Walkerton Independent, Volume 63, Number 20, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 14 October 1937 — Page 2

Walkerton Independent Published Every Thursday by THK DTDKFENDKXT-NEWS CO. Publishers of the WALKERTON INDEPENDENT NORTH LIBERTY NEWS BT. JOSEPH COUNTY WEEKLIES Ostn DeCoudres. Business Manager Charles M. Finch, Editor ' SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Year *• Blx Months ’• Throe Months Ci’.’iUi” M TERMS IN ADVANCE Entered at the post office at Walkerton. Ind., — eeooad-class matter. UP IN THE CLOUDS The average air trip in the United States last year was 420 miles. The vibration of aircraft is held the chief cause of discomfort and sickness. The Stratosphere was believed to contain some trace of moisture, until conditions up there were scientifically investigated. THINGS WE HEAR “American oil” to a Dane means castor oil. A baseball derailed a street car in Pratt City, Ala. In a recent cow census of greater New York 2,700 were found. Dogs of London are wearing pluseight suits, a type of overall. There are 6,000 sizes and shapes of tin cans in use in the world. If permitted to do so, Ceylon elephants take three baths voluntarily each day. A stairway to the second-story window of a Birmingham, Ala., house was built exclusively for cats. Eagles use bits of green twigs to decorate the rim of their nest. When the color fades, fresh twigs are laid on. The town of Nelson, Wis., has moved a mile in forty-eight years. It followed the merchants and packed up and moved. To s^ve two beautiful trees, holes have been made in the roof of the opera house at Glenbourne, England, to make room for them. ODD SQUIBS Some flies can kill grasshoppers. A well dressed jockey spends SI,OOO a year for his riding equipment. At Azizia, in the northern African desert, the thermometer has registered 136.4 degrees in the shade. Deaf-and-dumb persons have been known to talk in sign language while asleep, according to Collier’s Weekly. Riding in automobiles instead of walking is reducing the size of men’s and women’s feet, according to shoo manufacturers. Japan’s “suicide island,” with its sulphurous pit of Mount Mihara, in spite of police, still is the mecca of despondent lovers. There were 619 suicides there last year. A large number of Central American postoffices, which sell ungummed stamps because of the heat, provide huge pots of gum for stamp users. INTERESTING FACTS Dry ice makes an effective rat killer. The North pole is shifting at the rate of seven inches a year. Boy Scouts at their Washington jamboree ate 200 tons of food daily. Modern airplane power plants weigh about two pounds for each horsepower produced. Only one in every 145 persons convicted for homicide is executed, according to estimates. One person in every five suffers from “nerves,” according to a census recently taken at a big hospital. Last year in Massachusetts; Rhode Island and New Hampshire $92,000,000 was wagered on horse races. A new low fatality rate was set by coal mines in 1936—2,568 deaths per million tons of coal mined, as compared with 2,926 in the preceding year. NEW GADGETS Inventions on which patents were granted recently included the following: A streamlined head for golf clubs. A machine for slicing mushrooms. A refrigerator tray which freezes ice in spheres instead of cubes. A sandwich bag with a special compartment in the bottom for salt and pepper. A necktie constructed in telescoping sections so that it can be adjusted to any length. A salt shaker with a rotable brush inside the cap for clearing the perforations of caked salt. A golf club with a drill in the top of the shaft for boring a hole in which to insert a wooden tee when the ground is hard.—Time Magazine.

U)®t ® ^.CoU about Minding Your Business. SANTA MONICA, CALIF.—A society is forming in England for the defense of the former Edward VIII, now the duke of Windsor and honorary citizen of all places in this country named for the Simpson family. This society does not hope to restore the duke to the throne. That

would not only annoy the archbishop of Canterbury, he already having things to annoy him, such as Americans, but would seriously upset Mr. Stanley Baldwin, who upsets so easily that it seems strange the British never have thought of calling him Reversible Stan.

