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.