THE ALLIANCE HERALD, TUESDAY, APRIL I, 1922
She Alliaurc Urralb
1UESUAY AND FRIDAY
BURR PRINTING CO., Ownerg
Entered at the postoffice at Alliance,
Bleb., for transportation through the
oaila aj second class matter.
GEORGE L. BURR, Jr Editor
KDWIN M. DURR Business Mgr.
Official newspaper of the City of
Alliance; official newspaper of Box
8utt County.
Owned and published by The Burr
Printing Company, George L. Burr,
Jr, President; Edwin M. Burr, Vice
President.
ONE STEP FORWARD.
Secretary of Labor Davis haj had
an inspiration which may, In due time
be of utmost importance to the public.
He has a plan to give the public abso
lutely true, distinterested facts in all
strike controversies. The governmert
lias hundreds of bureaus and there are
hundreds of committees investigating
everything from the high cost of putty
to the effect of snow on Chile beans
l)ut somehow or other, there has never
been any plan devised to let the public
know the facts in any controversies
between labor and capital. The pub
lic, incidentally, is usually as much af
fected by industrial war as cither of
them. For it is the ultimate goat. It
loses when industry halts to givt 'vt
tle, no matter which side finally wins
the particular engagement in the old
est and longest war in the history of
the world.
Mr. Davis' plan contemplates main
taining specialists in each of thirty
two "key" industries in the nation
thus enabling the government to have
on hand a complete file of accurute
information concerning conditions in
any given line. "As it is now," Mr.
Davis says, "no one can tell which
side to believe. Propaganda is sent
cut by each side. Under the proposed
plan, the government, at the beginning
of a labor difficulty, could give out
an official statement which would form
the basis for an accurate and just
opinion. The proposal for specialists
"itt each industry wpuld bring about
ust this result. The specialist would
live with an industry, year in and year
out, and would be familiar with every
on pf its phases and details,"
""There la the cerm of a real idea
here, if it can be put into practice
and both labor and capital assured of
impartial treatment. Of course, it is
to be expected that the radical em
ployer, or the radical employe, in any
such controversy, would one or the
other be dissatisfied with the findings
of an impartial board. But the public,
if it had confidence in the fairness of
the investigators, would immediately
throw its influence in the scale. In
tnost labor disputes the public is not
organized to exert any Influence at
all. It knows nothing of the facts;
it has to choose between tall stories
told by loth sides. But it is reason
able to suppose that if the public were
once aroused and organized, it would
be the deciding factor in struggles
which heretofore it has watched from
the sidelines, getting injured as much
or more than the participants, but
powerless to raise a hand in its own
defense.
' An intelligent public would never
for a moment tolerate such condi
tions as prevailed at the Carnegie
steel mills. It would not tolerate any
abuse of power by either labor or cap
ital. But, when its only source of in
formation is the statements of leaders
to cither side of any controversy, :'t
must shut its eyes and guess at the
truth. The big railroad strike w
called off when it was realized lhat
public opinion was organized against
the railroaders. The present coal min
ers' strike finds the public uninformed.
It's influence may go either way, and
it may go wrong.
There is a danger, of course, and
that lies in the possibility that the se
lection of an investigating committee
may be controlled by capital. It :'s
possible', however, to get a board that 1
wiu ue uiiuiuM.-u. wwivioia uv vnv
class of people who cannot be bought
or whose opinions cannot be forced.
With scholatlv. conscientious men
whose investigations are a life work,'
it is almost certain that they will
have as fine a sense of honor and im
partiality, and the same kind of a rep
utation and standing as the United
States supreme court.
Labor is naturally suspicious. Years
of exjerience have justified their at
titude of doubt. Labor has never
been able to get its fair fhare of news
paper space, ami as a result the rad
ical labor papers have sprung into be
ing. But with fair and impartial
treatment at the hands of govern
ment investigating agencies, and full
publicity of the findings of such a
committee, the need for ultra-radical
labor organs would disajpear. The
press is slowly coming to realize that
it mus-t give labor a fair deal, but this
does rot mean that it should espouse
the cause of labor on all occasions, or
ape the publications that pander to la
bor. For the laborers are but human,
as are the capitalists. They make
mistakes. There will always he labor,
capital and the public, these three, and
the time will come when, unless laUifv
and capital learn to compose and ad
just their own difference-), the public
will assert it-elf, step in and by ;ts
overwhelming authority, settle nil dis
putes. The Davis plan is a step in
the right direction;
MR. KNIGHT (H ITS.
The resignation of Reuben E. Knight
ns 'county highway commissioner op
ens up a rather intcre.'ting discussion,
Mr. Knight has not been very com
municative regarding the reasons for
his nct'on, but he has gone so far ns
to admit that the unsympathetic atti
tude of the county commissioners to
ward his work was one of the prin
cipal factors th.it made him resign.
