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About The Plattsmouth journal. (Plattsmouth, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1956)
EDITORIALS Furses Fresh Flashes nED CROSS NEEDS YOUR HELP As the reader probably knows, the month of March has been designated as "Red Cross Month," and the organization seeks to raise, by voluntary contributions in a nation-wide campaign, a fund with which to carry on its work of assistance in this and other communities in times of emergency. The Red Cross, one of three national organizations chartered by Congress, un dertook and successfully accomplished a tremendous task during the active par ticipation of this nation in the first and second World Wars and also in the recent Korean War. It still has many duties to perform not only to the members of our armed forces in this, country and over seas, but also to our fellow citizens in times of hurricanes, fires, tornadoes and floods. One of the functions performed by the Red Cross, which appeals to all, is its blood -collecting drive, providing blood and blood plasma, not only for the mem bers of our armed forces but for the use of our citizens who, in times of stark trag edy, find themselves or their loved ones in need of such aid. We call attention to these things so that the people of Cass County will be advised of the appeal and if they have not already made a contribution, that they will do so at once, so that the Ked Cross will be enabled to continue its work. The full cooperation of our citizens will as sure the success of the current campaign. WHAT KIND OF SPRING? Spring arrives - this month, and many of us, especially farmers, are now wondering what the Spring of 1956, will be like. In 1955 it was disastrous for growers in many sections of the country. Many are hoping that this year's Spring will be something like the recent Winter, the cold arriving early, but end ing sooner than usual. In some sections of the country, the weather has been al most spring-like since the end of Febru-V ary. Spring officially began this year at 10:21 on the morning of March 20th. The first full moon, sometimes called the warm moon, of Spring arrives March 26th, at something after eight in the morning. . - For many, Spring is the finest time of the year. It brings warmer weather, after a cold winter. It brings the end of school days to millions of youngsters and base ball back to millions of baseball fans. In addition, it brings flowers and Nature's beautiful display. The weather prophet tells .us that this Spring will not be as treacherous as last year, and that sudden breezes will not exact the toll they took : in 1955. We can only hope that they are right. WHAT IS SUCCESS? An idea seems to be spreading throughout our land that men and women achieve success through the operation of government rather than by their own pa tient persistence in honest endeavor. The reader of The Plattsmouth Jour nal, particularly the young men and wo men, should not be misled in this respect.. They should realize that any worthwhile success in life is achieved almost exclu sively through the personal endeavor of the individual involved. After all is said and done, the vast majority of business successes owe their growth to one or more rare individuals, who gave to the enterprise a contribution that included, not only physical effort, but superior intelligence and the wisdom that arises from the intangible thing that we know of as "character." THOUGHT FOR TODAY Xo man can be more zvisc than destiny. Tennyson The Plattsmouth Journal Official County and Cit Paper ESTABLISHED IN 1881 Published Senii-Weekly, Mondars and Thursdays, at 410 Main Street, Plattsmouth, Cass County, Nebr. Three Times Winner Ak-Sar-Ben Plaques for "OUTSTANDING COMMUNITY SERVICE" 1949 1951 1952 "Honorable Mention" 1953 Presented Nebraska Press Association "GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD" First in 1952 Second in 1951 and 1S53 (In Cities over 2,000 Population) RONALD R. FURSE Editor and Publisher BILL BURTON News Editor MARGARET DINGMAN .Society Editor JANET PTAK Bookkeeper VERN WATERMAN ..Advertising Art I .Entered at the Post Office at Plattsmouth, Nebraska as secoiwl class mail matter in accordance with the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATE: $4.00 per year in Cass and adjoining counties, $5.00 per year elsewhere, in advance, by mail outside the city of Platts mouth. By carrier in Plattsmouth, 25 cens for two weeks. v Some of the hot-rodders around this