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About The Monmouth herald. (Monmouth, Or.) 1908-1969 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1918)
H TO Vol.X Monmouth, Polk County, Oregon, Friday, March 8, 1918 No. 27 Monmouth is Located in the Best Section of the Best Valley of the Best State in the Union. NEWS NOTES OF NORMAL President on Southern Oregon Trip. Miss Greene Speaks Fully five hundred eagerly Inter ested people composed the audience which listened most attentively to Major Ian Hay Beith's lecture "Carrying On" which was given in the Normal Auditorium last Thurs day. Major Deith was a speaker of rare personal charm who delight ed his audience not only by his clean cut forceful thinking in re gard to the war and its problems, but also by his unique humor which never failed of appreciation. His handling of the whole situation, his sane view of the future and his thoughtful optimism which predict ed victory, but through tremend ously hard work, all left his hear ers with a new feeling of stern con fidence that they too must fight at home to back up the troops over seas. The pictures taken person ally by Major Beith at the front and the carefully explained maps and aeroplune photographs added im mensely in making the evening's lecture one of permanent interest for the whole community. Miss Alberta Greene, head of the Art Department, was the faculty speaker for last Friday. Miss Greene's subject "How Child ren Learn to Draw" was presented delightfully and offered a clear de finite illustration of the means and processes by which children acquire the ability to express themselves through drawing. By means of concrete examples of children's drawings some from the training school hereMiss Greene showed the various phases of development and the corresponding accomplish ments. The psychology of the drawing process was given most clearly so that the hearers felt a ' new interest in the whole subject as well as in Miss Greene's very fine presentation of her point of view. A student rally for the Oratorical contest was held Wednesday morn 1 ing where Mr. Ernest Morgan, the Normal representative'gave his ora tion "America's Mjjjjon" and v );he student body sang rousing songs and cheered enthusiastically. This meet ing marked, too, the appearance of the girl's quartette, which is to ap pear on the program at Salem Fri day night. A large.number of stu dents plan to make the trip to Salem to support the candidate and show the live spirit of the school. This week President .Ackerman has been absent on a speaking tour in Southern Oregon. Monday he ap peared in Grant's Pass and Gold Hill; Tuesday, Central Point and Medford; Wednesday, Ashland and Jacksonville; Thursday, Glendale and Roseburg; Friday, Oakland. He is speaking to high school stu dents and others interested in nor mal training and the Oregon Normal School. Squirrel poison will be up before the grange at its meeting Saturday. J. E. Larson, county agriculturist will be there and expects to mix three bushels of the poison which will be sold at cost. Mr. and Mrs. Staats and daugh ter Katrina have moved to Airlie for the summer at least, where they go to operate their farm in the vi cinity of that town. They have found it Impossible to get help to run the farm and have to move as a result. Joe and Thyra will remain in Monmouth until school is out. Training School Facts and Fancies Wednesday evening a large crowd saw "The Cinderella Man" which was shown in the chapel. Everyone was pleased with the picture. President Ackerman has helped to solve the warm lunch problem, by securing the services o Mrs. Boche during the absence of Miss Butler. It is needless to say that the soups are delicious, and stud ents are clamoring for Mrs. Boche's recipes. The only fault that the pupils find is that teacups are not large enough. Who will come to the rescue with 10 cents for the proper bowl and thus add to the school-boys comfort and happiness? If Dorsey Edwards, Elmer Green and Leonard Wharton seem unduly importunate in urging you to buy war savings stamps, it is because they are trying to win the pig offered to the boy or girl who sells the most stamps in Polk County during the month of March. It is to be hoped that Monmouth will win the pig. The grammar grade pupils who heard Prof. Ide's lecture on habits, at the P. T. A., Tuesday night, were apparently much interested and instructed, judging by the re view the pupils gave the next morning. If people realized how the atti tude of pupils toward their work, is affected by criticism of teachers in charge, or by any reflection on school regulations, they would be loathe to give or to sanction such criticism. Some of our history classes are certainly in a reflective state of mind. A teacher asked, "What prompted John Brown to do what he did?" The pupil replied, "He was asked by Rhode Island to free the Slaves." "By Rhode Island!" asked the teacher. "Yes, Miss-it says so in our history., "The pupil then read to her teacher, "He was called by Providence to free the slaves." In a subsequent lesson the teach er was saying, "No children, the people of the South wouldn't ' like to have you call them lazy. They simply .couldn't endure the scorch ing rays of the sun. The negro was better suited to the work and the climate." "But," said a boy, "How is that?" "Black absorbs heat, the negro is black, therefore the negro would feel the heat more, wouldn't he?" Halley G asks if it is unpatriot ic to have German measles. The beautiful large community flag in the possession of the training school, has been hung in the hall back of the Lincoln statue. The statue with the flag as' a back ground, is an inspiring, an ennob ling sight. THE STORY OF AN EYE WITNESS Major Beith Thrills Audience With Description of the War With the recital of a plain, unvar nished tale, albeit spiced a little with native wit, Major Ian Hay Beith held the attention of a large audi ence in the Normal chapel last Fri- y evening, detailing some of his experiences on the western front in the European war. At the close of his lecture he displayed a number of stereoptican views taken by him self on the scene of war. Major Beith was one of the "hun dred thousand", the "contemptible" little army which England sent over at the beginning of the war; an ar my large enough, however, to hold the Germans, when baffled in the taking of Paris, they turned to Ca lais. With his dry humor, the speak er told of experiences when the Brit ish were on the low ground which was two feet above water in the summer time and two feet under water in the winter;how they fought and struggled until they had driven the Germans out of the elevations onto lower ground and that now the British looked down on the enemy from, the various eminences. None of these, however, were very high. Hill 60, which had had more qr less fame because of struggles incident to its possession, was so called because it was sixty feet in height. This hill was now a hole in the ground, having been destroyed by mining it with explosives. To show how