1128 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
September 17, 1921 
Want to CUT 
YOUR SUIT-COST? 
Y ET be better dressed than ever? Just sit down and 
read this newsy folder. 
Read why Clothcraft suits are made of better serge, yet 
cost less than others. Feel the sturdiness in the weaves of 
"good old Clothcraft serge,” of which actual swatches are 
tipped in the folder. 
And remember that Clothcraft serge suits wear longer, 
yet cost less for three reasons: Fads and frills in styles are 
avoided; raw material is purchased in enormous quantities, 
and ingenious short-cuts in manufacturing 
cut time and labor cost. 
Now test those serge samples, blue, brown 
and gray, in the booklet—test them for 
weight, for weave, for wear. Test them 
so you may get the best suit-value 
of the year. Write today for swatch 
folder. 
THE JOSEPH 6C FEISS CO. 
2163 West 53rd St., Cleveland, O. 
THE JOSEPH & FEISS CO.. 
21C3 West 53rd St., Cleveland, O. 
Please send mewithout obligation.folder containing actual 
swatches of the Clothcraft serges, etc. 
(Sign Here) 
.Frost. Insurance 
pVj'V " 
in 
$1.15 per hour per acre 
Used 27 Scheu Heaters to acre on the 
ght of April 25, 1921—temperature out- 
de of orchard 23° raised to 30° and 31° 
nside. I have a full crop in area covered 
by the heaters,” writes W. C. Stone, Prop. 
Squaw Butte Orchards, Emmett, Idaho. 
Scheu Smokeless and Canco Heaters 
Give positite protection. Operating cost $1.15 per acre per 
hour. Temperature as lov as 16° successfully raised above 
danger point. Used by growers the country over. 
More than a million Scheu and Canco heaters now 
in use. Heaters cost 36c up. Order early to 
get frost protection next spring. 
Write for free 48 page book—"Frost Insur¬ 
ance.” Resident agents wanted. 
JSCHEU 
i\Srnokeless \ 
Orchard Heater Dept. G 
WHITING-MEAD COM'L. CO., LOS ANGELES 
'A NCOS 
A Primer of Economics 
By John J. Dillon 
Part XLII 
Free Catalog In colors explains 
■-? how you can save 
money on Farm Truck or Road 
Wagons, also steel or wood wheels to tit 
any running 
gear. Send for 
it today. 
Electric Wheel Co. 
*18 Elm St.,Quincy, III, 
CANVAS 
COVERS .waterproof, 
6x10, $4. Hay Caps, 
Stack and tractor 
covers, plain and waterproofed; all sizes. Write for prices, 
('overs guaranteed. Money returned if unsatisfactory. 
Agents wanted. WILLIAM W. STANLEY, 50 Church St., N. Y. City 
SAVE PACKAGE COSTS 
FIRST CLASS SECOND-HAND 
Reach Carriers, JJerry ( rates. On¬ 
ion Crates, Baskets of all kinds, 
and other Fruit and Vegetable 
Packages. Egg ('uses. .All these 
containers are in as good as new condition and 
ready for instant use. 
LET US QUOTE YOU—THAT’S ALL 
THE EMPTY PACKAGE SUPPLY CO. 
Dept, R, 301-303 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 
Ajvstnlo ,UKI:a IFOIXAH AS lion*. SELL MENDETS 
HjfCfllS !* l >atent patch for instantly mending leaks 
O in all n t e it si 1 s. Sample p a c k age free. 
COM.l-TTE 11 FO. CO., I*e|»t. 108, A nu*t erdn in, N.Y 
—Nail it to the 
Barn Door 
Soil kept rich 
and fertile 
produces big harvests. Solvay sweetens the soil 
and brings all crops to quick, complete maturity. 
Highest test. Purest form. Easy to spread. Non¬ 
caustic—will not burn. Write for 
FREE Booklet. 
THE SOLVAY PROCESS CO. 
