1913. 
710 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
\ 
THE STROUT AGENCY SUES. STAMP THIS POLITICIAN! 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
The E. A. Strout Farm Agency has 
brought a suit against The Rural New- 
Yorker, and John .T. Dillon, alleging 
$250,000 damages on account of an arti¬ 
cle published on January 18, 1913. One 
of the principal counts in the complaint 
is this: 
That by reason of said publication 
aforesaid plaintiff’s advertising has been 
rejected by the “Country Gentleman,” a 
farm journal published at Philadelphia, 
Pa., and having a large and general cir¬ 
culation throughout the United States, 
and the plaintiff has lost and will con¬ 
tinue to lose the profit derived from ad¬ 
vertising in said publication, amounting 
to $17,550 a year; and for the same rea¬ 
son plaintiff’s advertising has been re¬ 
jected by "The Saturday Evening Post,” 
a periodical of large circulation published 
at Philadelphia, l’a., and the “Practical 
Fanner,” a farm journal of general cir¬ 
culation published at Philadelphia, Pa., 
and the the “Stock, Home & Farm,” a 
farm journal published at Minneapolis, 
Minn., and having a large circulation in 
the Middle West and the plaintiff has lost 
ami will continue to lose the profits de¬ 
rived and to be derived by reason of said 
advertising aggregating a large sum but 
with greater particularity the plain¬ 
tiff is unable to state; and by rea¬ 
son of said publication an agent of the 
plaintiff in a prosperous community has 
refused longer to represent the plaintiff, 
being ignorant of the falsity of the said 
publication and innocence of the plain¬ 
tiff. and plaintiff has thereby lost the 
gains and profits heretofore made and 
hereafter to be made through said repre¬ 
sentative amounting to at least the sum 
of *5,000 a year and the plaintiff will 
continue to lose such income until a new 
equally reputable man of equally high 
character and repute in that community 
can be secured to fill the place of said 
representative who has resigned; and by 
reason of said publication a large number 
of persons throughout the United States 
who were contemplating purchasing 
farms through the agency of the plaintiff, 
have refused to continue negotiations for 
such purchase through the agency of the 
plaintiff and the plaintiff has lost the 
gains and profits to be derived therefrom, 
and a large number of persons many of 
whose names are unknown to the plain¬ 
tiff, throughout the United States who 
were contemplating listing their farms 
with the plaintiff for sale have refused to 
further have any business dealings with 
the plaintiff and the plaintiff 1ms lost the 
gains and profits to be derived therefrom; 
and the plaintiff has been otherwise dam¬ 
aged in the aggregate in the sum of two 
hundred and fifty thousand ($250,000) 
dollars. 
It would be interesting to know what 
the losses to the Strout Agency would be 
if other publishers and local real estate 
agents generally refused to help the 
Strout Agency make profits as high as 
50 per cent, on the sale of farms. The It. 
X.-Y. has said nothing but the truth of 
transactions as revealed by purchasers 
and by the records. It has not told half 
the truth—yet. If this is not a means to 
try to prevent the telling of the rest of 
the story we do not know what it is for. 
After the publication of the article com¬ 
plained of, the manager of the Strout 
Agency came to us and admitted that the 
complaints were justified, but alleged that 
the agent, Leister, was entirely to blame, 
and promised to return the excess collec¬ 
tions received by the Strout Agency. He 
said his lawyer exceeded his authority in 
saying that no adjustments would be 
made, and ho went to Quakertown, I’a., 
for the alleged purpose of inducing Mr. 
Leister to return tlyit excess charge re¬ 
tained by him. After his return, he 
again called and said Leister had agreed 
to effect satisfactory settlements and that 
all would be adjusted within a week or 
1" days. Mr. Ellison’s complaint was 
adjusted; but the Strout Agency later 
repudiated their promise to settle the 
other complaints. 
1 he R. N.-Y. has no personal griev¬ 
ance against the Strout Agency. It re¬ 
fused their advertising some years ago 
because it did not want to encourage 
farmers to sign the contract adopted by 
the Strout Agency, by which they would 
hi obliged to pay a fee to the Strout 
- Jfoney, if the farm was later withdrawn 
. 10,11 the market or sold through other 
influences. If after knowing the terms 
farmers want to list'with them, all right. 
In the present discussion, we simply want 
arniers know the basis on which the 
■ tl '°ut Agency sells farms. If any buy¬ 
ers want to pay the extra price for the 
privilege of dealing with the Strout 
‘ g ? nc y We ^ nnd good; but if the trans¬ 
actions are a benefit to buyer and seller 
as an agency service ought to be, the in- 
oi mation should be a benefit to the 
•trout Agency and not a $250,000 
damage. 
