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About The Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 19??-1984 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1937)
Thursday, August 5, 1937 THE HERMISTON HERALD, HERMISTON, OREGON what THAMES TELLS ITS TALE F arm th in k s .a b o u t: National Topics Interpreted by William Bruckart Western Hostelries. T o pics PLAN WINDBREAKS AN FRANCISCO, CALIF.— FOR NEXT SPRING They have mighty fine hotels N ational Praaa B uilding W axhlnston, D. C. In this town. I’ve stayed at several of them and friends of Scheme May Be Worked Out Washington.—There are many oc If they do not take this precaution, mine have been put out of some During Summer. casions on record where several im- they stand a chance always of find portant i s s u e s ing their bins empty and are faced of the others. B y J. E . D avis, E xten sion F o re s te r, U n i E ver-N orm al have engaged the with the necessity of closing their G ran ary” attention of con mills. It is this feature that causes gress and fre quently one of these issues has aroused such bitterness and devel oped such a controversy that it overshadowed all others. That has been the case in recent weeks dur ing which President Roosevelt’s plan to add six justices of his own choosing to the Supreme court of the United States completely sub ordinated everything else. But the crushing defeat received by the President through refusal of ’the vast majority of Democrats in congress to support his court re organization scheme suddenly has directed attention to other major questions. Outstanding among these is Secretary Wallace’s farm bill and the so-called wages and hours bill which is claimed to contain com plete protection for the laboring classes. It is of the farm bill that I shall write now since it is much more imminent as far as congres sional action is concerned than is the case with the wages and hours proposition. The basis of Secretary Wallace’s program is what he calls the “ever- normal granary.” There are other provisions included in the bill but the idea of a maintained supply of ‘f arm products is the heart of the plan. Now, it seems that if the words "ever-normal granary" mean any thing, they must be accepted as meaning a continuity of supply at a level which government agents ar bitrarily determine as the proper rate of accumulation or sale of such supplies. The house of representatives has been muddling along with the ques tion for several months. It has been under much pressure from Secretary Wallace and his asso ciates and from some of the farm leaders whom the secretary has convinced of the value of his scheme. The farm leaders as a whole are far from unanimous on the proposition despite the fact that Secretary Wallace and the tremen dous propaganda machine within the Department of Agriculture has been exceedingly active in an effort to “sell” the plan to the country as a whole and thereby bring addi tional pressure on congress. I shall not attempt to give all of the details of the Wallace proposal here. It is too complicated for ex planation in the limited space avail able. Indeed, I have found quite a number of members of the house of representatives who are unable to give a complete explanation of how the plan would work—and they ad mit it. It is a piece of legislation that must be complicated in order to accomplish things its proponents claim for it and my observation of government agencies leads me to the conclusion it is so complicated that the chances of it succeeding are almost nil. • • • In the first Instance, as I have said, the ever-normal granary idea comprehends a constant level or supplies. At first blush, it would seem that storage of wheat or corn or cotton or other farm products in a big crop year to be sold in years when crops are small should work out to keep prices at a satisfactory level. That is the theory. On the other hand, in times past this same sort of scheme has worked out to depress prices instead of maintain ing them and the farmers have been the losers. Included in this legislation are provisions for benefit payments to farmers under certain conditions when the price level falls below parity. This injects into the prob lem again the influence' of the gen eral price level of all commodities in the United States whether from the farm or from the factory and it also forces upon the United States additional influence wielded by the level of prices in foreign countries where the law of supply and de mand continues to operate without impossible amendment at govern ment's dictation. No doubt, the Wallace proposal would boost prices at present. This is true because we have had sev eral short crop years and there is no surplus now. But with indica tions that the current wheat crop, for example, is going to be excep tionally large, it is entirely possible that the nation as a whole will have a surplus of wheat thia fall. In ad dition, there will be wheat crops grown in other countries as usual. Some of our wheat must be sold in foreign markets and compete with wheat grown in Russia or in South America. It is easy to see, therefore, that the lack of a wheat surplus in this country is exceed ingly temporary. • • • The ever-normal granary, if it works