The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1269 
Sen. LaFollette and His Election Chances 
M ANY of our readers have asked us to tell them 
about the new Progressive or LaFollette party 
—especially as to its strength and its effect upon 
the pending election. Most of us at the East know 
little about this movement. It is like the Roosevelt 
campaign in 1912, evidently a one-man movement 
grouped around the personality of Senator La¬ 
Follette. In the event of his death there is no 
reason to suppose that his party would hold to¬ 
gether, since even Roosevelt, a stronger personality, 
could not hold his Progressive party. It broke 
after several campaigns and its members went back 
to their old political associations. We are told that 
Senator LaFollette really seems to have in mind 
the formation of a labor party somewhat like the 
political group which now controls England. 
Whenever we have doubts regarding public 
opinion, we go to our readers for information. We 
select hundreds of names from our list at random, 
and write them for information, making it clear 
that we want their honest opinion and nothing else— 
we have no ax to grind and no special point to 
make—all we want is a straightforward view of 
life as others see it. In this way we get the truth. 
It requires some judgment to strike a fair average 
from all this varied opinion, yet in an experience 
covering nearly 40 years, we have never failed to 
obtain a reasonable view of public matters. 
We applied this plan to the LaFollette movement 
and sent hundreds of letters to R. N.-Y. readers in 
Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Colo¬ 
rado, Oklahoma and Montana. As a rule western 
people who take The R. N.-Y. formerly lived in the 
East, and have a wide range of observation and a 
keen view of life. This correspondence seems to 
indicate that Senator LaFollette is quite sure to 
carry the State of Wisconsin. It will be a des¬ 
perately close struggle in North Dakota and Minne¬ 
sota but in the other States named the indications 
are that one of the old parties will win. We find 
western farmers who idolize the Senator and re¬ 
gard him as a greater man than Roosevelt, while 
others to quote their own words “have no use for 
him.” Somewhat to our surprise these reports show 
that LaFollette’s strength will be taken from both 
parties, and not, as has been supposed, almost en¬ 
tirely from the Republicans. In some of these 
Western States the Senator’s greatest strength is 
found in city and town among the laboring men. 
Many farmers who write us express dissatisfaction 
with this combination with union labor, for they 
think the object is to create a labor party—the 
farmer to be used chiefly to pick the chestnuts out 
of the fire. It is evident that many sincere and 
earnest men are disgusted with the actions and 
policies of both the old parties. They are in this 
new movement as a protest against political con¬ 
servatism. Yet it is evident from their letters that 
many of them hesitate. It is in no way possible for 
LaFollette to be elected. Even if he should be he 
could do nothing with Congress opposed to him. 
If he should win enough votes to throw the election 
into Congress the excitement and uncertainty at¬ 
tending such a contest would paralyze the nation’s 
business, as happened in 1876. when the bitter fight 
over Hayes and Tilden occurred. The supporters 
of LaFollette knbw well enough that they cannot 
elect him. They have neither the organization nor 
the money nor the political prestige which were 
back of the Roosevelt movement in 1912, and even 
that was hopeless from the start. The wiser men 
in this new movement know all that, but they desire 
to protest in the most emphatic way possible against 
what they consider dangerous domination in both 
the old parties. They think they are laying the 
foundation for a new political alignment; labor 
against capital, radical against conservative. They 
would like to break up the Republican party just 
as that party smashed the Whigs before the Civil 
War. 
That is a fair statement of the situation as re¬ 
vealed in letters from our readers. In the Eastern 
States the movement seems confined almost entirely 
to the workingmen in the cities, and is evidently 
hurting the Democratic party. We can find little 
or no trace of LaFollette sentiment among the farm¬ 
ers. The other night Senator LaFollette addressed 
a gathering of 12.000 people in Madison Square 
Garden, and his backers point to that as evidence 
that he may carry New York. That does not fol¬ 
low. Remember that there are nearly 7,000,000 
people living within an hour’s ride of the garden. 
