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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 9, 1955)
Prairieland Talk . . . No Reverence At Some Graves By ROIWAINE SAUNDERS, Retired, Former Editor The Frontier LINCOLN—The Fourth of July, Independence Day, follows memorial day as next on the list of the nation’s special days. The day set apart to stand again by the graves of the dead is more universally observed than any special period regarded as a national holi day. The living travel across the continent, come in by airplane from across the seas to step once more on sacred ground beneath which lie the re mains of father and mother, wife or husband or child, leave there a rose, a tear, a prayer and a breath of praise for the memory of the dead. And you wonder—here stands a stately monument marking the grave of one of the great but no one comes to drop a tear and lay a floral tribute there. Remain* In every cemetery there lie 8aund*rs such with none to do them reverence, a grave of one who had neither tribal representative, sorrow laden sweetheart nor personal friend to manifest the universal decoration day interest in his 3 memory. We stood by the old Holt County Bank build ing at Fourth and Douglas. A drumbeat from up the street, and then the uniformed band marches by. Bands with their horns and drums and high ° stepping Miss in the lead are intriguing. Khaki clad National Guards and veterans of the Amer can Legion march in step to the beat of drums. The memorial day parade passes, today for gotten. Some standing there have not forgotten. Again they see the picture of blue-clad mem bers of the GAR marching by not on the concrete paving but in the dust-blown street. Comrade Mack, John Skirving, “Squire” Slattery, my father and the others who fought with General Grant’s army to preserve the Union. Memorial day has perpetuated the memory of those who wore the blue and those who wore the grey. The blue and grey, the khaki and those who did not wear either receive today our sincere tributes, as glory guards in solemn round the •j bivouac of our dead. o * * * If you have been made the victim of a dio bolical plot, when sinister forces combine to humiliate, to make of you a gazingstock, the laughing stock and the target for the wisecracks of every passerby—then the instinct of primitive oman says to smite with the fist of wickedness. But no! That $50 broad-brimmed hat you found waiting for you at the O’Neill postoffice is a token of esteem from your friends and admirers —be a sport and call the bluff. I shield the guilty ones from putting their names in print. Whether the fellows intended to array me in the habili ments of a dude cowboy of the Hollywood type, create the impression that there goes the shadow of Death Valley Scotty, or place about my brow the halo of a United States senator is not clear. Thanks, boys for the genuine beaver. My first day back within the cultured circles of the cap ital city I have had a request to include that hat in my last will and testament. Not until June 1, 1955, did a native of O’Neill where he grew to man’s estate see the charming village of Chambers. We were on our way to Grand Island on U.S. highway 281. The suggestion was made that we pull into Chambers when wc reached the Hubbard corner as one of our group had never been in Chambers. Maybe it is in order to explain who the “we” were. W. J. McNichols, the O’Neill native, Attor ney John Gallagher of O’Neill, who was going to Greeley to join Harold E. Connors, county attor ney of Greeley county, who was associated with Mr. Gallagher in a case in the supreme court and they would go to Lincoln together and present the case before the court. The other “we” was the engineer of this department who had intrusted himself to these two lawyers. We drove into Chambers to give Mr. NcNichols his first glimpse of the metropolis of southern Holt. He expressed amazement at what he saw and thinks Chambers citizens should be proud of their fine little town. Mr. McNichols and wife had been visiting in Lexington, where Mrs. Mc Nichols’ people have had their home and he had come to O’Neill where his parents are buried for memorial day, and was now returning to Lexing ton to join Mrs. McNichols and they will come to O’Neill for the rodeo events. Whether it was a bit of penance to ease a troubled conscience Me de clined to turn me over to a Lincoln bus driver and insisted on taking me all the way to my destina tion. Swell guy, Me, like all of them who come from O’Neill. Considering what we discovered at a wayside lunch room at Hampton, he is glad he did not turn off at Grand Island for Lexington. Mr. and Mrs. McNichols will return to Hollywood after their visit in O’Neill. * * * The bus enroute from Grand Island to Valen tine was loaded with passengers and freight. Midway between Greeley and Bartlett it stopped, like grandfather’s