1279 
The Menace of “Filled Milk” 
It seems to us that too few dairymen realize the 
great danger which threatens their business through 
the manufacture and sale of “filled milk." At pres¬ 
ent this means the introduction of foreign fats, like 
cocoanut oil, into condensed and evaporated milk. 
This means a substitution for pure hutterfat. If it 
is permitted, without restraint or regulation, the 
next step will be the filling of fresh milk. That will 
mean extracting a part of the cream or hutterfat 
and, by means of some new chemical process, adding 
cocoanut oil so as to make a chemical substitute for 
pure milk. It is easy to see what will follow in 
such a case. A lazy and filthy South Sea Islander 
knocking cocoanuts from a tree on a Pacific island 
will substitute more and more for the American now 
caring for a herd of cows on a New York or New 
England farm. If this substitution of vegetable oils 
for butter fat is to be continued without legal re- 
straint there will not only be industrial calamity in 
the dairy business, hut a worse calamity in society. 
The human race cannot continue strong and well 
without pure, natural milk. We are just learning 
what a vital necessity milk has become. Babies can¬ 
not live and larger children cannot thrive on cocoa- 
nut oil substituted for hutterfat. We can judge of 
the gravity of the present situation from the follow¬ 
ing statement made by A. W. Milburn, president of 
the Borden Company: 
While at one time in the earlier stages of its develop¬ 
ment I was personally disposed to have the Borden 
Company engage in the production and sale of this 
product, realizing something of the commercial possi¬ 
bilities, I found myself in the minority when the matter 
had the consideration of our directors, who decided that 
the Borden Company should not, by its influence and 
activities, assist in the growth and development of a 
substitute milk product. The decision was to the effect 
that our first effort should be to enlighten the authori¬ 
ties and the consuming public as to all that is involved 
in the matter of milk substitutes, to which policy I was 
glad to subscribe. 
If after honest and sustained effort on the part, ot 
those interested in checking the growth and use of 
milk substitutes the authorities and the public decide 
in their favor we, with others, would probably decide 
that, having had evidence of these facts, good business 
judgment would dictate the wisdom of engaging in 
their manufacture and sale themselves. 
Since there is nothing whatever, legally or prac¬ 
tically, to prevent our engaging in their manufacture 
and sale, the fact that we are not doing so now is due 
entirely to our belief that in so doing we are contrib¬ 
uting more to the common good than would otherwise 
be the case. 
There is a bill now before Congress to regulate the 
sale of this “filled milk.” It should be put through 
at once. It is in its possible effect upon the dairy 
business more important even than oleo legislation. 
If will not be passed unless every interested man 
and woman promptly enter a crusade to make Con¬ 
gressmen understand. And who should be inter¬ 
ested? Every man and woman who milks a cow, 
and every man and woman who is interested in the 
health of children. They are all as one in such a 
movement. Unless they start at once and settle this 
“filled milk” nuisance it will spell calamity. 
The Threatened Railroad Strike 
As we write these words the nation is threatened 
with a country-wide railroad strike. The Railroad 
Labor Board has called for a reduction of wages of 
railroad employees, and also a reduction of trans¬ 
portation rates. The railroad managers claim that 
rates cannot he reduced unless there is a cut in 
wages, since labor cost is the heaviest item of expense 
hi transportation. The employees refuse to submit 
to such reduction, claiming that the railroads can 
make a fair profit without reducing wages. It is 
essentially a fight on the part of the railroad men 
to retain all or most of the wage increase granted 
them during the war. We find little sympathy for 
the proposed strike among the public, and especially 
among farmers. The wages now paid to railroad 
men are all out of proportion to the labor returns 
which farmers have been able to obtain. As a class 
farmers have received the hardest industrial blow of 
any labor class. They have received less consider¬ 
ation than any other class, and have had far more 
occasion to “strike” than the railroad men ever had. 
