Image provided by: Hermiston Public Library; Hermiston, OR
About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 1936)
Thursday, October 29, 1936 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON. Washington OREGON STATE NEWS OF GENERAL INTEREST Brief Resume of Happenings of the Week Collected for Our Readers National Topics Interpreted By WILLIAM BRUCKART NATIONAL PRESS BLDG. WASHINGTON D C Washington — During the recent bitter campaigning, both national po- A , liticai parties en- - ne Coal gaged in a good Industry deal of palaver about the coal in dustry. As usual, the politicians were patting the miners on the back, telling them what wonderful assets to the nation they are, and carrying their demagoguery further by crit icism of the mine owners every now and then because it was popular with labor to attack employers. Altogeth er, it was a rather sorry spectacle and, I think, did not do credit to either side to any extent. But in this report, I want to stress a very much less obvious phase of the problem than was made apparent in any of the electioneer ing. With all of the verbiage cast aside, with all of the political hood winking forgotten, there is a very deep and difficult problem in the coal industry. I think it can be sum marized in one question: What is the future of coal, the coal industry, and the thousands of men who know no other source of livelihood than that which they eke out in the bowels of the earth? This question, if proper analysis is made, encompasses more than the usual factors that operate in economics. It does that because of policies of the federal government, among states and among municipal ities. Because of the attempts to influence votes, the whole question has got into politics and that of itself is ruinous, an obstacle to a scienti fic solution. Not so many years ago coal mine owners and coal labor units had what amounted to a monopoly on our fuel supply. Then came oil, oil with all of the scientific development that followed in its wake. Despite this, operators and labor leaders continued to take their toll from the hapless user of coal for fuel, be that user a great factory or an individual consumer in furnace or round oak stove. But that was not all. Electric ity came along with its constantly increasing automatic control. First, of course, in the larger communities and later it came to villages and farm homes. Still, the mine owners and the coal labor leaders followed an unwise course, still, they con tinued to take their toll and before they fully realized what the circum stance was, they had succeeded by their acts in building up a desire on the part of millions of people to use some other sort of fuel. The end is not yet, and that is why the subject is most important at this stage of our history. • « • During the Roosevelt administra tion we have seen an impetus given to public owner- Public ship of power Ownership plants never equalled. 11 h i n k I much of this development has gone on in a hit-and-n.iss fashion and that eventually the public will pay for the shiftless methods employed in development, but that is beside the point. The present question is whether our nation is going to con tinue to expand public ownership in such a way as to ruin an industry that is as much a part of our basic economic structure as any other unit of our natural life. I think some times it goes beyond that for the reason that, unless people awaken to the fact that they are being hood winked to a considerable extent by public ownership propaganda, it is likely to spread and public owner ship will become a frankenstein, a parasite on our body public. When I referred to the destruction of a great industry, I had in mind the thought that the consequences will run in two directions. Yet, para doxically as it may seem, they constitute a cycle. It works out like this: As the demand for coal de clines, it is quite natural that pro duction costs go up. When production costs go up, they eventually reach the point where a further diminu tion occurs in demand. When that decline in demand occurs, there is only one answer: Labor is thrown out of work because you cannot produce and have those products piled high in storage. It takes money to keep labor and machinery occu pied. The coal itself, after being removed from the mines, represents money and it is subject as well to deterioration. So, the ultimate to be expected on this side of the pic ture is an industry dying of dry rot. On the other side of the problem is an equally important factor at work. It takes an immense amount of cap ital, massed in corporate form, to maintain a going concern whether that concern be coal mining, rail roading or any other of our great industries. These industries operate largely on funds obtained through the sale of stocks and bonds of the corporation. But it has always been true, and human nature shows no signs of changing, that capital is not attracted to, it does not seek investment in, a declining industry. There you have a possibility at least of insufficient funds to carry through for the coal mining industry until it can readjust itself to the new place it must occupy in our economic structure. It will occupy a new place