clock, “never to go again” until repaired. The passengers, including four soldiers, one of them a Sioux Indian from the Rosebud, saw the functionary at the steering wheel flag a passing car and take off for Greeley and call for a bus to come from Grand Island. Two hours later it rolled to a stop where the cripple stood and took passengers and freight abroad. Everybody took the experience pleasantly, thankful it was that and not dumped in the ditch. * * * In the death of Will Grothe up by Emmet, Holt county has lost one of its leading farmers and stockmen and The Frontier has lost a friend of half a century. When Mr. Grothe had business at the countyseat the editor was always on his list of those he came to see. The Emmet community, too, has lost one of its substantial citizens. * * * William J. McNichols, a native of O’Neill, now a prominent lawyer of Los Angeles county, California and making his home with his wife in Hollywood, says his cousin, Steven McNichols, is serving as lieutenant-governor of Colorado and is in line to be elected governor. He is a son of William McNichols, who is of the pioneer McNichols family of this community and now after four score years still serves the city of Denver in public offices. Editorial . . . . New Worry: Jet Air Streams Weather experts have recently pointed to a unique phenomenon which could have a major influence on the type of aerial operations conduc ted by Russia in any new war. The phenomenon is the jet stream which has only lately been dis covered and explained. °o Jet streams are currents of air which move at great speeds—sometimes more than four hun 1 dred miles an hour—at altitudes of 20,00 to 40,000 feet. Present day bombers travel at such altitudes and, therefore, can take advantage of the jet sreams. Jet streams do not always follow the same course, and in recent years, meterorglists have dicsovered that the major air stream which could affect Russian operations over the United States in any new war vary considerably. In the first place, the jet streams are dependable only in the winter, and even then their course varies. They come in cycles and when the stream first appears, it is moving along a eastern course. However, as the cycle continues, the course var ies and, eventually, a jet stream moves out of Siberia, past the Alaskan Coast, down into the Pacific and curves into the United States in Calif ornia. Experts figure that Russian jet bombers, taking advantage of this jet stream, could be over cities in Texas, such as Houston, Dallas or Ft. Worth sooner than they could reach New York or Washington flying a straight flight over the pole. One expert estimated that a Russian jet could leave Siberia on this jet stream course and arrive over Houston eight and a half hours later, after covering some 6,000 miles. However, to cover the 4,500 miles to New York, on a bee-line course, the aircraft would require twelve and a half hours because it would encounter head winds part of the way. These are most interesting figures and it seems obvious that jet streams will be utilized increasingly by aircraft of all nations m the years to come. And it may well be that in any future war, the jet "stream will bring enemy bombers into this country from over the Pacific Ocean, or per haps from some other direction, and not from the direction of Canada, where stationary radar picket lines have been set up and where experts have a Jong belived Russian bombers would come from in any new war., Polio Vaccine (From Human Events Newsletter) Now that some calm has descended on the polio vacine situation, observers on capitol hill_ —after canvassing among members of congress— come up with the following view: Under the pure food and drug act, the public health service, as an agency of the executive arm of the government, has a responsibility to see that the vaccine is pure and safe for use, and thereby it is proper for the service to inspect plants and testings. Beyond that, it is emphasized, Secretary Hobby’s department has no legal right to proceed. To allocate deliveries of the medicine, to provide money for *ree inoculations, to regulate where and how vaccination should be made—all that is out side of the government agency’s statutory powers. Such activities should be the responsibilities of the local physicians and local authorities. Congressional opinion resists the idea that the federal government should take over and police the distribution of the vaccine. Apart from being a dangerous extension of federal power, the idea raises questions as to its practicality. To police such an operation would either (1) require a host of federal policing officers who, if they were laymen, would not be fitted to police the delicate and tech nical work of doctors; or (2) organize physicians’ associations, as federal agents, to supervise the job. The first course is obviously absurd. The sec