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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 1944)
PAGE TWELVE we" THE JOURNAL, PLATTSMOUTH, NEBRASKA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1944 Statement by Lester A. Walker, Publisher "With this issue T assume ownership of The Daily Journal ami Semi-Weekly Journal by virtue of my purchase from 3Irs. Kobert A. Hates, the former owner and publisher. In so doinr, I pledge my best efforts in producing a news paper which will be a builder for Plattsmouth, a servant in which the community may well take pride. The everlasting and continuous emphasis will be upon the presentation of l'lattsmouth and Cass County news. Features are being added, some appearing today: NEA Telephoto news pictures, war maps, editorial cartoons by Dorman II. Smith, Peter Edsoivs Washington column. "This Curious World." the popular "Out Our Way" by J. K. Williams, "Alley Oop", "Red Kyder", and others. These features along with United Press wire news, and thorough coverage of local news will afford a well rounded . daily newspaper. Obviously it is better to let performance speak more than promises, and that is just what we of The Journal expect to do. Wartime paper restrictions and priorities will delay certain improvements which are definitely planned. Other improve ments will be made as the need presents itself, and as soon as time permits. The signer of this statement is a Xebraskan by birth and nearly lifelong residence a Xebraskan who started his news paper career as a carrier boy in MeOook, who through the inter vening years has devoted his entire life to the newspaper and printing business, and who is publisher of The Fremont Guide and Tribune. The decision to enter the Plattsmouth field was made after a survey starting several months ago. It is my firm belief, both as a newspaperman and a Xebraskan, that Plattsmouth is especially well situated an excellent community with a sotuul future. Most certainly I expect this newspaper to play a con structive part in the development of Plattsmouth. The writer has no political ambitions, no political obliga tions, no political axes to grind, with the result that The Jour nal will be independent politically. The primary responsibil ity of this newspaper will be to its readers and the Plattsmouth community. Columns of The Journal will be open to all with the under lying thought that there are two sides to every controversial issue and Journal readers are entitled to know the facts on both side of every question. The news columns of The Journal will be used to present the news fairly, without bias or coloring a bare recording of the facts. It will be our duty to record news, not make it. Xo punches will be pulled in our efforts to make The Jour nal meet your needs to give the news and circulate it through out the Plattsmouth trade area. Present employes of The Journal are continuing as members of the staff under the new management. Others will be added as the scope of this newspaper widens. Both your acquaintanceship and your suggestions are sought. The Journal will be a faithful, sincere and honest servant of the Plattsmouth communitv. LESTER A. WALKER Subscription payments for The Plattsmouth Journal may be paid locally to Mrs. THOS. MURTEY. Representative; T Mr. and Mrs. Carl Day left Monday I for PrflfTltnn FMnrirln urhora Viv will spend the winter. A new group of Camp Fire girls was organized this week, with Mrs. Willard Yates as sponsor, and Mrs. Thomas Stacey as leader. Mr. and Mrs. Francis Baldwin, of! Mr- and Mrs- Searle Davis of Omaha, were Weeping Water visitors Saturday evening. While here they visited Mr. and Mrs. Ole Olson. Business Men's Luncheon club had five service men as visitors at their luncheon Wednesday. They were S. Sgt. William Thornton, who lost an eye while on duty in Italy, and is now enjoying a furlough with his father, Wm. Thornton, Sr.; Sgt. Robert Renner, who first was report ed as missing in action, later as a German prisoner in Bulgaria, later freed during the allied invasion of that country and now visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs, Jake Renner; Pvt. Chas. Amick and Pvt. Vern Amick, who are visiting their par ents, Mr. and Mrs. Sterling Amick; and Seaman lc William Mutter, who is visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Murray Mutter. One hundred twenty-three prison ers from the Herman prisoner's camp have been placed with farmers and assisting in some form of farm work during the past week. When not busy there, some of them have assisted in street improvevement for the city, and in the building of the Philpot Seed and Feed Center building. Clifford Jones, of Lincoln, spent Sunday with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Jones, while his wife was visiting relatives in Chicago. Mrs. Frank Marshall left last Thursday for Denver to visit her sis ter. Frank left Tuesday to join her and they will also visit at the home of his brother-in-law and sister, Dr. and Mrs. E. F. Klein. Mrs. Victor Wallick has been substituting for Mrs. Donna Bruner, 7th grade teacher, this week, as Mrs. Bruner has been confined to her home by illness. Mrs. S. Ray Smith visited friends in Omaha, from Friday until Sun day last week. She was accompanied home by Mrs. Freeman Wildrock, who remained at the Smith home un til Monday. Honoring Mrs. Lawrence House dan, who left Monday for Bergen field, N. J., to visit her brother, Frank Wolcott and family, the War Wives club held a picnic in the City Park Sunday at noon. Thje women were accompanied by their children, and all enjoyed a fine dinner and an enjoyable afternoon together. Some beautiful gifts were presented to Mrs. Houseman. German prisoners have been work ing on the streets, and they are also employed in the building of a new business building on west Main Street, which will be the home of the Philpot Feed and Seed Center, as well as on farms in this vicinity. