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fllie Commoner.
vault, and with a free mind swear that they least $50,000,000, and possibly would be double
haven't it. For all they know the vault was that amount. Thus, and in view of other con
robbed over night. The like devices by which the siderations, it is believed that the yearly loss of
sensitive salve their consciences for the perjury over 700,000,000 credited to injurious insects in
arc infinite. But the sensitive are in the minority. the United States is much below the actual fact.
The hardier majority just swear their way It is a frightful tax upon the people, and the prob
through it and have it over with. The art of tax- lem of lessening it is the most important that is
dodging has developed to a point where the man presented to the economic entomologist."
who tells the assessor the truth must pay any- .-0
where from five to twenty times his just propor- READER of The Commoner asks if it is trae
iviom SClnnrn0V5q!mnt?fd 7 A that a man named Smiley wa indicted,
?n worn, JnHnE T JlntJ ?0h' tried and convicted by the federal authorities in
ing woith mentioning is done to change it. KanBM on the chapg of vlolating the sherman
- anti-trust law. E. J. Smiley is secretary of the
THE POPULATION of Oklahoma, according to Kansas Grain Dealers' association, and he was
William E. Curtis, who writes for the Chi- tried and convicted for having violated the anti-
cago Record-Herald, is now estimated as being tru3t lav,' of the state of Kansas. The newspaper
between, 700,000 and 750,000. Commenting upon reports have conveyed the impression that Smiley
this statement tho Record-Herald says: "Ordi- was convicted under federal law.
nary methods of calculating the probable rate vC
of growth arc of little service because the country
has held out such remarkable attractions for im- A DISTINGUISHED citizen of Kansas to whom
migrants. There is very little waste laud, and - Tne Commoner referred the question makes
What occurred during the decade 1S90-1900 was tnia statement "Several years ago, Smiley was
an unprecedented change from a wilderness to convicted of said offense in the district court of
a fully equipped modern community having a one ot the western counties of this state. Smiley
density of population above the average in the appealed to the supreme court of this state, as
west. The area is less than that of any of tho sailing the constitutionality of the state statute,
states admitted since 1S20, except West Virginia. Tl.e supreme court of this state overruled his
The population in 3900 was greater than that of contention, held the statute constitutional, and
any one of those stales at the time of its ad- affirmed the judgment and sentence of the court
mission to the union. We might make some in- below. Smiley prosecuted a writ of error from
teresting comparisons in this connection with the supreme court of the state to the supreme
some of tho older states, whose meager begin- court of the United States, upon the ground that
nings aro forgotten because of their antiquity, the state court violated rights guaranteed to him
but, considering tho growth of the whele country by the constitution of the United .States. The
and the radical changes in the conditions of life, supreme court of the United States' affirmed the
perhaps figures nearer our own time would be decision of the supreme court of this state, sus
thought more significant. We give, therefore, the tained the conviction of Smiley, and, consequently,
area and population of the states admitted since Smiley is compelled to serve out his sentence.
18S9 as they appear from the federal census of The newspaper clipping is misleading, in so far
1900, with Oklahoma's added: as it refers to ninety days sentence by the su-
Area, Sq. Miles. Population. preme court of the United States. The sentence
Junlio 84,800 161,772 was originally imposed by the state district court,
Montana 140,080 ' 243,329 and the supreme court of the United States simply
North Dakota 70,795 319,146 sustained the action of the district and supreme
South Dakota 77,650 401,570 . courts of this state. Though the last court in
yta", , 84,970 276,749 which the case was heard was the supreme court
Washington GD.180 518,103 of tho United States, yet the offense of which
A yenning . . . . ; 9790 92,531 Smiley was convicted and for which he was pun-
UKiaiioma 39,030 398,331 ished, was an offense against the state law of
"v-" Kansas. The decision of the supreme court of
AnnnrmTxrr. ," thls stato was made b Chief Justice Doster,
luukding to a writer in the Saturday Even- who was elected by the democrats and populists
of ,i 'e 0 ' fc csts more to feed the bugs of Kansas. Judge Pollock, our present federal
"if co,l"ltry than lt ioes to support the govern- judge, then a member of the supreme bench' dis-
S?ifi 1. Tri eii, placAcs lhe entire national sentcd. The case will be found in volume 65 of
r?v twnfw ?? "T. $700'00000 a year, and the Kansas reports at page 240, and has, of course,
say mat that is the minimum annual tax imposed also .been published as decided by the supreme
a nl?SieiC UD?!1. th oop of the Unlted states. curt of the United States in some recent number
Accoiuing to this authority farm products, which of the supreme court reporter."