ond is superfluous. For, in the last analysis, if such a nationwide job were tackled, it would have to be directed by physicians or medical organizations. Therefore—the question is raised—why any fed eral plan or federal control at all? Let the locali ties work through the American Medical associa tion or local organizations of physicians. Meanwhile some grass-roots reactions are coming in, such as the following from an Indianap olis (Ind.) Star news story: “When politicians and bureaucrats tried to make a Hollywood production out of the distribu tion of Salk anti-polio vaccine, they created Ihe present national scandal, a county health officer charged yesterday. “Dr. Harry E. Murphy, Johnson county health officer, fixed the original responsibility on Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. Murphy accused O’Connor of pushing the distribution date to start on the anniversary of President Roosevelt’s death on Ap ril 12. Then Sen. Wayne Morse of Oregon and other bureaucrats got into it with the present re sult, Murphy said.” Wrong Economically and Morally Thousands of United Auto Workers are her alding the new agreement with Ford as a great victory and half the distance to the guaranteed annual wage. The terms of the pact are wrong ec onomically and morally and the growing power of the CIO no doubt next will be imposed on other automobile manufacturers and suppliers. There is no end to such a fantastic demand as a guaranteed annual wage. We’re reminded how the lefties in Italy some years ago imposed a guaranteed annual wage with the result industry would hire nobody else. Stag nation set in. Italy today is written off in our book as something less than a third or fourth rate pow er. England has been gripped by a rail tie-up which has put thousands of steel workers and maritime people out of work, not to mention the white collar people and others who depend upon trains for commuting. CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publisher Editorial A 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 coun ty, 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 per year; elsewhere in the United States, $3 per year; rates abroad provided on request. All subscriptions are paid-in-advance. Audited (ABC) Circtdation—2,335 (Mar. 31, 1954) When Yon and I Were Young . , . 9 O’clock Curfew to Be Enforced Nightwatch Sends Kids Home 50 Years Ago Boys will have to get off the streets at 9 o’clock this summer. The curfew ordinance is to be enforced, the night watch to ring the bell at 9 o’clock and see that youngsters are headed homeward. . . . The 1905 dog tags are now available at the clerk’s office. . . J. H. Meredith and Thomas Birmingham departed for a visit at the Portland, Ore., exhibition, and other points on the West coast. . . The anti-cigarette law takes effect July 1, when and af ter which it will be unlawful to sell or give away manufactured cigarettes or cigarette papers. . . Bishop Keane departed after con ducting a mission at the Catholic church here for one week. . . Mrs. George French and her two boys from near Page left for her par ents’ home in Iowa. 20 Years Ago Judge R. R. Dickson and L. G. Gillespie went to Omaha to at tend the annual meeting of the Masonic grand lodge of Nebraska. . . Uniforms have been ordered for the O’Neill high school band. The band consists of 50 memriers. . . . Dr. L. A. Carter, president of the Holt county chapter of the Red Cross, received a telegram from St. Louis, Mo., appealing for aid for the flood sufferers of southern Nebraska. . . Miss Nellie Toy and Miss Beryl Winchell went to Omaha for a week’s visit with relatives and friends. . . During the past week heavy rains and a couple of tornadoes caused great loss of life and property in the southwestern part of the Unit ed States. . . There will be a Farmers Union picnic at the Charles Abart grove, a half-mile east and a half-mile south of Em met. 10 Years Ago Lt. Neil Brennan was recently awarded the distinguished service cross and the silver star in Ger many. . . Issuance of canning sugar certificates in the amount of five pounds each will begin at the war price and rationing boards. . . The O’Neill baseball club journeyed to Norfolk where they had a game with the Am erican Legion team with O’Neill winning, 9-0. . . Miss Donna Gal lagher arrived from Chicago, 111., where she had been attending Rosary college. . . Fred O. Zink, who has been county clerk since shortly after the first of the year, has tendered his resignation. He has been suffering from failing eyesight for the past three months. One Year Ago Joe Wert, O’Nelil police officer for nearly eight years, Monday evening was appointed by Actirg Mayor Emmet Crabb as chief of police. . . A record number of golf entries are expected for the 33rd annual O’Neill dad’s day open golf tourney to be held here June 19, 20 and 21. . . Mr. and Mrs. John