because it will readjust itself, but it has not done so yet and the con sequence of this condition is, in my opinion, coal mine labor is due for some very hard sledding in the next decade, notwithstanding the honeyed words of the politicians. • • • Now, to turn to the part that gov ernment plays in bringing about present conditions Blame I have attempted Demagogues to show how greed on the part of both capital and labor was responsible in a measure for building up what amounts to ill-will among many coal consumers. But the industry it self is not wholly responsible. In deed, I rather hold the opinion that government is as much responsible for conditions as the industry itself, and when I say government, I must limit my reference to political dem agogues. They always have been shortsighted and they are still short- sighted. They have been and they are now willing to sacrifice great masses of men and money for per sonal political gain of an entirely transitory character. I have said before in these col umns that the country is being sadly kidded—it is almost tragic—by the wonders of such parasitic organiza tions as TVA. The public ownership crowd have had a willing leader in President Roosevelt and his hangers-on have promoted his poli cies of public ownership without be ing honest as to the ultimate goal, or the eventual effect. It is not alone that there have been millions wasted in the develop ment of the Tennessee valley electri cal mirage. It is not so much that taxpayers throughout the country will be paying a bill and paying it over and over again, that causes me to complain. It is not so much that the Tennessee Valley Authority will never be economically operated or become self-sustaining that brings this outburst. It is the fact that when a government, national, state or local, leads the way in this direc tion, it wields an influence upon a certain percentage of our popula tion. Since public ownership advo cates, in many instances, plain so cialism, where in control of these agencies such as TVA, it is per fectly natural that they present to the taxpayers only the most rosy side of the story. They do not dis close to the taxpayers the adverse, the costly side, of the situation. Na turally then, hundreds of thousands of people believe that government can do this sort of thing better than private enterprise. They be come convinced that private initia tive has been turned into a spigot through which individual pocket- books are drained. They do not real- ize that their pocketbooks are being drained much more heavily through public ownership by means of the taxes they take from you and me and everyone else. That is the sad story, made worse by the fact that through nearly four years the Wash ington government has been encour aging people to believe public own ership propaganda and distrust and destroy private investment. • • • Recent Treasury figures show that the Resettlement Administration has , paid approximate- Expensive ly $27,750,000 of Dream its total appropri ation of $134,518,- 000 for administrative expenses. That is, the organization which is the pride and joy of Professor Rex ford Guy Tugwell has paid that amount of money to job holders in trying to carry out the professor’s impossible dream. While the sum shown as used for administrative expenses by Profes sor Tugwell is small, compared to the billions of total waste in the Roosevelt administration, the prop er way to consider this circum stance is on a percentage basis. If you take your pencil you can cal culate that about 20 per cent or one fifth of all the funds appropriated to Professor Tugwell for resettlement, has been used in management of his plan. It may be a fraction under 20 per cent, but it is so close that even the fastidious Mr. Tugwell would not quarrel about the dif ference. One-fifth of an appropriation that is designed theoretically at least to serve for relief purposes is entirely too much. It is not as great per haps as has happened with one or two other relief appropriations, but it has always been claimed that the Tugwell scheme was planned to re- establish those who have been re settled on a permanent basis. That is to say, it was planned that the bulk of the money should be used in providing those people with a fresh start in life, but I cannot see where they are getting the full meas ure of help intended if a lot of job 1 holders sit around in Washington offices or in offices in various states using up one-fifth of the total lay- out of cash. • Western Newspaper Union. Bandon—The Bank of Bandon, al though missing some of its records, opened for business only three weeks after the fire. Bend—The Bend Bulletin has ap plied for a permit to operate a radio broadcast station to serve the Central Oregon country. Eugene—Flax plants at Eugene, Springfield, and Mt. Angel will have Increased storage capacity due to ap proval of more than $20,000 of PWA funds to each plant. Albany—A parcel of land 18 by 1312 feet is being condemned by the state highway commission for an esti mated value of five dollars. It is on the Sweet Horne-Halsey highway. Junction City—Paving of the Eu- gene-Junction City cutoff was started recently. The work will progress