50J Milton Ave., Syracuse, N. Y. 
and don’t forget 
It Makes Fertile Fields 
Tite Torrens Title. — The Torrens 
system of transferring title and of regis¬ 
tering the same is in use in Australia, 
where it originated, in Canada and some 
of our States. It saves bulky records 
and much expense, besides making title 
more secure. In the Torrens system a 
court record is made of the title, and 
when the property is transferred to an¬ 
other a certificate is issued by a court 
officer and the transfer is recorded on the 
court records. The title is then final and 
secure. In large cities, like New York, 
the titles to property run back to the 
early Dutch grants, and arc very bulky. 
It is the work of an expert to trace them 
so as to make sure that no previous heirs 
yet have an interest in the property, and 
that, no boundary lines are encroached by 
adjacent owners, which frequently hap¬ 
pens. This search often takes weeks, and 
is very expensive. Title companies have 
been incorporated to make the search and 
guarantee title. This has come to be a 
profitable business, and the companies 
have had influence enough to prevent the 
adoption of the Torrens system in New 
York. An imperfect State law, however, 
authorizes the use of the system. 
Title by Prescription. —Occasionally 
a person comes into possession of pro¬ 
perty by accident or theft or intrigue, and 
enjoys undisputed possession of it until a 
restoration of the property to the right¬ 
ful owner, or his heirs, would cause 
greater hardship and distress than to 
protect the present occupant in his doubt¬ 
ful title. In that case, after a definite 
lapse of time, the occupant is recognized 
as the owner. We say he has received 
title by prescription. A familiar case of 
prescription in the country arises from 
the fact that a line fence is accidentally 
misplaced so as to take in a strip of the 
neighboring farm, and remains so undis¬ 
turbed until the limit of time for protest 
has expired. The policy of conferring 
title by prescription seems to he in ac¬ 
cordance with the familiar principle of 
leaving things as they are, which runs 
through our whole economic system. Like 
most other human gifts and attributes, 
this tendency to avoid changes is capable 
of development into a virtue or a fault. 
Sudden and violent changes disturb busi¬ 
ness, make future contingencies uncer¬ 
tain, and result in serious individual 
and community hardships. On the other 
hand, if things must always remain as 
they are, there can be no redress of 
present wrongs, no improvement and no 
progress. The best public interest is to 
be found in the happy medium, in a 
steady, constant improvement, in evolu¬ 
tion without revolution. 
The original title to land and its pro¬ 
ducts is acquired by first occupancy or 
possession through common consent of 
society. This may not be the best, system 
that could be devised, but it seems to be 
the one that would naturally develop in 
the early ages, and no one has yet pre¬ 
sented a system that a majority of the 
people are willing to accept in place of 
it. If at the present state of our in¬ 
tellectual and social development we could 
go hack to the beginning and start a new 
system it is possible that we could de¬ 
velop a plan that would serve us better 
than our present system, which is ad¬ 
mittedly far from perfect, but a change 
cannot be made now without imposing 
hardships and sacrifices upon many who 
have adjusted themselves to the present 
system, and until the merits of new plans 
are made more convincing than they have 
yet appeared it would seem to he a wise 
policy to work to perfect what we have 
rather than to discard it for something 
untried that presents objections even 
greater than the ones we now endure. 
ORIGIN of private property 
We have in tradition and history a fair 
knowledge of the modes of distribution 
adopted by mankind or forced upon them 
for more than two thousand years, but 
we are obliged to resort to analogy and 
reason for our conception of the early 
ages. Land and labor were then, as now, 
the two requisites of existence. Capital 
did not come into use until one of 
the rude inhabitants had saved enough 
food to feed himself, while he made his 
first rude implement to catch fish or kill 
squirrels, and later to cultivate the land. 