Wells celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. . . The Holt county soil conservation dis trict was named outstanding for Government Speakers Heard at Soil Parley The bureaucrats had their inn ing last Thursday afternoon as the two-day northern great plains area soil conservation conference drew to a close here. A succession of department of agriculture spokesmen from various echelons addressed delegates from six states assembled in O’Neill for an area meeting of the National As sociation of Soil Conservation District Supervisors. Nate Babcock of Salina, Kans., invited the group to meet at Sa lina in 1956 and the invitation was matched by one from Bis marck, N.D., extended by Otis Tossett of Lansford, N.D., area association vice-president. By a vote, the Bismarck bid received the nod and dates are to be an nounced later. Nolan Fuqua of Duncan, Okla., national president, reported that farm implement dealers across the country are finding it profit able to actively encourage soil conservation practices and, he de clared, “have turned out to be the best missionaries we have.” Charles J. Whitfield of Wash ington, D.C., soil conservation scientist, led a panel discussion which included four other SCS officers. Government policy at the Oahe (S.D.) Missouri river dam came in for mild criticism fired from the floor by Lawrence W. Rittenoure of Wichita, Kans. The Kansan charged that somebody made a mistake when it was assumed that impounded water could be used for irriga tion purposes in that section of South Dakota when “hardpan” terrain made irrigation econom ically unfeasible. One delegate declared the soil below the dam “isn’t worth a cuss.” T. L. Gaston, SCS administrat or from Washington, told dele gates his division was collecting cross-sectional data to determine what percentage of conservation planning got into actual practice. Gaston reported conservation co operation is at an all-time high although a few districts showed decreases generally attributed to the weather or to purely local sit uations. T. L. Ayers, assistant to the administrator for ACP, told lis teners too frequently farmers and ranchers take up their problems with the wrong agency. He stress ed the SCS, ASC and extension service are entirely different and separate in field and scope. Don Settle of Goodyear said awards for the area will be an nounced June 15. Harry Massie of Broken Bow, president of the Nebraska group, said he has long been on record pleading for an im petus to convert plans into practice. Massie said one-half the states the year 1953-’54 and Nebraska co-winner in a national soil con servation awards program. . . Committees were appointed and other plans completed for the fa ther and son banquet to be held Thursday, June 17, at the Ewing Methodist c.hurch. have an executive secretary who devotes his time to working with SCD directors. The secretary’s job is based on the fact the state SCS has its hands full working with and directing soil technicians in the field. The Nebraska group is asking its legislature to in crease an appropriation for the next biennium from $34,000 to $50,000 for an executive secre tary’s pay, travel and office ex penses. The conference concluded with a chuck-wagon supper at the C Bar M Hereford ranch south of O’Neill, a shower coming at the close. Schroeder Raps Soil, Crop Payments— Norris Schroeder of Ft. Col lins,, Colo., a former Nebraska legislator, spoke on the proven value of intensive conservation of soil and water Wednesday eve ning, June 1, in connection with the Northern Great Plains area conference. He spoke at a ban quet. He related how his grandfather had taken a timber claim in 1870 in the Wayne area. He planted the required acres of trees as far away from the homestead as pos sible and on the poorest soil. His father took over the claim in 1901 and found that the soil naa Become poorer wun me years and some wittily remarked they were farming the former sub-soil. New locations were found by some and the old land was aban j doned because of its poor produc tivity and the lack of weather co operation. The stewardship of the tim ber claim came into his hands in 1939. Schroeder said he found it expedient to establish ter races to conserve both soil and water. In putting the practice into op eration, they found that the worthless tract of the land had become a rich heavy loam during the period of neglect and within the span of one man’s lifetime the good and the poor land had changed positions. Schroeder, the man who had to go to Europe to “see” America, then applied what he saw abroad —everywhere, a system of con servation that permitted no waste and made use of every foot of soil. With their cruder methods of adaptation of advanced princi ples of conservation, continentals protect every blade of grass and every bit of refuse through the year and spread it on the land not 