1910. 
TH EJ RURAIi NEW-YORKER 
087 
OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. 
E. G. Lewis Boasts of Big Income; 
but Doesn’t Pay His Debts. 
In a published report E. G. Lewis 
states that he has received from the 
women of this country on his American 
Woman's League scheme $ 1 , 430 , 275 . In 
another publication he boastfully states 
that the women who held interests in 
his defunct bank turned over $1,500,000 
to him; and in the same publication he 
states that he has received $1,175,000 on 
paper notes. Here is a total of $4,105,- 
275, collected for the most part from 
the women of America, from which they 
have received no returns. Furthermore 
this has been so cunningly extracted 
that the remitters have probably not a 
single evidence of the indebtedness that 
would constitute a legal claim by which 
collection could be forced in the courts. 
It must be remembered that besides 
these obligations his lots, his much ad¬ 
vertised buildings, his boasted presses, 
and everything of material value in 
his. possession are mortgaged to other 
concerns whose claims come in ahead 
of the above. Besides all this, nobody 
knows how many millions have been 
sent him for stock in his worthless 
Fibre Stopper Co., one of his early 
fakes; for stock in his publishing 
company; and for his new bank or 
trust company scheme. We can give 
definite figures only where he has sup¬ 
plied them himself. 
Readers of The R. N.-Y. have sent 
us claims against him for collection ag¬ 
gregating about $20,000. Some of this 
represents the savings of servant girls 
in the kitchen; some of it was earned 
by old women over the washtub; some 
of it was the life savings of women 90 
years old; some of it was trust funds 
of children; some of it was the proceeds 
of mortgages placed on the farm, under 
the assurance from Lewis that the in¬ 
vestment would make them rich. 
Some of this indebtedness is evidenced 
in personal notes, past due, and repudi¬ 
ated by Lewis; some by simple receipts, 
and other items by stocks or various 
paper certificates. When these people 
demand their money Lewis either re¬ 
fuses to answer, or repeats the alluring 
promises that he has made them from 
time to time for the last 10 years. . 
All The R. N.-Y. asks of Mr. Lewis 
is to come forward and pay back this 
$20,000 sent him by its subscribers. He 
could do this, and on his own statement 
have yet $4,085,275 to the credit of the 
women of the country besides the stock 
and bank investments. He claims the 
League sent him $700,275 since January 
1 , 1910. He could pay our claims out 
of this and yet have $(>80,275 left. We 
have no retainer from the women of the 
city, though we give them all in wel¬ 
come the benefit of our information. 
Our concern is for our own subscribers. 
Our duty is to them. Mr. Lewis has 
their money. The time that he promised 
to return it is past. We want him to 
pay it—now!_ 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK. 
DOMESTIC.—The largest judgment ever 
entered by a "United States court iu favor 
of the government growing out of a prose¬ 
cution for attempting to bring alien labor¬ 
ers into the country in violation of law 
has been reported to the Department of 
Commerce and Labor from Tucson, Arlz., 
where a jury rendered a verdict of $45,000. 
This was $1,000, the penalty fixed by sta¬ 
tute, for each of 45 aliens iffiiom it had at¬ 
tempted to import. The defendant in the 
suit was a construction company of Los 
Angeles. 
Col. Christopher C. Wilson, president of 
the United Wireless Telegraph Company, 
and Samuel S. Bogart. first vice-president, 
were arrested June 15 by United States 
Lost Office inspectors on the charge of 
having engaged in a gigantic scheme to de¬ 
fraud investors. Col. Wilson was held un¬ 
der $25,000 bail, Bogart under $10,000. 
