S o u th ern O regon News Review, T hursday, Septem ber 2, 1948
Washington Di9CSt>
Nation's Grasslands Stand
For Security in Agriculture
Broken Homes Break Children
STAGE SCREÉNIRADIO j
P
WASHINGTON.—“ The g ra ssla n d s, hay lands and forested
range lffnds of the entire U nited S tates cover m ore than a bil­
lion a cres, n earlv 60 per cent of the total land a re a . They fu r­
nish about half of the feed for all the liv esto ck .’’
tach themselves from their own
roles enough to get an overall pic­
ture of the entire script. He tried
to avoid that by thinking of his role
as played by someone else. He had
turned down several others for It,
because he yearned to play a villain.
That statement is quoted from the new A G R IC U LTU R E YEAR BOOK
titled "Grass,” last copies of which now are being delivered to congress­
men for their constituents.
Purpose of this book is to contribute to the lore and practice of the
American farmer so he may help to attain "permanency in agriculture."
The trend toward grassland ag­
riculture in America existed for
some 10 years but was interrupted
for intensive cultivation during the
war. Now it is increasing again,
according to Cardon who has been
engaged in agricultural research
since 1910. But he points out that
g r a s s l a n d ’ s agriculture supple­
ments rather than replaces other
farm production — for example,
livestock production, with which it
is inseparably linked.
" G r a s s l a n d agriculture," he
says, "under good management
may equal or increase the produc­
tion of digestible nutrients, reduce
materially the labor needed to
grow them and lower the cost of
supplying protein necessary to
nourish animals ”
There are many interesting and
widely varying chapters, progress­
ing from the general to the more
specific. The editor, Alfred Steff-
erud, has summarized the book as
separated into four parts. The first
is an examination of grass as it
applies to people anywhere with the
emphasis on livestock and soils
and conservation. Forage for live­
stock, the use and value of pas­
tures, grass and rotations, the
range, as a major resource and
food which formerly was import­
ed.
The general trends in America
have been less obstructed by exter-
nal influences.
"Grass" is a book for city-
man as well as farmer, and
among the vast compilation of
data resulting from experiment,
record and research, there are
even a few pages given to a
panegyric whose poetic fervor
makes up for what may be a
lack of purely scientific back­
ground.
I can't help quoting from the ar­
ticle, "In Praise of Blue Grass,”
by John James Ingalls who was
•senator from Kansas from 1873 to
1891. It is reprinted from the Kan­
sas magazine in which it appeared
in 1872, and has been widely quoted
ever since.
After describing the beauties of
a ride through his "primeval win­
ter in Kansas," Ingalls describes
his descent into a valley where, he
says, was created "the strange
spectacle of June in January,"
peculiar to his native state.
"A sudden descent into the shel­
tered valley," he writes, "revealed an
unexpected crescent of dazzling ver­
dure, glittering like a meadow in early
spring, unreal as an incantation, sur­
prising as the sea to the soldiers of
Zenophon as they stood upon the
shore and shouted Thalatla!' It was
Blue Grass, unknown in Eden, the
final triumph of nature, reserved to
compensate her favorite offspring in
the new Paradise of Kansas for the
loss of the old upon the banks of the
Tigris and Euphrates."
/s T ru m a n • A n • o th • e r
One loyal adherent to the party
of Jackson and Jefferson approached
me with a theory that Truman had
a very good chance of winning on
the psychological basis.
"You know,” he said to me, “deep
1 down in the subconscious of every
American is a boy-on-the-buming
deck complex."
Tecnnicians selecting
male
buffalo grass to secure pollen for
breeding to improve strains at
the buffalo grass nursery at
Woodward, Okla.
grass “for happier living" on the
playing
fields,
lawns,
highway
shoulders and airfields.
Other parts of the book are de­
voted to the uses, nature and iden­
tification of various grasses and
finally there are detailed charts,
tables, recommendations for seed­
ings and mixtures.
