THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
1291 
1912. 
AGRICULTURAL CREDITS IN EUROPE. 
No. 9. 
Besides the Raiffeisen or rural banks 
that we have been discussing for two 
weeks past, the Germans have another 
system of personal credit cooperative 
banks known as the Schulze-Delitzsch 
system. These banks were really in 
existence before Raiffeisen established 
his exclusively rural system of credits. 
In Germany these are called “saving and 
loan” banks, while similar banks in Italy 
are called “popular banks.” They are 
sometimes called urban banks, to dis¬ 
tinguish them from the rural or Raif¬ 
feisen banks. The members of the 
Schulze banks embrace many classes of 
people, including small farmers, laborers, 
artisans, the professions and tradesmen. 
While both systems are cooperative, 
these Schulze banks are organized on a 
plan entirely different from the Raif¬ 
feisen banks. Each Raiffeisen bank is 
confined to neighborhood limits. The 
service of management is mainly gra¬ 
tuitous. The liability is unlimited. It 
had no capital stock until forced to 
issue shares by imperial decree, and 
then issued only shares of nominal value. 
It aims to pay no dividends on this nom¬ 
inal capital stock except in some cases, 
and then the maximum rate paid is the 
interest rate for money. The Schulze 
banks, on the contrary, are not confined 
to territorial limits. The banks are man¬ 
aged by paid officers and employes. 
Their liabilities are in many cases lim¬ 
ited. Their capital stock reaches con¬ 
siderable proportions, and the tendency 
is to increase the cost of capital shares, 
and they aim to pay regular dividends 
on the stock. The dividends a bank 
may pay are not limited unless by its 
own by-laws. The shares average about 
$900 as indicated by last available re¬ 
ports. The average membership of these 
Schulze banks in 1910 was 639. The 
number of banks was 1,035, with about 
650,000 members. Their working capital 
aggregated nearly $400,000,000, or an 
average of nearly $400,000 per bank. 
Nearly one-half the members secured 
loans at the bank during the last year 
reported, and the aggregate of these 
loans amounted to about $1,000,000,000. 
About one-third of this amount re¬ 
mained outstanding at end of the year. 
The average profits of these banks, after 
deducting expense of management and 
interest on deposits, and borrowed 
money, was 8.60 per cent, of the capital 
stock. Part of this profit went to a re¬ 
serve fund, and the balance to dividends 
on the stock. The reserve funds of all 
the banks amounted to 6.5 per cent, of 
their total capital stock. 
These institutions do a general bank¬ 
ing business. The principal business, of 
course, is making loans for short time 
to members. In some cases the time of 
payments is fixed. In others the loan is 
in form of current account or over¬ 
draft, and payments are made at the 
convenience of the borrower. A few 
loans are made on mortgages, but the 
bulk of the loans are made on personal 
endorsements or collaterals. In a small 
number of cases loans are made on the 
unsecured note of the borrower. 
These Schulze-Delitzsch banks are af¬ 
filiated with provincial federations and 
through these are connected with the 
General Federation of German Coopera¬ 
tive Societies. They do not have a sys¬ 
tem of central banks like the Raiffeisen 
system, but they have arrangements with 
a regular business bank in Dresden with 
which they have current accounts, and 
which seems to act in something of the 
capacity of a clearing house. 
We have now examined the two prin- 
ipal systems of mortgage credits, and 
also the two principal systems of per¬ 
sonal credit in Europe. We might go 
on and discuss the systems found in 
other European countries, but we would 
only find the principles which we have 
already discussed. The only difference 
would be the modification of details to 
suit local conditions. The groundwork 
is the same. Therefore we shall not 
pursue the European situation further, 
hut will now discuss the means by which 
we may hope to adopt the principles of 
cooperation underlying their system and 
apply them to our own requirements. 
In this we invite the discussion and sug¬ 
gestion of readers who are interested in 
cooperative land and personal credits. 
JOHN J. DILLON. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Damage suits amounting 
to almost $150,000 against the New York, 
New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company 
have been brought by people injured in 
the passenger train wreck at Maromes, near 
Middletown, Conn., on the Valley Division, 
August 27, 1911. Sixty or more people 
Were hurt. There are 19 suits pending 
in the Hartford County Superior Court, in 
which damages aggregating $70,500 are 
asked for injuries, and there are two 
minor suits in the Court of Common Pleas. 