Concerning the charges of fraud, the chief 
post office inspector, Mayer, gave out this 
official statement: “The United Wireless 
Telegraph Company is the outgrowth of the 
Amalgamated Wireless Securities Company, 
which was organized under the laws of 
Maine December G, 1904. In November, 
1906, tliis name was changed to the United 
Wireless Telegraph Company, and in the 
following February the capitalization was 
increased from one million shares at $10 a 
share par value to two million shares at 
the same par value, one million preferred 
and one million common. The original 
company had merely a legal existence un¬ 
til November 17, 190G. About that time 
active arrangements were instituted to put 
the company into operation for the pur¬ 
pose of making it the successor to the de¬ 
funct American Deforest Wireless Tele¬ 
graph Company, the persons interested hav¬ 
ing in mind a gigantic stock manipulation 
plan. One of the instruments used was 
tin' Greater New York Security Company, a 
concern without any financial stability, and 
merely a trade name. While the inside offi¬ 
cers of the company were privileged to 
sell their stock, all of the outside pur¬ 
chasers were required to accept stock cer¬ 
tificates stamped ‘Not transferable until 
February 11, 1911.’ The price of the 
United stock has been advanced a score of 
times, starting at $7.50 a share, and re¬ 
cently selling at $50 a share. It has no 
market value for outsiders, because it is 
not exchangeable on the stock books of the 
company, hut the insiders have continued 
to Hood the’country with their own stock 
at these increasing variations. The valua¬ 
tions are determined and arbitrarily in¬ 
creased the price of the stock from $12.50 
to $15, $25 to $85, and so on up to $50. 
The company has several land stations and 
11 number of ships equipped with a wire¬ 
less outfit, and there is some revenue from 
the business, but the operating expenses 
have been much greater than tin- receipts, 
so that the stock, instead of having an in¬ 
creasing value upon actual performances, 
has a decreasing value, because the busi¬ 
ness has been a money losing one. In the 
statement issued to the stockholders of the 
company on December 81, 1909, it was 
stated that there was a surplus of $0,802,- 
829.74, when, as a matter ot fact, the com¬ 
pany had not made its operating expenses 
the year before. There also appears in 
this statement as an asset, stocks and 
bonds in uther companies. $14,148,010. 
This refers to the defunct American De- 
Forrest Wireless stock that had been re¬ 
ceived in exchange and which had been out 
of existence for two years and was repre¬ 
sented in actual values, when it sold at 
auction under court proceedings for $2,500. 
The real assets of the company, consisting 
of land stations, patents, manufacturing 
plants, real estate of all kinds, appears to 
be in a conservative estimate, about $400,- 
000, or an actual worth of two cents a 
share at par value. But taking the last 
amount quoted, at $50 a share, the stock is 
really worth as $400,000 is to $1,000,000,- 
000, or $.0004 a share. The officers of this 
company have sold to the public thousands 
of shares, claiming all the time that they 
were holding their shares and putting the 
money received from the public into the 
plants of the public. One of the officers 
is believed to have cleaned up $5,000,000 
at $10 a share, and possibly $10,000,000, 
at the ranging prices of $10 to $50. The 
other officers of lesser degree have profited 
in proportion.” 
The New York Court of Appeals in a de¬ 
cision June 17 holds that the sender of an 
express package cannot recover more than 
$50 if the package is lost, where no special 
value was given, the printed limitation of 
liability for that amount binding both par¬ 
ties. Isaac Greenwald shipped a package 
in October, 1900, by the Adams Express 
Company from New York to Waukegan, 
Ill. The package was lost, and suit was 
brought to recover $235 damages. The ex¬ 
press company put in evidence its bill of 
lading containing a clause limiting its lia¬ 
bility to $50 and showed that no value 
was given at the time of shipment. The 
municipal court of New York city gave the 
plaintiff a judgment for $50 and costs. 
This was upheld by the Appellate Division. 
The Court of Appeals affirms the order and 
holds that the interstate commerce act 
does not abrogate the responsibility of the 
company to agree with the sender upon the 
value of the property carried. 
The Federal Grand Jury June 17 handed 
in an indictment against eight members 
of the so-called cotton pool formed last Feb¬ 
ruary. charging them with a conspiracy in 
restraint of trade under sections l and 2 
of the anti-trust law. These men are Col. 
Robert M. Thompson, of New York, who 
is a special partner in the firm of 8. II. 1’. 
l’ell & Co., cotton brokers, at 43 Exchange 
place, and Charles A. Kittle, the Cotton 
Exchange member for that firm; .Tames A. 
