1214 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 30, 
PUBLISHER'S DESK 
In spite of repeated requests we still 
receive letters addressed to this depart¬ 
ment that do not contain the name or 
address of the writer. Such anonymous 
communications cannot receive consider¬ 
ation. Always sign full name and ad¬ 
dress when writing us—you need have 
no fear that your name will be printed 
without your permission. 
Enclosed find letter and order blank re¬ 
ceived from the International Corporate 
Farms Company, Minneapolis, Minn. I 
have been receiving literature from this 
company for some time; have never writ¬ 
ten them, but am receiving a letter every 
week or two. I thought I would send you 
the last letter I received and get your opin¬ 
ion on their business. As for myself they 
cannot get me to buy their stock. I am 
thinking if their statements were correct 
they would not have to go begging for buy¬ 
ers. I am not writing you asking you for 
myself, as I consider it foolishness to think 
of sending those men my money. But if 
those people are not doing an honest busi¬ 
ness the readers of your paper should re¬ 
ceive the warning. H. M. s. 
Pennsylvania. 
We are receiving inquiries about this 
concern from many farmers in different 
States. The company was organized in 
May, 1912, under the laws of South 
Dakota, capitalized at $2,000,000. The 
president of the company is Clifford 
Willis, editor of the Northwest Orange 
Judd Farmstead, one of the Herbert 
Myrick papers. An advertising solicitor 
of the same paper by the name of Kast- 
ner, is also said to be interested in it. 
The vice-president is J. O. Schuff, a re¬ 
tired farmer, of Jacksonville, Ill.; the 
treasurer, John M. Glasco, of Charles¬ 
ton, Ill., connected with a State bank, 
and the secretary is Andrew French, 
who is connected with a Minnesota 
dairy association, with office at St. Paul. 
With the inquiries we got long four- 
page letters and circulars of the bill¬ 
poster stamp, illustrated with farm 
schemes, and with the Adonis-like pho¬ 
tograph of Mr. Willis. It is intimated 
that the business is to be farming, and 
the profits are to be phenomenal—20 
per cent, profits—and the stock is to be 
worth double the face value, while 
you can get it, if you act quick, for half 
its face value, that is, two shares at the 
price of one. But we have read and re¬ 
read the long letters and highly colored 
circulars, yet fail to find a single definite 
record to show that the company actu¬ 
ally owns any farm, or a single word 
to show that the company has either 
assets or liabilities. The intimation to 
the casual reader is that they own and 
operate large farms; but no definite 
statement to that effect is found in the 
literature. In this it follows the cus¬ 
tom of the cunning and resourceful pro¬ 
moter in seeming to say what it literally 
does not say. Correspondents who in¬ 
quired as to the amount and definite lo¬ 
cation and value of the lands have not 
received reply. The promotion litera¬ 
ture sent out includes copies of several 
full-page letters of recent date from in¬ 
dividual instructors in agricultural 
schools, and other private and public 
institutions purporting to be indorse¬ 
ments of Mr. Willis and the other offi¬ 
cers of the company. These letters are 
generally of a formal character, and 
would have no influence whatever with 
experienced investors, though they may 
act as a sedative to the natural suspi¬ 
cions of a farmer with small experience 
in such matters. It is not at all probable 
that the writers, of these character let¬ 
ters knew that they were to be used to 
influence farmers to put their savings 
into gold-brick stock certificates. If 
they did the writers became accomplices 
in the schemes. 
The familiar style of the promotion 
letters and circulars is explained in the 
information that it was all written by 
T. B. Smith, a professional writer of 
mail order stock selling literature, vul¬ 
garly called “dope.” We are informed 
that Mr. Smith wrote and prepared the 
Dan Patch Air Line Railroad, referred 
to some weeks ago; and also that he 
wrote and prepared the poster circulars 
and follow-up letters sent out recently 
by Herbert Myrick, of Springfield, 
Mass., to promote the sale of stock in 
his Northwest Farmstead Company, 
which stock, as we have previously 
shown, seems to have cost Mr. Myrick 
about eight cents of its face, while poor 
men and women on the farms were in¬ 
duced to pay 100 cents for it. The style 
and character of these three different 
promotion schemes leaves little doubt 
of their common origin. 
