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About Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 1917)
TEE POLK COUNT? OBSERVER, TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1917 PnMUhed Bach rrucadar ana Friday Office 517-519 Court Street Telephone Main 19 BY H. W. BRINE Subscription Ratea One Tear., U-50 Six Months 76 Three Months 40 No subscription taken unless paid (or In advance. This is imperative. Entered as second-class matter in the Postofflce at Dallas, Oregon. CONTROL OF NATIONAL HOUSE. A good deal of attention is being given to the close division of politi cal strength that will exist in hhe house of representatives when con gress again assembles. As the situa tion now stands the Republicans have 214 members, the Democrats 213, the Progressives two, the Prohibitionists and Socialists one each, and two are classed as "independents," besides which there are two contested seais, these contests to be decided in the regular manner after congress meets. It thus appears that neither of the Major parties will have a clear ma jority and the "balance of control" will he held bv the handful of mem bers representing the so-called minor parties. Not even the settlement oi the contested seats, moreover, will al ter this rather remarkable situation-, for giving both to either the Demo crats or the Republicans will not fur nish -a majority to those parties. Many are inclined to regard this situation as unfavorable to the best interests of the country. They declare it will make it difficult for the" party in power to carry out its program and is , likely to result in so-called log-rolling and "plnying politics." The result may mean the defeat of meritorious measures and the passage of objectionable legislation, subject, of course, to the influence and checks of the senate and the president. Even some Republicans, in fact, do not hes" itate to express regret that the Dem ocrats will fail to have a working majority in the next house. They ar gue that as the Democrats are in control of the other branches of the government, it would be better if they also had a free rein in the house, so that the onus of responsibility would be clear to the people. And there is something in this worth thinking about. IT'S THE "PACE THAT KILLS.' The American people rather pride themselves on their "push" and en ergetic! activities, yet statistics seem to Bhow they pay a rather heavy pen alty for their tendency to rush throngh life and perhaps neglect their physical well being. I1 or in stance, figures presented at the re cent annual meeting of life insur ance presidents, held at New York, showi that the average age of Ameri cans at death is only forty-three years, and, further, that of l.riOO.OOO Americans annually examined for life insurance, 100,000 are rejected for nhvsical disabilities. This indicates to these experts in mortality that American people nre literally rushing to their graves. A slower pace, they intimate, would delay arrival at the destination. E. E. Rittenhouse, of the Equitable Life Assurance society, said the death rate was rapidly increasing, lie laid it to too great haste, too little exercise, a marked tendency to im pair digestion bv eating food hard to digest and a disposition not to be examined by a doctor until down sick. It was brought out that while the American's proclivity for rushing thronsrh his business affairs had tenilencv to keep down weight, the heavy, fattening foods lie eats so much more than counterbalance it that, he i apt to take on fat and it was stated that with every pound of excess weight accumulated the coining of the undertaker is correspondingly hastened. Tf there is anything in the Darwin ian theory, it is likely that our re mote ancestors, swinging from limb to limb through the trees, led lives of almost ideal health. When they left the trees for the caves, it is prol able they underwent a high mortality rate until their bodies adjusted them selves to the changed conditions. And it may be that we Americans are now suffering a similar experience in changing from physically active lives, chiefly out of doors, to physically in active lives, chiefly indoors. EXTREMES TO BE AVOIDED. A word of valuable and important advice is given to the American peo ple by Mr. George M. Reynolds, prom inent banker and financial expert of Chicago, in diseutsing the business outlook for this nation after the eon elusion of the European war. Mr. Reynolds frankly say that "big problems" confront this country, and he regards it as highly essential that proper prudence and caution be ex ercised. Never before, he declares, were there so many reasons for urg ing conservatism and the avoidance of recklessness. But he explains it will be equally nnwise even danger ousto cultivate, or encourage, an actual feeling of fear and apprehen sion concerning what the future may have in store for this country and its interests. Mr. Reynolds nicely summarizes this thought in the following ex pression, which should be carefully studied to get his full meaning. He savs: "Notwithstanding the necessi ty for caution, it seems to me that too many people are borrowing trou ble about the extent and the sudden ness of the readjustment that will oc cur after peace is declared. Caution is one thing; the creation ot public fear is quite another. This country will continue to raise crops and make and sell goods, and the sooner we reach the conclusion that the cessa tion of