Southern Oregon Miner, Thursday, January 25,1945
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER
I*ublUbed Every Thursday at 187 Main Street, Ashland, Oregon
Carryl H. & Marion C. Wines, Editors-Publishers
Entered aa second-claaa mail matter In the post office at Ash
land, Oregon, February 15, 1935, under the act of Congress
of March 3. 187».
Inflation in the United States
Paul Mallon, well known columnist from Washington
had some interesting observations in his column in the
daily papers last week. The subject of his talk was on
inflation, that bugaboo that the OPA and other gov
ernmental agencies have been throwing at us for so
many months. Now the OPA has stated time and again
that “they have held hte line” in the matter of prices,
by putting a ceiling on most commodities and services
and point with pride that prices have not risen much in
the past year or so. That is true, they haven’t, but what
the consumer gets for the same money has very decid
edly declined, w’hich in our way of thinking is the same
thing as a rise in price. Just a few samples can be made.
Perhaps a pair of shoes don’t cost any more than a year
ago, but the buyer certainly gets a darned poor pair of
shoes for the same money. Many other items of cloth
ing are the same, a cheapening of the article, but no
lowering of price.
Many of the services are the sameway no lessening
of price b u ta cheaper service to those w ho buy it. There
are many, many in s ta n ts and examples of these, far
too many to list here.
In the case of manufactured goods, local distributors,
of course are nat to blame. The manufacturer gets the
blame in that case, and in the cases of the services, one
cannot blame them either. Their costs have risen, yet
their prices are held down, by a ceiling ,and the only
waythey can stay in business is to furnish less for the
same money.
★ ★ ★
Be Is Ever So Humble
“ ‘The right of ownership is more important than
ownership is more important than ownersip itself!”’
“True enough!” says W. J. Blake, owner of the Put
nam County, Newr York, Republican. “Yet how import
ant is ownership—something tangible and of benefit
to the family! Give me a family—or, even, anly an indi
vidual—whose fixed objective is a home, a house and
some land of their own, and I will then see reason to
hope for the future of the family. Better a nation of
such families than one of any other dominating form
of prosperity. ‘Be it ever so humble, there’s no place
like home.’ Millions who live in rented quarters—
houses, hall rooms, and what not—are an unstabilizing
force in our national life. The cry is—or should be—
more home ownership and less hoboism in the Ameri
ca nways of living. To that end let press, pulpit and the
schools of our beloved land raise a united voice.”
★
it
it
Behind the Glamour
The Post Office Has a Surplus!
We observed an interesting item this week in the
news out of Washington to the effect that the Post Of
fice Department had a surplus of funds for the year
1944, amounting to something like 47 million dollars,
the first surplus in 24 years. In this time of huge, as
tronomical federal expenditure and deficits, the post
office surplus is indeed a miracle. When on considers
the huge amount of federal franked mail that pours
through the post office, the surplus even comes as a
greater surprise. It is indeed welcome to the taxpayers,
who have been in the habit of putting up huge sums for
the post office for many years.
The post office department, when formed by Benja
min Franklin in the very early days of our country, was
never intended to be a money-making institution, as wt
remember our history. The leaders of the country start
ed the service to the citizens of this nation, as a service
and not as a profit-taking company. Most of the yean
since that time it has operated in the red, and mone;
appropriated from the treasury to make up the deficits
It is encouraging to note that it paid its own way ir
1944.
* * *
The Wallace Flare-Up
throughout the world than by virtue of being enguged in es
showing their children how hat sential work.
One such program is the Radio
red is responsible for the great
trugedies of today, as well as be I Technician course, which offers u
ing the greatest menace to the chance to enter the Nuvy ut the
i advanced rating of seaman, first
world of tomorrow.
class, and to learn the science of
u
electronics and its use in rudar.
