Image provided by: Hermiston Public Library; Hermiston, OR
About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1937)
Thursday, May 6, 1937 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON. Washington Digest National Topics Interpreted Srivoi? about: curb on spending. I have written about this subject many times and I have no regret that I have done so, because for a half dozen years our government has been spending money too rapid- ly. The President’s latest message reviewing the budget situation in dicates that the Chief Executive at last has started his thoughts in the direction of curtailed spending. In deed, Mr. Roosevelt’s message to congress in which he asked for a billion and a half dollars for re lief purposes was characterized by quite a new note of firmness in his discussion of the need for cutting government costs. I think it is fair to say that in previous messages the President gave little more than lip service to the cause of economy in government. His previous sug gestions to congress lacked force. Not so with the current call for a reduction in expenses. It had the earmarks ot determination—but it yet remains to be seen whether he will insist strongly upon his con clusions when the showdown with congress comes. The President’s message was in teresting in several respects beside the note of firmness, mentioned above. He confessed, for example, that there was no chance for a bal anced budget in the next fiscal year. There is no chance, he disclosed, even for achieving the '‘layman’s balance.” That ‘‘layman’s balance” ought to be explained for, my under standing of economics does not con template more than one kind of budget balancing, namely, income equalling outgo. But Mr. Roosevelt, in his campaign last year and in his message to congress last January, spoke of ‘‘layman’s balance” as meaning a balance of income and outgo with the exception of expendi tures for relief and for retirement of the public debt. I have heard it described in many quarters as a trick balance which I truly believe it should be called since it is not an honest balance. In the January message, Mr. Roosevelt talked at length about the necessity for business taking on workers who were then on relief rolls. Only in that manner, he em phasized, could there be a reduction in relief rolls. In the more recent message, the President omitted any reference to the responsibility of industry for reducing relief rolls by re-employ ing workers. That is not strange. •The fact is, according to the gov ernment’s own records, that indus try is taking on workers at a more rapid rate than the administration had expected. But still there is no hope of a balanced budget this year. So we must look elsewhere to find the reason. Instead of one, we find two reasons. The first and most im portant of the two is the fact that, by whatever analysis you make, the New Deal is guilty of continuing to waste money by hundreds of mil lions and it was not until a few weeks ago that any serious effort was made to choke off this drain, assuming the current effort is se rious. That statement sounds complicat ed and dull. It is not either one. The unvarnished truth is that Sec retary Morgenthau and the flock of experts, trained only in theory, with whom he has surrounded himself, were unable to calculate what the present taxes would produce in rev enue. Or, to say the same thing in a few words : Revenue receipts were far below what the Treasury experts guessed they would be. Thus, the picture seems to be clear. On the one hand, the Presi dent heretofore has allowed the al phabetical agencies to run hither and yon in their money spending spree. On the other hand, the lack of competent financial men in the Treasury again is glaringly shown. • • • To get back to the question of curtailed spending I should like to , call attention to Sound» the President’s Strong; but— language in his latest message. He said that he proposed to use "every means at my command” to eliminate the deficit next year. That statement sounds strong enough. I question, however, that it can be called a program of retrenchment. In other words, Mr. Roosevelt was content in his message to congress simply to criticize, if not to de nounce, extravagant outlays insofar as new commitments are con cerned. During the last few weeks, Mr. Roosevelt has called upon the vari ous agencies of the government for statements of their financial re quirements and something of a re view of what they have done with previous funds. Considerable bally hoo accompanied announcement of this survey of governmental re quirement. But again, there was no evidence of specific determination by the Chief Executive as to what was like a charge of bird shot. It scattered. There was no target mentioned except in a general way. There has been some talk that possibly Mr. Roosevelt’s message and promise to use every means at his command for curtailing ex penditures may have been intended as a message to his own subordi nates that definite orders were to follow; that he intended his subor dinates should see where they them selves could lop off spending plans, and could put their own houses in order. I hope it works out that way. On the other