Besides, the throne would be quite crowded if the duke tried to snuggle in there along with the present occupants. What some of us over here think—and that goes for many Canadians, too—is that England has a crying need for a society dedicated to the broad general principle of minding its own business and suffering the duke apd his wife to mind theirs. We have a rough idea that both of them can better endure long-dis-tance snubs than officious meddling in their private affairs. Just being an ex-king is a hard enough job—even if you can get it to do. • • « Political Afterthoughts. \ f ASTER ROLLO, aged seven, and city raised, was visiting relatives in the country. On his first morning he came in wearing a worried cast of countenance. “Mother,” he said, "I’ve been out under the mulberry trees.” “Yes.” “Mother, do mulberries have hard backs and six legs and crawl around on the ground?” “Why, certainly not.” “Then, Mother,” said Rollo in stricken tones, “I feel I have made a dreadful mistake.” What’s the point? Oh nothing, only I got to imagining what the brooding regrets of some members of the administration and a majority of the members of the senate must be when they recall the alacrity with which they moved to fill a certain recent vacancy In a certain very high court—in fact, the highest one we’ve got. • • • Hirsute Virility. p ARISIAN boulevardiers believe a * dense arboreal effect of whiskers is proof that the wearer is indeed a man, without, in all cases, being absolutely convincing about it. We haven’t gone that far yet, but I would like to know whence comes this notion of appraising masculine vigor by the amount of hair along the breast-bone? Morbid, I calls it. Two distinguished authors battle when one intimates the other is scantily adorned in that regard, forgetting that, in the immature summer peltage of his kind, an author has but a scanty growth as compared with the richer winter coat. And then prying reporters ask the new glamor prince of the movies whether he has any fleece at all upon his chest, their tone indicating they rather expected to find trailing arbutus there, or at least some shy anemone. Years ago in the hospital, when I was being shorn for an operation I remember remarking to myself that here was the only barber who’d ever worked on me without trying to sell me a bottle of hair tonic. • • • Miss America—l 937. AT LAST some rational excuse—in moral values, anyhow—has been found for a so-called national beauty content. The seventeen-year-old New Jersey girl chosen as “Miss America of 1937” is* not going into vaudeville, is not going to make any personal appearances, is not coming to Hollywood for a screen test, is not going to accept a radio contract, is not even going to write her life story for publication. She will return to school and to the normal home life of a well-raised normal girl—that is, unless she changes her mind about it all. If she shouldn’t change her mind, she stands out as probably the sanest young person of her age at present residing on this continent, or, should we say, this planet. If she should change her mind—well, the American populate has been fooled many a time and oft before. Our grandfathers didn’t believe human beings ever could fly. Our fathers didn’t believe anybody would ever lick John L. Sullivan. Only the other day our United States senators didn’t believe their fellowstatesman, Mr. Black of Alabama, could be a Klansman. They thought that low but persistent sound of “Ku-Klux, Ku-Klux” was but the voice of a modest hen. IRVIN S. COBB. ©—WNU Service. Platinum Is Flexible Pure platinum can be drawn into wire having a diameter of only one □ne-hundredth thousandth of an inch. Two troy ounces of platinum would in this way yield enough wire to circle the globe at the equator. Fire Burns More than 136 Years The “Wagon and Horses” Inn at Salter’s Gate, near Whitby, London, claims a record for keeping a kitchen fire alight. Its fire has burned without intermission for more than 136 years.

National Topics Interpreted X-H by William Bruckart National Preaa Building Washington, D. C.