Patten, the Chicago wheat speculator who 
turned his activities toward the cotton 
market recently; Eugene 11. Scales, a cot¬ 
ton speculator of Houston, Tex.; Sydney 
J. Harman, a cotton speculator of Shreve¬ 
port, La.; Morris II. Rothschild, a specula¬ 
tor and mill owner iu Mississippi; Frank 
I?. Ilayne and William F. Brown, of the 
firm of W. F. Brown & Co., both cotton 
dealers of New Orleans. According to a 
statement by the Attorney-General, the 
finding of the indictment is a new de¬ 
parture in the Government's construction 
of the anti-trust law. The eight under in¬ 
dictment are alleged to have been guilty 
of forestalling the cotton market after hav¬ 
ing secured the entire visible supply of raw 
cotton and in this way securing the power 
to dictate the price to the consumer. To 
effect this a combination between these 
eight named in the indictment and certain 
cotton spinners and manufacturers was 
necessary, and. in the wording of the 
Grand Jury’s findings, such a combination 
amounted to a monopoly iu restraint of 
trade. 
For selling canned partridges imported 
from Europe a New York jury before Su¬ 
preme Court Justice Ford returned a ver¬ 
dict for $4,820 in penalties June 21 against 
Antonio Andujar, an importer of game at 
90 West street, in a suit brought by the 
State Game Commission. Andujar’s only 
defense was that since the partridges were 
imported from Europe they were not killed 
in defiance of the New York game laws. 
Fire which started in a lumber yard on 
Newtown Creek, Brooklyn, N. Y., June 21, 
destroyed three sailing vessels and their 
cargoes, one fire engine and a mass of lum¬ 
ber, bringing the damage up to $1,000,000. 
Fire which started in a toy and novelty 
store on Warren street, New York, June 21, 
was spread by fireworks, and resulted in a 
loss of $50,000. 
THE POSTAL SAVINGS BANK BILL. 2 — 
President Taft’s postal savings bank bill 
passed the Senate by a vote of 44 to 25 
June 22. It was signed by the President 
June 28 and will go into effect 60 days 
later. Under the terms of the bill just 
passed it will remain with the trustees of 
the postal savings bank deposits -the Post¬ 
master-General, the Attorney-General and 
the Secretary of the Treasury- to decide 
what post offices shall be authorized to re¬ 
ceive deposits. It is not expected that the 
system will be applied at the start to all 
parts of the country. Under the new law 
anybody over 10 years of age will be able 
to open an account at one of the postal 
banks. No deposit of less than $1 will be 
received, although the postmaster is author¬ 
ized to sell special 10 cent stamps which 
later may be turned in after ten have been 
collected as a credit of $1 on the deposi¬ 
tor's account. No individual may deposit 
more than $100 in any calendar month and 
no account shall exceed $500. The Gov¬ 
ernment will pay 2 per cent interest on 
deposits. Both State and national banks 
under the new law are named as depositor¬ 
ies of the postal savings funds. - These 
banks are required to put up public securi¬ 
ties- State, county and municipal bonds— 
as security for the deposits. One of the 
most interesting features of the legislation 
and the one that has created the most op¬ 
position in Congress relates to this author¬ 
ization to invest the postal savings banks 
funds in Government securities. It is 
acknowledged that under the postal savings 
bank act the Government will be able to 
take up the Panama bonds that have been 
authorized but not issued. These bonds 
have not been issued because it was gen¬ 
erally conceded that they would have to 
pay an interest rate of at least 2 1 ,f> per 
cent. To attempt to float them would have 
resulted in sending the $700,000,000 of 
Government two per cent bonds now held 
bv national banks probably under par. For 
this reason the Government has refrained 
from issuing these bonds and has been 
somewhat embarrassed by the payments 
that it had to make for the Panama Canal 
construction out of its working balance. 
