The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965, September 05, 1935, Image 2

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    Nation Will Save
Its Historic Sites
Preservation of Landmarks
Adopted as a Policy.
Washington.—Preservation of his
torlc sites, buildings and other mile
•tones along the paths traveled by
the men and women who created
• nation on this continent has been
declared for the first time to be a
national policy, and provision made
by congress to rescue and restore
for the Inspiration and benedt of
the American people such siguifi
cant reminders of their heroic past.
Under the broad terms of two
bills one of which already hns be
come law and the other of which
appears assured of enactment be
fore congress adjourns. It Is hoped
to rescue and restore such surviv
als as the Spanish mission In the
Southwest. Derby Wharf and other
sites and buildings In Old Salem,
Mass., built In Colonial times, and
beautiful nntebellum plantation
homes In South Carolina. Georgia
and Mississippi, which are in dally
Increasing danger of destruction.
The Hermitage plantation on the
Savannah river, described as “one
of the priceless historical heir
looms of this country” was dis
turbed recently to make way for an
Industrial plant. The buildings were
purchased by Henry Ford and Re
moved to another site owned by
him at Richmond. Va.
Old Homes May Be Torn Down.
At Portsmouth. N. H„ are fine
old examples of early American
homes not as yet endangered but
are in the old part of town where,
unless measures are taken to pre
serve them, they are certain soon
to be torn down.
And in the West and Middle
West, along the Oregon Trnli, and
the route of the Pony Express and
the Overland Stage are the sites
and survivals of pioneer posts and
events.
It Is desired to preserve ana re
store, In Wyoming, Fort Laramie
and Fort Brldger, and to protect
Register Cliff In the southern pnrt
of the state on the sand stone sides
of which are Inscribed the names,
with dates, of many of the f>0,000
pioneers who passed that way In
the thirties and forties, ami of
whom In some cases, these are the
only surviving records.
The signatures, now In danger of
erasure and erosion, can he stabilized
for the benefit of future historians
and genealogists, nnd all others In
terested In the re-creation of sights
and scenes of those early days.
All these and many other antiqui
ties of national significance are to
be surveyed, evaluated and ac
quired.
Under the terms of a bill which
has passed both the senate and
house and Is assured of enactment
before congress adjourns, the secre
tary of the Interior Is Instructed to
make an Intensive expert nation
wide survey to determine the exist
ence and exceptional value of places
“Radium Hen” Clucks
Like Barnyard Fowl
New York.—Science announces
the discovery of a new kind of
“poultry"—the “rudlum hen I”
The hen family can well be
proud of the “bird." It Is sexless
and yet clucks excitedly like any
barnyard Leghorn. It needs no
food, except electricity, looks
like an ordinary watering can,
and has led perplexed scientists
to the location of many radium
“eggs."
The Instrument has been
christened "radium hen” by doc
tors at the National Physical
laboratories In London. They
have used It to locate lost or
mislaid radium needles used in
treating diseuse. The closer the
“hen” Is brought to the un
unknown location of the expen
sive needle the louder and more
excitedly It clucks.
and properties of Interest as com
memorating or Illustrating the his
tory of the United States, prelim
inary to their acquisition, when
authorized by gift, purchase or oth
erwise.
In this work the secretary Is to
be assisted by a general advisory
board of not to exceed 11 quali
fied experts appointed by him to
serve without salary In co-opera
tion with the staff of the historical
division of the National Park serv
ice.
Another bill, already enacted, pro
vides for a National Park trust
fund board to accept and adminis
ter gifts or bequests of properties
to the National Park service which
Is charged with the duty of preserv
ing and restoring national monu
ments.
No Running Over Bridg*
When, long ago, the city fathers
of Luray built themselves a bridge
across a nearby creek they must
have built a flimsy structure. For
they made a law, still on the statute
books of the Virginia town, which
stated that no boy "should trot or
run across the bridge even If he
were barefooted.”
