1914. 
THE REFERENDUM VOTE IN CALIFORNIA. 
THE RURAL 
NEVV-YORKEK 
1415 
[In California women vote and legisla¬ 
tion is submitted direct to the people be¬ 
fore it finally becomes law. At the 
last election a number of such questions 
were submitted to popular vote. One 
was a plan for an eight-hour working day 
for all laborers. This was opposed by 
farmers generally. The question of pro¬ 
hibition was submitted and was opposed 
by grape growers and fruit men generally. 
Our conviction is that this plan of sub¬ 
mitting such' questions to popular vote 
will gradually spread all over the coun¬ 
try. The following note on the Califor¬ 
nia election are from an old resident of 
that State]: 
T HE vote in the State was a big one— 
fully twice as big as at any previous 
general election for State officers. 
This was owing to the fact that it was 
the first time the women had a chance to 
vote at such election. Tnen, the ballot 
was a blanket affair—not so much on ac¬ 
count of the number of persons voted for, 
but owing mainly to the 48 legislative 
and bond propositions placed before the 
people. Some of these were initiative, 
some referendum, and some bond proposi¬ 
tions from the Legislature. It was a 
hard proposition for the election officers 
to count the result easily ; many boards 
where the vote was large became ex¬ 
hausted and gave up. So in this way 
the counting of the vote has been slow; 
in some cases the real result will not be 
known until the various ' oards of county 
supervisors have canvassed the vote, or 
until it is made up finally by the Sec¬ 
retary of State. Hut it has been so 
large in many cases that the result is well 
known, as. for instance, in the re-election 
of Gov. Johnson; also, the election of 
former mayor of San Franc, o. James I). 
Phelan, to the United States Senate, vice 
Senator G. C. Perkins, of this city, whose 
term expires next March. (Here I might 
remark that Mr. Phelan, while a resident 
of San Francisco, and a man of various 
affairs there, is one of California’s large 
land owners, and is progressive. I heard 
him say that when it did not pay him 
to raise sugar beets on one of his ranches 
in northern California he had some of 
the soil sent to the State university to be 
analyzed. The result was that acting on 
the report he received he is now getting 
$35 per acre for rice where he formerly 
received but $6 to $9 for sugar beets). 
The eight-hour law as to be applied 
to everybody was beaten badly, as also 
was the minimum wage law for women. 
I believe the vote was quite close on the 
latter. The Prohibition initiative law 
was badly beaten ; this was expected long 
before the election, as it was said that 
those who launched it were “too pre¬ 
vious.” It struck at the vineyardists that 
Californians are very proud of; also, it 
was thought that it would hurt San Fran¬ 
cisco during the big fair next year. This 
may be all right; I think it is. But the 
Prohibitionists should have struck at the 
saloon; let those who wish to drink in 
a mild way—as you will surely find folk 
doing in a cosmopolitan population—do 
so. if they will. When the Prohibitionists 
initiated their law, I believe the other 
side launched a couple of propositions, 
too. one of which was that no election 
touching the liquor question could be 
again enacted within eight years follow¬ 
ing the last. This carried, though I voted 
against it. I believe there are some 
jokers in this law that will make the sa¬ 
loons bolder than ever. The saloons may 
get wise and behave themselves. I think 
it better for the politics, etc., of the coun¬ 
try if every one of them was put out of 
business, or strongly restricted and made 
to keep out of politics; make it a penal 
offense for a saloonkeeper to use his busi¬ 
ness as a campaigning place. 
The last Legislature passed a good 
“blue sky” law. so called. The crooks. I 
guess that’s the right -word, stalled this 
bill by putting it up to the people on a 
referendum petition. And here’s where 
the people get fooled. Too often these 
propositions are so worded that a large 
portion of the voters are not skilled 
enough in the English language or are not 
lawyers enough, to get a clear conception 
of the proposition. They are just as apt 
to vote yes when they really intended to 
vote the other way. So I am sure in the 
case of the blue sky law. this is the way 
that a good law for the people seems to be 
beaten. This State is badly in need of 
such a law. If it is beaten at the election 
just ended it is likely it will be passed 
again by the Legislature; I trust a way 
will be found to prevent the crooks from 
again thwarting its provisions. 
I notice that one of the effects of the 
“dry” election in our two northern neigh¬ 
boring States is that the big brewing in¬ 
terests there that will have to remove or 
close down, are going to locate in this 
city or near by. The boards of trade says 
there are millions in it for us. There may 
be; I don’t think so, as we have enough 
breweries now. w. a. p. 
Tommy came home from school looking 
depressed. He presented a little note 
from teacher. Tommy had been very 
naughty and needed a serious reprimand. 
“What did you do?” questioned his moth¬ 
er. “Nothing,” was the wailing answer. 
“She asked a question, and I was the only 
one who could answer it.” “But what 
was the question?” came mother's puzzled 
but natural query. “Who put the dead 
mouse in the drawer of her desk,” sobbed 
Tommy.—Woman’s Journal. 
CROPS AND PRICES. 
Nov. 14. Best horses, from $200 to 
$250; mules. No. 1, $175 to $200; best 
milch cows, $05 to $75; beef cattle, 5c. to 
0c. per lb.; hogs, 10c. gross weight. But¬ 
ter, 25; eggs, 25; cabbage, one cent^ a 
pound; white beans, 6c. lb., colored, 5c. 
Irish potatoes, $1.25 bushel; chicken, 10c. 
Altapass, N. C. c. H. s. 
