Prairieland Talk . . .
Crime Diet on TV to Blame
o By ROMAINE SAUNDERS
LINCOLN — Cattle prices on the toboggan ■
concert! the prairieland cow men and it is noted
that many have been getting out from under
via public sales. Everybody knows and none know
it better than, the ranchers, that cattle have been
and still are o trageously high.
So is practically everything else
° that has a market demand.
There must be a start some
place to get back to sane prices.
Of course, the cost of production
determines the selling price and
the factors which go into costs
must stand a trimming. This will
involve labor in reduction of
wages. It will involve a good
many things.
I know of a residence prop
erty where there is a three-room Romaine
unfurnished apartment for rent, Saunders
the owner asking $50 a month, but gets no taker
and has been offered $30, which is probably $10
more than the layout should rent for. The old
houses are actually worth no more today than
they were 20 years ago. The grass in the cow
country grows as it always did without the turn
o of a human hand. We once got $20 for a yearling
and 15 cents for our cream at Floyd Adams’ cream
station in Amelia, it was all ours, we lived on the
fat of the land and were happy.
• ♦ *
Met a guy this morning who works with a
saw and hammer, nothing extra at that, and he
told me he made $20 yesterday. He also draws so
cial security payments. . . Former Gov. Val Peter
son, now administrator of the federal civil de
fense commission, was on the grounds when the
bomb test was made recently in Nevada. Or more
to the point, Mr. Peterson was in a trench two
miles from the point of explosion which he thinks
is as close as he cares to get on such an occasion
. . . Democrats and republicans are agreed in
strong opposition to the' Carpenter proposal to
take from the party conventions the duty of nam
ing their committeemen. , . 131,244 American bat
le casualties in Korea up to and including the
middle of March since hostilities began. . . Moth
ers down in Rio de Janiero ask for more milk
to be imported and less whiskey. . . Government
price controls have ended, now let’s see what the
law of supply and demand does for us. . . Sup
posed to be 30 billion 500 million dollars in cir
© culation. Got your share?
• ■ •
Juvenile delinquency is much talked about
and there’s a lot of it. Maybe dad and mother
qualify for a place among the delinquents. There
is a chance especially for the kids under whole
some: influences. But what should be done with
the 13-year-old southern Nebraska boy who in a
° fit of anger shot and killed his little sister and
his aunt because the aunt thought it best that the
boy be kept from the television performance? Af
ter the shooting he pulled out and went seven
miles to a home where he get in on the TV show.
Most anything goes in Los Angeles, but citizens
became aroused when the TV people dished them
up 852 criminal exhibitions. The TV people de
fend their course in displaying crime instead of
o replacing such things with wholesome exhibitions.
This 13-year-old Nebraska lad spent much time
at television performances and his young life has
been stained with a double murder.
* * *
MARCH 20 — SPRING AND SUMMER
At noon today the equator lay beneath the sun;
• Tonight the pale new moon will come.
Tomorrow the bird awing greets another spring—
cGone the days with winter’s chilly sting.
April showers and then May’s floral bloom
Coming down time’s highway very soon.
And when the morning glory climbs above our
head,
Tinted beauties in white and blue and red,
oSummer days will be here once more—
Bountiful Providence, in basket and store.
I visited at the bedsides of three old men to
day. A 72-year-old has the mumps. What is more
important, his life’s companion is his doctor, his
nurse and his sweetheart and he lies without a
groan or a complaint in his own bed. A block
away from this home where the melody of life’s
early plighted love can be seen in word and ac
tion a 88 - year - old, snow white hair and l?ent
form, never too ill to be cheerful, was in good
spirits over the prospects of receiving today an
old age assistance check. He is alone with
thoughts of the past and a living hope for immor
tal life beyond this vale of tears. Just in my own
neighborhood lies or sits an old man whose lone
ly hours are brightened if I call at the home for
an hour’s fellowship between two old scouts fac
ing life’s sunset, while fancies bring again
through the melodies of memory talk of the days
of long ago. My visiting today included an hour
or more with a charming lady in her pleasant home
—a contrast, like exchanging the ashes of despair
for the buoyancy and vigor of mature life. That
charming lady is my daughter, a native of O’Neill.
