174 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—A general strike of or¬ 
ganized labor designed to paralyze every 
industry in the country, beginning next 
Fourth of July, was decided upon Jan. 
17 by the National Labor Congress at 
Chicago as a means of obtaining a new 
trial for Thomas J. Mooney and Warren 
Billings if Federal intervention and every 
other means adopted to procure the de¬ 
sired" relief fail. The convention author¬ 
ized the raising of a fund of $1,000,000,000 
to carry on a campaign of education to 
liberate the labor leaders and to promote 
the proposed general strike. The con¬ 
vention adopted also resolutions demand¬ 
ing that the people of Russia and Ger¬ 
many be permitted to work out their own 
destiny, that American troops be with¬ 
drawn from Russia and that all political 
and industrial prisoners receive the same 
consideration as prisoners of war. 
All the 46 defendants in the I. W. W. 
conspiracy case were found guilty at Sac¬ 
ramento, Cal., Jan. 18 by a jury in the 
United States District Court. 
Jay Willard Robinson, a native of 
Miner County, South Dakota, whose fore¬ 
bears as far back as the record of the 
family goes were American born, was. in¬ 
dicted in New York Jan. 20 by a United 
States Grand Jury charged with treason. 
He is 30 years old. Robinson is alleged 
to have been employed in. Rotterdam to 
work as a German spy in the United 
States by Frank Richards, alleged Ameri¬ 
can and chief of the German naval in¬ 
telligence service. Robinson had gone to 
Rotterdam, it is alleged, as the messenger 
of Herman Wessels and Baroness von 
Ivretschman. alias Mme. Marie de Vic- 
toriea, German spies then at work in New 
York, and of Jeremiah A. O’Leary and 
John T. Ryan, Sinn Fein leaders. Ryan 
was indicted Jan. 22. Ryan disappeared 
on May S, 1018. the day after that on 
which O’Leary became a fugitive from 
justice. He is believed to be in Mexico. 
He served in the American army in the 
Philippines during the Spanish-American 
war and was made a Captain. The in¬ 
dictment charges that Ryan’s special 
work in behalf of the Imperial German 
Government, which was at war with the 
United States, was in protecting the in¬ 
terests of Baroness von Kretschman, .who 
came here in January, 1017, after, it is 
said, she had acquired status as. a citizen 
of Chile through a fake marriage to a 
Chilean named De Yictorica in Hamburg. 
The Republican leaders who control the 
New York Legislature agreed Jan. .21 
that New York State should share with 
thefState of New Jersey the cost of build¬ 
ing a vehiculai tunnel under the Hudson 
River from New York City to Jersey. 
The cost will be limited to $6,000,000 
for each State, and the New York Legis¬ 
lature will make an appropriation of 
$1,000,000 for starting the work im¬ 
mediately. 
WASHINGTON.—January 21 the 
Senate debated the bill appropriating 
$100,000,000 for immediate purchase of 
sufficient food supplies to prevent a gen¬ 
eral famine in Europe without reaching 
a conclusion or a vote. The debate, how¬ 
ever. brought out the fact that a state¬ 
ment had been made before the Committee 
on Agriculture by an independent packer 
that behind the admitted need, for some 
appropriation to extend food relief abroad 
was a scheme to stabilize meat prices by 
taking up surplus stocks owned by the 
packers in Europe, which would prevent 
their return to the United States and the 
consequent depression of prices. 
A resolution calling for the investiga¬ 
tion of the many Government publications 
alleged to be of dubious value was intro¬ 
duced Jan. 20 by Senator Sherman (Ill ) 
and referred to the Committee on Print¬ 
ing. Senator Sherman has been one of 
the most consistent critics of the Com¬ 
mittee on Public Information and its 
chairman, George Creel. His resolution 
seeks to delve into the whole question of 
the Government maintenance of press 
bureaus and the distribution of “litera¬ 
ture” in the form of news letters and 
bulletins of an official character with 
which the mails are flooded. 
