THE RTJRAIi NEW-YORKER 
181 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.-—Indians of the Osage na¬ 
tion at a tribal meeting at Pawhuska, 
Okla., January 23, repudiated the proposed 
scheme to grant a blanket lease to 800,- 
000 acres of oil and gas lands, owned by 
the tribe, and by practically unanimous 
vote sustained the position of Secretary 
Fisher and President Taft. The lands are 
valued at $ 80 , 000 , 000 . 
„ Arrested by United States officers at 
Utica, N. Y., January 23, Lewis Rokosz- 
cuski was identified by papers In his 
pockets as the man sought by the authori¬ 
ties of the Eastern part of the country for 
using the mails in defrauding working 
girls. He will be taken to Cleveland, 
where he is wanted on the charge of grand 
larceny. According to the authorities, 
Rokoszcuski, alias Adolph Rokosz, would 
advertise in Polish papers for communi¬ 
cation with girls, “object matrimony.’’ 
Anna Kapustka. of Buffalo, answered one 
ol these advertisements and went to New 
Jersey, where she supposed a marriage 
ceremony was performed uniting her with 
Rokosz. They left New Jersev immedi- 
ateiy after the ceremony for Cleveland, 
i?. tflc L station the man excused himself, 
a vf r . first getting the girl's pocketbook, 
' h V ch *. cont . a,ned $500, on the pretext of 
protecting her, and that was the last she 
saw _ of him. A book found in the pris¬ 
oners pocket contained the names and ad¬ 
dresses of fifty girls in different parts of 
1 e country some of whom have complained 
to the authorities. 
. ™e won I an suffrage bill, which has been 
acted on favorably in the Senate of the 
Montana Legislature, was passed January 
33 by the House. 
3 hirty persons were killed and as many 
SSE® D 1 ,VL ed tho collapse of the three 
story building of the Mississippi Dry Goods 
an , d 1110 t"'° story building of the 
TVvfl Implement Company at McKinney. 
Texas. January 23. Fire which followed 
monv 'Xn d t0 u I ave burned to death 
w bo would have been rescued other¬ 
wise. The crowd of shoppers and the 
testimony can be produced concerning the 
probable earnings of a girl when she gets 
old enough to work, this limited the jury 
to a verdict of $150, the cost of the funeral 
and doctor's bill, according to direction 
of the local court. 
Unreasonably high freight rates charged 
by the United States Steel Corporation on 
its ore carrying railroads in the Lake Su¬ 
perior ore regions were the primary reason 
why independents could not compete with 
the corporation in that district, was the 
testimony given January 28 by P. II. Nel¬ 
son. an ore expert, at the hearing in the 
government’s suit for the dissolution of 
the alleged steel trust. This advantage 
enjoyed by the Steel Corporation has 
eliminated all of its competitors in the 
development of new mines. Mr. Nelson 
declared, and his testimony was regarded 
as bearing out the government’s conten¬ 
tion that the lease of the Hill ore lands 
by the Steel Corporation had secured for 
it a practical monopoly of ore in the Lake 
Superior district. As to the development 
of mines in that region by independent 
companies. Mr. Nelson added, none of 
them could have paid the same royalties 
as the alleged trust because the Steel Cor¬ 
poration controlled the facilities for trans¬ 
porting the ore and charged unreasonably 
high prices for the service to independents. 
The freight rates charged netted the cor¬ 
poration a profit of 35 cents on each ton 
carried by its railroads, and this was too 
large an advantage to be overcome by any 
independent enterprise, the witness said. 
One hundred men who had volunteered 
to build a tabernacle for a revival were 
buried in broken timbers at El Dorado, 
Kan.. January 28, when the roof collapsed. 
Fifteen were injured, three probably fa¬ 
tally. Expert carpenters had warned the 
volunteers that they were overloading the 
roof. Half an hour before the accident 
twenty-five women were at work, but went 
to a nearby church to prepare dinner for 
the workmen. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The New York 
State Forestry Association was organized 
at Syracuse January 16. More than 50 
3/0 
PRIZES FOR PHOTOGRAPHS 
The Rural New-Yorker will give $50—divided as above for the 
Three Best Original Photographs illustrating scenes in our new book 
“THE CHILD” 
This book is full of pathetic or dramatic situations which afford opportunity 
for effective grouping of characters to form illustrations. Here are a few: 
'Childless and alone” 
The Elder and The Child 
Shep and his new friend 
‘Sunday comes in the middle of the week’ 
First lesson in milking 
Hiram Bently’s anger 
Hen Bingham’s atonement 
Ike Barber’s cider mill 
‘Borryin’ a boy” 
Advertising with cider apples 
Bill King’s heme run 
Joe Burgess and his song 
Mr. Cabot of the Austin Cabots 
“Mother” and the Child 
These and other scenes will form effective groupings for pictures, and the 
characters may be found right in your home neighborhood. You are to 
arrange the groups to suit yourself. The prizes will be awarded to the 
pictures which most nearly carry out the idea of the book. Each contest¬ 
ant may send 6 pictures but no individual can win more than one prize. 
