Prairieland Talk . . .
Meets Up with Pioneer Preacher
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS. Retired. Former Frontier Editor
LINCOLN—Seated out in the open today
under the June sky, taking in the scene as auto
mobiles hurried hither and yon, when an aged
patriarch found his way across
the street through the traffic and
was invited to sit down beside
me. I learned that more than 50
years ago he was a Methodist
preacher serving charges in Holt
county where he preached at
Blackbird, Minneola and Eden
Valley and later at Chambers. It
was the Reverend Koontz, who
may be remembered by some still
living in the communities men
tioned. Remain#
Christmas night in 1899 he Saunders
left his home in Indiana with his
wife and two young daughters for O Neill and
from there was taken to Blackbird where they
made their home and Reverend Koontz took up
the work of a p.oneer pastor of three church
groups, the purpose for which he had left Indiana
where they were overstocked with preachers.
He now at the age of 84 is living in retirement
and has one daughter still living whose home is in
Lincoln.
You hear of the “good old days.” Daj* have
come down the highway of time since the dawn
of creation. “The evening and the morning were
the first day.” Since light dispelled the darkness
of that first day the sun has come forth at dawn
in a blaze of glory, rode its flaming orbit across
the heavens and lighted other regions when the
Milky Way spread a band above and stars glowed
out of the depth of space. As days come and go
the “good old days” were no different than today.
But the days that have gone into the record of
time were not all good. We blundering, short
sighted mortalK messed things up then as we do
today_yet out of memory’s full-laden store arise
visions of the days of yore, with their struggles,
defeats, victories, happiness and heartaches, Pr0-"
perity and advers ty, boiled potato dinners and
sumptuous feasts, days of toil and hours of loaf
ing social contact and lonely periods. Our days
are what we make them and the white heads of
each succeeding generation have the fun of tell
ing young sprouts about the “good old days.
* * *
The Pnarisees and Sadducees may be tear
ing themselves to shreds in Washington but the
functions of our United States government go
on as usual.
* * *
O’Neill’s notable cowboy, Dewey Schaffer, and
president of the Nebraska Stock Growers’ associa
tion, got a number of prominent men of the coun
try to give the cattlemen their views of things
agriculturally and the live stock outlook at a
meeting of the association up at Chadron the last
three days of the week ending June 12. Wheeler
McMillen of the Farm Journal, W. W. Cenerazzo
of Summerville, Mass., and James C. Keogh of
Time magazine wtre among the guest speakers
from out of the state at the gathering. Are they
looking to Nebraska back there in old New Eng
land for their beef supply?
He was no hobo. Clean, not badly dressed,
young and going some place as he headed out of
town, maybe to see an aging father and mother far
away, far in terms of walking. With the hope of
getting a lift he had signaled passing cars but all
sped on unmindful of the wishes of a footman.
And so he walked on. Those of an earlier gen
eration out there on prairieland had the time and
the disposition to drive a mile or two out of their
way to ask a settler if he would like to go to town
or wanted something brought out. Substituting the
steering wheel for a pair of lines makes the dif
ference.
* * *
Al a horse auction in a Kansas town that
drew buyers from Nebraska. Iowa and Missouri
70 head of animals were offered for sale and
brought up to $150 for one nag. Is the horse on
the way back?
* » *
■n. r nmiure coumy iarmer assures me we
will have our oatmeal—oat crops that have been
pretty much of a failure in recent years, hold a
promise today of a forthcoming heavy yield. . . .
Fred Seaton’s name appears among the brigade
of patriots for the republican nomination for U.
S. senator. Mr. Seaton is capable but he belongs
to Kansas rather than to Nebraska. I favor the
home folks. . . . Senator McCarthy will probably
yet emerge the winner. . . . The State Historical
society will continue archaeological salvage work
this summer at Ft. Randall reservoir.
* * *
Congressman Miller has filed again for the
Republican nomination. He has represented the
Fourth Nebraska district in congress since 1943.