Washington.—lt may be, as I have frequently been told, that the average person—Mr. Federal John q. PublicReserve has very little interest in the doings of the federal reserve system. It may be true that the average citizen accepts the federal reserve banks as a thing apart and of little or no concern to him because they are so far removed and, further, because they indulge in what tire demagogues used to call “high finance.” Whether my information is correct and regardless of the public concept of the federal reserve system, I am devoting some space this week to a discussion of certain developments in the federal reserve banking structure in an attempt to show the trend of money conditions in this country at the moment. Lately, the federal reserve board of governors announced a revision of its regulations • governing discounts and advances by federal reserve banks. Now, it may be said that these regulations affect only the banks that are members of the reserve system. That is true but it is not the whole truth because everything that the federal reserve board of governors and the federal reserve banks do affects you and me and everyone else whether we are little fellows and, therefore, unimportant individually, or whether we are trustees of great sums of money such as is the case with corporation presidents. The board of governors, in the revision of its regulations, has made it possible—if not obligatory—for the reserve banks to take almost any kind of paper that is an evidence of debt. That is, the reserve banks are now empowered to receive from the member banks that paper upon which you and I borrow, any paper that shows that a citizen owes the bank money, and to give that bank money in exchange for the evidence of that debt. Everyone, of course, is familiar with a note or a mortgage on a piece of real estate. Most people understand about installment paper which is simply a note providing for payment of the amount due over a period of months. But there are many other kinds of evidence of debt that is in frequent use among business men from the smallest storekeeper in a rural village to the greatest banker in the world. Under the regulations now operative in the federal reserve system there seems to be almost no paper which the local banker cannot send to the federal reserve bank and receive cash in exchange. Os course, that obligation must be paid off some time and the arrangement simply permits the federal reserve banks to carry the debt until its maturity. All of this obviously sounds as though the federal reserve system is at last to be helpful to us little fellows. That is true. It is going to be helpful in increasing the number of us little fellows who get ourselves in debt. It is going to do that because it makes getting into debt easier. I think no one should object to the reserve board regulations in all details. There must be credit given where credit is needed; that is to say when you prohibit borrowing money you choke off eighty-five per cent of all of the business done in the United States. Yet, credit is dangerous, a double-edged sword and must be handled with extreme caution by the borrowers as well as by the lenders. As we have seen from the inglorious debacle of 1929, there can be too much credit extended, and when I say that, I refer not only to loans by banks but the sale of goods, wares and merchandise that enter into everyday life. And, going a bit further on that line, there can be too much credit extended by the manufacturer and jobber to retail merchandising establishments just as easily as there can be too much credit extended by the retail merchants to you or to me. One can get into debt over his head just as easily by purchasing at retail or wholesale as by buying more land than we can afford to own or a home larger than we need. So, a discussion of what the board of governors of the federal reserve system has done can lead in this instance only to a conclusion that danger flags are waving. • • * I do not want to exaggerate present conditions or signs as I see them. This is no time to Don t Get become excited. Excited There are, however, boundaries beyond which we cannot go in the matter of credit without facing another tailspin of the type of 1929. That is the thing I fear may result from an accumulation of federal policies of which the late action by the federal reserve board is only one. It is perfectly human and natural for each one of us to aspire to better things, to have more of this world’s goods for our enjoyment and to equip ourselves byway of greater resources for the future. We will do those things sometimes when we ought not to do them simply because the instruments are available and we do not stop to count the ultimate cost. To the extent, then, that the federal reserve board probably has made borrowing easier it has tempted a certain percentage of citizens, or will tempt them in the future. The condition of easier debt that is now presented is, as I have said, only one of many temptations and inducements for getting into debt that has been offered by the Roosevelt policies. It is unnecessary to re-

