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T he J acksonvii i i M inir
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THE JACKSONVILLE MINER
Published Weekly ot
JACKSONVILLE. OREGON
O
L eonard H all
Editor and Publisher
bread and water rations And. a
fellow would just about have to
file gold bars to escape from this
depression. But, personally, we
couldn't even make the down pay
ment on a file.
*
Well, folks, we’re going to give
you an editorial the likes of which
Address All Communication} to Box 118 you've never seen before. First
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, IN ADVANCE:
we'll tell you that it won't mean
One Yru’
J 1.00 Si» Months
50c anything in particular which the
HEADQUARTERS: NUGGET CONFECTIONERY only surprising thing is admission
of it. The yarn goes like this:
TELEPHONE 162
Not long ago the writer was
driving on a very dark, stormy
night. Visibility was nil and. when
a car approached, one had to guess
at the probable location of the
ditch. Along this stretch of high
There’s a story behind the big way it paid to be a good guesser. !
It so happened that this same eve
five-cent soup sign being displayed
prominently in one of Jackson- j ning, a Saturday, one proud owner
ville’s downtown windows. And in of an automobile, having decided
reality the soup is not soup at all— the fenders on his old bus were a
just a good old-fashioned thick disgrace to the family, hied himself
stew with meat, beans and vege into town and bought a new set.
Nice crown type they were, too.
tables.
It is obvious that such a feed Figuring to save a few dollars, he
couldn't be put together for a loaded them onto his car and pro
nickel a bowl, and it hasn’t been. ceeded homeward where said fins
A. F. Kirkpatrick, the soup maker, would be installed the next day.
Driving blindly through the rain, i
inaugurated the dish as an aid to
the down-and-outers who are both the car struck a rough place and
hungry and short of funds. Even lost the fenders in the middle of
those who have no money at all the road. Before the doomed man
are being served—on the house— could back up and recover them
no questions asked. And to date your correspondent reached spot
cash and house feeds are about marked x and innocently ran into
the most deafening racket ever
equally divided.
Kirkpatrick stated he has found heard locally. After sliding to a
quite a demand for the economical stop and running breathlessly to
nourishment. Just the other eve determine how many lives were
ning there were several transients lost, we discovered three of the
in town who had neither food, shel shiny black pieces of steel in a va
ter nor money. They spent the • riety of grotesque and unusual
night in the chamber of commerce shapes. Two resembled the smooth
rooms, where George Little pro- i lines displayed by a crumpled dol
vided the makings for a fire. And lar bill while the third had a fur
if you've ever missed a few meals row running the length of it. All in
in your life you’ll understand just I all the mud guards already on vic
about how they appreciated hot, tim’s car seemed likely to remain.
strengthening food—without having
We fully expected to be tom
limb from limb for our unwitting
to bow from the waist to get it.
Such a move is to be commended act but, as the concluding surprise,
for it is truly the most direct and the owner of the once new equip
certain way of giving a hungry man ment, showing every indication of
a lift—and of renewing his faith a broken heart, meekly suggested
it was unavoidable and apologized
in the human race.
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for having taken enough pride in
One old sourdough prospector, the family car to save his nickles
not having a gold spoon in the to get its face lifted.
Which ought to demonstrate
house when he was born, put a
something or other, but doesn’t.
finger in his mouth.
EDITORIAL
IVhy the Poor Stay Poor
THE PAST FURNISHES US
'
A RATHER POOR GUIDE
If the pendulum of extremes is
still swinging, it is on the opposite
end from where it was in early
days in Italy. There was a time
that, instead of backing loan
sharks, the law punished them.
The old philosophy as written
into the statutes demanded all who
profited from others’ misfortunes to
be put to death. Merchants who
lent money and charged interest
were promptly done away with.
The men of the times reasoned that
it was criminal to take advantage
of a person who had the ill luck to
be in want and dire circumstances
—and by all that is good and just,
they were right.
You or I never approach a loan
company—or Shylock—unless cir
cumstances dictate that as the only
alternative to some great loss.
Nowadays these concerns, sniffing
the necessity for a loan, convert
one’s situation into fat fees called
carrying charges, office expense
and interest. One must submit to
tyrannical contracts and unreason
able demands to secure funds that
must be raised. Where the law le
galizes a charge of about 10 per
cent, by the time the account is
settled it usually runs from 25 to
as high as 125 per cent. And they
throw in a piece of paper that gives
themselves absolute control of bor
rower’s collateral—the loan may be
terminated at any time upon the
money shark’s decision or whim.
The only defense they have for this
clause is their personal assurance
that they will be what is, in their
minds, fair and reasonable.
