Prairieland Talk . . .
Cronin Logical Successor
By ROMAINE SAUNDERS, Retired, Former Editor The Frontier
LINCOLN—Sunday morning, February 26, the
radio at my elbow announced the death of Federal
Court Judge James A. Donohoe over at Omaha. So
another son of pioneers of the O’Neill community
has responded to the drumbeat of eternity.
° Jim Donohoe was transplanted from his law
office in rooms above the First
National bank in O’Neill to the
federal court seat in Omaha, the
appointment being made by the
late President Franklin D. Roose
velt with the recommendation of
Arthur F. Mullen, a personal
friend of Donohoe and who at
the time was national democratic
chairman for Nebraska.
Both Mr. Mullen and Judge
Donohoe were O’Neill products
and were able lawyers.
What would be more fitting Romaine
in selecting a succesor to Judge Saunders
Donohoe than to take another able lawyer from
O’Neill? Julius D. Cronin would grace a federal
court bench with judicial dignity and ability.
* * *
Unfathomed mysteries abound. I do not com
prehend the vast expanse of countless /mlkyways,
the glow of northern lights, the midnight silence
alone on the prairie. Nor do I comprehend the
pink glow of dawn, the noonday gl^re or the bars
of gold at sunset, but I can adore. I do not com
prehend the mystery of a rose blooming among
thorns or a morning glory clinging to a mud wall,
but what is not comprehendible may be adored. I
do not comprehend the deep affection of two hu
mans one for the other, of the sublime devotion of
a mother to her offspring, the mystery of devotion
to a creed, a cause, a principle, an idea. Over it
all, above it all, somewhere in the circle of circum
stances that surround us there must be celestial
forces that whisper, “If you do not comprehend,
you can adore!”
Russia claims they now turn out 100,000
automobiles from their factories in a year, about
* week’s production down at Detroit, Mich.
* * *
The 72 million licensed drivers at the steering
wheel on U.S. streets and highways travel 560 bil
lion miles a year, killing 40 thousand persons
enroute. . . The 17 thousand Mennonites in Old
Mexico have incurred government disapproval be
c'use of their refusal to adopt the modern elec
• * trical gadget way of living. . . Every 88 babies in
the U.S.A. come single, then a set of twins, while
triplets come once in 8,800 births and they come
as a quartet once in 700,000. . . All but two of the
country’s 48 state governors have church connec
tions, Methodists heading the list of denominations
with 12 governors on their membership rolls. . .
Colonial patriot, statesman, scientist, inventor —
and he signed it plain Benjamin Franklin._
There has been greater expansion along the
lines of education the past 25 years in America
than during the previous one hundred years. It is
then amazing that the army enlistments disclose
the extent of illiteracy among young Americans.
Nearly 18,000 of our enlisted men during an 18
months period were found to have had no formal
schooling beyond the fourth grade. Formal school
ing does not of itself imply qualification to be
come a good soldier and maybe the less you know
the better you can fight. The fighting cock on the
schoolhouse playground is at the foot of the class
in the school room.
* * *
Price supports—taking a dollar out of one
citizen’s pocket to put into the pocket of a sec
ond citizen. Union labor—a few fellows domi
nating the organization who call thousands of
unwilling workers out on strike, while their
families are deprived of life’s necessities because
of no pay check. Radio salesmen—an outlandish
fibber that everybody enjoys hearing. Income tax
—a patriotic holdup.
* * *
If your guess is that cattle and hog prices
are now at “an all time low,” you ought to have
been around in this part of the livestock country
in the 1880’s and 90’s when a thousand-pound
three-year-old brought $15 or $16 on the market
that consisted of a few local buyers, and hogs
were two cents a pound. Eggs were a nickel for a
dozen, potatoes 11 cents a bushel and other prod
ucts of ranch and farm the same low level or “give
it away.” The cowboys and clodhoppers survived
and probably their descendants making up today’s
generation will keep pluggin’ away.
I * * *
The car in the garage is safe. But that is not
what cars are made for. Yet if that car had been
in the garage there would not be today three hor
ror-haunted homes in that Dodge county communi
ty. Should 16-year-olds be allowed to take to the
highways without an older and experienced hand
at the steering wheel? But they do. Incautious
youth, venturesome and reckless, reap the fruits,
swift and tragic. Followed by the solemn rites of
burial that leave sorrow-laden hearts in desolated
homes.
