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THE GAZETTE-TIMES, HEIT.VER, THTRSDAY, JTLT 24, 1919,
THE GAZETTE-TIMES
The Heppner Gaietto, Established
March 30, 1S83.
The Herrner Times, Establish
November IS, 1S;7.
Consolidated February 15, 191!.
Published every Thursday morning by
Vwter aid Speoeer Crawford
and entered at the Postoffice at Hepp
ner, Oregon, as second-class matter.
ADVERTISING RATES GIVES OS
APPLICATION".
SUBSCRIPTION RATEs:
Six Months
Three Months
Single Copies
$2.00
1.00
.75
.05
MORROW COIXTY OFFICIAL PAPER
THE WRONG IDEA.
Some town editors still have the
idea that the average farmer cannot
understand words of more than one
syllable, and that as a class he differs
in intelligence from his town broth
ers. Town editors need not worrk over
the lack of intelligence of their
country readers; the success of na
tionally circulated farm magazines,
that publish technical articles, and
articles in no whit edited down to
their rural readers, 'proves that the
farmer as a class today is able to
read big print without a reading
glass.
Our hunch is that the average of
intelligence, of patriotism, aye of ef
ficiency, is as high in the country as
in town.
We believe that the farmer who
has sense enough to successfully
manage his complicated business in
these strenuous days has sense
enough to understand about anything
any town editor is able to dish up;
and that the day of the old farm pa
per, with its rehash, its sloppy edit
ing, its miserable cuts, its Sis Hop
kins jest columns, and its fake ads,
has passed.
The farmer is conservative, he has
to be to remain in business, but he is
not so hide-bound that he cannot
progress. Indeed, when he thinks
he is really headed somewhere, he
can trot an amazing heat, as the
recent referendum in North Dakota
will indicate to the observing.
And, with the increase in rural
prosperity, and the formation of ju
venile agricultural clubs, and the
wonderful work of the county
agents; the adoption of labor-saving
machinery, and the magic carpet of
the automobile, that brings the far
mer to the city in two hours, there
has come a new enlightening in even
the back regions, and though the
townsman may not see it those who
know the country, and who are really
a part of it, do.
Personally our only fear is that as
an editor we will not be able to do
justice to the new spirit of progress
of the new agriculture. We are not
at all worried over the necessity of
writing "down" to our readers; they
are not that kind; indeed, we doubt
if there are any of that sort in this
enlightened country.
Senator Poindexter of Washington,
in enumerating the many reasons
why he would be a good presidential
candidate, sets forth that he is 100
American. This seems to us a su
perfluous statement, in view of the
fact that the American people are no
longer judging a man by what he
says, but by what his past record has
shown him to have done. At that,
the Republican party could put forth
a weaker man.
In building a substantial two-story
business block, the pioneer firm of
Gilliam & Bisbee are showing that
they have faith in Heppnefs future.
They are setting a good example for
others.
They say that Henry Ford invent
ed an auto which will climb a tele
graph pole, a tractor which will rear
up and fall over backward, and now
he has invented a libel suit which is
causing Henry to, figuratively, take
to the tall timber. Its one case of
where the plaintiff is standing trial.
Some one has asked, "What did
Henry ever do?" The roads are
lousy with what he has done. Out
side of that he has progressed less
fast than the ordinary school child,
for Henry himself admits that he
knows nothing about history and
cares less for art.
CAN WOMEN FARM?
Farming, like shoeing horses and
climbing telephone poles sftii play
ing baseball and smoking a pipe has,
until recently, been held a man's job.
Serious doubts were expressed as
to whether women, en masse, could
manage farms, handle stock, do
chores, and harvest crops in compe
tition with their brothers.
The farmerettes proved that wo
men could do about anything on a
farm that a man could, and frequent
ly do it better.
But the real proof of a women's
adaptability on the farm will be
found in the pig, bee, calf, corn and
garden clubs of the country.
We know that one girl took a small
pig. handled it until it was of mar
ketable size, and made it gain two
and a half pounds a day. An average
somewhat 100 per cent better than
the general hog raiser contrives to
reach.
We see that several girls succeeded
so well with bees that they convert
ed their fathers to new methods, and,
in some instances, took over the
farm apiary for their own.
A girl of 12 manages one of the
prize Jersey herds of the country.
The gardens of the girls produce
as abundantly, and give as high
quality fruit and produce as do those
of their brothers.
Girls raise and select seed corn
that stands high enough to sell to
adult corn farmers at a premium.
It appears that in a few years,
when these girls, thousands of them
in these school clubs, grow up, the
rank of producers will be augmented
by skilled women workers, and in
stead of the woman-managed farm
being a rarity it will become com
monplace. Indeed, there is no task in the field
more arduous than those that for
years have been found in farm kit
chens, dairies and back porches, and
the woman will lose nothing by trad
ing her washboard for a riding plow.