Student Opens Cat
and Dog “Laundry”
Toledo.—Even cats and dogs
get soiled, so why not a laun
dry for them, too? That’s Just
what Miss Mary Helen Womel
dorf, comely freshman at Toledo
university, reasoned.
She Inserted this advertise
ment In a Toledo paper:
•’SITUATION WANTED: Col
lege student will wash and
deflea cats and small dogs.”
Her Idea seems to be clicking,
too, as, although Miss Womel
dorf has only been busy Ht this
unique occupation a short time,
increased numbers of pets have
been brought to her to be groomed.
She explains that catnip keeps
the cats In a docile state during
the cleansing process and. as her
family has had pets as long as
Mary Helen can remember, she
is quite familiar with their treat
ment and care.
Milk Bottl* Yields Diamond
Utica, N. Y.—Milk Bottle Clean
up week, sponsored annually by
milk dealers to get housewives to
clear their cellars of bottles which
may have accumulated during the
year, resulted In the return of a
diamond ring to a Utica woman.
The ring was lost five months ago
and was found In one of the for
gotten milk bottles.
Find Support for Atlantis Legend
_ ^ - - _ I
Belief in Lost Continent Gets
Confirmation.
Paris.—French believers In the
existence of a lost continent, At
lantis, have been greatly encour
aged by the announcement that the
French ship Ampere has discovered
a submerged peak In the Atlantic
In the region of where they think
the lost continent had been.
Paul Le Cour, director of the re
view Atlantis and founder of the
Friends of Atlantis society, has left
for the Azores, where he Is study
HIGH-STYLE SATIN
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
Satin continues to hold Its glam
orous sway In fushlon's realm. The
tones and tints of the present eve
ning satins are enchanting. The
model pictured Is typical of the
trend of the mode as to the ex
quisite styling given to formal sat
ins. A luxurious silver fox cape
tops this satin gown which Is in
soft almond green—an especially ef
fective color with sun tanned skin.
It Is made with deep V decolletuge.
This front fullness given to the skirt
Ing the |H>sslbllitles raised by the
Ampere's discovery.
It Is his belief that the conti
nent which sank below the level of
the sea existed In the neighborhood
of the Azores at a point In the At
lantic where there Is a submarine
plateau surrounded by ocenn depths
which go down both on the Euro
pean and American sides to 6.000
meters (19,080 feet).
Mr. Le Cour was not at all dis
mayed by recent reports to the
French Academy of Sciences by
Professor Chevalier of the Museum
of Naturnl History that his hotanl
cnl studies In the Cape Verde Is
lands gave proof that no lost conti
nent had existed near there.
“This only confirms that the site
of Atlantis was elsewhere." said
Mr. Le Cour In an Interview before
he left. "We have always main
tained that the Cape Verde Is
lands, the Cannrles and the Ma
deira Islands could not have been
colonized by the Inhabitants of At
lantis. The ocean plateau which
Includes the Azores marks the spot
i where Atlantis seems to have been.
Already numbers of legends, myths,
traditions and zoological, botanical,
linguistic and oceanographic proofs
for this theory have been collected
by our society.
"It seems certnln that a lost civ
ilization existed, and that either
European civilization was carried
to the Americas through the Inter
mediary of the lost continent or
else the lost continent was the
birthplace of civilization nnd Its cul
ture spread to the rest of the
world."
Mr. Le Cour said that In some
ancient writings the Inhabitants of
Atlantis were referred to under the
name of Ethiopians, nnd that In
Pliny’s text Ethiopia was called At
lantis.
Is distinctively chic and describes
the newest silhouette movement. In
fnct front fullness Is one of the
most Important dressmaker topics
of the moment since fall styles both
dnytline and evening stress this
feature.
Man of Iron Hit by Car
Walks to Police Station
Lynn. Mass.—A nmu of Iron Is
llupop Baronls. Knocked off his
bicycle by a hit-and-run motorist,
he suffered concussion of the brain,
possible fracture of the skull and
cuts nnd bruises. He picked up his
battered "wheel” and walked a
half-mile to the police station to re
port the accident. He finally was
prevailed upon to go to a hospital.