Senator Robert M. La Follette was 
cleared formally Jan. 16 on the charge 
of disloyal utterances. His fellow Sena¬ 
tors voted. 50 to 21. to exonerate him be¬ 
cause his speech in St. Paul Sept. 20. 
1017. “does not justify any action by the 
Senate,” according to the committee’s 
finding. 
The Senate Committee on Agriculture 
listened Jan. 21 to a review of the activi¬ 
ties of Thomas F. Logan, lobbyist for 
the packers in Washington, who told of 
his recent trip to Europe in company with 
Chairman Edward N. Hurley of the 
United States Shipping Board and Food 
Administrator Herbert Hoover. On the 
witness stand Logan admitted being em¬ 
ployed by various large business interests 
at an aggregate retainer of $2,700 a 
month, which combination of salaries was 
continued during T ogan’s attendance with 
Chairman Hurley and Food Administra¬ 
tor Hoover at the recent interallied con¬ 
ference, where he sat unofficially as one 
of the members of the conference. The 
purpose of the gathering was to discuss 
America’s potentialities as the source of 
food supply for Europe during the pres¬ 
ent continent-wide shortage of necessities 
of life. The expenses of his trip to 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Europe, Logan said, were borne by the 
United States Government. 
INDUSTRIAL CONDITIONS.—A pe¬ 
tition was circulated Jan. 18 on the 
Chicago Board of Trade calling upon 
Thomas W. Gregory, Attorney-General of 
the United States, to take action to pre¬ 
vent “a recurrence of -this immoral and 
illegal price fixing” on hogs. Members 
of the New York Produce Exchange say 
that while the protest deals with but 
one commodity, important in itself, it 
foreshadows a nationwide movement on 
the part of men in the trade to insist that 
governmental restriction on all trade be 
removed so that prices may be determined 
not by official dictum but by the law of 
supply and demand. 
Federal farm loan bonds may be bought 
now from all of the 12 land banks under 
a new Treasury policy ordered by Secre¬ 
tary Glass, and modifying the former 
plan by which farm loan bonds were to 
be absorbed by the Treasury and kept off 
the market until after all Liberty loans 
were floated. About a million dollars of 
the bonds have been sold by the Federal 
land banks since January 1, when the 
new policy was adopted. The bonds bear 
414 per cent interest, sell at one-half per 
cent above par and are exempt from 
Federal taxes. Since Nov. 1 the Treas¬ 
ury has absorbed $9,500,000 of farm loan 
bonds. 
Japan now has a monopoly of the cot¬ 
ton goods trade with Manchuria, though 
only about 15 years ago The United 
States supplied 90 per cent of the cotton 
goods imported by Manchuria, according 
to a statement issued by the Chamber of 
Commerce of Yokohama. 
With sales running more than $1,100,- 
000 and prices reaching new high levels 
Funsten Bros. & Co. opened at St. Louis 
Jan. 20 what is said to be the largest fur 
auction ever held in the world. More 
than 500 buyers from all sections of the 
country as well as representatives of Lon¬ 
don and Paris concerns attended the 
opening. The total value of the offering 
was estimated to be between $8,000,000 
and $10,000,000. The first lot of the 
sale, containing 50 extra large, fine seal¬ 
skins, brought $68 a skin. Other lots 
brought $61, $59 and $57. Lots of squir¬ 
rel sold for 66 and 67 cents a skin, a 
big advance over prices recorded at the 
last January sale. 