The poor devils who can’t afford
to pay two per cent for money are
the ones who have to support these
parasites in elaborate offices, hire
clerks, buy needs and luxuries for
a clique who produce nothing tan
gible or work at any honest trade.
Although the sharks are protected
by law, contract and financial
strength, they take no risk. All
chance is placed on the shoulders
of those who cannot afford to lose.
No man with the humility and
honesty necessary to attain good
citizenship would indulge in a
business that profits from other
people’s shortcomings and trage
dies. This class takes a worse ad
vantage of helpless borrowers than
those who rob us forcibly—gunmen
at least take some personal risk
and do not pose as a community
necessity.
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“Four walls do not a prison
make,” but one or two tariff walls
will plunge the whole country into
It is difficult to reason Into the
future without starting in the past;
but only by leaving out large
chunks of the past ca. we think
clearly.
The buggy whip man reasoned:
Horses, why we have had horses
since prehistoric times. And as
long as we have horses, we’ll have
buggy whips—I’m in a business
that will last forever.
We have always had ice and the
iceman. We have always had coal
and the coal man, and the ash man,
and the chimney cleaner.
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We have always accepted the
axiom that the profit in business is
what’s left after everybody and ev
erything else get their share of the
money that came in during the
year. Until some crazy theorist
came along and asked, “If profit
is the first reason for going into
business, why is profit the last
thing you take out? It ought to be
the first.”
So chain store management says,
“First we take the desired profit
out of the incoming dollar, and
with what is left we give the cus
tomer the very best we know how.” '
How did the chain store come to
discover that—by looking into the
past? No; by kicking the past in
the slats and going on to new
thinking.
Can this be done in general
business? Can we make a profit no
matter how much gross we do?
Well, within limits we can. We
can’t make a profit, however, by
keeping our outgo higher than our
income. If we are going to sell
cheap, we must work cheap; and
that’s where the pinch comes. We
want to undersell the other fellow
but we don’t want to underlive
him. Still trying to undersell him,
we begin to leave out the rent, or
the foreman’s salary, the book
keeper’s pay; the insurance, or the
taxes, the power, the heat and
light, and so forth. We don’t stop
those expenses; we simply stop
charging for them. Then we get the
insidious habit of saying: If we
can’t make a profit on this job we
can at least minimize our losses.
Again, instead of stopping the ex
penses we merely stop charging
them.
The only check against those
tendencies is to pull ourselves to
gether and see where we’re headed
before the creditors take us in
hand. If the year’s revenue is only
the sum of all the jobs delivered,
it stands to reason that if we don’t
raise the price on enough jobs to
counteract the loss of some jobs,
we won’t have the money to pay
COPCO CHASING STATIC
A BARNYARDTRAGEDY
Sßelieve it or ^Not
By R. CLAY CHAPPELL
When you have an hour or so
to while away in Jacksonville drop
down to the old U. S. hotel and ask
George to show you his pigtail.
No, Mabel, George isn't a China
man. He’s curator of the museum,
there, and the pigtail is one of the
exhibits.
The curator won't speak about it
unless you ask. for when he does a
queer expression creeps into his
listener’s eyes as if they doubted
his veracity.
It really is a strange looking
thing to be a pigtail and visitors
usually guess it to be a large pet
rified apple or an anarchist’s bomb
with a fuse attached. In reality the
fuse was once the caudal append
age of a pig and the large ball is
composed of a kind of mud collo
quially called "dobe,” from the Big
Sticky country east of Medford.
When wet this soil is the stick-
lest thing known to man and dur
ing the rainy season the inhabitants
have to carry paddles with them
to pry themselves loose from the
mud that accumulates on their feet,
otherwise they might become
stranded even between the house
and barn.
It is not surprising then that
these big mud balls grow upon
poor piggy’s tail. Folks familiar
with the country have often heard
the story of how the balls used to
become so large and heavy that
they stretched the skin so tightly
along the pigs’ backs that the poor
creatures could not close their eyes
and consequently died from loss of
sleep.
This, however, is now avoided
by the simple expedient of de
tailing the pigs in early youth and
the porkers out there have become
so used to going without tails that
no doubt they will soon be born
tailless.
Years ago a peculiar accident
happened to Peter White’s pigs too.
Pete had a sow with 13 beautifuli
pigs and, although they ran at
large, they were very prompt to'
appear at feeding time.
One evening the pigs failed to
come and the sow kept looking
back and acting much as a dog
will when he wants his master to
follow. Pete followed her and she
led him to a steep bank at the bot
tom of which was a deep pool.
