Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 1943)
r ft Behind the Scene at Salem By Rep. Giles French Before this is read the 42nd le gislative assembly should certainly have adjourned. It might not, how ever, if all of the troubles that might arise do so. Just as the ways and means com mittee announced that it would be able to arrange things so the state could get along for another two years the state liquor board an nounced rationing of hard liquor. Monday the committee was told that it would make no difference with the income. The administra-. tor announced that it would cut to tal sales by two thirds. Chances are that there will be some liquor board certificates of delinquency wit before the next legislature comes into being and a. bunch of montey to find to pay them. The governor has demanded, and liis wish has been granted, that pensions be raised from around $25 to about $39. It was necessary to change some of the welfare board estimates to do this because there is less match money for general assistance than for old age pen sions. These figures will never be reduced much after they go into effect which means a steadily heav ier burden for taxpayers to lift. Then, "too, wages have been rais ed for nearly every stale employe. The state police, the people who work at the institutions, county officers have all been granted lar ger salaries. They were needed, too in most cases. They will probably never again go down to the 1942 level These things make it nearly im possible to make reduction in any taxes, although it seems that there is some to be made whether those making the reduction really think it advisable or not. The old timers around the legislature, the veteran members of the ways and means, the tax men, all know that any Serious cut in the state tax struc ture is going to make our present surplus look pretty small before long. There is going to be need for some money when the soldiers come home again after the war. They will need rehabilitation to acquaint them with civilian ways again. There should be, and will be, an educational program for them, perhaps some sort of loan to en able them to buy a home. The citizens of the state are go ing to want to do do something for the boys then and will feel as fool ish as did Simole Simon if they have nothing with them to do it. It is probable that the peorole of the state would be better off if the legislature had quit Saturday night. Alwavs there is a bunch of bills left in committee 'at the end of a session. These are generally bad bills that had objections so serious that committee members would not pass them out in regular course. As the session comes near its end, and the sponsors of these bills re new their efforts and often succeed in getting the bills out. Then they sometimes pass. It is often well if the session ends before many of 'these can get out. Of course many of these could be beaten if everyone wasn't so busy trying to finish his work. There is nothing around here now that needs to pass except possibly the occupational disease bill. The remainder of it, including the tax reduction bills might better be forgotten. RETURNS TO WORK Mrs. Glen Haves has returned to the switchboard at the local tele phone office after an absence of 10 days due to sickness. Farmers Ready To Plant Peas Coming Week Better. Than 1,000 Acres Signed Up For New Crop Production of the war crops in Mcrrow county is receiving much attention by the farmers and the USDA war board this week. 120,000 pounds of dry edible pea seed has just arrived in the county and many farmers will be seeding their peas this coming week. There will be better than 1,000 acres of dry edible peas grown in the coun ty this year which will help pro vide a non-perishable high protein food for our soldiers and for lend lease shipment to our allies. Peas have never been grown ex tensively in Morrow county but with the added moisture this year and the need for dry edible peas, better than 50 farmers have agreed to use part of their land for this much needed crop. Special emphasis is also being placed on dry beans ,potatoes, pas ture and hay. The average potato acreage in the county has been about 100 acres and this year there will be close to about 300 acres. The dry bean acreage has been in creased from about 60 acres to 100 acres. The county AAA committee has completed the setting of war goals for all farms in the county this week and all farmers will be no tified immediately of their goals. Pasture and hay crops are con sidered as war crops this year and f war goals are being set for each of these as the feed situation is not bright with the livestock numbers at an all time high and with little or no carry over of hay. This coup led with the certain labor shortage during haying makes it necessary to place hay and pasture at the head of the list for needed crops. War goals are not being set for Continued on Page Eight Teachers Signify Desire to Return At a school board meeting held Monday evening, March 8, the fol lowing teachers expressed a desire to return to Heppner next year and were offered contracts: Myr thena Martin, first grade; Elizabeth