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About The Monmouth herald. (Monmouth, Or.) 1908-1969 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1917)
The Herald RICHARD B. SWENSON Editor & Publisher Entered u Mcond-elue matter September R. IX. the post office t Mem mouth. Oregon, under the Act of Much I 1ST. ISSUED EVKRV FRIDAY Subscription Rates One year $1.50 Six months - - 75 cU Three months 50 cts MONMOUTH. OREGON FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1917. Monmouth Meditations 01 ) Its an ill wind that can't find somebody to cool off. Many a man is generous to a fault, especially one of his own faults. The average man entertains an unfriendly feeling for a coat and vest at this time of the year. While the nations across the sea are making it hot for the Kaiser, Old Sol is making it hot for the rest of us. It is hard for an easterner to understand it but now they say, after two months of uninterrupt ed sunshine, that a rain .would do more harm than good. Since Herbert Hoover became wheat dictator the price of that cereal has gone higher than ever. Now he is about to tackle sugar, we hope with different results. A friend who had carefully ex amined last week's Herald came in to assure us of his pleasure in the fact that there was one paper in the valley which occa sionally put out a clean sheet. Not long ago in the Willamette valley the farmer burned his straw stack while the burning was good. Now he bales the same and sells it for seven dol lars a ton. Mayor Ostien reports that in his recent fishing camp along the Deschutes he awoke one morn ing to find his towel frozen stiff; which is an indication of the shortness of the season in that section. While Dobbin does not get many chances to haul the family carriage or surrey these days, it is to be observed that he is still useful to pull the wagon that conveys the grain from the threshers and the stove wood from the hills. A partial record of the history of the earth is found in the stra ta that covers its surface. When the well digger reaches gravel he knows he is in the bed of a for mer stream and when he reach es salt water he recognizes that here was the ancient bed of the ocean. The striking I. W. W. does not seem to have the same pull with the powers in authority as did the striking engineers of, a year ago. A special law was passed for their benefit but the leaders of the I. W. W. are seized by the nape of the neck and thrust into jail. Pretty effective treatment, too. It is a good thing for us that we have an off political year once in a while. The more delicate the machine the easier it is to put it out of commission. Thoroughbred stock will not stand the same amount of rough usage as the ordinary barnyard Bcrub. Frank Doerfler the Silverton stock farm man paid $820 for a fine Jersey cow at McArthur's sale in June, the highest price ever paid for a na tive Oregon cow. Yet he had had the cow barely two weeks when she bloated from eating clover and died. People at the beaches complain of the cold and fog which makes wretched much of their leisure time spent there. The weather is fine for threshing, however, and no one connected with the outfiU finds the cold and damp at all disquieting. And at the conclusion of the season il is hard to tell the difference in the tan acquired, from that obtained at the sea side. Because of a bad growing season exhibits at the county fair are expected to be fewer and much below the normal in attractiveness for exhibition pur poses. The fair is suffering some also from the fact that there is so much to distract at tention in the war and prepara tions therefor. Interest in the fair is something that should not be allowed to languish. It is a big factor in the maintenance of the agricultural spirit. If Russia can hang on to her republican institutions after peace is declared; and equal rights to all are guaranteed through the vast 'areas of that nation, it is bound to make won derful strides of progress within the twenty five years following the war. The largest continu ous section of land in the tem perate zone, in the world, is lo cated in Russia and Siberia and its chances for development at present seem limitless. With a free people, free schools and an uninterrupted chance to develop in body and soul, the progress of Russia would be a marvel to be hold. What prospects for an early peace there are spring out of the reports that come from Germany rather than because of the recent appeal of the pope. In the way of peace with the Kaiser as one of the negotiating parties stands the specter of military power, a nightmare that has disturbed the waking hours of continental Eu rope and the British Isles and made uneasy their sleep, for a quarter of a century. The knowl edge that a neighbor country was drilling its .entire population, amassing stores of ammunition and manufacturing huge guns for the