Two hundred striking coal handlers, 
mostly of Italian or Polish origin, armed 
with shotguns, revolvers and ciYwbars, 
December 11, made a concerted charge 
against a force of railroad detectives which 
was guarding strike breakers in the Edge- 
water, N. J., yards of the New York, 
Susquehanna & Western Railroad. They 
killed two of the railroad detectives, 
wounded nine more and chased the other 
detectives and the strike breakers back 
to the cover of a sheltered dock. Then 
the strikers retreated back up the face of 
the Palisades, whence they came, carrying 
with them some of their number who had 
been shot, no one knows how badly. 
Persons who obtain divorces in Vermont 
and remarry will be liable to prosecution 
for bigamy. Governor Fletcher signed, 
December 13, a bill amending the statutes 
so that those divorced in that State can¬ 
not marry again elsewhere and return with¬ 
out infringing the law. A resolve in favor 
of an amendment to the Federal Constitu¬ 
tion, prohibiting polygamy, was passed by 
the Senate and House. Its supporters stated 
that it was instigated by the growth of 
a Mormon settlement in Sharon, the birth¬ 
place of Joseph Smith, founder of the 
Mormon Church. 
To satisfy the verdict of $240,000 re¬ 
cently entered against members jbf the 
United Hatters’, Union of North America 
in the suit brought in 1902 bv D. E. Lowe 
& Co., a Deputy United States Marshal 
began to swear out 189 execution papers, 
December 12, against hattqrs living at Dan¬ 
bury, Bethel, Norwalk and South Norwalk. 
D. G. Ix>we & Co., hatters, of Danbury, re¬ 
fused to unionize their shop some years 
ago, and the hatters instituted a boycott 
against the concern, according to testimony 
produced at the trial. The case went twice 
to the United States Court of Appeals and' 
once. to the United States Supreme Court. 
Originally the suit was against 240 mem¬ 
bers of the union. 
Naming 25 defendants and alleging a 
violation of the “act to protect trade and 
commerce against unlawful restraints and 
monopolies.” a bill in equity was filed at 
Detroit, Mich., December 13, by direction of 
Attorney General Wickersham, asking that 
the so-called “horseshoe trust” be perpetu¬ 
ally enjoined from carrying out the al¬ 
leged conspiracy and combination to main¬ 
tain limited prices. The Master Horsesko- 
ers’ National Protective Association, a 
New York corporation, having its prin¬ 
cipal offices in New l'ork City, is named 
as the chief defendant. It is alleged the 
object of the association is to control the 
trade in drilled horseshoes, adjustable calks 
and rubber hoof pads, and to place such 
unreasonable restraints on the articles in 
question that they cannot be purchased 
except from horseskoers. 
The trial of Archie L. Wisner and John 
J. Meyers, mining promoters, for fraud¬ 
ulent use of the mails, brought out some 
pathetic cases, December 13. One witness 
was a deaf mute from Buffalo, who had in¬ 
vested a little hoard of $1,000 with these 
men. The alluring literature of the pro¬ 
moters, describing, for instance, their 
“Philippine Plantation Company” as being 
richer than any gold field that had been 
discovered since 1890, took in hundreds of 
others, many of whom lost all they had 
through the manipulations of A. L. Wis- 
ner & Co. White haired, bent by age and 
feeble. Urbane Derby, of Concord, "Mass., 
described the sinking of his little fortune 
of $10,000 in stocks sold by Wisner. After 
investing a little money he received a 
small dividend from Wisner & Co., he said, 
and the arrival of the check was usually 
followed by advice from Wisner to invest 
more, until finally all his cash had been 
absorbed. None of the witnesses who ap¬ 
peared December 13 had ever received any 
part of the money invested with Wisner 
& Co. 
Whitelaw Reid, the American Ambassa¬ 
dor to Great Britain, who had been ill of 
asthma for several months and who had 
been In bad condition ever since his re¬ 
turn from America in October, died De¬ 
cember 15 at Dorchester House, his Lon¬ 
don residence. The physicians gave the 
cause of death as asthma following ex¬ 
haustion. Whitelaw Reid had been the 
American Ambassador to the Court of St. 
James since the beginning of President 
Roosevelt’s second administration in 1905. 
Previously he had become eminent as a 
journalist and a scholar and many honors 
had fallen to him in the course of a long 
and busy life. He was born near Xenia, 
Ohio, on October 27, 1837. Whitelaw 
Reid’s parents were poor. A kinsman, Dr. 