There were the pigs bobbing up
and down in the water like hy
drometers in home brew, their
snouts pointing straight heaven
ward and their rear portions sub
merged by the weight on their
tails. They had played too near
the bank and the dobe balls had
rolled down, taking the pigs along.
The dobe was very annoying to
other stock, too, until preventive
measures were adopted.
It is said that it was common to
see balls of dobe weighing from 30
to 40 pounds on the tails of horses
and cattle.
But this was not such a handicap,
however, as might be supposed for
the weight, of course, was added
very gradually and ‘he tail muscles
gained strength corresDondingly.
It is even alleged that some of
the cows became so adept that they
could swing these dobe dumb-bells
for hours at a time which incident
ally made milking a very danger-
ous occupation.
Due to its adhesive qualities j
when wet, Big Sticky soil is hard j
to handle. It is temperamental and
must be cultivated when it is in
exactly the right mood
Outside of this peculiarity dobe
is wonderful soil and anything
adapted to the climate grows to
perfection. In fact the farmers out
there claim it is the richest ground
in the world.
And one oldtimer says that once,
years ago before the roads were
paved, he wa# forced to leave a
cart by the roadside because the
mud piled up dn the wheels until
it was almost buried. When he
went back after it late the follow
ing summer he found a fine top
buggy but no sign of the cart.
He asserts that the cart just grew
up on account of the rich dirt.
salaries with. And any accountant
will tell you that paying non-pro-
ducers’ salaries out of invested
capital is not business at all.
If these worries trouble your
sleep, call in an accountant to help
you set up a budget. Perhaps he
will discover that you would be
better off with 30 per cent less vol
ume at 40 per cent less expense—
Spinal Colyums.
Now is the time—send in your
subscription to The Miner. The
paper, with your support, will con
tinue to grow and improve its con
tent. We’ll be calling on you soon.
By MAUDE POOL
It wasn't a big fire, not many
things were lost and not many
heard of it. That is just what hu
man folks think about it, but to a
patient little bantam hen it meant
more than that. She lost her life
in the fire which damaged the
woodshed at the Walter Armpriest
home at Ruch last week She was
burned as she was setting under
the building, hovering a few large
eggs (someone had traded for her
tiny ones) which would soon have
made her a proud mother.
The blaze started from a tub in
which a fire had been placed for
smoking meat in a corner of the
shed. The building was slightly
damaged, and there was a small
loss in meat, fruit, and wood. The
building was owned by Mrs. Anna
Ruch.---------------------------
Ranger Immersed in Inventory
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One of the most appreciated serv
ices rendered the valley by the
California Oregon Power company,
that of tracing interference in ra
dio reception, has been operating
in the Jacksonville section this
week. According to information
given by company officials, al
though less than one per cent of
the trouble has been traced to their
equipment, a truck and two oper
ators have l>een devoted to this
work for the past several years
This car carries complete receiving
equipment so sensitive that trouble
may be detected readily and locat
ed with a minimum of effort Copco
has been instrumental in improv
ing reception in this city for the
past several seasons.
Reports indicate the number of
seekers for the elusive metal are
increasing tremendously in the
Sterling creek district. The greater
part of the prospectors seem to be
amateurs, but nevertheless gold
Sharpening tools, painting of tool from that neighborhood is being
handles, fitting of horse and mule brought in frequently and in size
shoes and taking a general invoice able amounts
of forest service equipment consti
tutes the present winter occupation
of Ranger Lee C. Port.
It may sound less troublesome1
than fighting a fire, but giving a
specific report on the whereabouts
of 98 double bitted axes, 125 long
handled shovels and 16 one-gallon
canteens, to say nothing of alarm I
clocks and halters is no little job,
Sandwiches
Ranger Port says A ranger’s work
Fountain Drinks, Candy
must continue right on through the
winter and it doesn't all take place
Cigars
in the blacksmith shop either.
Office work includes reports de
Barber Shop and Pixil I lall
manding information as to whether
or not a suspected firebug was a
in Connection
tourist or farmer and whether a
fire fighter left the ranger station
on foot or on a government mule.
IIAIRCI IS
An annual work plan also must be
sent to headquarters as a report,
telling just what the ranger expects
to do on certain days next year.
Mr. Port also must keep his mind
Headquarterf for
on animals and their tracks during
the summer, as well as the num
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ber of cars coming to the Apple
gate on Sunday so he can make out
another report telling how many
badgers, porcupines and tourists
were in that district during a sum
mer.
PHONE 162
To sum it all up, Mr Port is iust
doing his bit toward compiling
government statistics.
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