thoroughly the Ger mans respected British prowess, he showed a diagram giving the rela tive density of soldiers in the vari ous regions, showing that on the British front the enemy were sever al times as numerous as on other fronts farther to the east. He de scribed the events which led up to the appearance upon the scene of Hindenberg who when he had sized up the situation, decided that he would do what only a successful and talented general could do retreat. How the retreat had been made to the "Hindenberg line" which was impregnable and could never be ta ken by any force brought to bear upon it. . ' The only trouble with its invinci bility was that Hindenberg had not taken Thomas Atkins into his con fidence. He had in his ignorance taken it to be the same as any other fortification and as a result had ta ken and occupied vast stretches of the line. Major Beith described these intrenchments, solidified with concrete and with a net work of tunnels extending into the earth with all the appurtenances of per manent abode. He spoke of the continuous and renewed fighting around Ypres, which Tommy called "Wipers" of the casualties and destruction but of failure for the Germans. A vein of optimism ran through the address, reflecting in a large measure the attitude of the men in the trenches. They wanted to be let alone to fight it out. They were supremely confident of success if not interfered with by a premature peace at home. He said the Ger mans in that section were no longer on the offensive but had been de fending themselves for some time past. - This was instanced in a dif ferent mode of fighting. They were abandoning the idea of continuous trenches and had taken to the forti fications of shell holes, communica ting with one another by tunnels. These acted like boulders in a stream to stop the onrush of an offensive but were not at all abapted as agen cies in making an offensive. Throughout his address, Major Beith was given close attention. His was not a subject that any one could enjoy. The nature of the top ic precluded that. But it was in tensely interesting and one not readily forgotten. As a real actor in one of the greatactiona of histo ry, he was a human document, elo quent and stimulating. Curious Facts About Habits Prof. Ide in his discourse to the Parent-Teacher Association made a slight improvement on Shakespeare. The latter had said that "habit breeds a power in a man" and Mr. Ide asserted that power, or effort could easily breed a habit in a man He began his address by expressing a desire to assassinate the man who had given him a reputation as ahu morist. Such a reputation, he said, smothered a'l the good things he might say and anyway, he had a serious subject to discuss. He showed that the power of sense, although deemed voluntary and under control of the mind might be in a large degree habit, giving peculiar experiments to demonstrate the truth of the assertion. He spoke of habits, good and bad, especially good habits and made suggestions on how the good habits could be acquired and cultivated un til they became part of the .self. He detailed numerous anecdotes il lustrating how good habits had been cultivated in people old and young, by other people interested in them; for he said the one most anxious that good habits should be developed was not the subject himself, but some one with a more or less close interest in him. He showed how the ideals and customs of youth are habits, inner ited from ancestors more or less re mote, taking the babe, child and youth and pointing out traits of character that were really habits in herited from more primitive man. Mr. Ide's talk was given close at tention and was warmly applauded. Previously, the other numbers on the program had been given, the congregational singing led by Miss Hoham; a reading ', by Miss Fish wood, a selection by Richard Hard ing Davis, a police court epic, illus trating' that class distinctions are only skin deep, and a solo by Denzel Moore. Stckafoose Place Sold An important real estate deal of the past week was the sale of Mr. and Mrs. H. K. Sickafoose's Mon mouth property to A. F.Young, re cently of Southern Nebraska. Mr. Young came into the valley looking for a location and the Sickafoose property appeared just the thing he was looking for. ;,Thedeal was closed Tuesday, the consideration $11,000 which includes the room- NATION WIDE ; PROHIBITION Is Clcse at Hand, Louis Bank Tells Monmouth Audience Some startling statements were made by Louis Banks in his discus sion of the temperance situation in his Monmouth appearance Friday night; nothing more so than the percentages given of rejections for physical disability on the part of the youth of the land who were sought for the army. The rejections rang ed from fifty to eighty five percent, he said, and the greatest disability he asserted was due to the use of strong drink. This fact was in evi dence in the large centers of popu lation more than in the rural dis tricts. For this reason, he said, it was a matter of special concern, what hap pened to the young men who had passed the test and were sent across the water. The most virile, the cleanest and most wholesome of our young men, the hope of the fu ture are there met with the asser tion that "the water of the country is bad, our people all drink wine, and thrive on it," etc., until thous ands, who would be normally safe, get a start toward intemperate hab its. Mr. Banks detailed incidents in the recent coal shortage in the east where schools were compelled to close up but where breweries always had plenty of coal to keep in opera tion full time. He spoke of the need for grain for use as substitutes for flour and of the immense quan tities wasted in the production of beer. Ten years ago there were, he said but three prohibition states in the union. Now there were nineteen. He spoke of the surprising changes which had been brought about in public sentiment; how the prohibi tion idea was making strong inroads into what was always considered as booze strongholds and asserted that now the chief danger for the prohi b i t i 0 n constitutional amendment was in the lethargy of the "safe states". Mr. Banks in his speaking tours, and he has spoken for temperance for many years, has contracted rheu matism in his hip and made his ad dress seated in a chair. ' He was born in Benton county and in his younger days was acquainted with several in the audience. He has two sons with the army in France. W. E. Smith Promoted W. E. Smith has resigned his position as Cashier of the First National Bank, of Monmouth, to ac cept a position in the State Banking Department at Salem. ing house built last year, the old residence, 22 acres of land, barns, stock, maphinery, and feed. Also all the furniture of the houses ex cept a few articles of personal in terest to the late owners. Mr. Young, who has his family with him, with three children of school age, will take possession March 18. The Sickafooses have not yet decided what to do but may remain in Mon mouth if they can find a suitable place to live in.