1910. 
THE RURAt NEW-YORKER 
671 
LETTERS FROM PUBLIC MEN. 
A number of Congressmen are heart¬ 
ily in favor of parcels post, and do not 
hesitate to say so openly. We regard 
the following note from Congressman 
N. D. Sperry, of Connecticut, as a 
model in its way: 
For many years I have been in favor of 
this service, and I hope to live long enough 
to see it established in this country. We 
are now giving it consideration in the Post- 
office Committee, and I hope we can agree 
on some bill which will at least start the 
service. I am doing all I can to bring this 
about. N. D. SPEItllY. 
Yes, that is a model. Mr. Sperry is 
not afraid of the express companies -or 
the country merchants. He favors the 
parcels post and will vote for it. 
Another man who stands right is Con¬ 
gressman Jno. M. Moorehead, of North 
Carolina. This is what he writes one 
of our readers: 
I stand for the parcels post. Thus, after 
thoroughly considering the matter and after 
reading many protests from merchants, who 
claim that they bear a very largo per¬ 
centage of the burden of taxation and will 
be badly hurt by such a law, and that the 
same man who sends to a Chicago depart¬ 
ment store and prepays without examining 
the goods, will come to his local merchant, 
if without funds, and ask for credit, some 
of which, in the nature of things, will be 
a loss. As to what I am doing in favor 
of the parcels post law, I may add, wait¬ 
ing until the committee finishes its revision 
of same, at which time it will be my 
pleasure to support it. 
JNO. M. MOOREHEAD. 
In these days when so many Con¬ 
gressmen act like parrots walking about 
and saying “careful consideration,” it is 
good to find a few of them with actual 
ideas and convictions. Mr. Moorehead 
has been through this country mer¬ 
chant argument and he meets it square¬ 
ly, instead of trying to crawl behind it 
as so many Congressmen do. 
Now compare these letters with the 
following from Congressman A. L. Al¬ 
len, of Maine. One of our readers 
wrote Mr. Allen asking where he stood 
on parcels post, and telling him to quit 
sending free seeds. Here you have a 
bunch of “words of wisdom”: 
Your four-pound package that would cost, 
as you say. 64 cents to send to Alfred, 12 
miles, would cost the same to Manila in 
the Philippine Islands, about ten thousand 
miles. Why don't you move over into 
Europe and get all their cheap things, and 
especially labor and their parcels post? 
If you all paid what it costs I'ncle Sam 
to get your mail from Springvale to your 
place you wouldn't have two-cent postage 
nor any of the present rates. Great cities’ 
excess of revenue help the country post- 
offices. Express companies are held to pay 
you for loss of any package they carry, 
but Uncle Sam does not make good any 
loss. I suppose if you got parcels post at 
11 pounds and carried for one-half what 
it costs, you would then want Uncle Sam 
to haul your groceries to you, and maybe 
send a man around with a Government 
team to plow your ground and haul your 
produce to market. Think those matters 
over, and don't get into the belief that the 
Government should serve you at a loss, 
as it is now losing seventeen millions a 
year in Postoffice Department. 
You can get another in my place here 
next time, and I will run a farm and feel 
grateful for any new sample of seed, and 
would even be glad to pay for them and 
pay what my mail costs. Some people are 
never satisfied with what they get and 
price paid, and equally never satisfied with 
what they have to dispose of and the price 
they want from others. 
I would favor any reasonable extension 
of mail benefits, but the rates should be 
such that Government wouldn’t meet a 
loss. You can’t expect the Government to 
carry the parcels the express companies do, 
most any weight from one pound to hun¬ 
dreds of pounds, for which they are re¬ 
sponsible. I don't want to offend you, but 
I don't appreciate your letter, when so 
many are writing me for seed, and hence 
the reply I make. amos l. allen. 
Our reader does not care to move 
away from the “Contented State.” Bet¬ 
ter bring some of the mail advantages 
which other countries enjoy into this 
‘‘land of the free.” Whatever may be said 
of Mr. Allen’s ability in a serious per¬ 
formance, he does not shine in an ef¬ 
fort to be “funny.” 