Carlton Laird of Scotlsbluff asks for the demo
cratic nomination.
* * *
The Hon. Mr. Wilson, secretary of defense,
says truth, not bullets, must stop the Reds. I won
der. A bullet is the only thing that penetrates the
mental processes of the pagan world. What is
truth? asked the Roman governor. And Truth in
a personality was nailed to a cross. “Truth forever
on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne; yet
beyond the dim unknown standeth God within
the shadows keeping watch above His own.”
Favors, attention, awards are bestowed upon
students in schools to those who need such the
least. The backward, the timid, the less forward
ones who need special encouragement do not
get it. Not only so, but the innocent sometimes
suffer instead of the guilty even though he
preceptor of a school rooom does not will it so,
but the guilty young devil can lie better than
the innocent one can tell the truth.
* * *
Mr. Vaughn, register of deeds for Lancaster
county since 1933, is again a candidate for the
republican nomination and will get it. An eff
cient public official in a post that nobody wants,
simplifies matters as to one county office.
* * •
Present price of hats tells the story of why
men are joining the hatless brigade.
Editorial . . .
He Didn’t Make General
(From Chicago Tribune)
Col. Otis K. Sadtler, chief of the military
branch of the army signal corps at the time of
Pearl Harbor, died in retirement the other day.
He was a colonel at the end of the war in 1945,
and he was still a colonel when he died. Thou
sands of officers were promoted during the war
from the rank they held at the start of hostilities,
but not Col. Sadtler. Hundreds, if not thousands
of colonels became generals: not Col. Sadtler.
And w'hen the failure of this officer to ad
vance is examined, the reason seems peculiar.
For Col. Sadtler, in the events leading up to the
Japanese surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor, dis
tinguished himself by his devotion and energy.
He tried to prevent a surprise, but his warnings
and advice went unheeded.
Xhe army Heart Xiarbor board, wmch inves
tigated the disaster and reported its conclusions
in 1944, complimented Col. Sadtler for his “inter
est and aggressiveness in attempting to have
something done” on the basis of Japanese cryp
tographic messages, which were intercepted and
decoded after the United States broke the Japan
ese secret code. He was, the board stated, deeply
impressed with the significance of the informa
tion thus obtained, unbeknownst to the enemy,
“which pointed only to war, and to war almost
immediately.”
Col. Sadtler testified to the receipt of the
Japanese “East wind rain” message, inserted in
a radio broadcast from Tokyo, which had been
arranged as a signal to Japanese diplomats over
seas that war was coming. He went to the chief of
the army war plant, Gen. L. T. Gerow, with a
suggestion that American overseas commands be
alerted, but was informed that they had been
adequately warned. He went next to Col. Walter
Bedell Smith, then secretary to the general staff,
but Smith said he “did not want to discuss the
matter further."
The report, of the army board placed a part of
the responsibility for Japanese success on Gerow.
It was highly critical of Smith. The report of the
minority in a congressional investigation of Pearl
Harbor in 1946 listed Gerow among those guilty
of “failure to perform the responsibilities indis
pensably essential to the defense of Pearl Harbor.”
Testimony in the investigations disclosed that the
night before the Japanese attack, when there
was still time to warn Pearl Harbor, the first
13 of the 14 part final Japanese message breaking
off relations with the United States was deliv
ered to Smith, with word that it should go to
Gen. Marshall, the chief-of-staff, at once. The
army board called Smith’s failure to act “unfort
unate.”
Gerow, during the course of the war, was
promoted from brigadier general to lieutenant
general and placed in command of an army in
Europe. Smith was promoted to the rank of lieu
tenant general, became chief-of-staff' to Gen.
Eisenhower in Eurone, later was made ambassa
dor to Moscow, still later chief of the central
intelligence agency, and now is under-secretary
of state. Gen. Marshall, who muffed the last min
ute message needed to alert Pearl Harbor, rose
to the secretaryships of state and defense.