■f . Irvin S. Cobb

count here how many pieces of legislation, how many executive and administrative rules have been made to permit citizens to use money that is not their own. They are almost numberless. The result has been, is, and will continue to be the creation of a lot of debt that w’ill hang over us all for years to come. The federal government itself has taken the lead in getting into debt. The latest Treasury statement shows that the United States government owes more than thirty-seven billion dollars. That amounts to $281.63 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Compare that with the national debt as of 1932 when it stood at $19,500,000,000 or a debt of $155.93 for every living person in the United States. • • • I do not know when, if ever, this gigantic national debt will be paid off. I think probPay Oft ably the American Sometime people with traditional tenacity will stick by the job and get it done some time, but I must refer to the job as a very slow process. It required twelve years after the World war debt reached its peak of twenty-six billion to reduce it by ten millions. That reduction was more rapid than had ever been known before in any nation and it was made possible because of the prosperity which we enjoyed during those twelve years. It would seem, therefore, that we must consider not only a slowing down of individual debt making, but a sharp curtailment of national debt making as well. If we do not, a yawning cavern of unsounded depths awaits us. Some weeks ago Mr. Roosevelt sent instructions to the various agencies of the government to save ten per cent out of the operations for the current fiscal year to help in balancing the budget. There were no ifs, nor ands, nor buts about President Roosevelt’s instructions. The spending agencies were told simply to lay aside that ten per cent which, in the aggregate, would amount to around four hundred million dollars. The President said during a speech at the great Columbia river dam the other day that he hoped to balance the budget in the next fiscal year. Most other people hope that the President’s hope is realized because Mr. Roosevelt has stated several times that the budget will be balanced “next year” and some of us are beginning to wonder whether his budget balancing statements are not like the statements which President Hoover made at the beginning of the depression. I He said, you will remember, a number of times that “prosperity is J just around the corner,” a corner that still seems to be next year. • • • But Mr. Roosevelt must be commended and criticized at the same _ time for his budgBudget e t balancing ideas. Balancing Mind you, no criticism can possibly be attached to the objective—a balanced budget. But commendation must give way to criticism on some of the things that are happening under the flat order for a reduction in spending. Take this case for example: The National Park service, like other agencies, laid away ten per cent of its operations. This impounding of money happened to coincide with the greatest flock of visitors ever to enter the gates of the country’s national playgrounds. It costs money to police and protect the parks; it requires funds to provide for the comfort of the throngs of visitors to national parks. The result, in the case of several parks, was that they were forced to close their gates to visitors from a week to a month earlier than they usually do in the fall. Their money had run out. Well, say you, what harm does that do? Simply this: Visitors to national parks, such as Yellowstone, for example, pay much more for entrance fees and the things they must buy while in the parks than it costs the government to maintain the parks. In other words, the na- I tional parks in most cases are a good investment because they yield revenue into the national treasury. | But that is the crux in this situation. The National Park service does not keep the money that is paid in by park visitors. Those funds j are turned directly into the treasury I as general revenue. The books of the National Park service, therefore, show only outgo and nothing in the way of income to balance its expenditures. The condition is one, therefore, it seems to me, that almost warrants a statement that the policy is “penny wise and pound foolish.” All of this is byway of illustrating the need for a closer examination of national expenditures. Would it not be better, I ask, to do away with some of the wasteful expenditures for experimentation—sums running into millions—and permit expenditures where they bring a return. Likewise, it seems to me that a real necessity exists for curtailment of a lot of brain trust theories that were proved futile in the days when Rome was at its height—because some of the brain trust theories go back just that far. Why not eliminate, close the spigot at the treasury, on some of the expenditures that are obviously political sop and thereby permit expenditures that will encourage general business to go forward and provide jobs so that relief rolls may be reduced. And lastly, why not cut down expenditures generally where they provide no return and avoid a boost in taxes. © Western Newspaper Union.

