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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1915)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION Editorial Page of Home and Farm Magazine Section Timely, Pertinent Comment Upon Men and Affairs, Following the Trend of World News; Suggestions of Interest to Readers; Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought. 4 TO ADVERTISERS Advertisers in tills locality who wish to fully cover all sections of Oregon and Wash ington and a portion of Idaho will apply to local publishers for rates. General advertisers may address C. L. Bur ton, Advertising Manager of Oregou-Washing-ton-Idaho Fanner, Oregouian Building, Port luud, Oregon, for rates and information. TO READERS. Readers are requested to send letters and articles for publication to The Editor, Or egon - Washington Idaho Fanner, Oregonian Uuilding, Portland, Oregon. Discussions on questions and problems that bear directly on the agricultural, live stock and poultry interests of the Northwest, and on the uplift and comfort of the farm home always are welcomed. No letters treat ing of religion, politics or the European war are solicited, for the Oregon-Washlngton-Idaho Farmer proclaims neutrality on these matters. Comparatively brief contributions are pre ferred to long ones. Send us also photo graphs of your livestock and farm scenes that you think would be of general interest. We wish to make this magazine of value to you. llelp us to do it. mother that he wanted to send an ear of corn to help feed some starving little Belgian boy. The corn clubs of the state have taken up the matter and thousands of little fellows in the state are giving their cars of corn, which are being ground into meal for the starving Belgians. THE LURE OF THE MOVIES. THE PROBLEM of keeping the young man on the farm is not the same today as it was 50, or even 10 years ago. And one reason why it is not so great as it formerly was is the "movie." The motion picture fills a "long-felt want" in the rural districts of the Nation. Not so long ago living in the country meant putting up with hardships that did not come the way of the city dweller; it meant less luxury, less amusement, less life. Today the attractions of the country rank level with those of the city and the choice lies with the differences in temperament. It is no longer a sacrifice to seek rural life, for the farm community of today has many things to offer that even the city did not years ago. And the amusements it offers arc usually cleaner and healthier. . Are there any who do not remember the terrible theatrical abortions that were ones offered to the rural playgoer, while his more favored cousin in the city had the choice of Booth, Forrest, Barrett and Jefferson? With the exception of the one day that the "great est show on earth" camped on its out skirts, the year hold little to the farm com munity in the shape of theatrical amusement : but the annual tour of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or "Way Down South," with "Sallie, the Se wing-Machine Girl" as an occasional relief. Today Maude Adams plays before the patrons of the moving picture shows in the small towns as well as in the large cities. Sarah Bernhardt has deigned to be a "movie" star. Dustin Farnnm, Max Figman and many stars of the "legitimate" stage have barkened to the call of the movie, while a splendid array of real talent developed by the motion-picture industry itself is at the command of the patron of the flickering . screen. The dweller in the country town where there is a single motion picture show often has as great a range and choice, if the house is well enough patronized to allow the man ager to pay the high price demanded by the more famous films, as the dweller among the brick walls of the city. The conveniences of city life are fast be coming a part of rural life and what incon veniences remain in the country are more than offset by the pleasure of living where there is room to stretch and brer the, whew shams fail and where "a man is a man for a' that." RIGHT AND WRONG WAYS. A BRIDEGROOM of less than six months, out of work and out of pro visions, says an editorial in the Eugene Daily Guard, is now a prisoner in the County Jail, charged with burglary. He is charged with breaking a window and enter ing a grocery store in Fairmount, where he was captured by the police. That a man is out of work and hungry is no justification for crime. There are worse things than poverty and there is no defense of the man who takes what belongs to his neighbor be cause he is too proud to beg. There is a right and wrong way of doing everything and in the end the right way pays. The man who undertakes to live by his wits, to get money or its equivalent without working for it, is foreordained to failure. And yet there are always men starting on that road. The end of their folly will be years and years of hard work, hard living, lonesomeness and heart-breaking monotony