hostilities in Europe will be the best thing that can happen to the business world the better. The whole idea, in other words, k that the American people must com bine confidence with caution in pre paring for the conditions to be faced at the conclusion of the great war, and they must avoid both extremes of sheer recklessness and downright fear. And if the people particular ly the business men and 'bankers of this land heed and follow this ad monition, there is every reason to be lieve the success and prosperity of this nation will receive scarcely a jolt in the readjustment sure to fol low; the war, which, of course, is the sincere hope of every patriotic citi- Additional gold imports of $25,000, 000 were reported from New York one day recently, breaking previous rec ords of this kind. And there was a time when it used to give bankers and financiers the shivers, if gold exports from this country amounted to as much as $5,000,000 in a whole month. Tom Lawson intimates that insid ers cleaned up $60,000,000 on ad vance information of the president's recent peace note. And no doubt Tom will also modestly admit that he got his share. The general health of President Wilson is said to be better than it has been for several years. Some men seem to thrive on troubles, which would drivo other men to distraction. After all, life is full of compensa tions. Just think what it would mean if you had to buy fuel and ice at the same time. Cheer up! Even Uncle Saul has found himself a trifle short of ready OTHERS' OPINIONS Be a Guide Post. I'd rather be a guide-post, direct ing humanity along the pathway that leads to a bigger and better future, than a tombstone, depicting a relic of the times and things that were. I'd rather have a living, breath ing knowledge of being a useful iniit in humanity's scheme than to have 'people murmur vainglorious praise over my deaf and mouldering clay. I'd rather have a few of the t-nm-mon flowers of earth offered me by some one T had helped over a thorny hedge and through u trying moment; some one to whom I had proven a harbor of refuge in time of stress, than to have garlands of sweetest roses banked against my mound when life is done. I'd rather eat the crust of jxiver- tv in peace and quietude, knowing it had been earned by the sweat of hon est toil, than to absorb the rich foods of an effulgent nature, gathered by the struggling many nnd moistened witJi the tears and sighs and moans of a son-owing w-orld. I'd rather be a guide-post, plain and weather-beaten, but of use to all who journey along life's lonely high way, than to be a tombstone, carved from choicest marble, erected in a secluded spot of the silent city of the dead. I'd rather see a fellow-creature's face light up with joy and gladness at some kind deed I had done, than to have the won! of sympathy utter ed to those left behind when the sound of crunching wheels is heard out front and the plumed chariot rolls slowly along the road toward the green spot on the hill. I'd rather feel the warm clasp of a friendly hand; hear the whispered thanks of a risen brother; see the sunshine of love banishing the dark cloud of sorrow and strife and re morse than to be the possessor of earth's greatest riches, envied, hated and ostracised by all cursed with a consuming loneliness and abandoned to the engulfing silence of the private chamber. I'd rather be guide-post than a tombstone. And so had yon! Ash land Tidings. farm. Keep them away from the city and the curse of the card index system of urban business," advised Bishop Walter Taylor Sumner of Portland at the O. A. C. convention last week, in an address on "Effic ient Citizenship." Use of school-houses as social cen ters in the work of making farm life more attractive was urged by Bishop Sumner. More attention to the socializing aspects of education was declared as necessary in both city and country. "Efficient citi zenship demands certain definite qualities," he asserted. "Knowledge, loyalty and action are characteristics which must be possessed by the bulk of the voting population if we are to deal adequately with the problems forced on us by changing conditions." "Immigration, brought on by peace after the war situation clears in Eur ope, will bring to the Pacific coast an alien population for which an ad equate system of care and distribu tion must be devised. Changing ideals present an ethical condition fraught with possible serious consequences. In the unrest of today, Bishop Sumner sees the dominance of tho idea of "the supreme reality of that which we feel and see and apprehend with the senses." Speaking of a recent visit to the east, the speaker said: "People seem to have gone mad, drunk and intoxi cated with the over supply of wealth that is pouring in at the price of hu man blood." Desire for wealth leads to adulteration of goods, exploitation of child labor, degeneracy of art and literature to the point where "ge nius stands in the market place with its soul for sale." Out of these conditions arise the problems of the day. Foremost among them is the right of the child to be well born. Bishop Sumner1 commend ed highly the action of the state of Oregon in making the presentation of a health certificate a prerequisite to the issuance of a marriage license. The use of intoxicating beverages is another problem in which Oregon has shown a progressive spirit. 