two miles at a time. The entire 12 mile project is expected to be completed by spring. Oregon City—The lives of dogs here are severely menaced by poison. “Buster," pet dog of Mrs. William Gold was the twentieth to succumb to its effects within the past few months. Forest Grove—Building In Forest Grove has already greatly surpassed that of the entire year of 1935. A $10,000 theatre project is the great est single piece of construction so far this year. Monmouth—For the first time In the history of the school, there is a man’s domitory on the campus of the state normal. West house was recently remodeled into a dormitory, accomodating 20 men. Salem—State police are eyeing windshields carrying stickers other than those provided for by law. Num erous complaints have been received calling Superintendent of Police Pray’s attention to the violations. Salem—A crime detection labora tory is to be installed In the pathol ogy department of the University of Oregon medical school In Portland. The laboratory will employ the lat est scientific equipment and methods. Portland—"Old Man Oregon” is a lucky landlord according to recent reports. Vacancy of state owned prop erty is only two per cent., only 11 properties out of 661 owned by the state only the World War Veteran’s state aid commission being unoccu pied. Pendleton — The ancient art of spinning yarn from a spinning wheel has been revived by Mrs. Phil Hirl of Heppner. She brought the spin ning wheel from Ireland years ago and Is using wool from Angora goats. She will use the yarn to make a sweater for her husband. Salem—Work on the actual con struction of Oregon’s new capitol building will start about December 1 with bids being opened November 20, according to C. C. Hockley, PWA administrator for Oregon. It is hoped that blds will be low enough to al low white marble to be used. Salem—The state board of control has accepted the recently completed $190,000 addition to the state hospi tal for the insane. The new addition will accomodate 160 patients. This still leaves the institution crowded, however, as there is an overflow at this time of 216 from a total popula tion of 2400. Eugene—County courts so rarely receive praise for its works that it was considered to the “man bites dog” idea, in other words "news,” when some farmers presented the county officials with a box if cigars in appreciation for the graveling of a half mile of road relieving five families of traversing the distance on foot in mud during the rainy season. DEER TURNS TABLES Baker—A buck deer opened his own season recently and with a well directed blow of his antlers brought down a man at Ironside. The animal, a pet, was chasing school children when the man, to protect the chil- dreh, interfered, driving the animal away. Later the animal attacked him. NEW RADIO STATION LaGrande— The state Is building a short wave radio station here for use by the police and state highway department and at the same time comes word that a party has applied to the federal communications com mittee for permission to construct a broadcast station with unlimited hours of operation and with power of 100 watts at night and 250 during the day. Hood River—More than 4000 tons of Bartlett pears have been canned this season at the Apple Growers association cannery here, giving em ployment to nearly 500 who are now giving their attention to the canning of apples. Portland—The state highway com mission has decided that all road signs, including elub insignia, must be removed as they have been erected without the permission of the high way group and are not in accordance with its beautification program. SrirbsGb” S A Trio of Trim Togs about : Campaign's Home Stretch. everly hills , calif . —Here the campaign is prac tically on its last legs, when it isn’t standing on its head and spinning around—but yet not a peep out of the three fairest- haired young hopes of the New Deal. They’re still putting on an act— what’s known in vaudeville as a dumb act—entitled “The Bollo Boys in a Sub-Cellar.” Horrid tales abound. ’Tis rumored that the gurgling sound coming from the White House dungeon is caused by Tugwell trying to get the gag out of his mouth with both hands tied behind his back. And a note believed to have been written by Harry Hopkins has been slipped through the bars begging somebody to smuggle in a file Irvin S. Cobb in a loaf of bread. Richberg, once the merriest of the administration’s songsters, doesn’t chirp any more, having been in duced to take on the role of the man in the iron mask. B Remote-Control Patriotism. T)ID you ever notice that these — impassioned European states men, who so boldly defy tyrants in the homeland, generally put two or three national boundaries between themselves and the objects of their hate before cutting loose? One fiery anti-fascist waited until he got to Hoboken to tell Mussolini right to his face—the face being only 5,000 miles distant — exactly what he thought of him. Not that I’d blame any patriot for playing safety first, dictators being so sensitive to criticism. In fact, I like the idea so much, I’m think ing of taking a correspondence course in lion-taming, myself. • « * Debunking Politics. AN nothing be done to