1913. 
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EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.-—The Quaker Oats Com¬ 
pany—the so-called oatmeal trust— -con¬ 
trolling 00 per cent of the oatmeal prod¬ 
ucts and by-products of the country, was 
attacked by the Federal Government in a 
civil anti-trust suit filed at Chicago June 
11, charging a monopoly in “derogation 
of the common rights of the people of the 
United States” and in violation of the 
Sherman law. Complain fs made par¬ 
ticularly in the bill against a contract, 
described as a conspiracy in restraint of 
trade, between the Quaker Oats Company 
and the Great Western Cereal Company, 
by which the former acquired the busi¬ 
ness of the latter, which is said to have 
been insolvent from the date of the con¬ 
tract. June 22, 1011. The cancellation 
of this agreement is asked. 
By a vote of S3 to 58 the Illinois 
House passed June 11 the limited woman 
suffrage bill, which was later signed by 
Gov. Dunne and will become a law July 
1. The signing of the measure by the 
Governor makes Illinois the first State 
past of the Mississippi River to give con¬ 
siderable voting power to women. The 
new law opens the ballot to women for 
all statutory offices and Presidential elec¬ 
tors and on all propositions submitted to 
the people. They will have a vote in the 
election of Mayors and Aldermen, but ' 
cannot vote for Governor or other State 
offices created by the State Constitution, 
as this would require a constitutional 
amendment. 
For some weeks past swindlers have 
been working in the country districts 
near Mount llolly, N. J., obtaining $1.50 
from farmers and others with children of 
school age. . Their story has been that 
they represented. the “School Progress 
League of New Jersey” and that after 
this term.all children attending school 
would have to be registered with them to 
be admitted. It cost $1.50 per child for 
a slip of paper showing the registry. 
Farmers in Florence and Mansfield town¬ 
ships reported the visits of a pair telling 
the story and extracting the money. June 
12 County Detective Ellis II. Parker and 
Deputy Sheriff Joseph B. Flootwood ar¬ 
rested two men who gave their names 
as Frederick Riggs and II. C. Ilartzell, 
who say they live in Trenton. They were 
arraigned before Justice Charles P. Smith 
at Burlington and committed to the 
county jail to permit further investiga¬ 
tion. 
Two men are missing and are believed 
to have perished in a $250,000 fire which 
swept through the heart of Liberty, N. Y., 
June 13. 
Three men and two women were killed, 
another man died later, and IT persons 
were injured in a rear-end collision on 
the New Haven Railroad near Stamford, 
Conn., June 12. This wreck—the third 
disaster within two years on this section 
of the road—came on a clear stretch of 
track with no apparent cause in the way 
of defective equipment, although in an 
official statement issued by the road, it 
was said the air brakes on the second 
section of the train were not working. 
Eleven men were killed and two were 
injured June 14 when a section of the 
lower or express level of the Lexington 
Avenue subway, under construction at 
Fifty-sixth street, New York, caved in. 
With a roar two thousand 1 tons of rock 
ripped loose from the top of the excava¬ 
tion and smashed into splinters on the 
rock bottom beneath. The part of the 
roof that fell is about 40 feet long. There 
is 20 feet of solid rock between the local 
and express levels of the subway at this 
point and this was loosened over a width 
of 35 or 40 feet. 
Robert J. Kellogg, who says he is the 
president of the Kellogg Music Company, 
of No. 1431 Broadway, New York, was 
arraigned before Commissioner Shields 
June 17, charged with using the mails to 
defraud. He was held in $1,000 bail for 
examination on July 12. Postoffice In¬ 
spector Mayhew, in his complaint, swore 
that Kellogg on March 10 devised a plan 
to defraud Miss Alla E. Porter Bennett, 
of No. 6250 Arch street, West Phila¬ 
delphia. Kellogg is alleged to have prom¬ 
ised Miss Bennett that for $21 he would 
write the music for any songs she might 
send to him. Advertisements to that ef¬ 
fect, it is charged, brought many letters 
from all over the country. Applicants 
were told, the complaint says, that the 
songs had been accepted and likely would 
make hits. Agreements made to deliver 
one hundred or more copies of their songs 
tor distribution among friends, the inspec¬ 
tor alleges, were seldom carried out. 