in prison. A few weeks ago a man walked into The Guard office and stated that hewas with out work and had a family and seven chil dren to support. He did not seek charity, but asked if the paper would aid in procur ing employment. Au appeal was made to the people of Eugene' and before the paper was scarcely off the press a'plaee for that man to work, temporarily at least, was found. WThat a difference between these two men when confronted by adversity! One, with an even greater burden than the other, was willing to go to the extreme so far as pro claiming his poverty was concerned, pro vided he might retain his good name, while the second entered a grocery store, a half block from his home, and helped himself to provisions, destroying his citizenship and . bringing disgrace upon his bride of a few mouths. The one man will remain and be respected in the community, the other may go to prison; one home will be happy, the other sad; prosperity may come to the fam ily of the honest father, while poverty, so far as the wayward husband is concerned, will be the lot of the young wife who was to have eaten the stolen food. Honesty in the face of poverty is to be admired. Men, though poor, who turn to crime are not to be excused. Their state of mind may contribute provocation, but the man who in youth learned the lesson of in dustry and whose idea is not to get on with as little effort as possible will not take the path which leads to the criminal courls. There are things more humiliating than ask- - ing for alms. Ladle Charley McDonald, of Oklahoma, started something when he tcld his grand- HEALTH AND THE FARM. DON'T get the mistaken idea, altogether too prevalent, that farm life is healthi est because it is farm life. Farm life gives ample opportunity for an abundance of health, but neglect that opportunity and your chance for health is not so great as it would be in the city. In a recent address in Chicago, Dr. Carl L. Alsbcrg, chief of the United States Bureau of Chemistry, declared that the city is healthier than the farm. He substantiated that statement by statistics. "The largest cities," he said, "need Fed eral protection far less than the small town3 or rural communities. In many states the large cities are the only points which have any real sanitary protection. "Our rural population of 49,000,000 per sons, including the 30,000,000 that live on farms, receive little state health protection, and maintain no local protective system of their own. They are not safeguarded from polluted water supply or sewage disposal, nor against contaminated milk, meats and other foods." And Dr. Carl Alsbcrg ought to know. There can be no disputing the fact that precautionary measures reduce the death rate in the city, and lack of precautionary methods increases the death rate in the' country. AN EXCELLENT BEGINNING. EVERY one will be pleased to learn that the Panama Canal, which required years and millions of money to cos-, struct, is already on the way to a self-sustaining basis. From August 15 to October 1 the earnings of the new waterway amount ed to more than $700,000. The increase in October was 40 per cent over the preceding month, the receipts totaling $377,086. WTien it is taken into consideration that the canal has been open only a few months, and that the European war has stagnated commerce, this is indeed a satisfactory showing. The first consignment of cotton to go through the canal left Galveston on the steamer Penrith Castle for Yokohama, with' 3270 bales. Other ships with this' com modity will soon fall in line, because by. using the canal the vessels will save between those ports 5280 nautical miles, 22 days' time, or .5000 on the outward voyage alone. Here is only a straw, but it is an excellent example of what the canal is to do for our commerce. With lines of steamships between the At lantic and Pacific oceans soon to be inaug urated, tlie Panama route will be the fa vored one for Easterners who visit the bit .exposition nt San Francisco next year, par ticularly for those who have plenty of time nt their disposal and who desire to acquaint themselves with the big waterway about which they have read so much in recent vears. Norway and Sweden combined would be j hard nut for either Russia or Germany to crack. There are few more hardy or brave fighters limn the descendants of Eric the Red, et al., (hough their numbers may be small. It is still mighty hard to get more than 100 cents' worth of anything for a dollar, in spite of the fact that the Federal bank reserve system is in operation. No favors arc to be shown by equal suf frage, lament the women who are older than they look, but must register their correct age. Wonder if they all will! Pictures of the Kaiser, King George and the President of France, with the motto "Peace on earth, good will toward men," make a fine Christmas card. , There is this to be said in favor of tlie spiked helmet worn by the German soldiers there is no danger of them blowing oft,