This is a ten-month course, the
I equivalent of two years of college
engineering. To quulify for this
| schooling the applicant must
Applications for the position of have a background of high school
Production Servic e Special i s t i mathematics and should have
(lumber), for the War Production studied ut least one of the follow
Board, Idaho. Montana, Oregon, ing subjects: physics, shop prac
and Washington, with headquar tice. electricity or elementary ra
ters at Portland, Oregon, are be dio.
The other program for which
ing sought by the United States
Civil Service Commission, Eric draft-age men ertn apply is the
Weren, Local Secretary, announc Senbee re enlistment program.
The famous construction battal
ed today.
The salary for this position is ions of the Navy need help in u
$4428 a year, iricluding overtime variety of trades, especially in
construction and longshore work
compensation.
There is no written test and no Petty officer ratings are available
to men who can quulify techni
maximum age lim it
Complete informati o n a n d cally and physically and who are
forms for applying may be obtain not in a deferred status.
ed from Mr. Weren, at Ashland
Post Office, or from first or se
cond-class post offices. Applica
tions will be accepted until the
close of business on January 22,
1945.
Applications are not desired
from persons engaged on war
work unless the position applied
for requires the use of higher
skills than the worker is using in
his present employment. A Certi
ficate of Availubility from former
employer or from the U. S. Em
ployment Service may be requir
ed before appointment.
Opportunities in the
Navy for Older Men
Washington is all stirred up right now, over the nom
ination of Henry A. Wallace to the very important post
of Secretary of Commerce, and to us, rightfully so. The
president was candid enough, and to us very honest,
when he stated that the nomination was in payment of
the heroic service the said Wallace made during the
past presidential campaign, or being a good "party
Man”.
But that does not excuse his woeful lack of business Civil Service Seeks
MMXXXXXXXXXXXMXXXXXXXXX»
experience and some of his down right inefficiency in Lumber Specialist
the handling of some of the posts he has been in. The With selective service classifi
Insurance
cations being changed in many
position to which Mr. Wallace has been nominated, car districts,
inquiries regarding op
ries right now, one of the largest loads of any of the portunities for draft age men in ‘you can depend on’
governmental branches. Perhaps the biggest single the Navy have been pouring into
Medford Jiavy recruiting sta
work carried on under the Department of Commerce is the
• Automobile
tion, announces Herb. Crain, re
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, with its loans cruiter in charge.
• Fire
and work running into the billions. There are numerous The Navy representatives em
• Life
phasizes that men of draft age
other lines of government endeavor under this depart cannot
enlist in the Navy, but he
• Health-Accident
ment too, diverse in their scope from RFC work as day points out that the Navy has two
is from dark. The position is one that takes a lot of programs for which these men
Burns Agency
can . volunteer, through their
brains to handle.
ON THE PLAZA
draft boards, if they are techni
Apparently the outgoing Commerce Secretary, Jesse cally and physically qualified anu <KXK3<MM1O<XMMMRMKMW<XW8MM
Jones, has many enemies in Washington and elsewhere. are not in a deferred status by 1
One who has had an important place in Washington
could not be otherwise, but there are probobly not
many who will say that he has bungled the job. He has
done a good job of it, we think.
That the national congress realizes the importance
ABOUT VITAMINS, and scientific research has
of the work and evidently'thinks Mr. Wallace is incap
proven their necessity for good health.
able of handling it, is seen in in the attempt to divorce
EVERYBODY CAN FIND . . .
the RFC from the Department of Commerce, so that
their favorite vitamin products in the complete
Mr. Wallace will not have a chance to do anything with
vitamins sections at Western Thrift Store in Med-
that work. And we do not doubt for a second that the
ford.
J
president will get his way in the appointment of Mr.
Wallace to the secretaryship.
EVERYBODY WHO S H O P S *.. .
« Southern Oregon Vitamins Headquarters . . .
unnatural in children, and
Finds Medford’s Lowest Prices
Let Us Not Cause is which
is one of the greatest
Finds
Authentic Vitamin Information
on mankind today?