Under the new law the Government will 
be able to Invest in these 2% per cent 
bonds and reimburse the Treasury for its 
Panama expenditures without disturbing 
the two per cent bonds outstanding. It is 
also said that the Government will be able 
to refund the $60,000,000 of Government 3s 
now outstanding and to replace them with 
the 2 M> per cent bonds, thus saving the 
one-half of one per cent interest. In the 
final vote by the Senate on the postal sav¬ 
ings bank bill the following insurgent Re¬ 
publicans voted against it: Bristow, of 
Kansas; Cummins, of Iowa, and La Fol- 
lette, of Wisconsin; Senator Dolliver, of 
Iowa, who was paired in opposition to tin 1 
bill ; Senator Beveridge, of Indiana, voted 
for the bill. Onlv one Democrat, Chamber- 
lain, of Oregon, voted for the measure. 
THAT CELEBRATED MILK CASE. 
I notice on page 665 that several have 
offered to contribute to a fund to assist 
S. K. Bellows iu carrying his case to a 
higher court. I will be very glad to con¬ 
tribute $10. HENRY W. HEALEY. 
New York. 
I would like to say a word or two more 
on that milk case. Do we, the farmers and 
dairymen of New Jersey or anv other State, 
have to take a back seat or be kicked un¬ 
der the table by the milk inspectors like a 
worthless dog? I say no, not while grass 
grows and water runs. I suggest that if 
we can find 20 men who will give say $25 
each, I will be one of the 20, and if we can 
find only 10 who will give $50 each, I will 
be one of the 10. I don’t know how much 
it will be necessary to raise to carry on 
this Bellows suit, but 1 would certainly 
like to sec it tried as a matter of principle. 
New Jersey. wm, paulison. 
T believe it is high time producers or¬ 
ganized, not only for our city market, but 
to aid struggling producers who may be 
seeking satisfaction from contractors or ar¬ 
bitrary officials. Six miles from me the 
Mutual Milk and Cream Go. has a shipping 
station, the product usually going to New 
York, but recently the milk has been ship¬ 
ped to strike breakers in Boston, and 1 
know that the local secretary of a well- 
known organization has knowingly sold the 
company his milk to freeze the producers 
for the Boston market. 1 have a mite to 
cast in the Bellows case when needed. I 
believe in a united rural population whose 
aim is the betterment of country life 
through co-operative buying and selling. 
New York. geo. m. warren. 
THE FRUIT CROP. 
Apples now look like a good crop. We 
have no peaches this year. a. w. s. 
Hudson, Mass. 
After a good rain the weather has 
warmed up and the temperature to-day is 
90 in the shade (June 18). Corn is grow¬ 
ing rapidly and wheat is slightly improved. 
Farmers are replanting and plowing corn. 
Hillsboro, Ohio. w. E. D. 
While nearly all varieties seem to bloom 
well, some of the Baldwins and Greenings 
are set rather light, and there is a good 
deal of complaint that the crop will be 
light. Kings, Russets, Rome Beauty and 
some Baldwins have set well. t. b. w. 
Hall, N. Y. 
I have been all over this county (Y’ates) 
and Ontario, and find the prospects for 
fruit good. Apples are fine, especially 
Baldwin. I'eaches are set well, too. The 
grapes are rather light in this belt, owing 
to heavy crop last year and late frosts 
this Spring; about 75 per cent of normal 
crop. H. S. F. 
Penn Yau, N. Y. 
Present conditions indicate about 40 to 
50 per cent of a full apple crop. Foliage 
abundant and just beginning to- show in¬ 
sect and fungus troubles : rainfall abundant 
but not excessive. Wheat crop is about 
normal; oats backward and poor stand on 
low land: corn backward, poor showing 
owing to poor seed and cold weather; hay 
poorest iu years. e. w. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
There are no apples in our county. I 
have 10,000 trees of good age, and will not 
have om> bushel of apples, either early or 
late. Crops of all kind are behind on ac¬ 
count of cold and rainy weather in April 
and May, also first 10 days of June. The 
weather is now tine and things are taking 
on new appearance. Oats and wheat are 
good. D. a. r. 
Columbia, Mo. 