THE THIRTY-FIVE-CENT DOLLAR. 
The R. X.-Y. began to talk about this 
dollar regularly some two years ago. At 
that time we were pretty much alone— 
most of the “authorities” saying our 
estimate of the farmer’s share was too 
low. We have gone ahead printing 
actual returns. Now there are plenty 
of supporters. The latest is B. F. Yoa¬ 
kum. president of the “Frisco” Railroad 
system. In a recent address at St. Louis 
Mr. Yoakum said the high cost of living 
is due to excessive charges of dealers 
and handlers: 
The Florida farmer receives $2.25 for a 
bushel of green beans, the railroad gets 50 
cents for the SOO-mile haul to New York, 
and the consumer pays $ 0.40 for this same 
bushel of beans. There is 35 per cent for 
the grower, eight per cent for the carrier, 
and 57 per cent for the dealer. This is not 
a fair division. 
That is a bonanza compared with Flo¬ 
rida returns which we can furnish. We 
have cases where a double commission, 
amounting to over 20 per cent, was 
taken by commission men—out of a low 
market price at that. 
THhirty cents a dozen was the average 
price of eggs in New York last year, while 
the farmers of Arkansas and Missouri re¬ 
ceived 15 -cents. The freight was two cents 
a dozen. The men who receive the eggs at 
a freight station in New York and deliver 
them to the consumer take 13 cents a 
dozen profit. 
We think the average price will run 
over 30 cents for eggs, because nearly 
one-third the eggs New York people con¬ 
sume are served in hotels and restau¬ 
rants. They are not less than five and 
often over 10 cents each. 
The rice farmer of Texas, Ijouisiana and 
Arkansas gets cents a pound for the 
grain, and the consumer in New York pays 
10 cents a pound for this rice. The freigut 
is one-lialf cent a pound. If the rice 
farmer were paid 3 V< cents (one cent more 
than he is now getting) and the dealer took 
one cent profit (which is 25 per cent), the 
New York consumer would get 20 pounds of 
rite for a dollar, instead of 10 pounds as 
now. 
That is right and the same is true 
of potatoes—particularly so this year. 
These public men cannot do a better 
thing than help in analyzing the con¬ 
sumer’s dollar. Give the farmers a 
fairer share of it and they will do the 
rest. _________ 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—Ten persons were burned 
to death and several were injured in a 
fire at Cornwall. Ontario, April 29, which 
destroyed the ltossmore House and annex, 
Bailey's jewelry store, the Canadian Pa¬ 
cific Railway Telegraph and the Bell Com¬ 
pany offices. Other buildings were badly 
damaged. The property loss is $250,0UU. 
Half of the business section of Ilossiter, 
a mining town of three thousand inhabit¬ 
ants, near l’unxsutawney, Pa., was de¬ 
stroyed by fire April 29. Twelve business 
houses and two dwellings were consumed, 
with an approximate loss estimated at $75,- 
000, partially covered by insurance. 
Fire at Sand Point, Idaho, April 28, 
destroyed the lumber yard of the llumbird 
Lumber Company, and threatened the towns 
of I’onderay and Kootenai. It is estimated 
that the yard contained 50,000,000 feet of 
lumber, and the loss Is placed at half a 
million dollars. 
The Roosevelt dam, the great engineer¬ 
ing work in connection with the Salt River 
irrigation project in Arizona, is nearly 
finished, and the United States has closed 
down its cement plant at Roosevelt. The 
Government entered into the manufacture 
of cement for the Roosevelt dam nearly five 
years ago. because of its inability to obtain 
cement at reasonable prices, owing to the 
inaccessibility of the dam site and its re¬ 
moteness from transportation. The en¬ 
gineers of the reclamation service state that 
the mill has saved the Government more 
than $650,000. The plant has turned out 
330,000 barrels of high-grade cement, most 
of which has been furnished to the con¬ 
tractor, who is building the dam. The 
reservoir created by the dam is the largest 
artificial body of water in the world. Its 
capacity is 61 billion cubic feet. The dam 
is 280 feet high, 1,080 feet long on top, 
and contains 326,000 cubic yards of ma¬ 
sonry. It is expected that the dam will 
be completed in June, but the project will 
not be formally opened until next Fall. 