hand, I entertain very serious doubt that such a procedure will ever cause such individuals as the impetuous Mr. Harry Hopkins, relief administrator, to cut down on his spending. Mr. Hopkins loves to spend money. He seems to be hap piest when he has billions to spread around, regardless of whether the spending plans really accomplish aid for the destitute. I suspect that congress alone can curb Mr. Hop kins and the only way congress can do so is by declining to appropriate extra money for him. What I am trying to say in using Mr. Hopkins as the “horrible ex ample,” is that Mr. Roosevelt has taught his subordinates to spend money as freely as they can. To a considerable extent, he has let con gress have a taste of new spending morsels and what politician does not like to spend money! Therefore, the President is confronted with the ne cessity of educating both his own subordinates and congress to the new order of conserving taxpayers’ money. If he does not accomplish this, we will be saying in another six months what we have said many times—that we are confronted with national bankruptcy. I cannot believe that the budget ary situation looks any different than it did last January. The dif ference in the picture is that Mr. Roosevelt at last has begun to see some of the dangers in the situation which he either failed to see or elected to ignore last January. There were few who believed in Jan uary that the tax receipts were go ing to amount to the estimate given congress by the President. The fact that they have fallen short of his calculations by four or five hundred million is a serious thing but it is not so serious that a remedy can not be worked out. The remedy, it seems to me, is a simple use of a simple practice among Americans: When you do not have the money, deny yourself some of the things you would buy if you had the cash. Mr. Roosevelt's message asking for a billion and a half for relief served to get the Relief collective mind of congress off the Message Supreme court packing plan only temporarily. The relief message caused quite a stir in the house of representatives where there has been a decided move already to continue appropri ating huge sums of federal money for relief purposes, but it held the senate off the court question no longer than one business day. I think there has been no ques tion more frequently asked in my time in Washington than: “Will the President’s bill to pack the Supreme court pass?” I have watched-the ebb and flow of the tide of sentiment in the sen ate constantly since the court pack ing plan was submitted. As the situation now stands, I believe Mr. Roosevelt has the odds in his favor. There is probably a margin of from five to ten votes on the President’s side. Whether that will be the state of affairs when a vote comes, I think no one can foretell because the vote in the senate is going to be close. Many informal polls of the senate have been taken. The results have varied somewhat. They have va ried of necessity because there are many senators who remain non- committal, and who are unwilling at this time to take a position for or against the President's scheme. One may properly ask why this is. The answer is politics. A good many senators do not know how their home states feel about the plan. That is, they are not able to determine whether there has been a crystallization of sentiment for or against the thing. Consequently, these senators are trying to wait outside of the playing field until they can tell whether they can be justified in going against presidential wishes or ca pitulating to the President’s com mand. It is to be remembered that if they turn against the President, they antagonize the administration and particularly the Farley politi cal machine. It is rather unhealthy for a New Dealer or Democrat to oppose the Farley machine. Another reason why many sena tors are keeping their own counael on the court packing scheme is that they believe there will be something in the nature of a compromise come out of the hearings and senate judiciary committee consideration. agres k s, BP»- $ f : S ceenfTre cessity for presi- HOOSIER STATE.” F i ‘sd. A Brief Summary of Events of Special Interest to Touring Accommodations. Oregon, Washington and ANTA MONICA, CALIF.— Idaho Communities. For the sake of comparison C two of us, out lately on a little By WILLIAM BRUCKART trip, stayed one night at a way NATIONAL PRESS BLDG WASHINGTON, D C side motor camp and the next night at the most expensive Washington.