The Frontier
D. H. Cronin, Editor and Proprietor
Entered at the Postoffice at O’Neill,
Nebraska as Second Class Matter.
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tween publisher and subscriber.
ALONG TilK SIDE
Dr, C, Henry Cook, Omaha “scient
ist,” who is receiving n lot of not ex
actly desirable publicity in the public
prints through the arrest at Minneap
olis of C. Haffner ami William Merle
Anderson, two of his ngents, in con
nection with the promotion of some
of his inventions, received ft lot of
similar publicity over his operations
in northern and western Nebraska, in
the Norfolk Daily News about ten
years ago. At that time Doc’s, spec
iality was locating oil and he had
many people from Norfolk west be
lieving that he was going to locate an
oil well on every farm. Previous to
Doc’s arrival ignis fatus, or Ghost
Lights, appearing along Eagle creek
northwest of O’Neill, were attracting
lots of attention among the super
stitious and otherwise and received
much notice in the nation’s press. Then
the doctor arrived and organized the
Ghost Lights Oil Development district,
taking oil prospect leases on hun
dreds of farms from Norfolk west.
The doctor talked much and myster
iously about molecules and had poetry
about them on his business cards. He
also had an oil bug or oil locating de
vise which seemed to be a sort of a
cage of molecules, and the little crit
ters went wild whenever the bug was
set up over an oil prospect. It found
particular favor in the sandhill sec
tion. Numerous crews drove the dis
trict in large cnrs for the doctor and
several sites were selected for test
wells which never developed. Just
what the game was, was never dis
closed as none of the oil right lessors
suffered and heavy financial loss al
though the late M. F. Harrington,
prominent O’Neill attorney, declared
the form of leases might place clouds
on unencumbered land titles. Some
small bits of expense money were con
tributed, and then gradually the oil
excitement died away and was for
gotten. The doctor is still talking
molecules. L. C. P.
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
By Frank P. Litschert
A 16,661,000-bale cotton crop was
forecast for the South. It is estimated
that this will be reduced to 12,314,000
bales by the destruction of 10,600,000
acres of cotton plants under contract
with the Adjustment Administration.
With the breakdown of the pro
posed economic agreements in the
London conference, there have been
rumors of imminent combinations of
certain nations against the United
States for the purpose of waging a
trade war. These rumors can be taken
with a grnin of salt. The same scheme
has been tried before against the
United States and agninst other na
tions but has generally failed to work.
The big card in Uncle Sam’s favor is
that he has the largest potential mark
et in the world, llis people have the
highest standard of living, make the
most money and spend it—sometimes
we think that in certain eras of pros
perity they may have spent too much
of it. But at any rate, foreign nations
always are casting a wistful eye at the
American market. They would rather
have a share in that market than to
be a part of doubtful organization for
exploiting other parts of the world at
the expense of the United States. They
take this view because they know
that the American market, if they can
once get it, is worth all the other pos
sible fields of commercial exploitation.
Of course, the American market is
generally protected for the home pro
ducer against foreign dumping and
cheap production from abroad. But
even at that more* than half of our im
ports come in duty free and the na
tions who supply us with these goods
are not going to forget the potential
ities of the American market.
Since Uncle Sam consumes about
ninety per cent of what he produce* he
is not going to give away this great
American market in the hope of find
ing a pot of gold at the end of the
European trade rainbow. At the sume
time it will ulways be necessary for
him to import, in times of prosperity,
great amount* of commodities which
he cannot produce for himself, certain
raw materials and finished goods, most
of those in the latter class coming
under what is called '‘luxury goods."
These usually carry a tariff, as a mat
ter of raising revenue, but few people
object to this, even the free traders,
because the materials so assessed are
non-essentials which are purchased
only by the rich and well-to-do. It
has been the fact that we have had
so few rich and well-to-do during the
past three years, and not the effect of
the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which has
played havoc with our foreign trade,
so far as our imports are concerned.
At any rate, so long as we have this
rich potential market at home, we
will not have to worry so much about
possible trade arrangements against
us. They will fall of their own weight,
or break under the strain of rivalry
among the participants.
ECONOMIC HIGIILIGHTS
As the NKA campaign entered the
middle of its third week, enthusiasm
was undiminished, pledges continued
to pour in. While troubles have put
in their appearance and the campaign
is obviously touching its most crucial
point, spokesmen are as confident as
ever in forecasting remarkable results.