A movement has gained headway in Ari¬ 
zona to have ex-President Roosevelt open 
the project on his birthday, October 27. 
The project, when completed, will have 
cost $8,640,000. It will irrigate 240,000 
acres of land, and it is estimated by ex¬ 
pert agriculturists that the crops of a 
single season will return enough to repay 
the entire investment of the Government. 
The United States Court Grand Jury 
at Savannah, Ga., April 30, returned a 
true bill against Cudahy & Co., the Schwarz- 
schikl & Sulzberger Beef Company, Swift 
A Co., Armour Packing Company and the 
Nelson Morris Company, as corporations, 
and Emmet B. Adams, local manager for 
Swift; William D. Cooper, local manager 
for Armour, and Fred M. Hull, Jr., local 
manager for Nelson Morris & Co., as in¬ 
dividual defendants. The indictments are 
brought under the act of Congress en¬ 
titled “An act to protect trade and com¬ 
merce against unlawful restraints and mo¬ 
nopolies." It is alleged that the packing 
houses in 1898 bought and slaughtered live 
stock at various points in the West and 
North, shipped fresh meats to Savannah, 
reduced the price of meats and sold them 
on the market at a loss so as to compel the 
South Atlantic Packing and Provision Com¬ 
pany of Savannah to sell its product at a 
loss, the intent being to force the local 
house out of the field. The second count: 
alleges that between June 10 and August 
1. 1908, the defendants effected a combina¬ 
tion winu-eby they fixed arbitrarily non¬ 
competitive and exorbitant prices for meats, 
thus eliminating that competition which 
should naturally exist among them. 
Investigation of the biggest legislative 
bribery scandal in the history of Illinois, 
which threatens far-reaching political com¬ 
plications. whether it brings indictments or 
not. was begun April 30 by State Attorney 
Wayman. Representative Charles A. White, 
who charges that he got $1,000 from Lee 
O'Neil Browne to vote for William Lorimer 
For United States Senator, was summoned 
before the State Attorney. Representative 
Jacob Groves, of Adams County, added 
weight to the charges. In an interview 
in Quincy he was quoted as saying that 
money was offered to him to vote for Lori¬ 
mer and that he had heard of members 
getting- $5,000 for their votes. It was said 
that additional evidence was in Mr. Way- 
man's hands, including an allegation that 
it cost $200,000 to elect Lorimer to the 
Senate, of which the ring leaders got $50,- 
000, and individual members of the Legis¬ 
lature the remainder. 
The decree of the Supreme Court of Ten¬ 
nessee ousting the Standard Oil Company 
of Kentucky from doing business in the 
State of Tennessee was affirmed May 2 by 
the Supreme Court of the United States. 
Charles R. Ileike, secretary of the Ameri¬ 
can Sugar Refining Company, whose trial 
with five clerks on charges of defrauding 
the Government out of large sums of cus¬ 
toms duties in connection with the false 
weighing of imported sugar, was deferred 
by reason of his plea of immunity, will 
have to stand trial under a decision of the 
Supreme Court May 2, dismissing a writ of 
error allowed him on the immunity ques¬ 
tion. The court also at the suggestion of 
Solicitor-General Bowers on behalf of the 
Government also directed that the mandate 
of the court in the case issue at once so 
that the trial may proceed on May 10, to 
which date it has been postponed. Ileike 
was indicted with five clerks on January 
10 last, and entered a plea of immunity 
from prosecution because of the testimony 
he had previously given before the Grand 
July in proceedings under the Sherman 
anti-trust law as that law provides. When 
his plea was denied he withdrew it and 
entered another of not guilty. His counsel 
got from Judge Lurton a writ of error on 
the question of immunity. 