stop the destructive utterances of this man, Al Smith? Think of him, as he did in that Philadelphia speech of his, urging the voters to sift the bunk out of the campaign and study the facts. Does he want to deflate the whole system of American poli tics? Would you hire a cook who squeezed all the meat out of the sausage and fried the sausage skin for breakfast? Even so, maybe a little debunk ing would be gratifying to quite a lot of us who wish to start concen trating on football as soon as possi ble. I’m especially interested in how Yale comes out on its clever little idea of selling to a commer cial broadcast the radio rights for all games played on the home grounds. But the fellow who gets the empty-bottles concession is the one who’ll really clean up. • • • "Lead Dollar’s” Immortality. OW some old friends do hang on! Twenty-five years ago or there abouts, it appeared as a short story in Everybody’s magazine under the title, “The Lead Dollar.” Twenty years ago, believing I was using an actual occurrence which never before had been fic- tionized, I wrote it, too, and called it “Heart of Lead,” and, barely in time, was saved by Bob Davis and Charlie Van Loan from the unin tentional but nonetheless serious lit erary crime of plagiarism. Fifteen years ago, Octavus Roy Cohen and I just did head off a young girl writer who already had sold the same tale to a pleased edi tor. I forget now what she called her version. Today, practically complete in all its sequences—poker game, bogus money, practical jokes, good Sa maritan, homeless girl, skeptical hotel clerk, pitiable suicide and all —I find this dear old familiar stand- by in the current issue of a popular monthly with yet another author sponsoring it. • • • Jack Garner's Activities. onth after month. Uncle Jack Garner never said anything but “Ouch!” and then not for pub lication. It seemed that, if defeat ed, he would go back from the com parative obscurity of Washington to the blazing prominence of Uvalde county, Texas, as the most finished specimen of sound-proof nominee American politics ever produced. But he's no longer a perfect exam ple to all innocent bystanders—he’s just a candidate. Having read his first speech. I'm reminded of the English gentlewom an who fell on hard times but did have a few layin’ hens left and was driven by necessity to peddle their product in the open street. So she picked out a back alley for her debut into vulgar trade, and, as she crept stealthily along, whis pered in a stricken undertone: “Fresh eggs, tuppence. I hope no one sees me. Fresh eggs, tup- pence. I hope no one hears me.” IRVIN S. COBB. ©— WNU Service. C H 1950 1891 1812. This trio of trim togs offers an appealing variety to the woman who sews at home. There is style and economy in every design. Pattern No. 1950, the tunic, is one of the season’s smartest, fea turing a modish stand-up collar and just the right amount of flare or “swing.” A grand ensemble for any youthful figure. Simply and inexpensively made, this clever pattern is designed for sizes: 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20; 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 and 40. Size 14 requires three and one-eighth yards for the tunic in 39 inch material and two yards for the skirt. Five-eighths yard ribbon required for the bow. Pattern No. 1891 is a perfect fitting princess wrap around or a coat frock with a reversible clos ing. It has everything demanded of a morning or utility frock— style, slimming lines, slashed set- in sleeves, one or two patch pockets, simplicity of design, and a double breasted closing which is smart and compelling. Avail able in a wide range of sizes, 14 to 20; and from 32 to 48, this versatile frock will win a favorite spot in your clothes closet in short order. Size 16 requires four and three-eighths yards of 35 inch material. For tiny tots, pattern No. 1812 has all the adorable qualities you like to associate with darling cherubs. The pattern includes a waist and pantie combination, as well as the frock and will serve for party or playtime wear with equal facility. Utterly simple in design and construction, it will slide through your machine in a brief hour or two and be a source of never ending delight to your style conscious daughter. Avail able in sizes: 2, 3, 4, and 5 years and suitable for a wide selection of fabrics. Size 3 requires just two and five-eighths yards of 35 or 39 inch material, plus three- eighths yard contrast for the col lar and sleeve band. Send for the Barbara Bell Fall Pattern Book containing 100 well- planned, easy-to-make patterns. Exclusive fashions for children, young women, and matrons. Send fifteen cents for your copy. Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., 149 New Montgomery Ave., San Francisco, Calif. Patterns 15 cents each. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. KEEPS . CIEAR FOR Don't let Winter catch you unprepared! M WAKCR STATS tr/r/rcK oh In Winter, more than ever, your car need* the extra lubricating value that Quaker State's exclusive refining process puts into its oils and greases. Quaker State Oil Refining Company, Oil City, Pennsylvania. Retail price ... 35, per quart. QUAKER i STATE : MOTOR OIL