Suitable pictures not winning prizes will be paid for. Others will be 
promptly returned on receipt of postage. 
The Pictures Must be in Our Hands April 1, 1913 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
NEW YORK 
1913. 
hearing on agricultural bills. 
The joint agricultural committees of 
the State Legislature had a hearing at 
Albafiy on Tuesday and Wednesday of 
last week on the agricultural bills be¬ 
fore the Legislature; these included : 
1. The bill to regulate commission 
merchants. 
2. The bill authorizing the organiza¬ 
tion of cooperative societies. 
3. The bill to create a new Deputy 
Commissioner of Agriculture to orga¬ 
nize and supervise and regulate co¬ 
operative shipping and marketing of 
farm products. 
4. The bill authorizing the organiza¬ 
tion of personal farm credit banks. 
The hearings were well attended on 
both days, and the committee showed 
an interest in the bills and a sympathy 
in the purposes of them that was most 
encouraging. The bills have been in¬ 
troduced by Senator Franklin D. Roose¬ 
velt, Chairman of the Agricultural 
Committee in the Senate, and Marc W. 
Cole, Chairman of the Agricultural 
Committee in the Assembly. 
The prominent features of the Com¬ 
mission Regulation Bill are: 
1. Licensing commission produce 
merchants. 
2. To place them under a $10,000 
surety bond. 
3. To oblige them to render an ac¬ 
count within 48 hours for each ship¬ 
ment. 
4. To compel them to keep a record 
of the sale, including the name and ad¬ 
dress of the buyer and the salesman’s 
slips as part of the record. 
5. If the commission merchant dis¬ 
putes the quality or grade or amount 
of goods as invoiced to him by the 
shipper he must call an inspector of the 
Department of Agriculture to rhake im¬ 
mediate inspection. Failing to do this, 
he must accept the shipper’s invoice. 
The department will arrange for in¬ 
spectors at convenient places. 
There was practically no opposition 
to the bill. The interests that opposed 
bills of the kind for the last five or six 
years followed their old tactics, which 
have worked so well in the past; that 
is, they remain away from the hearing 
set by the committee, under the plea 
that the notice given did not give them 
sufficient time to prepare. That leaves 
the farmer without any opposition at 
the regular hearing, and then they come 
in later with their work to defeat the 
bill. These tactics worked very well in 
past years, and it was no surprise to the 
friends of the bill that they had, at this 
time, repeated the tactics of former 
years. We do not believe it will work 
this time. The committee is made up 
largely of farmers and of men repre¬ 
senting farm districts, and there is no 
doubt that the bills will be favorably 
reported. Before it goes to a vote it 
<vill, however, probably be necessary for 
farmers and consumers to instruct their 
representatives as to how they should 
vote on these measures. This is the 
first year that we have had the sym¬ 
pathy and the active support of the con¬ 
sumers in these measures. At last the 
consumer has come to know that the 
high cost of food products in the city 
was not due to high prices at the farm. 
They have been brought to see that the 
extravagant and wasteful and dishon¬ 
est processes of distribution have 
brought a still heavier burden on the 
producers than on the consumers. They 
realize, too, that in order to increase 
the products of the farm, production 
must be made more profitable to the 
farmer. They see that unless this is 
done production will continue to de¬ 
crease, while the consumption in the 
city is constantly increasing, and that 
under present conditions living in the 
city must continue to soar higher and 
higher. These consumers realize that 
35 cents of their dollar to the producer 
and 65 cents to the middleman is not a 
fair adjustment. They rightly figure 
that they should save a part of the 65 
cents and that the producer should 
have his share of the saving. The com¬ 
mission regulation is, of course, only 
one factor in bringing about this saving. 
Heretofore the commission influences 
have not been confronted by these con¬ 
sumers, but with producers and con¬ 
sumers working together for a just 
measure of relief, we doubt if the ene¬ 
mies of this bill will succeed in defeat¬ 
ing it again. 
Hon. Seth Low of New York, Dean 
Bailey of Ithaca and several members 
of the State Standing Cooperative Com¬ 
mittee appeared in favor of the bills. 
There is yet to be introduced a bill 
to protect milk producers and another 
to permit the organization of farm 
mortgage banks. 
weakened condition of the building are as¬ 
signed as causes. A special sale was tak¬ 
ing place, and the victims are chiefly 
women and children. 