—Several weeks ago, governmental activity should be re tourist hotel in three states, I reported to you the apparent ne- stricted or entirely eliminated. It rates $25 per day per sucker. | Matt Cut dential action in Spending the direction of a NEWS NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST At the tourist camp, the company was mixed but neighborly and, for the most part, pleas ant. The only really discordant note was a lady in the ad joining cabin who, at all hours, kept wak ing her husband up, apparently for the purpose of telling him another thing about him that she didn’t like. At the exclusive establishment were many guests who Irvin S. Cobb seemed to be suffering from severe attacks cf nervous culture, being fearful, I’d say, that, if ever they behaved naturally, they’d give them selves away. Mainly they were dull. Waxworks, even when animated, usually are dull. But stopping at a $25 a day hotel has one advantage, I find. After ward, you can go around bragging that once you stopped at a $25-a- day hotel. This should be a great help socially. Dealing With Snakes. A CONNECTICUT congressman 1 is pushing an act to prohibit importation of venomous serpents from other countries for exhibition purposes. His fear is that an earth- quake or something might shake the zoo apart and liberate a lot of dead ly reptiles that would start multi plying and constitute a new menace to the lives of such of the populace as have thus far escaped being killed by automobiles. Without presuming to assume that the gentleman is a bit of an alarm ist, I’d like to point out that he can obtain millions of adherents for this measure among old-fashioned Amer icans by tacking in an amendment to his bill providing that the bars likewise shall be put up against for eign-born communists. ROSALIA, Wash.—The Farmers* Co-operative Is erecting a large grain elevator here. Pouring of concrete Is under way, and the structure will be completed in time to handle this year’s crop. L. BOISE, Ida.—Reduction of Idaho's WPA roll to 5000 workers by June 1 will be accomplished it is predicted, “without hardship." Fewer than 7500 men and women are now on WPA projects. PENDLETON, Ore.—Watermaster Spencer reports between 35,000 and 40,0000 acre feet of water in McKay reservoir, in Umatilla county, and that Cold Springs reservoir is certain to be filled. st MORO, Ore.—The Sherman county farmers are told by their experiment station staff that not only is there a larger amount of moisture in the soil than for several years, but also more nitrates than for any year since 1931. MULLAN, Ida. — Leona Harrang, Mullan school nurse, and Hester Chapman, Shoshone county public health nurse, administered smallpox and diphtheria immunization treat ments to 60 school and pre-school children. WALLA WALLA, Wash.—They can get in but they cannot get out! Police Chief J. G. Gemmell ordered inside handles taken off back doors of the city prowler cars. Too many drunks have been letting themselves out and nearly killing themselves by falling to the pavement. OREGON CITY, Ore. — According to official report, collisions in Ore gon City between two or more auto mobiles ran 171 in 1935 and more than doubled in 1936, totaling 347. Most of these new collisions came on the detour route made necessary by construction of the new Pacific high way subway and the four-lane high way a the south entrance to the city. COEUR D'ALENE, Ida. — Invita tion were sent out from the high school here to 15 schools of northern Idaho to join the school here in an outdoor playday for girls May 8. The program, the first of its kind in this region, will be held at the Memorial How Times Change. field and city park, officials JUST read what I once knew for athletic - myself but had forgotten in the said. Tennis, volley ball, ping pong, rush and bustle of these latter days. relay races and other games are plan- LA GRANDE, Ore.—Sam Graham, It related to the attitude which America, considerably less than half past master councillor of Sunnyside a century ago, held toward unescort chapter, Portland, was elected state ed woman. For instance, as recently master councillor at the business as 1890 not many respectable hotels meeting of state conclave of the De would permit one of them to regis Molay in a 2-day session here. Two ter. other elective officers are Blair Some time after 1900—in fact, as Warner, senior councilor of Takena I remember, it was about 1910—a chapter, Salem, elected state junior prominent lady was asked to leave councilor, and Pat Fitzgerald, mas one of the smartest hotels in New ter councilor of La Grande, elected York city because she dared to light state senior councilor. Eugene's bld a cigarette in the public lounge. As for women drinking at a bar— for the 1938 conclave was accepted. well, not even the most forward- RUM REVENUE RISES looking liberal could conceive of so SALEM, Ore.—Oregon’s liquor mo incredible a sight as that. nopoly returned a net profit of And now just look at the darned $188,200.33 for the month of March, things! and $750,493.01 for the first quarter of 1937, the state liquor control Hardships de Luxe. X/HEN our plutocratic classes commission reported. Gross sales in the stores’ division • • decide to go simple, they go simple, regardless of what it costs totaled $638,707.73 during March. Books of the commission showed an ’em. A rich couple have just completed unallocated surplus balance of $912,- a trip out here, following the ancient 477.92 as of March 31, trails of the early pathfinders. Like INDIANS DERATE MOVE true pioneer stock, they roughed it MOSCOW, Ida.