Charles Katz, president of the Eastern 
Brewing Company, who was convicted May 
2 in the New York Supreme Court of 
larceny in the first degree, for his part in 
the theft of $110,000 worth of Davis-Daly 
topper stock belonging to F. Augustus 
Heinze, was sentenced May 3. Justice Mar¬ 
cus imposed a term of not less than three, 
nor more than seven years. The Justice at 
the same time granted a certificate of rea¬ 
sonable doubt, which acts as a stay, lie 
fixed Katz's bond at $35,000. 
An involuntary petition in bankruptcy 
was filed in the United States District Court 
May 3 against the Standard Cordage Com¬ 
pany of New York, Brooklyn, Boston and 
Elizabeth, N. .(., by three bondholders, who 
allege insolvency. They say the liabilities 
of the concern are $2,400,000, and that its 
assets are not worth more than $1,000,000. 
The company, in its present form, is only 
four years old. but it has a history which 
dates back to 1893. when a wild Wall Street 
gamble in its shares precipitated one of the 
worst panics in stock market history. As 
the Standard Cordage Company it was in¬ 
corporated in April, 1906, as a successor to 
the Standard Rope and Twine Company. 
MILK MATTERS.—-Governor Draper, of 
Massachusetts, hoping to bring about a set¬ 
tlement of the milk strike, arranged a con¬ 
ference May 2 with the five Boston con¬ 
tractors who control practically all of the 
milk business in that vicinity. At its con¬ 
clusion, Charles II. Hood, of Hood & Co., 
said that the contractors still felt that 
there was nothing to arbitrate. A suffi¬ 
cient supply of milk was coming into the 
city, and. if the demands of the producers 
were granted, there would be an immediate 
increase in the price to the consumers. 
“With plenty of milk,” he said, “there is no 
excuse for raising prices.” w. A. Grausteln, 
of the Boston Dairy Company, said that he 
favored the appointment of a commission 
composed of one or more judges of the 
Superior Court, to investigate the entire 
business, including the causes of the present 
great cost of production, and distribution 
of milk, as well as the causes of epidemics. 
Following upon the resolution adopted by 
the New York Board of Health, that milk 
used for drinking purposes should be either 
pasteurized or boiled, unless it is certified, 
guaranteed or inspected milk, comes the 
announcement that the New Y'ork Milk 
Committee has ordered a special study of 
this matter by various experts, with a view 
to clarifying the public mind on the matter 
and paving the way for future action by 
the health authorities. The plan of work 
outlined by the committee is contained in a 
“platform" recently agreed upon in con¬ 
ference of all its members, numbering about 
85. This platform apportions certain work 
and investigation to each of the standing 
committees, the question of pasteurization 
falling particularly to the committee on sani¬ 
tation, bacteriology and public health, of 
which Dr. Charles E. North, consulting sani¬ 
tary expert, is chairman; and to the com¬ 
mittee on milk consumers, of which Miss 
Lakey, chairman of the pure food com¬ 
mittee of the National Consumers’ League, 
is chairman. A conference between mem¬ 
bers of these two committees has just been 
called to thrash out the preliminaries. 
POLITICAL.—The Postoffice Department 
will consolidate the Star Route service and 
the Rural Free Delivery service on July 1. 
For some years the two services have pro¬ 
vided practically the same kind of mail 
facilities, hut the management of each has 
been distinct. The Star Route service has 
been conducted by the Division of Contracts 
under the Second Assistant Postmaster- 
General and the Rural Delivery service by 
a division in the bureau of the Fourth As¬ 
sistant Postmaster-General. The new di¬ 
vision will l>e known as the Division of 
Rural Mails and will have supervision over 
annual appropriations aggregating close to 
$50,000,000. An investigation which the 
Department recently completed into the cost 
of operating its several services showed 
that the Rural Delivery system was costing 
$28,000,000 more than the revenue from it. 