The NKA blanket code has usurped
the place of the trade codes in the
news. The latter, however, will prob
ably be in operation longer than the
NKA, and the law, instead of public
opinion only, is back of them. It is
an open secret that the government is
dissatisfied with trade code progress
and is making every effort to speed
matters up. One of the most import
ant, lumber, was thrown out when first
sent in. Now the President has signed
an approved lumber code which is ex
pected to do much for the industry and
its employes.
Minimum wages range from 2‘i
cents an hour in the South to 40 cents
in the North and West, with a 40-hour
work week which may be extended to
4H hours at seasonal peak. An agency
known as the Lumber Code Authority,
Inc., is given the job of protecting
price levels and controlling produc
tion. Every operating company will
be given an allotment, and production
quotas for various divisions of the
industry will be arranged on the basis
of consumption, including anticipated
export demand. Selling price is never
to be allowed to drop below the cost
of production point. Underselling will
be illegal. The agreement is designed
to increase lumber and timer employ
ment by 115,000 men.
The electric industry is operating
under a temporary code, until the
Edison Institute can obtain approval
of a permanent agreement. Steel and
automobile industries are bones of con
tention. Code officials are struggling
with the problem; if worst come to
worst the government will make up
codes, force them on the industries
whether they like it or not. It’s a
case where they won’t take no for an
answer.
The first NRA “ehislers” are ap
pearing. These are firms which sign
the agreement, then violate it by not
bringing wages to the specified min
imum, keeping workers on the job for
longer hours than are allowable, etc.
Cases have been found where employes
have protested, only to be told if they
reported violations to NRA directors,
they would be discharged. General
Johnson and subordinates are going
after concerns falling in this classif
ication. The law may step in. Signed
NRA pledges are sent through the
mails. Postmaster General Farley is
considering the possibility of prose
cuting employers who sign and then
violate, under the postal fraud statute.
General Johnson has inaugurated a
Huy Now campaign, with the buying
restricted to NRA members. An ex
ecutive order, permitting cancellation
of government contracts with manu
facturers who have not come into the
fold, has been issued. No new govern,
meat contracts will go to non-NRA
firms.
Two famous government bureaus
officially died the other day. One is
the Shipping Board which, with its
subsidiaries, received the neat sum of
Id.OOO.OOO.OOO in appropriations dur
ing its life, and had a book value of
$288,000,000 at last report. Its func
tions—what are left of them—were
transferred to the Department of
Commerce.
Other casualty was the Prohibition
Burau which came into being in 1920,
spent $100,000,000 in Id years, and
was involved in the loss of 250 lives.
Most of the 1,800 dry agents were
dismissed.
The farmer and the grain dealer
found one recent government report
of great interest. It was the latest
crop forecast. Highlight wus that the
wheat crop would not be as short as
had been expected, and prices dropped
accordingly. Most remarkable revela
tion, however, was that all grain crops
will be extremely short. Total will
be smallest in decades.
The farm relievers arc faced with
one very perplexing question—heavy
hogs. The nation now has 1,000,000
expectant mother hogs, and if the
birth rate is up to normal there will
be a great oversupply. Probable solu
tion will be to encourage the market
inog of small pigs by paying a higher
price per ew’t., and by placing a stiff
processing tax against heavy hogs.
To bring supply in line with demand,
it will be necessary to remove 600,
000,000 pounds of pork and pork pro
ducts from the markets during the
remainder of this year, and 2,000,000,
000 pounds next year.
AMERICA’S NEW TACTICS
A wholesome change is reported to
have come over the new administration
recently regarding its future tacijcs in
dealing with the international prob
lems, as is evidenced by the exchange
of views between the White House and
Norman Davis, ambassador-at-large
of the State Department.
Heretofore, America has undertaken
to lead the way for Europe, leaving
Uncle Sam out on a limb when Europe
failed to follow him. He did this very
thing in the London conference and he
got the short end of the deal. The
only exception was at the Geneva con
ference, when President Coolidge re
fused to lead unless he had assurances
of followers and that broke up the
conference with Uncle Sam not losing
his pants for once.
The new tactics to be used by Davis
on his departure for Europe next
month it is understood, but few be
lieve that it is worth the trip, will be
the extending of a helping hand to
any movement designed toward dis
armament, but Uncle Sam will not
take tlie initiative. If there are no
movements in this direction. Uncle
Sam will still come back with all his
clothes on.