Judge Chase, in the Middlesex Superior 
Criminal Court at East Cambridge, Mass., 
January 24, sentenced James U. Horsfall, 
millionaire, of Lowell, to six months in jail 
for reckless operation of an automobile on 
November 11, 1911. Horsfall while driv¬ 
ing on the State road between Tewksbury 
and Woburn, ran down Mrs. Ruth Kitt- 
redge, injuring her so that she died the 
next day. He was indicted by the grand 
jury for manslaughter, hut at the trial the 
jury disagreed. Horsfall was then tried 
on ' four lesser counts. On one, that of 
operating an automobile while intoxicated, 
he was found not guilty. On the other counts 
of reckless operating and running away 
after doing damage to person and property 
he was found guilty and sentenced to 
six months in the House of Correction at 
East Cambridge and a $300 fine. The case 
was appealed. 
One man was killed and many passen¬ 
gers were injured January 25 iu a rear- 
end collision of trains on the Third ave¬ 
nue elevated line between 33d and 32d 
streets. New York. The last car of the 
train ahead and the first car of the train 
which rammed it were lifted from their 
trucks by the impact and protruded several 
feet beyond the elevated structure, as if 
they were about to fall to the street. A 
short circuit in the demolished box of the 
motorman set both cars on fire, and they 
were burned out completely, leaving the 
bare outside shells. Prompt work by the 
firemen prevented spreading of the flames. 
A child’s life is worth in damages to the 
parents just the medical and funeral cost, 
according to the case of Charles Kost 
against the Borough of Ashland. Pa. 
Annie Kost, eight years old, was killed 
when an electric light pole fell on her. 
A jury a year ago gave the parents $3,000 
damages, but the Supreme Court reversed 
this decision January 27. declaring that 
no damages can be awarded for the grief 
of parents and that positive testimony must 
be submitted to prove loss of money be¬ 
fore damages' can l>e decreed. As no direct 
persons signed the roll as charter mem¬ 
bers. 
The Sulzer investigating committee at 
Albany has recommended to the Governor 
that the total appropriations for the State 
Fair this year be limited to $101,700, 
which is $241,000 less than the amount 
appropriated last year. 
The parcel post is held responsible by 
Professor Charles H. Hawaii, chemist for 
the Pennsylvania Dairy Food Commission, 
for opening a way for the importation of 
adulterated and misbranded foods. While 
the entry of these goods through other 
channels is barred. Professor Lawall says 
the government has not the authority to 
prevent their shipment by parcel post. It 
was in connection with the arrest of four 
men for selling an egg substitute that Pro¬ 
fessor Lawall referred to the use of the 
parcel post. lie said the substitute, which 
was composed of sago starch and colored 
with a prohibited coal-tar dye, was manu¬ 
factured at Birmingham, England. 
To protect consumers and to prevent the 
flooding of tho markets with oranges and 
lemons declared to be unfit for food, the 
Federal Board of Food and Drug Inspec¬ 
tion issued an order January 24 forbidding 
the sale in interstate commerce of fruits 
damaged in the recent freeze in California. 
From 60 to 85 per cent, of the citrus crop 
was estimated to have been injured. The 
hoard defines frozen citrus fruit as fruit 
which upon transverse section through the 
centre shows a marked drving in 20 per 
cent, or more of the exposed pulp. The 
Bureau of Chemistry, it is stated, is 
actively at work to aid the growers to find 
methods of utilizing frozen fruit, as well 
as healthy fruit iu making orange peel 
confections, orange and lemon oils, orange 
and lemon juices and citric acid. 
Annual Farmers’ Week will be held at 
the New Y'ork State College of Agriculture, 
Ithaca. N. Y., February 10 to 15. New 
York State Federation of Floral Clubs will 
meet. February 12. Friday, February 14, 
is home gardening day. In connection ‘ with 
the meeting of the Federation of Floral 
Clubs, an exhibition will be held. It is 
desired that all growers of new varieties 
of carnations, roses and other flowers will 
send in exhibits of their stock for this 
exhibit. The meeting of the New York 
State Vegetable Growers’ Association will 
be held February 11-13. 
As part of a general scheme to produce 
legislation tending to reduce the high cost 
of living, Senator Roosevelt and Assembly- 
man Cole, of Orleans County, chairmen of 
the committees on agriculture of the two 
houses, had their committees in conference 
at Albany January 28 with representatives 
of farmers’ and consumers’ associations 
concerning measures intended to further 
cooperative effort of farmers and producers. 
In addition to discussing all the farm legis¬ 
lation already introduced, the conferees 
gave particular attention to three pro¬ 
posed bills which would encourage the 
formation of cooperative corporations. 
These bills have the approval of the New 
^ ork market investigating committee. The 
first is to facilitate the cooperative organi¬ 
sation of consumers as well as producers. 