The Department believes that consolidation 
will cut down the expenses by several 
millions of dollars without loss of efficien- y. 
The Senate May 2 amended and passed a 
bill, which already had passed the House, 
to create a Bureau of Mines in the Interior 
Department. In addition to carrying on 
mining work heretofore done by the Geo¬ 
logical Survey, the bureau will investigate 
the causes of mine explosions. 
A new postal savings bank hill different 
from the measure which passed the Senate 
tind is pending in a House committee was 
introduced May 2 by Representative Gard¬ 
ner, of New Jersey. Mr. Gardner’s bill 
provides that postal savings banks shall 
be established only where the board of 
trustees shall deem it desirable and that 
national banks only shall be the legal de¬ 
positories of savings hank funds. The 
measure further provides that the Govern¬ 
ment shall withdraw the funds when they 
shall have reached a total of $2,000,000 and 
that these withdrawals shall be brought to 
Washington and invested in Government 
bonds or other national securities. The out¬ 
look for postal savings legislation of any 
sort continues gloomy. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Nearly 2,000.000 
acres of wheat have been abandoned in 
Kansas this year anil the crop condition 
on the remaining 4,532,000 acres is 76 per 
cent. These are the figures given by F. D. 
Coburn, secretary of the State Board of 
Agriculture, in his first report of the season, 
issued April 27. and based on conditions 
on April 20. Reports of correspondents in¬ 
dicate that the area sown to Winter wheat 
in the Fall of 1909 approximated 6.478.000 
acres, or more by about 93.000 acres than 
in the Fall preceding. Of the total area 
it appears from the reports that 30 per 
cent is such a failure that the ground will 
he devoted to other crops, quite a con¬ 
siderable portion of it being already sown 
iu oats. 
To overcome the scarcity and the high 
cost of meats and farm produce of all kinds, 
including eggs, milk and butter, the North¬ 
ern I’acific Railroad litis purchased and is 
improving five thousand acres of bottom 
land near Kent, Wash. A herd of three 
hundred cows and several hundred steers 
have been unloaded there in April. More 
than 150 Japanese laborers are doing the 
work. Four hundred acres of land have 
been planted to garden truck and the prod¬ 
ucts of all these institutions will be con¬ 
sumed entirely by the dining cars of the 
system. Near Paradise, Mont., another four 
hundred acres of garden vegetables is being 
raised for the dining-car service. 
The twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 
Holstein-Fricsian Association of America 
will be held at the New Court House, Syra¬ 
cuse, N. Y., on Wednesday, June 1, 1910. at 
10 o’clock a. m., for the election of officers 
and the transaction of any other business 
which may legally come before it. 
Under the auspices of the Danish-Ameri- 
can Association Professor Bernhard Boeg¬ 
gild, of the Royal Danish Agricultural Col¬ 
lege of Copenhagen, Denmark, will visit 
the United States during May, June and 
July, delivering a series of lectures at a 
number of universities and agricultural col¬ 
leges on dairying and milk supply, at the 
same time studying American methods and 
conditions. Professor Boeggild will also 
visit Danish-Amcrican settlements of the 
Middle West and Northwest, delivering 
lectures in Danish. Professor Boeggild is 
perhaps the greatest living authority on 
dairying in Europe. Since 1902 lie has 
been professor at the Royal Danish Agri¬ 
cultural College of Copenhagen, and as a 
representative of his government has at¬ 
tended all international dairy congresses of 
late years in Europe, the latest one being 
the one held last year in Budapest, Hun¬ 
gary. Professor Boeggild is a member of 
the permanent committee of the Interna¬ 
tional Dairy Federation, and chairman of 
its Danish branch. lie is an honorary 
member of the British Dairy Farmers' As¬ 
sociation and w;is presented several years 
ago with the gold medal of that society. In 
recognition of his work and achievements 
he was knighted some years ago by the 
King of Denmark, and has been given a 
number of similar decorations by many for¬ 
eign rulers. 