town are so hard up they can hardly keep body and chassis together. You're fortunate if your wife grows dearer all the time instead of more ex pensive. A local wife says her husband is a man of rare gifts he hasn't given her one since they were married. Happiness is that peculiar sensation you acquire when you're too busy to be miserable. i it Faith will never die as long as color ed seed catalogues are printed. it it Imagination is something that sits up with a woman when her husband is out late at night. it it A Plattsmouth couple just lost their maid and couldn't understand why she quit as they had always treated her as one of the family. It was probably be cause she couldn't stand it any more. it Two of the most popular ways of tak ing one's life these days are turning on the gas and stepping on it. Down Memory Lane open four The local J , j ..aw-wn-7r x1 You're washing WHAT seat covers?' )( YEARS AGO Plattsmouth merchants day spring sales campaign . . American Legion celebrated the national unit's eighteenth anniversary with a pro erram highlighted by motion pictures . . . Some 50 residents of the Nebraska Mason ic Home were guests of the Shrine circus in Omaha . . . Coach Fred A. Rothert was looking optimistically ahead to the com ing track season with such runners on his team as Bob Vallery. Earl Taylor, Bill Carey and Joe Hendrix . . . Five chairmen were elected for the various circles of the Woman's Federation of the Presbyterian church. They were Mrs. Hilt Martin, Mrs. George Farley, Mrs. Roy Knorr, Mrs. E. C. Giles and Mrs. Philip Hirz . . . Ernest Haning was busily campaigning for state representative from Cass and Sarpy coun ties. it it $r YEARS AGO The merchants along , Sixth and Fearl streets were preparing to throw a party to celebrate cmpletion of concrete paving from Main street to their district. . ... John Leddy complained to the sheriff some 60 bushels of corn was stolen from his farm . Miss Mildred L. Murray was married to Arnold J. Meisinger at Eight Mile Grove Lutheran church . . . Dr. R. P. Westover was elected president of the newly organized golf club. C. R. Olsen was named secretary . . . The city council granted a flying circus its .request to fly over the city with banners displaying ad vertising products to be sold in local stores. . . ; A hail stor mstruck the city causing considerable damage to the greenhouses of Henry Jasper . . . Former teachers Mrs. Ralph Wehrbein and Mrs. Fred Heitz hausen were honored at a party put on by Mrs. Russell Reeder and Mrs. Carl Keil. it it it Ae Washington erry-Go -Round tr DREW PBARQON (Copyright, 1335, by the Bell Syndicate, Inc.) Pearson Draws Blood On March 21, Drew Pearson re ported that Carl O. Hanson, Mon tana director of the Farmers Home Administration, had been buying wool for private interests while work ing for the government; had also en gaged in politics in violation of the Hatch Act; and had used govern ment phones for political activities. On March 23, Carl O. Hanson resigned. Washington Here are more details on how the giant Brown and Root con tracting firm, which has received many lush contracts from the government, con tributed to the first Senatorial Primary of Lyndon Johnson, now Democratic Leader of the Senate, and then deducted the con tributions from income taxes. The case history is important for sev eral reasons. First this unfortunately is a practice used by other companies. They hand out bonuses to vice presidents, then require that a percentage of the bonus, be contributed to a certain pet candidate. Afterward, that candidate, if elected, is in hock to the company. It controls his vote, which is why the Congress today, more and more, is losing its independence. Second, the Brown and Root history is important because they were active dur ing the Gas Bill debate. George Brown entertained Sen. Lyndon Johnson and oth er bigwigs at his Middleburg, Va., estate on weekends, came to Washington be tween weekends. , Finally, Senator Johnson has exerted his influence to sidetrack the original forthright probe of the gas lob by proposed by Senator Hen nings (D.t Mo.), and is now ex erting his influence against the recording of political contribu tions in Primary campaigns. Yet, it . is Primaries including his own in Texas, that really elect Senators Iii about one third of the states. Roundabout Payments "i In Johnson's 'own; senatorial primary in' Texas in 1941, In ternal Revenue agents discover ed Brown and Root had issued the following checks ; through their