538 
April 7, 1917. 
PUBLISHER’S DESK 
I have 24 shares of Myrick’s Phelps 
Publishing Co. stock and 20 or more 
Orange Judd. It was represented to me 
as being A No. 1, secured by real estate 
and Myrick Building, collateral at any 
bank for loan, and banks would buy all 
their stock gladly, but they wanted to 
distribute same among the people, etc. 
Had .‘I fund back of them to secure the 
payments of dividends, etc. I paid .*i:2;i5 
for most of 1'helps and .$110 for Orange 
Judd. Have had no dividends since 1014. 
That year I had $1,000 in (food House¬ 
keeping preferred. I went to Myrick and 
asked him what I should do. Instead of 
saying I could redeem it and get my 
$1,000, he said change for I’helps stock, 
I tumbled, gave him $100 in cash and 
$1,000 in Good Housekeeping preferred 
• for eight shares of I’helps. I was igno¬ 
rant of stock dealings and was stung. 
Would there be any redress foi- me? 
Good Housekeeping is good and pays 
dividends regularly. He gets the divi¬ 
dends and I nothing. I know of another 
party to whom he did the same thing, 
and can tell of others he has advised to 
buy just before the dividends stopped. 
He has bought about (kill acres of land 
in tills town, assessed for from .$10 to 
$2.0 per acre, and I hear he has incor¬ 
porated it and is selling stock in Middle 
West and South. Most of the land is 
sand blow and rocky side hills. Some 
good fruit on a small part. I could enum¬ 
erate other things in this line. 1 am most 
seventy years old and need what J have 
saved to sec me ihvouyh. I read of his 
three suits against you. If I could be of 
any use to you, w’ould stand back of any 
statement I make. He has workt'd off 
his gold bricks among the farmers and 
widows mostly, i nd they were an easy 
mark. I write this to give you an idea of 
his doings, and be of any help if I can. 
T do not take your paper, but a friend 
who has $5,000 in his bricks, scut me a 
copy. It was his Pheliis stock that I got 
in exchange; got it from Mr. AV. A. 
AA’hitney, who told me if I had come to 
him he would have gotten me my $1,000. 
Have I made this plain? victim. 
Massachusetts. 
“I am most 70 years old and n<“cd what 
I h.ave saved to .see me through.” 
In that one sentmice you get the whole 
story. By frugal habits and personal sac¬ 
rifice, a farmer saves a few dollars for the 
declining years. He first gives his con¬ 
fidence, and then his money in (‘xchange 
for paper certificates, worthless promises. 
Now he is 70 and needs his sjiviugs t> 
see him through. Old subscribers who 
went through the notorious E. G. I-ewis 
show-up some years back, will recall the 
similar coinjdaint of his victims. It is a 
regular practice of frenzied financial pro- 
motors to have a .second or third choice 
of paper certificates. When the victim 
gets tired of ‘"one and becomes trouble- 
.some, he is pacified for a time by induc¬ 
ing him to take .something else, and ;il- 
leged to be better. To maintain the 
fiction he invariably pays some extra 
cash. And Myrick thinks he wants to 
fiice such a witness in a court of law. 
I think you will find this report on the 
Ford Tractor Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 
in I ('resting. E. N. 
I’ennsylvanin. 
AVe have made frequent references to 
the jiromotion schem(v.-,of AV. Baer Ew¬ 
ing in connection with the Ford Tractor 
Co., of Minneapolis, Minn. The N.;i* 
tional A’'igilance Committee of the Asso- 
<'iated Advertising-.Club.s of the AA'orld 
has conducted a thorough investigation 
of the organization and methods of the 
comi)any, which has brought to light 
some highly interesting facts. As 
jireviously explained, the, present com¬ 
pany is a Delaware corporation, capital- 
iz'ed at $10,(>0()i000. The original Fc>rd 
Tractor Co. was a South I>akota cor¬ 
poration, and when this concern went4n- 
to bankruptcy among the liabilities was 
an item of $10,1”0 of money deposited 
as part of the purchase price-of tractors 
—the tractors were never delivered and 
the money was spent by the officers of 
the company’. Dut how, the magic name 
Ford was obtained shows Mr. Ewing’s 
genius as a promoter more clearly than 
his methods of high finance. The Bulletin 
tells the story as follows: 
Early in the year of lfil5. W. Baer 
Ewing, ahout to form a tractor company, 
and desiring to use the name of Ford 
iT> connection therewith, found the name 
of Paul B. Ford in the directory of the 
City of Minneapolis. At that time Paul 
Ford was employed by a company, 
manufacturers of heating appliances. 