On page 659 we printed the names of 
those New York State Senators who 
voted against Gov. Sulzer’s direct pri¬ 
mary bill. Now we must begin another 
list. Here goes the first name: 
GEO. A. BLAUVELT, MONSEY, N. Y. 
Why this conspicuous distinction for 
Senator Blauvelt? He has given the 
best or the worst example we have yet 
seen of how not to represent the people. 
Mr. Blauvelt is a Democrat representing 
Richmond and Rockland Counties—the 
latter an agricultural community. Last 
Fall when the Democratic party was 
trying very hard to be good—so as to get 
into office—it was very strong for direct 
primaries. Here is part of its “pledge”: 
AVe again declare in favor of the prin¬ 
ciple of the direct primary and we pledge 
our Legislature to adopt such amend¬ 
ments to the existing laws as will sim¬ 
plify and perfect the direct primary sys¬ 
tem. 
The people of Rockland County are, in 
large majority, in favor of direct pri¬ 
maries that are direct. We know this 
from personal correspondence and also 
from the testimony of Assemblyman 
Grimme of Rockland Co. Mr. Grimme 
voted for the Sulzer bill because he says 
a majority of his people want it and 
many of them have written him to that 
effect. 
Therefore, Senator Blauvelt was under 
every obligation which an honorable man 
should respect to support a bill which 
redeemed his party pledge and satisfied 
the people who made him Senator. He 
found a very small hole to crawl through 
and reduced himself to a size which en¬ 
abled him to enter it. Ignoring the fact 
that both his party and his people direct¬ 
ed him to do his duty, this valiant cham¬ 
pion of the politicians declares his posi¬ 
tion : 
“I propose, unless otherwise instructed 
by the county committee, to continue to 
fight the direct primary bill of Governor 
Sulzer as I have done in the past.” 
Then 18 politicians of the county com¬ 
mittee “endorsed” Senator Blauvelt and 
he will go back to Albany to misrepresent 
his district. No man can ask a stronger 
argument for direct primaries than this 
very action of Senator Blauvelt. There 
are 132,842 people in his district, a major¬ 
ity of them in favor of the Sulzer bill. 
Yet this man is willing to represent 18 
politicians—most of whom would be 
quickly fired out of public life with a di¬ 
rect primary. Now there might be a bill 
before the New York Legislature which 
vitally affected your interests as a man 
and as a citizen. Yet Senator Blauvelt 
might kill it and say that he was justi¬ 
fied because his IS politicians told him 
to! The direct primary is designed to 
shut such fellows out of public life, or at 
least to give 1S.000 people a fair chance 
against IS politicians. Senator Blauvelt 
may stick to his plan to ignore the peo¬ 
ple, but the people should stick to him in 
return. Stamp him! Plaster him with 
postage stamps. Keep his ’phone ring¬ 
ing. Give him no rest. Do not be afraid 
of him or of his IS politicians, but make 
him understand that he has made himself 
a political outlaw. 
NEW JERSEY LIABILITY LAW. 
As to how the Employers’ Liability 
Law affects the New Jersey farmer, this 
law is certainly unfair and unjust to 
farmers and other small employers of la¬ 
bor. As yet we have done nothing in the 
way of insurance because of the prohibi¬ 
tive rates tor such insurance. I know of 
but one man in this vicinity who carries 
such insurance. There have been no cases 
here, so far as I know, where farmers 
have been obliged to make compensation 
for a serious injury, and I hope there 
will not be. for in such case the farmer 
may as well deed his place to the injured 
employees. Perhaps you may think I am 
putting this rather strong, but there is 
no question that this law is a very unde¬ 
sirable one from the farmer’s standpoint. 
As I understand it the making of special 
contracts is of little avail. 
Strong efforts have been made to have 
this law amended so as to exempt farm 
labor and domestic help from its provi¬ 
sions, but the bills introduced to amend 
them failed to become law. The attitude 
of the farmers here is just this: They 
know they are “up against it” fair and 
square and are keeping “mum.” The 
farmers here are not a hard-hearted 
bunch, either. They are just and fair 
men who would everyone do thp square 
thing and anything in reason for an in¬ 
jured employee, but as this law now 
stands it is very unreasonable, and unfair 
to the men who are farming with small 
capital and employing few men. j. 
South Jersey. 
DOMESTIC. — Eight persons were 
killed by a tornado which swept the 
northern part of Seward, Neb., May 14. 
Paul Acken, a mine foreman, died May 
15, and Dr. C. B. Jones died later at Al¬ 
lentown, Pa., the result of an electric 
feed wire crossing a telephone line. Acken 
went to the telephone to make a call and 
was instantly killed. Dr. Jones was 
called when Acken’s body was found, and, 
unaware of the cause of death, went to 
the telephone to summon assistance. He 
was knocked senseless. 