Huge Boeing Bomber Built for Army Air Corps
e0ei»°
After a year of secret operating this greatest bombing plane in the world, the Hoeing -M.m, was completed
for the army air corps at Seattle and appeared for test (lights. It has four “<>0-horsepower motors, a wing
spread of more than 100 feet and is 70 feet long. Its weight is about 15 tons and its expected speed ‘J5(J
miles so hour.
SEEN and HEARD'
around toe
NATIONAL CAPITAL*
By Carter Field (
FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
Washington.—While congress Is
off the administration’s hands, the
courts are still on the Job, and the
bombardment of New Deal policies
along the constitutional front may
be expected to continue.
In this connection, AAA officials
are confident that, with the new
amendments just passed by con
gress. the processing tnxes will be
upheld. They think the objections
which lower courts have found to
the old processing taxes, and which
lawyers generally believe will be
found by the Supreme court, have
been avoided.
Hence the AAA Intends to do
everything possible to produce a
court test of the new processing
taxes Just as speedily as possible.
AAA officials say privately that
they have already picked the case
on which to make the battle. It Is
that of the Hoosac Mills.
Washington lawyers who, no mnt
ter what their specialty, always fig
ure that they are experts on what
the Supreme court may do, and who
certainly are more interested In the
court than In what might be called
the chores of the profession, are di
vided as to what will be the out
come.
Three possibilities, they admit,
are open. The first Is for the high
court to throw the whole business
out the window, holding that the
assessment of such excise taxes Is
beyond the power of congress, In
that these taxes are for a particu
lar purpose and not for the general
need of the government, and that
they are not Intended to produce
revenue, but to achieve a desired
price level.
In this case the AAA would have
nowhere to turn, but there Is little
doubt what the administration would
do. It would continue to pay farm
benefits, and In Janunry It would
ask congress to levy special taxes
to provide the additional revenue
needed.
Or the court might, as AAA offi
cials believe It will, uphold the
whole business, which would settle
the question for the time being—
probably until after the next elec
tion, anyhow.
Another Possibility
But there is another possibility.
The hlgla court may decide that the
processing taxes as fixed In the law
are all right, but that the formula
for changing them as agricultural
prices approach ptrlty Is an uncon
stitutional delegation of power.
Most lawyers agree that the in
jection of this "formula” for chang
ing the taxes as the prices of prod
ucts change was a grave mistake
by those desiring to avoid having
the court throw the taxes out. For
they contend that beyond any doubt
the inclusion of this "formula”
proves that the taxes are not in
fact excise taxes, levied for rev
enue; that it proves the only object
of the taxes is to bring better
prices for the farmer.
Now everybody knows that this
was the real object. There is no
question about that. The only ques
tion is whether congress has the
right to levy internal taxes for
such a purpose.
No one questions that the tariff
duties are levied with this end In
mind. It has been a protective tar
iff, and not purely a revenue tariff,
for a good many years. In fact,
the Republicans used to win elec
tions right along on that plea, and
even when the Democrats came Into
power—on the tariff issue, back in
Cleveland’s time—there was no ac
tual scuttling of the protective Idea.
It was Just modified.
More than that, in recent years
there has been a formula for chang
ing these Import taxes so as to
equalize the difference In cost of
production here and abroad.
The chief difference, the lawyers
say, is that there hns never been
any question of the power of con
gress under the Constitution to levy
tariffs for purposes of protection as
well ns revenue, but there Is grave
doubt as to whether congress has
the right to levy excise taxes for
nny other than revenue purposes.
Ways of Candidates
Once a muu, starts thinking he
may become President of the Unit
ed States, something very curious
happens to his mental process.