Hugh McMillan, undertook to fit the fu¬ 
ture editor and Ambassador for college. 
Dr. McMillan was a trustee of Miami Uni¬ 
versity and principal of the Xenia Acad¬ 
emy, a fine preparatory school of the time. 
In 1856 Whitelaw Reid was graduated with 
scientific honors. He became principal of 
the graded schools in South Charleston, 
Ohio, and most of his pupils were older 
than himself. Here he taught French, 
Latin and the higher mathematics, con¬ 
firming his own knowledge and acquiring a 
culture which was manifested throughout 
his career. Ho entered journalism, be¬ 
came editor of the New York Tribune, and 
acquired great wealth through his marriage 
■with the daughter of D. O. Mills, a Cali¬ 
fornia financier. 
Fire in Paterson, N. J., December 15, 
started in a department store, extended to 
five other buildings, and caused a loss of 
$500,000 before it was controlled. 
Three persons were killed and 13 injured, 
two of them probably fatally, when an 
auto ’bus of the Perth Amboy Transporta¬ 
tion Company was struck, December 14, by 
an express train of the Jersey Central 
Railroad at a grade crossing in Sewaren, 
N. J. Of the 16 persons who were in the 
machine at the time of the accident none 
escaped injury. It has been the custom of 
drivers approaching this crossing to stop 
and see if there is a train in sight. Many 
of the passengers in the vehicle declared 
that the chauffeur never stopped. So far 
as they could see there was no train iu 
sight, and apparently he had every rea¬ 
son to believe that he had a clear road 
and went on. 
The Supreme Court, December 16, handed 
down a decision in the “coal trust” case, 
ordering that the so-called 65 per cent 
contracts with independent dealers be can¬ 
celled. The court, affirming the decree of 
the lower court, also ordered the dissolu¬ 
tion of railroad control of the Temple Iron 
Company, by which the principal railroads 
and their coal companies were found to 
have strangled a project to build a com¬ 
peting road into the anthracite fields in 
1898 and by which monopolizing schemes 
could be put into execution handily in the 
future. The court dismissed the Govern¬ 
ment’s general charge of conspiracy and 
violation of the anti-trust law against all 
of the railroads and dismissed without 
prejudice the charges of conspiracy against 
the minor combinations among the coal- 
carrying roads and their coal companies. 
It is possible that the Department of Jus¬ 
tice may bring separate suits against these 
minor combinations alleged to have been 
steps in the general plan of acquiring con¬ 
trol of the industry. 
While carrying a steel plate across the 
mill yard at the Ambridge, Pa., plant of 
the American Bridge Company, December 
16, Joseph Stedler, aged 33 years, got 
within the zone of influence of a powerful 
magnet that was unloading sclrap irou 
from a freight car. The magnet suddenly 
drew upward the plate that Stedler had 
on his shoulder and to which ho held 
tightly. When the workman’s feet left the 
ground he yelled. The man controlling 
the magnet shut off the current. The steel 
plate dropped, with Stedler underneath 
it. He was so badly crushed that he died 
an hour later in the Allegheny General 
Hospital. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The New Jersey 
State Board of Agriculture will hold its 
fortieth annual meeting in the Second 
Regiment Armory, Trenton, N. J., January 
7, 8, 9, 10, 1913. 
The Elgin Board of Trade, popularly 
known as the butter trust, and the Ameri¬ 
can Association of Creamerv Butter Manu¬ 
facturers were attacked by the Federal 
Government in a civil anti-trust suit for 
the dissolution of both concerns filed at 
Chicago, December 16. Sweeping charges 
of a conspiracy to fix arbitrarily the price 
of butter in the interest of big manufac¬ 
turers and cold storage concerns, and to 
the detriment of the farmer, other small 
producers and the consuming public, are 
made by Attorney General Wickersham 
against the so-called trust, which he would 
destroy as a violation of the Sherman law. 
Aside from the dissolution of the two or¬ 
ganizations, the Government seeks to en¬ 
join the defendants from appointing a 
price-fixing committee, from fixing prices, 
from quoting or publishing figures purport¬ 
ing to be “market prices,” unless they are 
based upon bona fide sales of butter ; from 
demanding that the Elgin price be used 
as a basis in making contracts for butter, 
and from making fictitious or “wash sales” 
of butter to mislead as to the actual price 
at which butter is being sold. 