Three women and one man were killed 
and another man seriously injured May 
18 noon when an automobile containing 
them was struck by a Baltimore & Ohio 
express train at Leavittsburg, O. Four 
of the six occupants of the car were car¬ 
ried 200 yards on the pilot of the engine. 
Fifteen are dead as the result of the 
explosion of gas in the Imperial Mine 
of the Gates Coal Company at Belle 
Valley, Ohio, May 17. One man es¬ 
caped alive. 
A resume of the work done to May 16 
on the Panama Canal shows that there 
are 6,500.000 cubic yards of earth yet to 
be excavated in the Culebra Cut. The 
lock-gates are more than 90 per cent, 
completed, while the concrete work on 
the locks is practically finished. In April 
the force at work on the canal, including 
contractors, numbered 44,192 men. This 
was a slight reduction in the number of 
men engaged in the work the previous 
month. 
John N. Carlisle, New York Commis¬ 
sioner of Highways, has issued an order 
directing that all Sunday work in the de¬ 
partment, except emergency work, be dis¬ 
continued. Mr. Carlisle says an inves¬ 
tigation has revealed that nearly every 
per diem employee of the commission was 
being paid for work on Sunday. The new 
order, he estimates, will result in an an¬ 
nual saving of $50,000. 
Ten thousand persons fought the police 
in Cincinnati, O., May 16. It was the 
first riot in the strike of union street car 
men. Many rioters were hurt and 20 ar¬ 
rests were made. The police had to use 
force when a car was surrounded by an 
excited crowd of men, who began to 
throw wadded paper, sticks and other 
missiles. 
The dynamiting of property, train 
wrecking and the exchange of thousands 
of shots between special deputies and the 
200 miners who for seven weeks have 
been on strike against the Mount Hope 
mine of the Empire Steel and Iron Com¬ 
pany, four miles from Wharton, N. J., 
came to an end, at least temporarily, May 
16, when the last of the deputies depart¬ 
ed for Newark. Twelve deputies were 
shot in the gun fighting that began May 
15. It is estimated that within the last 
week half a ton of dynamite was’ ex¬ 
ploded. The strikers destroyed two 
bridges and the roadbed of the four mile 
stretch of railroad running to the mine. 
The company still refuses two demands 
of the strikers, a 20 per cent, increase in 
wages and recognition of the Western 
Federation of Miners, but strikers and 
their friends are optimistic concerning 
arbitration. 
May 19 riots occurred at Paterson, 
N. J.. as a result of one attempt to break 
the grip of the Industrial Workers of the 
World in Paterson. Twenty-two non¬ 
union broad silk weavers brought about 
the riot when they went back to work for 
the Arthur Price Silk Company on the 
guarantee that all the I. W. W. demands 
would.be granted, i. e.. an eight-hour day, 
a 10 per cent, increase in pay and the 
abolition of the three and four loom sys¬ 
tem. More than two thousand I. W. W. 
strikers swarmed to the mill to stop the 
workers from going inside. A number of 
arrests’ were made. 
Under the terms of a bill approved by 
Governor Toner. May 20. ten verses of 
the Bible must be read daily, without 
comment, in the public schools of Penn¬ 
sylvania. Teachers who violate the law 
are subject to dismissal. 
An attempt to prove that represen¬ 
tatives of capital entered into a compact 
to discredit organized labor was made in 
the Superior Court at Boston May 20 
when William M. Wood, president of the 
American Woolen Company: Frederick 
E. Atteaux and Dennis J. Collins were 
placed on trial for conspiracy to “plant” 
dynamite at Lawrence during the textile 
strike of 1912. Collins told of distribut¬ 
ing dynamite at different buildings occu¬ 
pied by striking textile operatives in 
Lawrence, but made only a casual refer¬ 
ence to Mr. Wood, and did not mention 
Mr. Atteaux’s name. He said that at the 
request of John J. Breen, who was a 
member of the Lawrence School Board, 
he carried a package of dynamite from 
Boston to Lawrence, and at Breen’s di¬ 
rection distributed smaller packages of 
the explosive at various places where the 
strikers congregated. Breen has already 
been convicted and fined for actually 
“planting” the dynamite. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Four hun- 
dren thousand pounds of frozen Austral¬ 
ian beef and mutton—the first shipment 
of its kind to the Pacific Coast—were 
landed at San Francisco May 15 from 
the steamer Tahiti. The meat was sold 
in Australia with the understanding that 
only a nominal profit should be made 
here. If the agreement is violated, Aus¬ 
tralia will ship direct, eliminating the 
middleman’s profit and assuming all the 
risk. The Union Steamship Company is 
so certain that the trade will be perma¬ 
nent that it has placed orders for four 
refrigerator ships, to be used exclusively 
on the Australian-San Francisco run. 