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Andersen have moved into their new home, recently purchased from Judge Paul Fauquet. A letter from Lt. Milfred Smith to his parents,, Mr. and Mrs. S. Ray Smith, last week said he had been in the North Sea, with' the British Navy, on air-sea rescue work. "Rather exciting," he said. "Yester day we were trying out life saving equipment with all our heavy (fly ing) clothes on. Came very near drowning myself, but may be as a result it will save some other lives. Was in Belgium and France several days last wek. Wheat a mad house that is over there. They think that the yanks are little tin Gods, or something because they give them anything they want, and I mean any thing. One of the kids bought a Buick convertible for thirty cigarets, not packages, just cigarets." Some of the tales which those boys told us didn't sound human but they had the proof. Firemen were called to Cemetery Hill, Tuesday afternoon, where it was another case of burning leaves and trash, which soon got out of control. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Pool are enjoying a visit from a girlhood friend, Mrs. Minnie Brooks, Ambia, Indiana. Mrs. Brooks is the former Miss Minnie Johnson of Wabash, who left Cass county more than 40 years ago, and this is her first visit to this community since that time. She stopped here enroute from a visit to a son, in Colorado. Susan Wood, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Wood, was four years old Tuesday, and her mother invited six of her small friends in to spend the afternoon with her. Games were played and all had a fine time, after which refreshments of ice cream and small chocolate cakes, with orange colored frosting, each bearing an orange colored candle, intrigued the small guests, who were Yvonne Do mingo, Virginia Welch, Pauline Newham, Roberta Knaup, Michael Stacey and Topper Grow. Mrs. Wallace Philpot has been quite ill for several days, with an attack of gall bladder trouble and heart trouble. She is reported to be better at this time. Well, the Weeping Water High school football boys have made good our prediction that they would begin to win as soon as they had a chance to get some necessary practicing done. For the fourth time this fall they were winners. This time they won 20 to 7 in a return game with the Northeast High Reserves, of Lincoln. Stanley Miller, Leon Cher ry and Dick Bickford each made a touchdown, and extra points were made' by Pat Wade and Stanley Mill er for the Weeping Water team and Duane Grantski, made the touch down for Lincoln. We failed to get the name of the player who made the extra point for Lincoln. It was a hard fought game, played Tuesday evening at Wolcott's Field, with a good crowd attending. Sgt. Robert Renner arrived home Saturday evening for a thirty-two days furlough, after which he will go to Miami, Florida. We knew that he had been sent back to America, but our astonishment was great when we met him face to face Sun day at noon. Sgt. Renner has had experiences which might be expect ed to dishearten the bravest man, but he looks fine. His experience of being injured and of being taken a prisoner by the Germans, in Bulgar ia, and of his release by the allied forces, are like tales which we read in books, but which we never thought possible to happen to anyone in Weeping Water, but Sgt. Renner does not seem to be embittered by his eyperience. He is so happy to get to return home, and the whole town has given him a royal welcome. Vacation Over Betty Henton, who has been en joying a two week's vacation, return ed to her work at the Court House on Wednesday. Betty enjoyed the first part of her vacation with relatives at Grand Island. Nebr., and spent the past week end in Nevada, Mo., with her friend, Catherine Conis, who is attending college there. Plattsmouth visited at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Troy L. Davis, Sunday afternoon. Mrs. John Ewing and son, Jimmie, of Lincoln, visited at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Crozier Friday and Saturday of last week. Mrs. James Trautman and two daughters, Connie Sue and Ruth Ann, of Winside, and Mr. and Mrs. Albert Schindler of Nebraska City were visitors at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harold C. Elliott, Friday, and Mrs. Trautman and daughters stop ped here for another visit enroute to thier home from Nebraska City. Mrs. Trautman and Mrs. Elliott are sis ters. Mr. and Mrs. Audrey Fisher and family of Falls City were week end guests at the home of Mrs. Fisher's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Knud Jensen Dr. and Mrs. C. O. Herman are 'expecting Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Hobbs ! of Orange, California to arrive today (Thursday) for a visit They expect to remain until Sunday evening. Mrs. Jack Hays has received word that her husband has arrived at a hospital at Topeka, Kansas for fur ther treatment. Jack was injured while in action in France, and has been hospitalized in England, and was sent back to the states two wpeks ago. Miss Helen