1 more than 24 hours ahead of the plow or the spade. On the human side of the equation, the European has be come a hopeless, helpless plod der, living according to estab lished rules and regulations that deprived them of the right and pleasure of accumulation, the former Nebraskan declared. The European labors under de stroyed initiative and is denied the rights of a private citizen in a free world. This condition has made them subservient to a, ra tioned, doled, rubber stamped ex istence with no enthusiasm for today and little for tomorrow. They are living in an atmosphere of their own making, Mr. Schroe der points out. “We, as prosperous, free Ameri cans, want to watch where the trend of the times is taking us and exert our initiative and be honest enough to save soil and water; plow and plant for the sake of in creased production, rather than for payments and regulations that may destroy the American way of life.” O’Neill News Mr. and Mrs. John DeGeorge and daughter spent memorial weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Lyle McKim in O’Neill. Lieutenant and Mrs. Milton Ward and Warrent Officer and Mrs. Albert Arms, all of Lincoln, spent the weekend visiting at thd homes of Lieutenant and Mrs. Ben Vidrickson, Capt. J. L. Mc Bill Kramer. The officers and Sergeant Kramer are national guardsmen. Billy Putman is spendiing die week at the Putman ranch at Martin, S.D. Mrs. Martha Ross attended a family reunion on Sunday at Long Pine park. There were 103 people attending. Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Ruzicka attended a 40 et 8 picnic Nor folk last Thursday. Miss Alfretta and Linda Maxcy of Bayard were Sunday and Monday overnight guests in the Dale Perry home. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bratz and daughter, Carol, of Burlington, Wise., are spending the week at the L. D. Putman and Mrs. Elia Nelson homes. Miss Kathleen Clifton is visit ing at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ted McElhaney Judge D. R. Mounts and Ted McElhaney held court in Butte on Monday. Mr. and Mrs. William McIntosh went to Omaha on Monday where he attended Masonic grand lodge. Mr. and Mrs. D. N. Loy spent the weekend in Ainsworth visit ing relatives. Mr. and Mrs. John H. McCar ville went to Ellsworth, Minn., Wednesday to visit Mr. and Mrs. E. L. Egan. They returned home on Friday. Mr. and Mrs. J. L. McCarville went to Albion Sunday to visit Joseph Keller, who is in the hos pital there. They also visited Mr. and Mrs. Paul Kelly. Mrs. Rose Mattingly of Redon do Beach,, Calif., visited the first of the week with Mr. and Mrs. J. L. McCarville. Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Horak, jr., and Mrs. J. F. Horak, sr., came Sunday to visit Mr. and Mrs. J. L. McCarville, jr. Ben Bazelman has gone to Min nesota with friends on a fishing trip. We Have a Gcd Supply — of — Funk’s G Early Maturity Seed Corn in stock for your late plantings! Fagan’s Market Chambers Harry R. Smith Impls. O'Neill Harry E. Ressel O’Neill .. DANCE .. AT O’NEILL American Legion Auditorium & BALLROOM Saturday, June 11th ACES OF RHYTHM ORCHESTRA Adm.: Adults, $1; high school students, 50c ffb ?he new kind of hardtop The 4-Door Riviera! THERE seems to be some confusion about what a hardtop really is, and we’d like to set the matter straight. A hardtop is a car that looks like a Convert ible with the top up—but has a solid steel roof overhead—and no center Posts in the side window areas. Up until just recently, it could be built in volume only with two doors—not more— because it would take wholly new struc tural principles to hinge another set of doors without floor-to-roof center posts. But Buick came up with those new struc tural principles and is now building—in volume — hardtops with four doors. You see one pictured here. It’s the 4-Door Riviera. And it’s taking the country by storm ... Because here, at long last, is an automobile with the sleek and sporty styling of a true hardtop—but with separate doors for rear seat passengers, plus the added room of a full size Buick Sedan. On top of that, this beauty is all Buick — with the buoyant ride of Buick’s all-coil springing —the walloping might of Buick’s record-high V8 power —the whip-quick getaway and sizable gas savings of Buick*T spectacular Variable Pitch Dynaflow.* And it’s available in Buick’s two lowest priced Series-the budget-tagged 188-hp Special, and the high-performance 236-hp Century, illustrated here. Come visit us for a first-hand meeting with the 4-Door Riviera—and see how quickly and how easily the last word in automobiles can be yours. * Dynaflow Drive is standard on Roadmaster, optional at extra cost on other Series. *-*■ Buick 'T MILTON BERLE STARS FOR BUICIC-' Sm the Bulck-Berle Show Alternate Tuesday Evening t riirw» i .. i " WHEN BETTER AUTOMOBILES ARE BUILT BUICK WIU BUILD THEM- -- A. MARCELLUS Phone 370 O’Neill