The New York State Vegetable Growers’ 
Association is planning to hold its third 
annual session at Ithaca, February 11, 12 
and 13. This falls during Farmers’ Week 
of the New York State College of Agricul¬ 
ture. The object of the organization is 
primarily educational. It arranges for suc¬ 
cessful practical growers to address meet¬ 
ings of such organizations when this is 
desired. It also assists its members in 
securing the best literature upon vegetable 
subjects, and has been giving some atten¬ 
tion to educational exhibits on marketing 
methods. In addition, the organization has 
been giving considerable attention to the 
good seed problem. It finds out sources of 
reliable seed and brings its members into 
touch with them. Consideration is also 
given to legislative questions, to the se¬ 
curing of better crop reports, and to the 
encouragement of investigation of vege¬ 
table problems. 
SEEDSMEN AND PARCELS POST.— 
President Page of the American Seed Trade 
Association writes the American Florist as 
follows regarding the parcels post decision 
of the Postmaster General : 
“Seeds, cuttings, bulbs, roots, scions, 
and plants will be permitted in the par¬ 
cels post mails, under regulations as to 
size and weight applicable to other parcels 
post packages, but at the rate of postage 
of one cent for two ounces or fraction 
thereof, regardless of distance. It will 
therefore be noticed that the decision is 
against us as to rate, but still seedsmen 
are permitted to send packages weighing 
as high as 11 pounds. There seems to be 
some question as to whether ordinary post¬ 
age stamps, or the new distinctive stamps, 
will be permitted on such parcels of seeds. 
This law should be corrected in such a 
way as to give horticulturists the option 
of using the parcels post rates if they so 
desire.” 
WOMEN AND THE EGG “CORNER.”— 
The greatest surprise ever given to storage 
speculators was the action of the Phila¬ 
delphia Housekeepers’ League in cornering 
a big supply of Western cold storage eggs, 
bringing them to Philadelphia, and selling 
them at the actual gross price of 24 cents 
a dozen. Between December 9 and Decem¬ 
ber 13 seven million eggs were sold at this 
price. One large department store sided 
with the women and placed the cheap eggs 
on sale. When Mrs. W. B. Derr, president 
of the Housekeepers’ League, was ap¬ 
proached by some leading grocers, Decem¬ 
ber 13, with the proposition that they be 
allowed to handle the cheap eggs, she 
asked them why they had not made a rea¬ 
sonable price before the women took a 
hand in the crusade, and then informed 
them that they had come to her too late, 
unless they were willing to be good in the 
future. Many local dealers are advertis¬ 
ing the fact that the eggs being sold for 24 
cents a dozen are cold storage eggs and 
are not strictly fresh. The members of 
the league immediately acknowledged this 
charge, and explained that they paid from 
18 to 20 cents a dozen for the cold stor¬ 
age eggs, but they had every one of them 
examined before they were marketed. They 
also called the attention of the dealers 
to the fact that before the women began 
their corner breaking crusade dealers de¬ 
manded 38 cents a dozen for these same 
cold storage eggs. The women, December 
13, opened an egg selling station on City 
Hall Square, and within an hour 9,000 egg's 
had been sold by the 12 women volunteers. 
These 12 women sold 7,200 eggs within the 
first half hour of the sale, and their stock 
was exhausted after the first hour. The 
women plan to continue the crusade and to 
broaden out into other staple lines. Mrs. 
Julian Heath, of New York, president of 
the Housewives’ League, declared that she 
proposes to inaugurate a similar campaign 
in New York. 
PERISHABLE ARTICLES BY PARCELS 
POST. 
The following notes are taken from the 
new parcels post regulations issued by the 
I*. O. Department: 
Sec. 34. Parcels containing perishable 
articles must be marked "PERISHABLE.” 
Articles likely to spoil within the time 
reasonably required for transportation and 
delivery must not be accepted for mailing. 
2. Butter, lard, and perishable articles 
such as fish, fresh meats, dressed fowls, 
vegetables, fruits, berries, and articles of 
a similar nature which decay quickly, when 
so packed or wrapped as to prevent damage 
to other mail matter, will be accepted for 
local delivery, either at the office of mail¬ 
ing or on any rural route starting there¬ 
from. When inclosed in an inner cover 
and a strong outer cover of wood, metal, 
heavy corrugated pasteboard, or other 
suitable material, and wrapped so that 
nothing can escape from the package, they 
will be accepted for mailing to all offices 
within the first zone. 