Mr. Ewing had never met Ford prior to 
that time and Paul Ford had never heard 
of Mr. Ewing. They met in the office 
of Mr. Ewing and there an agreement 
was ente>'ed into under w^'ich Air. E\\ tng 
7^e RURAL NEW-YORKER 
claims the right to use the name Ford 
in connection with his tractor company.' 
Under said agreement Paul Ford was to 
receive certain definite compensation 
therefor. 
The above is interesting in view of the 
fact that the literature of the company 
gives Air, I’aul Ford credit for having 
conceived the idea of this tractor, de¬ 
signor and inventor of it. The sole object 
of inducing Air. Ford to join the concern 
of course was that by the use of his name 
the promoter might profit by the good 
name and reputation of Henry Ford of 
Ford automobile fame. AA’e might well 
ask, are there any depths of deception to 
which promoters will not stoop to lure the 
savings of the unsuspecting? It also ap¬ 
pears from this bulletin that the stock¬ 
brokers take for their toll about 72c of 
every dollar collected from the investor. 
I am sending circular of Birch Afotor 
Go.. Chicago, Ill. Please tell me what 
you know about them. w. B. c. 
A^ermont. I 
The circulars enclosed offer a corre¬ 
spondence cour,sc in automobile driving, re¬ 
pairing and selling at the special price of 
$15—original price $.‘10. Cionsequently a 
great bargain! In our opinion $1.50 
would come nearer measuring the value 
of any such correspondence course. Then 
as an inducement to purchiise the Cfuirse 
yon are to have an agency for Birch 
motor cars. There are several of these 
so-called motor colleges in Chicago. All 
arc working the same scheme. Much of 
this class of advertising hits been offered 
The 11. N.-Y. and refused. 
This is one of five concerns in Cleve¬ 
land sending similar circular lettcr.s. 
Some offer a single barrel of paint or oil. 
That city is full of fake oil and paint 
men, having no plants. s. 
New York. 
The above refe?-s to the printed letter 
enclo.s(‘d from the Groat T.iik('S Ilefiuing 
Compan 3 ' of Cleveland, Ohio, claiming 
that the firm has a carload of oil in 
the railroad warehouse, at Bochester, N. 
A'., which was refused by a jobber on .ac¬ 
count of slow delivery on the part of 
the railroad. The letter alleges that in 
order to dispose of the oil without loss, 
the prices i»roi)osed have heen gicatly 
reduc('d, ftome of the other Cleveland 
hou.ses refi'rred to h.v our suhscribers, 
are the Progia'ss P.aint Comiiany, Cleve- 
liind, Ohio, and the Electric Paint and 
AAtrnish Company, Cleveland, Ohio. 
Huch claims as the above made by the 
Gre.it I.akes Befiuing Company are 
purcl.v f.akes, the purpose being to lead 
the public to believe that the.v are. get¬ 
ting a great bargain at the jtrices offered. 
Those who have sent orders to these con¬ 
cerns discover that the goods have been 
shipped from Chic.ago and find th<‘ quality 
very inferior. I{(‘gardle.ss of the qualit\’ 
and the products, however, houses iv'soi-t- 
ing to d(‘Ception of this kind to sell their 
goods should be avoided by the publi<'. 
