Editorial & Business Offices: 10 South Fourth Street O'NEILL, NEBR. CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher Entered the postoffice at O’Neill, Holt county, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under the Act of Congress of March B, 1879. This newspaper is a member of the Nebraska Press Association, National Editorial Association and the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Established in 1880—Published Each Thursday Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50 per year; else where in the United States, $3 per year; abroad, rates provided on request. All subscriptions are strictly paid-in-advance. Those Missing Persons Holt countyans, like residents of most counties in the north south belt running from the Canadian line south through the Da kotas, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, are asking: Where are the missing persons? As this editorial is written, the district census supervisor de clines to state specifically the extent of loss of population in the county because, until early this week, all tabulatons had not been completed. But in a general way he declared that Holt’s decrease would represent a town of a thousand persons. That there is a drop comes as no surprise. The trend for years has been away from the ranches and farms. Mechanisation of the farm and expansion of farm and ranch operations are primarily responsible for the decrease. This trend was established in the 1930s during the years of drouth and depression. Then came war preparedness and, like a vacuum, people were drawn from the Midwest. Then during the war years the disloca tion heightened. With the cessation of hostilities there were those who hoped that the young men trekking back from the wars would settle down to agricultural life. But this did not develop on a noticeable scale. Many of these young men went into other work, frequently into work for which they had been trained in the service. Many of them found jobs in other places. For many of them, we regret to say, the farm or ranch had no more attraction. Probably a more important reason was the inability, financially, for most of them to establish themselves on a farm or ranch. They soon discovered that farming and ranching had become big business; that these operations in the post-war era,required considerable capital. With the disappearance of ol* dobbin and with the highly mechanized methods of farming many sets of farm buildings have disappeared. Places where families once lived have no buildings at all. Fewer persons nowadays can handle many more acres. At the same time, more production per acre has been devel oped through improved methods of cultivation, fertilization and conservation of soil. There are fewer persons to make use of the facilities of the small towns, but the per capita income has increased substantially. While the tractor age has been responsible for the depopula tion of the farms, there has been no new industry developed to absorb these people formerly engaged in farming, and that is a reason why these people have sought employment elsewhere. Alio attributed to the county's population decline is the method of counting. The college students are counted where they are attending college rather than their hometown. In 1940 they were counted at home—where they should be counted. There are perhaps 200 Holt county college men and women on somebody else's census roll. Naturally, the people in O’Neill are happy to know that their city has increased a handsome 500 persons or more—into the 3,000 bracket. It would have been better, however, if all towns in the county had made a substantial gain. The increase in the number of housing units in most towns has proved a deceptive guide to determining the number of peo ple in these communities. In most places the number of units has increased but the size of the families has decreased. O’Neill has seen scores of new homes constructed during the past decade and fiequently in the removal of buildings from farms and ranches O’Neill has gained units by simply moving the house into town. The Frontier firmly believes that the mechanization of the farm and ranch is here to stay, and that Holt county, as well as most other rural counties in Nebraska, must develop methods of processing the products in the county and practice extensive soil conservation in order to hold its population and prevent further loss. O’Neill’s gain of some 500 persons is handsome—about 20 percent—but it is offset by the county’s net loss from its 16,552 figure in 1940. WWW No Deaths I hus Far Axel Borg, Second district representative on the Holt county I board of supervisors, has called to our attention an interesting fact pertaining to Holt county highway fatalities. He pointed out that in 1949 Holt had 8 highway fatalities representing a third of all the fatalities in the 18-county Norfolk area of the Nebraska safety patrol. So far in 1950 Holt county has a perfect record—no fatalities. Mr. Borg believes it would be a wonderful thing if we could keep the year 1950 free from auto fatalities. Needless to sav the rest of us share the same feeling. SPECIAL OFFER By The O’NEILL PHOTO CO. O’Neill, Nebr. | FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY THE O'NEILL PHOTO CO. I wili furnish The O'hetli Frontier with baby pictures that will ; *>• used in connection with a feature story. This offer good 1 on*T with a photographic order amounting to $5.00 or more. You select the sise you wish from our complete line of fold* ers—easels, enlargements and frames. BRING AD WITH YOU Just a Matter of Color ^ACH! THE SHIRTK , ARE DIFFERENT BUT \ THE HEARTS BENEATH ] VJHEM ARE THE SA/AEy TOO TOO! Istmahii EAST BERLIN’S BLUE SHIRTS .* Prairieland Talk — Gone Are Days of Free Crackers, Cheese and Tobacco at Grocery Store By ROMAINE SAUNDERS LINCOLN — Them were the good old days. Don’t sneer. Within the happy memory of those still living a period of “good old days’ was recorded on the scroll of time. You could go into a grocery store, help yourself to a slice of cheese by i the simple Romaine Saunder* process or: grasping the j butcher knife | and cutting from the huge round cake ; what y o u | wanted, g, o to the crack er box and walk out with a handful of crackers and a slice of cheese which some; times ; was strong enough to walk out alone. There was a cigar box in which was free smoking tobac co at which most of the time there was some fellow poking his cob pipe full with a practic ed thumb. There were free matches. And if you brought a few groceries in that same store the cleflk put in a sack of can dy “for the children.” Board and room at most any hotel was $3.50 a week and a single meal consisting of all you could eat was 2-bits. Common labor ing gents made $150 a day, while $3 was the limit for the best skilled artisans. A doctor would treat you all winter lor $25 and $5 was the "retainer lee” a lawyer charged and more than like ly he didn't get any more than that. There was no income tax and no withholding tax and no bureau chief to make your al lotment of what wou were to plant. Hunting and fishing licenses hadn’t been invented and you could go to the Elk horn most any summer eve ning and land a 5-pound pick edel or strip to the nude and plunge into its limpid waters. You could drive over the prairie and bring in an antelope and a week’s supply of prairie chic kens. There was no A or H bomb but you learned to be careful not to offend any par'd that might throw a .44 slug at you. There was an absence of “no hunting” sigijs and not many wire fences to shut you out. Your buggy or saddle horse had no license plate and you needed no driver’s license, but you had to know how to stay on your bucking horse when he took that notion. The first sign ot what was coming was the glint of the white of his eyes and then his back went into a hump. • • • Whatever can be done in the way of building with $1,120,000 in the till is coming up for en largements at the state univer sity. • • * Next year auto license plates will be different if state house plans are not thwarted. Figures designating the county will be replaced with letters. Holt county plates to bear the letter HL. It is promised that the new s yle w'ill save $7,000. That will be a start. The auditor reports a take out of the state treasury of seven and three-quarter mil lion dollars during the month of March. If sufficient items on which a saving of seven thou sand each can be twisted from the hopper a worthwile dent I can be made in the monthly outgo at the state house * * * Wayne O. Reed, state super intendent of public instruction, who has been caustic in his criticism of school laws and regulations and vociferous for a broadened tax base” appears | to not have had enough of the strenuous life at the state house and files again for the nomina tion. Down at South Sioux City has arisen a contestant for Mr. Reed’s third term in the per son of Merle Haynes. “Voice of The Frontier . . . WJAG . . . 780 on your dial! Neat, Cool, Comfortable Men s T Shirts 59< \ Sizes: Small, Medium, Large Here's a good looking, serviceable T shirt at rock bottom price, trim fitting and light weight for work or for play. At this low price, why not buy several today? EIIM makes teeth taok dull; ||A11, glues acid to teeth, often lev causing decay; breeds ECONOMY *'bad breath" germs. R .. 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