GOSSIPS.
A gossip is one who bears tales.
Usually these tales are based on ru
mor or half fact and in the popular
mind, the telling of them is associated
with sunbonnets, long noses and
high-pitched voices. But a great
many gossips are masculine, and this
editorial refers to a particularly per
nicious and harmful sort of male
trouble maker.
We are thinking of those editorial
writers on city newspapers who per
sist in calling the farmers of the
country profiteers, and who make
other vicious and ignorant charges
which are widening a dangerous
class-hatred breach. All the real
evidence that anyone had adduced
proves that farmers are not profi
teers. Very few of them had suffi
cient income to demand an income
tax return. Such farm-management
surveys and cost-accounting figures
as are available show that the aver
age farmer does not earn interest on
his investment and establish conclu
sively that' he is able to make wages
only by selling off the fertility re
serve in his soil and compelling his
family to labor without compensa
tion. Because the farmer gets most of
the packer's dollar, it does not prove
that he makes a large profit off his
cattle. Who gets the most of the
consumer's dollar? There is the
trail to the skunk's den Nor was
the price of wheat fixed up. It was
fixed down, and everyone who pos
sesses any acurate knowledge on the
subject knows it. .
The real profiteers, as proven by
the income-tax returns, do business
just around the corner from the sanc
tum where the sappy newspaper
economists write their drivel regard
ing farms and farmers. But these
editorial Samsons, casting about for
subjects to fill their columns every
day, possessing a mighty show of
courage of any convictions they can
hear of or think of for space fillers,
and brave enough not to let their ig
norance of farming deter them from
solving the economic problems of
the back county, clutch at the ru
mors amout farmers' making a lot of
money, and parade them before their
readers with a show of strong words
and ornate phrases. Their work has
the high sound of truth, because of
their cleverness, but it is plain bunk.
Never do they refer back to the dark
days of crop failure and ruinously
low prices to the producer.
A sample of the sort of intellectual
drool dealt out by these factless light
ning calculators is this phrase from
a daily newspaper in one of our
great cities, a city, by the way, whose
prosperity is rooted in the farms
about it :
". . . the best paid artisans in
cities do not receive as great a wage
for the year as the average farmer."
farmer."
If this is true the joke is on the
best paid artisan. At Chicago the
milk commission refused to allow
farmers thirty cents an hour wages
for producing milk. In various cities
newspapers and other agencies have
j fought the demands of milk pro
ducers that they be allowed to pay
themselves a managerial salary. The
wages of a city plumber would seem
like riches to the average farmer.
Another intellectual pearl, thrown
out in the same newspaper, is the as-
sertion that the average farmer does
not work eight hours a day the year
round.
, In some sections of the country
"this is true. These are the same lo
calities, however, in which a cus
tomer is a nuisance because he dis
turbs the merchant's nap. It is also
true of certain one-crop areas, but
for the great milk-meat-grain-general-farming
area it is not true.
Possibly it may surprise our city
editorial gossips to learn that even in
the winter time there are always
duties on the farm, and the fanner
arises at what they would consider
an impossibly early hour. Daylight
saving is nothing new to the farmer.
He has saved all he could of it at
both ends of the day, so much so that
he has been dubbed by the jokesters,
with considerable truth, the original
eight-hour man, working eight hours
before noon and eight hours after.
No doubt it will pain these city his
torians of farm life to learn that so
far no plan has been devised where
by the farmer can lie in bed in the
morning and touch electric buttons
which will feed the hogs, sheep, cat
tle horses and chickens; milk the
cows, including the heifer with a sore
teat ; run a vacuum cleaner over the
stock; haul the feed; deliver the
milk; fix fences; chop wood and do
the thousand and one other chores
of a general farm. Instead of this
ideal arrangement with which they
would divide the farmer's day into
eight hours for work, eight hours for
sleep and eight hours for play, he
finds it necessary to answer the early
summons of the rooster and spend
at work the eight hours which they
would give him for the daily romp
with the young things of the farm.
Country Gentleman. .
INK VS. GAB.
"Every few days Portland has a
big banquet at which the loquatious
epicures gather and 'orate' about us
ing Oregon made products," says the
Canyon City Blue Mountain Eagle.
That paper then continues by asking,
"what are Oregon-made products?"
The Eagle ventures the asesrtion that
at least 50-50 on their banquet bill
of fare is imported. The Grant coun
ty editor believes that the inspiration
back of these banquets is alright, but
thinks the need is "less oratorical
bullion and more printers' ink to tell
the story of Oregon products, "iiu
vertise them, if you want to sell them
and advertise them in the counties
where the goods are expected to be
sold. Advertise them in the country
press."
In these days of aridity, it may be
remembered as a matter of history
that Umatilla county once had a dis
tillery. The Tribune of Pendleton
notes that the county has had many
breweries but only one distillery.