Yet they have remained loyally at work, producing 
the nation’s food often at a loss. The proposed 
strike would, If successful, tie up every railroad in 
the country and cause immense loss and suffering 
from lack of food transportation. There is no pos¬ 
sible way in which it could benefit agriculture except 
in some localities where trucks could lie used for 
transportation. We are in hopes that the calamity 
will lie prevented, either through a prompt cut in 
freight rates or by action of the Government in 
handling the train service. The way this country 
is now organized transportation is, next to food, the 
most vital tiling in society. We cannot be said to 
live in a free couutry when a comparatively small 
•D* RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
number of laborers can hold up public utilities for 
their own advantage. We hope the strike will not 
be called. If it does come it will fail, because the 
vast majority of Americans are opposed to it. No 
such movement can succeed without public sympathy. 
Large Crop of Lettuce Wasted 
A crop of 100,000,000 heads of lettuce is going to 
waste on New Jersey farms because the public cannot 
get it at reasonable prices. Growers who are anxious 
to sell it at little more than the cost of packing and 
marketing in order to recover some fraction of the cost 
,>f production, but find the big city markets blocked, say 
time this condition exists because consumers are being 
charged “war prices” plus for the product. Compari¬ 
sons of prices paid the farmer and prices charged the 
housewife show a maximum spread of from 400 to (500 
per cent and suggest a new record in profiteering on 
food supplies. 
Many growers are plowing under the heads of lettuce, 
for which the public is hungry, because wholesale mar¬ 
ket prices have dropped below the cost of marketing 
the crop. One firm alone has plowed under 50 acres 
of lettuce this month. The gross returns to these 
growers was from two to three cents a head, the net 
return a fraction of a cent, while through town and city 
markets consumers are asked to pay from 10 to 20 cents 
a head. The latter price prevailed in one South Jersey 
town within sight of which the plows were at work 
destroying the profitless crop. 
Lettuce has become one of the most important late 
crops in New Jersey truck farming districts, largely 
because of the campaigns of public health agencies, for 
the use of salads and greens containing minerals bene¬ 
ficial to health. Efforts of these health agencies to have 
salads eaten in every home become futile, growers 
assert, because dealers have needlessly put lettuce 
beyond reach of the average family’s pocketbook. 
Cheap (?) Shoes and Labor 
“If you can buy in Germany a pair of shoes for $2.50 
that sell in the United States for $10, how can Amer¬ 
ican manufacturers expect to compete abroad with the 
German shoe industry unless there is a reduction in 
labor production costs here?” 
Whul's the matter until America? A man from 
Frazeyshurg, ()., came Ki miles with a calf hide to New¬ 
ark, and got 35 cents for it. If the Germans get hides 
any lower they are stealing them. Two dollars and a 
half is enough for any $10 shoe. The writer bought a 
pair for $3, and the next year was asked $8.50. The 
shoe man was told to keep them. These $10 shoes 
start at about $1.25, and three moves at 100 per cent 
reaches $10, so what’s the matter with America, any¬ 
how? 
Then look at the workers, with nearly 6,000,000 idle 
and the rest getting double pre-war wages. We read of 
a smelter in the West with a capacity of 4,000 hands 
and but 1,000 Japanese working. There are 2,000 idle 
American J born men in the town, but the work is too 
dirty. Who is making all this fuss about the Japanese 
workers in the West? Then look at the towns and 
cities bulging with men; competing against each other 
for places to roost, and the landlords soaking them. 
Why wouldn’t they, when they have such a good de¬ 
mand ! And see about three storekeepers where there 
should he but one, all wanting that 100 per cent, and 
the store room owners charging three prices for rent. 
They call that “overhead.” They surely are in over¬ 
head, and are watching the doors for customers to help 
them out. We would like to trade corn or wool to the 
Germans for shoes. w. w. Reynolds. 
Ohio. 
A Woman’s Questions About Election 
Laws 
I wish to ask a few questions about the election laws. 
They may he of interest in many small towns. May a 
man and wife, not separated, hold their voting residence 
in different towns, he voting where their home ami busi¬ 
ness is, she going back to her childhood's town to vote? 