• * *
Lenora Gean Krueger of Norfolk and Mary
Cathrine Vandegrift of Grand Island are two Ne
braska students of note among a group from many
states who have been given Rotary scholarships
and plan to launch their barks in the circles of
still higher learning at Oxford university in old
England. Two daughters of prairieland have been
honored for their scholarly attainments at homo
and can now go abroad to enlarge scholars’ vision
but may discover nothing much worthwhile in
education has escaped our own schools.
Editorial ....
Your School May Be Next
The death knell has been sounded for the
Amelia two-year high school. The high school will
become “inoperative” if State Education Commis
sioner F. B. Decker and members of the state
board of education have their way.
Amelia’s predicament currently is drawing
considerable attention because rugged individual
ists in that tiny southwestern Holt county sand
hills community say they will defy the state board
and continue to operate anyway.
One hundred percent of the adults in the dis
trict have petitioned the state board to keep the
school operative, and parents of 65 school children
in adjoining districts likewise have filed a petition,
stating they want their children to attend the two
year Amelia high school.
Plight of the Amelia school comes into focus
at this time because enrollment has dropped be
low 10 pupils for three consecutive years (pres
ently there are five pupils—an all-time low ebb
because school census indicates the enrollment
will increase). Further, the attorney-general’s of
fice has ruled the road linking Amelia with Cham
bers (where there is a four-year high school) is
“reasonably improved” and the distance is less
than 15 miles. (The questionable road is 10% miles
in distance; by state highway Amelia is 17 miles
from Chambers.)
Amelia people argue that a 2%-mile segment
of the Amelia-Chambers short route is impassable
during certain periods. They argue nobody from
the state education office or attorney-general’s of
fice has ever inspected the road.
When stubborn Amelia is knocked-off the ed
ucation whizzes may feel they will have clear sail
ing.
Let’s examine the law on which Decker ana ms
aides are basing their withdrawal of accreditation.
The bill, purely and simply a product of the
teacher lobby, in its original form would hang high
schools with fewer than 15 pupils. Amelia patrons,
and others, strongly protested and the bill, when
amended, read 10 pupils. Thanks to State Sen.
Frank Nelson of O’Neill, who interceded in behalf
of an Amelia delegation that appeared before
the legislative committee that year, the bill was
amended to 10.
“It was the intent of the legislature to protect
schools in small, isolated communities such as
Amelia,” Senator Nelson said.
Last week three members of the Amelia board
of education—Clyde Widman (president), Lloyd
Waldo and Glenn White—and Senator Nelson ap
peared at a hearing in the state capitol relative
to the Amelia case. They received rather shabby
treatment. They were told to be there at 9 a.m.,
and they were on hand at the appointed hour. It
was after 2 p.m., before they were heard and they
were told to keep their arguments brief. The hear
ing assumed the aspects of a mere formality—
those conducting the hearing apparently had long
since made up their minds.
Modern educators have adopted the notion a
high school unit with fewer than two hundred pu
pils is not efficient. And, dear readers, only one or
two public schools in Holt county will result if
these progressive educators have their way. Don't
shrug your shoulder and feel sorry for “poor Am
elia,” because these centralized-control men will
be looking your direction next.
And, if you don’t like the conduct of the state
education affairs, there’s nothing much you can
do about it.
Previously the state education chief was
elected every two years as the state superintendent
of public instruction. In the last general election
Nebraska voters were confronted with a series of
amendments (they’re always confusing to some).
Innocently (?) sandwiched in was an amendment
having to do with establishment of a state educa
tion board with staggered terms and a representa
tive on the board from each district. The board, in
turn, would appoint the education commissioner,
and fix his salary. Decker, formerly state su
perintendent at $6,000 per annum, is now state
commissioner at $9,000 per year.
Theoreticaly, if the state as a whole should
become exercised over educational policies and
press for a change, it would take a number of years
before you could seat four members who could pro
duce that change.
In Sunday’s Omaha World-Herald, Decker
was quoted: “Small, inefficient high schools should
not be used in an effort to ‘save the town.’ Eco
nomic trends sometimes make losses inevitable.”
If Mr. Decker seeks to completely detach the
education from a town’s economic life, then small
town business people throughout the state would
do well to view with alarm some of the motives
of the state office of education. After all, many
communities would lose their identity without a
school.
Back to Amelia:
If the folks there want to send their children
to thqir hometown school, regardless of size, and
pay the bill, then it is their inherent right to do
so. In the Amelia situation, a qualified teacher is
provided and the prescribed course of study is
reasonably followed.