Reports indicate that about eight out of 10 in the 
audience were members of the Socialist party. In 
this great city with its cosmopolitan population, 
given money enough, one could fill Madison Square 
Garden with people who come to cheer any conceiv¬ 
able idea. As indicated by our reports, Senator La¬ 
Follette has no possible chance of carrying any 
Eastern State. He will surely carry one Western 
State and has an even chance in two others. 
No “ Child Labor ” Amendment for 
These Men 
HE average man of middle years or older may 
well ask himself—“What would have happened 
to me if in my boyhood days the proposed child 
labor amendment had 'been in force?” Under such 
a constitutional law no young person under IS would 
be permitted to labor. With that restriction most 
of us would have been sent to the poorhouse or 
some other institution. Homes where there was no 
father would have been broken. It may well be 
asked if the average family today is any better pre¬ 
pared to make the early part of life a series of 
loafing years. 
The pioneers and early settlers in America would 
have had a glorious time with that amendment in 
foi’ce. The gi'eatest men we have ever had in. 
America started at work early. Their power of 
self-reliance and persistent industry was gained 
through laboi*. Take the case of Eliphalet Nott, 
president of Union College. He grew up on a stony 
farm in New England. There were only 12 sheep 
and one cow—which not only provided milk but did 
the plowing. The family lived on cornmeal bread, 
milk and bean porridge—a balanced ration with 
plenty of vitamines. The father was sick and 
mother and the boys did the work. Once in mid- 
Winter one of the boys needed a suit of clothes. 
The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from a 
sheep and in a week had carded, twisted and spun 
the wool into cloth and made the suit with no shoddy 
in it. Probably it did not fit “like the paper on the 
wall,” but it kept the boy warm. And the sheep 
thus forced to go without her overcoat in Winter 
was fitted with a sort of jacket made of straw which 
tempered the wind for her. 
It was out of these small economies and this hard 
labor that men like Nott were produced. We have 
seen in the museum at Union College one of the 
original stoves which he invented, and from which 
he made the fortune which enabled him to endow 
the college and help worthy students. Very likely 
the mental picture of that shorn sheep with its straw 
jacket led him on in his invention of heating de¬ 
vices! At any rate does any one suppose that 
Eliphalet Nott or any other man of his stamp 
would ever have been heard from if the proposed 
child labor amendment had been in force during his 
boyhood? 
Challenge to Dairy Debate 
A challenge to the Dairymen’s League officials: 
Resolved, That the Dairymen’s League Co-operative 
Association, Inc., has not carried out the principles 
and objects as laid down when organized, and has failed 
to give satisfaction to the interest of its members. 
The question to be debated in Hunterdon County, 
N. J. I take the affirmative side of the question and 
this gives me the right to open and close. Anyone wish¬ 
ing to accept please address Box 24, Jutland, N. J., and 
arrangements will be made and time set. a imoLEix. 
IDS New Jersey dairyman is warned that he 
invites debate with some of the silver-tongued 
oi'ators of the country, and legal resourcefulness 
of no inferior order. A challenger facing such odds 
with only an armor of conceit would be doomed to 
defeat; but a farmei-, if fortified with, confidence 
and facts, need fear no skill of fluent speech or trick 
of oratory. Anyway the proposition is interesting, 
and lest we should lose the advertising possibility, 
if the challenge is accepted we promise the fairest 
and truest report from both sides to be found in 
print. Seriously, farmers are usually too reluctant 
to discuss their own problems in pxiblic, and it would 
be too bad to discourage one who comes foi*ward 
voluntai’ily with a message and a conviction. 
Those Woodchuck Hunters 
UR readers will remember a little note from a 
member of the Providence Revolver Club 
printed a few weeks ago. Members of the club 
wanted to find some place whei’e woodchucks were 
plentiful so that they coxxld go and have some shoot¬ 
ing. These people had heard that there are plenty 
of woodchucks up in the upper counties of the Hud¬ 
son Valley. There were many replies fi’om farmers 
who were quite willing to have these men come and 
shoot woodchucks. One man went up into lower 
Washington County and shot 50 of the animals. It 
is rather late this year to get together a group of 
shooters who will hunt, woodchucks for the fun of 
it. but it is evident that another year there will be 
considerable sport along that line. Our people re¬ 
sponded well to the call. They are quite willing to 
have the hunters come and kill these woodchucks 
so long as they could be assured that the visitors 
were really hunters and knew the diffei’ence be¬ 
tween a woodchuck, a hen and a cow. Most farmers 
would be willing enough to co-opei\Tte with hunters 
on some reasonable proposition, but when they come 
stealing and trespassing the farmers object. 