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! “Leap for Life’* By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter Hello everybody: Well, sir, we all know that firemen run into lots of adventures. That’s all part of a fireman’s job. When the gong starts tapping out a signal—well—there’s darned well likely to be an adventure at the end of the trip—for somebody. And ten chances to one that adventure falls to the lot of some smoke-eater who goes in with a hose and stays there long after everyone else is out. But today I’m telling you a fireman’s story of an adventure that didn’t happen at a fire. William McQueen, of Valley Stream, Long Island, is the lad this adventure happened to. Up to a certain point, this story is just like any other fireman’s adventure yarn. It started in with the usual alarm, and the truck rolling out to respond to it. But as a rule the truck gets to the fire before the adventure starts. In Bill McQueen’s case, Old Lady Adventure swung her haymaker a few minutes earlier than is her custom, and Bill had his adventure on the way to the blaze. Bill is a member of the volunteer fire department out in Valley Stream. His dad is also a member of the same outfit—and the way things turned out, that is a lucky break for Bill. They are both attached to the Engine Company Number 2, and the date of Bill’s adventure is one he doesn’t think he’ll ever forget. It was December 29, 1931. The alarm came from somewhere out on the north side of the town. The men of Company 2 began a scramble for the fire bouse. In no time at all, twenty men had gathered, and the truck rolled out of the engine house with all of them aboard. It Happened on a Busy Highway. The truck ran down the street and made a turn. It was necessary for them to go through a side street in order to reach the neighborhood of the fire. And half way down the side street, they had to cross Merrick road, a main traffic artery that ran through the town, and one of the busiest highways on Long Island. The truck plunged on down that street, with its siren screaming. The driver was trying to beat the whole doggone world to that fire. But l^g^lll Headfirst Over the Top of the Car He Went. no matter how hard a fellow tries, there always comes a time when he has to fail, and this was one of those times. Truck Number 2 didn’t beat anybody to that fire on that December day. As a matter of fact, it didn't get there at all. The truck was approaching Merrick road and the driver began slowing down. He had to make a left hand turn on Merrick and he began throttling down his motor so he could make it on all four wheels. The engine came to the intersection. “And it was at this point,” says Bill McQueen, “that I got my first glimpse of the thing that ■was likely to be the cause of my death!” Down Merrick road, about a hundred feet to the left, was a railroad crossing, and beyond that was a speeding car, hurtling along toward the fire truck at a speed of forty or fifty miles an hour. Bill got a quick glance at that car, and it didn’t take him any time at all to figure out that that car couldn’t possibly stop in time to avoid hitting the truck. It was just a question of where it hit the truck—and Bill had his qualms about that, too. How Bill Figured His Jump. Bill was standing on the running board, on the left side of the truck. Next to him was a large battery box, and behind him, between the battery box and the large rubber suction hose that is carried on all fire engines, stood Bill's dad. Bill gauged the speed with which the two vehicles were going with another lightning glance, and as he did, he

came to another terrifying conclusion. As near as he could figure out, that oncoming car was going to hit the truck just about at the spot where he was standing! The human mind works with the speed of lightning, and it didn’t take Bill more than a couple of seconds at most to come to that conclusion, but that speeding car was moving almost as fast as a man’s mind can think, and a hundred feet or so is no great distance. The car was almost on top of him now, and there was neither the time nor the opportunity to get off that running board and out of the way. And it was then that Bill's mind did some more fast and furious thinking. “There I was,” he says, “directly in the path of certain death. I could jump off the truck and take my chances on being able to dodge i that car, or stay where I was and trust to luck that I might come out alive. Either way, I couldn’t see myself having much of a chance. But there was a third course of action I could take. It was more daring than the other two, but I decided to try it. Dad's Shove Helped a Lot. “As the car roared onward, I braced myself on the running board and began timing the speed of its approach. When it was about three feet away, I leaped for my life!” Straight ahead, Bill jumped—right over the top of the car. As he took off into the air he felt a violent shove. His dad had reached out with his hand to give him a little extra impetus. Head first over the top of that car he went, and Bill had reason then to thank his lucky star that cars, in this day, are built low and close to the ground. For he just did clear it. Behind him he heard the crash, as he tumbled over the car and landed in the road on the other side. He picked himself up dazed, and with a bruised knee, but otherwise unhurt, and looked back at the ruins of the fire truck. The part where he had been standing was smashed to bits! “When I looked at that mass of twisted and bent metal,” Bill says, I “I couldn’t help thinking what would have happened to me if I'd remained there.” ©—WNU Service.

Spiders Invented Hinges / Before the Time otMan In making a home or nest, the trapdoor spider digs into the earth, biting the soil and forcing bits of it upward with her legs. The hole is dug to a depth of several inches, and then it is lined all around with silk which the spider spins. The lid is made of layers of soil (often sand) and layers of spider silk. It is firmly made, and is of circular shape. One-third or onefourth of it is fastened to an edge of the hole. Closing the trapdoor, the spider has a snug home for herself and her young. The top of the trapdoor is covered in such away that it matches the ground above. Sometimes it is covered with moss. The trapdoor can be lifted a little United States Did Not Quit Bulgaria Although Bulgaria was allied with Germany in the World war, the United States did not sever diplomatic relations with it throughout the entire conflict.—Collier’s Weekly. Elephants in Teak Forests A large part of Burma’s wealth lies in her valuable teak forests, but the extraction of the timber is almost entirely dependent on elephants.