Not taking into account, however,
some of the non-revenue-payers that
might have been or might, still be
hidden away in their mountain re
cluse. The late Hezikiah Key of
Weston maintained one of those in
teresting affairs many years, and the
remanants of the building and ma
chinery still stand. The old gentle
man was reared in North Carolina,
and looked upon the whiskey indus
try as wholly legitimate. He did not
make much of a financial success
against the whiskey trust, but the
boys of old will testify that he made
a good kicking article.
An illegitimate son of an Indiana
Senator kills a girl and gets his pic
ture in nearly every city daily in the
country. The one sure road to no
toriety. "Some of the press dope," says
the Pendleton East Oregonian, "in
cluding cartoons sent out by Jona
than Bourne's Republican publicity
service is too silly for any use. If
the Republican party continues to
let J. Bourne direct its publicity work
the time will soon come when one
of the needs of the day will be for a
coffin that will hold an elephant."
Here's another case of where the
"wish is father of the thought" no
doubt, as we have never been able
to notice where the East Oregonian
was genuinely interested in the wel-!
fare of the G. O. P. If the facts did ,
exist, and the elephant was in mor
tal danger, our esteemed contempor
ary in the Let'er Buck city would be
secretly and silently laughing up its
sleeve, never uttering a word of
warning to the poor benighted ani
mal. l-j
Our annual water shortage brings
home again the ever-looming fact
that we must seek a greater supply.
The water bonding issue would look
like a God-send to our parched
throats and dry gardens and lawns if
presented today.
Has anyone asked the 65,000,000
Chinese residents of Shantung what
they think of President Wilson's 14
points and the League of Nations? .
NO EXCUSE NOW.
"Come back here" were the shrill
cries that overtook a crippled Ar
gonne hero as he hobbled from a
Chicago drug-store where he hadi
purchased his favorite bunion pads
to ease his remaining foot wrecked
when fighting Huns in the trenches.
He had deposited the regular price
stamped on the box, 25 cents. "You
come across with two cents more to
meet the luxury war tax on corn pads
for crippled soldiers," he was told.
And as the hero digged down for the
extra brownies, he was heard to mut
ter something familiarly similar to
what Sheman denominated war.
American Economical.
Even the children are taxed on
every stick of candy they buy and ice
cream they eat.
During the rush of war and neces
sity for raising money rapidly, the
passage of this act can be excused
but there is no excuse now for failure
to change this "nagging tax."
More Than A Million People
Drink From National Forest
Eighty-seven cities and towns of
Oregon, Washington and Alaska de
rive the water supply for their mu
nicipal water works from the Nation
al Forests of the North Pacific Dis
trict, according to a report Just com
plied in the office of District Forester
George H. Cecil. Of these towns
thirty-eight, having an estimated pop
ulation of 392,000, are In Oregon;
forty-two, with a population of 634,
000, are in Washington; and seven,
with 15,000, are in Alaska.
The larger towns of the district us
ing National Forest water are Port
land, Eugene, Oregon City, Rose
burg, Albany, Medford, Ashland, Ba
ker, LaGrande, The Dalles, and Bend,
Oregon; Seattle, Tacoma, Everett,
Walla Walla, Yakima, Wenatchee,
Aberdeen, Port Angeles, Ellensburg,
and Roslyn, Washington; and An
chorage, Cordova, Ketchikan and Pe
tersburg, Alaska.
The Forest Service cooperates with
the towns In protecting their water
sheds from fire and trespass, and
every effort is made to keep the water
free from any sort of contamination.
Formal cooperative agreements be
tween the Secretary of Agriculture
and the city officials are In effect pro
viding for this protection of the wa
tersheds of Tacoma and Walla Walla
In Washington, and Oregon City, The
Dalles, Dufur, Wallowa, Baker, and
Toledo In Oregon.
Mrs. Emmett Cochran left Sunday
for Seaside, to spend several weeks
t that popular beach resort. Shf
was accompanied by Master Law
rence Stevenson, young son of Mr.
and Mrs. George Stevenson.
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I PACIFIC GRAIN CO.
Successor to M. H. Eouser 5
GRAIN, GRAIN BAGS AND TWINE
Local Agents
1 CARL YOUNT, lone T. H. LOWE, Cecil
1 ' JOS. BURGOYNE, Lexington
R. V. WHITEIS; Heppher
Your Patronage Will Be Appreciated
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SPECIAL
ATTRACTIVE PRICES
ON FIVE AND TEN BARREL LOTS OF
White Spray and Dements
Best Flour
The Northern Grain and Warehouse Co.
hi
have just received a carload of White
Spray and Dements Best Flour from
the Eureka Mills at Walla Walla.
ALSO MILL FEED
Grain Bags and Twine
We are in the market for all kinds of grain. .
C. B. Sperry, Agent
lone, Oregon
"PRINTING THAT PLEASES" THE Gazette-Times Shop.
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