Whether Herbert Myrick has any in¬ 
terest in the International Corporate 
Farms Company or not we are not ad¬ 
vised; but those who profess to know 
Mr. Myrick are not disposed to believe 
that he allows his employees to copy his 
schemes without a material share in the 
result. An alternative explanation is 
that these young men learned the easy- 
money scheme of stock selling from 
Mr. Myrick and adopted the plan for 
their own enrichment. The inquirers 
seem to be readers of one of Mr. My- 
rick's other papers, and this gives color 
to the suspicion that he may be inter¬ 
ested in the scheme, as the literature 
evidently goes to the subscribers of one 
or more of his papers, with which presi¬ 
dent and editor Willis is not connected. 
As the thing stands it is a scandal to 
the agricultural press. One of the farm¬ 
ers writes that he does not enjoy having 
the publisher of a paper to which he 
subscribes, use his name on a sucker 
list! He expresses the situation exactly. 
That is what it amounts to. A better 
example of gold-brick literature has not 
reached our desk. It is bad enough to 
have to endure such “dope” from the 
Lewis, Ellises and other professional 
schemers; but when it comes from the 
boastful virtues of the editor and pub¬ 
lisher of the farm press to allure the 
savings of the people they are supposed 
to protect,, it gives one a feeling of 
nausea. We see no way by which the 
publishers of legitimate farm papers can 
purge the agricultural press of such a 
scandal except by openly repudiating it, 
and doing what it can through publicity 
to protect the farming interests from 
it. 
The retrial of E. G. Lewis, the St. 
Louis promoter, has resulted in another 
disagreement. This is the third time 
Lewis has escaped through disagree¬ 
ment of juries, twice under this in¬ 
dictment and once on a former indict¬ 
ment. The charges in both indictments 
were for alleged fraudulent use of the 
mails. The question in this case hinged 
on the intent to defraud. There was no 
denial that Lewis got the money—mil¬ 
lions of it. It is admitted that the 
money is lost to the people who parted 
with it to Lewis. It is not denied that 
the promises of profits and rewards 
were extravagant and impossible of ful¬ 
filment. It is not disputed that the peo¬ 
ple who sent Lewis the money thought 
that they were getting secured mortgage 
notes, when they really got worthless 
notes of hand. The jury had only to 
consider whether Lewis intended to de¬ 
fraud the people at the time he influ¬ 
enced the people to send him the money. 
On this point the juries do not seem to 
agree. But in any event, sensible peo¬ 
ple who read the record of his schemes 
for the past 12 years, are likely to agree 
unanimously that their money is safer 
in their own pockets than in Lewis’ gold 
bricks. 
I received the enclosed letter to-day, 
which explains itself. lias the writer any 
rating and is he reliable? b. j. a. 
New Hampshire. 
The enclosed letter referred to was 
one from David Linden, 150 Court street, 
Brooklyn, November 12 date, soliciting 
egg shipments and promising to pay 65 
cents per dozen. This quotation is eas¬ 
ily 10 cents above the market price on 
that date. Mr. Linden has no financial 
responsibility that we are able to dis¬ 
cover. We cannot say what he had in 
mind when he made the quotation, but 
we do know that quoting prices above 
the market is an old trick of unreliable 
commission men and dealers, who, after 
they get the shipments, pay what they 
like—or do not pay for the goods at all. 
The Christian Herald calls attention 
to an item in Publisher’s Desk—page 
1038. A letter from a subscriber con¬ 
tains the following: 
In the Fall of 1906 I invested $1,500 in 
Ram’s Horn Publishing Company, Chicago, 
on the promise of six per cent, dividend. In 
1909 they sold out to the Christian Herald 
Company of New York and turned all 
stockholders over to the World’s Events 
Company. 
We had no thought of involving the 
Christian Herald in any questionable 
transaction. The Ram’s Horn was not 
bought by the Christian Herald. That 
paper purchased the subscription list 
from the Home Herald, which succeeded 
the Ram’s Horn. The Christian Herald 
did not purchase the Home Plerald as 
such and did not assume any of its obli¬ 
gations and is in no way responsible in¬ 
dividually or through any combination. 
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