I he second has to do with the creation of 
agricultural banks of a cooperative nature 
similar to those in European countries, 
which deal chiefly with agricultural credit, 
the third seeks to establish in the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture a bureau of su¬ 
pervision over all cooperative associations. 
The commissioner is to receive a salary of 
$3,000, and is to have general charge of 
the. development of agricultural cooperative 
societies for the buying and selling of farm 
products. 1-Ie is expected to collect and 
disseminate information which may lead 
to development of the cooperative effort. 
THE TARIFF ON SUGAR. 
What is the meaning of the enclosed 
card? One is enclosed in every bag of 
sugar from a Philadelphia firm, and the 
same legend printed on the outside of the 
bag in red ink. I suspect there is a col¬ 
ored gentleman in the hedge somewhere, 
for I notice that when the tariff is taken 
off any raw material usually the manu¬ 
facturer gets more benefit than the farmer. 
The card reads: “Tariff on Sugar is of 
advantage to the sugar trust and its allies 
only. With free raw sugar this sugar would 
cost you about two cents per pound less. 
Urge your congressman to insist on removal 
of tariff on sugar.” o. b. m. 
Albion, N. Y. 
Some one is to some expense to distribute 
these red cards. I do not think the re¬ 
tailers would go to this expense, so I am 
led to the inference that the manufacturer, 
which means the “Sugar Trust,” is sending 
out these cards to “educate" the consumer. 
Suppose we examine the statements on the 
card. 
“Tariff on sugar is of advantage to the 
Sugar Trust and its allies only.” The 
present tariff on sugar averages about 1 
9-10 cents per pound, but because of the 
Dutch Standard which is part of the law 
all high-grade sugars are excluded from 
the sugar importations, and on the low 
grades imported the average tax is about 
1 1-3 cents per pound. The American peo¬ 
ple will not use low-grade sugar, but de¬ 
mand high-grade granulated, which must 
therefore be refined after being imported, 
and the sugar trust owns or controls the 
refineries. It is therefore very nearly true 
that the tariff at present benefits the sugar 
trust alone. It is of some benefit also to 
our cane and beet growers. 
“With free raw sugar this sugar would 
cost you about two cents per pound less” 
is the second statement on the red card. 
If all imported sugar paid the average 
rate of 1 9-10 cents per pound, and the 
sugar trust would sell its refined product 
At a price that would allow for this reduc¬ 
tion in the cost of its raw product, the 
consumer would certainly he entitled tofcbuy 
sugar at two cents below the present price. 
What would happen under free competition 
is far different from what would happen 
under monopoly. Under free competition we 
could buy sugar at the present price less 
the duty. Under monopoly the trust will 
probably pocket the two cents formerly 
payable on average sugar and charge the 
consumer the present price. It can if it 
chooses, and from many years’ experience 
the public ought to know what to expect. 
Notice the statement reads, “raw” sugar. 
That means low-grade sugar which must 
be refined after it is imported. If all sugar 
were to be admitted free some of it might 
be refined abroad, and then there might be 
some competition for a while, but that 
would soon end as the sugar trust would 
soon own all the refineries in Cuba, Ha¬ 
waii, and the Philippines where all the raw 
sugar is produced that is imported. 
The last sentence on the card leaves out 
the word “raw” before the word “sugar.” 
The sugar trust has always been known to 
favor a tariff on raw sugar, and if they 
desire free raw sugar now it may be because 
they feel very sure they have arrived at 
a position where they can control the sell¬ 
ing price and maintain it at its present 
level, and the removal of the tariff need 
not be passed on to the consumer, but on 
the contrary may be added to their present 
profits. 
Claus Spreekles, the best-known sugar 
refiner of the country, who is not interested 
in the sugar trust, testified before the 
House Committee of Congress recently and 
said : “we are refining sugar as cheaply as 
they are in foreign countries. The greater 
efficiency of the labor and the larger scale 
on \fhich the business is done in this 
country offsets any difference in cost of 
labor. I would prefer the absolute free 
trade to the present schedule, under which 
the sugar trust is the principal beneficiary.” 
Judging from Mr. Spreckles’s testimony, 
which is that of one of the so-called “in¬ 
dependents” who are the only competitors 
of the trust, it is doubtless true that the 
sugar trust is confident that free sugar, 
even if refined sugar be included, will not 
affi t its absolute control of the American 
market. The trust is not a producer of raw 
sugar. It is in a position of “middleman” 
between the producer and the consumer. 
It pays the producer as little for the raw 
sugar as possible and it sells the refined 
product to the consumer for all it can exact. 
All monopolies do the same. In England 
sugar costs two cents less than in America, 
but let us not delude ourselves into the be¬ 
lief that free sugar will mean two cents less 
for the American consumer, for if we do we 
are doomed to diappointment. We may and 
doubtless will receive some of that two 
cents but how much or little remains to be 
seen. f. n. c. 