I bit, so the spider can “peep otA” 1 and see whether any insects are ! close by. If one is in reach, the spider runs out, catches it, and drags it in. No outside web is spun by the trapdoor spiders, for no web is needed. Enough “game” is obtained by laying in wait. Trapdoor spiders have enemies of their own, declares a writer in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and must be on their guard against them. We are told that if an enemy tries to lift the lid, the spider clings to it on the side opposite to the hinge. If the enemy is strong enough to lift it anyway, the spider still may Ibe able to escape. Often there is a tunnel from the nest to another trapdoor, and this can be used as a means of getting away. “Eskimo,” Algonquin Name “Eskimo” is an Algonquin name originally applied to the tribes of northern Canada. It means “eaters of raw flesh.” By extension it came to designate the yellow-complex-ioned race whose chief habitat is the Arctic coasts of America. The spelling “Esquimau” was adopted by the Canadian French to approximate the Indian pronunciation. Village in Swiss Alps Zweisimmen is the name of a little village in the Swiss Alps-

Man's Highest Climb The highest mountain ever scaled by man is Nanda Devi, a Himalayan peak 25,645 feet high, which baffled climbers for fifty years. Os the party of six climbers in 1936, three were Americans. The difficulties were enhanced by the necessarily heavy loads to be carried and by the desertion, in fright, of most of the porters. The actual climbing took twenty-one days and the story, modestly told by one of the two climbers who attained the summit, is a quiet but inherently exciting record of a ' mountain ascent which competent judges describe as the finest yet made. ' IT’S GREAT' TO BE BACK AT WORK when you’ve found away to ease the pains of RHEUMATISM k ... and do if the n ex pen si ve way, too. You can pay as high as you want for remedies claimed to relieve the pain of Rheumatism, Neuritis, Sciatica, etc. But the medicine so many doctors generally approve—the one used by thousands of families daily — is Bayer Aspirin — 15/ a dozen tablets —about 1/ apiece. Simply take 2 Bayer Aspirin tablets with a half glass of water. Repeat, if necessary, according to directions. Usually this will ease such pain in a remarkablv short time. For quick relief from such pain which exhausts you and keeps you awake at night — ask for genuine Bayer Aspirin. IRC FOR “ I J U TABLETS i 1 virtually 1 cent a tablet Better Be Nothing It is better to be nothing than I knave.—Antoninus. ; CCC COLDS UuU FEVER LIQUID. TABLETS first day salve, nose drops Headache, 30 minutes. . Try “Rub-My-Ttsm”—World’s Best TJwfr—M

Hotel ludor • In NEW YORK CITY • 2 blocks east of Grand Central Station on 42xd Street. 600 rooms, each with private bath. OLD COINS 6500 paid for certain Indian Head Cents. Large cents S2OOO. Half dollars SISOO. etc. Send dime for complete catalogue. ROMANO, Dept. 156. N'antasket. Mass. MUSIC The Wail Street Blues. Song and Music; Popular fox-trot, patriotic, humorous picture cover, direct 25c. Michiana Music Publishers. 1118 Georgiana, So. Bend, Ind. AGENTS Men —Women —To give away Elgin and Waltham Watches wrist and pocket style. Large Earnings Free watches to workers, p Wilson, 410 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, Pa. iVNU—A 37—41 Don’t Neglect Them I Nature designed the kidneys to do A marvelous job. Their task is to keep the flowing blood stream free of ar excess of toxic impurities. The act of living— lift itself — is constantly producing waste matter the kidneys must remove from the blood if good health is to endure. When the kidneys fail to function a» Nature intended, there is retention of waste that may cause body-wide distress. One may suffer nagging backache, persistent headache, attacks of dizziness, getting up nights, swelling, puffiness under the eyes—feel tired, nervous, all worn out. Frequent, scanty or burning passages may be further evidence of kidney or bladder disturbance. The recognized and proper treatment Is a diuretic medicine to help the kidneys get rid of excess poisonous body waste. Use Doan's Pills. They have had more than forty years of public approval. Are endorsed the country over. Insist on Doan's. Sold at all drug stores.