Scope of the topics is wide,
for the subject involves not
only the varying conditions of
soil and climate, but also so­
cial conditions affecting the ten­
ure of land and the lives of the
people, along with shifts in na­
tional policies and political
trends.
There is no more striking ex­
ample of how these purely external
conditions affect the farm er than
in England today, where a com­
plete change in that country’s ag­
riculture was brought about dur­
ing the war and continued since.
The great parks, private estates,
preserves and forests have been
broken up under pressure to raise
I
I
It may be just as well that Wash­
ington has not only its proverbially-
unbearable weather, but that it has
a political campaign as well to take
its mind off more serious troubles.
It started out as a rather dull
campaign with the Republicans
positive of victory and the Demo­ '
crats showing an overweening will­ !
ingness to get used to the idea of :
looking for another job.
But ever since Harry Tru­
man's peppy s p e e c h at the
Democratic convention, you fre­
quently run into a Democrat
who actually thinks his party
has a chance in November.
. . . the boy stood on the burning
deck,
Whence all but him had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s
wreck,
Shone round him o'er the dead.
I didn’t get it at first, but the
explanation is simple and not Il­
logical. There probably never has
been a more outstanding example
of a one-man show than Harry
T r u m a n ’ s performance at the
Democratic convention.
My friend went on: "Most Am eri­
cans at one time or another have
pictured themselves as rising to the
occasion, alone and unsupported,
taking on all comers, swinging to
the right and left regardless of the
odds, holding the fort or storming
the redoubt or saving the child
whence all but him had fled.”
“ He went on to say: “ Ameri­
cans see this spunky little fight­
er who wears a confident smile
when most of his colleagues
have faces as long as a new-
look skirt, and they imagine
themselves In his place.
"As any schoolboy who has
studied psychiatry knows, there will
be a transference displacing the
affect from one person to another
motivated by the unconscious iden­
tification of the voter with the boy
on the burning deck and from the
boy on the burning deck to the
Democratic candidate.”
Quien sabe?
Steady Flow Obtained
W ith Pressure System
Farmers have tried various ways
nt preventing water from freezing
in their p o u l t r y houses in cold
weather. Some simply drain the
poultry line and go back to carry­
ing water during the winter. Others,
who dislike carrying water even
more in the winter than they do In
the summer, appear to have devised
satisfactory ways of keeping their
pressure water systems working no
matter what the thermometer reads.
The result of one farmer's idea
is shown in the accompanying illus­
tration. It presents one of 10 water-
ers fashioned from drain tiles, 2*4
feet high and 12 inches In diameter.
Pie plates, suspended a few inches
below the top of the tiles, are used
for drinking purposes and water
flows into them on a continuous.
PAUL H E N R E ID
Close up showing method of
pollinating female buffalo grass
flower with pollen from selected
male strain.
Boy on B u rning D e c k ?
Poultry Will Require
Water for Winter
AUL H EN R E1D , p ro d u cer
and s ta r of E a g le -L io n ’s
“ Hollow T riu m p h , say s thut
m ost a cto rs m ak e poor pro­
d u cers b ecau se they c a n ’t de­
By BAUKHAGE
Aeu « tnalyst and Commentator.
Grass means to these stu­
dents of the Gramincac fam­
ily, wheat, corn, rice, sugar­
cane, sorghum, millet, barley,
oats, many of the sod crops
which provide forage or pas­
turage and the associated leg­
umes, clover, lespedezas, al­
falfa and others.
W N U re ,« h ire s
Released by W NU Features.
By IN E Z G ERHARD
This permanency is obtainable.*!
says P V. Cardon, in the opening
chapter of this
s p l e n d i d 900-
pagç b o o k , by
means of “—an
agriculture that
is stable and se­
cure for farm
and f a r m e r s ,
c o n s is te n t
in
prices and earn­
ings; an agricul­
ture
that
can
s a tis fy
indef­
initely
all our
needs of food,
fibre and shelter
BAUKHAGE
in keeping with
the living standards we set. Every­
body has a stake in a permanent
agriculture."