—All factors will be in specially built twin trailers, each about the size of a pullman but considered before action will be tak much more complete, and were en on the proposed removal of the towed by a couple of Rolls-Royces. Nez Perce Indian agency from Mos The servants, only six in number, cow to Lapai, Louis Balsam, field had to put up with two much cheap representative for the bureau of In dian affairs, told the chamber of er cars. During the entire trip there was commerce last week. no dressing for dinner and thus, Balsam has been here "sizing up” with true democratic spirit, was the situation. Lewiston and Lapwai the primitive plan of the expedition organizations have asked removal of carried out. Every hardship en the agency from here to Lapwai and countered enroute—such as the the matter has been brought up In champagne getting all jolted up and recent Nez Perce tribal councils. the caviar coming unglued in the can — was cheerfully endured. An OLD COIN FOUND armed guard was maintained a t RAYMOND, Wash.—Walter Foren night to repel kidnapers and hostile of Bay Center, found a blackened Indian tribes. copper coin bearing the date 1707, I wonder how Jim Bridger and Kit which revives tales of early explor Carson ever stood it with no butler ers along the Pacific coast. He found along—in fact, not even a second the coin while working the soli In man. his garden, which Is next to the his IRVIN S. COBB. toric old "Shaker” church at Bay ©— WNU Service. Center. He purchased the land last fall, but did not work the soil until Tweeds and Peats The famous Harris tweeds came this spring. The coin is between a nickel and Into being through an accident of nature. The freezing winds which a quarter size. On the dated side are swept across the barren islands of three crowns with the letters "CXH” the Outer Hebrides, off the coast of and the word "OR.” On the other Scotland, made it imperative that side ot the coin is a unleorn and the natives have warm wind-proof, crown with the letters "R" and "8.” weather-proof garments. With no Attempts to identify It have been where else to turn, the women of fruitless, but It Is thought the uni the islands took advantage of the corn denotes an English coin. unusually thick fleece which was the winter coat of their sheep, and ASTORIA, Ore.—Services at As from it they wove for their men toria formally dedicating the new the first crude Harris tweeds. Be First Presbyterian church annex, re cause they had nothing but the cently completed at a cost of approx! natural dyes made from lichens and mately $35.000 were held In the au crottle, and nowhere to steep their wool except over peat fires. Har ditorium of the new annex last Sun ria tweed has always been charac day night. EMMETT, Ida.—Apricots are In terized by a peaty outdoor odor. These tweeds had been worn in the full bloom at Emmett, about a week Outer Hebrides for many years be or 10 days later than usual, duo to fore the fashion centers of the world | the cold spring. The crop will be discovered them and elevated them greatly reduced because ot the cold to the front rank of sports fashions. | winter, which killed about 50 per I cent of the buds Picking Cucumbers Out of the Air at Terre Haute. passengers sat on top the boat, many under umbrellas. Some fid NDIANA is the sum of its parts. dled or sang; others read, or Yet how they differ! Streams watched the scenery go whizzing of planes, trains, motorcars, by as towpath horses pulled the boat trucks, and buses whizzing at four miles an hour. This Eng back and forth across its north and lishman was disturbed that Amer central parts; yet how little travel, icans should eat squirrels! by comparison, in the south. Through pioneer Terre Haute In that industrial region on Lake came the old National Road. Over Michigan which is not Indiana at it swarmed the cheering legions— all but a prolongation of Chicago, soldiers, settlers, pairie schooners, nothing but smoke, noise, and mov freighters, live stock, boys and dogs ing crowds. —off to conquer the West. Today In the south, a serene, unhurried this early wagon trail, long but a people whose ancestors floated down line of ruts dodging stumps and the Ohio in flatboats, came from the mudholes, is U. S. 40. At Terre Carolinas and Kentucky on horse Haute it intersects U. S. 41 to form back, bringing rifles, axes, spinning one of America’s busiest cross- wheels. roads. Look down, in fancy, from a drift South of the city hovers the popu ing blimp; imagine that here and lation center of the United States. there, painted on the grounds in For the past 45 years it has been huge, white letters, are signboards slowly wandering across Indiana. on which you may read about the Historic Four-Cornered Track. audacious men whose adventures Trotting horses, harnessed to light made Indiana. Near South Bend, La Salle sulkies, set world records at Terre camped in 1679. At Vincennes, a Haute. Nancy Hanks, Maud S., Dan century later, George Rogers Clark Patch, Mascot, Hal Pointer, and gained for us the whole Northwest Axtell raced here on the historic “four cornered” track in the days Territory. That tall shaft of Pigeon Roost of Bud Doble, greatest reinsman of Memorial shows where, in 1812, his age. Now a stadium, with night Indians slew a whole white settle ball games by electric light, rises where crowds used to cheer gog ment. East of Evansville, at Lincoln gled drivers holding tight reins to City, is the monument to Lincoln’s keep their sweating trotters from mother, Nancy Hanks, and the