The contrast t-> Col. Sadtler, who tried to
carry out his duties, is striking. The tumblers all
hit the glory road. The colonel never went a
head. His zeal in trying to head-off Pearl Harbor
was not appreciated by the powerful patrons of
the others.
Newspaper Growing
Despite the advent of television, pocket-size
books, drive-in theaters and other modem forms
of entertainment, circulation of newspapers con
tinues to increase. Editor & Publisher, weekly
magazine of the journalistic trade, reported re
cently that 1553 circulation set a new record,
moving up about one percent from the 1952 fig
ures. The Frontier, incidentally, is enjoying far
and away the greatest circulation in its long and
colorful history—entering more homes each week
than any other newspaper in a wide area. More
over, The Frontier is one of only seven weeklies
in Nebraska with an audited circulation. Our
circulation records are examined and double
checked by the only recognized circulation audit
ing agency in the world—the same agency and
personnel who audit the principal newspapers
and magazines in me unuea oiaies.
We are humble and deeply gratified by our
circulation record, all of which has been made
possible by a loyal, responsive and growing fam
ily of readers.
We like to take the view, too, that the dif
ferent news media do not necessarily comDete
with a weekly newspaper that delivers all the
local and regional news—mostly about folks you
know. Of course, this must be balanced with
feature material, pictures and comment on pert
inent issues.
Nothing can or will take the place of a good
local newspaper in American li4e and we’re
flattered in being a part of that fraternity that
constitutes the rural American press.
The man who borrows his neighbor’s copy
of The Frontier knows a good thing when he can
get it.
Being courteous may require a little extra
time but, in the long run, it often saves time.
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher
Editorial & Business Offices: 122 South Fourth St.
Address correspondence: Box 330, O’Neill, Nebr
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
newspaper is a member of the Nebraska Press
Association, National Editorial Association and
the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Terms of Subscription: In Nebraska, $2.50 per
year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per
year; rates abroad provided on request. All sub
scriptions are paid-in-advance.
Audited (ABC) Circulation—2,335 (Mar. 31, 1954)
News, Views
and Gossip
by the editor
WE ENJOYED the few hours
we devoted to judging the entries
in the Alabama newspaper con
test. Our assignment from Jack
Beisner, manager of the Alabama
Press association, instructed us tc
pick the best editorials appearing
during a 12-month period in news
papers published in cities and
towns up to 3,500 population. No
easy chore—because there were
some good ones.
We favored for top honors a
tabloid’s expose of a county high
way commission which, apparent
ly, helped push through the state
legislature a bill extending by
four years the terms of office for
the commission members; took a
trip to Washington, D. C., at tax
payers’ expense, including an en
gineer and one of the board’s three
attorneys; and generally was in
efficient. The editorial at the same
time commended at least one
commissioner who was doing a
good job and produced outstand
ing results in his district.
Second place honors went to a
I paper which had been crusading
without success for improved mu
nicipal park facilities until about
five years ago. Finally, a trust
fund from a wealthy family set
up an elaborate and adequate re
creational park outside the city
limits, but the trustees reserved
the right to fix the salaries of the
park personnel, etc. In recent
months, the city council in the
Alabama town finally decided a
park was needed inside the town.
The newspaper exploded and in
sisted the park money be used for
something else or at least be made
available to the trustees for use
in the existing new park, which
was described as second-to-none
in AloKorno nilioc n# fViOf nloec
Subsequent issues revealed the
newspaper was on the right track
because civic groups quickly got
into the hassle and the second
park idea was scuttled.
We noted that only one of the
editorials (there were 50 entered)
touched on the racial segregation
issue (which inevitably is a hot
topic, particularly in view of the
recent U. S. supreme court deci
sion. One editorial lampooned a
U. S. senator — Sparkman — for
singing one tune to the negroes
in Harlem and another tune al
together to the whites in Coffee
county, Alabama. Other editori
als flayed or applauded cotton
price supports. There was one out
standing piece on the Alabama
educational outlook. The article
pointed out that education in
Alabama is next to the lowest in
per pupil cost among the states.