Scars of Hatred blights
In these times when hatred is
Finds Medford’s Largest Variety
so rampant, causing untold suffer
B y D r. C harlo* S te lx l«
Over 500 Kinds and Sizes
Where does the spirit of class ing to the individuals and to na-
v
EVERYBODY’S TALKIRG!
Government agencies by the score are planning how
the people of the United States are to live when peace
returns. The inference is that the people are incapable
tionj, the parents of American
of planning on their own hook. Whole industries are hatred have its source? Most of children
render no greater
us imagine that it is due altogeth
threatened with having their future laid out for them er to the propaganda of misguid service in can
building up the spirit
by public officials who have striven to create the im ed leaders. The fact is, such lead of brother hood and democracy
pression that they are endowed with a degree of com ers usually merely take advan r
tage of prejudice which already
petence not possessed by the ordinary citizen.
exists. They simply build upon it
Behind this official glamour there is nothing to in and intensify i t Therefore we
spire the belief that government officials are super need to go back to original
Dr. H. A. Huffman
beings. For instance, tney did not make it possible for sources.
Ordinarily the damage is done
this country to produce five times as much coal per in the home. And here’s how it
Dentist
man per day as do the miners of Britain. They did not usually happens, so far as the
is concerned. The family
make it possible for the coal industry to turn out a re child
is gathered about the supper
12-14 S w ed en b erg B u ild in g
cord 620,000,000 tons of coal during 1944 with 200,000 table, and father or mother
makes
an
unjust
or
cruel
charge
fewer workers than in 1918. Machinery made this re
P h o n e 21501
against someone they have en
cord possible, machinery installed by the coal mining countered
during the day, or,
industry over a period of many years.
they repeat as a fact something
It would be hard to find a politician who encouraged they read in a projudiced journal
or pamphlet concerning a parti
mechanized mining that has saved the United States cular
race or religion, or the al
from a tragice coal famine. And yet these same politi leged act of a representative of
cians who know nothing about coal mining, and a few' organized labor.
tirade closes with an un
years ago were far too busy w'ith other matters to sug-1 fair The characterization
of the per
gest ways of stilulating coal production, today presume son discussed and ends with the
to know more about its future than the coal mine oper remark: “That's just like a.... - ....
whatever the race, or the re
ators. They sit in Washington and compile figures bas ....,”
ligion, or the position of t|ie per
ed on current industrial performance while out in the son may be. And thereby a whole
Fires resulting from
field industry is relentlessly searching for a new meth race, or form of religion, or move windstorm, explosion &
ment is damned. It may seem
ods, for shortcuts, for greater efficiency; things that like
other perils are not cov
an unimportant matter to the
make hash of statistics. The history of the coal indus parent, but the child seated n e x t . ered by your insurance
to father or mother listens in
try is typical of American initiative.
policy. Unless you have
wonder
and amazement, and,
The only way central government authority can blue having absolute
your
fire policy extend
confidence in its
print the future is to freeze industry to present stand parent, it believes everything ed to cover such dangers
ards and prohibit further invention. This could work thaf was said must be true.
—you’ll have to stand
Thus the seed of hatred is
providing the people can be convinced that government planted.
such loss yourself.
It grows in the child’s
planning is more important than production.. But God mind and becomes a festering, I Ask this agency to add
corrosive sore which affects all |
nelp us if we ever get into another war!
Extended Coverage to
its thinking, distorting all its
your fire insurance now.
★ ★ ★
judgments.
Two United States soldiers, sightseeing in London, The result is that more harm
been done to the child than !
were walking down Whitehall. They wanted to see the has
to the person or persons who
war office but did not know* on which side of the street were thoughtlessly, lgonorantly,
to look. They hailed a passing Tommy and asked: or spitefully misrepresented or
R E A L IN S U R A N C E
“Which side io ¿.^e war office on?” The Tommy thought slandered.
Phon« 8781
41 C ast Mata
Need it be said that parents
a startled moment and replied, “Gorblimey! Ours, I should
not encourage - especially
think!”—-Wichita (Kas.) Democrat.
in their own homes - that which 1
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