boy “breaking” into a gallop. Spirits, gunpowder, glass, this hood home where her son Abe split town makes them all. You see piles rails. Along the Wabash—the Ouabache of sand, soda, and limestone fed to of old—are strewn the sites of big furnaces; then gobs of red-hot French fur-trade posts, built in the glass dropping into a magic ma early 1700’s. North of Lafayette, chine that shapes the bottles—one the Tippecanoe battlefield, where every two seconds. Some men are piling tall bottles Harrison defeated Tecumseh’s brother; and, just out of Kokomo, into a box car. “Where for?” you ask. a monument to Elwood Haynes, who "Down to Key West, across on the in 1894 launched one of America's first “horseless carriages” on the car ferry to Havana, then east by rail to where Cubans make Bacardi now historic “Pumpkinvine Pike.” In fact and fancy you may see rum.” Oddly self-contained, this region. still other markers, showing the homes of such famous Hoosiers as Local straw makes packing cases; James Whitcomb Riley, Benjamin printers make labels, farmers grow Harrison, John Hay, Lew Wallace, vegetables, and canners do the rest. Out at Rose Polytechnic boys Joaquin Miller, Booth Tarkington, Albert J. Beveridge, George Ade, build toy bridges. Some day, when Theodore Dreiser, Charles Major, they’re full-fledged engineers, they John T. McCutcheon, Meredith may build big ones in Bolivia or the Nicholson, and Wilbur Wright; and, Philippines! Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is one of up among the scenic lakes of north- east Indiana, in the “Limberlost” America’s exclusive schools for region, that rustic, tree-shaded log girls. You see groups riding, clad house home of Gene Stratton Porter. in smartest saddle-club togs, the Story Is Shown on Carter’s Map. horses groomed slick and shiny, their hoofs oiled. Perhaps some of It sounds fantastic, the idea of these girls have descended from floating over a state and reading its women who also rode horses—from life story on giant signboards. Yet, Virginia or the Carolinas, over the in a vicarious way, you can do it, wilderness trails, carrying babies, for there exists a pictorial map, dreading panthers and Indians. drawn by Lee Carter and published Old Timers on the Wabash. by the state conservation depart ment, which shows in graphic de Glimpses of the Wabash as you tail much that has happened here ride south to Vincennes make you since Father Marquette saw north think of the French voyageurs, and ern Indiana in the 1600’s. This map the wild, half-naked coureurs de was our guide over some 6,500 miles bois. of Hoosier highways and byways. The voyaguer had a license to "On the Banks of the Wabash” is trade. But the “bush loper” was an the state song. It ought to be; down outlaw in that long war for fur be the Wabash came the French, first tween French and English. Like the whites to settle in Indiana; this honest traders, the renegade offered stream formed part of their long knives, beads, axes, guns, and route from Quebec to Louisiana. blankets for the red man’s pelts, At Terre Haute you see a street but cheated when he could. crowd watching a tricky machine Traders and boats of all kinds turn dough into doughnuts, instan used to swarm on the Wabash. John taneously. It is hard to believe that Parsons, a young Virginian who in the pioneer days country folks came here in 1840 to buy land, didn’t even have matches; if they wrote: "In the fall, 1,000 flatboats let their fires go out, they had to will pass down the river, the ma ride over to the neighbors’ and bor jority loaded with flour, pork. . . . row some live coals. lard, cattle, horses, oats, cornmeal, The sight of girls picking long, and corn on the ear. . . . They told green, warty cucumbers out of the me of a flatboat. . . carrying a load air lures you into a 35-acre steam- of hickory nuts, walnuts and veni heated glass house. Inside it smells son hams." and feels just like Manila in the You can’t ride along the Wabash, rainy season, hot and sticky. A with all its traditions, historic sites, bug’s paradise! Swarms of bees old graveyards and monuments, are kept, purposely, to pollinate the without thinking of its part in mak cucumber blossoms. Not on the ground, but high up overhead like ing America. On a Wabash tributary near Peru grapes on a trellis hung the cucum bers. Perspiring blonds and bru is the grave of Frances Slocum. nettes reached up with long-handled Stolen by the Indians as a girl in 1778. She spent her whole life with tools and clipped them off. Elks’ Country Club house, facing them, refusing, when finally visited the Wabash, stands where Zachary by her own white relatives, to leave Taylor whipped the Indiana in 1812. the tribe. Pioneer John Parrett Parallel with the river is the aban of Whitley county advertised that he doned Wabash and Erie canal, its had paid Indians $2 50 to release a six-year-old white boy, and that he grass-grown towpath still visible. An Englishman—a bout 1848— would keep the boy “till his par wrote of a canal trip from here to ents, if living, and chance to see Ohio. I» was hot. he said. All day । thia notice, may find him." Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.—WNU Service. I
