1910. 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
626 
LETTERS FROM PUBLIC MEN. 
This week we may take up a corre¬ 
spondence with Senator N. B. Scott, of 
West Virginia. One of our readers in 
Hancock County asked the Senator how 
he stood on parcels post. Here you 
have his answer. 
Yours of the 12th to hand and contents 
noted. You ask me “Do you know of any 
reason why all other civilized countries 
should have parcels post and we should 
not.” Each of the foreign countries is 
about as large as one of our counties in 
West Virginia. If we adopt a parcels post we 
shall have to carry it from Porto Rico to 
Alaska at the same price we would carry 
a parcel from Wheeling to your place. 
There is a deficit now in the Postoflice 
Department of over 17 millions, caused 
by the establishment of free rural routes 
over the country, and if the parcels post 
is added it will increase the deficit very 
materially. I shall give this matter very 
careful consideration when it comes before 
the Committee on Postoffices and Post 
Roads and I assure you I will try to do 
justice to the government and at the same 
time to the people of the country. I shall 
not act hastily in regard to the matter, 
because it is a very serious question. 
Very truly yours, 
N. B. SCOTT. 
We think it is going to be a very seri¬ 
ous matter for Senator Scott before he 
gets through. Our friend from Hancock 
County is a true Knight of the Postage 
Stamp, and he comes back at Senator 
Scott at once: 
I received your letter some time ago 
dated March 14. In it you say each foreign 
country (with parcel post) is about the 
size of our counties in West Virginia. I 
think your ideas about geography must be 
somewhat hazy. I think Great Britain, 
France and Germany are somewhat larger 
than our West Virginia counties. Instead 
of creating a deficit a parcel post would 
create a revenue for the postoffice. You 
say you will try to do justice to the gov¬ 
ernment and at the same time to the peo¬ 
ple of the country. Now my understand¬ 
ing is that the people are the government; 
perhaps I am wrong about this. Now the 
question of parcels post is to be settled. 
The people have a right to know how their 
representatives stand on the question, 
whether they stand with the people or the 
express companies. You are a candidate 
for re-election. Will you state plainly your 
position? 
Nothing does us so much good as this 
ability and inclination to talk back to 
public men. Senator Scott ought to take 
a few years off and go back to ■some 
country school in West Virginia for a 
course in geography. Let some school 
teacher show him that the State covers 
24,645 square miles, with 55 counties; 
while France has 204,177 square miles, 
Germany 211,135, Austro-Hungary 240,- 
942, and Great Britain 120,537. Senator 
Scott must think he is talking to the 
infant class in a school when he offers 
such a foolish bluff. The Senator ought 
also to go somewhere and learn a few 
simple things about parcels post. Does 
he not know that packages can now be 
•sent to a dozen foreign countries at 12 
cents a pound? A package weighing 
four pounds will now go from Alaska to 
Germany for 48 cents. From Wheel¬ 
ing, W. Va., a dozen miles out, it will 
cost 64 cents. From Wheeling to Aus¬ 
tralia 10 pounds will cost $1.20, from 
Wheeling to Washington, $1.60 in three 
separate packages. Again, does not 
Senator Scott know that thbre are about 
40,000 wagons now running over rural 
mail routes with half a load, or less? 
Parcels post will fill these wagons and 
increase the revenue with little cost. 
A great man, that, to represent a great 
State in a great legislative body. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—In a fire that practically 
destroyed the county jail at New Haven, 
Conn., April 13, six firemen lost their lives. 
One fireman was critically injured and sev¬ 
eral were seriously hurt. When the fire 
was discovered there were 300 men and 50 
women prisoners in the Jail. The fire was 
first seen on the second floor of the work¬ 
shop of the jail and is believed to have 
been caused by crossed wires. The loss 
will be $200,000. This was the third bad 
fire in New Haven within 12 hours. Fire 
began at 2 o’clock in the morning at the 
stables of Frank Brazos find 31 valuable 
horses were burned. The other big fire 
was at the Connecticut Computing Com¬ 
pany’s factory, near the Yale campus, 
when seven women employees escaped down 
ladders. 
President Taft was informed April 14 of 
the startling inroads which cocaine is 
making on the health of this country by 
Dr. Joseph R. Remington of the United 
States Pharmacopia, an organization al¬ 
lied with the drug profession. Dr. Reming¬ 
ton brought exhibits of cocaine to show the 
President. He told Mr. Taft about recent 
disclosures in Philadelphia, how it had 
been shown that school children were vic¬ 
tims to the cocaine habit. He urged the 
passage of some national prohibitory meas¬ 
ure, because any attempt by a few States 
to restrain the trade would fail. If one 
State passed an effective law against the 
sale of cocaine the users easily could ob¬ 
tain it from adjoining States which had no 
restrictions on its sale. Dr. Remington 
wanted a law to forbid its passage in inter¬ 
state commerce. The President was much 
impressed and interested. 
