246 
the rural new-vorker 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
February 
The spirit moves me and I must obey, 
or shall I say that it was stirred into 
existence again by the comments made by 
you in answer to a delightfully appreci¬ 
ative letter of Charles T. Root in the 
January 10 issue? 
About four years ago, just prior if I 
recall it rightly to your starting the Pub¬ 
lisher’s Desk Department, I sent you $5, 
same to go toward a fund to help pay for 
costs in smoking out swindlers, grafters, 
guffers, and the species parasitus ubi¬ 
quitous. I did this wholly from a sense 
of justice, feeling as I did that the work 
you were doing along this line, and in 
which you were practically pioneering, 
quietly, unobtrusively yet persistingly, 
was and is of such incalculable value as 
makes one feel as though it were a privi¬ 
lege to "ask himself in on the job.” 
You, as ever, characterized your policy 
in crediting me with a five years’ sub¬ 
scription, that your attitude in assuming 
that the proprietors of a newspaper oc¬ 
cupy a position of public trust, and that, 
therefore, in assuming this work unaided 
and alone you were acting the part. That 
all this endears you to all who, disdain¬ 
ing to act for the glory of mankind (or 
their own soul) yet are heart and soul 
for the square deal, is answered in your 
every issue. Permit me if you will, how¬ 
ever, once again to insist that as you 
tell us in the same issue that many offer 
to help whenever trouble presents itself 
for settlement, permit me again I say, 
to suggest that the policy of The R. N.-Y. 
is of incalculable value to every man, 
woman and child. If in nowise associated 
with the mere making of the swindler 
to disgorge or of exposing them, how 
it has helped in the uplifting of the busi¬ 
ness ethics, how innumerable other maga¬ 
zines and newspapers have followed in 
line in this good work, the facts attest, 
and everyone knows of it. even if they 
are not aware of the fact of your having 
"started something” in your espousing of 
this great and good work. 
Again I would suggest that a fund to 
help pay expenses to prosecute this work 
should be formed; possibly a society or 
a committee, if you like, to account for 
the moneys spent by you from said fund. 
This would relieve you of the extra ex¬ 
pense needed to keep the paper up to the 
standard you so efficiently maintain and 
relieve you of the necessity of the “hustle, 
hustle” for new subs. Real champions of 
common old-fashioned decency and the 
square deal are also few enough. Let us 
help to make your trials less trying— 
your tasks less arduous. Let us* have 
the pleasure in so doing since it were a 
real labor of love. iba ulman, m. d. 
New York. 
This is an instance where the good 
intention of our friends to relieve us of 
one burden actually puts a new load on 
our backs. Think of the responsibility 
of administering a fund for the purpose 
suggested in the above letter. Of course 
the suggested committee to account for 
the fund of the public as all public funds 
should be accounted for would relieve the 
situation somewhat; but we will do bet¬ 
ter to go on as we have begun on the 
confidence and moral support, and such 
other assistance as those who sympa¬ 
thize in the work can give. Since we 
began the work, clubs and vigilance com¬ 
mittees have sprung up in all parts of 
the country and many papers have 
cleared their advertising columns of 
frauds and swindles. The publishers 
demonstrate the situation. Dishonest 
advertising could not live a month with¬ 
out their help. Nor could the swindlers 
thus promoted otherwise be successful 
if the publishers generally would tell the 
truth about them. We are in sympathy 
with every honest and practical sug¬ 
gestion to curb dishonest traffic. A so¬ 
ciety or committee of citizens not allied 
with publishing or advertising would 
give the greatest impulse to the work 
of suppressing dishonesty and frauds. 
There need be no cash dues. Each mem¬ 
ber could simply furnish his or her own 
postage. The members would simply 
pledge themselves to refuse to read or 
admit to their homes any publication that 
carried dishonest advertising or that pub¬ 
lished tainted literature. They would 
charge themselves with the duty of pro¬ 
testing to publishers every time they 
saw cause of complaint and of reporting 
to the secretary of the society the num¬ 
ber of protests made. The secretary 
would make an annual report. Such a 
society would drive fake advertisers and 
fake papers out of existence in shoi’t 
order. We will help organize it any time 
that we can start with 100 members; 
and will suggest Dr. Ulman as the first 
President. 
Mr. Max Marx, attorney for the Con¬ 
sumers’ Butter and Egg Company, has 
made small cash payments on the amount 
due our subscribers for shipments to the 
company, with advice that a two year 
note will be sent for the balance. There 
is no special provision made for the pay¬ 
ment of the notes and at least they are 
of doubtful value. Houses offering bet¬ 
ter than the market price are usually to 
be avoided. 