Baldwin trees that did not bear last 
year seem to be well filled, as also some 
of the odd varieties such as Spitzenberg, 
Seek-no-further and Tallman. No Russets 
or Spies. 1 cannot see over 80 per cent 
of a crop. This is not a peach section, but 
what trees there are are well filled, also 
pears. Wheat very fine, new seeding good, 
old light. Corn and beans very backward. 
Pearl Creek, N. Y. b. b. 
Apples bid fair to be an abundant crop, 
as we had a very full blossom, and the 
cold weather does not seem to have in¬ 
jured them in this section. Cherries very 
fair also: no peaches grown here. While 
we have had almost too much rain for 
level clay land, crops look very well. Old 
meadows' rather light, hut new seeded very 
good, with lots of Red clover. We are 
onlv beginning to grow Alfalfa, .t. b. s. 
Peru, N. Y. 
The present outlook for apples in and 
about here is not over 50 per cent of a 
full crop, but peaches are about an aver¬ 
age crop. Pears are light, not over a quar¬ 
ter average yield. Wheat, hay and oats 
are good, corn very backward, many pieces 
having to be replanted. A large acreage 
of beans is being planted : ground in good 
condition, and they are coming up nicely. 
There are not as many potatoes being 
planted as usual. F. H. g. 
Holley. N. Y. 
The outlook for apples and peaches here 
is good. Fall apples are light, especially 
Twenty Ounce. Greening not a full crop. 
Baldwin the best of all kinds, more than 
average crop. I should say Fall apples 
were 25 per cent of a crop, Winter apples 
100 per cent, and peaches 100 per cent. 
Bartlett pears are very light, Kieffers a fair 
crop. But few plums. Wheat is a line 
crop, and oats are looking line. Clover is 
fine, but obi meadows arc light. Corn is 
small, but doing well now. n. T. 
Hilton, N. Y. 
The outlook for peaches is for a moderate 
to fair crop. Apples are rather spotted, 
some varieties, such as Greenings, are 
pretty light. Spys are light in some places. 
Same may be said of Baldwins; taken on 
the whole, it looks like a half a crop. 
Strawberries are very nice, the earliest are 
just beginning to move. Raspberries and 
other berries promise well. Grapes look 
like about two-thirds of what there should 
be under normal conditions. On account of 
failure in other belts growers here expect 
prices to be out of sight. A. 1 . L. 
North East, l’a. 
The damage to fruit by frost has been 
very severe nud all kinds will be light. 
Apples, perhaps one-third of a crop, Duch¬ 
ess and Baldwin seem to be the best. Pears 
one-third of a crop. Bartlett and Anjou 
very good, Kieffer hurt very bad. In pearli¬ 
es some varieties on some farms are a fail¬ 
ure while on other places are very good. 
The strawberry crop is fair and tlie qual¬ 
ity very good. They are selling to-day 
(June 20) from 85 cents to $1.10 for crate 
of 10 quarts. Raspberries, both red aud 
black and blackberries promise well. Grapes 
will be less than 50 per cent. e. v. 
Berrien Co., Mich. 
This Is the home of Grimes Go’den 
apple ; it grows to perfection here, and so 
does the Newtown Pippin, but.it is more 
choice as to location aud requires high cul¬ 
tivation. Spraying is au absolute neces¬ 
sity. Strawberries all killed. Raspberries 
00 per cent of a crop; cherries 30 per cent; 
peaches 100 per cent; apples 50 per cent; 
grapes 80 per cent. Peas all killed on low 
ground. Com shows effects of heavy frost 
June 0. Oats looking well ; not much wheat 
grown here. Hay crop will be the poorest 
ever grown here. The quality of fruit 
grown here cannot be beaten anywhere. 
Brooke Co., \V. Va. bane bugs. 
The Spring opened early and everything 
looked favorable for a big crop of apples. 
The trees were full of blossoms. The 
weather seemed to have been as favorable 
as usual during the blossom season. But 
to our surprise we find a total failure in 
Gravonstein, Ribston Pippin, Blenheim 
Pippin, Eallawater and Stark. A few 
kinds are setting a fair crop, Kiug, Spy 
and Baldwin. We sometime have a heavy 
frost iu June that affects the orchards 
not favorably situated, but this failure 
seems to bo all over the Annapolis Valley, 
high or low lands the same. The bard 
freezing the last of April is supposed to 
have caused the damage, as the trees were 
very forward for that time of year. 