I am enclosing another one of those 
getrrich-quick hog schemes. AA'^e hog men 
jire }ii>parentlj’ ‘‘a.sleep at the switch,” as 
we are unuble to see this just ;is it reads, 
fi'he man who goes into Florida to raise 
hogs is going to find sbuiething else be¬ 
sides profit. , Properl.v handled the hog 
business is all right, but it se('ms queer 
that they have to go so far fT'om Intm^' tn 
start, 4 L bu.s’iness when a colder climate is 
b(‘tter for the hog. .T. w. . 
New Jersey. 
The above refers to the prospectus of 
Club Fiirms and Town Development Syn¬ 
dicate <»f Chicago, Ill. This proposition 
is ver.v similar to the National Hog Co. 
of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the Artesian Hog 
Breeding As.sociatioh,“ of Chicago, 'Ill. 
The onl.v apparent difference appears to 
be the Club Farms and the Development 
Sj’ndicate propo.se making the public rici>. 
through breeding hogs in Florida instead 
of Penusylvauia and Texas, as pr()pos('d 
by the other promoters. AV’'e wish all 
the.se hog cnterpri.ses the largest d('gree of 
success, but we advise The R. N.-Y. ivad- 
ers to let the promoters finance their own 
enteri)rises. AA’e think there is little dan¬ 
ger that any practical breeder or farmer 
will consid('r the literature of either of 
the three promotion schemes seriously. 
'Their own experience teaches them the 
fallacy of the promoter.s’ claims. The 
city man who swallows the fiction in the 
daily and literary papers that farmers are 
rolling in wealth, will become the most 
ready victim. The high price of pork at 
the present time furnishes just the right 
sort of sucker bait for all the.se schemes. 
IHHH 
We Are More 
Critical of Lucas Quality Than 
the Most Particular User of Paint 
I 
If you could see the way we make Lucas Paint, you would know the secret 
of its quality-—why it is so much better in every way than ordinary paint. 
From the time the paint ingredients are tested in our laboratories, before 
we accept them, until the finished product is compared with the master 
sample by five different tests, to make certain that it meets the standard in 
every particular, every detail of manufacture is planned and executed with 
the one intent: to produce the best paint possible. No paint user would 
demand such rigid tests of paint as we exact; yet every user of Lucas 
Paints profits by them. 
Purposely Made for Every Purpose 
prove their quality in their greater covering capacity—300 to 400 square 
feet, as against the usual 200 to 250 square feet. They show it in the 
greater protection which they afford to the surface painted, in the better 
appearance and longer wear they give. You may have to pay a little more 
for Lucas Paints than for ordinary paints, but you get double the value. If you 
want to insure permanent paint satisfaction, be sure to specify Lucas Paint. 
Your dealer will be glad to show you Lucas color 
cards; or write us for booklet, “Save Money on Paint,” 
and X-Ray demonstrator for showing color schemes. 
$ 2,000 S.VVED IX O.NK YEAR BY .\ HRM USI.VO A 
National Oat Crusher 
for booklrt . Box H 
EXCEL MANUFACTURING CO. 
POTTERSVILLE - • N. J. 
STUMP PULLER 
3 ^ 
_ ^sJWSiyiiTH Grubber .Co 
CATALOG FREE-DEPT.49. LA CRESCENT. 
•>. ! 
He kills the chickens and is a pest to the 
farmer in several ways, and there are hundreds 
of him roaming around. 
Set Victor Traps—catch him, and muskrats 
too—and sell the furs. 
’ You’ll get scores of furs every week with 
a'dozen Victor Traps set each night through 
Fall and Winter. Your boy can set them, 
there’s plenty of spare time anyway, and two 
or three hundred dollars is a good roll to 
pocket by Spring. 
■ Start with a half dozen Victors. (You can get them 
from any hardware dealer.) They will pay for themselves 
—and a good profit besides in your first week of trapping.. 
Oneida Community, Ltd., Oneida, N. Y. 