The victims of promotion schemes 
usually get impatient with the receivers 
and State officials and courts and pro¬ 
cesses of law generally into which the 
concerns ultimately gravitate. The vic¬ 
tims seem to think, perhaps naturally, 
that the courts and officials ought to be 
able to straighten out the affairs of the 
concerns in short order; and return them 
their ron.y in whole or in substantial 
part. Their ideas of the business, if 
business is was, had been very rosy when 
the investment was made, and they carry 
the optimistic view with them into bank¬ 
ruptcy. The courts, however, find that 
the promoters worked not one but maybe 
a dozen different schemes and one of these 
was so interwoven and interlocked with 
the other that it was impossible to tell 
where one left off and the other began. 
This intermixing is usually effected with 
a purpose of deception and when the ac¬ 
countants get to the bottom of it they 
discover that there is little or nothing- 
left on which cash can be realized. Some¬ 
times it is asked, “What then is the good 
of apprehending them? Why not let them 
alone since the victims can hope for lit¬ 
tle or nothing anyway7“ First, it is 
worth while to get hack what little may 
be left. Second, it saves many of the 
victims from putting in more and meet¬ 
ing additional losses. Third, it protects 
other innocent persons who would be 
influenced to put themselves in the posi¬ 
tion of the first victims. Fourth, it dis¬ 
courages promoters and keeps rogues in 
check. It warns innocent investors 
against get-rich-quick schemes, and em¬ 
phasizes public protest against thieves. 
The attached advertisement of the 
Globe Association, Chicago, shows that 
they are at it again, offering 100 pounds 
of sugar for $1.75. The advertisement 
was taken from a cheap paper published 
in the State of Maine. Please sound a 
new word of warning. p. j. b. 
Connecticut. 
Certainly no old reader of The R. 
N.-Y. will get caught in this trap. The 
only condition on which anyone can get 
sugar at this price is by ordering some¬ 
thing else that you do not want and pay¬ 
ing for it more than it is worth. But 
the real object is to get you to take an 
agency to help the concern fake your 
neighbors. 
I don’t want any premiums. The 
pleasure to me that my neighbor took the 
paper is a premium of great value to 
me. j. s. K. 
Pennsylvania. 
While we are always glad to reward 
those who take the trouble to send new 
subscriptions, we cannot help appreciat¬ 
ing the sentiment of letters like the above, 
which often reach us. Friendship and 
interest of this kind is without price. We 
could not pay for it if we would. It 
has been a great factor in building The 
R. N.-Y. up to its present proportions. 
We also need those who are willing to de¬ 
vote a little time to the work for the re¬ 
wards, and we welcome it all, and feel 
thankful for it all. 
The 
issued 
Missouri Supreme Court recently 
a decree of ouster against 20 
wholesale lumber companies, forbidding 
them to transact further business in the 
State. It also canceled the licenses of 
four companies not incorporated under 
the State law. The defendant companies 
were fined heavily, the total reaching to 
$436,000. The ouster decree then was 
suspended, but will be enforced against 
any of the defendant companies which 
violate the rules of conduct which were 
laid down by the court. The suit of the 
State was based on the theory that the 
wholesale dealers named were members 
of the Yellow Pine Manufacturers’ As¬ 
sociation. They were charged with price 
fixing, curtailing the supply of lumber, 
and with instituting boycotts against re¬ 
tail dealers who failed to obey their dicta¬ 
tion.—Chicago Tribune. 
The suits that resulted in the above 
finding were started in 190S by the then 
Attorney-General, Herbert Hadley. The 
decree of the court sustained the con¬ 
tention that the companies in the combine 
entered into an illegal agreement to con¬ 
trol the price of lumber and limit its 
production. j. j. d. 
Sherwin-Williams 
PAINTS AND VARNISHES FOR FARM USE 
Paint as an investment Paint for what it saves you. 
Paint because it makes your buildings last longer. Paint 
because it makes your property worth more today and 
worth more five years hence. 
SWP 
(Sherwin-Williams Paint, Prepared) 
does more than merely spread over the surface and look well. It goes down 
into the wood, takes hold and hangs on. It covers well—and lasts. It halts 
depreciation. Use it in all important outside painting. For every paint use, 
indoors and out, about your property, you need the helpful aid of our book, 
“Paints and Varnishes for the Farm.” We’ll send it without charge. Ask for it. 