* * *
Without his knowledge or consent, I quote
from a personal letter to Prairieland Talker
from Former Gov. Val Peterson, now admin
istrator of the federal civil defense setup: "I
enjoyed my duties at the white house but find
this job equally pleasant and apparently much
more difficult. However, 1 am giving it the old
Nebraska try and hope to do the kind of job
the president wants."
♦ * ♦
Don’t know just what Editor Cal is going to
do for fun now that “America’s Winter Sports
Capital” has closed for the season. No doubt he
will find something. In the erudite circles of the
capital city, O’Neill has been written down as
“Little America.” Of course, a restless gent like
Editor Cal will break the bonds of the editorial
sanctuary and come out with something to startle
the readers of North Nebraska’s biggest weekly.
He has coined the word “countyan” and adds the
“c” to the official abbreviation of Wisconsin,
which we were taught when I was a 10-year-old
in school in the North Ward was done in three
letters, “Wis.” George McArthur of the Atkinson
Graphic, a bit enviously to avoid mentioning O’
Neill outright, referred to us as the “Emerald
Tinted.” Perhaps none now will envy O’Neill for
its place as “America’s Winter Sports Capital.”
* * * »
Ten years ago social functions and other de
I vices were resorted to in support of the country’s
program to take our way of life to the world. A
party was held out at Meek on April 16, sponsor
ed by Mrs. Art O’Neill, Mrs. Floyd Johnson and
Mrs. Sam Robertson, who were the precinct chair
men from Paddock, Coleman and Rock Falls. A
pound of fat or a pair of hose was the price of
admission to this affair. Mrs. Guy Cole, county
chairman, was present. The ladies counted 20'0
pairs of hose and 81 pounds of fat collected from
those who sat down to the 18 tables of card
games. Don’t know what part Russian women had
in taking the Muscovite way of life to the world.
* * *
When a public servant resigns the job to
take on a more lucrative one, that's one way
of saying the lure of the dollar transcends pa
triotic considerations.
* * *
“It’s just a publicity stunt to commercialize the
grave.” Words attributed to the state historian of
North Dakota. Words the man on the street might
employ. The occasion v. a^the response of the N.D.
State Historial society ^rcad -to the request of a
delegation of Sioux from South Dakota to remove
the remains of Sitting Bull to their community.
The red man, not the pale face, should have the
say where the bones of their people are to perma
nently rest. /
* * *
A friend mentions in a recent letter hav
ing a tussle with stomach flu, which he charac
terizes as a "gastronomical blizzard."
Editorial .
Individual Still Most Important
(Guest Editorial from the Nebraska Signal,
Geneva)
° No doubt there are valid reasons for and
against the bill passed by the Nebraska legisla
ture to prohibit children entering the kindergar
ten who are not five years of age or who will not
be five by October 15 after the start of school.
The bill was vetoed by Governor Crosby. We
are not so much concerned with the merits of the
bill as we are with the statement made by the
governor in his veto message. He made the fol
lowing comment:
“It seems to me that the bill represents the
trend toward standardizing people to suit admin
istrative convenience. We are individuals in spite
of all the laws that may be passed. We, including
the children among us, are different from each
other in our capacities, growth and rate of matur
ing. The educational system should work to ac
commodate these differences.
“I fear this bill ^ends to regiment children
to serve the requirements of administration; as a
matter of fact, the administration of education
should serve the requirements of children.”
While some of us may not agree that the gov
ernor’s statement applies in this instance we be
lieve there can be no refutation of the premise
upon which it is based. In free nations of the
world we believe in recognition of the rights and
abilities of the individual and our philosophy of
education is that the whole system of education
should allow for individual differences.
In spite of our belief in the importance of the
individual, there is always the danger of losing
sight of the main object of our system in a maze
of classification tests, administrative require
ments, senseless reporting, standardized proced
ures and finite grading systems.
Most teacners retain the proper perspective
and never forget why they are teachers, even
though thy become administrators and have lit
tle contact with children. Others, we fear, become
slaves to a system and their work becomes a mat
ter of interpreting statistics and analyzing results
in terms of scientific evaluation rather than indi
vidual behavior.
Education might well take a leaf from the
history of industry, which, apparently, has dis
covered that in spite of mass production, scientif
ic methods and extreme standardization the indi
vidual is still the important factor in production.