True, some of the extras are not taught at Am
elia, such as home economics and vocational agri
culture. One graduate of a “larger high school”
told The Frontier Saturday he spent a year in
manual training doing nothing but building model
airplanes.
The case of the two-year Amelia high school
is an isolated example getting the shabby treat
ment. Thinking Nebraskans will dig into the facts
and formulate their own opinions.
The editor of The Frontier has been a personal
friend of the commissioner of education for 20
years. Mr. Decker is a forthright, honest and able
administrator, but unfortunately, he has the
statehouse view which is gained from atop the
tower of the sower and it does not represent the
down-to-earth, practical view of ordinary citizens,
many of whom do not have the five-hundred-dol
lar bill needed to consign pupils to a town school
for a term and plant them with any family that will
offer food and shelter for a fee.
The Decker view smacks of the theory that
schools are operated for the teachers instead of the
pupils or at the convenience of the teachers instead
of the parents (who pay the bill).
Amelia people are going to take the matter to
court. And The Frontier stands unalterably behind
them.
John G. Stuifbergen
Seldom has our community ever been so sad
dened or deeply moved by tbe death of one of its
citizens as in the case of John G. Stuifbergen, 39,
a father of three young children and one of the
fine young businessmen in our city.
A former college athlete—apparently a perfed
physical specimen of manhood, a courageous army
officer in World War II, and a solid and substan
tial citizen, Mr. Stuifbergen was stricken by a
series of heart attacks and, after a two weeks’ ill
ness, he died.
His brief illness came during the week sel
aside for emphasizing heart sickness and research
And, sadly, his death came two days following the
“heart Sunday.”
Mr. Stuifbergen was a quiet-mannered, soft
spoken, humble, industrious, civic-minded gentle
man who was a distinct asset to our city. He pos
sessed those rare qualities that made him an out
standing man among men.
CARROLL W. STEWART, Editor and Publishei
Entered at the postoffice in O’Neill, Holt coun
ty, Nebraska, as second-class mail matter undei
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 Audi
Bureau of Circulations.
j Audited (ABC) Circulation—2,530 (Sept. 30, 1955
When You and I Were Young . . .
Irish Jig Feature
of Entertainment
Hanley, Kane Dance;
McManus Does Clog
50 Years Ago
The Emmet Literary association
held an entertainment under the
chairmanship of Col. Neil Bren
nan. Tom Moore and Julia Biglin
played a piano selection, “Believe
Me If All Those Endearing Young
Charms.” An Irish jig was render
ed by T. D. Hanley and Mrs. John
Kane and a clog was performed
by John McManus. . . Births in
Atkinson; To the S. E. Smiths, a
boy; the J. Fluckeys, a boy: the
Ernest Fullertons, a boy, and the
Charles Wallaces, a girl. . . Jim
Harding marketed two loads of
potatoes in O’Neill.
20 Years Ago
Mrs. L. C. Chapman was buried
at Prospect Hill cemetery. . .The
Friendly Neighbors club met at
the home of Mrs. Tom Edwards
. . . Henry Ritts, an interior dec
orator, was buried from the Meth
odist church. . . Wayne Bates of
Inman, who has been boarding
with the John Rhodes in O’Neill
during the cold weather, has be
gun driving to school again. . .
Mlilred Ann Ruther of Ewing is
visiting her grandparents, Mr. and
Mrs. John Ruther, sr., ^of Inman.
10 Years Ago
Mr. and Mrs. J. I. Gray of
Page celebrated their 50th wed
ding anniversary. . . Mr. and Mrs.
Joe Winkler of Emmet entertain
ed a large group in honor of their
son, Edward, and daughter, Flor
ence, on their birthday anniversa
ry. . . Reverend Ohmart is con
fined in an Omaha hospital with
pneumonia . . Mary Bredehoeft
died in a Norfolk hospital.
One Year Ago
Carl E. Mitchell of Chambers
died at St. Anthony’s hospital. . .
Miss Janet Seger and Duane Al
ton were crowned as O’Neill
high’s basketball royalty. . . Lyle
R. Childers was named county
corn growing champion. . . Mrs.
Harold Heiss of Page was in
charge of the world day of pray
er services at the Methodist
church.
Letters to Editor
Editor:
The administration’s farm pro
giam, outlined by President Ei
senhower, gives communities and
farmers new opportunities to in
crease income, both from the go
vernment program and from oth
er sources not directly connected
with the program.
