Carnegie swore off his personal 
taxes in New York, November 7. lie said 
he hadn't a cent of personal property in 
the world that wasn’t offset by contracts 
for libraries, pensions, peace palaces and 
other extravagant pastimes which had 
plunged him head over heels into debt. Mr. 
Carnegie was assessed for $10,000,000. His 
taxes would have been $183,000. 
D.v a vote of three to two the Appellate 
Division in New York affirmed, October 8. 
a judgment for $8,823 obtained against 
the Standard Oil Company by John .T. 
Moran. Moran was an independent dealer 
in oil products when he was induced to 
sign a contract to sell the Standard’s 
goods. He testified that he sustained a 
loss of nearly $25,000 because the trust 
supplied him with inferior and imperfect 
merchandise, which was returned to him 
by his customers, and he was compelled to 
deduct the price of these goods from the 
bills of his customers. 
Fire in the silk and lace and jewelry 
departments of the Oinibel Brothers’ de¬ 
partment store at Philadelphia. November 
9, caused a loss of approximately $100,000 
before it was under control an hour and 
a half later. Much of the damage was 
from smoke and water. 
In the hearing about express rates be¬ 
fore the State Railroad Commissioners at 
San Francisco, November 7, Evan .T. Pills- 
bury, counsel for the Wells-Fargo Express 
Company, declared that when the new con¬ 
tract was made for exclusive privileges 
over Southern Pacific lines not only did 
the express company have to agree to give 
up 40 per cent of the charges to the rail¬ 
road but it had to give a cash bonus of 
$700,000 and $1,250,000 in stock, making 
with the increase in the value of the stock 
since then a bonus of between $2,000,000 
and $3,000,000. The inquiry has shown 
that in California express rates are four 
times what they are in manv Eastern 
States. 
Graphic stories of how he caused ex¬ 
plosions. how ho carried dynamite in suit¬ 
cases on passenger trains and checked the 
explosive at railway stations without think¬ 
ing of danger to others, how he waited to 
place bombs so night watchmen would not 
see him and how from every city where 
he blew up a “job” he sent a souvenir 
spoon home to his wife in Chicago, were 
related by Ortie E. McManigal on the 
witness stand in the trial of the 45 accused 
dynamite plotters at Indianapolis, Novem¬ 
ber 9. McManigal asserted he attempted 
to protect the lives of people whenever 
setting off a bomb. At his first job in 
Detroit, on .Tune 25, 1907, ho told of 
pushing a garbage barrel against, the rear 
door of a restaurant, so the neople would 
not run out and be injured or killed at an 
explosion across an alley. McManigal con¬ 
tinued an amazing story November 11. He 
told of numerous dynamiting jobs in as¬ 
sociation with James B. McNamara, with 
Herbert S. lloekin, now secretary-treasurer, 
as paymaster, and with John J. McNa¬ 
mara ; also of how he had received only a 
part of the money that had been appro¬ 
priated for the dynamiting and how he 
had complained to .T. .T. McNamara that 
lloekin had robbed him and how restitu¬ 
tion was made. At no time in the recital 
did he hesitate for a word or attempt to 
refresh his memory. Every place that he 
had visited, the hotels at which he had 
stopped, the trains that carried him, the 
amount of explosive that he used, all 
seemed as fresh in his memory as though 
the events had taken place but yesterday. 
A proof of the remarkable memory of the 
witness was given time and again, when 
hotel registers were handed him and the 
dates and names under which he had regis¬ 
tered corresponded in every particular with 
his statement before the records were pro¬ 
duced. 
A jury before Supreme Court Justice 
Amend in New York found a verdict of 
$8,500, November 11, for the death of Miss 
Edith Offner, stenographer in the office 
of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, who was 
killed on December 19, 1910, while walking 
at Fiftieth street and Lexington avenue, 
as a result of the explosion of Pintsch gas 
in the New Y'ork Central yards. This case 
is the first resulting from that explosion 
to be tried. Many claims were settled. 
Fourteen persons were killed and 90 in¬ 
jured in a railroad wreck near Mountz. 
La., November 11. It was said to be due 
to negligence in flagging an oncoming 
freight train, which crashed into the rear 
end of a crowded excursion train. 