This new departure in international
affairs therefore is pleasing. For we
will from now on go only as far as the
other fellow has ngreed in advance to
go through with his own plan.
ALONG THE WAYSIDE.
Indiana is just now celebrating the
returning of draft beer which is an
other indication of how the psychology
of the people has changed.
Secretary of State Cordell Hull is
said to be unable to see any general
tariff revision possible in the near
future. Just what many predicted
more than a year ago.
We are in favor of putting the ehis
lers on less than a thirty-five hour
week.
The code for the home town knock
ers ought to provide that they be
equipped with rubber hammers that
bounce back and hit them between the
eyes.
Nowadays a girl is still a flapper
until she has put on spectacles which
contain bifocal lenses, and even then
she doesn’t always give up.
The poet tells us that there is a
destiny which shapes our ends but the
average women depends a little on tho
milliner and the shoe clerk.
One philosopher says that civili
zation began when people started to
realize thnt they should strive to bet
ter their existence. It should bn
noted also that at first they didn’t
try to do it by playing the stock mar
ket.
A skeleton found in Minnesota is
said to be that of a seventeen-year
old American girl slain violently
about 20,000 years ago. And let it
be remembered that Chicago is only
celebrating its 100th birthday.
Scientists tell us that a grinding
tool has been invented that, driven by
compressed air, can be revolved 100,000
times a minute. And we are willing
4-H CLUBS OF THE
STATE TO COMPETE
AT NEBRASKA FAIR
Results of Year’s Work To Be
Shown
Members of Nebraska’s 4-H
Clubs will rally in great numbers
to the Nebraska State Fair
Grounds in Lincoln, the week of
September 3rd through September
8th, to compete for state honors
for the year’s endeavors.
The fine new 4-H Club building
will be the center of their activi
ties, ami what is expected to be
the finest exhibition in years will
be found here.
Baby beeves, dairy calves, (pigs,
chickens, sewing, cooking and' can
ning of every variety will 1*? on
display, and during the week prizes
will be nwarded tho winners in
each field.
Each year the attendance of the
4-H Club members has grown,
showing enthusiastic cooperation
with the state’s projects. In many
rases the members come to tho
Fair Grounds and camp for tho
whole week with their families or
friends. This year the same fine
facilities nnd conveniences will be
available for campers. The grounds
are level and well drained, with
cinder walks. The grounds are
policed. Toilet facilities and baths
are many and conveniently located.
Tents and camping equipment are
available at reasonable charges.
Hundreds of entries for 4-H Club
activities have been made, and the
participation of Nebraska’s future
generation promises to be one of
the finest in years.
to bet a dollar to a doughnut that our
dentist has a whole set of them.
It is said that air planes flying over
New York now carry spy glasses so
the passengers can see the sun bathers
on the apartment house roofs and we
suppose before long they will be carry
ing grappling hooks.
One of our Scotch friends whose
daughter got married couldn’t go to
the railroad station with her because
he had to stay home and pick up the
rice.
A lot of men who get the reputation
of being model husbands because they
stay home at night are that way only
because they are too lazy to go out.
Some time Wall Street has to close
business on account of the financial
situation but Monte Carlo keeps going
ahead in the old fashioned way.
MAKING DISCOVERIES
NEAR COLUMBUS.
Wayne Herald; A specimen which
was evidently the tooth of a prehis
toric monster, was recently found
by Henry Einung of Wayne in the
bed of the Flatte river between Silver
Creek and Columbus. Men were
pumping sand from twenty-two feet
below the river bed when the pump
became clogged. They pulled the
pump out anti found the tooth. The
(Continued on page 5, column 6.)
Research to Guide U. S. Road Expenditure
THE research activities of the
United States Bureau of Public
Roads have been carried on behind
the scenes so far as the general
public is concerned. They have,
however, contributed materially to
the progress of highway construc
tion for many years, and are now
about to play an important part in
assuring that the roads to be built
or improved under the $400,000,000
allotment from the public works
fund shall give the service to be
demanded of them.
In its tests laboratory at Arling
ton, Virginia, across the Potomac
from Washington, the Bureau has
carried on research covering both
sub-surface, or foundation, road
soils, nnd the problem of providing
satisfactory surfaces for low-cost
highways. The latter phase of its
research will prove of special im
portance to rural districts where
high-cost roads are not necessita
ted by the amount of traffic, and
where they would impose a heavy
tax burden for maintenance.