C. O. D. PARCEL l>OST.—Instruc¬ 
tions to postmasters were issued June 11 
tor handling of C. O. I), parcel post pack¬ 
ages on and after July 1. Charges on 
packages will be collected from ad¬ 
dressees, provided the amount on a single 
parcel does not exceed $100. The fee for 
collection will be 10 cents in parcel post 
stamps, to be affixed by the sender. This 
<e also will insure the package against 
oss to the actual value of the contents. 
°. ‘‘ x *-'oeding $50. The sender will get a 
'"‘ipt showing the amount to be eol- 
InL , ainolmt also appearing on a 
f attached to the package. The ad- 
essee will receipt for the package on 
which will serve as an applica¬ 
nt,- ? l a nione y order. C. O. D. parcels 
‘‘ ,e accepted for mailing by rural 
rn, i 1S ’ a, . u ^ he delivered by city and 
i carriers and special delivery ines- 
.L Ue ^ packages will not be mail- 
Zuut t0 Philippines or to the Canal 
b'l |a f! ^ t PRUNES.'—The most serious 
lh .,1 n Wlt V the M° r °s since the affair of 
ajo, five years ago, took place June 
12, the American troops successfully 
storming the rebel trenches at Bagsag. 
Six United States soldiers were killed 
and 12 seriously wounded. Two privates 
of Company M, 8tli United States In¬ 
fantry ; three of the 51st company of 
scouts and one of the 21st company of 
scouts were the ones who met death in 
the charge against the Moros. Brigadier 
General John J. Pershing was in com¬ 
mand of the American troops. This bat¬ 
tle was punitive of a long series of out¬ 
rages by the Moros. The Sultan of Jolo 
not only claimed supreme power over all 
the Philippines, but told his followers 
that the United States was a tributary 
nation. While a peaceful solution of the 
difficulties raised by the Sultan was still 
being sought, gifts were sent to him by 
American officials, and he used this oc¬ 
casion to support the claim that the 
United States was paying him tribute. 
i FARM AND GARDEN.—The II. C. 
Frick Coke Company is making arrange¬ 
ments to establish dairy farms near its 
extensive coking plants and coal mines 
near Connellsville, Pa., From these dair¬ 
ies the company will supply workmen 
with fresh milk and dairy products at a 
price equal to what the farmer would re¬ 
ceive. This action was decided on after 
an investigation of the dairy farms of the 
. Penn-Mary Coal Company at Hailwood, 
and the Ebensburg Coal Company. 
Senator Marc W. Cole, author of the 
Cole commission man law. has been ap¬ 
pointed superintendent of the State Co¬ 
operative Farmers’ Association, which is 
designed to organize producers and con¬ 
sumers into associations for direct deal¬ 
ing. 
The American meat packing companies 
now operating in Argentina are not 
deemed to constitute a “trust” by the Ar¬ 
gentine government. The Minister of 
Agriculture replying to the note sent to 
the government by six of the leading An¬ 
glo-Argentine chilled beef companies de¬ 
claring that if the present onerous sit¬ 
uation continued they would close their 
plants, declared that after investigating 
the situation the government considered 
that it was not called upon to modify the 
existing regime of liberty which permitted 
the development of industry iu Argen¬ 
tina. If, however, he said, new facts 
should later prove that the intentions of 
the American companies were to develop 
a combination disadvantageous to the 
country he would adopt the necessary 
measures to prevent such an occurrence. 
A majority of the newspapers comment 
with approval on the attitude of the gov¬ 
ernment, and for the present at least the 
question is considered ended. 
The International Apple Shippers’ As¬ 
sociation will hold their fourth annual 
apple show in connection with their con¬ 
vention at the Hotel Statler. Cleveland, 
()., August 6-8. There are no entrance 
or other fees. Information may be ob¬ 
tained from R. G. Phillips, secretary. 612 
Mercantile Building, Rochester, N. Y. 
