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About La Grande evening observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1904-1959 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 1926)
Wednesday, October 20, 1926. LA GRANDE EVENING OBSERVER Pave Seven tFur Farm Operated North of Perry; Muskrats on Rat Ranch Number 1800 Chris Miller does not go to Al aska to buy furs first hand from Indian trappers uny more. Ho has started a fur ftirm of his own in tlio Gran do Hondo canyon. Until four years ago, tho Ia Grande furrier made an excursion to the arctic regions every wlntor. And many a wild talo ho brought home of ships Ice-locked, storm jounced or lost In tog that hid tho hand bo Co re his face; of dog- teams stampeding in a blizzard, of the fate that waits tho trapper when ho staggers half-frozen Into his hut and finds somo thoughtless traveler has used and not replaced his pllu of kindling. No such ndventuro attaches his latest experiment In fur gathering. 3 tut it has phases that ho claims urn fnsniniLtine. Farm North of Perry Ills musk rat farm Is situated on Itoberts hill, north of Perry, where he says conditions are ideal for producing first-grade furs. Alas ka is best for most kinds' of fur, but the rule does not apply to rats. I,lke beavers, the muskrats arrive at full fur in the spring. : Their health is dependent on both climatic and water conditions. I Miller's farm, comprising 33 ' acres of mountain land, is watered y five natural springs, us well as ; fy snow and rains from the hills. It is fenced with heavy galvan-! ,.ed steel wire, set two feet below the surfuco to prevent the rodents from digging out. A 1 Go-foot dam, its slopn also covered with "wire. Keeps the place flooded to muskrat taste. ' i 1.800 Muskrats Although the furrier has not! counted his rats, he figures that ho must have more than 1,800 by this time. That is a conservative estimate. considering that he! placed 103 rates in the plot a year ago. Muskrats In their native state live in swamps. building their nests of lule grans, which they stack In plies ubout two and a half feet high and from four to fivo feet across. They run a tunnel up from the water, and never enter or leave their homes except by the water route. Thus far, Mr. Miller and his assistants have not planted lilies, so the rats rear their young along the water's edge. Thne Markets 1 liv next year. Mr. Miller be lieves his rats will have become so numerous that ho should be gin disposing of them. Three mar kets beckon: The fur trado; tho breeders." and eastern restaurants. Muskrats for Food? "Oh. yes.' avers Mr. Miller. "In ' the far eastern stales, they are served as marsh rabbits, and con sidered a delicacy Indeed. "And there Is no reason why they shouldn't be eaten. There is no cleaner animal raised. Why a muskrat feeds only on fruit and vegetables, and ho won't cafe a hlte untll'bo- has- washed --Jfr" tho roughly in water." Onions are about the only vege t :ibles Mr. Miller has discovered that his muskrats will not eat. It Is because of tho rat's many enemies that he keeps under the water tho most of tho time, the furrier says. Hawks and owls prey on Mm from the air; cats and coyotes stalk hlml from cover, while ermine and mink hunt him under every condition just for sport, to see him die. Muxkrnts Belligerent at Time The muskrat seldom becomes much of a pet, although ho will play ubouC In shallow water In tho presence ot persons he knows. On the rare occasions when ho jour neys overland, ho will attack al most any comer, even an armed hunter. Although he is classed a rat. the little fur bearer lives a different life from his despised cousin. And his resemblance to the cellar post lies chiefly In Ma bare tall, which composes about hair his 25 to 30 Inches. His rich brown fur Is used for hudson seal and when It is dyod Imitation mink and beayor. 1MBLER PERSONALS IMBLER, (Special) Ralph Morgan, teacher in the high school here, has been ill at his homo for several days. Mra John Gckeler and baby re turned to their home hro Wed nesday. They have been visiting her grandparents, Mr. und Mra Ollvor Perln. Everett Acord returned to his home at Elgin Thursday morning. Ho has been picking apples at the Kox place here. Marlon Johnson has been in the Flora vicinity for a few days. Fred U Wyatt and T. L. Year out were at lmbler last week on business. Peter L,. Nelson, of Eugene, ar rived last week from his homo at Eugene. He will visit his son, Ray, for a few duya This is his first visit here for seven years. Mr. and Mra George Mayor, of Enterprise, havo been visiting hero for somo time. Mrs. Ralph Morgan is taking Mr. Morgan's pluco as teacher in the school here, while he Is 111. Mrs. George Marshall and duughtcr, Janet, arrived Saturday from Corvallla She will visit hor husband, who is, looking after Ms apple Interests horc. Mick Andrews, Cap Tuttle and Paul Young left on a hunting trip a few duys ago und plan to bo away a week. , Miss Opul Kklllings has been visiting tho Green sisters hero for several days. She returned to hor homo ut Wullowa Sunday. PARK PERSONALS THE PARK, (Special) Mr. and Mra J. C. 1-ay were Baker visitors Wednesday. 