'The efficient citizen, ' said .Bish op Sumner, "is rnc man wno win give of himself nnd of his best, that children may be born, that they may he well born, and that being born, they may have a square deal and an equal chance in life; he is the. man who will sacrifice his ease anil his pleasure to the end that there may be efficient administration of the gov ernment, and that he may give heed to the moan of the needy and sinful; he is the man whose knowledge and whose loyalty will be formulated in terms of action." just a lot of bumps and dust between two fences. Every foot of that road should at least be well drained; it has 'been there a long, long time and poss es through a dense population and a rich fertile and beautiful country all the way. Think what the exces sive cost of transportation along those roads must be at all seasons of the year and particularly in the win ter time which is usually the most advantageous time for the fanner to dispose of his crops and then think how many years the users of those roads have been paying that excessive transportation cost! Apparently they don't realize what it is costing them or they would remedy the conditions. And yet no doubt if the county courts of the counties concerned would tear into those roads in a really masterful way they would be promptly recalled by a surprised and startled constit uency alarmed at the magnitude ot the expenditures necessary for such work. "In this state for generations we have been assailed by demagogues who have harped upon low taxes and high taxes. The amount of taxes is not so much the point as what is pur chased for the public good with the taxes. They never go into that phase of the subject. Gentlemen, I am for good roads. but you can't get them by wishing for them." 1917, Efficient Citizenship. 'Keep the boy and girl on the Wishing Will Not Built Good Roads, "Do you realize what a tremendous loss of money there is annually in this state on account of roads being located bv guess work, of intrusting t he execution of our road programs to men ignorant of the importance of grade and alignment oblivious to the absolute necessity for adequate and nroiier drainage and unqualified ill every way to supervise the labor of other men," said Kiitus Hnlman to the Good Roads conference at O. A. C. last week. "A road is a structure and should be designed by a skilled highway en gineer just as an edifice of equal cost planned in all its details, m advance of its construction, by mi architect employed for the purose. The best use to which we can put the public funds is. in my opinion, to exchange them for good roads roads which can be traveled with heavy loads safe ly nnd surely every day in the year and all hours of the night. "Incompetent men or timid men can not build such roads; nor can men seeking public favor, with one ear to the ground ready to change their course with the first rumble of opnisition. None of the things of this world which have survived for generations have been built by cow ards. A road properly located should remain without relocating for centur ies although the wearing surface will need replacing from time to time. The irri-nt loss is not in maintaining the surfaces of our roads so much as it is in the ex(ense incident to relocat ing a road from one faulty location to another. The most economical plan in road work, as in all other work, is to build the best you can in the first place, always of course realizing the traffic needs, using the road and the demands which it makes upon the road. I venture to say that we of Oregon have spent upon our roads from the beginning of the work to date a sufficient amount of money and labor that if it had all been spent efficiently, we would have today system of roads from one end of the state to the other and from the. cen ters of population and market towns to the remote rural sections which would excell the roads of any other state in ' union as they exist today. How much longer are we to continue frittering away enr road funds in make shift foolishness t "Last summer I drove from Port land through Xewbere. MeMinnrille. Dallas, Corvallia. Albany. f-Vm. Oreeon City to Portland, and w nev er there was good drainaee there was at least a fair road and where there was poor Jr.- nag there was no road, Suver, Ore., Jan. 4, Editor Observer. Dallas. Allow me to answer tho gentleman who wrote under the heading, "The Only Salvation," in the issue of Jan uary 2, in the Observer, on the sub ject of increase ot license or automo biles to pay for road improvement At present most ot us pay a yearly license of $3 for autos; the proposal to double this ihcreafter might not be unreasonable,, everything considered, but now along comes "Oregon Vot er" in a recent issue and proclaims to the world the very interesting statement that the already overbur dened property taxpayer should not have to pay for good roads but tnat such a great doubling and trebling of the auto tax should come as will build and keep up good roads. Docs the said "Oregon Voter realize the injustice of laying blame to the innocent automobile for all the bad roads? Does he stop to think that ihe is advocating more expenses for the taxpayer when he proposed an auto tax three or four times what it is now? For who owns automobiles but a taxpayer? And who will have the added license to pay but the tax payer? Besides, why impose a license on the automobile any more than on the wagon, or the carriage or the various other kinds of vehicles which are to be found on our public highways? There