Grassland is, according to the
many, experts who have contribut­
ed to this volume, the foundation
of security in agriculture.
Grasslands, by the sheer force of
their need, have increased from an
original 700 million acres to the
present billion. Believers in grass
expect that acreage to be in­
creased, and I have no doubt that
this book will help.
H e ll S ynd icate
the kind of role in which he made his
reputation in Europe. But in this
country he has been cast, with one
exception, as a suave, sophisticated
gentleman. “ I don't mind," he re­
marked, "but it gets cloying after
a while.”
-----* -----
Geraldine Brooks, who was ele­
vated from feature player to star­
dom opposite Dana Clark in W ar­
ners’ "Embraceable You,” found
the role pretty soft—as the victim
of a traffic accident she played half
her scenes in bed. But Barbara
Ideal water heater for winter
Stanwyck, in Paramount's "Sorry,
use
can be installed at little cost.
Wrong Number,” played all her
scenes in bed, and said it was the
year-round basis. Ordinary sinn.
hardest acting job she ever had
drains, located below the plates,
done!
direct the overflow into a central
-----* -----
waste system which serves the
Rosemary DeCamp, of the
I three-story poultry house.
a ir’s "D r. Christian" and the
Waste water spills over a hill a
screen's "Look for the Silver
short distance from the building.
Lining,” keeps her three daugh­
I The steady flow of water through
ters quiet at the table by serv­
the supply pipes, plus the fact that
ing meals on a glass table,
all such pipes are doubly protected
through which, fascinated, the
by being located within convention-
children can watth their feet.
I al soil tiles, keeps them open all
-----* -----
After desiring to be in a Leo Me- winter. To date, ice and snow have
! not retarded the waste outlet. The
Carey picture for years, Ann Sheri­
dan realized her wish in "Good system's 500-gallon supply tank is
Sam.” I t ’s being booked for Radio served by a two-horsepower elec­
City Music hall, also a break as it tric motor.
is the first time one of her pictures
has been shown there.
-----* -----
Pays to Mechanize
After Claire Trevor’s knees were
badly hurt in an auto accident Lew­
The mechanical age is paying
is Foster stayed up all night, w rit­
ing a fall downstairs into the script dividends on the farm as well as
of "The Lucky Stiff,” thus giving in industry, says the Farmers and
Brian Donlevy lines kidding her Manufacturers Beet Sugar associa­
tion. A century ago 64 man-hours
about her limp.
of labor were required to produce
-----* -----
Backstage at "We, the People” an acre of wheat, now less than
before the show most of the guests,
who never had faced a mike before,
were confident and relaxed. But
one man sat in a corner, mastering
his script. "Hope he doesn’t fluff
any of his lines,” said one of the
guests. "He won’t,” replied emcee
Dwight Weist. “That man is Thom-
as Mitchell, the famous actor.”
— * -----
Waiter Brennan plays two
roles In "Blood on the Moon,”
but you won’t recognize him in
one of them. Made up as an old
squaw, he squats In front of an
Indian wigwam while the stars
ride through the scene. It was
his only chance to appear in a
scene with his daughter, Ruth,
10 hours are needed. One hundred
who plays an Indian girl in the
fifty years ago the labor of 19 farm
picture.
workers was necessary to produce
the food consumed by one person
Janet Waldo, the lead in NBC’s living in the city, now one worker
"Corliss Archer,” lived in her Hol­ can produce for four people living
lywood apartment for a few months in the cities.
with only a television set and an
ironing board in her living room.
Finally Dinah Shore and George
Montgomery delivered her new fur­
niture, the only set of its kind, spe­
cially made from plans she designed
M ilk slump usually is caused by
with them at their little furniture fly trouble, poor pasture or both.
factory.