as the theorists claim, would . store or keep off /f Sound» of the market that G reat portion of the crop which is not need ed for current consumption. That sounds fine. Great users of wheat must buy their supplies far ahead. long range buyers to resort to what is called hedging. That is, they sell on option nearly as much as they buy on contract. They are thus able to offset losses whether the price of wheat goes up or whether it goes down and the losses or the gains are distributed throughout the in dustry. It is the only way by which the industry can protect itself. Mr. Wallace’s scheme proposes doing away with that sort of thing, not directly but through the effect of the ever-normal granary. In other words, the net result of the ever- normal granary would be for the government to hold these stocks and feed them into the market as de mand for supplies requires. This sounds feasible and it probably would be except for the fact that we have no means of controlling production in the other wheat pro ducing countries, and I repeat that I am using wheat as illustrative of all farm products. In fact, the Wal lace plan provides no control of pro duction in this country and that question is vital. As far as I can see, nature is going to operate to give us rain or give us drouth in accordance with the judgment of the Higher Power. No human is go ing to be very influential in that regard. To get back to the question of the price level, it should be said that while the Wallace plan provides what appears to be an insurance against fluctuation, it is more likely to have the opposite effect. Be cause of the influence of world prices, great storehouses of wheat in the country will hang over the market like an epidemic. No one can tell when it will strike and since markets are made up of individuals who are human, a portion of the markets is always going to be frightened by the uncertainty of when government wheat will be of fered for sale. It is a perfectly human reaction because it involves the pocketbooks and humans nat urally want to buy as cheaply as they can and sell as high as they can. • • • One of the things that happened in the administration of President Hoover t h a t is T ried O nce sure m be remem- an d F ailed bered is the utter failure of his farm policy. That farm policy centered nt one time in what was called the Federal Farm board. If you will go back a few years and recall the op erations of the Federal Farm board, I think you will agree that the things it undertook to do were exactly comparable to, if not exactly the same as, the scheme set up by Sec retary Wallace in his ever-normal granary idea. The only difference that I can see—and I watched the operations of the farm board from close at hand—is a change in the name. It must be admitted that the phrase ever-normal granary has a pretty sound. But when it comes to a question of an attractive ex pression, one that is soothing and one that should convince us all that every problem is solved, I sub mit those favorites which Mr. Wal lace used to use when Professor Tug- well was with him in the Department of Agriculture. Who does not re call the “more abundant life,” and who has forgotten the "doctrine of scarcity to assure plenty?” As far as I know, neither the house nor the senate committee on agriculture has held hearings on this ever-normal granary phase of the Wallace legislation. Thus far, the discussion has been largely on questions involving benefits and subsidies and means of marketing. No attention has been given to the ever-normal granary threat, and I regard it as a menace. If this discussion were devoted to only the consumer phase of our economic life, I think I should be selfish enough to urge enactment of the Wallace plan. I believe I can see where the ever-normal granary idea will make bread cheaper, where it will make cotton textile goods cheaper and when cotton is cheaper other textiles are cheaper, and where other food and neces saries of life that have their origin on the farm will be reduced in price by such a legislative policy. But that is not my idea of a sound economic structure. It is just as necessary for the consumer to pay his fair share toward the mainte nance of a living agriculture as it is for farmers to pay their fair share to a living commerce and industry of whatever kind It may be. The senate Democrats have elect ed a new leader to succeed the late Senator Joe Robinson, of Arkansas. He is Senator Alban Barkley, of Kentucky. In a previous column I mentioned the split among the sen ate Democrats and suggested that it would be difficult to replace Senator Robinson because of the qualities he had in holding the various factions together in the senate. It was not a forecast; it was a statement of fact. • WMtaro Ntwcpapar Union. S And once I enjoyed a fire scare v ers ity o i Illin o is .