FARMERS’ DAY AT PENNSYLVANIA 
STATE COLLEGE. 
Thursday, June 5, was Farmers’ Day 
at State College, Pa. The railroads of¬ 
fered greatly reduced rates from all parts 
of the State, and about 1,000 persons 
took advantage of the cheap rates to see 
their agricultural college and experimen¬ 
tal farms. Men and women of all ages 
made up the crowd, also a few babies 
were to be seen who were being taught 
early the value of scientific farming. 
Some of the people had been there before 
on like occasions, but many had never 
seen the place before. Early in the morn¬ 
ing several excursion trains were started 
from various points iu the State. These 
trains gathered up the expectant groups 
at almost every station. The little road 
leading from Bellefonte to the college, 
with its many curves and a number of 
steep grades, was hardly adequate for 
the long excursion trains which passed 
over its rails that day. The crowds 
reached their destination about noon, and 
were permitted to remain about six hours, 
making the return trip during the even¬ 
ing and night. 
Upon arrival at the grounds a light 
lunch was served consisting of ham sand¬ 
wiches, coffee and ice cream at a nom¬ 
inal cost. Immediately after lunch the 
visitors scrambled into wagons for a 
drive oyer the experimental farms. Wag¬ 
ons with beds, laddered wagons, and 
spring wagons for some of the ladies, 
about 35 of them made quite a train as 
we slowly passed along the road leading 
through the farms. Professors . Watts 
and Stewart halted the teams occasion¬ 
ally to make short talks with reference 
to the fields we were passing. Thus 
considerable information was secured of 
their field crops, the dairy herd which 
was in pasture, and the young apple and 
peach orchard, 33 acres in extent. A 
rundown farm which the college leased 
some years ago is being built up without 
the aid of manure, with satisfactory re¬ 
sults thus far. The talks given were ex¬ 
cellent and the audience remarkably at¬ 
tentive considering the dusty roads and 
hot afternoon which made this trip rather 
trying even to farmer folks. At one 
place the wagons were arranged in half 
circle and a panoramic picture was taken 
of the visitors. 
Returning to the buildings the crowds 
were let loose to inspect almost every¬ 
thing in sight at their fancy, which they 
did with little hesitancy. Only a few 
doors were locked while many depart¬ 
ments had attendants who were anxious 
to answer any queries put to them. One 
greenhouse was filled with cucumber 
vines which were being trained to per¬ 
pendicular strings seemingly every tendril 
being in its place. The dairy building, 
agricultural and other buildings as well 
as the buildings of the other schools, 
were inspected in order, and as far as 
time would permit. The gymnasium, 
museum, observatory, etc., were attrac¬ 
tive to many. Last but not least, the 
lunch stand was again visited before 
starting on the return trip. General ex¬ 
pressions of approval were made and we 
believe all had reasons to be satisfied with 
their trip. Many were surprised to learn 
that nearly one thousand students were 
enrolled last year in the agricultural 
school, which shows the wonderful in¬ 
crease in interest now being taken by 
farmers in agricultural education. 
Pennsylvania. david plank. 
THAT COMMISSION MAN’S BILL. 
The Cole commission man’s bill as ex¬ 
plained on page 759 is a good thing and 
will no doubt be instrumental in bringing 
about some degree of improvement in the 
commission house district, but there is 
no amount of legislation that can and 
will change the personality and habits of 
some individuals. The only resource in 
that direction is publicity and that alone 
fails on a certain class of people. The 
question was raised in the article referred 
to about the commission man raising his 
charge for selling in order to meet the 
increased cost of paying the license fee 
and other expenses which will be in¬ 
curred under the Cole law. If the in¬ 
creased cost to the commission man is 
such that it is necessary for him to 
charge more than the regular 10 per cent, 
on consignments in order to conduct a 
reputable business that argument is all 
right, and it would be generally supposed 
that with the increased cost of commis¬ 
sion for selling the gross price would be 
raised, or more specifically speaking, the 
producer would in the end be benefited, 
but how about the class of commission 
men who go out in a .section of country 
and offer each individual grower a rebate 
if they consign shipments to them, and 
pay a barker to be continually on the 
ground to boost the business? The con¬ 
sequence is just this, the class of gullible 
consignors ship their goods to such 
houses, receive a supposed three per cent, 
on the quoted price of the sale and the 
commission house deducts 25 per cent, 
before the sale price to the grower is 
quoted. Then under the conditions he 
takes another seven per cent., which is 
commission, gives the grower three per¬ 
cent., making a total of 35 per cent., qnite 
a commission rate indeed and easily ob¬ 
tained by salving the grower three per 
cent, and robbing him out of 25 per cent. 