purposes of invasion has been disquieting. Now these neigh bor nations have the whip hand. They have raised armies for themselves and made guns. They are prepared now to demolish that military equipment that has threatened their peace and wel fare and it is little wonder that they will not stop now on the threshold of actual achievement. It is not vengeance they seek, nor power, merely an assurance of peace and liberty for the fut ure. LaFollette appears to be grow ing reckless in his later days. Here is a rank statement made by him in a recent senate har angue: "Wealth has never sacrificed itself on the altar of patriotism in any war. On the contrary, it has ever shown itself eager to take advantage of the missfort une which war always brings to the masses of the people. That has been true of every war we have had and it is certainly true of the present war." Why, any bone head knows better than that The paper mill men must be operating at a loss otherwise they would not be giv ing their products away to any one and everyone who will re ceive it The sugar men also are patriotically selling sweetening, sacrificing profit on every sack, for the common good; the coal men vie with one another in ef forts to lighten the toiling mass es of their troubles by lightening their purses; the packers, the copper kings, the gasoline poten tates ail are sprouting wings and developing aureoles in their sac rificial patriotic spirit Here is another section of the same brand of nonsense: "Always remember tha't the high prices already upon us have taxed the colnmon people of this country for the support of this war to a much greater extent than the wealthy people would be taxed if every dollar of income of the members of that class were taken by taxation." It is a well known fact that well drillers in the Willamette valley frequently run into reser voirs of salt water in boring toward the center of Mother Earth. But we are close to sea level as well as to the sea and geological formations indicate that this valley was not so long ago, an inland sea, so the finding of salt water beneath us does not seem so strange. However, it is surprising to learn that a large portion of the wells sunk within the area of the United States to a depth of 1000 ft. or more, en counter salt water, often in such quantities that the driller is led to remark that he has struck the Gulf of Mexico or some similar sea. The salt water may even flow out of the mouth of the well, but more commonly it rises in the well to a height of several hund red feet above the bottom. It is often assumed that this water fills some immense cavity or sys tem of crevices but in fact it is generally contained in some bed of unusually porous rock like sandstone, in which the pores, though minute, have an aggre gate voleme of capacity of mil lions of cubic feet How did this salt water get in to the porous rock? Has rain wa ter soaked far down in the earth and found some bed of rock salt which it dissolved and, thereby became salty: or has the salt water some source far within the earth from which it has arisen .toward the surface; or is it the water of some ancient ocean that filled the pores of the sand and mud of its bed, which in ages past became buried under sand and mud that gradually accumu lated on the ocean bottom. The shells of sea animals found in limestones - and other hard rocks in the heart of the conti nent show clearly that the ocean, in some one or several remote ages, covered a large part of the country, and it appears extreme ly probable that the salt water found in the deep wells is really fossil sea water, entoomed in the sands and muds of former eons and now brought to the surface by the drills. Salt water seems to be found especially in oil fields, but it has been struck by the drill in many other places; for instance, near Leavenworth, Kans. where enor mous quantities of salt water are found at various depths below the surface. , IOC Building From Roof To Cellar Willamette Valley Lumber Co. Phone Main 202. Monmouth, Oregon oc ) K Read your own Monmouth Feed All kinds of transferring done promptly and on short notice FRANK SKEEN, Proprietor. Monmouth, Oregon Good Printing is the Product of the Herald Print Shop MONMOUTH DAIRY I x t J. M. Mc DONALD, Prop- INSPECTED BY STATE BOARD OF HEALTH Come and see our fine herd of Je'r- l sev Cows and clean, sanitarv ham Phone 2405 . For any thing you want or don't want try our bargain column. It will buy or sell for you. C. G. GRIFFA, Plumber and Steam Fitter. Carries In Stock Bath Tubs, Toilet Fixtures and all kinds of Plumb ers' Supplies, nickel-plated or otherwise. Ml orders attended to promptly and work guaranteed. MONMOUTH, . . OREGON 30E For Cold Ice Cream and Thirst Quenching Drinks try WALKER & SONS Watch for the submarine stories 301 Materials 0 on Herald L?Jrtr Transfer and Stable MONMOUTH, ORE. I S c IDE HOC