subsidiary, Victoria Grav el Company to Edgar Monteith, an attorney in Houston:, $5,000 on May 26, 1941; $4,500 on June 7; another $3,000 on June 7.'V Monteith then used a compli cated, roundabout way of using the money. He distributed $10,- 000 Of it as a profit between himself and his law partner, A. W. Baring. Then Baring trans ferred the entire $10,000 back to Monteith, and Monteith, in turn, wrote checks to pay the expense of the Lyndon Johnson cam paign. When Johnson was given a chance to explain this, he said he had never heard, of Monteith and claimed he had never re ceived financial help from him However, Monteith's father was the former mayor of Houstpn and a well-known personage. Internal Revenue agents found that the secont National Bank of Houston microfilmed all checks, including these, and that Monteith unquestionably had us ed the money to pay for radio time," printing bills and other Johnson campaign expenses. . , Tax Agent's Letter Summarizing his opinion' of this discovery, James M. Coon- er, special agent in charge for Texas and Louisiana, wrote from Dallas on May 13, 1944: ' "It is quite obvious that Mon teith aided and abetted Brown and Root, Inc., and .Victoria Gravel Company, in showing po litical contributions for which he was the conduit were attorney's fees. This would make his; in come tax fraudulent . . . "I seriously doubt," Cooner continued, referring to the fact that Montieth. refused to testify, "that he was afraid of incrimi nating himself 'in'1 connection with his own tax liability, but I believe he was afraid he might be involved in - a; conspiracy in connection with the evasion of taxes by Brown and Root, Inc., and Victoria Gravel Company." Internal Revenue agents also found on Brown and Root's books an interesting list of bon uses paid to its vice presidents and other officials at the exact time of the Lyndon Johnson pri mary election. There was no explanation-for these sudden bonuses, and the employees who received them could give no adequate explana tion. Nor could they show any furniture, homes, automobiles, etc., for which they used the money, despite the fact that they cashed the bonuses on the same day they got the checks. Here are some of the em ployee bonuses which Brown and Root paid out during the John son primary race for the sen ate: . ; L. H. Durst, purchasing agent, was paid $3,500 on March 29, plus another check for $2,000 on May 20; W. M. Powell, vice pres ident, $4,000 on March 28; Carl Burkhart, office manager, $5,000 on March 29; D. G Young, sec retary, $1,000 on March 18, and another $6,000 on April 17," plus a third check for $2,500 on May 4. FDR Intervenes In one or two cases, internal revenue agents were able to trace the cash. L. T. Bolin, vice president, was given one of the fected by the method of distri bution. The state will get the same amount now that it got before. Salk vaccine now is going through commercial channels and Rouse said the outlook is brighter than at any time in the past. At least 46,800 doses of the vac cine will be received or are ear marked for Nebraska this month. Rouse said that, is by far the largest amount ever receiv ed. ; , "The predictions there would be quite a lot more vaccine available, in March and April apparently will hold true," he said. School Land There now are about 412,745 acres of school land under oil and gas leases. , Robert Hiatt, secretary of the Board of Educational Lands and Funds, which administers school lands, said the leases are bring ing in rental of $358,964 per year. This averages out at about 87 cents per acre rent, Hiatt said. . Hiatt said at last count there were 51 producing wells on state owned land, bringing royalties to Nebraska of about $36,000 per month. , , THE PLATTSMOUTH. NEBRASKA, SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL J.ViUliua.jf , - PAGE FOUR jtT TTy A FV A a UK AM .V.VV.V.ViV.V.V.V.V.V.V.VAV1V.V.V.V.V.V. Capitol News By Melvln Paul . Statehouse Correspondent The Nebraska Press Association LINCOLN Nebraska can't spend all the federal money it is to receive for' purchasing Salk polio vaccine; for : persons who can't pay for shots. That's the report from Allan Rouse, director of the polio di vision in the State Department of Health. . . ; . Rouse said Nebraska was al located $245,000 originally to buy vaccine for all residents, up to Feb. 15. Then, the method of getting the vaccine to doctors was changed. . ? Previously, the state handled all the vaccine, parceling it" to doctors. Now, 90 per