This happens continually, and is it a 
wonder that some classes of growers are 
poor? Another, game is to put on and 
take off ; put on more than they get for 
the stuff iu order to make a showing, take 
off when they get a large shipment to 
make up their losses on the amounts put 
on. It has been said that a sucker is 
born every minute. Forty-five an hour 
come from the farmer class. The law of 
the harvest is to reap more than you sow, 
but the. getting something for‘ nothing 
proposition is an entire failure when the 
farmer bucks the commission man with 
the expectation of getting a rake-off. 
There are plenty of reliable houses in 
any market, so that it is not warrantable 
to do business with known snide houses. 
Beverly, N. J. l. a. p. 
R. N.-Y*.—The license will cost $10 
and the fee for bonding will run to about 
$12 for a reputable house. Thus the 
total cost will run close to $25. which is 
no justification for an increase of com¬ 
mission. Just give us the names of a 
few of the houses who run this slick 
game you mention and tell the storv in 
detail and we will see that full publicity 
is given* _ 
AXES TO GRIND. 
[Many farmers who have turned grind¬ 
stones while politiea ns and farmer’s 
friends sharpened their axes will appreci¬ 
ate the following, taken from “The 
Masses” :] 
But when a manicured, barber-shaved 
person grabs my coat sleeve to remark, 
“I lo-o-ove the American Farmer!” my 
quiet response is, “George, bring up the 
grindstone: here’s another one of them 
axes.” 
"I love the farmer,” you say. 
“Exactly,” I reply. “l r our Cousin 
Henry lives iu the country and each 
Thanksgiving sends you a turkey which 
otherwise would cost you three dollars.” 
“Sir, I have no Cousin Henry.” 
“Then you are Gentleman Jake, the 
Three Card Monte man, and you tour 
the country districts shortly after the 
hay money comes in.” 
“Sir, I never did such a thing in mv 
life.” 
"Indeed! In that case you are either 
Deacon Scraggs, Superintendent of the 
First Church Sunday School and with 
over $117,826.43 of first mortgages on 
choice farm lands in your safe, or else 
you are the lion. George W. Joues— 
willing and glad to exchange government 
flower seeds for votes.” 
I will admit that you may love Parsifal 
or Pre-Raphaelite art or sunsets as purely 
as Dante loved Beatrice, but any time 
you. begin to love the big red-handed 
rubes that do the Fall plowing it’s be¬ 
cause you expect to get something out 
of it—and them. 
Just now the railroads and the agri¬ 
cultural implement houses are growing 
very loud in their affection for the 
farmer. They love the farmer, and be¬ 
cause they love him they want to increase 
his efficiency. They will, too. It’s a 
safe bet. Before many a son of the soil 
knows what he is doing he will be 
raising two sheaves of wheat where only 
one grew before. 
But will not this make the farmer 
rich ? 
Yes, indeed, it will not. 
True, he will take in enough extra to 
be able to buy on credit the new ma¬ 
chines needed to grow the new kind of 
crop; also enough to pay the increased 
railroad rates. But he will continue to 
sell his Winter eggs because he can’t 
afford to eat them; and wear his 1899 
overcoat because he can’t afford a new 
one; and let his children’s teeth go rot 
because he can’t afford a dentist. More¬ 
over, he will continue to pay interest on 
the same old mortgage—now slightlv en¬ 
larged. 