To control flies, keep buildings
sprayed with D D T and use a repel­
Jerry Colonna has presented lent type of spray at milking time.
"Atomic” to orphans at the Avon­ To bolster short pastures, feed grain
dale Children’s home in Ohio. or silage.
“Atomic” is the offspring of the
Mudholes for hogs, aside from
donkey Jerry received from Ralph
Edwards on a "Truth or Conse­ harboring parasites and disease, are
likely to cause animals to overheat.
quences” program.
-----* -----
An animal plastered with mud,
Jan M urray of “I t ’s Always Al­ baked on Dy the sun, is likely to
bert” went to vaudeville shows heat up In a hurry.
with his mother when he was young.
Mangy hogs usually bring 50 cents
When she was too ill to go, he’d
to
$1 less per 100 pounds when sent
rush home and do the show over
for her. That's how he discovered to market. It ’s easy to clean up
mange with benzene hexachloride.
that he had dramatic talent.
-----* -----
ODDS A N D ENDS— The demand Farm Population Drops
for tickets to Horace Heidi’s talent hunt
program is so terrific that it looks as 10 Per Cent Since 1940
F arm population of the United
if the three-quarter finals would he
moved from NBC to Hollywood Bowl. States declined about three million
. . . Wanda Hendrix, 19, says she will persons, or 10 per cent, between
retire when comparatively young; the census of 1940 and the special
doesn't want to hang on until she has estimate as of January 1, 1948. The
to play character roles.. . . Bette Davis latest farm population figure of
says she will start outlining her auto­ 27,439,000, however, is more than
biography while taking a four-month two million larger than the total
vacation on her New Hampshire farm for January, 1945, when many farm
this fall and winter; she has planned
residents were in the armed forces
Io write it for a long time. . . . Sponsor
of "Stop the Music" w ill take on "The or working in war plants, census
Teoorts show.
Original Amateur Hour" this fall.
H it head hung, he looked fixedly al a pulley he had in hit hand, ""I hat
ell?" he asked thickly.
By K A T H L E E N N O R R IS
keep together
HAT n re “ b ro k e n
h o m e s? ’’ The p h rase
is new, for it h a s been
in circu latio n only a few y ears.
B ut now one h e a rs it on all
sides. R ecently I visited a
hom e for boys. I ask ed the
nice m o th erly w om an who
w as in c h arg e how m any of
the 200 e ag e r, lonely, little
fellows, whose ag es ranged
from 10 to 15, w ere orphans.
A lm ost none, she an sw ered
quite sim ply, as if th a t w ere
the mo4t n a tu ra l thing in the
w orld.
A fter visitin g several hornet
for boys Miss N orris disco v­
ered th at m ost of th e young
fellow s w ere not orph ans but
unit an ted ch ildren from b ro k ­
en homes.
In m any cases th e parents
felt that th e y co u ldn ’t m an­
age all th eir ch ildren satisfac­
to rily so th e y sent one or tw o
of th eir boys to a h om e w here
th ey w o u ld be less bother.
O ther boys w ere th e sons of
d ivo rced paren ts w ho d id not
want th e cu sto d y of them .
Miss N o rris stro n g ly warns
that th e danger of co m m u ­
nism is insignificant co m p a red
to th e n ation al outrage of cast­
ing little tots am ong strangers
w here th e y never w ill receive
th e lo ve an d affection th e y
n eed so m uch.
As an ex a m p le of how a
hom e can be p reserved. Miss
N orris cite» her ow n case.
T hree broth ers and sisters,
on ly one o f th em out of th e
teens, su p p o rte d th ree you n g­
er children. B y d in t o f much
striving, w ork and sacrifice
th ey m anaged to k ee p to g eth ­
er.
W
"But then where are their fathers
and mothers?”
"Oh.” she said, looking cautious­
ly about and lowering her tone, al­
though we were alone, "they're liv­
ing. Well, no,” she corrected it.