It Is proverbial that this applies
to his own estimates of his chances
for success. especially after he is
nominated. Men who traveled on
the train with James M. Cox In
1920 know that Cox thought he had
an excellent chance, right up to the
last, though the Harding landslide
was overwhelming. But he was not
alone In this. Many others on that
Cox train thought so, too. Including
some pretty hard boiled newspaper
men. Perhaps the answer to this
sort of thing is that people meeting
a celebrity of any sort, and cer
tainly a man who Just may become
President, do not rack their brains
to say disagreeable things. They
like to say things that the tuun
will remember pleasantly.
But this Is not all the picture of
what happens to a potential candi
date—a man who thinks the light
ning may strike him.
Consider the wuy two men who
desire the Republican nomination
are going about It. To wit, Senator
Vandenberg of Michigan, and Col
onel Knox of the Chicago Daily
News,
Knox, who figured second only to
Borah In the recent poll taken by
Robert H. Lucas among Republican
local leaders all over the country,
Is barn-storming as few candidates
have ever done. He is going up and
down the country, making speeches
every time he gets a chance, giving
out more or less sensational Inter
views in between, and generally at
tracting all the attention he can get.
While Vanderberg has been most
cautious in the senate, and is not
only declining to go places and
make speeches, but is refusing even
to give Interviews. He has recently
refused to repeat his often ex
pressed views on a certain subject
for a well-known magazine—an op
portunity which few senators would
decline, and which Vandenberg
would not decline If he were not
rigidly holding himself to a cam
tious line of procedure.
Then Take Borah
On the other hand, Senator Borah,
who probably has been talked
about for President longer than any
living man, and gotten less close to
than nomination at convention time
than anybody who ever aspired—If
the roll calls of the conventions are
accepted as decisive on this—acts
Just as though he were not Inter
ested. Right after his present boom
started he proceeded to cast votes
and make speeches which were cal
culated to alienate the conservative
wing of the party. And this came
at a moment when he was being
considered as an excellent connect
ing link to weld together the two
wings of the party.
Perhaps the explanation Is that
Borah has been talked about for
President so long that he no long
er takes It seriously, save In a com
plimentary way. Nobody knows the
answer to that. People do know
that he is tremendously Interested
in the talk. That story Is true
about his putting the slip of paper
with “Borah for President," which
a colleague put on his desk as a
Joke Into a drawer, and then tak
ing It out and looking at It half a
dozen times within an hour. And
It wasn’t to figure out whose hand
writing It was, either. His face, ac
cording to those who watched him,
showed distinct satisfaction.
But It was not long afterward
that he Insurged all over the lot,
casting ballots and making remarks
calculated to cause cold chills down
New York and New England and
New Jersey spines.
Get# What He Wanted
Very few times In history has a
President obtained a greater meas
ure of what he wanted from his
second congress than has President
Roosevelt. He actually suffered no
important reverses except a few
having fundamentally nothing to do
with his program and policies.
Critics point to the World court
vote. Every President since Wil
son has been for the World court,
and every one—Harding, Coolidge
and Hoover—failed to get anywhere
with It. Due to a combination of
racial groups opposing United
States adherence to the court, and
to widespread and firmly frozen
Isolationist sentiment, many sena
tors simply do not dare to vote
for It.
Critics also point to the St. Law
rence sea'way treaty, which Mr.
Roosevelt strongly favors, and
which does Impinge slightly on his
program and policies In that there
is a power angle.
But the power angle had nothing
to do with the defeat of that
treaty, nor the attitude In the sen
ate that made It futile to attempt
to bring It up again. It Is purely
the seaway angle that operates
against ratification. Opposition
comes solidly from the Atlantic
coast and Gulf states, whose ports
would be hurt by the diversion of
deep-sea traffic to that route. There
Is nothing partisan about It.
Where Fight Centered
The most interesting point here,
however, is that the utilities did
not dare attempt to draw their bat
tle line more to their own advan
tage. If they had dared make a
tint tight to eliminate any possibil
ity of the holding companies being
forced out of existence, for exam
ple, that might have meant some
thing. The whole fight between
senate and house, and between the
President and the house, was over
whether a flat day for execution
should be named, or whether dis
cretion to commute the sentence
might be vested In a commission—
a commission named by the Presi
dent.