Nov. 15. A large acreage of Winter 
wheat was seeded, most of which is look¬ 
ing good Wheat was a fair crop, some 
pieces being extra good. Oats turned 
poorer than expected. Corn as a rule is 
pretty good ; late potatoes were a bumper 
crop, bringing only 20 cents a bushel at 
the car. Wheat is now $1.05 at the local 
elevator: oats. 55 cents; beans, $2.10 for 
pea, $3 for red kidney. Apples sold all 
the way from $1.25 to $1.75. according 
to grade and variety, quite a lot of fun¬ 
gus being present; hay is selling for $13 
for Timothy, $11 or $12 for mixed hay. 
Hogs 12 cents dressed; veal, 10 cents 
live weight; beef from 8 to 11 cents by 
the quarter; poultry, 14 cents for chick¬ 
ens; turkeys, 24; ducks, 20; geese, 16; 
all dressed with heads off. There is not 
much movement of live stock and farm 
produce at the present time on account of 
quarantine for the foot and mouth disease 
in this section of the State. w. E. 
Akron, N. Y. 
Nov. 13. At present the farmer can 
get IV 2 cents per pound for good cotton. 
For native corn he is paid $1 peF bushel. 
Hogs on foot bring from 8 to 9 cents, or 
from 13 to 14 cents dressed; pigs, 10 
cents. For good quality beef the farmer 
is paid about six cents on the hoof, for 
calves in good condition a little more. 
Milk retails at 10 cents per quart. Coun¬ 
try butter brings 25 to 35 cents for best 
quality. Fruits and gardening crops are 
not extensively raised for the market in 
this immediate vicinity except perhaps 
asparagus, which, in the early Spring, 
brings excellent returns when shipped for 
the Northern markets. Our soil and cli¬ 
mate are especially suitable for raising 
of oats; 75 bushels to the acre is not an 
unusual yield, but I regret to say that 
most of the farmers do not apply them¬ 
selves to oat raising extensively enough, 
being satisfied with a few acres and buy¬ 
ing their seed oats annually at 75 or 85 
cents per bushel. j. h. l. 
Aiken, S. C. 
Nov. 16. Wheat, $1 to $1.05; rye, 87; 
oats. 48; buckwheat, 70; No. 2 corn, 
80; beans. $2.50 to $2.20; hay. $12 to 
$14; potatoes. 25 to 30; pork. 9 to 9 Y 2 
dressed, live weight, 7 to iy±\ dressed 
mutton. 8!4 to 9; beef dressed, cows, SV 2 
to 9; heifers and steers, 11 14 to 13; 
lambs dressed 12*4 to 13; poultry, dress¬ 
ed, 18 to 22; live, 10 to 11; roosters, 8; 
eggs, 28 to 32; butter, 28 to 32. We 
sell our butter and eggs to customers al¬ 
most entirely at the retail price at the 
stores as our customers say they can’t get 
hardly any good butter out of the stores, 
and lots of eggs that are bad. It seems 
strange to me that the merchants cannot 
sell better as to freshness of both. I was 
at a sale of farm property a short time 
ago, and the cattle were in bad shape, 
some Jerseys two years old giving milk, 
but were poor and scrawny, would not 
weigh 600 apiece; one went for $50 and 
the others $55. They were purebred, 
only not registered ; one grade that was 
larger went for less money, and one Poll 
Durham went for something like $87. 
Horses are selling a'ound $125 to $225 
and scrubs for any price that they can 
get. Our State tax commissioners are 
raising the assessments, more than doub¬ 
ling lots of property. Apples are a poor 
crop in this part of the country this year, 
although the best farmers spray three 
times or more. e. k. 
Belding, Mich. 
Nov. 13. We do not raise enough in this 
county, Transylvania, of anything to sup¬ 
ply local needs, on account of the vast 
amount of supplies required by the Sum¬ 
mer tourists and by the lumber camps and 
saw mills, and also on account of the 
neglect of many of the farms because the 
m_en work in the woods. Rye opened at 
85c. per bushel; wheat opened at $1.25; 
corn opened at 75c.: dried beans, mixed, 
all colors. $2.50 per bushel; hay (a fail¬ 
ure this year). $1.50 per 100 lbs.; cab¬ 
bage, fair-sized heads, five cents each. 
These prices are to farmers. Sweet and 
Trish potatoes, both $1 per bushel. But¬ 
ter. made in an old dash churn, and ripen¬ 
ing the cream by pouring hot water into 
the churn (which you know makes it off¬ 
color and puffy), sells at 25 to 30c. per 
lb., and the pounds are very often “14 
ounces.” We make no cheese. I have 
sold no cattle lately, but I am told they 
are worth 5U>c. per lb. on the hoof. Pigs, 
scrub and mixed breeds, at six weeks old, 
sell for from $3.50 to $6 per head, but it 
would be a hard matter to buy a 200-lb. 
hog at any price. The demand for pigs 
is always good. As for fruit, we have 
the finest fruit country here. I believe, in 
the world. I have seen Buffs or Howards 
as big as my cupped hands, and I wear a 
10!4 glove. I have seen the Limbertwig, 
the Winesap and the Winter John kept in 
this country out in the fields, like Irish 
potatoes, with a little straw and dirt over 
them, until Spring. Yet, owing to the 
negligence of the farmers, in that they 
will not prune and they will not spray, 
and they will not organize, there have 
been fully 50.000 bushels of apples gone 
to waste in this county this year—could 
not be “given away” at 25c. per bushel 
North Carolina. john s. boggs. 
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