As the ages advanced and mankind in¬ 
creased in numbers, we know that they 
progressed from fishers and hunters and 
developed flocks and herds, and built shel¬ 
ter for themselves, for the use of fam¬ 
ilies and tribes, and probably in some 
cases sooner or later as individuals. While 
land and its natural resources were abun- 
dant, it would be expected that th P flocks 
and herds would roam at pleasure over 
the vast grazing lands, and that the rude 
and temporary domicile would be shifted 
from place to place to suit the personal 
needs. The cultivation of the soil would 
begin under similar circumstances. The 
fertile places near the domicile, wherever 
located, would be first cultivated, and if 
the productivity of these failed, there 
would be no lack of new and fertile fields 
for those who began the development of 
agriculture. Then, as in all the ages that 
we know from observation and history, 
men and women, however rude, would 
possess some of the elements of human 
nature. Some would be strong; others 
weak; some would be industrious; others 
idlers.. Some would be generous; others 
avaricious. Some would be mild; others 
aggressive. Then, as now, the strong and 
avaricious would attempt to dispossess 
the generous and weak. There would be 
disputes to settle and quarrels to sup¬ 
press. As these disturbances became fre¬ 
quent.. some authority would be recog¬ 
nized. or some tribunal created to restore 
pence. This would be the first simple 
form of government. Th P exercise of this 
peace function would involve the causes 
of the disturbances,’ and in the adjust¬ 
ment of the disputes, the one who at¬ 
tempted violence by endeavoring to re¬ 
move the first in possession of land, or to 
dominate or to possess himself of the 
goods produced or gathered by another, 
would be hold to he the aggressor in the 
quarrel., and. the right of the person in 
possession either by virtue of first occu¬ 
pancy or of production by his own labor, 
would he recognized and established, and 
the. decree would have the efFeet of law. 
Primarily for the preservation of peace, 
the first tribunal would recognize the 
right of possession, first occupancy and 
productive labor, and thus lay the founda¬ 
tion for the institution of private prop¬ 
erty. in land and chattels . 
How far back in the ages we must go 
for the first recognition of the rights of 
private property we do not know. We 
do know that in historic times the right 
has not been universally acknowledged. 
The early tillers of the soil were slaves 
and were not permitted to own property. 
In comparatively recent times individ¬ 
uals and classes have been denied the 
right to hold private property, and society 
and. governments of.the present time, for 
their own real or imaginary protection, 
assume to restrict the individual in the 
possession of different forms of property, 
hut even with these exceptions, the insti¬ 
tution of private property is the means 
generally adopted throughout the civil¬ 
ized world as the best means for the dis¬ 
tribution of wealth. It is, however, a 
social expediency and could be changed 
any time society determined to make a 
change and pay the cost. As an institu¬ 
tion it can only be justified on the ground 
of social welfare. 
TITLE IN PRODUCTION 
With rightful title to land and other 
natural gifts in the possession of the 
worker, production is the best of all titles 
to property.. It gives original title to 
the utilities in the things created or pro¬ 
duced. and the first occupancy or posses¬ 
sion as well. There can be no question 
of the right of the producer, if he has 
rightful possession of the raw material, 
to the things he produces with his own 
labor and preserves by his own abstinence 
from the pleasure of spending or consum¬ 
ing. if. Of course, if he stole the raw ma¬ 
terial or took it from another by force, 
he would not be in rightful possession of 
it. and no amount of labor expended on it 
would give him a good title to the fin¬ 
ished product. No one. however, unless 
it be his natural dependents, could com¬ 
plain. if ho did not produce at all, and 
consequently no other person is injured 
or wronged when he reserves for himself 
the things lie produces with his own 
hands. On the contrary, the large y>ro- 
ducer enriches the whole community as 
well as himself, and whatever may be the 
controversy over the ethics or justice of 
ownership in other forms of wealth, no 
one disputes that the honest producer of 
wealth has the original title to it and is 
rightly j n possession of it. 
This title has the sanction of custom 
and reason. It puts man in possession 
of things he produces, and clothes him 
with the right to consume it or dispose of 
it as he chooses, except in special cases 
and emergencies, when the restriction of 
the privilege is considered essential to so¬ 
cial welfare. The title under our system 
is allowed as the best means for the dis¬ 
tribution of wealth, and the best encour¬ 
agement for its production. It seems the 
only means by which a man could make 
sure by his own labor to secure the things 
to satisfy his own needs. 