One hundred acres have been plowed and 
sowed in a single day by neighbors, says 
the New York Evening Post, because E. W. 
Ktralcy. a farmer living five miles from Dos 
Lacs, N. D., has been sick till Winter and 
Spring. With 22 outfits on the field at 
once, <und with the wives and daughters 
present to prepare food and furnish gayety, 
the sight was an unique one May 2. Bring¬ 
ing gang plows, harrows, drills, and one 
even coming with a steam plow, the neigh¬ 
bors did their work rapidly. At noon din¬ 
ner was served on the lawn. Mr. Slraley 
was able to he out for the first time in 
many months. 
COST OF LIVING INQUIRY.—The Mas¬ 
sachusetts State Commission which lias 
been investigating the high cost of living 
for eight weeks past, gives the increased 
gold supply as the primary cause, and 
classes as a contributory factor "the enor¬ 
mous waste of income in the United States, 
through uneconomic expenditures for war 
and national armament, and through multi¬ 
ple forms of extravagance, both public and 
private.” The commission also states that 
the advance of prices lias been further pro¬ 
moted by a complexity of causes operating 
on the side of supply to reduce the volume 
aud increase the expenses of production; 
and, on the side of demand, to extend and 
diversify the consumption of commodities. 
The commission suggests the creation of a 
commission of commerce, and a commission 
of market improvements; the transfer of the 
State Cat tie Bureau into a Bureau ol’ Ani¬ 
mal Industry; the extension of the work of 
State free employment offices to the distri¬ 
bution of immigrants; that packages con¬ 
taining food products should state the 
amount of net contents in weight units; 
better inspection of cold-storage plants ; and 
the extension of trolley freight system. Al¬ 
though agreeing that the tariff is not a 
contributory factor, the com hi issiou is of 
the opinion that, when the tariff is further 
revised, the expediency of removing the 
duties on food products should be carefully 
considered. In regard to trusts the com¬ 
mission also feels that, while the trust 
cannot be held responsible for the present 
conditions, constant vigilance with reference 
to the action of combinations dealing with 
the necessities of life is doubly incumbent. 
The commission expresses the opinion that 
the tariff should be taken out of the po¬ 
litical arena and placed on a business basis, 
as in Germany. The “extension of Canadian 
reciprocity in the matter of manufacture” 
is regarded as inexpedient at the* present 
time._ 
The cold spell has killed everything here 
in the fruit line, but blackberries and 
raspberries; garden all killed, early pota¬ 
toes killed to the ground. It is feared the 
wheat crop is damaged badly. We are 
looking forward for hard times this year, 
Williamson Co., Ill. l. j. r. 
We had some frost aud light freezing, 
but fruit is all right yet on our hills, and 
prospect good. We have done spraying 
after the bloom has dropped (April 26) ; 
used dilute concentrated lime-sulphur and 
arsenate of lead on tender varieties and 
Bordeaux on Rome Beauty. This is two 
weeks earlier than we ever sprayed be¬ 
fore, after blooming. It is still very cold 
and wet. with chances for frost to come 
again. On the creeks the temperature has 
been down to 26. and we had from 33 to 
higher here on the hills. u. T. cox. 
Lawrence Co., O. 
The season is fully two weeks earlier 
than last year. At this writing (April 
26 1 half the oats are sown: pears, cherries 
and plum trees are full of blossoms, and 
the buds are starting on the apple trees. 
New seeding never looked better. Plowing 
for corn and potatoes is well advanced. 
Because of the low price of potatoes, many 
farmers are planting, corn and peas for 
the canning factory. This is a dairy sec¬ 
tion and farmers are getting 15 to 25 cents 
per 100 pounds more for milk at the milk 
station than they got last year, and the 
station is getting less milk because many 
of the farmers prefer to semi to the butter 
or cheese factory. Good help is scarce and 
commands $25 to $30 per month with 
board. Farmers in this part of Oswego 
County are prosperous, and the majority 
of them are making money. h. j. t. 
Fulton, N. Y. 