Does marriage with a native born American make a 
Canadian woman a voter, or must she be naturalized, 
as a man has to be who marries an American woman? 
A certain young man. a native of this State, worked in a 
neighboring Slate nearly two years. He voted in the 
Presidential election where he worked, coming back to 
this State a few days after election. lie has resided 
here ever since. Will he lie a legal voter here this Fall, 
or will his voting in another State disqualify him as a 
voter here? I am a woman who wishes to understand 
the election laws. MRS. J. R. 
New York. 
A qualified voter is a citizen who is or will be on the 
dav of election 21 years of age and who lias been an in¬ 
habitant of the State for one year next preceding the 
election, and for the last four months a resident of the 
county, and for the last 30 days a resident of the elec¬ 
tion district in which he or she offers liis or her vote. 
As a general proposition persons possessing the above 
qualifications are entitled to vote in the State of New 
York. There are certain exceptions, however, the most 
prominent of which are the following: 
Persons who shall receive, accept or offer to receive or 
pay any money or other valuable thing as a reward or 
compensation for the giving or withholding of a vote at an 
election, nay not vote, although possessing all the quali¬ 
fications of a voter. A person who shall make or become 
directly or indirectly interested in any bet or wager de¬ 
pending upon the result of any election shall not vote at 
any such election, and no person who has been convicted 
of a felony shall have the right to register for or voce 
at any election unless he has been pardoned and re¬ 
stored to the rights of a citizen. 
A voting residence as distinguished from the place 
where one actually and habitually dwells is not recog¬ 
nized by the law. It is the fixed or permanent home of 
the elector from which the election law contemplates 
that the elector will register and vote. (People ex rel. 
Driscoll vs. Bender, 82 Mis., 671.) 
The residence of a person for the purpose of registra¬ 
tion depends, not upon a mere exercise of his will, hut 
upon his purpose as evidenced by his conduct. There is 
no such thing as a voting residence as distinguished from 
a natural residence, and the word residence as used in 
the election law and in the constitution is synonymous 
with domicil. A man’s residence for the purpose of 
voting is his domicil—his permanent home—although it. 
seems a man may have two homes and may elect which 
shall he his residence for the purpose of voting, but he 
cannot be a political resident of both domicils, thus: “A 
person who owns a house in which he. originally resided 
and which he now rents to tenants can continue to 
register from such house although he is employed as a 
caretaker of a cemetery and occupies the caretaker’s 
house within the cemetery grounds, for the latter resi¬ 
dence is not permanent and depends upon the duration 
of his employment.” “A person who has once had a 
domicil may retain the same for voting purposes until 
lie gains a new domicil elsewhere.” (172 A. D. 274.) 
The voting residence of a married woman is that of 
her husband, unless for good and legal reasons they are 
permanently separated. (Opinion of Attorney-General, 
May 8. 15)18.) 
No person shall he deemed to have gained or lost a 
residence by reason of his or her presence or absence 
while employed in the service of the United States, nor 
while engaged in the navigation of the waters of this 
State or the United States or of the high seas, nor while 
a student in any seminary of learning, nor while kept at 
any other asylum or institution wholly or partly sup¬ 
ported by public expense or by charity, nor while con¬ 
fined in any public prison. 
It shall be the duty of every naturalized citizen, be¬ 
fore being registered, to produce to the inspectors if any 
inspector demands, his naturalization papers or a certi¬ 
fied copy thereof, for their inspection, and to make oath 
before them that he is the person purporting to have 
been naturalized by the papers so produced, unless such 
citizen was naturalized previous to the year 18(57; <f, 
however, such naturalized citizen cannot for any reason 
produce his naturalization papers, or a certified copy 
thereof, the board of inspectors may place the name of 
such naturalized citizen upon the register of voters upon 
his furnishing to such board evidence which shall sat¬ 
isfy such board of his right to be registered. 
Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married 
to a citizen of the United States, or who might herself 
he lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a citizen. (Sec¬ 
tion 1804, TT. S. Revised Statute.) 
