1680 
W* RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 15, 1919 
Have a Home 
- W • ' V 'A .; * ' * \ 
tlie Neighbors Will Envy 
T S up to you to get out of life at least as much as 
you put into it. That’s a duty you owe yourself, 
your family. 
Why tolerate a dark, gloomy home, when it would 
he so bright and cheery if you had a 
I 
Carbide Lighting! 
oVT 
TRADE 
and Cooking Plant 
MARK 
Not only would your Colt Plant give you an abundance 
of the prettiest, brightest light in the world for every room 
in the house and for the barns, but the same gas cooks the 
family meals, does the ironing, eases the work for everyone. 
Young folks demand the modern things. Their elders 
are certainly entitled to them. 
Hundreds of thousands of liome-owners know from ex¬ 
perience that the Colt Plant gives more and better service 
at less cost than any lighting plant on the market. 
Write us for the names and addresses of neighbors who 
have used the Colt Plant for years. 
J. B. COLT COMPANY, 288Fourth Avenue, N. Y.City 
19 
Safe Cellar 
Cellar work during Winter can 
be made comfortable with the 
use of an economical, portable 
Perfection Oil Heater. Vege¬ 
tables and fruits need not be¬ 
come frost bitten. 
The Perfection is clean, safe, 
odorless—burns 10 hours on a 
gallon of Socony kerosene — 
easily filled and re-wicked. No 
soot, no ashes. Useful from 
cellar to garret. 
Ask your dealer to show you a 
Perfection. 
STANDARD OIL 
COMPANY 
OF NEW YORK 
PERFECTION 
Oil Heaters 
Things To Think About 
The object of this department is to give readers a chance to express themselves on farm 
matters. Not long articles can be used—just short, pointed opinions or . suggestions. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER does not always endorse what is printed here, You might 
call this a mental safety valve. 
Deliver in Larger Cans 
If you had a 4-qt. can, the delivery of 
milk need not cost over 5c each cah, or 
li4c a quart, from car or depot to box at 
the consumer’s door. The 4-qt. can should 
be the property of the consumer. Let her 
get milk tickets and pay in advance. She 
can put the box in a handy place. It may 
be as picturesque as a telephone pole. 
Your farmer should be required to put 
a label on the can with name and date. 
He could write on the label other things 
he has for sale. That is the way to get. 
producer and consumer together. 
Pennsylvania. d. c. kenyon. 
If every customer took four quarts of 
milk that would be an economic way to 
do it. Some, do, others do not. Surety a 
closer touch with the consumer is re¬ 
quired, and all suggestions tend in the 
direction of a solution of the problem. 
Public opinion in this country is the 
motor force of all reform, and intelligent: 
discussion develops sound public opinion. 
“Political and Industrial Democracy” 
This is a railroad town; two divisions 
and shops are located here, employing 
about 1,000 men (all unionized). This is 
also a Grange county, and we hold the 
meeting of the Kansas State Grange at 
Fort Scott December S-ll. The H. C. of 
L. made it extremely urgent that we seek 
a remedy, and we “got together” by or¬ 
ganizing a store. No person not a mem¬ 
ber of the Grange or of some labor union, 
can own stock in this co-operative store, 
which at present has 450 stockholders, 
who have taken one-half of the authorized 
issue of $50,000. We handle any article 
needed by the farmer or laboring man, 
from needles to tractors, employ 40 peo¬ 
ple. all members of some union, and the 
average daily sales are over $2,000. 
This'venture has been in operation not 
two months, but is a great success, as it 
is the largest store in the city, and draws 
an immense farmer trade. Dividends are 
declared annually, and are divided by the 
stockholders, pro-rated on their purchases. 
The stock draws 4 per cent net. 
This is the first instance, so far as I 
know, of the farmer and union labor get¬ 
ting together in a business venture and 
throwing the middleman and banker over¬ 
board. for this is a strictly cash business. 
As this county (Bourbon) has more 
rock roads than any other in the State, 
and 05 miles of roads now ready to be 
let. by contract, we are organizing a cor¬ 
poration of farmers and laboring men 
who will provide the machinery and mus¬ 
cle to construct the roads and divide the 
profits.. By this plan the construction 
cost will be kept right in the community 
and circulate among the food producers 
and business men at home, and will in 
reality be a “revolving fund” to build 
more rock roads, as the wages will all go 
for food, clothing and shelter. Every 
worker must take a share of stock (with 
his wages) and will have one vote to 
manage the business, and will get his 
share of net profits, pro-rated on his hours 
of labor. So every man is really his own 
employer and a strike is impossible. The 
weather here does not seriously interfere 
with the work, and farmers along the 
road are quite willing to furnish men and 
teams during the Winter. The contract 
calls for a If!-ft. macadam road with a 
bituminous binder of 4 in. on the surface 
rolled in. This “corpoi*ation” plans to 
do all rock roads construction and repair¬ 
ing in this county in the future, and not 
let some foreign contractor get the job 
and take one-third the contract price 
home as his share (all) of the profits. 
Some of my neighbors sell milk to the 
condenser.v, $3.40: some sell hogs to the 
shipper, $10 per 100 lbs., and some sell 
wheat at $1.00 per bu., and still thrash¬ 
ing. Timothy hay $20; Alfalfa. $25 to 
$30; wild hay, $12 to $10. Butcher stock, 
$0 to $S ; eggs, 55c. Land rapidly ad¬ 
vancing in price, and two (or more) 
renters for every farm. g. p. 