cent of the vaccine goes through commer cial drug houses, and 10 per cent through the department! The state has $168,000 of the federal ' money left and is to get about $225,000 more. ' ' The ' unused- money; " Rouse said, will "revert to the federal government. He -said the amount that goes to a "state is not' af- had made out" one check on June 4, for $1,150, to the Bell Press for campaign printing. They also traced another ' cam paign check to Bolm for $1,870 dated May 2, 1941. t -' These and considerably more were among the facts teletyped to Washington on Jan. 14, 1 1944, on the morning that. Elmer Irey, assistant secretary, of the treas ury, was called to see President Roosevelt. One day earlier, Jan. 13, Congressman Johnson ' and Alvin Wirtz, attorney for Brown and Root, had called to see the president. Johnson, . when asked about this visit, admitted he had called on FDR with Wirtz, but claimed they had not discussed Brown and Root's taxes. He said he thought they had either talked about public power or about ditching Henry Wallace for vice president in the 1944 campaign and substituting Sam Rayburn. However, Internal Revenue files are unequivocal. I have photostats ' of the messages sent from Dallas for the White House. Three days later a new revenue agent arrived in Dallas, and shortly thereafter the Brown and Root tax case was ordered- set tled, v " . Yet today ', senator Johnson, a victim of the terrific cost of raising money in a primary, does not want primary expenses and contributions made a public record. Judges Retirement . The long-awaited ruling by the State ' Supreme Court on the judges retirement act passed by the last i Legislature caused con siderable comment. The high court . held the law, requiring judges to retire at the age. of 70, was constitutional. . But, it said the law, does not become effective untili Jan. . 3, 1957. it did not become law last Sept. 18, the court said. ; On 'the theory that the act be came effective last September, along rwith most other laws pass ed " by . the Legislature, district court clerks began collecting a $1 fee on each civil case as the state's contribution to the judges retirement fund. Those collections at' the time of the ' opinion amounted to $2,564.' : . : In addition,' judges themselves have paid in $5,844, or four per cent of their earnings. -Intensely interested in - the case were nine district1 judges, seven of whom had filed for re election, and two who had not. The. latter ones, James Fitzger ald of Omaha and Frank Mun day. of Red Cloud, had intended not to j file for re-election be cause they thought theJaw.was effective. t -. )r Now, however, they will seek re-election. ; The other seven judges,- all of whom are 70 or will be after, the first of the year, can run. for re-election un der the supreme court ruling. The question of .what to do with the money already col lected will probably be decided by the Attorney General's of fice. Primarily the matter to be solved is if the money can be refunded, or . if this will re quire an act of the Legislature. INTELo Check Ihe correct word: 1 Goulash is a thick meat (stew) (soap) term applied to ergs of (fish) 2 Roe is the (fowl). . 3 A troll is a (fisherman) (mythical under- ground elf). . . 4 Pate de foie gras is made of (goose) (porkj liver. 5 Minestrone is the name of an Italian (com poser) (soup). 6 A bombe is a (French bomb) (frozen cream pudding). 7 Snark is the name of a (water bird) (pilot less bombing missile). 8 Chop suey (is not) (is) of Chinese origin. 9 Clams are members of the (fish) (mussel) family. 10 Rattlesnake meat (is not) (is) edible. Count tO for each correct choice. A score of 0-20 iff poor, 30-60, average; 70-80, superior;, 90-100. very superior. X Decoded Inteiligram si oi lassniM 6 I 3 ajr'sstriF uipprtd uSzoJi 9 dnog s -3009 - jn 2 u.s'J Z 3s I New Face. A new face has joined the top levels of , the Republican party in Nebraska. v ' It is 'in the person of T. H. Maenner of Omaha. He is the new GOP national committee man for Nebraska. He will be the connecting link between the state and national Republican party organizations. Maenner replaces Abel V. Shotwell of Omaha i who is re tiring -after 12 years, Mrsj Edna Basten Donald of Grand Island is continuing as GOP national committeewoman. Both were elected at last week's Founders Day rally in Lincoln. Heavy Spring Rains Needed - 4 Nebraska Soil ' s LINCOLN February was colder in Nebraska and much drier than normal, the United State Weather Bureau office