Aurora observer., August 29, 1935, Image 2

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THE AURORA OBSERVER, AURORA. OREGON
I
Architects Search World
for^Good Building Stone
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« ------------------------------------- --------------------
Marble Highly Valued From
Earliest Times.
‘ W ashington.-Ane of the most strik­
ingly beautiful ouildings in Washing­
ton is the newr United States Supreme
court building. Its exterior is fabri­
cated from white marble, while its in­
terior is enhanced with columns and
panels of the same stone but richly
colored.
“Among the most ornamental of all
building stones, marble has been val­
ued by architects from earliest times,”
says the National Geographic society.
“ White drums of marble from Mt.
Pentelicus reared toward the clear blue
sky of Athens, the graceful temples on
the
Acropolis.
Domed Byzantine
structures and Homan buildings were
floored with * mosaics o f vari-colored
marbles, veined and mottled. Visitors
to the Pantheon may tread on a mar­
ble floor polished by the pacings of
august Romans over 1,800 years ago.
Favored by Sculptors.
to shatter into boulders, gravel, and
sand.
“ Because It is so hard, the cost of
cutting and polishing granite once pro­
hibited its use except in a roughly
dressed state. But now that less ex­
pensive methods have been discov­
ered, it is one of the most popular
building stones.
i “ Porphyry, another igneous rock, us­
ually a beautiful red in color, was
prized by the Romans, but is little em­
ployed by modern architects, because
yof the difficulty and expense in cutting
and polishing it.
“ New York city’s famous ‘brown-
stone fronts’ are made of sandstone,
a popular building stone composed of
grains of sand held together by a ce­
menting material.
“The new air-conditioned home of
the National Geographic society con­
tains stones from many states and
foreign countries. Its front steps are
of pink and gray North Carolina gran­
ite. Limestone blocks and columns of
the facade came from Bedford, Ind.,
“Not only has marble been a popular
building stone, but it is the favorite
among sculptors. Prom it Phidias,
Praxiteles, Canova, and many other
artists carved their masterpieces. Car­
rara, in northwestern Italy, which sup- j
plied Michelangelo with marble for his
famous statue of Davld^ still supplies
modern sculptors with some of their
finest working material. In Carrara,
a city of quarrymen and marble cut­
ting factories, even the humblest of
the homes have white marble lintels
and steps.
“ The most beautiful foreign mar­
bles come from Italy, the French
Pyrenees, and Belgium. In the United
States, marbles underlie most of the
eastern mountains from Vermont to
Georgia, and part of the Rocky moun­
tains. Vermont supplies 60 per cent
of the amount quarried in this coun­
try.
“Marble Is merely an altered form
of limestone, transformed by heat and
strong pressure. Limestone is much
softer than marble.
“Limestone is found in many colors
ranging f^om pink and red, through
yellow to green and blue. From, quar­
ries in Injdiana and /Kentucky ¿comes
the variety best knfiw« In the ^fnited
States.
0
“ Although limestone Is durable, It
deteriorates under adds in the air and
rain, especially under the sulphuric
acid contaminating the air of cities.
How waters containing chemicals af­
fect the stone is dramatically shown
in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, where
subterraneap streams have eaten away
the beds of limestone, hollowing out
vast underground caverns.
Pilgrims Take New
Highway to Mecca
Jerusalem.—The opening of a new
diyect route between *Irak and the
Hijaz is causing considerable worry
in Syria.
The protest is from the merchants
of Damascus and outposts on the
old Syrian route. On the new
route, agreements have been reached
with the governments of Irak and
Hijaz for establishment of a sani­
tary post and a passport office at
Idha.
To date 2,000 foreign pilgrims
have journeyed over the new high­
way. Pilgrims from Mecca will not
be allowed to carry cameras. The
reason for the ban is to prevent
photographing of the rites and
scenes sacred to the Moslem re­
ligion.
and green marble spandrels from the
French Alps.
“In the foyer gleam reddish-brown
pillars and pilasters of polished Rojo
Alicante marble from Spain. Walls
are of lustrous Italian Botticino mar­
ble, a rich cream color, above a base
of Belgian black marble. Brown Sienna
and gray Romah travertine form a
large eight-pointed star in the floor."
All-Time Record Mackinaw Trout
Granite Is Valuable.
“ Granite, igneoup rock that has
cooled, is a building stone valued for
its hardness, strength, and durability.
Unlike limestone, it is little affected
by chemicals in the air and rain, but
abrupt changes in temperature fre­
quently cause it to crack. In regions
where the temperature drops 80 de­
grees in a day, granite has been known
Justus Smith of Beulah, Mich., is telling Miss Lucille Provencher of the
Traverse City, Mich., chamber of commerce, how he caught the all-time record
Mackinaw-trout in Grand Traverse1 bay. The fish weighed 43 pounds and
measured 45 inches In length and qualified Mr. Smith for membership in the
Traverse City Che-Ge-Gon, Ottawa for “ big fish club.” The previous record
Mackinaw weighed 39 pounds.