When it realized the men and women who oper
ate machines are not part of the machines it took
steps to see that they were treated as individuals
and not as standardized items in the process of
production.
We do not believe educators will question the
truth of Governor Crosby’s statement nor do we
believe many will deny there is danger in adopt
ing administrative practices which consider only
administrative expediency rather than the child,
which, after all, should be the main consideration
in making all decisions affecting his education.
Still, it is well for all of us to be reminded of the
danger, especially by one holding the highest of
fice in our state.
>
What Next?
First there were frozen pictures on a screen.
Then they moved. Then they talked. Then they
burst into color. And now they are going three
dimensional and can jump out at you, pull you
in, whirl you around, knock you down, drag you
out, and leave you murmuring weakly, “What
next?”
o
Think of the chances for pugilistic films that
“sock” the spectator right in the eye. Think of
the tender banalities the screen lover may whis
per straight into your ear — by way of a small
speaker concealed in each cinema seat. Think of
the possibilities for the sort of thing forecast by
Aldous Huxley in “Brave New World” as elec
trical attachments in each seat convey sensations,
smells, and tastes to the patron—in realistic ac
companiment to the story shooting out from the
screen in oversized verisimilitude.
It may put an end to some of the violence in
the films. An audience can take just so much bat
tering. But even at best a person may hesitate
to shiver through a polar expedition or wallow
through a Roman banquet. If things go too far it
may seem preferable to stay at home and read a
good book about the atom bomb.
The Chicago Tribune, the self-styled greatest
newspaper in the world, is not impressed by the
civil defense setup and the recent A-bomb show
on the Nevada wasteland. Quips the Trib in a
classic cartoon: “If you can’t scare ’em, draft
’em!”
Lucky kids at Lynch. Dr. R. E. Kriz, veteran
physician and surgeon, has decided to build a
swimming pool and give it to the town.
Already there are those who are predicting a
dry growing season.
Editorial & Business Offices: 122 South Fourth St.
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher
Established in 1880—Published Each Thursday
Entered at the postoffice in O’Neill, Holt county,
Nebraska, as second-class mail matter under the
Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. This news
paper is a member of the Nebraska Press Associa
tion, National Editorial Association and the Audit
Bureau of Circulations.
Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska $2.50 pei
year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per
year; abroad, rates provided on request All
subscriptions are strictly paid-in-advance.
Letter to Editor
O’Neill, Nebr.
I enjoy your paper. The
I farm contacts and news about
the cattle industry interest me.
I note Dewey Schaffer’s re
port cf the Washington meeting
he attended. My question is:
How do the powers that be
expect the cattle industry to
adjust itself with corn being
supported through 1954?
in this area corn is going to
be overproduced. There is now
a surplus. By the end of 1954
there will be an equal catas
trophy in the corn industry,
while cattle prices cannot re
cover with an out-of-balance
feed ratio.
Wouldn’t it be better to ad
just corn and cattle prices
together? „
I realize Mr. Benson has
pledged himself to support the
present statutes. But if they !
were changed it seems to me
business interests would be
better served.
The corn loan ... is being
taken advantage of. It was in
tended to keep ruination from
overtaking the producer — not
to guarantee him a fat income.
So I think while we are hav
ing this period of readjustment |
it would be better policy to j
soften the support of corn ;
prices.
This may be just a pet peeve ;
of mine, but it seems real to
me.
—JOHN T. HALL
-
State Capitol News . . .
Diversion Vote Good Trading Stock;
Carpenter, Lee Tickle Funnybones
LINCOLN—A first class feud
is in the making here between
Gov. Robert B. Crosby and the
i powerful chairman of the legis
j lature’s budget committee —
trigger-tempered Arthur Carmody
of Trenton.
Neither man will concede that
they are anything but the best of
friends and that’s probably true
on a personal basis, but insiders
will tell you that Carmody is
miffed at what heconsidersa
phoney budget submitted b y
Crosby.
Some of the veteran Trenton
legislator’s complaints have been
public. He has pointed tor the fact
I that Crosby recommended to the
‘ legislature that something b e
done about completing murals in
the eapitol yet didn’t propose a
penny for that purpose. Another
■‘gap” in the governor’s budget
spotlighted by Carmody is an
appropriation for the school lunch
program in t h e department o f
instruction.