The traditional eloquence in the
South was evident in most of the
editorials. But we found only two
newspapers comparing in overall
excellence with some of the fine
Nebraska weeklies that cross our
desk—i.e., The Nebraska Signal
(Geneva), Aurora News-Register,
Blair Pilot-Tribune, Stanton Re
gister, Wayne Herald, Oakland
Independent, Ord Quiz, Albion
News, Burt County Plaindealer
(Tekamah), Dakota County Star
. (South Sioux City), Neligh News,
and a dozen others.
* . .
! MISCELLANY: The circus
was jolly good. We wonder,
though, if those animal trainers
weren’t a bit on the cruel side,
i compared to their counterparts
in “The Greatest Show on Earth”
(Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bai
ley) ... In case you’ve wondered,
the water depth is lO1^ feet in the
diving area under the 10 foot
board at the muny pool ... A
nearby South Fourth street neigh
bor who dislikes Joe McCarthy
came in Tuesday and breathlessly
announced Joe soon would be con
ducting a congressional investiga
tion in heaven. We nibbled. “Jo<
has learned there are several left
wing angels,” quipped the funny
man.
* * #
THE ANNOUNCEMENT tha
Joe Wert was being elevatec
from patrolman to chief of polic<
startled a good many, some o:
whom have asked our reaction tt
the promotion. It is really nol
necessary for us to comment, be
cause most people know our re
gard for Wert as a public official
working at a job which is 99 per
cent public relations and 1 per
cent enforcement.
When You and I Were Young . . .
40 Cottonbelt
Actors Coming
‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’
to Be Staged
50 Years Ago
Graduates from St. Mary’s aca
demy were; Etha M. Adams, Anna
L. Dwyer, Margaret C. Green,
Dorothy K. Testman, Nellie C.
Brennan, Margaret A. Grady, Ag
1 nes A. Hagerty, Agnes Kelly and
j Constance H. Harrington. . . Sadie
Agnps Cain and Han-y Higley
! were united in marriage at the
bridegroom’s home in Blair. . .
Mrs. J. B. Fitzsimmons of Cres
ton, la., is visiting the Golden
family. . . “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
tent show will play a one-day
stand in O’Neill. Forty actors,
n.usicians, singers, dancers, and
real negroes from the cotton belt
are the feature attractions adver
tised.
20 Years Ago
Mrs. Calmer T. Simonson died
at her home northeast of the city
and Mrs. John Kennedy died at
her home here. . . Wind destroyed
two barns in the southern part of
the county. . . Over 11,000 Ne
braska men were placed in gain
ful employment in Nebraska by
the national reemployment ser
vice. . . An unknown man driv
ing a car with an Iowa license
plate entered upon the new wet
concrete pavement in the east end
of town and drove nearly a half
mile right down the center. It is
said he thought we’d had one
big flood in O’Neill.
10 Years Ago
A surprise party was given for
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cook honor
ing their 31st wedding anniver
sary. . . First Lieutenants Dercy
and Gail Abart, sons of Mr. and
Mrs. Charles Abart, met for the
first time in three years in Italy.
. . Bill Froelich, Ed Campbell, Joe
Biglin and Jim Earley are in Win
nebago, Minn., working for the
Milwaukee railroad. . . Holt coun
ty 4-H club camp will be held at
Long Pine in July.
One Year Ago
Mrs. Elizabeth Kallhoff, pion
eer homesteader, died in Elgin.
Her death was marked by coin
cidence with her arrival in the
JJnited States from Germany 70
years ago. . . A petition with 16
signers was filed. It opposed eight
blocks of paving and street im
provement in the four square
blocks adjoining O’Neill’s center.