represent a value of about $5,000,000,000 per
annu-i, suffer a shrinkage of at least five hundred
millions every year by the depreciations of insects, TV vr ARTIN M. FOSS writing in Peirsnn' Mnr
Sf thS dameToTrf'f , H10 CSt M zine, mata iS inSeSTMSS
forests an2 fumbor oto Zt' f In3ui7 wlth respect to "the cket-shops of the bol
tasects ?n th rcomtrv rinHnt CaUSed by rl(L" Mr' Foss ss: "There were 8,291 books
nrfl rLl , s country d uringan average year published in the United States last year of which
are reckoned by experts of the department of 1,320 were" new editions leaving a total of fl 1971
2dfonffi Wffi hfy neW b0lS- f thiS Ulnbe" perha moo we e
?0,UOO,000, fruits, $27,000,000 forests and forest read the still-birthq of nnfiinra ?n iTi e never
storage, $100,000,000. Total, $785,100,0P00aUCtS Sose boXiub!fshedSby Ve'LVoopera'
Jive publishers' or 'authors' publishers and those
np HE "HONORS" are distributed among the t?S2iWiawJUfh0PB themselves- The 'coopera-
1 insect kingdom by the departmenT of aSi- Ij E lZ SSUf b,tS at the author's ex"
culture, and the statement showing Se mhiimum ov thlv ' fT ?in a11 ,o tbe profit How"
annual damage done by fourteen" of So mSSt aulnorslifn witl Y flnttorf UDn tbe faIth of
destructive insects as follows: Grasshopper .50- S iLLTr flattery, trickery, and deceit,
000,000; chinch bug, $60,000,000 Hessian flv' S40 ften capped by downright fraud such as few
000,000; Corn root worm, $20,000,000; corn $ear" Shn Jnf18 100? h, are "
worm, $20,000,000; cotton boll weevil, $20,000 000- BhopB C lhe book worl(L
2n?f nS?11 ST' ?12'000'000; cotton leaf worm, -x
?b,uoo,000; codling moth of apple, $20,000,000; nn HE DiqHRAPTPMTTsjP t
potato bug, $8,000,000; grain weevil smnnnnnn I JJibJUiiARTBNING experiences of the
$298,000,000. T ffiS'l
- Then the ambitious novelist receives aiefters
HP HE POST writer says that a considerable "A: ,nf"f adam: We have rQad with the
1 item to be included in the annual insect JS?,n!!' ?0te eSt youp nove1' Hortense's Revenge,
Is lhQ ,cost of Protection against the bugs S 1 t11 to GXPress our enjoyment of it.
which attack the houso and food supplies, cloth- buroly yu have done an admirable piece of
ing and carpets, and adds: "Screening against Yrk, re, strong in plot, clever in characteV-
mosqultoes and flies and protection from rSaches Sf nf ? brGathless interest. We feel col
clothes-motlis and various small parasites, with 5J??, of sook, and our head editor especially
and without wings, are. a charge on every domes- ?Ye:aict a brilliant success for it. Unless we err
tic establishment. If the. sums expended for de- ilT Ju5ment, it will be one of the hits of the
fense against such posts were tabulated for the ?Bon' We 8houl(1 be most naPPy to issue your
whole country, the annual total would be at" b? n 0Ur llsual terms-the author to pay half
of the expense of manufacturing and marketing
VOLUME 5, NUMBER 2t
J? and t0 receive one-half the profit on.