A dynamite explosion at the Lackawanna 
cutoff near Netcong, N. J., April 14, killed 
four men outright and injured four others 
so badly that none was expected to re¬ 
cover. One of the four died shortly after 
reaching Memorial Hospital in Morris¬ 
town. Another of the gang was seriously 
injured, but may recover. 
A storm that finally blew out to sea 
April 16 has done damage in five Southern 
States estimated at $2,000,000 to crops and 
other property and left a trail of dead and 
wounded in its path. While the greater part 
of the damage has been done to growing 
crops, yet scores of buildings and business 
houses have been unroofed or demolished 
in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkan¬ 
sas and Tennessee. In Sturgiss, Miss., five 
persons were killed by the collapse of a 
store. Bradley and Chapel, in the same 
district, report four deaths by lightning. 
In southern and central Alabama there 
was much damage to property. At Green¬ 
ville and Bruton residences and business 
houses were unroofed. Eight negx - oes were 
killed by lightning while under a tree. 
A blizzard prevailed in the central West¬ 
ern States April 16-17, doing much damage 
to growing vegetables. At some points in 
Iowa ice formed to the thickness of four 
inches. The peach and apple crops almost 
over the entire State have been killed. In 
Minnesota there was considerable snow and 
cold, but the crops had not advanced far 
and little damage was done. In Illinois 
and Wisconsin and parts of Michigan the 
cold was severe enough to damage all early 
vegetables and the fruit trees. 
Fire April 17 at Hyde Park, Vt., de¬ 
stroyed 16 buildings and caused a loss 
estimated at about $100,000. The struc¬ 
tures burned were the county jail, court 
house, residence of Sheriff Stevens, the 
Congregational Church, town hall, one 
store, two tenement houses and the resi¬ 
dences of eight well-to-do people. A high 
wind and the lack of effective apparatus 
caused the spread of the flames, which 
started in the county jail about noon. 
Assistant Attorney-General W. T. Deni¬ 
son, who has been in charge of the investi¬ 
gation at New Orleans of the American 
Sugar Refining Company, which was insti¬ 
tuted by Attorney-General Wickersham and 
the Secretary of the Treasury, says that 
the reports of frauds in the New Orleans 
Custom House in regard to the importation 
of sugar are untrue. 
A safe containing diamonds, jewelry and 
money estimated at more than $50,000 has 
been found in the Gulf of Mexico in 20 
feet of water, buried deep in the sand. 
The safe has been identified • as the prop¬ 
erty of J. Williams, a jeweller, which was 
washed away from the historic seaport of 
Indianola, Tex., when that town was de¬ 
stroyed by a Gulf hurricane and giant 
wave in 1875. The story of the safe is 
told by surviving relatives who assisted 
Williams in packing it. Williams and his 
daughter were drowned in the storm and 
the building containing the safe was washed 
to sea. Divers have examined the safe 
and find it intact. Arrangements are being 
made to lift the treasure and take it ashore. 
For many years there was a standing re¬ 
ward of $10,000 for any one locating the 
safe. It was found nearly a mile from the 
site of the building. 
Abraham White, sometimes known as the 
“postage stamp financier” because he 
cleaned up a little matter of $100,000 on a 
Panama bond subscription in 1906 on an 
investment of 44 cents’ worth of postage 
stamps, was locked up at Police Head¬ 
quarters, New l’ork, April 19, on complaint 
of a former elevated railroad engineer, 
who charges him with the larceny of $575. 
The complainant, Isaac Zane, lives at White 
Haven, Pa., on a pension. Zane says that 
he read in the newspapers about White 
making so much money out of various 
projects and, having saved up a few hun¬ 
dred dollars, wrote White a letter in Sep¬ 
tember, 1906, asking him for advice and 
help about investments. In reply he re¬ 
ceived a letter early in 1907 written on 
the stationery of the Greater New York 
Security Company, 149 Broadway, and 
signed “Abraham White, president,” with 
the rubber stamped information that the 
letter had been signed by a secretary. This 
told him to send along the money and he 
sent $600. He shows another letter ac¬ 
knowledging receipt; also a letter dated 
November 7, 1907, saying that White was 
sorry the investment had not turned out 
so well as he had hoped and sending check 
for $25. Zane cashed the check and says 
that that is all the money he got back out 
of the $600. He made complaint against 
White at Police Headquarters on March 
10 last. In the Fall of 1907 White put 
in a bid for an entire $40,000,000 issue of 
city bonds. He enclosed with the bid a 
draft for $800,000 accepted by the Greater 
New York Security Company to cover the 
2 per cent deposit. Comptroller Metz 
wasn’t convinced that the Greater New 
York Security Company had the $800,000 
and threw out the bid. White bought the 
John A. McCall place at Long Branch after 
Mr. McCall’s death, but later it was sold 
at sheriff’s sale after the Metropolitan Life 
Insurance Company foreclosed a $100,000 
mortgage. 