Fence Posts Show Return of Prosperity
OXFORD LECTURER
<&-
Demand Unfailing Barometer of the country are faring. There is an
unfailing barometer of the changing
to Woodsmen*
Escanaba, Mich.—Woodsmen in the
upper peninsula o f Michigan do not
have to read the agricultural Journals
in order to get an idea how the farm­
ers in the corn belt and other sections
HEADS AMERICAN BAR
William Lyqn Ransom. New York
otilities lawyer, who was elected presi­
dent of the American Bar association
over J&mes M. Beck, former Pennsyl­
vania member of congress and former
solicitor general of the United States.
Mr. Ransqm was a justice of the city
court of New York city at the age of
thirty.
weight of the farmer’s pocketbook, and
that is the insignificant-looking fence
post./
When the farmer is hard pressed,
as he has been during the last few
depression years, he allows his fences
to fall into a state of disrepair. But
when money starts to jingle In his
jeans again he. takes the usual pride
in them and becomes a heavy buyer of
posts.
The peninsula division of the Chi­
cago & North Western railway is re­
porting unusually heavy shipments of
posts this summer. A large percent­
age will be used for replacements, but
the trend toward diversification of ag­
riculture Is also a factor. Western
grazing lands, for instance, are being
converted into small farms, necessi­
tating the construction of field enclos­
ures.
There is a noticeable increase in the
summer volume of pulpwood traffic.
Railroad officials attribute this up­
swing to the manufacture of many
new paper products, such as table cov­
ers, curtains, bakery supplies and
wrapping paper.
With the increasing demand for pa-,
per products, the lowly jaêkpiné has
taken place beside the spruce and bal­
sam pulpwood. This heretofore use­
less wood is now the important ele­
ment in producing paper of fine tex­
ture such as that used for waxed pa­
pers. The United States forest serv­
ice has worked out plans for consider­
able reforestation of jackpine and oth­
er pulpwood to meet the demands of
the paper industries in Michigan and
Wisconsin in the future years.
Chief Aces Blue Eagle of the Paw­
nee and Creek tribe of Oklahoma,
sailed for England on the Normandie
to lecture in Oxford on the subject
of American Indian art and dancing.
He is pictured in full regalia which is
part of his “ props.” He is just as
much at home in evening attire.
Four Sets of Twins in
Family of Ten Children
Orangeburg, S. C.—When It comes
to birthdays, the Betsill family has to
operate on a severely reduced budget,
There are ten children in the family,
but among them they can only manage
to celebrate six birthdays. The rea­
son : four sets of twins*
w.
Washington.—A plainly worded and
simple announcement forthcoming the
other day from the
Will Plant Agricultural Adjust-
More Wheat ment
Administra­
tion, presented one
of the sharpest reverses in policy yet
promulgated under thè New Deal.
Dozens of experiments have been
tried out since President Roosevelt
came into office and almost as many
have run their course and have been
abandoned. Many of them were tried
out with high enthusiasm but the en­
thusiasm died long before the recently
created agencies themselves went out
of existence. Such was not the case,
however, in the instance to which I re­
fer because the simple announcement
by the AAA resulted in the addition of
5,200,000 acres to the wheat planting
area of the United States for the 1930
crop.
Not alone did this announcement rep­
resent a change in administration agri­
cultural policy. If one is to believe the
undercurrent o f information available
around Washington, one cannot escape
the conclusion « that the increase in
wheat acreage to be authorized repre­
sented something of an answer 'to the
protests, even boycotts, that have been
evidenced in many sections of the
country against an Increased cost of
living. ,
It is unnecessary to repeat here how
hundreds of women 'have boycotted
meat markets in Detroit and how one
delegation after another in other sec­
tions of the nation have written or tele­
graphed to the Department of Agricub
ture 1 or to their representatives and
senators in congress in complaint
against the high and ever increasing
food prices.
Of course, boycotts and riots and
ifeonstrations are rather silly. They
lust don’t get anywhere successfully^
iAbout thq only result I one ever s^hs
flowing from that sort'of activity is*lr'
lot of publicity.
* * *
So, when Secretary Wallace and Ag­
ricultural Adjustment Administrator
m
Davis agreed to raise
More Hogs the wheat acreage
Comes Next^ from 85 to 95 per
cent of the avail-
ible acreage for the next crop, the
consensus was that the administration
felt it might have gone too far in its
?rop reduction program. Probably all
restrictions will be lifted on hogs very
Boon because hog prices have sailed
higher than a kite and the shortage of
available live stock for packing has
come to be almost appalling. Certain­
ly, the city dwellers who constitute a
hig element in the market for pork
products regard the shortage as appall­
ing and they are not to be appeased'
by any promises from Washington.
Secretary Wallace was rather an­
gered at published newspaper accounts
from various cities to the effect that
the AAA program was responsible for
the high prices. He insisted that the
drouth of last year was responsible and
that the destruction of several hundred
thousand sows and several million pigs
had not affected the market situation
at the present time.