— W N U Service. here when the alarm, at 3:30 a. m., Although it is too late in the year brought to the lobby to make windbreak plantings of a swarm of moving trees on farms, it is not too late picture actors with to start making plans for plantings out any makeup on to be made next spring. Prepara and not much else. tions which can be made during This was in the era spare time this summer for a pro of the silent films, tection planting next spring include but you wouldn’t marking out the area, digging a have dreamed it to diversion ditch to drain barnyard hear the remarks of water around the windbreak plant an hysterical lady ing, fencing the area to be planted star when she dis and plowing the ground in the fall. covered that her “Trees are best ordered early to chow had been for Irvin S. Cobb assure getting the desired varieties gotten. The current before supplies run out,” Davis husband also was temporarily miss states in his new circular, No. 27, ing but she was comparatively calm “Windbreaks for Illinois Farm about that. She probably figured a steads,” which has just been pub husband could be picked up almost lished by the Natural History Sur any time whereas darling little Ming vey in co-operation with the agricul Poo had a long pedigree and rep tural college. resented quite a financial invest Detailed information on planning, ment and anyhow was a permanent planting and caring for a windbreak fixture in her life. are contained in the circular along Through the strike here, the trav with a description of the kind of eling public seemed to make out. trees available, their advantages Maybe visitors followed the old and disadvantages. Copies of the southern custom—stop with kinfolks. circular may be obtained by writing Think, though, how great would the agricultural college at Urbana. have been the suffering had the “Illinois farmers are taking a re strike occurred during prohibition newed interest in windbreaks,” Da days when transient guests might vis said. "Demonstration plantings have perished of thirst without the best practices for es bright uniformed lads to bring them showing and maintaining wind first-aid packages in the handy hip- tablishing have been made on farms in pocket sizes! Bellhops qualified as ( breaks 12 Illinois counties this spring. More lifesavers those times. are being planned for next year. » * • “Most ornamental nurseries grow Humans in the Raw. S I behold vast numbers of fel the types of trees satisfactory for and some of the larger low b e i n g s strolling the windbreaks specialize in producing beaches, yes, and the public thor I nurseries oughfares too, while wearing as few windbreak trees.” Information on sources and prices clothes as possible—and it seems to be possible to wear very few in of windbreak planting stock may deed—I don’t know whether to ad be obtained by writing Davis at the mire them for their courage or sym agricultural college. pathize with them in their suffering or deplore their inability to realize Eggs Require Special that they’d be easier on the eye if Care During Warm Days they’d quit trying to emulate the The warm days of summer are raw oyster—which never has been pretty to look upon and, generally the danger days in the high-quality speaking, is an acquired taste any egg trade. Unless poultrymen main tain a watchful eye and exercise the how. For a gentleman who ordinarily greatest of care, many factors that bundles himself in heavy garment« easily escape attention, may result clear up to his Adam’s apple, this in the loss of customers, says a warm weather strip-act entails a lot | writer in the Rural New-Yorker. Egg quality deteriorates rapidly of preliminary torture. At first our gallant exhibitionist resembles a at temperatures over 70 degrees. forked stalk of celery bleached out Hot days, high temperatures in the in the cellar. Soon he is one large poultry house, broody birds remain red blot on the landscape, with fat ing on the nests, are often the cause water blisters spangling his brow of a lack of freshness in the product. until he looks as if he were wearing Eggs should be gathered three or a chaplet of Malaga grapes. In four times daily in clean, well-cush the next stage he peels like the wall ioned containers. Leaky, cracked paper on an Ohio valley parlor after or soft-shelled eggs should be placed in separate containers when collect flood time. • • • ing to prevent soiling of the eggs and possible contamination from Destructive Hired Help. COMEBODY found a stained glass odors of oil, or other pungent ma *•7 window in an English church terial. As soon as the eggs have been dating back to 685 A. D., but still intact. And from the ruins of a gathered, they should be placed in Roman villa, they’ve dug out a mar a cool, dry room, free from odors ble figure of Apollo—the one the and where the temperature is not mineral water was named after—in over 50 degrees. Eggs should be graded to size, a perfect state although 2,006 years candled, packed in clean, attractive old. These discoveries are especially containers, and marketed at least interesting to this family as tending twice a week. In shipping, they to show that hired help isn’t what it should be protected from the sun must have been in the ancient time. and wind. We once had a maid of the real old Viking stock who, with the best Bitter Butter intentions on earth, broke every Bitter butter may be due to bitter thing she laid finger on. Moreover, milk or to the salt used, says J. R. she could stand flatfooted in the Dice, head of the North Dakota middle of a large room and cause Agricultural College dairy depart treasured articles of virtu, such