Six men were killed by an explosion of 
2.000 pounds of dynamite in the Aetna 
Powder Company’s plant near Gary, Ind., 
November 12. The men who lost their 
lives were repairing one of the packing 
machines. The dynamite was loose in 100- 
pound lots on the packing trays, and ex¬ 
cept for this the damage would have been 
much more severe. 
Michigan saloon keepers have petitioned 
county authorities to throw out the vote 
on woman’s suffrage on the technical 
ground that the amendment was not 
printed in full on the ballot, as required 
by the State Constitution. The disputed 
ballots were printed in accordance with 
the resolution of the Legislature, and the 
lawyers for the women maintain that this 
will je sufficient to give them legality. 
Seveial lawyers voluntarily appeared in 
defense of the ballots, and say they will 
takt the case to the Supreme Court if 
necessary. 
New Story by the “Hope Farm Man” 
“THE CHILD” 
One would think the “ Hope Farm Man” 
ought to know something about children, 
though he does not pretend to be a novelist 
T HERE are two great farm problems, each in itself binding together 
the complexities of economic law and personal sentiment. One 
of these is the farm family without a child, the other the farm 
crop without a market. Both these problems are united in <s The Child,” 
and in their union we feel the way to a solution. There is pathos in the 
farmhouse where husband and wife grow gray together, without the echo 
of a young voice about them, but there is a pathos equally great in the 
fertile farm that must see hungry hands reaching along the way for its 
earnings, because the farmer feels tied to old custom in the midst of 
economic changes. Add to these problems a story of everyday neighbors 
—the humor and pathos of “ the common lot,” and you have the 6alient 
features of the new story. 
The Story will be ready for delivery early in December 
The Rural New-Yorker 
409 Pearl St., New York City 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Fruit from the 
famous Ontario orchards will be shown at 
tJho Ghent, Belgium, exposition opening 
next Spring. Arthur W. Despard, Pro¬ 
vincial Government expert, has been pre¬ 
paring the fruit for packing and Shipment 
to Belgium. The fruit is preserved on its 
nranenes, an operation of much delicacy 
and requiring great care and skill. 
Following out the plan of establishing 
farm bureaus at various stations along its 
lines, tile Delaware, Lackawanna & VVest- 
ern Railroad, which, in connection with 
the Department of Agriculture, has main¬ 
tained such stations at Binghamton, El¬ 
mira, N. Y., and Newton, N. .T., for the 
last two years, has announced that the 
work is to be pushed on and that in the 
near future two more stations are to be 
opened. The plan adopted by the Lacka¬ 
wanna Railroad was that of Prof. W. J. 
Spillman, head of the Bureau of Farm 
Management of the Department of Agri¬ 
culture. 
The sixteenth annual meeting of the 
United States Live Stock Sanitary Asso¬ 
ciation will be held at Hotel Sherman, 
Chicago. December 3 and 4, 1912. The 
association includes all leading Federal and 
State live stock sanitary officials. It has 
done good work in securing uniformity in 
State live stock sanitary laws and quar¬ 
antine regulations. All State veterinarians, 
members of live stock sanitary boards and 
officials interested in Federal, State or 
municipal live stock sanitary control work 
are cordially invited to attend. Particu¬ 
lars can be had of the secretary, J. J. 
Ferguson, Union Stock Yards, Chicago. 
Twenty Jewish young men and women 
are to spend this Winter in agricultural 
colleges at the expense of the Jewish Agri¬ 
cultural and Industrial Aid Society. The 
competition giving them scholarships con¬ 
sisted of essays in English upon some 
agricultural topic. 
The Massachusetts Agricultural College, 
Amherst, Mass., will hold a school of apple 
packing January 23-29, 1913. The packing 
school will be under the personal direction 
of Prof. F. C. Sears, head of the Depart¬ 
ment of Pomology of the college. The in¬ 
struction in packing will be given by Mr. 