George W. Aldridge, boss of Monroe 
County, N. Y., was defeated by James S. 
Havens in the special election for Repre¬ 
sentative in the Thirty-second District, 
held April 19. Mr. Havens has defeated 
Mr. Aldridge by a plurality of 5,831. Inas¬ 
much as the late Representative Perkins, 
Republican, carried the district in 1908 by 
10,167 the result shows a difference 
of 15,998 votes. Mr. Havens carries the 
city of Rochester by 3,746. In 1908 Mr. 
Perkins carried it by 6,215. The difference 
is 9,961 votes. The result tallies almost 
to a dot with that in the Fourteenth Massa¬ 
chusetts district, where at a recent special 
election Eugene N. Foss, Democrat, over¬ 
turned a Republican plurality in 1908 of 
14,000 and won by 6,000, making a dif¬ 
ference of 20,000 votes. The last Demo¬ 
cratic Congressman for this district was 
Col. Albert S. Greenleaf. elected in 1890, 
just two years before the Cleveland tidal 
wave of 1892, which was the result of the 
McKinley tariff law .and the disapproval by 
Republicans of the Harrison administra¬ 
tion. Mr. Havens -carried all of the Re¬ 
publican strongholds not only in the city 
of Rochester, but the country towns of 
Monroe County which make up the Con¬ 
gress district. He carried his own ward 
by 68, where the late Representative Per¬ 
kins, Republican, carried it in 1908 by 
150. Mr. Havens carried 17 of the 22 
wards in the city of Rochester and all but 
three of the 19 country towns. Mr. 
Aldridge carried his own ward by 88. 
Perkins carried it in 1908 by 900. 
One of the most important railroad cases 
ever tried in New Jersey resulted April 19 
in a verdict of $12,000 against the Penn¬ 
sylvania Railroad for the death of William 
L. Stockton, of Newark, at the Newark 
station. The administrator of the estate 
claimed that the road did not maintain a 
large enough platform at Newark, that it 
did not make its platform reasonably safe, 
and that the trains were not operated in a 
safe manner. The first cause was thrown 
out by the court, but on the latter two 
the jury found the company negligent. 
Stockton was waiting for a train on the 
station platform at Newark when a train 
moved in, stopped, and immediately moved 
out again. Stockton was pushed by the 
crowd under the wheels and killed. 
POLITICAL.—The Senate Committee on 
Manufactures reported favorably May 14 
Senator Ileyburn’s bill to prevent the 
adulteration of paints. It provides that all 
paint shall be labelled with the name of 
the manufacturer and the ylace of manu¬ 
facture and the label shall also state the 
percentage of white lead, turpentine, oil or 
zinc in the paint. 
The announcement by the Department of 
Justice April 18 that it intends to investi¬ 
gate the cotton pool with a view to bring¬ 
ing criminal prosecutions against those con¬ 
cerned marks a new departure by the At¬ 
torney-General in applying the Sherman 
anti-trust law to alleged monopolies and 
conspiracies in restraint of trade. A plain 
intimation is contained in the department 
statement that proceedings will be begun 
against other pools and corners in com- 
moditie* if conditions seem to warrant such 
action. Mr. Wickersham has already shown 
a good deal of originality in applying exist¬ 
ing laws in new ways. He recently in¬ 
dicted several of the Kentucky night riders 
under the Sherman anti-trust law and Tt 
was only a few weeks ago that through 
the arm of the Federal law he flealt a 
blow at the bucket shop business of the 
country. It is understood that the Attor¬ 
ney-General hopes to be able through the 
application of the Sherman anti-trust law 
to prevent great pools and corners in com¬ 
modities. The Department of Justice is 
engaged now in an investigation of the so- 
called butter trust at Elgin, Ill., and it 
announced a few days ago that it would 
begin proceedings also against soft coal 
combinations. These are only a few -evi¬ 
dences of the intention of the Department 
of Justice to push prosecutions under the 
Sherman anti-trust law. The department 
has been waiting for a decision in the 
Standard Oil and Tobacco trust cases, but 
now that these decisions have been post¬ 
poned for probably a year it is likely that 
the department will move without further 
delay against combinations which it feels 
certain are violating the anti-trust law. 