Gorder, librarian at Grand Island, came Saturday and left again Sunday afternoon taking her mother, Mrs. Fred Gorder to Grand Island for a months visit. Miss Eloise Pool is enjoying a weeks vacation from her duties at Peru Normal, and she spent the first part of her vacation at Burwell, Grand Island and Lincoln, coming to Weeping Water, Wednesday to visit her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Tool, for the remainder of the week. Mrs. Fritz Grow recrived a letter from Fritz, saying that he had been suffering from pains in his back and X-rays had been taken and that five vertebrae were found to be out of place, so he has been put into limited service and is being taught type writing, so that he will be a clerk in the message center. A card from Mrs. Myrtle Stock in forms us that her father, George Brown is in Lewallen, Washington, this fall and that her son-in-law, Pvt. Amos F. Ingram, stationed at Marfa, Texas, was hit by a truck while at work on the field, with the result that his left leg was broken above the knee. The accident happen ed October 18. His wife, the former Reva Stock, is with him. Mrs. Stock is living at 1128 9th Ave., Long View, Wash. Mrs. Pearl Micin of Plattsmouth left for home Thursday after a weeks visit at the home of Mr. and Mrs. S. Ray Smith. Lutheran Army Chaplain from Adams, Nebr. Votes NO" on State Prohibition The following open letter should be read by every Nebraskan. It was written to Earl Marvin, editor of the Beatrice Sun, by Chaplain J. H. Reents of Adams, Nebraska, now Chaplain of the 35th Division in France. Rev. Reents, before he entered the Army, was a Lu theran minister at Adams, Nebraska, and also served a rural church nearby. His open letter appeared in the Beatrice Sun, October 26, 1944. It is an eloquent pies from a well-known Nebraska clergyman for the people of Nebraska to defeat Prohibition November 7. Rev. Reents backs up his conviction by voting "NO" from France. Headquarters 35th Division Somewhere in France 10 October 1944 Dear Earl: My absent voter's ballot just started on its return trip to the States. One enclosure surprised me a bit, and that is No. 300 and 301; although I knew it was com ing from various reports I had gotten from others. I am reminded of the whole galaxy of soldiers I have seen pass through the ranks I have served, and I ask myself, "What in the world can prohibition do for any of them, which will be for good?" When I arrived at the answer: "Nothing," I mean "absolutely NOTH ING. We Americans have our faults, but the greatest of these is by no means drunkenness. For every sol dier you see drunk on the street there are hundreds who are stone-sober, and who are proud of remaining that way, because they are sober as a matter of choice. Does prohibition make better people out of those whom you see drunk now? It did not during our grand and noble experiment well within the memory of the writer, and will not in the future. So what? I should like to put down a few observations I have made though, and I make bold to say that I have been able to watch more average Americans at close range than most of those who propose this amendment, con sequently I believe I can speak with authority. There have been prohibitionists with whom I had to work, who ate like pigs, but glorified in the fact that they Had never touched a 'drop of liquor. Trie Lord men tions "surfeiting" in the same connection with drunk enness. Although drunkenness often times leads to moral aberrations there have been many abstainers from liquor who had immorality written in capital. letters on their faces and I am reminded of the "story of Jesus, where He said, "He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her." Yet, these very people are frequently the most critical of their fellow men and their failings. During the life of Jesus, He attacked one sin in par ticular, and that was hypocrisy. This He found among those people who burdened others with laws which they were unable to keep. Isn't there a parallel right here? Someone has been trying to put this across, while many of Jtheir future .leaders are away -I sin cerely suspect ulterior motives at the present time. If your cause is such that you cannot put all your cards on the table and sell it, then for heaven's sake, throw it away. You're on the wrong track t Righteousness comes from within. If more people would themselves lead a thoroughly Christian life, and examine themselves in the penetrating light of the law of God, they would be so busy with putting, their own house in order, that by their very lives they would become living sermons of righteousness, tem perance, and brotherly love. By their very lives such' people would lead others to the only source of healing for the world's ills and it is not prohibition! That this amendment is against the spirit of the Con stitution of the United States, which champions indi vidual liberty that I should not even mention, but these un-American forces do not seem to realize that they are contradicting the very things we are fighting for today, and that is the right of a free will in all things. At any rate, I voted a big "NO," and I hope that many others will. If you get cheated once, that can happen to anyone, but to get cheated in the same way twice shows terrible ignorance. Sincerely yours, v ' J. H. REENTS, t .Chaplain, Hq. 35th Division. tetter Reproduced Here by the Er TVmm w COMMITTEE OF MEN AND WOMEN AGAINST PROHIBITION Keith Neville, North Platte, Chairman John B. Quinn, Lincoln, Manager