Age Limits in the Automobile Law 
I notice on page 1163, a letter on the subject of 
“School Children and the Automobile Law,” and your 
reply. Neither in the letter, your reply, nor any of 
the numerous articles which I have read on this sub¬ 
ject, is there any intimation that the age limit, when 
young people may begin to drive a car, has not been 
changed by the new law. 
Since we have had an automobile law in this State 
the age limit has been IS years, and any person driv¬ 
ing a car under that age, unless accompanied by par¬ 
ent or other older person, has been violating the law 
just the same as they will after October 1. 
A few years ago a bill was introduced in the Legis¬ 
lature to reduce the age limit from 18 to 16 years, but 
it failed of passage. Before the passage of* the pres¬ 
ent law by the last Legislature, another effort was 
made by the Assembly to reduce the age to 16 years, 
by an amendment which was offered, but this* also 
failed by adoption, it being generally supported by the 
rural members and opposed by members representing 
city districts. d. p. witter. 
T here is no question about the fact that up to 
this year school children under 18 have been 
driving cars on trips between home and school. This 
has been a great convenience, in some cases a neces¬ 
sity, and no particular harm has been done. If the 
law is strictly enforced it will mean non-attendance 
at school in some cases. We favor a revision or 
amendment which will provide for a severe road 
test and grant a license to careful and good-sized 
children who pass it, and confine their drivings to 
necessary travel. 
A New Automobile Ruling 
A NEW ruling has been made by Charles A. Hart¬ 
nett, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles in New 
York State, which will affect thousands of persons 
who do not own automobiles. Under the new law 
it was first held that persons who do not own cars 
or who are not members of the family of a car 
owner must take out a chauffeur’s license in addi¬ 
tion to an operating license. The car owner or 
member of his family must take out an operator’s 
license. Under the new ruling those who do not 
own cars but desire to dx-ive one must take a road 
examination and, if they pass, will be granted 
an operator’s license. When that is once obtained 
it will not be necessary for him to take out a 
chauffeur’s license in addition. After passing the 
examination he will stand on the same footing as 
the owner of a car or a member of his family. ’Phis 
ruling will affect thousands of people who have 
been led to expect that they will be compelled to 
take out the extra license. This ruling is made 
after a study of the old highway law, and will re¬ 
lieve a bad situation. Of course, it has nothing to 
do with a change in the age limit. Now the Legis¬ 
lature should reduce this age limit in the case of 
young people who find it necessary to drive to school 
or go on other necessary trips. 
The Dog That Kills Sheep 
A DOG is caught killing sheep. It is evident that 
several dogs were “on the job,” but only this 
one was caught. Can the owner of this one dog be 
forced to pay all the damage? In Pennsylvania, the 
State Veterinarian has made this ruling: 
“The Act of Assembly provides that any owner or 
keeper of a dog or dogs shall be liable to the owner of 
live stock or poultry in a civil action for all da in a geo 
and costs, or to the Commonwealth to the extent of tin* 
amount of damages and costs paid by the Common¬ 
wealth. Where a number of dogs are engaged in the 
attack upon cattle or poultry it would be impossible 
to separate the damage then and to say just which dog 
inflicted the damage. Therefore I advise you that when 
the ownership of one or more of the dogs is known it 
i« your duty to proceed against the owner for the full 
amount of the damage, and if the owner has any de¬ 
fense to offer, it can be offered at the time of the suit. 
As I said before, you cannot tell just what damage 
was inflicted by the dog whose owner you know, and 
therefore, you must proceed against him for the full 
amount.” 
Thei’e is, of course, no such thing as “honor among 
dogs” and the unidentified canines are not expected 
to come back and repair the damage they have done. 
All this refers to Pennsylvania, but we think much 
the same rule will follow in New York. 
