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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 8, 1921)
Ill E ALLIANCE HERALD. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1921 Wit Alltattrr Hrrulit BL'RR HUNTING CO., Owners Entered ut the pohtofTice at Alliance, Neb., for transmission thioueh the mails a second class matter. Published Tuesday and Friday. GKORtfrf l7h UKR, J R.."-!. Kditor EbVIN M. BURR -...nusines Manager OfTicial newspaper of the City of Alliance; official ncw.-paper of Box Butte County. Owned and published by The Burr Printing Company, tJoorj e I Burr, Jr., President; Kdwin M. Buir, Vice President. THK WORST IS OVKR Newspaper publishers are finally able, by straining their optic nerves, to discern a slight ray of hope. This morning comes the news that certain classes of paper have fallen in price. If isn't much of a fall, to be sure, only ten per cent, but at the end of a period of a year and a half during which prices on all kinds of paper have shot upward by leaps and bounds, it is sufficient to cheer us up. The worst is over. Conditions may be a long, long time in fretting back to normal prices may never fall as low as the old pre-war standards, but they have started to recede, and every email publisher will heave a sigh of relief. The publisher's lot Isn't the easiest on earth. Com pared with the butcher, the grocer, the clothier and the rest of the tribe of business, his is a hard life. The public must eat in order to keep alive and it must keep decently clothed in order to keep out of jail, but printing can be dispensed with if the drain from other sources be too freat. This goes far to explain why printing prices, dur ing the high cost era, advanced only 20 and 30 per cent, while costs in other lines passed over the 100 per cent mark time after time. THE 'NEED FOR CAUTION The city's welfare ordinance, orginally submitted in a form approved by a Btate volunteer welfare organization. lias been remodeled and pruned until, in the opinion of the committee from the council and Alliance organization it will come more nearly fitting the citv where it Is inton.loH to apply. The reconstructed ordinance will probably come euiiic up iur Hcwon ui lonigni s meeting 01 me council. The council should not fall over itself in the effort to place its stamp of approval on the measure. It Is a situa tion which calls for making haste slowly. Originally the ordinance had a number of provisions which would o-ive the welfare superintendent far too much power and minority. In a large city, where the social problems are more acute, ample power is needed. Let us confess that Alliance is not yet in a class with Chicago, and having gauged ourselves, make sure that none of our city legisla tion is too far-reaching. Alliance, like many other cities of this size, should re alize that there is a vast difference between officiousness and efficiency. The small calibre official is apt to make himself too numerous. He is apt to believe that every act f his is governed by a sort of divine wisdom, and that liia official words weigh ten or fifteen pounds apiece. Such aa ordinance as wa first proposed would have given suf ficient power to have fostered the development of such aa official. The council should make sure that the re modeled ordinance holds no such dungers. This city does not want a public moral monitor. We want no man or woman with the authority to say that this, that and the other thing must cease because the super intendent of public welfare does not approve ot it. The original ordinance provided for the appointment of a pub lic snooper, and we have 'enough of those critters now, without the public paying the salary of an official whose whole duty is to snoop. This sort of a thing may be the tendency of modern legislation, but Alliance isn't forced to encourage this- particular tendency. If the revamped ordinance contains sufficient protection for the public against allowing any class of the city's population to set their morals and beliefs up as a standard for the whole city, we could find it in our heart to favor it, but judging by the original ordinance, we most respectfully urge Caution upon the city council. IU ILO ROADS NOW J. C. McCorkle'a plan to find employment for the un employed by bonding the county for $2;0,()00 and expend ing the monoy, in road building is worthy of endorsement. Unfortunately, there will be opposition to the plan. There is always opposition to public works projects in times when money is hard. The average man always dislikes to pay taxes more than he does any other financial obliga tion. The cost of government seems to hurt more than other costb. "'.j H i . i. .v. . During