PROHIBITION.—The 25 prohibition 
and Anti-Saloon League organizations 
have agreed c-a a “bone dry” Federal act 
to be presented to Congress, according to 
a bulletin issued Jan 17 from National 
Anti-Saloon League headquarters. Ten¬ 
tatively it includes the following provis¬ 
ions : Appointment of Federal commis¬ 
sioners to enforce the act. with power to 
prescribe 1 rules and regulations for the 
manufacture and distribution of wine for 
.sacramental purposes and alcohol for non- 
prohibited purposes. Fixing of adequate 
penalties for violation of the act. The 
importation, exportation and possession 
of intoxicating liquors for beverage pur¬ 
poses to be prohibited. All intoxicating 
liquors illegally possessed and all imple¬ 
ments used in their illegal manufacture 
to be contraband. An adequate search 
and seizure provision. The sale of alco¬ 
holic patent or proprietary mediums calla¬ 
ble of being used as a beverage to be sur¬ 
rounded by the same safeguards as the 
sale of alcohol. Such other provisions 
as will “destroy every vestige of the bev¬ 
erage liquor traffic throughout the United 
States and its possessions.” The search 
and seizure provision is intended to make 
it illegal for persons to store liquor in 
their homes and it is planned to give the 
right to Federal agents to search prem¬ 
ises and confiscate liquor that may be 
discovered. 
February 1, 1919 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The Massa¬ 
chusetts Fruit Growers’ Association meet¬ 
ing at Horticultural Hall,' Boston, Feb. 
11 and 12 is the 25th anniversary of that 
association. 
The second annual meeting of the Mas¬ 
sachusetts State Vegetable Growers’ As¬ 
sociation will take place at Horticultural 
Hall. Boston, Feb. 12. The Boston Mar¬ 
ket Gardeners’ Association is to join with 
this meeting. A plan will be presented 
to include all members of local associa¬ 
tions through their own organizations. 
At the Madison Square Garden Poultry 
Show, opening Jan. 21. more than 13,000 
birds were exhibited. The United States 
Gove raiment was among the exhibitors, 
and showed a number of birds bred at 
the Government Poultry Farm at Belts- 
ville. Md. The principal pigeon exhibit 
was in a movable pigeon loft, like those 
used on the western front. Twelve birds 
having flight records of more than 1,000 
miles were also on view. 
The fifth annual meeting of the New 
York State Potato Association is 
scheduled for February 11 and 12 at the 
College of Agriculture, Ithaca. N. Y. A 
very complete and interesting program 
has' been provided. The business sessions 
will be largely devoted to a consideration 
of the revision of the plans for inspec¬ 
tion and certification, of seed fields this 
coming year. Among the speakers of 
note included in this program will be 
W. P>. Duryea, secretary of the New Jer¬ 
sey State Potato Association; Major E. 
P. Prentice, Mount Hope Farm, Will- 
iamstown. Mass., a potato breeder of 
note, and E. L. Markell, in charge of 
car inspection service in New York. 
Along with questions of seed improvement 
and seed potato problems will 'be dis¬ 
cussed the question of enlarging the in¬ 
to include loading sta- 
' spection service 
tions. 
Y OU want a tractor that will do 
draft-horse work. To do that work 
you must have a "Draft-Horse” 
type of motor. A tractor motor should be 
built along the lines of a strong, powerful 
draft horse—that is exactly what you get 
in the Avery “Draft-Horse” motor. 
The Avery Motor is of the Opposed 
Type. We selected the opposed type of 
motor over the twin-cylinder and the 
four-cylinder automobile type because: 
its length distributes the weight better 
between the front and rear wheels; its 
narrower width makes possible a shorter 
crankshaft with only two bearings; it runs 
at a lower speed and hence requires less 
gears in the transmission, and makes 
possible a “direct drive” in high, low, 
reverse and in the belt. 
We build the Avery motor with 
the heaviest crankshaft in any tractor 
motor, practically unbreakable. Five- 
ring pistons and valves in the head, which 
mean power and economy. Tliermo-si- 
Write for the New Avery Catalog 
telling about Avery Tractors, Motor Cultivators, Plows 
and Threshers. Alsoask for the Avery tree Tractor Cor- 
rcspondenee Course and the Avery Special Circular en¬ 
titled “100 Questions and Answers to Tractor Iroublcs. 
See Samples at the Nearest Avery Dealer. 
AVERY COMPANY 
2024 Iowa Street 
PEORIA, ILLINOIS 
Motor Farming, Threshing 
and Road Building Machinery 