All children heretofore horn or hereafter horn outside 
of the limits and jurisdiction of the United Stater, 
whose fathers were or may lx* at the time of their birth 
citizens thereof, are declared to he citizens of the United 
States, but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to 
children whose fathers never resided in the United 
States. (Section 1803, TJ. S. Revised Statute.) 
Any American woman who marries a foreigner shall 
take the nationality of her husband. At the termination 
of the marital relation she may resume her American 
citizenship. 
This in brief summarizes the qualifications for a voter 
in the State of New York. Many claim the right to 
select their residence irrespective of where they actually 
reside for the purpose of voting, but it, was never the 
intention of the law that a man should vote elsewhere 
than in the district where he properly resides. 
“$25 Suits of Clothes” 
There was a wag who used to recite the origin of 
evils and counterfeits and gave it a theological turn. He 
said that the Lord made the sunshine, then the devil 
prompted his followers to make moonshine (whisky). 
The Lord made good white pine lumber, then the devil 
came along and made splintery hemlock. I have always 
felt that he might have continued his source of decep¬ 
tions and evils to shoddy fabrics. 
The Waste Trade Journal, the organ of the junk 
trade, has the following words of encouragement to its 
clientage: 
“An adequate idea of the trend towards better condi¬ 
tions as far as reworked wool and rags are concerned is 
to he gained from reports current in the clothing trade 
indicating that retailers are making inquiries for suits 
to retail at $25. It is stated on good authority that 
clothing merchants are unwilling to risk the loss of 
their trade because of their inability to offer apparel 
that is consistent with public demand for low-priced 
fabrics, and that they will make every effort to attract 
the buyer with cheap hut serviceable clothing. This 
situation appears to conform with the forecasts made 
some time ago in these columns that clothing manufac¬ 
turers will have to produce wearing apparel that comes 
within the means of the average wage earner, and lends 
emphasis to the prediction that the former will profit 
by the demand for low-priced clothing this Fall to find 
some way of meeting this demand next year. The im¬ 
pression is strongly shared by woolen ray graders that 
when mills begin to make up samples for next Fall 
fabrics, manufacturers will keep in mind the economic 
condition of the average worker and turn to rags in 
their efforts to turn out woolens that can be manufac¬ 
tured into low-priced apparel; that is, more shoddy will 
be used.” 
It is this deception practiced in connection with the 
manufacture of fabrics that is making sheep raising a 
deeliuiug industry in the United States and depriving 
the wearer of clothes of legitimate service he is entitled 
to. Tin* average suit of clothes for men is about 13- 
ounce weight to the yard, and yards of cloth. 
Three pounds of clean, scoured wool, to use even figures, 
or approximately 7 lbs. of fleece wool, should be used. 
This reasonable expectation and common honesty is de¬ 
feated by the introduction of about 1 lb. of shoddy, dis¬ 
placing one-third of the wool. The better grades of 
shoddy, made from colored flannels and serges, is worth 
today 10 to 11c per 11).. while mixed stocks, such as will 
go into cheap suits, are worth from 2 to 5c. The cloth 
manufacturers can save 50c per yard by substituting 
shoddy for clean wool up to 33 1/3 per cent, or $1.75 
per suit of clothes. The uneconomic fact is that the 
wear is decreased and tensile strength lessened 25 per 
cent, or $0.25 on a $25 suit. 
That there may be a gain of $1.75 to the manufac¬ 
turer of cloth and clothing, the wearer is assessed $6.25. 
All other costs of production, such as transportation, 
labor, rent. etc., are largely the same on pure fabric as 
upon the adulterated ones, and the items enumerated 
are today those which have advanced over pre-war 
prices. “A false measure is an abomination before the 
Lord.” likewise is the measure of ft shoddy garment 
sold for all wool. In the absence of a law compelling 
truth in fabrics, the public should demand of dealers 
certificates from manufacturers of 1(H) per cent virgin 
wool fabrics. J- W. m’rrydk. 