the war times, men cheerfully paid out more money for necessaries than they ever did before. An in crease in the cost of anything that is purchased isn't felt much. Indirect taxes, which are added to the cost of the things he buys, are paid without a murmur. But let his personal tax, or his real estate tax jump $5 or $10, and ' from the way he moans you will conclude that a wolf is gnawing at his vitals. For the past two or three years there has been no Unemployment problem. There have been two or three Jobs for every man available to fill one of them. The return to normal conditions has left many factories with surplus stocks. It is not good business to use high priced labor to manufacture more goods to increase this surplus, when it is positively certain they will finally have to be old at a loss. It will be months before these surplus docks are reduced, and in the meantime the laborers must have employment If their regular jobB are closed to them, others must be found. The building of roads is an especially good way to .care for the unemployment problem. Good roads will pay for themselves in the long run. Even if they are built at a higher cost now than would have to be paid two or three years hence, the public will be ahead. There cannot be too many good roads, and they cannot come too soon. The average taxpayer will find that hii alight increase in taxes will come back to him manyfold in decreased cost of farm products, in pleasure, and countless other ways. Box Butte county should enthusiastically endorse this plan to build better roads. Forget the cost Forget the fact that your taxes will be increased a dollar or two. Remember only that the new roads will soon pay for themselves, and that in this case you will not be paying out money for something you cannot see, as ix the case with other kinds of taxation. Incidentally, the public, will have to pay the bill to support the unemployed, whether it likes to do it or not. These men and their familes must eat If work is not furnished for them to live honestly, they'll do it in other ways. Unless Rome steps are taken to keep them busy a remunerative work, there'll be a problem on our hands muh larger than that of a small increase in taxes. The commissioners should, at then next meeting, ar range to submit this kind of a proposition to the voters. WHAT IS NEWS? Sl in Rev. B. J. Minort touched upon an old nrohlpm in his brief taik at yesterday's luncheon of the chan-hnr m commerce. He condemned the correspondents of the state papers from Alliance for the class of news ntnrip ihnt . i they sent in. It was mild condemnation, and very cour teously expressed, but it showed the attitude of a con-. deratile number of people. Mr. Minort has had some little experience in conduct- g a newspaper, but probably not enouirh of it to iret the newvpaper man's idea of just what constitu'es news. He complained that when one picked up a daily newspaper, the only things one saw from Alliance were divorcer, scandals, murders, bootlegger., thieves and other things. This he called undesirable publicity. Its true that this sort of news does not make the be: kind of advertising for any town, but unfortunately it is just what the daily newspapers, who pay the correspond cnt his salary, want to get. It is a beautiful thing to reflect that So-and-so and his wife have lived together ii peace and harmony for five years, but it isn't news, be cause so many other people do the same thing. But i; Mr. So-and-so knocks all the teeth from the jaw of his beloved spouse, it becomes worthy of a place in the new.' columns. No matter how much every man would like to beat up his wife, it isn't done, no matter how great the provocation or the desire. The daily newspaper correspondent, like the preacher, must give his employers what they want if he is to retain his job. It is regrettable that the daily newspapers play up these tales of wickedness more than they do the other kind, but it's a good deal that way in actual life. News paper men conduct their publications along the lines thai best fit in with human nature. If Mr. Minort or other will look over the columns of the daily newspapers, he'l see that the" Alliance correspondents do send in a lot of news stories about other things than scandals or crimes. But if they attempted to do nothing else but boost the;r iown at the expense of the "newspaper, they'd soon find themselves separated from the payroll. Another thing that people are prone to forget, when they criticise newspapers, is that the newspaper men do not make the news. They only print it. If there were no gambling, bootlegging, divorces, thieving or murders, the newspapers would have to be