The remainder of the measure Is
drastic, but the utilities, though de
nouncing It, did not make a real
fight.
Plenty of lists of the legislation
passed at the ltoosevelt command
are being printed. There Is no
point to repeating them here. The
point is, nowhere did he fall to get
pretty nearly what h* wanted.
Copyright.—WNU Servloo.
m NOMADIC CIRCUS
Circus Clowns Cater to the Popular Fancy.
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
IN MIDSUMMER the circus sea
son Is at Its height. Since early
spring troupers have been don
ning their costumes daily, and
trained animals from every corner
of the globe In colorful trappings
have delighted young and old.
Geographically, the circus has
been a great educator. Long before
automobiles, motion pictures, and
radio broke down the barriers be
tween Isolated regions of the Unit
ed States and the advancing world
outside, the circus was taking its
artists, Its comedy, its music and
Its nomadic college of zoology Into
almost every state and territory.
The world’s largest circus might
even advertise that It carries the
original New York cast, because It
takes on tour precisely the same
show that opens In Madison Square
Garden.
Whatever else the peripatetic
amusement venture is or is not, the
fact remains that It is real. There
are no circus “doubles” to perform
the difficult feats, and there are no
substitutes for those who may not
feel “up” to the ordeal of two
shows a day, “rain or shine." Years
ago leaders In this field of enter
tainment learned that the formula
for permanent survival included a
whole-hearted attempt to give the
public something it never had be
held before, surrounding it with a
dazzling array of sustaining attrac
tions. This hard-and-fast rule has
persisted through the years, amid
a procession of magic names: Jum
bo, Tom Thumb; Chang, the Chinese
Titan; Zachlnni, human cannon
ball; Tom Mix, whose Rough Rid
ers carry the spirit of the old West
to every state in the Union; Goliath,
monster sea-elephant; Ubangi sav
ages from Darkest Africa.
Because the circus is nomadic in
Its quest for business, it always has
been of necessity a fighting institu
tion. Therein lies one of its major
bids for fame. Like a gay explorer
who finds each day’s journey a fresh
problem to tackle, the circus strug
gles against a perfect maze of dal
ly entanglements that threaten to
ensnare It like a colossal Gulliver.
The circus has battled the weather
and it has fought grafting officials
who threaten to dig up some ex
cuse for fining or tying up the show
unless complimentary tickets fly
thick and fast.
Huge Dally Overhead.
The managements for years have
fought the argument that they take
too much money out of town. Peo
ple overlook the fact that every big
circus spends a large sum In every
city In which It plays. The dally
overhead of the largest circus Is in
excess of $15,000, and a consider
able share of it is spent locally for
lot and license, straw, lumber, ice
cream, soft drinks, billing locations,
and food for 600 horses, 36 ele
phants, four herds of camels, hippo
potamuses, and other large appe
tites In the menagerie, as well as
for the three meals a day of the
show personnel, whose gastronomic
requirements would stagger the
chefs of a huge hotel. The commis
sary uses daily 250 pounds of but
ter, 200 pounds of coffee, 25 bags
of table salt, almost a ton of fresh
meat, 200 gallons of milk, 1,500
loaves of bread, 200 dozen eggs,
half a ton of vegetables, a barrel
of sugar, 50 pounds of lard, etc.
Mud is by all odds the outdoor
showman’s worst enemy. It sucks
at the wheels of his wagons until
elephants must be pressed into
service to extricate them, and it
dampens the spirits of his prospec
tive customers. Wet weather is bad
for monkeys, apes, giraffes, and cat
animals, which are subject to throat
and lung congestion. Add to this
the fact that canvas triples its
weight when wet. Conquest of the
golden fleece could be little more
difficult than the task that con
fronts a circus manager who must
drag his nomadic city from the
clutches of the mire in time to play
a matinee performance in a town
a hundred miles away.