at Lincoln reported. , Precipitation averaged about half the long-time mean but was distributed irregularly. Temperatures ranged around normal with more than usual amount of sunshine. Wind, es pecially on colder 1 days, was rather light. Coldest temperature was re corded at Gordon where 21 de grees below was recorded. ( Only snow fell in the - state in February, no rain. It was the fifth month with deficient precipitation. Except for September, all months were deficient since June. This has left sub-soil dry, with snows only wetting the surface. There is less than a normal supply of moisture for this year's crops, the: Bureau said. ' ; Absence of wind took the edge p.ff ihe, cold weather for men and livestock. Cattle wintered well on normal feeding. Most of the winter -wheat was well protected by the snow until the last few days of February when, snow melted rapidly and water was taken into the soil. Wheat greened up the first few days of the-month and it was re ported in good condition. -Substantial spring rains . will be needed to produce a normal crop, the bureau reported, be cause of dry sub-soil., L ETTI at PLANT EXPANSION Plant expansion I in 1956 will take an investment of $35,000, 000,000, or 22 per ' cent more than was spent in 1955, accord ing to a joint report by the De partment of Commerce and the securities and Exchange Commission. COLD DELAYS SUICIDE LONDON Alfred Barnes, 62, determind to committ suicide, went to drown himself Feb ruary 24 but found the local pond frozen over. Barnes waited eight days for the pond to thaw and then threw himself in. Ver dict: Suicide by drowning. R. O. T. C. CALLS The Army has announced that two-thirds of the 15,000 Reserve Officer Training Corps gradu ates, scheduled for active duty in the year starting July 1, would be called up for two years' service. The other one third will take six months ac tive training and then would be assigned to active participation with Army Reserve units. Dear Sir, There seems to be a wrong impression about Lincoln. The war was not fought to free the negro,, but to preserve the Un ion, as the southern states had withdrawn and established a government. I had four uncles and my father in that war. They called it the secession war. They heard Mr. Lincoln talk in Council Bluffs, and one of my uncles heard him four different times and in different places and he always said slavery was wrong in many ways but that it would be wrong' to turn illerate people loose to fend for themselves. He had a plan which is never mentioned now. He (Lincoln) in tended to locate the. negros in colonies under supervision. All historians know this, but an awful lot of folks dont. But the negros deserted the planta tions and the situation got out of control so he issued the pro clamation making - it illegal to have slaves. My uncle and father heard Mr. Lincoln "say he "was still going to try to do something. In case you don't know the freed slaves over ran the states and worked for practically noth ing. It was awful and when Mr. Lincoln was addressing a sold iers meeting, tears ran down his cheeks. He was sorry for the workers and farmer. My father and uncles always said they believed Lincoln would have colonized the negro but as we all know he never lived long enough assassinated. There is not a state in the U. S. A. where a negro can't live. He's free but under some conditions he's restricted just like lots of people. Now Miss Lucy isn't a 1 1 Negroid or her picture lies. So its a plot to stir up trouble. She's paid by some organization or club to stir up trouble. We in our states up north haven't the same conditions as have the southern states. Mr. Lincoln said it was too bad. The Negro should have been confined until capable. He also said it would take 200 years to miergrate them and educate the poor whites in the south. J. W. Porter 424 Fourth avenue Plattsmouth Spain suspends all exports of olive oil Shortage amid plenty plague; the coffee business. largest bonuses $30,000. Rev enue agents reported to Wash ington that Bolin had admitted to them that he jhad made a cash contribution to the Johnson campaign, but, strangely, could not remember the amount. They found, however, that he fmmmti mm mmmmms omzm tpf m m prMm I ' . - ;1 U-- I SEE YOU'RE ADVERTISING Jl j I WOULDN'T THINK I I BUT THW SIGN KTEP ) W ' 7, n x FOR ANOTHER HIRED C-T Y0UD HAVE EN0USH i- THE CNES I , ' ' '" , - fif tfAN.-TlLLERJ t- V'i?RK HESSE FOZ if I HAVE BUSY.' A " Mi 11 ' X .fl lVj ANOTHER HpQNT s---l--J j j" (' . '