"some of them have only one par­
ent. But most of them come from
broken homes.”
"Broken homes? Divorces?”
I’ "Well, both." she said cheer
I fully. "Mothers working, very often,
j The domestic situation is hard now
i and many people don’t actually feel
equal to the claims of children. So
they send us a boy or two.”
“ You mean—” It made me sick
i to think of it. "You mean they
1 may have other children?”
"Often. David,” she called to a
small boy who went past us as we
j wandered into the grounds. "Your
mother has another child, hasn't
she?”
Child Is Ashamed
"Yep," he answered, not meet­
ing her look. The whole story was
there—the shame and bewilder­
ment in a nine-year-old's heart
' when he was sent away. Oh, of
I course, sent way to sufficient meals,
j a good bed, honest, kindly care
safety. But they kept little Sharon
I and they sent him away. His head
hung, he looked fixedly at a pulley
he had in his hand. "That’s all?”
I he asked thickly.
There’s another home for boys
near our city. I went there, heart­
sick, yet determined to know what
percentage of these little fellows
had parents, too. And again it was
the same story.
Divorce, high living expenses,
working mothers, desertion—
the most important element in
any commonwealth, the ab­
solutely indispensable element,
the home, broken up.
*
The muCh-fearcd, much-discussed
danger of communism is nothing
to this. This is a national outrage.
That these little fellows, who ought
to have love from someone, who
ought to have a corner in some
comfortable place, a few books,
dinner table talk, Mom or Dad to
run to in trouble, are herded away
like cattle is so terrible an indica­
tion of national irresponsibility that
the atom bomb is a harmless tal­
low candle beside it.
What are these mothers and
fathers putting in the boys' places?
What domestic luxuries, movies,
comfortable quiet evenings and
dancing compensate for this in­
justice to their sons and this loss
to them? Are we American wom­
en so unimaginative and so flaccid
that we cannot adjust our lives to
make room for our boys? Seven
hundred boys from "broken homes"
• a , we went without things . . .
right here in my neighborhood and.
for all 1 know, 7,000 in my state.
• • •
There have been years In my
life when we were very poor, when
three brothers and sisters, only
one of them out of the teens, sup­
ported three younger ones. We
lived in four rooms for a while,
but they were clean rooms and
they rang with plans and laughter.
Old Clothes Fit Well.
We wore the discarded clothes
our friends gave us and congrat­
ulated ourselves that they looked
better on us. We scrimped, we
went without things, we had no
butcher bill for months because we
had no meat.
We suffered, of
course, when a small boy smashed
a window or a small girl played
hookey.
But there never was a mo­
ment in all those years when
we two older ones could have
said to a little sister or brother,
“ We are sending you tc the
loneliness, the unlovedness, the
dreary vague hours that no In­
stitution can spare children.”
We stuck together 45 years ago
and we arc together still.
What are we made of, we Ameri­
can women, that we don’t dare sac­
rifice, plan, contrive and work to
keep our homes and our children
together? We don’t know our own
power or we would know that If
social conditions aren't right for
us, if Dad’s salary Is inadequate
and home hours and obligations too
heavy to leave room for working
hours, then we can change the
conditions.
We don't have to beg, we can
dictate, even if it means that shops
are open only between 11 and 4
every day or that one mother in a
group takes care of all small chil­
dren two days a week and works
four. For the boys’ sake and for
America’s sake, let’s solve this
problem some other way.
Spare the Rod
CHICAGO. — Any parent wh
spanks his child has a spankln
coming himself, In the opinion c
Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs, a Chicag
psychiatrist.
Childhood whippings, the docto
explained, are undesirable becaus
they leave a lifetime mark upo
the victim’s character.
If a “servile, timorous” adult 1
at the same time "cringing an
crafty,” the chances are that h
received a paddling now and the
as a child himself, the doctor said