Dix, second grade; Bonnie Smith, third grade; Lela Peterson, third . grade; Lera Crawford, fourth grade; Frances Weaver fifth; Rose Hoos ier, sixth; Hester Peavy, seventh; and the following high school tea chers: Norbert Peavy, Lyle Swen son, Joyce Hugill, Evelyn Young berg, Don Strait, and George Cor win, superintendent. Margaret Wright tendered her resignation, effective at the end of the school year to accept a perma nent position in the public play grounds at Portland. Chrisobel Os borne's plans are unsettled as yet so her contract is withheld for the present. Minister Resigns To Attend School Martin B. Clark, pastor of the Heppner Church of Christ the past four years, Sunday tendered his resignation to the church board and asked to be relieved of the pastorate by July 1. It is Mr. Clark's plan to attend school t Butler university in the east. The local church has fared well under the young minister's pastor ate, one of the outstanding accom plishments of the period being the burning of the church mortgage, an event of last October. Word from the M D .Clark home, where both Mr. and Mrs. Clark have been suffering with the flu the past week, is to the effect that they are on the road to recovery. Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, March 11, 1943 Parachuting Piggy Back Mas Its Thrilling Moments ... Parachuting from a plane should be thrill enough for any soldier, or civilian - for that matter, and when it is done piggy-back style it should satisfy even the most rabid thrill seeker. This style may not be in vogue among the paratroop ers and it remained for a Morrow county boy to introduce it in, at least one instance. Corpl. Donald O. Robinson, son of Mr .and Mrs. Roy Robinson of Hardman, in training with para troopers at Ft. Bragg, N .C, recent ly had an experience which he will not soon forget. An account of Robinson's feat appeared in the Carolina Observer, apparently of Ft. Bragg, and has been passed on to the Gazette Times by its Hard man correspondent, Elsa M Leath ers, who writes: The Fort Bragg paratrooper unit had just carried away all honors at the Golden Globe tournament at Charlotte, N. C, and to show how happy they were over the occasion, 44 enlisted men and four officers volunteered to give an exhibition jump over the broad1 acres of the Carolina Golf club course. Two large transports carried the Local Ration Board Has New Set-UP Harley Richardson, field repre sentative of. the OPA.in Che north eastern Oregon district, spent the fore part of the week in Heppner assisting the rationing board in getting affairs of the office straigh tened out- A personnel change has been ef fected wheerein Mrs. Harry Tam blyn and Mrs. Joe Hughes now are in charge of the office, succeeding Heen Laughlin and Mrs. vWillard Blake. Mrs. Laughlin has been transferred to the Deschutes coun ty rationing board office and will leave shortly for Bend. Mrs. Blake resigned to join her husband at Snohomish, Wash. In addition to Mrs. Tamblyn and Mrs. Hughes, Mrs. L. E. Dick, Jr., spendt the afternoons a tthe office. Mrs. Dick is trade relations chair man dealing with th eproblems of merchants. Richardson states that merchants should contact Mrs. Dick with their price ceiling problems and that answers that cannot be made locally will be taken up with the Portland office with replies forhcoming within 24 hours. Richard Hayes Back in Australia Richard Hayes, son of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Hayes, has written his parents that' he is back in Austra lia, his first foreign base, after a season on the firing line ' in New Guinea. While not revealing much about his activities, he stated that he weighs 186 pounds, which indi cates that the life of a soldier agrees with him. Richard's letter was mailed Feb. 22 and reached its destination March 3. It was the first word they had had from him in many weeks. AUXILIARY SENDS TABLE COVERS TO U. S. HOSPITAL Voting funds for the American Red Cross and the Heppner library marked the meeting of the Ameri anc Legion auxiliary held at the home of Mrs. Harvey Bauman, March 8. Five dollars to the Red Cross war fund and $5 to the library were the amounts subscribed by the la dies and their donation to the U. S. Veterans' hospital in Portland con sisted of bedside table covers. men from Ft Bragg ' to their ob jective. At 1700 feet they began baling out, 12 in a group. The first pilot missed the field slightly and the boys came down in trees, on houses and telephone lines, while the second pilot landed his group neatly on the golf course. Here's where our Morrow county boy entered the picture. As he leapt from the plane he landed' on the head and shoulders of the boy pre ceding him. With this double weight and parachutes unopened, they sped towards earth at a ter rific rate and there was little they could do about it Training and ex perience came to their assistance. They kept cool heads and by work ing in perfect coordination ' suc ceeded in untangling themselves in time for their chutes to open and they floated down safely, landing in a stubblefield The pay-off came after landing and Robinson discov ered that the silk