Surfacing Low-Cost Roads
The extent to which low-cost
roads can be provided with a
smooth and durable surface de
pends largely upon retention of
surface moisture, for it is the pre
sence of a moisture film between
tlie surface particles that provides
the “glue” to hold them together,
and that keeps the surfaces of
clay, sand-clay and ' gravel roads
from disintegrating.
Such moisture content can not
be satisfactorily furnished and
maintained by sprinkling or any
other known means of mechanic
ally applying water to the surface.
The attention of the engineers,
therefore, has been directed to the
use of some chemical which will
automatically draw the desired
moisture from the air above or the
earth below.
Calcium chloride is a chemical of
this kind. Applied to the road sur
face it both draws moisture from
the air and slows down evapora
tion. A rainfall carries it beneath
the surface, but as the surface
moisture evaporates, the calcium
chloride solution rises to take its
place and furnish the “glue” to
hold together the surface particles.
With each rainfall and subsequent
evaporation of surface moisture
the process is repeated, the net
result being that the surface has
,'o opportunity to dry out and dis
egrate.
The shrinkage test, another of the
many tests used to determine the
reactions of soils when subject to
changing load, moisture and tem
perature conditions. A moist
sample of soil is placed in the
laboratory “oven” and the amount
of shrinkage observed when all the
moisture has been removed.
Among the most important fac
tors that influence the action of the
sub-surface soils is capillarity, or
the extent to which capillary ac
tion permeates them with moisture
drawn up from the ground water.
As in the case of the surface soils,
a certain amount of moisture is
highly desirable, hut too much dis
integrates them just as too much
water disintegrates a handful of
damp sand. Sub-surface soils
which attract excessive capillary
moisture are also subject to the
frost heaves that ruin many roads.
J
The Drainage Indicator, used to
study the rise of water in a soil
sample under varying conditions of
pressure.
A device developed by the
Bureau and known as a drainage
indicator makes it possible to de
termine both the maximum capil
lary rise in the soil under test, and
the rate at which the ground water
will rise due to capillary attraction.
The device shows also the relative
amounts of air, gravitational mois
ture (rain water, etc.), capillary
moisture and solid particles which
go to make up the soil.
The Capillary Rise
The tremendous amount of water
that can be furnished by capillary
action is indicated by the composi
tion of a sample ten-foot, column of
soil. The sample contained 5.9 feet
soil particles, .(> foot gravitational
moisture and air, and 3.5 feet capil
lary moisture. The maximum ca
pillary rise was 9 feet, and at 1.5
feet above the ground water the
rate of the rise was 10.4 feet per
24 hours.
Soil is not a calculable and
stable material to the same extent
as steel, stone or wood, but the
tests developed by the U. S.
Bureau of Public Roads enable the
highway engineer to forecast the
reaction of his soil under varying
conditions with a high degree of
accuracy. At the same time they
show in what necessary qualities
the soil he must depend upon is
deficient, and indicate what con
stituents should bo added to repair
these deficiencies.
In The WEEK'S NEWS
ROOSEVELT VISITS CAMPS. The President on
his way back to the White House from his sum
mer home at Hyde Park. N. Y., visits C.C.C. camps
accompanied by cabinet members and Robert
Fechner, Director of camps.
JOINED — Edwin C. Hill, ace
news commentator, and Singin’
Sam, leading basso, who will be
heard together for the first time
when their new airwave series
starts on September 11.
_
LUNCHEON ON HIGH—
On his precarious perch
high up above the ground a
workman has his lunch on
the scaffolding of the Vic
toria Tower during repairs
to Big Ben, the famous
STR I KING MIN
ERS RETURN.
Mine strikers heed
pleas of NRA lead
ers and return to
their duties.
BACKS NRA DRIVE, s.
W. A. Fiaher, presi- s
dent of the Fiaher
Body Corporation, who
announced a 15% wage
increaae affecting over
30,000 employes in
planta in Tarrytown,
Buffalo, Detroit. Flint,
Pontiac, Lanaing,
Cleveland, Norwood,
St. Louis, KansaaCity,
Oakland, Seattle, and
Memphis. A 10% raise
was given salaried em
ployes earning less
than $1800. These in
creasce supplement a
5% increase made
Juna 1.
NEW PRESI
DENT OF
CUBA. Dr. Car
los Manuel De
Cespedet suc
ceeds Gerardo
Machado who
was given a leave
of absence by
Congress In an
effort to solve
Cuba's crisis.