is such a thing as being con sidered reasonable, but you know there is a limit and let's keep with in the limit, if possible. There are some laws which if ex amined properly would be positively unconstitutional and very unjust. take it that the man fortunate enough or unfortunate enough to own an au to is willing to bear a just propor tion of the cost of good roads, but just because he wishes to travel or give his family the pleasure ot rid ing in a car as others do. he should not be expected to bear all the blame or pay all. the cost of the road on which he already pays his just share of taxes. There is such a thing as extrava gance and waste of public money in building roads; for instance, one mil lion dollars or more is said to have been already expended on the Colum bia highway from Portland down the river. The railroad paralleling the said highway cost only about the same amount in its building. This highway is impassable now. The sur veying and preliminary work, and the pay for unnecessary officials in the building thereof squeezed so much out of the original sum that at pres ent the road is only begun in fact. Let us strive for efficiency and economy in our public road work and not blame or assess all the cost to the automobiles. O. A. PETERSON. Advertising. The business man who does not ad vertise, simply because his grandfath er did not. should wear knee breech es and a queue. The business man who does not advertise because it costs money, should quit paring sal aries for the same reason. The bus iness man who does not advertise be cause he tried it once and failed, should throw away his cigar because the light went out. The business man who does not advertise because he doesn't know how to write adver tisements should stop eating because he can 't cook. The business man who does not advertise because somebody said it did not pay, should not be lieve the world is round, because the ancients said it was flat. The busi ness man who does not advertise be cause he cannot know absolutely that it is going to pay, should commit suicide to avoid being killed by ac cident. The business man who does no dvertise but persists in keeping to the old, nntidy. wasteful and in efTc methods, because tbey cost less than the "up-to-date" ' kind, should wear blue jean overalls ' be cause they are cheaper than good tailor-made clothing. Coos Bay Times. COMMUNICATION . Writes of Iowa. Greene, Iowa, Jan. 3, 1917. Editor Polk County Observer: I received my regular semi-weekly letter this morning, the Observ er. It is a welcome visitor and I read every line in esevry issue of it. We arrived here December 21, after having stopped at Nampa, Idaho, for two days and at Omaha for two days. It has been pretty cold here for a webfooter, tha thermometer having (registered as low as 20 degrees below zero, but it has turned warmer and we have about six inches of snow now. There seems to be just as many autos running, however, as any other kind of vehicle. But if the' thermometer docs get low, living is high enough. Pota toes are $2 per bushel here, flour $2.90 per sack of 50 pounds, corn 8iy2 cents per bushel, oats 47V2 cents per bushel and everything in pro portion. Old Webtoot is good enougn for me as I prefer I air of Oregon to tl of tide east. , I met a brother t irette and he says t ing to winter here i I will close by wii las friends a happy New Year. Youa-s i GEO.;. Ramsey Wants K Judge William Rai ville is a candidate 1 trict judge in Hawaii, sey has practiced for n Oregon. He was appoini preme bench of Oregon 1 nor Oswald West. i II 111 : .f (l 11 f tot "0; It Sherwood Made Road S;r L. C. Sherwood of RickJ ty warden at the state AW under Wjaa-den Minto, ofs'11 to Rickreall to live and made road supervisor fori I'6 by the county court. isi" i ih' Consider Road Alteration f The county court' will petition for a road altera5' Dallas-Monmoutli road, ar.!, auary term. The ceived this week. peilttt" ma J mir y Like M mi rem Specialism Win In this age of complex business the "gad store, as well as the "handy" man, a f o. capped. The specialist in trade as wr4$wf business or other professions, wins now ' we are in Dusmess to serve you erncier, we specialize. We are plumbers ana cum nothing else. " Rich & Ellis li CI seen in i Momr irigl jwldi at-, iifthe m - ii m sr. ftstry An Electric Sign Crl izes Dark Hours C to Dark stores are hidden as successfully cs ttJJ verbial needle In the hay stack. J "vV I'll ' '-rcgrei Light Stores, particularly those with -.a -ft electrical sign, stick out on the top of tJt"" v ' ; iwtive .. . .i . -'; .-flwinf. Patrons do not have to look for the ligit ttf" ii-'.' 31 GO they can't miss them. That's why electric signs, concealed elsctrij, T! UUff QllU IUUUII VWH AW v r the prosperous store, ''illair h mi I it ii J fbave 1 f Jfpairec Telephone 24 today for any assistance with your lighting or sign plans. I ' ; natei Oregon Power 605 COURT STREET fi huni Star Transfer; WE MOVE ANYTHING THAT IS MOVEABLE t PROMPT SERVICI C. A. & L C. MUSCOTT & A. P. STA: Phme Staads: Webster's Confectionery 511 Ellis' Cm Bum 1074 JOSEPH A. FIN1 VOCAL TEACHER CONDUCTOR PORTLAND ORATORIO. JT CONDUCTOR DALLAS ORATORIO 8 OCT SUPERVISOR OF KUSIC IN DALLAS PVi la Portland Studio 600 Royal Buildim Hon day, Tuesday and Wednesday of Teacfciaf in Dallas Thursday, Friday! and Saturday 10 Dallas pupils already studying Write The Observer if Interested fflfor fains q f" SO to Nli'8 Pola i On 1ft t