as ment. Milk from cows in poor physi souvenirs of the St. Louis World’s cal condition, or from cows that fair and the china urn I won for have reached an advanced stage superior spelling back in 1904 at the in the milking period, may produce Elks’ carnival, to leap to the floor bitter butter, butter that has a poor and be smashed to atoms. She texture, or the cream may refuse didn’t have to touch them or even to churn out entirely. If sample tests go near them. I think she did it by of the individual cows fail to in animal magnetism or capillary at dicate the responsibility for the bit traction or something of that nature. ter flavor, examine the salt being The first time we saw the Winged used. Chemically impure salt, es Victory, Mrs. Cobb and I decided it pecially salt containing relatively must have been an ancestor of large amounts of magnesium salts Helsa who tried to dust it—with the or calcium chloride, or both, may disastrous results familiar to all lov give the butter a bitter flavor. ers of classic statuary. • • • Lambs Need Corn The Reaping Season. It does not pay to cut down on ERTAIN crops may not have done so well, due to weather corn and legume hay in favor of conditions, or, as some die-hard oats and non-leguminous roughage Republicans would probably con when fattening lambs. This feed-lot tend, because of New Deal control. truism, well understood by exper But, on the other hand, hasn't it ienced live stock men, was demon been a splendid ripening season for strated again this past year in sit-downs, walk-outs, shut-ups, lock Four-H Club western lamb feeding projects at Spencer and Waterloo, outs and picket lines? It makes me think of the little Iowa. Reducing the corn ration and story the late Myra Kelly used to legume hay ration actually doubled tell of the time when she was a pub the cost of producing a hundred lic school teacher on New York's pounds of gain in many of the lots. East Side. She was questioning her class of primary-grade pupils, Segregate Roosters touching on the callings of their re In order to protect the interior spective parents. She came to one quality of eggs, roosters should be tiny sad-eyed little girl, shabby and removed from the breeding pen as thin and shy. as the hatching season is over. “ Rosie,” she asked, "at what does soon If the male remains with the hens, your father work?'* eggs will be fertile, and if a “ Mein poppa he don’t never work. the fertile egg is held at a temperature Teacher,” said Rosie. ranging above 08 degrees Fahren “ Doesn’t he do anything at all?** heit, the germ will develop. A fer “Oh, yessum.” tile egg will deteriorate much more “Well, what does he do?” rapidly than an infertile egg. An “He strikes.” , Infertile egg seldom rots, but a IRVIN 8. COBB. fertile egg will decompose rapidly. • —WNU Sarvlc«. A C Weighing a Shipment of Elephant Tusks on a London Wharf. From Every Corner of the Earth Come Ships That Ply This River J from which to distill fuel alcohol. It weighs goods, reports on their HAMES traffic makes Lon quality and condition; it opens bales don the world’s foremost and boxes for customs inspection, furnishes samples for buyers, and river port. Since Roman gal looks after repacking and loading ley days—when Britons traded for those who ship from London to grain, slaves, and dogskin for other ports. European salt and horse collars On the north bank of the Thames,’ —commerce has flowed be scattered for miles downstream tween London and the continen from the Tower, stand these great tal countries along the Schelde, PLA docks: London, St. Katharine, and West India, Millwall, Vic the Rhine and the Elbe. After East toria and Albert, King George V, Drake nerved England to smash and the Tilbury. the Spanish Armada, London On the south bank, near London’s ships gained in time the lion’s heart, are ancient Surrey Commer cial docks, with a lumberyard that share of ocean-borne trade. Names immortal in discovery and covers 150 acres! Besides the railways and truck conquest are linked with this water front. From here Frobisher went lines that tie these docks to the out seeking the Northwest passage, and lying kingdom, some 9,000 Thames Hawkins to Puerto Rico and Vera barges handle goods to and from Cruz; from here Lancaster made ships’ sides. Each dock has its own character. his voyages to the East, before the downfall of Portugal and the rise St. Katharine docks are built on the of the British East India' company. site of the old Church of St. Kath Raleigh sailed from here to explore arine by the Tower, founded by the Orinoco, to popularize tobacco Queen Matilda in 1148. What hetero and, tradition says, to start the Irish geneous goods they store: w o o l , skins, wines, spices, sugar, rubber, planting potatoes. It was London’s daring money balata, tallow, ivory, barks, gums, which sent Sebastian Cabot to found drugs, coffee, iodine, hemp, quick the Russia company, opening trade silver, canned fruits and fish, coir with that land. London merchants yarn, coconuts, and brandy I and skippers promoted the Turkey, Navy at One Dock. African, Virginia and Hudson’s Bay West India and Millwall docks lie companies. in a river peninsula known as the London emigrants helped colonize Isle of Dogs. Here the