content with less sensational stories. The news reports from any town pretty ac curately reflect life in that towr, provided every story that Is sent in is printed and read. We suggest that those who do not approve of he class of stories printed try their nand at the game once, and after they have gone up against the iron wall represented by the state editor two or three times, and have been requested to pay telegraph charges on news stories that do not strike the powers that be as news, we'll gamble they'll be willing to either resign or else confine themselves to live news. After all, it's the subscribers, not the editors, who' are the one to answer that great question: What constitutes news? The editors, once they discover what most in terests their public, try to give it to them. If either Alli ance newspaper started out for a mnnth i.. - - ..... iw yum, vniy ine sweet and harmonious things about their city, they would pan me.r suDscription list And if they tried such a stunt, they'd deserve to. AT THE MOVIES Tonight at the Imperial the feature is Tom Mix in n characteristic western play, "Three Gold Coins.' ' Tom Mix is a '.ig : or.te with the kids and a considerable number of the grownups, and in this photoplay, as in most of tuo.e .n wrt.cii he stars, there will be plenty of daredevil riding, together w.th a number of thrilling scenes of one sort and another. "Officer 666" which made a big hit ' w tars ago, is the Wednesday attraction. A more fascin ating tale of intrigue and scheming cannot be imagined. Tom Moore, the f'hi-, th nic t is n' g,vtest picture. The story centers about Travers Glad win (Tom Moore), a young m.lhonaire who is about to leave tor Egypt for s.x months. He learns that his butler has conspired with a gang of thieves to steal some valuable paintings. He masquerades as the officer on the beu .. j. .o jji event them. There s a strange girl who looms up rather Irmre in the J .Annette Ke a mile-a-min- ute comedy drama, "What Women Love," is the Thursday biil. The story is the amazing love tale of Athletic Annabel and Sweet William, who nc quires muscle in the winning of the girl. There's the Purity leaguers and Fussy old Father there's the tough sea captain and his muderous crew there's the lone fisherman the dar ing aviator the bad boxing instruc tor swarms of bathing beauties, won derful adventures on land and sea under water and in the air. LICENSING EDITORS . ; (Ellsworth News.) Mere comes an eastern man advocating the licensing of editors just as lawyers, or doctors, or ministers are licensed. Amlvpt wo if u .l.. ... ... . , . ic mm me average editor w,l not object to leing licensed. He is the best- ... x.u. m wiiii ami noes not kick at any precau tionary measure. You ran li....,. ... b-iptize him, deodorize him or disinfect him, and it's all .... i.c Manu.t ir anyimng. nut licensing editors Will not make trnm oilitnru niif f K..J ,. . v..,. mm wut-M, nnv more than licensing lawyers will make them all good lawyers I he eastern man says: , "At present the profession of journalirm is open to anyone who can hire a press and borrow a-lead pencil and He doesn't known, and there are people everywhere who do not know that at this time it requires something nore. It reouires ranit.nl. nn.l lirainc 0-.1 1 the paper docs not find a field or make one at once it perishes from the earth, for there are none so rich ut this l,,r.v i" "oru 10 run a losing newspaper. Anybody may start a newspaper, but it will stop itself, ami in a very short time if it is not the right kind of a paper and nd unless it caters to the right kind of people. In fact the length of life of a newspaper depends upon its ability o do good. ' An editor, running around with a license in his hip pocket would not always mean an editor with the best interests of his community at heart. And, license or no ' cense, that s the succeed. . . B AN ARMY OF THIS KIND NEEDED (Sioux City Record.) Wanted: Two and a half million men of the character and temperament of Charles G. Dawes they are wanted for the purpose of marching on Washington, there to in form the pink tea bunch that does our investigation and persecution work that this country is tired of the peewee stunts that are being pulled in the name of statesmanship. He is in Washington for the purpose of telling a house committee something of expenditures of money over in France during the war and he is certainly telling it This paper does not believe in soft gloves and that's the reason we like the way Mr. Dawes, who was in charge of procurement of army supplies in France, is telling the house committee about expenditures for supplies at the time the boys were at the front Some of his character