It. W. Rees, Extension Instructor in 
Pomology, who has had large experience in 
box packing in Oregon. The work will con¬ 
sist in grading apples for the various kinds 
of markets; packing in boxes, fancy pack¬ 
ages and barrels. Those taking the course 
will perform all the operations of prepar¬ 
ing fruit for the commercial markets, until 
they become proficient in each step. Spe¬ 
cial lectures and demonstrations will be 
arranged for those who attend, on such 
subjects as selecting orchard sites, plant¬ 
ing, fertilizing, pruning, spraying, manage¬ 
ment of orchards, markets and marketing. 
The National Poultry Association has 
been organized in Havana, Cuba, with 
branches ail over the island, for the pur¬ 
pose of promoting the breeding of all kinds 
of poultry on a large scale. 
THE BALKAN WAR.—The Sheik-ul- 
Islam, head of the hierarchy in Turkey, 
issued November 8 an appeal for a holy 
war. The Sheik-ul-Islam, though an ap¬ 
pointee of the Sultan, wields a power 
greater than the Sultan, not only in the 
Ottoman dominions, but in all the Ma¬ 
hometan world. He it is who has the 
sole power to depose the Sultan and to 
proclaim all true followers of the Prophet 
relieved of all further allegiance toward 
the monarch whom he has pronounced 
unfit to reign. No Sultan can be re¬ 
moved or his successor appointed without 
a felvah, or decree of the Sheik-ul-Islam, 
who can likewise prohibit the execution 
of any command of the Sultan when he 
considers it contrary to the Multeka, a 
legal code based on the traditional say¬ 
ings of Mahomet and the recorded decisions 
of his successors. The United States cruis¬ 
ers Montana and Tennessee steamed down 
the Delaware River on November 11, 
bound for Constantinople, where they will 
protect lives and property of Americans. 
I he latest orders received by Rear Admiral 
Austin M. Knight, who is in charge of the 
expedition, was to make the Eastern port 
with all haste. Assurances were con¬ 
veyed to the Department of State, Novem¬ 
ber 12, by the Russian Embassy at Wash- 
uigton that Russia will join with Great 
Britain in protecting American interests in 
Turkey and in Turkish waters. In the 
harbor at Constantinople are two British 
two Russian, two French, two Italian, two 
Austrian and one German war vessel, in 
addition to the statlonaries regularly main¬ 
tained there by the various nations. An¬ 
other German vessel, a Spanish and a 
Dutch vessel and two Italian hospital ships 
are expected to arrive shortly. Bubonic 
plague is reported at StambouL The vic¬ 
tories of the Allies continue. 
The local market takes about every- 
tiling produced here. Prices to farmers 
are about as follows: Potatoes, (50 to 
0;> cents per bushel; crop good, but much 
complaint of rot. Cabbage, $4 per 100 • 
crop good. Apples. 60 cents to $1 per 
bushel, as to quality. Milk, four to five 
Pfr quart, mostly 4y a cents. Hay, 
$20 and up per ton. j. M . B 
Dallas, Pa. 
• Srade, 350 to $75; horses, $150 
to $-00. Hogs, eight cents, live weight. 
Chickens, 13 to 15 cents. Hay, $15 per 
ton. pressed. Milk, $1.40 per can of 40 
quarts. Buckwheat, $1.20 per 100 pounds. 
Cabbage, $3 to $4 per ton; potatoes, 60 
to 75 cents per bushel; onions. 60 to 75 
cents per bushel; apples, 50 to 75 cents 
per bushel. This is the cabbage belt and 
there is an immense crop. Potatoes a 
heavy crop, but rotted so farmers will ’not 
have enough for own use. w u c 
Apulia, N. Y. 
Of course, there is a great variat’on in 
the prices of the same product sometimes, 
as the quality varies. Good cows are 
worth from $30 to $80, $80 at auction I 
am receiving for produce as follows: Po¬ 
tatoes, 60 cents; apples, 50 to 60 cents- 
butter, 32 to 35 cents. Sell our factory 
make of cheese at present and for the past 
six weeks. 17% cents. Milk at station to 
ship to Now York, $1.75 per 100. Cabbage, 
$o per ton, or two cents per head, retail 
Hay is worth $12 to $14 to press, from $12 
to $20 in Syracuse loose. g. b l 
Brewerton, N. Y. 