of his chute was torn some three feet. When asked if it wasn't a ter rifying experience, Robinson's re ply was: "This is a picnic to what it will be behind the lines where we are going." Cummings Leaves For New Position Merle Cummings left Monday morning for La Grande to take up his new duties as farmer field man in the Union district, including Un ion, Baker, Wallowa and Malheur counties. He was accompanied by Mrs. Cummings and Mrs. Ed Berg strom. The two ladies will return to Heppner as soon as living quar ters are found in La Grande and Mrs. Qunmings will arrange to move their household goods. Cummings has served the local office of the AAA as assistant sec retary the past four years and his new job, a distinct advance, is in recognition of the ability shown here. Oscar Peterson is serving as as sistant secretary of the AAA board of which Henry Baker is chairman and C. D. Conrad secretary. MARIE POST JOHNSON Judge Bert Johnson drove to Portland Thursday in response to a message that his mother passed away late Wednesday evening. Pri vate funeral services were held from the Rose Undertaking parlors Saturday morning, with interment in Riverview cemetery. Mrs. John son had been a resident of Portland since 1881. Judge Johnson and his sister, Miss Olga Johnson, are the only survivors. Many beautiful flo ral tributes attested to the high es teem in which Mrs. Johnson was held. MAKE TRIP TO PORTLAND Mr. and Mrs. Lee Howell drove to Portland Friday, taking their daughter Mrs. Dorothy Huitt and baby, that far on their way home to Seattle. Lee reports rail travel somewhat of a problem, with not only difficulty in securing passage but more trouble in gaining a seat after acquiring a ticket. He believes he will be content to remain at home or go only as far as his 'A" coupons are good for. HERE FROM SPRAY Frank Cecil of Spray is receiv ing treatment at Heppner hospital his week. He is suffering from an infected knee, the result of stab bing the member with a knife while skinning a sheep. MOVE TO BEND Patty Cason and her mother have gone to Bend where Patty has em ployment in one of the sawmill offices. Vol ume 59, Number 50 Death Claims Bruce Kelley, Flood Hero Long Time Resident Of County Answers Call This Morning Death came to Bruce B. Kelley, 71, at 9:15 a. m. today at Heppner hospital where he has been a pa tient for a month or more. He had been ill most of the time for the past year, suffering from a combination of ailments. Funeral arrangements are await ing word from relatives, a number of whom live in different sections of the northwest. Kelley had been a resident of Morrow county for more than half a century. A native of Vermont, he came west with his parents to California in early boyhood. Short ly after arriving on the coast the family decided to go to Oregon, making the trip by coastal steam er to Portland, later settling in Morrow oonuty, where orman eKl ley, the father, took a homestead on Willow creek a few miles south of Heppner. This homestead grew into a large stock ranch which passed into the hands of the son in later years and which he re tained the rest of his life. On June 14, 1903, when a terri fic electrical storm, accompanied by a heavy cloudbrst in the hills south of Heppner precipitated a disasterous flood on the thriving little city, the name of Bruce Kel ley was firmly imprinted on the minds of thousands of people throughout the west. In company with Leslie Matlock he made a horseback ride to lone which gained for both men the undying gratitude of the people living in the path of the madly rushing water and caused their names to go down in history as the heroes of the Heppner flood. The feat was accomplished by riding over the hills and using wire cutters to save time in getting through fen ces. Their warning is credited with saving much loss of life. Farmer Sustains Injuries in Runaway Lester McKown, who farms the MeMurdb ranch on Rhea creek, is in Heppner hospital receiving treatment for injuries received in an accident at the ranch about 2 p. m. Wednesday. McKown was fixing fence and had a team of horses tied up near by. The animals became frightened at something and breaking their tether started for tle barn, or wherever it is horses go when they run away. McKown can't re member much about the direction the horses took. He was struck down and apparently run over and after the first blow was "out." He was brought to town and placed in the hospital where it was found he had suffered a dislocated shoul er, a compound fracture of the el bow and numerous bruises. WISHES TO CORRECT WRONG IMPRESSION Marshal William Morgan has called attention to the fact that he is not the only relative of the late Clyde Saling residing in this vi cinity. The Morgan family, of which "Bill" and Levi, both Heppner residents at present, are members, long resided here and include Mrs. Artie Conder, Milton; Milton J. F. Morgan, Bellingham, Wash.; An drew Morgan, Del Ray, Calif, and Harry Morgan. Winthrop Wash. Mrs. Clyde Saling is a sister of Charles H. Bartholomew of Pine City. Their parents were the late Judge and Mrs. A. G. Bartholomew, long-time residents of Heppner.