But Mr. Wallace’s statements did
not go over so well. In the first instance
the bulk of the city dwellers simply
will not believe that the drouth had
resulted in killing off a sufficient num­
ber of hogs and cattle to cause the cur­
rent high prices. In the second place,
wiseacres around Washington who
have a habit of blurting out their
thoughts without regard to feelings of
others, promptly inquired what good
had come from the AAA corn-hog con­
trol program if the drouth alone was
responsible for the price increase.
These same individuals were mean
enough to inquire also why some ex­
perts in the Department of Agricul­
ture had released statements to the
press to the effect that meat prices, es­
pecially pork, will continue to sky­
rocket until the summer of 1936. They
pointed out that a great shortage in
supplies existed and that it was to be
expected the upward trend would con­
tinue until a new crop of hogs of pack­
ing size is marketed next year.
Then, we here in Washington heard
suggestions from men whose job it is
to understand market conditions in
which Imports of pork products were
predicted for the forthcoming winter.
Now, importation of any commodity
does not take place unless the domestic
supply is short of the requirements.
Thus, crop control program or no crop
control program, drouth effects or no
drouth effects, it is possible that this,
one of the greatest hog producing na­
tion» In the world, may witness sub-
stantial imports of a food item for
which it has always been noted as a
producer. '
* * *
As regards the reversal of form in
the wheat control program, Mr. Wal-
. lace said In his an-
Explains nouncement that the
Reversal
increase had been
authorized “ primari­
ly to assure domestic consumers
of continued ample wheat supplies.” ^
He said that the wheat carried over^
this year was about: 152,000,000 bushels
and that on the basis of present esti­
mates of production for nex$ year it
seemed advisable “ to use thé flexibility
of the Agricultural Adjustment Act at
this time to provide for somewhat
larger production to assure adequate
supplies of all typés of milling wheat.”
In theory, of course, the AAA control
plan should permit production of suf­
ficient wheat next year to take up the
slack of left over requirements and
should have the effect of maintaining
American stocks at about normal. But, -
In practice, a different result is threat­
ening. ib is nation always has ex­
ported a considerable amount of wheat.
It has, therefore, had some influence
in^ the world market and to that ex­
tent has Influenced the domestic price.
It happens, however, that the world
wheat crop ahead of us is likely to be
smaller than usual. If the United
States had the wheat, it is pointed out
variously, there could be a consider­
able return to the farmers from the
export market. As it stands, possibili­
ties of taking advantage of that situa­
tion just do not exist .
Without further reference to the
practical operation of this theory, some
experts have mentioned to me the fact
that the 1936 American crop may not
be as good as in times pafst. Then,
not only will the American farnyfers be
unable. to-.É^e advantage of a (foreign
market* but mhey will not obtain the
maximumreturn possible fôâ theit^
domestic sales because of their own
shortage.
In answer to this, AAA officials point
out they can use the flexibility of the
Agricultural Adjustment Act as a ben­
efit to the farmers. Their view of the
situation is that the American wheat
industry will be in a strong position,
due to the shortage of world wheat,
and can again exert its Influence.
The divergent opinions of those who
favor crop control and those who think
the theory will not work have created
many arguments even among officials.
There are those who think only of the
farmer’s position and there are those
who think only of/the plight in which
the city dwellérs finds themselves when
prices are high. The whole thing,
when simmered down, is simply an­
other way of stating the age old prob­
lem in which we find on the one hand
those who produce the food and on the
other those who eat it. Adoption of
the principle of crop control has not
solved that problem nor does it hold
any prospect of solving it. It seems
to me as a matter of cold judgment
that the Agricultural Adjustment Ad­
ministration is not any more fair with
the people as a whole than are those
who promote boycotts or seek to tear
down gains made by agriculture. The
department officials have given out
statements carrying only ¿¿heir side of
the case. Those who attack higher
prices have made only their side o f the
argument. Neither has added much to*
the sum total of .human knowledge or
human comfort.
* • •
The New Deal plans for giving em­
ployment may not have been so effec-
v
tive outside of Wash4
Federal Pay ington, but no one^
Roll Grows
question the re-(
suit in so far as the
federal pay roll is concerned. Late
figures reveal that since President
Roosevelt came into office more than
150,000 persons have been added to the
federal list of employees. The total
of workers on federal pay rolls In the
executive branch of the government at
the end of the fiscal year, June 30, was
717,712, whereas the total was 566,986
a tv the end of March, 1933—the end
of the first month after Mr. Roosevelt
took office. It has always been the
claim of political parties that “ to ttu
victor belong the spoils.” It is true
under the Roosevelt administration to
a remarkable degree. This is slyown by
the fact that the civil service list oi
employees in the federal government
has gained very few while those ap­
pointed to jobs without the necessity
of passing a civil service examination
account for the bulk of the new
workers.
® Western Newspaper Union.
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