Berwick, N. S. f. a. r. 
Our season opened about 10 days earlier 
than usual. Trees were iu full bloom on 
May 7 (May 10 in 1909, May 15 in 1908). 
There was the best propect for au apple 
crop for five years. The fruit has set well 
and at this date shows prospects of a crop 
above the average of the last five years. 
Owing to the cold wet weather of last part of 
May and first part of June, the season is no 
earlier than usual. We have headed down 
our old high trees; have been saving low 
branches for several years to form the new 
bead within spraying distance from the 
ground. The apple show in Boston was an 
object lesson to some of our growers, and 
more spraying aud pruning is being done 
than formerly. j. e. 
Shorborn, Mass. 
Lots of rain ; apples 75 per cent of aver¬ 
age, peaches 30 to 50 per cent: trees put¬ 
ting on vigorous growth. Grass looking 
fine, new seeding clover lodged and rotting 
in bottom. Wheat and rye looking fine, 
lots of seed wheat and rye raised in this 
section and they look excellent. Potatoes 
growing fine. A hog sale recently netted 
nearly $1000. Farmers have not got any 
hogs, where a few years ago every farmer 
had from two to 25. Cows selling $50 to 
$75 each; lots of milk produced in this 
section aud sold to the Borden Co. at $1.10 
per 100 pounds for June, a starving price, 
as they are all beginning to realize. Al¬ 
falfa is being started in a few places and 
does very well where there is no horse- 
sorrel. Very few horses bred here, 12 miles 
north is Goshen, N. Y-, where lots of trot¬ 
ters aud pacers are bred. Draft horses 
selling $400 to $500 a pair. h. v. 
New Milford, N. Y. 
The apple crop In Genesee Countv so far 
as we can learn is as follows: Baldwins 
about the same as last year. The Green¬ 
ing trees blossomed full, hut as a rule 
there are very few apples on the trees. 
Russets not over one-third crop. Twenty 
Ounce blossomed full, but hardly any 
apples on trees; Cooper's Market and Ben 
Davis dkl just the same thing. There are 
no peaches grown for market here. Prunes 
and plums are a failure; Duchess pears 
also. We have had a cold, wet Spring; 
wheat, oats, barley aud hay bid fair to be 
a big crop. A good many farmers have 
had to plant corn the second time, but as 
most of the corn grown here is for silage 
we may get some large enough to put into 
silos. Beans are being planted now. aud 
as the weather is now warm we expect a 
good staud of them. Potatoes, of which a 
great many acres are grown here, seem to 
be all right for the time of year; some just 
coming through the ground. e. h. m. 
Genesee Co., N. Y. 
Down here we have had rain continuous¬ 
ly five days aud nights, aud there is still 
no signs of stopping, though the weather 
man has predicted fair weather every day. 
I was at Norfolk last week and down on 
the 6000-acre Lindsay farm in the Dismal 
Swamp, where there are 2200 acres in 
corn ou the one farm and 300 acres in 
early potatoes that were being dug at rate 
of 85 to 100 barrels au acre, and where 
they were just completing a drainage canal 
10 miles long, 15 feet deep aud 30 feet 
wide, as rich soil as exists on earth, and 
there are millions of acres of such all down 
tin 1 coast. To show the fall Mr. Lindsay 
has, in the upper part of the canal, where 
years ago before his father ditched out 
the farm, there was a morass; now the 
water was a mere trickling stream in a 
ditch 15 feet deep, while at the lower end 
there are eight feet of water as lie reaches 
tidewater in the upper part of Elizabeth 
River. Though the farm runs to the Dis¬ 
mal Swamp canal that does not serve for 
drainage, as the locks keep the upper level 
22 feet above tide. When the talkod-of 
ship canal is made and the locks taken out 
the whole vast swamp can be drained. 
Maryland. w. f. massey. 