It is estimated by agricultural
officials that the suggested ad
ditions to the farm program
would put more than a billion
extra dollars into the pockets of
farm folks from government re
sources. Part of this would come
from the “soil bank” or “acreage
reserve” plan under which farm
ers would be encouraged, but not
compelled to reduce plantings of
certain crops now in surplus, put
ting the idle acres into meadow
crops.
The encouragement for tak
ing crop lands out of produc
tion would be in the form of
payments in cash or surplus
stocks of such crops as cotton,
wheat and possibly corn.
The “soil bank” phase of the
program thus does two things,
First, it brings a certain cash in
come from idle acres, and, second,
it reduces the working size oi
the farm.
These two things, in turn,
present some interesting oppor
tunities. Since the working size
of the farm will be smaller, the
farm family will have more time,
but less acreage. The logical op
portunity here, it has been point
ed out, is to practice a more in
tensive type of farming on the
reduced acres. The payments for
the idle acres will help provide
any needed animals or equip
ment. If more money were need
ed, other provisions of the sug
gested program have as theii
purpose the providing of ade
quate credit to any farm family
needing it.
Intensive farming means dif
ferent things in different parts
of the country. In this area a
number of factors point to milk
ing cows and selling cream
as the most promising.
The price of cream is one oJ
the very few farm product prices
which is practicality the same as
last year and promises to remain
steady. Feed marketed through
cows in the form of cream will
bring 25 to 30 percent more than
it will on the open market. And
the income from cream is in the
form of a steady cash income,
with a cream check each week.
In addition, there is skimmilk for
hogs and calves and chickens. No
other feed is better and it is eco
nomical as well.
Very little equipment is needed
for a family to begin selling
cream. Basically they need noth
ing more than some utensils, a
mechanical separator, and shelter
for the cows in extreme adverse
weather conditions.
Milk cows can produce more
income per acre than any other
farm enterprise, and can produce
double the income of most other
farm enterprises. They are thus
ideal for intensive farming on a
reduced number of acres.
Five or six good cows on a
farm will bring in over $750 to
$900 a year.
Cows can be handled as a fam
ily enterprise, all the members
helping out.
Whether the government pro
posed program is finally adopted
or not, the important fact today
is that cream is one of the very
few farm products that can be
sold for practically the same
price that it brought a year ago.
Cream is already one of the
most favorable farm products
that can be produced, and the
farm with the milk cows will be
in an excellent position to take
advantage of the new government
program should it be adopted.
The markets for butter pro
ducts are expanding. Every 12
seconds there is a net increase of
one person in the United States’
population. Every three months
there is an increase in population
equal to the size of Buffalo, N.Y.
It is estimated that increase in
population in 1956 over 1955 will
be sufficient to consume an addi
tional two billion pounds of milk
products.
—BEN VIDERICKSEN
Manager, Harding Cream
O’Neill, Nebr. .
* * *
Amelia, Nebr.
February 29, 1956
Dear Sir:
I could not help the tears of
disappointment when I heard
your “Voice of The Frontier’’
news announcement this morning
of the state- board of education’s
decision concerning the closing of
our high school. I had hoped that
after hearing Senator Nelson’s
plea yesterday they would surely
be at least reasonable. But now
I am more convinced than ever
that the impression I’ve received
from replies to letters I have writ
ten to the governor of the state,
attorney-general and others tha1
the word of Freeman Decker is
law to all of them.
It isn’t just a question of Am
elia, but do other small high
schools realize that they are next
in line to go? How many people
know the plans of this board? If
they don’t, it’s time they are find
ing out and doing something about
it. Do they know that they con
sider 200 pupils necessary for an
efficiently run high school? They
would be shocked if they knew
the goal for the number of high
schools for the entire state. It will
mean whole counties with no high
school.
They tell us our high school
must go. but as to what to do with
our kids, that’s up to us. One of
ficial some time ago informed me
that was our problem if we want
ed to live in such an out-of-the
way place.
Very few homes in O’Neill or
any other place are open for
boarding 13- or 14-year-old chil
dren—that is, homes that would
be a home to them. If there is
any age when a child needs home
influence, it’s those years. I sup
pose they say to turn them loose
in town and build more penal in
stitutions for those who go bad.
Thanks to you, Mr. Stewart,
for the stand you’ve taken, also
to Senator Nelson for the fine
support he has given us. If we
could just awaken Nebraska par
ents to the fact that we are fast
losing our “we the people, for
the people” rights of our consti
tution!”