It's easy to understand why the task
Is not a pleasant one. Commissioner
George Carrel I of Ilemingford has
been outspoken against continuing the
office of highway commissioner, his ar
gument being that the expense was
too great. The other commissioners
have apparently felt the same way
about it. Inasmuch as Mr. Knight's
hands were practically tied without the
hearty co-operation of the loard, it is
not to be wondered at that he refused
to go ahead with work in which he
could arouse neither interest or co-op
eration from his employers.
The attitude of the board of county
commissioners is not unexpected. It
is, in fact, characteristic. All three
of them are successful in their own
line of business? and none of them has
discovered the necessity for any intri
cate system of bookkeeping to keep
track of his own affairs. The county's
business has always been conducted in
a come easy, go easy sort of fashion,
and men who have not taken any great
pains in keeping track of their own
accounts are as a rule difficult to con
vince that such a system is valuable
for any purpose. What they overlook
In the fact that as county officers,
elected by the people and serving the
Icop!e, they should work even harder
to conserve public money than to con
serve their own. Most county officials
overlook this important point; most
public officials are more willing to
spend public money than their own.
But what will be the effect on Box
Butte county? The fact is that what
is really needed is more system in
stead of less. What is needed is an
adaptation of the city manager prin
ciple to highway expenditures. In
stead of three -commissioners laying
plans to spend some thirty thousand
dollars in three districts, there should
be consistent planning to make this
money go just as far us possible and
do as much work as possible.
Box Butte county will not save any
money iy dispensing wun a $o0 a
nonth employe whose work is as im
portant as Mr. Knight's. There should
Ik? an accurate record of every cent
spent on road work in this county.
Every road should be numbered, and
a careful account kept of every cent
expended on every road, and the pur
pose for which it was spent. There
should be some way of finding out,
at the end of a year, whether all roads
in all parts of the county have received
their fair share of the money that has
gone to road building and maintenance.
The system in effect before Mr.
Kn'ght took charge was in fact no
system at all. One commissioner would
take the road machinery to his district.
The crew would grade a batch of road,
and would then be called to some other
part of the county. At the end of the
month the bills would come in and be
paid or laid over for a month or two.
At the end of the year there was a
stack of claims so many for labor,
so many for gasoline, another bunch
for materials. There has been no com
prehensive program. A mid might be
kept in tiptop shape one month or one
year and go to pieces the next. ,
K.
COMPANY
HASTINGS,
Box Butte county needs system in
.Is road work. For years there has
een expended from twenty to thirty
thousand dollars' on roads and bridge.-',
and never has more than one load been
kept in sight at any one time. Never
has there been a plan that look en 1 any
farther than a month or two ahead.
. .
Never has there been efficient super-
vision. One commissioner or anotner
will look after work in his di.-trict.
draw pay for it, but the result is that
,, ' , ,
the county pays not once for riad su-
pcmsion, hut three times. A compe-
tent highway commissioner cin give
all his time to road building and up
keep. He can supervise in throe dis
tricts or in one. He can hire and fire
men and can get together a gang of
workers who will le trustworthy. He
can kee p expenditures down to a min
imum and lc able to show ;rv tax
payer where every cent was expended.
The Herald believes that with tt
lea.-t $30,000 to be expended on Box
Butte county's roads this year, the ef
ficient, wise and economical course
will be to hire Mr. Knight or some
other good man as highway conmi.5
siorier and let him be highviy com
missioner. Give him the needed i:u
thority, let him buy all materials and
hire all workers, let him, with the as
sistance of the commissioners, plan a
season's road work, and then let him
carry out his plans and prove his
ability. We've had a long experience
with lack of system, and frankly, v e
have nothing but dissatisfaction all
over the county with ihe way roads
have been built and maintained. It is
now time to give system a trial. The
county expenditures have been pub
lished. There is no way to tell how
much money has been spent for road
supervision by the commissioners, but
it is safe to assume that a competent
highway commissioner would give all
his time to the work for that money.
The Herald believes that results will
be better that way.
The present commissioners ". ill hold
office for the remainder of the year
Two of them retire, and both are can
didates for re-election. Others ar
neeking their places. This newspaper
does not mind confessing that it wiil
throw its support to the best men
who will pronjise to see that 1'ie tax
payers get the most value of out their
tax dollars. Taxes are too high to
see any of the money wasted or han
dled carelessly.
A SANDHILL FOREST.
To those ot us who have lived Jn
and near the sandhills, "sandhill -forest"
may seem more appropriate for
an All Fools' numler than for seri
ous consideration, but there's no joke
about it. The United States govern
ment is taking the first steps toward
covering the barren hills with for
ests. The federal department of agri
culture will this spring plant a mil
lion and a half trees in the sandhills
adjacent to Halsey. This number of
trees, it is estimated, will plant ap
proximately a thousand acres of sand
hills and will be the largest acreage
planted tim ing any year since the Ne
braska national forest was established,
during the presidency of Theodore
Roosevelt.