passer-by in the Americas, in Australia, New may smell 12,000 puncheons of rum, Zealand, China, India, Africa and a million tons of sugar, and ship the rich islands of the sea. loads of dates. English Spread From Here. Victoria and Albert and King From this water front went the George V docks form one h u g e English language. In Drake’s day structure, the world’s largest sheet only a few millions spoke it. Now of enclosed dock water. Often 40 or it is a world tongue. Of all letters, 50 ships—equal to a good-sized navy telegrams, books and papers print —tie up here at one time. Tilbury is the first dock one sees ed now, it is estimated that 70 per cent are in English. London alone when sailing up the Thames. Its uses enough newsprint every day long landing stage forms a home to cover a ranch of 9,350 acres— land gateway for people from Au or nearly 15 square miles of paper. stralia, New Zealand, India, China "The smell from that big paper and other eastern countries w h o mill at Bayswater is one of the land or embark here. Fast trains marks I steer by on foggy nights,” of the London, Midland and Scottish a Thames pilot will tell you. railway touch the dock’s edge and Exploration of London’s crowded whisk passengers away to all parts docks reveals not only what amaz of the kingdom. In the city, PLA has still more ing piles of food a great city can normally eat, but also what odd warehouses. At its Butler street items, from live bats to rhino horns, building are 70 rooms full of oriental are mixed in the life stream of carpets—enough to cover a farm of 120 acres! world commerce. Imponderable, in variety and People buy most carpets in June, magnitude, are these fruits of man’s for wedding presents, you are told. barter. Here, too, his work ranges There are electric ovens, too, for from rat catching and opium sam conditioning raw silk, a mountain pling to dredging the Thames and of Havana cigars and leaf tobacco handling annual cargo enough to fill enough to last one man, say, 500,- a road with loaded trucks from the 000 years! Yukon to Patagonia. Here is a furtive horde of lean To say that every day some 500 black cats, to help out the official craft, big and little, pass through human rat catchers. Musty wine the Thames mouth tells only half vaults use 28 miles of underground the story. More significant is what track on which to roll barrels that happens on the docks. hold the 12,000,000 gallons of wine brought to London each year. Commission Ends Confusion. This is the world’s ivory and tooth Even London people themselves don’t dream what incredible activity market. It takes 18,000,000 artificial is here. Few ever see it. Confusion teeth from the United States every on this crowded river, in days gone, year—and some 2,000 elephant tusks grew so intense that waiting boats from Africa and Asia. Not many tusks are from newly often lay unloaded for weeks; goods were piled in disorder on r i v e r slain elephants. Most of them come banks, and pilfering was enormous. from mudholes, left by animals long One river bandit stole almost a from mudholes, left by animals. Tea for Londoners. whole shipload of sugar! To com bat this chaos the West India mer Wool was England’s chief export chants built their own fortlike docks. in the Middle ages. Today it is one With more trade came more of London’s main imports. It takes docks, and more toll-rate wars and the fleeces from about fifty million other confusion. This ended in 1909 sheep to meet London’s annual de when the Port of London authority, mands! ■ Royal commission, took full con Tea trade has centered here for trol under act of parliament. 300 years. In Mincing Lane yeu can It paid 23,000,000 pounds for pri see brokers bidding on lots which vately owned London docks, spent have been expertly sampled by millions more to make the lower PLA’s own teatasters. Thames the world’s longest deep When they “bulk” tea, or mix it, water channel and to enlarge and on some warehouse floors you may re-equip cargo - handling facilities. see it heaped up in mounds higher It has dredged mud enough cut of then men’s heads. the Thames to build a Chinese Wall, Think of all the "liquid history” and has constructed the world’s that has been packed into this an most extensive dock system. One cient water front since Roman gal of its cranes, the "London Mam leys traded here; since Danes and moth,” lifts 150 tons! Vikings came to plunder; since the Finally, with characteristic Brit great companies of merchant ad ish financial genius, it sold its deb venturers launched their tiny ships entures on the stock exchange, and for daring trade and colonizing far now its operations usually pay all over then little-known seas. costs and interest and leave a profit Think of the 60,000 ships a year which is used for more improve that now form smoke lanes from ments. London to every nook of the world Giant Decks and Yard. where goods can be bought or sold The PLA ia not in trade. It is and you begin to see why this 70- merely custodian of merchandise mile stretch of “London River” is, that may range from wild animals incomparably, the world’s busiest for the too to a shipload of molasses water front. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.— WNU Service. T