One parent who is concerned,
MRS. GLENN WHITE
LIEN FILED
A federal tax lien has been
filed here against Charles W.
Peterson of Atkinson for $6,211.14
for withholding tax.
OES Supervisor
Presented Gift
EWING— Jephtha chapter 85,
Order of the Eastern Star, held an
all-day meeting on Wednesday,
February 29, at the chapter room.
Mrs. Fern Root of Omaha, dis
trict supervisor, conducted a
school of instruction in +he after
noon and in the eve.rng initiatory
work was exemphfied'.
A 6:30 o’clock dinner was serv
ed by the Woman’.; Society of
Christian Service at the parlors
of the Methodist church. Decora
tions were parried out in the East
ern Star colors. Mrs. Root was
presented a gift.
Out-of-town members in at
tendance were Mrs. Ray Snell,
Mrs. Anton Nissen, Mrs. Dora
Townsend, Mrs. Merwyn French,
jr., all of Page; Mrs. M. B. Huff
man of Bassett; Mrs. Maud Brion
and Mrs. Mary Hales, both of
Neligh.
Net Polio Receipts
in O’Neill $1,930
Allan Van Vleck, chairman of
the march of dimes drive in O’
Neill in behalf of the Holt coun
ty chapter. National Foundation
for Infantile Paralysis, reports
not receipts of $1,930.68.
Receipts included $580.01 from
the mothers’ march; business
firms, $385.82; schools, $211.94;
coin collectors, $135.50; benefit
basketball, $152.85; bake sale,
$62.70; Royal theater collections,
$95.44; clubs and organizations,
$101.43; polio peanuts, $212.94.
Total receipts were $1,938.63
and expenses amounted to $7.95.
Education Notes
Coming events include:
March 21: Holt county rural
teachers’ meeting, 8 p.m., O’Neill
public school band room.
April 2-6: Arithmetic group
contests.
April 17: Holt county rural
chorus practice, O’Neill public
school; harmony band, 10 a.m.,
auditorium; chorus, 1:30 p.m.,
auditorium and band room.
April 1: County arithmetic con
test, 1 p.m., O’Neill public school
grade rooms.
April 25: Holt county rural
teachers’ meeting, 8 p.m., O’Neill
public school band room.
April 27: Eighth grade exam
inations.
May 9— Eighth grade promo
tion exercises.
June 29-30: Kindergarten test
ing.
County Superintendent
ALICE L. FRENCH,
$1.80 Added to
Polio Fund—
When the list of contributions
from rural schools to the 1956
march of dimes was published,
the following had not been sent
in:
Dist. 26, Francis Fisher, teach
er, $1.80. This makes $526.08, the
total contribution from 123 Holt
county rural schools.
Roval Theater
— O'NEILL. NEBR. _
... •
Thurs. Mar. 8
Family Night
THE TRAIL OF THE
LONESOME PINE
Color by technicolor. One of the
all-time greats. Starring Fred
Mac Murray, Sylvia Sidney, Hen
ry Fonda, with Fred Stone, Nigel
Bruce, Beulah Bondi, Robert Bar
ret, Spanky McFarland, Fuzzy
Knight.
Family admitted for 2 adult tick
ets; adults 50c; children 12c
Fri.-Sat. Mar. 9-10
TOP GUN
Starring Steling Hayden, with
Wiliam Bishop. No man ever drew
on him and lived!
Adults 50c; children 12c; matinee
Sat. 2:30. All children under 12
free when accompanied by parent
Sun.-Mon.-Tues. Mar. 11-12-13
NEVER SAY GOODBYE
Print by technicolor. Starring
Rock Hudson, Miss Cornell Bor
chers, George Sanders. The only
way she could win back her
daughter’s love . . . was in the
arms of the man who had shamed
her! Was there nothing between
them now . . but shame and a
child?
Adults 50c; children 12c; matinee
Sun. 2:30. All children unless In
arms must have tickets.
Money to Loan
— on —
AUTOMOBILES
TRUCKS
TRACTORS
EQUIPMENT
FURNITURE
Central Finance
Corp.
C. E. Jones, Manager
O’Neill Nebraska
For
Low Cost Premiums
in financially responsible
Insurance Companies making
prompt loss adjustments
See or Write:
L. G. Gillespie
Insurance Agent,
O’Neill, Nebr.
In business for the past 62
years
Or pVone residence 218,
315 South First Street, or
114, Gillespie Radio Shop
_
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