A whole lot of us will learn with
some surprise that Nebraska has a
national forest. Others will be sur
prised to learn that it is situated in
Thomas and Cherry counties, and ihat
both divisions of the forest are in the
heart of the sandhill region. At first
thought, the place for a national for
est would seem to be on the waste
acres along the Platte. But there
were reasons for the selection of this
location, and one of them was the pro
vision of lumber for the future. An
other reason was to provide fuel and
cheaper material for fence building.
The forest sen ice tells us all alout
it after this fashion:
While it cannot bo said that for
ests are needed in the sandhill reg'on
. GEDNEY
Architects
Engineers
NEBRASKA
to conserve water, the planting of for-1 auto Is used 78.4 per cent for business,
e.-is in these hills will check ihe wind hilc in some other lines its business
locally tnd generally it will prevent ., . . ,. (,n -t Tlii
the further encroachment of the sand u' e risM to alove .U0 Cnt V1
dunes on the fertile land to the east . answers the question as to whether
ami will ameliorate the dryness of the the machine is exclusively for pleas
utmosphere, so that agricultural land1,,,.-, Poi-kana it nntnfo the future for
n:!'-v 'cpiv sweater amount of pre-1
"Ir ? i" Minl
fal etiects oi groves of trees acting!
tts wind-breaks will le felt first, and
for this renson the planting of trees
' hKii residents, alter the govern-!
Tl LT i, i k .
with species and methods, should be
btrnngly encouraged.
Irom the forestry standpo.nt
Nebraska sandhills present wonderful
I oibilities. The sand dunes are po
tential forest lands.. In the fall ot
1!M)2, the town of Halscy was select
ed as the headquarters of the Nebras
ka national foiest, and a small nur
sery laid out for the glowing of jack
and western yellow pine. Since the
fining of 1904, when the first seed
lings became large enough for plant
iiiir, in.s nursery nas neen increasing
steadily in size and efficiency, so that
row the output is 1,500,000 trees a
year. To date 1,200,000 trees have
I f en supplied free of charge of resi
dents of the "Kinkaid" district. As
a result of this free distribution, small
groves of tree are appearing through
cut the sandhill region. Trees may
be supplied to Fettlers and farmers in
the Sixth congressional district, so far
us the tree can be spared.
Alliance has already secured for its
municipal pier two hundred of these
tices, through the efforts of City Man
ager Kemmish. If they should flour
ish like those in the national foiest
sandhills, within twenty years we may
ex ect to hee trees twenty-eight feet
high around Broncho lake. Twenty
years is not much out of a lifetime,
and with some efforts on the part of
the sandhill settlers, there could be an
enormous change in these barren hills
within a quarter of a century. The
sandhill national forest is causing fut
prisc and wonderment to those who
see it for the first time. One of the
biggest things Alliance can do is to
stimulate interest in tree planting.
It will do much to bring settleiB from
other parts of the nation here, and
with the government paying most of
the expense, there is no reason why it
shouldn't be among the first things
on the program.
FUTURE OF THE BUGGY.
(Omaha Bee.)
A story telegraphed from Oregon
intrudes on the placid mind. Up there,
for some reason not stated, a cus
tomer applied at an implement depot
for a buggy. The state was searched,
and finally a new buggy was found,
lust of its kind in Oregon, and the
once simple want was supplied., Con
trast this with the trainloads of bug
gies that were coming into the west
less than a score of years ago. That
will give you some idea of the march
of the automobile. A "flivver" rep
resents little more in its first cost than
did a good buggy with a team to haul
it, while its range of action is many
times extended. Returns gathered b"
a recent survey made by a group of
Automobile makers show that among
the farmers of the central west the
lull
Li.v'ltJl',,
ilk H vfV'll . K.
W ''''" ''TV'.
tre'n.ifgv. Now and again we see one
wn the e'tr0et'S 8 ho,,'"vcr'
,, i nnt npw nn- Tha nutomob e
:0J utn it" Jace? imd it will not be
onfC until the buggy is as dead as the
(i;Dodocus.
ffjgi rrataft
MM
This new
sugar-coated
gum delights
young and old.
It "melts in your
mouth" and the
center remains to aid digestion,
brighten teeth and soothe mouth
and throat.
There are the other WRIGLEY
friends to choose from, too:
Make Your Dreams
Come True
Perhaps you dream of a home of
your own some happy day. What are
you doing to get it? The easiest and
quickest way to realize this worthy
ambition is to start a savings account
today. Lay aside part of each week's
earnings and your dream will be a
reality in a very short time.
The large assets of this Bank, to
gether with the character, ability and
standing of the officers and directors,
are a guarantee of safety for your
money.
5 INTEREST ON TIME DEPOSITS
In addition, our depositors are pro
tected by the Nebraska State
Guaranty Law.
The First State Bank
Alliance,
Everybody has been held responsible
for the crime wave except the crim
inals. New York Tribune.
Polish Diet votes Hoover a citizen.
Hoovor helped their diet. Newspaper
Enterprise Association.
Florida scientists claim to havo
found another lost race. Why don't
they leave Bryan alone? Newspaper
Enterprise Association.
cum in the
Nebraska
91
n.
