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