3. Butter, lard, or any admissible greasy 
or oily substance, when intended for de¬ 
livery at offices beyond the first zone must 
be packed in accordance with section 22 
(hermetically sealed and inclosed in a 
strong box). 
4. Vegetables and fruits which do not 
decay quickly will be accepted for mailing 
to any zone if packed so as to prevent 
damage to other mail matter. 
5. Eggs will be accepted for local de¬ 
livery when so packed in a basket or other 
container as to prevent damage to other 
mail matter. 
6. Eggs will be accepted for mailing re¬ 
gardless of distance when each egg is 
wrapped separately and surrounded with 
excelsior, cotton, or other suitable material, 
and packed in a container made of double 
corrugated pasteboard, metal, wood or 
other suitable material in such manner as 
to place each egg on its end and to pre¬ 
vent them from striking together or against 
tho side or top of the container, with an 
outer cover of double corrugated paste¬ 
board, metal, wood, or other suitable ma¬ 
terial, and wrapped so that nothing can 
escape from the package. All such parcels 
must be labeled “Eggs.” 
MASSACHUSETTS FARM NOTES, 1912. 
As the suburbs of our cities are being 
extended by electric traction, so is the 
market-garden section to reach out to twice 
its present radius in the near future, 
through the facilities for transportation 
offered by the auto truck. Some of our 
apples at Orchardside went to a Boston 
commission house by truck this Fall, and 
we plan to avail ourselves of this service 
more the coming season. They are used 
by gardenei's to haul coal, etc., as well as 
produce. Greenhouse crops are not 
money makers of late, though early in the 
season profits were good. The past two 
Winters the houses have paid well, owing 
to severe cold in the South ; and many new 
plants are going up. Still, others are for 
sale, and it is an open question whether 
gardening under glass or out of doors on 
the whole pays best. 
The use of chemical fertilizers is grow¬ 
ing year by year, even near the cities. I 
observe this in my going about among the 
market gardeners, as well as the farmers 
and fruit gi'owers in the country generally. 
For one thing, it is a great help in the 
present scarcity of labor on the farm. A 
hopeful feeling pervades our farmers about 
here, and there will be a good acreage of 
our usual crops put in next Spring. 
The five most pi-ofitable crops in our 
State this year, as by reports of corre¬ 
spondents to the Board of Agriculture, are 
hay, corn, potatoes, apples and tomatoes. 
Apples have pi'oved to be a lai'ger crop than 
expected, and are now finding a slow sale 
and low price in Boston. The early ones 
did better, and we are again satisfied that 
our own choice of vax-ieties for growing 
within wagon distance of the city, the 
Summer and Fall kinds, stands approved. 
Some McIntosh trees bear each year and 
are certainly winners in the October and 
November markets. A well-known New York 
nurseryman said of our section’s Graven- 
steins last year that he had never seen 
such apples, and we had them to show as 
well again in 1912. The Wolf River is cer¬ 
tainly hardy and fit to thrive anywhere, 
and bears young. It will grow in a close 
sod or in a hedgerow among bushes; and 
the fruit, though poor in quality, is abund¬ 
ant, of lai'ge size, and can be placed at 
fair prices. Where good culture can be 
given, the Oldenburg is one of our favor¬ 
ites; with the Wealthy second choice. 
These, as also the McIntosh, thrive best 
and grow best fruit on light and well- 
drained soil. Some trees of this latter sort, 
on heavy land, this year, began to show 
soft spots on their fruit in early Septem¬ 
ber and had to be picked then, while on 
gravelly ground they ripened perfectly and 
kept well, marketing at around $2 per 
bushel box. We find scale can be con¬ 
trolled by oil, even by one application in 
the Spring, if thoi'ough ; and spraying for 
the Codling moths in June has proved to 
more than pay for itself in better quality 
of apples, besides controlling these pests. 
A new variety of early apple that began to 
fruit with us about 10 years ago, when 
ripe, in July, was soft and hardly fit even 
for a nearby market, till we began to do 
spraying. Now it has hardened up and 
become one of our best paying Summer 
apples at Orehai-dside. As an instance 
of its keeping habit under spraying, let 
me say this: The larger apples of this 
sort on the trees were picked and sold in 
mid-July this year, and the other's left to 
remain for later pickings. We gathered 
them from time to time and the last days 
of October, three months from first pick¬ 
ing. some were still holding to the tree. 
These apples brought in July $1.50 per 
bushel box, and later pickings $1. 
Billerica, Mass. e. f. d. 