1 Mr. and Mrs. Morton Uennutt and lamily. of Medical Springs, have moved to The Park. Bob" Miller Is camping in the mountains this week while ho hunts deer. Kenneth Vanorder, and Glenola and Alaxino Wanker went to Bak er Thursday evening to attend a minstrel show thero. Jack and Ida Hunter and Fran cis Miller went to lmbler after ap ples Tuesday, returning homo Thursday evening with VI sacks of fruit. Frank Whitten, of Big Creek, and Willis Hayes, of Oregon City, were visiting at tho Clarenco Van order home last week; Mrs. Nathan Duron, of Cove, was a, visitor at tho .homo of .her sister, Mrs, A. J. Vundevantur Thursday.( Sparks from a brush fire along tho right-of-way started a fire on tho J. C. luy land last week, des troying several large trees. Miss Glenola and Miss Maxinc Wanker were callers at tho C. Vanorder home Friday afternoon. Um Winth and sons, of Big Creek, killed three large deer at The Park Monday and Tuesday. YOKU KKCRLUSS PHII,AIKU'inA In tho op inion Of F. S. A. Scott. Glasgow bank official In expenditures on objects of luxury or In puro plea sure there has grown up a spirit of recklessness such as the world lias never experienced. A New York grandmother cook ed .linner for 13 on her 105th birthday. How old do you havu to he o t arn u little rest 7 Qfce new WASHER tJJ on view gjHS-C Washes and dries at the same time. Not a drop , of water to lift or carry THE new Easy Washer the most amazing development ever made in washing clothes, is here. The smaU tub dries a whole batch of clothes ten single sheets in three minutes. Meanwhile, tho large tub washes a second batch. Twenty sheets handled at once your washing done in half the time with half the work. No water to lift or carry; not a drop of water wasted. The Easy even empties itself when you are through" washing. Let us do a week's washing free in your own home. No cost or obligation. Phone today. - EAST TERMS EASTERN' OREGON LIGHT & POWER CO. ! Business as Usual J " jj t NET Chicago Suffers From Suburbs' Sin Dever Declares PEORIA, III.. Oct 20 (AP) Chicago suffers from tho sins of Its Buburbs, in tho opinion of May or William J)evor. . Asserting that crimo t demo cratic controlled Chicago is at a low ebb, tho mayor ascribed tho evil nuiiio attucked to gang war fare in tho metropolis to tho op eration of gangs largely from ad joining suburbs which ho said wero "still under tho domination, of tho republican machtno which not on ly countenances but protects tho rum rings whose excursions Into tho city havo resulted in fatal shootings from tlmo to tliif." Mr, Dever was addressing a mooting in. tho Interests of the senatorial candidacy of Georgo Itrennan, democrat. He also touched on prohlbtlon, declaring the dry law wus Imposed upon tho people without their consent." Plana to Increase Money From Taxes PENDLETON, Ore.,. Oct. 20 Under plans worked out by Shor irr It, T. Cooklngham 'and put Into effect in May of this year, tho county Ik renllglng a wiving which up until this time ha never been dono . it waa announoed at tho sheriff! office. Under the new plan taxes collected by tho sher. Iff from Umatilla county are turn ed over immediately to tho coun ty treasurer and additional Interest is ootalned which since May until Oct. 1, has amounted to $516, Banks over the county collect taxes And in ma instance under ' the old system this money ws left In the oanKS lor a perioa oi thKib .... fnii. mnnih. flllrln which jtlmH the county was unable to reallie interest from accruing; money. Now York Is a city whore every body if trying to push everybody elan out of the subway. When You Order Don't Just Say Bread Say MCWILLIAMSV Vhen the United' Suit Natlnmil tank ot Knst chlraso. I..il stiirted builil Its new. building. II hiul to mine the old one t.. v, .. lock awny President Waller .1 Riley Insisted there imiai ..... i .. plnute'8 Interruption of l,usine. So thioughuut the ten ilava it innb to move the bunk, business was carried on as usual.. I i saSsI TAXATION, CAPITAL AND THE OREGON FARMER By BllUCK DBNX1S , , Author ot tho Dennis Resolution. During the heat and excitement of political campaigns and the confusing statements that attend them we are apt at times to forget hard economic facts, and the bitter fruits of some pet "ism" that look good in theory but do heavy damage in practice. . . For this reason it is time to begin telling a few plain tiuths about land taxation, the in comes of our people, corporations and indus tries, and again to bring to mind the fact that capital does not need Oregon but Ore gon does need capital. And the reason why we should continue to remind ourselves and our friends is because another effort is being made to force a stale income tax upon our people despite the fact that practically t'ae same lax cost many mil