It may excite the curious to know that 
in that day large donations to charity 
will continue to be made by those Chris¬ 
tian gentlemen into whose hands an all¬ 
wise Providence has given the railroads 
and things. Plain people will continue 
to be glad if they can slip an extra 
nickel into the plate on Sunday. 
A TEN CENT SOUTHERN DOLLAR. 
You are always harping a tune on 
the 35-cent dollar, so will add one verse 
to your song. Y'esterday evening on my 
way home, I cut through • a side street 
to get my car, and while waiting for it 
saw a grocer, an old friend of mine, 
sitting.on a case of eggs, evidently trying 
to keep them from cooling off, or it may 
be, the warm weather had quickened his 
mother instinct and he wanted to set. 
He called to me, and I came across, 
and he asked how my folks proceeded to 
can fruits and vegetables and the kind of 
jars used, and in fact the whole thing. 
I told him all I knew, and I suppose a 
few things that I didn’t, but he will for¬ 
get it all, so no harm was done. He 
told me that in the morning of the same 
day he had bought between five and six 
bushels of snap beans for 40 cents. I 
supposed he meant 40 cents a bushel, 
but he said no, it was 40 cents for the 
whole lot; that a man from across the 
Bay had brought the beans to town and 
could not sell them and had come to his 
place and offered him the goods for the 
amount of freight he had paid the boat, 
which was 40 cents. He did not want 
the beans, but just took them, although 
he did not handle vegetables, he bought 
them, and had sold them out at two 
quarts for five cents, or at the rate of .80 
cents a bushel, which, estimating he had 
only five bushels, brought in $4 on an 
investment of 40 cents. You can figure 
the per cent, for yourself. I believe the 
grocer took them simply because he was 
getting something for nothing, and also 
to help the fellow out, as he is a pretty 
good kind-hearted fellow, even if he is a 
middleman, and it is doubtful if he has 
made more than a moderate living in the 
last 10 years. u. a. 
Mobile, Ala. 
R. X.-Y.—Yes, we “harp” on the 35- 
cent-dollar tune. We hope it will prove 
in time to be the tune the old farm 
slavery died of. New verses which run 
into the tune are very useful. 
The Oregon Senate.— The session 
of the Oregon State Grange just passed 
was a very busy one, and I hope a 
very profitable one. It went on record 
as favoring the doing away with the 
J>tate Senate, which has become an un¬ 
necessary evil in the law-making system 
of our State. It is claimed, and, results 
substantiate the statements, that 15 
Senators, or half of our State Senate, 
are controlled by the large corporations 
ot the State. The initiative and referen¬ 
dum is taking the place of our “House 
ot Lords,” and is doing more than they 
ever, did or could do in causing our law¬ 
making body and State officers to trans¬ 
act the duties of their office according 
to the will of the people. The State 
Master was also ordered to appoint a 
committee to investigate and put into 
working order as soon as practical a co¬ 
operative system of selling and probably 
buying among the Granges of the State. 
This is. I think, a mighty tough job, 
bnt if carried through to successful 
working order will be one of the greatest 
direct helps that the Grange has done 
for the farmers in Oregon. c. H. H. 
Oregon. 
Summer meeting of the Virginia State 
Horticultural Society, University of Vir¬ 
ginia. Charlottesville, July 16. 
^ Sixteenth annual convention of the 
Canadian Horticultural Association will 
be held at Peterboro, Out., in August. 
Apple show and convention of the In¬ 
ternational Apple Shippers’ Association, 
Hotel Statler, Cleveland, 0„ August 6-8. 
New York State Fair and Grand Cir¬ 
cuit Meeting. Syracuse, N. Y., September 
S-lo. 
Lancaster Fair, Lancaster, Pa., Sep¬ 
tember 30-October 3. 
Vermont Corn Show, Windsor, Vt., 
November 5-7. 
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 Farm¬ 
ers’ League, Baltimore, November 17-22. 
Summer meeting N. Y. State Fruit 
Glowers’ Association will be held at Ol- 
cott Beach, Niagara 
be uamed later. 
Co., N. Y.; date to 