The House April 18 passed the Dalzell 
bill providing that hereafter the Court of 
Claims shall have jurisdiction over all in¬ 
fringement of patents by thje United States 
Government. At present when the Gov¬ 
ernment grabs a patent the inventor has 
no redress. The Dalzell bill will not inter¬ 
fere with patents which the Government is 
using at present, but will simply take cog¬ 
nizance of such use in the future, when 
the Court of Claims will determine the 
amount which should be paid to the in¬ 
ventor as indemnity. 
FARM AND GARDEN. — The annual 
meeting of the American Guernsey Cattle 
Club is called at the Hotel Imperial, 31st 
street and Broadway, New Y'ork City, on 
Wednesday, May 11. The executive oi 
business session will be held at 10.3,0 a. m.. 
for the purpose of hearing the reports fox 
the year, the election of officers, and trans¬ 
action of any business that may come be¬ 
fore the meeting. Wm. H. Caldwell, sec¬ 
retary, Peterboro, N. H. 
Under a post office regulation enforc¬ 
ing the use of transparent paper for seed 
bags, which has been on the statutes since 
1883, but has been completely lost sight 
of and so unrecognized, but was recently 
brought to light by the action of a post¬ 
master in the West, seedsmen will be com¬ 
pelled, commencing with July 1, to put up 
all seeds, which are intended to pass 
through the mails, in transparent bags in 
order to be entitled to the rate of lc. for 
every two ounces or fraction thereof. 
OLEO LEGISLATION. 
Several bills are now before Congress 
proposing changes favorable to the bogus 
butter interests, and public hearings on 
these bills were begun before the House 
Committee on Agriculture April 20. What 
is known as the Goebel bill is receiving 
most active support of the oleo men. This 
bill would change the name from oleo¬ 
margarine to margarine, a substance made 
from butter, milk and certain extracts, with 
or without coloring matter, made in 
semblance of butter. A tax of two cents 
per pound is provided for both renovated 
butter and margarine, this being reduced 
to one-fourth cent per pound in the case 
of margarine when free from artificial 
coloring. Special taxes are imposed on 
renovated butter dealers, $600 on manu¬ 
facturers, and on wholesale and on retail 
dealers in both renovated butter and mar¬ 
garine, yearly taxes of $120 and $6, re¬ 
spectively. 
At the first day’s hearing Representative 
Burleson stated that the Grout law had 
cost the Government more than $20,000,- 
000. He said that seven per cent of the 
farmers are in the dairy business, and that 
93 per cent are consumers of butter, many 
of them purchasers of oleomargarine for 
their own tables. He advocated the re¬ 
peal of the tax. Representative Lever 
favored the classification of all butter and 
adulterated butter as meat and food prod¬ 
ucts, making them subject to the present 
inspection laws. Dr. Wiley, chief of the 
Bureau of Chemistry of the Agricultural 
Department, and Special Agent Fleming, 
of the Internal Revenue Bureau, testified 
as to the ingredients and processes of but¬ 
ter and oleomax-garine making and as to 
the amount of revenue derived from the 
present tax. John F. Jelke, of Chicago, 
manufacturer of oleomargarine and his 
brother, Ferdinand Jelke, Jr., contended 
that the tax should be removed in order 
to place them on equal footing as manu¬ 
facturers with the producers of butter. 
George L. Flanders, pi-esident of the Na¬ 
tional Dairy Union, said that what his 
association wants is a law preventing the 
manufacture of oleomargarine in imitation 
of butter of any of the various shades. 
They want it branded so plainly that “lie 
who runs can read” what it is. The advo¬ 
cates of the repeal of the tax contended 
that oleomargarine is colored not to make 
it look like butter, but to preserve 'its 
individuality as the poor man’s butter. 
Reports of other hearings will be given 
latex 1 . 
Pear, peach and plum trees were in full 
bloom April 13 ; apples jixst showing bloom, 
about two weeks ahead of the usual time. 
We had a frost April 12, which froze ice 
one-eighth-incli thick in crocks used for 
chickens, and to-day I found the stamens 
on many of the blossoms fully open on the 
pear tree had turned black, this being the 
only injury I could find. The buds not yet 
open were uninjui - ed. w. j. M. 
Elyria, Ohio. 
Will some one give his experience with 
galvanized, corrugated roofing? I contem¬ 
plate using it on a gambx-el roof to a barn, 
but none has ever been used here, so cannot 
find out much about it. Does the steam 
from silos in a barn do any damage? 1 
have heard some objection raised on this 
account. f. a. m. 
Buckfield, Me. 