Best dealers everywhere 
Address all inquiries to The Sherwin-Williams Company 
635 Canal Road, N. W., Cleveland, Ohio 
Jk 
•fn 
COVgR 
THE 
^rth 
IUIAHS 
MAKE THE 
'FARM PAY 
IN WINTER 
You can make winter a harvest time, 
with money -makingcrops of lumber, 
if you have an “American” Portable 
Saw Mill. Your own wood lot, and your 
neighbors’ await your axe and your saw 
and your mill, ready to yield a valuable 
crop of first-class lumber that will find a 
ready local sale at good prices. You have 
the team, the time and the engine. Buy an 
inexpensive "American ” mill and you’ll 
have all the outfit you need to do a profit¬ 
able lumbering business. Start with your 
own wood lot, then work out into the 
country around you. Every wood lot has 
money in it for you. Show its owner 
how you can make lumber and money 
for him. Begin by sending to us for our 
new book No. 26 Which tells the story. 
Write nearest office today. 
In the largest mill or on the farm the American 
is recognized as STASDARD. 
AMERICAN SAW MILL MACHINERY CO. 
129Hope Street, Hackettstown, New Jersey 
1383 TerminalBuilding, New York 
CUICACO SAVANNAH 
NEW OKLKANS 
SEATTLE 
With 8 H. P. 
Cuts 2600 ft. Per Day 
Write for 
Free Catalog 
Mulchep ——— 
and Seeder 
SIZES' 
AND 
STYLES 
shall we send you free book about 1 
APPLETON 
WOOD SAWS 
It shows pictures of all our buzz, drag, cir¬ 
cular log saws and portable wood sawing 
rigs, with or without Appleton Gasoline 
Engines, Tells you straight facts which 
we guarantee our saws to back up. Opens 
a way for you to make money this Winter 
sawing your own and your neighbors’ 
wood. You want a saw to last—made 
strong-boxes that never heat—don’t ex¬ 
periment with cheap saws then, buy an 
Appleton. 40 years the standard. Send for 
booklet to-day. Batavia III USA. 
APPLETON MFG. CO. 627 Fargo ShV 
A mulcher, smoothing harrow, cultivator, 
weederandseedei^allin one. Forms dust mulch 
—a blanket of loose soil—preventing soil harden¬ 
ing and moisture escaping. Increases yield of 
com, potatoes, oats, wheat, etc. Kills weeds. 
Has flat teeth , especially adapted to form mulch. 
Lever and pressure spring control depth of teeth. 
Sold with or without seeding boxes for gras 3 
seed, alfalfa, oats, etc. Teeth cover the seed. 
Adapted for a large variety of work. Threel 
sizes, 8, 10 and 12 ft. Shipment 
from branch near you. 
Write us today . 
EUREKA MOWER CO. 
Box 842. Utica, N. Y, 
Strongest, most durable made. Basic" 
open hearth wire. Double galvanized. \ 
Compare our qualltyand prices wlthothers. 1 
Bargain Prices —Direct From Factory I 
160 Styles—13 Cents Per Rod Up 
Wo pay freight anywhere. Write now * 
for free fence book and sample to teat. 
THE BROWN FENCE & WIRE CO. ( 
D °Pt. so Cleveland, Ohio ’ 
^ARMTENCE 
26-inch Hog Pence,_14c. | j 
41-inch Farm Fence,...21c. ^ 
48-iach Poultry Fence._22%c. 
80-rod spool Barb Wire, $1.40 
t Many styles and heights. Our largo Freo Catalog 
, contains fence Information you should have. 
[ COILED SPRING FENCE CO. Box 263 Winchester, Ind. 
LOW-DOWN FARM TRUCKS 
We now mak e a full line of both Steel-Wheel 
and Wood-Wheel Farm Tracks, and shall be 
pleased to furnish you our free catalog of same. 
On account of the ease with which work can 
be done with these trucks, they are fast com- 
|lng into general use. Let us have your in- 
' y for prices. 
VANA BK.TAL WHEEL CO., Box 17, HAVANA, ILL. 
oe oor 
2 1tig in 
quiry 
HAVA! 
THAT WIRE FENCE 
Built quickly with tho National 
Wrapper & Splicer. No change 
of grip necessary as wire is held 
by revolting ratchet head. (See 
cut). Workes in closest spaces. 
Fits any ptuuko wire. Send 75 cents 
money order and receive one parcel 
post. Money back if not satisfied. 
AGENTS WANTED. Quick Seller, 
one man sold eighteen first day 
out. Write today. 
ST A. A NATIONAL IMPORTING CO. 
Jut-kudu, hllch. 
FARM FENCE 
41 INCHES HIGH 
100 other styles of 
Farm, Poultry and 
Lawn Fencing direct 
from factory at save-the- 
dealer’s-profit-prices. Our 
large catalog is free. 
KITS ELMAN BROS. Box 230Muncie, lad 
