Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 11, Number 8, DeMotte, Jasper County, 9 January 1941 — Washington Digest 69 [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Washington Digest 69

Drop in Spring Pig Crop Predicted by Government Rise in Pork Prices Considered Likely; ■ Washington Correspondents Discuss ‘Jitters’ of War Rumors.

tSAUK HAGr

WASHINGTON.—"Pigs is Pigs"— j that was the name of one of the funniest short stories ever written. Of course pigs “isn't" They “is" shoats and hogs and a number of other things including sausage and pork chops. Not long ago the mail carrier probably stopped at your gate and asked a lot of impertinent questions about your plans for your porkers and the other day the department of agriculture finished reporting what the mail carriers reported to them. The result was the semi-an-nual Pic Crop report which said that there would be 10 per cent less little pigs going to market next spring than last. Officially the Agricultural Marketing Service said this; "The downswing in hog production which began in the spring of 1940 continued through the fall and will continue at least through the spring season of 1941, the Agricultural Marketing Service reported today. The decline apparently has been at an increasing rate. The percentage decrease in the 1940 fall pig crop was greater than that of last spring, and the indicated percentage decrease for the spring of 1941 is a little greater than that forthe fall of 1940. "The fall pig crop of 1940 is estimated at 12.5 per cent smaller than that of 1939. The decrease in the. 1940 spring pig crop was 9 per cent. The combined pig crop of 1940 is down 10 per cent from last year but the crop is the second largest since 1933. "The indicated number of sows to farrow in the spring season of 1941 is 14 per cent smaller than the number farrowed in the spring of 1940. "This information, from the December Pig Crop survey, is based upon returns from 160,000 farriers obtained in co-operation with the post office department through the rural mail carriers." EXPECT PRICE RISE Now according to past experience these estimates have proved to be pretty accurate and so the city folks can expect to have to pay more for their pork chops and the demand will probably exceed the supply. Eventually that may apply to milk, too, but right now there are thousands of potential customers of

dairy farmers who would buy if milk and milk products were cheaper. Efforts of the department to breed better cows is illustrated in the accompanying photograph. I wouldn’t want to go on record as saying that the fine old Aberdeen-Angus that flourish in my home state of Illinois would be flattered to learn that mixing promiscuously with the strangelooking critter in the picture with the enlarged collar button on the back of its neck, would improve their family tree—but it’s a fact. At least the Brahman cow has certain points which help an AberdeenAngus if it has to live down Texas way. It’s cool in Scotland where the Aberdeen-Angus came from. It’s hot in tropical Asia where humpbacked beauty originated. The Brahman have sweat glands in their skin which acts as a refrigerating system. And a little of that goes pretty well in the Gulf states of this country. - •‘ • • News Correspondents Discuss War Jitters This is a story of chin-beards and war. We have been going jittery moments in Washington rWely with war and rumors of war all about usJ In the midst of the confusion, little things, unimportant things which w’e remember years afterward but which never get into the papers or the history books stand out clear and sharp in our memories

like a lantern swinging on a dark night, like the eerie, night-mare sound of the first coyote call you ever heard on a lonely ride home, with the moon half hidden under the moving clouds. I was sitting in the Press club on a recent Sunday evening. There were a couple of correspondents there but the place was almost deserted. A heavy set fellow carrying a walking-stick came in. Of course* we began heckling him a little. But he’s equal to jit. Leon Henderson is one of the Dealers who has managed to hold his ground, winning hate from some, respect from others who disagree with him all down the line. Ijll never forget one occasion in which he figured. I can’t mention the riames of the men present but they were all legitimate contenders for nomination of the presidency of thb United States. And Henderson offered a 10 to 1 bet that none of them would be candidates. One, only, got furious and when it was his turn to speak, launched into one of his famous invectives against Henderson and all his works. It was a good show but Henderson proved right in the end. He won the bet. TALK ABOUT CRANKS Well, what we said to Henderson that Sunday night and what he said in reply wasn’t particularly important until we got to talking about the cranks trying to see jgovernment officials with plans forj saving the world. > Then somebody said to Henderson: "Have you met the mdn who is communicating with Mars?’’ . Before he could answer, one of the cynical listeners who insisted that the administration was trying to get us into war, piped up: "I thought you folks were already in communication with Mars.” "No,” Henderson answered, quick as a whistle, "we aren’t trying to communicate with the god of war, we are trying to keep away from him.” I Mr. Henderson left. Representative Tinkham of Massachusetts came in. We greeted him. Re said he’d been aw’ay. Naturally the talk turn|ed to beards. For Representative Tinkham has a famous beard. A fine wavy hirsute decoration tljiat makes him look as friendly as some iof the kindly animals you’ve seen with similar appendages. Beards ajre no longer the style. I often regret it and I have always believed that their absence was due to One of two things: moral cowardice on the part of those who fear to be different or, as in my own case, an inability to raise a crop of whiskers that would look like anything but a wheat fie id in the dust bowl. | TINKHAM WELL KNOWN

But” Representative Tinkham is more than a beard. He is a, Washington institution. When the government purchased a well-known apartment house in the capital, in which he has had his bachelor quarters for years, and turned the building into one of the alphabetical agencies, Mr. Tinkham stood on his legal rights and refused to move out.

There he remained among his trophies—heads of wild water-buffalo which he had outfaced in the jungles —lions that he had not only outbearded but beaded; tigers, elephants, tusks and all—and of course, his own much-photographed beard. However, it is not merely the fact that Representative Tinkham has faced beasts in the jungle that has made him famous. He has faced opposition for his seat in congress since 1915 and has never been defeated. And he does it without making a speech. Perhaps he is successful because he has never made a speech. Like the growing of a beard, that method is different. And Representative Tinkham has another distinction. He js a member of the opposition, if not the .“loyal opposition” an opposition which he considers is based on loyaltyloyalty to his state and his nation. “It may be too late to keep us out of war,” he said, “but I am going to fight to do it.” And with that he turned on his heel and with his whiskers waving like the defiant plume on the hat of Cyrano de Bergerac, he stalked out of our presence, the tails of the strange, half-length pea-jacket he wears for an overcoat, flapping in the breeze. $ • • • The Singer Sewing Machine company has been given one of the government “educational orders” for revolvers. If this keeps up we may be beating our knitting needles into bayonets. • • * » The bureau of home economics is watching experiments in developing a turkey with white meat only. Some people predict that eventually a species will be created which lays cranberry eggs. The next step will be a self-carv-ing duck.

A family tree of value.

Nat’l Farm and Home Hour Commentator.