It's a n open secret that
Carmody feels the budget does
n't truly represent the stale's
financial picture because money
which is "obligated" is counted
i as having been spent. Reported
ly there is about $5 million in
such funds in the highway de
partment.
Last weekend, Carmody, appar
ently irked at having several de
partment heads appear before his
committee urging salary increases
for their staffs, and at the gov
ernor’s disclaimer of responsibil
ity for the requests, told news
men that Crosby’s budget would
allow nearly $2 million which
could go to increase salaries.
Crosby’s answer was, yes, it
could go for that, but it won’t. He
believes, he said, in a safe finan
cial cushion for each department,
but he stressed to his department
; heads that he will approve no
! general increases and that before
any boosts at all are granted,
they’ll have to have his okay. The
next move was up to Carmody.
Diversion—
The betting here this week was
that Sen. Richard Marvel of Hast
ings will have to raise his water
diversion bill on the floor because
it is doomed to die in the Public
Works Committee which last
week sat through four long hours
of testimony and on Sunday flew
the length of the Platte valley
for a first hand look-see at what
the fuss is all about.
Marvel started out one vote be
hind in the committee. Already
counted on his side is Sen. Tom
Coffey of Alma while three cer
tain opponents are Sens. Joseph
D. Martin of Grand Island,
Walter J. Williams of Kearney and
Robert C. Brower of Fullerton.
The four with so called “open”
minds are Chairman Hugh Carson
of Ord and Sens. William Moulton
o f Omaha, Glenn Cramer of
Albion and Hal Bridenbaugh of
Dakota City.
Disposition of the water diver
sion bill is expected to break a
log jam on a lot of other measures.
No bill in this writer’s memory
has been used for trading stock
as has the diversion bill this
session. You can’t escape the com
parsion of youngsters trading
autographs: One of Hopalong
Cassidy is worth half a dozen of
some lesser light. So it is with
the diversion bills.
• * *
Taxes—
The last of the three bills on
which Governor Crosby and Tax
Commissioner Norris J. Anderson
hoped to build a state policy was
due for final consideration this
week.
It’s LB 89 which is intended to
hold the tax intake of govern
mental units to 105 percent of the
amount they could have collected
in the preceding year.
Crosby has urged it as a brake
on tax collections after the pass
age of the 50 percent assessment
bill, LB 272. The thrid measure
was the annual valuation law.
On a test vote last week, Sen.
Terry Carpenter’s motion to kill
LB 89 failed, 32-9. It was then
advanced by voice vote.
* * *
Sales Tax—
Due up this week also is Sen.
Dwight Burney’s attempt to raise
his two percent sales tax measure
which was finally killed by the
revenue committee late last week
to the surprise of nobody.
Burney, who has been beating
his head against the wall in be
half of a sales tax for what seems
like forever, refuses to1 be dis
couraged. Even if he fails this
time, he says, it won’t be a com
plete loss. “People are coming to
see that it’s the only answer,” he
said, “it may take awhile, but the
day is coming.”
Legislative observers have
been mildly surprised that
Burney has not taken fuller ad
vantage of the confusion which
followed the supreme court de
cision in the Johnson county case
to hold the sales tax aloft as the
way out of what seemed a near
hopeless mudle.
* * *
Salaries—
Governor Croisby and State
Banking Director J. F. McLain
got bad news the other day from
Deputy Attorney General Clar
ence A. H. Meyer, but for State
Engineer L. N. Ress. Agriculture
Director Eld Hoyt and Insurance
Commissioner Tom Pansing it
was glad tidings.
Meyer held in an opinion
sought by the governor that
Crosby and McLain will have to
wait until 1957 before salary in
creases voted by the 1951 legis
lature become effective but the
other three are eligible now for
their boosts. The opinion followed
a supreme court decision in the
action brought by a former in
surance commissioner Loren
Laughlin, who claimed he was
entitled to the 1951 raise. Crosby
now receives $10,000 - a - year
and if he’s still around in four
years, he W’ill get $11,COO. McLain
also will get a $l,000-a-year hike
if he’s still in office. The opinon
was particularly important in the
case of Ress, who left the $7,440
a-year post of deputy state en
gineer to take the department’s
top job. His predesessor, Harold
Aitken, got $7,500 and the opinion
says Ress is entitled to the $8,500
voted by the 1951 legislature. He
had said he wouldn’t take the
post for less. Both Pansing and
Hoyt will get $6,500 under the
opinion.