lions in capital and improvements to Oregon and the pcoplo of Oregon efore it was repealed in 1924. We cannot expect a proved breeder of hard times to bring good times, be cause it can t be done. Ana ncre are a lew 01 uie ieusuns why. ' ! ' :. j In all of Oregon's Ofi.OOO square miles there is an estimat ed population of only 825,000 people less than .!) to the . square mile. We have 55,157 farms an average 'of one to. eyery 15 people. We have only 2500 industries that employ j five men or more an average of one industry to every 330 people. I Out of Oregon's 825,000 people, 782,256 didn't have netj incomes big enough to file income tax returns. - Of jthc 42,- 545 who did, one-half of them showed earnings under $3000, and only 311 had earnings in excess of $10,000-. Only one-J fifth of Oregon's 5000 corporations made enough to file re turns and of the 1073 reporting, 478 made less than $5000,; and only 183 made in excess of $20,000. i 1 ' - , J Our farms and our industries are our two main sources for new wealth. They both face hard problems on account of I scant and scattered population, long hauls, competition, insuf-l ficient capital, and heavy and ever-mounting taxes. If ourj farms are to prosper they have to secure outside money for! loans and money to finance crops. If our industries are toj develop they have to finance their purchases and payrolls. lioth have to have markets and that means new people and. more industries. j That is what the Dennis resolution is designed to do. It! is an invitation for capital to come in and help us all out. We desperately need new money to open up the state. We have: to have money for farm loans and no matter how pretty this ! talk sounds about a state income tax we cannot escape the; economic and unalterable fact that new capital which we re quire does not have to and will not come to Oregon unless we make it advantageous for it to do so. We must remember that there are 120,000,000 'people in the United States. Of them one hundred and nineteen million! plus, live outside of Oregon. They have plenty of need fori the same money in case we of Oregon don't show that we really want it. We tried it once; and before the people re-; pealed the state income tax it cost us millions; drove indus-! trffcs; payrolls and taxable wealth'' out of Oregon and taxes still went up! Every farmer who had to borrow money knows what it did to him, too. ' j No fonvard thinking and constructive citizen wants that disaster to happen again. i Instead of making things hard for everybody farmer, merchant, industrial worker and citizens in general we want, to have a purely economic problem taken out of politics.! The way to do it is to vote no against both the Grange In-j come Tax Uill and Offset Tax Hill and vote yes for the Dennis j resolution. By this means we guarantee to every citizen, in dustry, and to capital that there will be no income tax before 19 10. It further guarantees to every family that they will not have to pay taxes on their savings when their bread win-1 ner dies. It is a prosperity-making measure it is sound1 business policy and deserves every progressive citizen's sup port. - ' Vote 306 X YES Dennis Resolution. Vote 329 X NO Offset Income Tax Kilt. Vote 335 X NO Grange Income Tax Kill. PLASTER WALL KOARD Our car of Schu macher plaster wall board is now in. It's fine 'for walls and ceilings. . Fireproof, and a perfect, insulator against heat and cold. VAN PETTEN LUMBER CO. Phone Main 732 Quick Service. Butter-Nut Bread The most Economical Food You Buy. Made in La Grande By LA GRANDE BAKERY K. J. McWILLIAMS, Prop. This is the Difference J'ah! Advertisement Greater Oregon Ahhii. J. o. Klrud, t'huirmun M. S. lllrw h II. J. Kriink Ira K. Powers J. li. Ymm It. ,. Matleay ii. '. Cut!') J. It. UtiiKonl W. 8. JialtMun ' Kxcciltlv CoMINltfee 419 Oregon UUg., Portland, Ore. Ten per cent pf the farms : of : Oregon . have!electfiQ.-i:.'(.J service, all from regulated utilities. Less than three per cent of-the farms of Ontario, Canada, enjoy the benefits of such service. In Oregon the regulated utilities are extending their ; lines as fast as business conditions reasonably per- mit. Gradually but steadily that service to rural communities is increasing. Ontario, served in part by the provincial government, serves the centers of population. Government operation means political operation. Political operation is after the votes. The Housewives' Council "Water and Power" Amend ment gives an inexperienced board absolute author ity to spend fifty-three million dollars from the sale of state bonds, for which all property in the state would be mortgaged. The farmer-taxpayer helps to guarantee the debt, but the Ontario experiment shows who gets the service. Don't Mortgage Your Property To Politics Vote 337 X NO! Paid Adv. by Orogun Public Utility. Committed Opponeil to the Hoimewlves' Council 414 I'ucirio Building. Portland, Oregon. 'Water and Tower" Bonding Amendment i AJo at Your berries