publlshinghouses pay the author but ten no, het
of the retail prico as royalty." per cent
TEW RESIST this temptation, according to Mr
J7 Foss. In most cases tho money i3 ,innr:
for "half the cost of manufacturing and mnrwd
ing the book." Mr. Foss explains: g ffiw
place, only one book in fifteen out of all tw It
published pays a day laborer's wages, i K
second place, the cooperative press charcca Cn
$500 to $600 depending upon its judgment 0 S
amount that can be procured. To manufacture
an edition of five hundred or a tno--anu book?
including the setting up of the type, the electro!
type plates, the binder's dies, paper, printing and
binding, costs perhaps $400, made as such books
are made. If the author has 'ideas' as to how
the book should be ornamented and illustrated the
price jumps in a double ratio. So much for tho
manufacturing. When the publisher has finished
his work he has a neat profit of from $100 to $200
and often much more. But 'marketing!' Ah!
that is the magic word behind which the publisher
baffles the timid and dodge-; the insistent. A few
copies are sent to the press, perhaps a few are
placed on consignment with friendly booksellers,
advertisements are inserted in a little magazine
which such houses issue for just this purpose and
which has no general circulation and that is all."
THE authors can rarely prove anything, even
if they try, and asMr. Foss says, "very few
authors will try." He explains: "To 'jring action
in the courts will be to reveal the maimer in
which they found a publisher. If the book had
sold by hundreds of thousands ah! that would
only show that their faith and judgment were
superior to those of the publisher. That would
bo a glorious triumph! It is quite another story
to go into court in an endeavor to prove that
only two hundred and fifty copies had been print
ed. When a man has posed for months beforo
admiring friends and proud relatives as an author,
he prefers oblivion. It is indicative of the charac
ter of many of the men who enter this sort f
business that they are frequently caught by the
law in more ambitious thefts. Clever criminals
usually fail because they tire of the small, safe
deals. Cooperative publishers have wrecked thefr
concerns by individually plundering the treasury.
These are recorded facts. The unrecorded facts
can be found only in the ashes of hearts that
glowed with faith; in the lines of faces that have
lost hope and in homes that have been reduced
to discomforts. The masterpieces which jour
neyed with eternal hope are in the scavenger's
pots."
WHAT IS KNOWN as "The Acre Club" has
been organized in a neighborhood twenty
miles southeast of Muskogee, in the Cherokee Na
tion. A reader of The Commoner writes: "Far
mers in this community under the leadership of
Campbell Russell, have organized the Acre club.
This club is composed of the meat progressive
farmers in this section and each member agrees,
on joining, to cultivate one acre In some useful
farm crop, adapted to that locality. This aero
is to have especial care. It is to be made to
produce, as near as possible, a perfect crop. A
written account must be kept of date and man
ner of preparing land, planting and cultivating
crop, and all expenses connected with the same.
When the crop is ready to harvest, each member
of the club is invited to come and bring his wife
and spend the day. The men gather the crop,
measure or weigh the same, and learn just what
the acre actually does produce. After dinner the
report of the farmer raising this particular acre
is received. All members learn, not only just
what the production is, but the cost of the same.
An opportunity ir; then given for all who wish
to criticise the report, and suggest where im
provements might have been made in the produc
tion of the crop. The membership of this par
ticular club U limited to twenty members, not
because there aro not enough suitable crops 10
go around (each member on joining must select
some crop not already on the list); but because
it is believed that a larger membership would be
difficult to handle at times. There is no limiw
however, to the number of clubs that may W
organized, nor any patent on the idea. Incident
ally the club has seen fit to offer a nice piece 01
silverware as a premium to the lady who provides
the best and most appropriate dinner. Tnjs..l
be awarded on a ballot vote at the end of tne
year, vote to bo secret, so that each man can
vote entirely according to the dictates of nj
own stomach. We can not allow tho men miica
credit for this, as there is evidently a seliisn
motive behind this premium."
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