istic utterances yesterday were: "Don't forget it was an American war, not a republican or a democratic war, and the record of the glorious work of our army will live hundreds of years after your com mittee is dead and gone and forgotten. "There were hounds in this country who tried to spread false news that Fershing was at a theatre the night of the armistice. He was there, like hell. He was at his office, starting the work of cancelling vast war contracts to save money. It will take twenty-five to fifty years for Pershing to get his place in history, but let me tell you the time will come when every doughboy overseas will be proud to say he was one of Pershing's men. "Ytu can try to give me all the hell you want I like it. You kick because I sold a lot of second hand junk to the French government for f 400,000,000, instead of keep ing 40,000 soldiers there to guard it while we tried to peddle it My conscience hurts me sometimes when I think we charged them too much." Mr. Dawes said he was a republican, but was broad enough to give the war department full credit for its work in getting more men to the front than France and Great Britain put there in the same period. Then he jumped on the department and denounced it for its refusal to permit promotion of men in the ranks. The rule by which men, eager to go overseas, but kept at home, were required to wear silver stripes was characterized as one of the most disgraceful acta of the war. Before long, no doubt, we shall have a blue book of bootlejrgers. Do you know you can roil SOrtoocj cigarettes for lOcts from one bat of GENUINE BullDurham TOBACCO MAY TAKE UP FREIGHT RATES WITH COMMERCE COMMISSION Secretary Carey of the Alliance chamber of commerce, who has been communicating with the Burlington officials and the interstate commerce commission in regard to various in equalities in freight rates to various points in the country where potatoes ar eshipped, may have an opportunity to appear before the commission and present his case. A letter from the secretary of the commission, received Monday morning, invited Mr. Carey to appear. The commission admitted that freight rates from Nebraska points to mar kets in the east and south were com paratively higher than rates from Minnesota and Wisconsin shipping points, and suggested that if the rail roads would not correct the inequali ties of their own volition, the inter state commerce commission might step in. The Nebraska potato growers' ex change is very much interested in the attempt to correct the freight rates, and has volunteered to pay half the expenses of sending a representative to Washington to present their case to the commission. Individual grow ers have expressed themselves as will ing to pay their share for such a trip, and it is probable that arrangements will be made. Stock hogs wanted by the Ne braska Land Co. 103-tf Attractions at the Imperial Theater TONIGHT TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8th WILLIAM FOX presents TOM MIX in "THREE GOLD COINS" As usual, Tom Mix is there with the "pep", to make a feature. COMEDY " F I R E BUGS" REGULAR ADMISSION WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9th WORLD'S FAMOUS COMEDIAN TOM MOORE in Cohen & Harris' big New York Comedy Stage Success "OFFICER 666" COMEDY "DYNAMITE" A REAL TREAT AT THE REGULAR ADMISSION THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10th You'll See the Most Beautiful Figure on Earth ANNETTE KELLERMAN in the mile-a-minute comedy "WHAT WOMEN LOVE" Thrills on Land Thrills Under Sea and in High Heavens Like Never Photographed Before. NO ADVANCE IN PRICE Money is Like a Stream of Water DID YOU ever stop to think of a stream of water how it flows through your city or past your home day after day and year after year? But the moment a dam is built and the water stopped or even part of it the stream becomes a constantly widening and deepjng reservoir of power, with all its significant possibilities of use fulness. . t,.,Kp. . Saving money is like building a dam across a stream. You can let your money come and go, as water in a stream, or by forethought you can stop some of the outgo and pile up for yourself week by week or month by month, the savings which in later years will add to your independence, to your ability to take advantage of new op portunities, and to the comfort you can get out of life. There never was a time when it was so well worth your while to save as now. The dollars put away today will buy just that much more when prices come down. Come in and let us work out some plan to take advantage of today's unusual opportunity for saving. 5 INTEREST PAID ON ALL TIME DEPOSITS First State Bank ALLIANCE NEBRASKA