By proclamation of Governor Oddie 
May 10 quarantines are established in 
Nevada against the importation from any 
State in the Union of any cattle for 
breeding or dairy purposes which have 
not been inspected for tuberculosis; any 
horses or mules which have not been in¬ 
spected for glanders or maladie du coit, 
or any bees which have not been inspect¬ 
ed for American or European foul brood. 
A third quarantine prohibits the impor¬ 
tation into this State from corn districts 
of Utah, Wyoming or Idaho of any Al¬ 
falfa hay. It is said that the farming 
industry of the State is endangered by 
such importation because of the existence 
of Alfalfa weevil in the districts named. 
In the case of live stock and bees, they 
must have been inspected by some per¬ 
son. quarantine official, or association 
designated by Gordon II. True, of Reno, 
whose certificate of appointment as State 
quarantine officer was filed with Secre¬ 
tary of State Brodigan. The live stock 
inspection must have been made 30 days 
prior to the date of shipment and the 
bee inspection ten days prior to the date 
of shipment. The bee quarantine is made 
effective on and after May 20 and the 
live stock quarantine on and after June 
1. The quarantine against Alfalfa is ef¬ 
fective immediately. 
WASHINGTON.—The armor plate 
for the new super-dreadnought Pennsyl¬ 
vania is costing Uncle Sam $1,600,000 
more than it should, according to Senator 
Ashurst, of Arizona. He has a resolution 
of inquiry pending and he asked permis¬ 
sion to make some remarks on what lie 
terms the armor plate “steal.” 
Secretary of Agriculture Houston act¬ 
ed May 16 on the case of Charles T. 
Burns, the Weather Bureau employee 
who was furloughed indefinitely recently 
for improper political activity in Willis 
L. Moore’s candidacy for Secretary of 
Agriculture. Secretary Houston’s order 
reinstates Burns at a salary reduction of 
$450 a year. The charges against Burns 
were that on September 27. 1912, he 
signed a memorandum delivered to the 
chief clerk of the Weather Bureau set¬ 
ting forth that an inspection of the bu¬ 
reau’s printing plants was necessary, 
"whereas.” in the language of Secretary 
Houston, "the trip was planned by Willis 
L. Moore for the primary purpose of pro¬ 
moting his candidacy.” Burns made a 
written report conveying the impression 
that between October 25 and December 2 
in traveling he had devoted his services 
exclusively to inspection of printing 
plants, but Mr. Houston declares that 
Burns "used a large part of the period 
in furthering the personal and political 
interests of Mr. Moore.” 
More than fifty-nine million five hun¬ 
dred thousand parcel post packages were 
sent through _the mails during April, ap¬ 
proximately 54 per cent, more than in 
January, the first month of the parcel 
post system’s operation. 
The Senate passed, May 19. an emer¬ 
gency appropriation of $600,000 to meet 
the extraordinary exigencies of the postal 
service. This appropriation is to cover a 
shortage occasioned chiefly by the appli¬ 
cation of the much-criticized eight-hour 
law to clerks and carriers in the service. 
The debate in the Senate brought out evi¬ 
dence of the delays and confusing condi¬ 
tions with which the Department is now 
struggling on account of the eight-hour 
law and the so-called Hitchcock econo¬ 
mies. It was brought out for the first 
time that this eight-hour law will cost 
the Government more than $3,000,000 a 
year. Senators told of the inexcusable 
delays in mail service that have come to 
their personal notice and two amend¬ 
ments proposing a repeal of the eight- 
hour law were introduced. 
COMING FARMERS’ MEETINGS. 
State Conference on Agriculture and 
Country Life in Indiana, under auspices 
of Indiana Bankers’ Association. Clay- 
pool Hotel, Indianapolis, June 3-4. 
American Association of Nurserymen, 
Portland, Ore., June 17-20. 
Sixteenth annual convention of the Ca¬ 
nadian Horticultural Association will be 
held at Peterboro, Out., in August. 
New York State Fair and Grand Cir¬ 
cuit Meeting, Syracuse, N. Y., September 
8-13. 
Lancaster Fair. Lancaster, Pa., Sep¬ 
tember 30-Oetober 3. 
Third Indiana Apple Show, Indianapo¬ 
lis. November 5-11. 
Maryland State Horticultural Society, 
Maryland Crop Improvement Association, 
Maryland Dairymen’s Association, Mary¬ 
land Beekeepers’ Association, and Fann¬ 
ers’ League. Baltimore, November 17-22. 
Summer meeting N. Y. State Fruit 
Growers’ Association will be held at 01- 
cott B^acli. Niagara Co., N.Y.; date to 
be named later. 