. . . The Misses Mary M. Trosh
ynski and Jeanne Head graduat
ed from St. Francis school of
nursing at St. Joseph’s hospital in
Minot, N. D. . . . A band og old
fashioned gypsies with modem
trailers and shining new cars
spent several days camped in
Atkinson’s city park. The mod
ern nomads intrigued some of
Atkinson’s childen.
— ■ rrij - M ■ r ■ ■ r 1-^
BIGLIN' S
Funeral Directors
O’NEILL }
Day Ph. Night Ph. t
38 487-R or 200 j
a fact!*
Just one demonstration and we’re
sure you'll be convinced.
The way the Massey-Harris 33
You can’t get a goes through heavy work is a sight
to see. It’s tops in tractor value ...
Digger 0-plOW Vallie in pulling power at the drawbar, in
fuel economy, in driver comfort, in
ease of handling.
MACCCV liADDIC See us soon ... make it the next
mHOdtl ■ nHKKIO time you’re in town — get the trac
tor value that sets the
3-plow class.
OUTLAW IMPLEMENT CO.
Tony Asinius — West O’Neill
Miller Files for
Reelection in Fourth
Rep. A. L. Miller of Nebraska’s
Fourth congressional district, an
nounced this week that he had
completed filing for the repub
| lican nomination for reelection
to the house of representatives.
; Doctor Miller, chairman of one
of the 19 regular committees of
the house (interior and insular
affairs), is seeking reelection to
his seventh consecutive term.
His committee, among other
things, handles all irrigation and
reclamation legislation, intro
duced in the house.
In his filing statement, Re
presentative Miller, said “I will
continue to do my utmost to pro
mote the best interests of the
people of the Fourth congression
al district of Nebraska in the
same forceful manner I have in
the past.” Doctor Miller is from
Kimball.
New Pastor, Family
Feted at Church—
EWING—The Upper Room
club sponsored a fellowship din
ner following the morning wor- j
ship hour Sunday at the Meth- |
odist churcEThonoring the pastor
and family, Rev. and Mrs. Lee
Bridgon and son. The afternoon
was spent informally, departing
for their homes about 3 o'clock.
Forty members and friends
were in attendance.
The Bridgon family comes to
the Ewing church from Meadow
Grove.
Joyce Miller
Signs at Creighton —
CREIGHTON—Miss Joyce Mil
ler of O’Neill will teach the third
and fourth grades in the Creigh
ton public school next term, hav
ing signed a contract with the
board of education last week. Miss
Miller has four years experience
as a grade teacher. The faculty
for the grades is now complete.
; :
i- i
I""™"mmmmmmm™™am|B—tm
Letters to Editor
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, D. C.
June 10, 1954
Dear Mr. Stewart:
One of your leading citizens
Mr. Julius Cronin, has been kim
enough to send me a copy of youi
editorial of Thursday, June 3.
thank you so much for your ref
erence to what I had to say re
garding the Indochina situation.
I am glad to see your commen
and I wholeheartedly agree wit!
it. I am hoping to get up youi
way soon and I shall look for
ward to meeting you.
With personal greetings, I am
Sincerely yours,
CARL T. CURTIS
(Editor’s note: Veteran Repre
sentative Curtis of Minden has
declined to run again for the Firsl
district congressional seat. He is
a republican candidate for tht
U. S. senate nomination.)
Entertain Norfolkans—
Thursday guests of Mr. and Mrs
Elden Butterfield were Mr. and
Mrs. Elbridge Maynard and fam
ily of Norfolk. Lois Maynard re
mained and will visit for several
weeks at the Butterfield home.
Frontier for printing!
POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT
.. I
NOTICE
Monday nights, commencing June
2 1 st and continuing through the summer,
have been designated as “Adult Night
Only” at the O’Neill Swimming Pool.
Only those out of high school or over I 8
years-old will be allowed in the pool on
Monday nights,
The Park Board
-__
o
■ '■ 1 -I———.
MILLER THEATER
— Atkinson —
Fri.-Sai. June 18-19
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