In the old days, before movement
by railroad was general, traveling
was much worse. Springtime found
country roads impassable. Four
teen horses were needed to pull a
hippopotamus den when circuses
traveled overland in wagons. Cir
cus laborers still shout “China!’’
occasionally when the train roars
into the city of exhibition. This
Is a circus term of another genera
tion. When a driver, seated atop
the first wagon In the caravan,
sighted the show’s destination, he
railed "China” to indicate that after
an all-night struggle they literally
had dug their way through.
Rivalry Used to Be Fierce.
Previous to 1929 most of the big
circus units battled with one an
other up and down the country from
Maine to California and from Can
ada to the Gulf. Sometimes they
employed the most vitriolic phrases
in characterizing rival circuses as
worthless. When electricity first
was used to illuminate a circus tent,
competitors solemnly warned the
public to stay away from that show
“because electric lights are known
to be extremely dangerous and
blinding to the eyes!”
Most interesting were the “paper
wars" conducted by the big and
little shows prior to the late sum
mer of 1929. The big circuses often
bought advertising space on barns
and buildings in the dead of win
ter, so that the location would not
be snapped up by rival concerns.
Some of the shows had a playful
little habit of covering each other’s
posters when two shows saw fit to
play the same city on the same day
or a few days apart.
une or tnese paper wars became
so Intense when two circuses chose
to book a California city within a
few days of each other that the
barns and billboards of the sur
rounding countryside were plastered
with a covering of circus pictures
28 sheets deep. The opposition bri
gade of circus number one went out
each morning to cover the adver
tisements of the rival show. The
brigade of circus number two went
out every evening to recover with
its own billing. They watched each
other so closely, these tireless ad
vance men, that each knew when
the other’s crew left town to cover
paper in the country.
At last one of them played a
master stroke. Two nights before
the first show was due to arrive,
the brigade hired a hearse, climbed
Inside with posters, paste, and
brushes, and quietly left town to
do their work without attracting
the attention of their competitors.
The advance advertising cars of
the big shows carry large crews of
ambitious workers who often aver
age a posting of 10,000 to 12,000
sheets of circus lithographs a day.
A crew of 30 men can bill a large
city in a single day, so well do they
understand their work.
The flaming circus lithographs
that herald the approach of the
spangled caravan must be printed
in several different languages in a
number of places: Posters with
Hebrew lettering in New York city’s
Jewish districts, Italian in both
New York city and Chicago, French
in parts of Montreal and Quebec,
and Spanish in certain Southwest
ern cities.
White Elephant Competition.
Sometimes the tented enterprises
tried to duplicate their rival’s ace
attractions. Barnum once import
ed a sacred white elephant from
Slam. It wasn’t pure white, but
rather a cream color, and it cost a
lot of money and trouble. Adam
Forepaugh, then Barnum’s leading
competitor, copied the Siamese al
bino by applying a generous coating
of white paint to unclothed parts
of a gray pachyderm. His elephant
was so much whiter than Barnum’s
that the public decided Forepaugh
had the real article—until one day
during a street parade in Philadel
phia, when a cloudburst exposed
the Imposture.
Even then skeptical show-goers
refused to believe that Barnum’s
white elephant was any more genu
ine than the one they had seen
exposed. Somebody asked Barnum
what he was billing as his chief
attraction that season. He smiled
and replied. ‘Tve got a white ele
phant." Then and there he sup
plied a distinctly American angle
to the age-old white-elephant allu
sion that to this day Is used to de
scribe something expensive which
cannot be disposed of to any ad
vantage.
The big shows fought each other
until the summer of 1929, when a
great consolidation was effected.
Now six of the largest tent shows,
all Ringllng-owned, contend for pa
tronage in friendly rivalry and try
to keep out of one another’s way.
Most outsiders think that every
circus picks its complete route at
the beginning of each season. In
reality, they are routed only about
six weeks in advance. Agents must
study crop and factory conditions,
epidemics of disease, and proximity
of rival attractions, and must ar
range to send the circus where
there is a probability of doing good
business. Routing a circus is a
business science