* * *
Women—
It’s been a long time since the
legislature has laughed so hard
as it did last week before killing
the bill which provided that
women doing the same work as
men should receive equal pay.
Sen. Terry Carpenter, the color
ful freshman from Scottsbluff,
took the floor in his second de
fense of womanhood within sev
eral days. Although he assured
his colleagues he wasn’t joking,
his impassioned oratory had many
of his listeners in tears—from
laughing.
Sen. Earl J. Lee of Fremont
contributed to the merriment1
when he rose in rebuttal to Carp
enter’s jab, “Are we going to
allow a few poultry men in
Omaha who skin chickens.to skin
the women of Nebraska?”
Lee stumbled over his own
words and blurted, “No employ
ers of chickens have put any
pressure on me.”
This episode, coupled with a
similar low - comedy exhibition
during debate on the 40-hour
week for state employees meas
ure, has led to a suggestion that
this session be dubbed the Follies
of 1053.
‘Sage of Chelsea’
Sells Holdings
Hugh O’Neill Here on
Business
50 Years Ago
In the municipal campaign, the
opposing candidates for mayor
are Dr. J. O. Gilligan and J. S.
Harrington. . . The new word
“manywhere” has been accepted
and is now used manywhere. . .
The Griffin Brothers are erecting
a building north of the Snyder
Lumber company office into
which they will move their tai
lor shop. . . Edward Adams, the
Chambers banker and lumber
man, was an O’Neill visitor. . .
Hugh O’Neill, the celebrated
“sage of Chelsea,” was in O’Neill
disposing of gome of his real es
tate holdings. . . A son was born
to Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Mellor. . .
Clark Hough purchased the lease
held on the Dewey hotel and will
operate it in the future. The deal
also includes the livery barn.
20 Years Ago
A Holt county spelling contest
will be held April 7 in the pub
lic school auditorium. . . Arthur
Mullen refused the position as
federal circuit court judge for the
eighth district. Joseph W. Wood
rough, now judge of the United
States district court in Omaha,
will receive the appointment.
James A. Donohoe, attorney of
O’Neill, will succeed Woodrough.
... The Ewing school board let
the contract for the erection of
a new school building to replace
the one destroyed by fire last De
cember. . . The final session of
the bridge tournamept was held
at the Golden hotel with the
championship going to Mr. and
Mrs. H. J. Birmingham.’. . The
Montgomery hardware store op
ened for business under the firm
owners of Francis and Paul
Montgomery. . . The president is
sued a second demand to gold
hoarders to return the gold to
the government by May 1, 1933,
or penalties will be given to
those refusing to meet the dead
line. The order affects those
holding $K)0 or more. Six hun
dred million dollars has been re
turned but $1,303,989,559 is still
in the possession of hoarders.
° 10 Years Ago
State Sen. Tony Asimus re
turned to Lincoln after visiting
relatives and friends here. • .
Jack Morrison, USN, returned to
New York after spending a leave
’with his mother, Mrs. R. R. Mor
rison. . . A campaign is started
to save all fats which are need
ed to make glycerine and explo
sives and otner war needs. The
services were held March 22 for
quota for Holt county is 4,138
pounds, per month. . . Military
i>gt. Max Wolfe. . . R. H. Shrin
er moved his office irom the
Dean Streeter barber shop to the
Emmet Harmon building o n
North Fourth street.
I"" 1 1 ———
One Year Ago
Mrs. Helen Kreymborg is the b
new Holt county home agent
succeeding Mrs. Viola Damkro
ger. . . At the city election J. E
Davis was elected mayor; O. Dale
French, city clerk; John C. Wat
son, city treasurer; Joe Stuti.
Emmett Crabb and L. M. Kerri
man, city council; H. W. Tomlin
son, police magistrate; H. L.
Lindberg and Mrs. Loretta
Hynes, board of education. . . 0
The O’Neill teachers received a
five percent wage increase. . .
The Chambers high school girls’
volleyball team won the cham
pionship in the Sandhill Gateway
conference.
_ o
o
Friday evening callers in the
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