“Jersey” and Other Justice 
I read your account of “Jersey Jus¬ 
tice” on page 1504, which told how 
quickly and thoroughly a man who had 
committed a horrible crime was made to 
feel the power of the law. Such quick 
action is certain to discountenance mob 
violence and lynch law. However, Jer¬ 
sey justice is not infallible, as the accom¬ 
panying clippings show. They were taken 
from a recent issue of the Trenton. N. J., 
State Gazette. 
“Bordentown, N. J., Oct. 20—Harry 
Tvoeseo, the colored man who nearly mur¬ 
dered his wife, Lizzie Keesee. Wednesday 
evening, on Burlington Street, when he 
slashed her with a razor, must serve his 
unexpired term of 25 years in the Eastern 
penitentiary for the killing of Robert 
Reagers in Montgomery County, Pa., in 
1010, after he had been paroled. On the 
charge of killing his wife he may be given 
a long sentence by the Burlington County 
authorities. His wife is in St. Francis 
hospital. Trenton.” 
A convicted murderer, out on parole 
(evidently justice nods in Pennsylvania, 
or perhaps was taking a little snooze) 
nearly kills his wife, and may get a long 
sentence if she dies. Why is a murderer 
allowed at large? 
Here is another: 
“Charged with violating the fish and 
game laws, Emilo Trowto, of 135 Morris 
Avenue, was fined $1,000 by Judge Ger- 
aghty yesterday. The complaint was 
made by Game Warden Loveless, who 
says that the defendant shot, a rabhit, 
squirrel and eight song birds.” 
Most of us will think this so unreason¬ 
able as to appear almost ridiculous. A 
man fined one thousand dollars for a 
small violation of the fish and game laws! 
If this is true, what, should be done with 
a man who committed a grave offence 
against life or property—what could be 
done, in proportion to the enormity of 
the crime? Of course a violation of the 
law merits punishment, but to fine a man’ 
the equivalent, of years of savings for 
shooting a rabbit and a squirrel out of 
season, and eight song birds, is beyond 
words. Verily, we strain at. a gnat and 
swallow a camel! 
Judge Geraghty has distinguished him¬ 
self before. Last Fall a farmer was sell¬ 
ing sweet potatoes in the Trenton mar¬ 
ket, by the basket. The baskets he sold 
were full and heaped up—a good measure. 
Some one weighed a basket, found it to be 
below the standard prescribed by local 
ordinance, haled the farmer into court 
on a short weight charge, and had him 
fined $25. by this judge. I was told of 
this by the market master and the police 
officer detailed to the market. There was 
no intention to defraud the customer, the 
basket was well filled, but for some rea¬ 
son the weight was lacking, although the 
bulk was there. General opinion at the 
time held that the judge had acted very 
unjustly in fining this farmer and that 
the unintentional offence merited no more 
than a warning, if that. r, i„ « 
Farms and Farm Hands 
In answer to the inquiry of S. E. A. in 
regard to the unfavorable points of farm¬ 
ing in Central New York, I think I am 
qualified to discuss the problem in re¬ 
spect. to farms in Onondaga County. East, 
west and south from Syracuse there are 
good farms, and in the north are some 
good farms. I have owned and operated 
two farms in Onondaga County, and one 
in Madison County. I was born on a 
farm ; have been a merchant for over 30 
years; sold my last farm this Spring and 
gave up farming, as I am too old to work 
myself and could not hire competent help 
at a price a farmer can pay. That is the 
unfavorable point, and there is no other. 
A young man was working on a soda 
fountain. His father has a good farm. 
I asked him why he was not home with 
his father, and his reply was that he was 
getting $100 a month where he was. I 
met a boy today that I took out of the 
orphans’ home to help do chores and go to 
school. I tried to help him to be a man 
and a good farmer. He stayed on the 
farm this Summer, and when I asked him 
today why he was not there his reply 
was: “I only got $30 a month and in the 
big shops I get most that in a week.” I 
asked him how much he saved. His ans¬ 
wer was only a grin. 
RUFUS E. SMITH. 
This Farmer Says “Over-production” 
The greatest trouble with the farmer 
today is over-production. As long as .food 
production exceeds consumption the farm¬ 
er will be obliged to take what he can get. 
When consumption overtakes production, 
then the farmer can fix his own price and 
get it, too. 
As everyone knows who has studied the 
question, consumption is increasing much 
more rapidly than production. At the 
present rate it will not be long -before 
there is an actual shortage of food in this 
country. Meanwhile let the farmers form 
local associations and organize all they 
can so as to be ready to take the most 
advantage of the situation when it arises.- 
But let them by all means keep clear of 
all labor unions. The unions are no 
friends of the farmers. All they want is 
to boost wages and keep down the cost 
of living, especially food. 
The farmer has no friends, except at 
election time, when someone wants his 
vote. When food was cheap and plenty, 
city people did not think about the farm¬ 
er : they were too busy making money. 
Now that food is high, he is a good one to 
be the “goat.” It is safe. Forty or 50 
yearn ago the employers had things pretty 
much their way. There was plenty of 
labor. Then labor began to organize. 
Now labor is having things pretty much- 
its way. There is no surplus of labor.; 
The farmers can never organize like the 
labor unions. They can. however, form 
associations and local unions, and get into 
closer touch with each other, and stop 
“doing” each other. These will do good, 
and when the shortage comes we will be 
ready to take advantage of it. Mean¬ 
while let- us do the best we can. sit tight, 
hang on, and when the time comes be 
ready to make the most of it. as labor 
unions are doing today. Is there any 
way whereby one man can be compelled to 
raise food for another man except slav¬ 
ery? Can five or ten millions of farmers 
be made slaves? 0. F. shefaru. 
