Walkerton Independent, Volume 63, Number 23, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 4 November 1937 — Page 2

Walkerton Independent Published Every Thursday by THE INBEPEXOEXT-NEWS CO. Publishers of the WALKERTON INDEPENDENT NORTH LIBERTY NEWS THE ST. JOSEPH COUNTY WEEKLIES Clem DeCoudrea. Business Manager Charles M Ftneh, Editor SUBSCRIPTION RATSB One Year lI.IS Six Months •• Three Months *• _ TMItMS IN ADVANCE Bnterod at the poet oSce at Walkerton. Ind., as second-class matter. TRIPPING ALONG In California, it is contrary to law to work for nothing. A stray dog was once carried ovei Niagara Falls and came out alive. Zebras are used on a regular milk route in St. Louis, and a girl does the driving. Jay Walker, age forty-five, was fined for a traffic charge in a midwes.arn city. Two gentlemen of Verona, Italy, fought a duel using a spade and pick-ax for weapons. Boys playing cricket near Weymouth, England, were found to be unknowingly using a bomb as a ball. Africa’s black rhinoceros when frightened generally rushes toward the direction of alarm, in trying to escape. New uniforms for postmen in England are being made in 450 sizes, each of which has four lengths of sleeves, t Crashing into a pavement in Johannesburg, South Africa, a cyclist was thrown through the window of a house and landed in a bedroom. The Kaukauna (Wis.) Conservation club has established an earthworm nursery to feed the fish in their rearing pond during the winter. OVER THE WORLD Eyes of the rare gazer fish, caught off Whitby, England, were a foot apart. A hotel in Denmark has displayed a sign, in English, reading: “Bedraggled food must not be devoured here.” Dried sea horses are a common article of commerce in San Francisco ’s Chinatown. In a fly-killing contest at Johannesburg, South Africa, 39,174,350 flies were slain. School children of Darlington, England, must learn the highway code before being allowed to cycle to school. In Japan, automobiles have to be illuminated inside as well as out at sunset. One fish is the admission price at a film theater in Bethel, Alaska. — A LITTLE DIFFERENT Many armies give tea as a regular beverage to soldiers in the field. — 1 No rain has fallen on the morning < of March 16 for 51 years in London. ’

Nearly one-half of England’s population consists of bachelors and spinsters. A Spokane hotel washes all metal money, makes change with clean metal and fresh currency. A fifteen-cent piece of Ohio paper money, issued in 1806, is owned by Samuel Bowles of Bellbrook, Ohio. Pin-table owners in South Africa demand cash for the chance to play and give only monkey nuts as prizes. Soldiers of Italy have been ordered not to swear because it is an “unhealthy habit” and connected with communism. PEN POINTS Some men, like nations, are too proud to fight. When a yes man says no, he’s often as good as his word. Some men devote most of their energy in manufacturing excuses. The charitable never have to wait long for a chance to get busy. All men are classed as animals, but some are worse road hogs than others. Many a man puts his best foot forward only to find another foot in the way. The best a man can hope to get out of life is a fine epitaph—when he’s dead.—Los Angeles Times. JUST A THOUGHT There’s nothing that breeds work on a farm like a busy boss. There’s a better man behind an honorable failure than there is behind a dishonorable success. In keeping track of others and their faults it’s very, very important that you shouldn’t lose sight of your own. The world would be both better and brighter if we could dwell on the duty of happiness, as well as on the happiness of duty. Every fellow is really two men what he is, and what he might be—and you’re never absolutely sure which you’re going to bury till he's dead.—Pearson s London Weekly.

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Intriguing Construction. SANTA MONICA, CALIF.— Downtown I saw some sort of siege-wall going up. At first I thought it must be a part of the proposed plaza leading from our new terminal. Our new terminal has been under construction almost as long as New

York’s unfinished Cathedral of St. John. Inch by inch it progresses, giving creeping defiance to those critics who say that what Los Angeles needs is not any additional entrances, but more exits. On second glance I decided the owner of the business prop-

erty behind this strange rampart probably made the ! same mistake I did. I saw a picture in the paper and I said, “Pretty late to be printing a photograph of Fifth avenue showing how it appeared when the World’s war heroes got through pranking last month.” I looked again and saw it was only a scene in Shanghai after the Japanese finished bombing. So I figure this forehanded Los Angeleno is just getting ready for next year’s convention of the vets out here. When his wall is absolutely impregnable against assault, he’ll no doubt paint a big sign on it reading: “Welcome, American Legion.” • • • Kindness for Reptiles. T TNDER the slogan, “Kindness for reptiles,” the National Park service discourages people from destroying every creature they encounter, merely because it wriggles or crawls. I’m what you might call an occasional snakist, indulging in snakes only in moderation. In other words, I can take my snakes or I can leave them be. But realizing that pracI tically all snakes destroy noxious vermin, I refrain from murdering every passing snake, regardless of his private habits and personal disposition, just for being a snake. I was raised in a locality where I moccasin snakes were so numerous the Republicans used to accuse us of voting them at county elections. Yet I recall only one instance of a moccasin snake biting anybody, and it must have been tempted beyond all power of self-control, for the fellow bitten was a pious party who didn’t think little children should be suffered to believe in Santa Claus. I regret to state that he recovered. It was the snake that died. • • • Movie Preferences. T DON’T like movies about hospi- * tals where an impossible young surgeon performs impossible operations, in four strokes under par, using his irons all the way ’round; and then, while replacing the divots, makes love to an impossible although beauteous nurse. But between operations he washes his hands. Dadgu. i him, he’s always W’ashing his hands! Who does he think he is, Pontius Pilate?

I don’t like movies about newspaper offices where the hero is a drunken reporter who behaves in a manner peculiar to newspaper reporters (in the movies); w’hich is so darned peculiar that, in a real newspaper office, somebody’d beat out his brains with a wet towel. I like movies showing Myrna Loy, when not playing nurse; and Spencer Tracy, when not playing reporter. Anyhow, nothing could be an absolute failure that has a Walt Disney short separating the ultracolossal or regular feature from the extra-special four-star absolutely unparalleled super-stupendous preview feature. Gossip About Cobb. TUST a little effort to trace down J gossip now going around: (I) The claim that I am going to play Scarlett in “Gone With the Wind” is absolutely unfounded. Latest word is that the coveted role will go to Fannie Brice, although the Ritz brothers are being mentioned. If they should be chosen, Scarlett will be played as a threehanded quartette. (II) Dame Rumor hath it that the Atlantic sperm whale will be renamed the Justice Black sperm whale. Not yet confirmed, but sounds sort of plausible. The Atlantic sperm whale has a hide almost two feet thick. (Ill) The statement that Charley McCarthy may join the reorganized brain trust at Washington remains unsettled. Probably without foundation. For while Charley is trained to sit upon his master’s knee, he cannot be depended on to keep si- : lent and has too many brains to be trusted. (IV) Stories to the effect that Representative Ham Fish will be Republican nominee for President in 1940 may be regarded as absolutely authentic so far as Representative Ham Fish is concerned. IRVIN S. COBB. © Western Newspaper Union. The Scythians in Russia The Scythians, ancient nomadic warlike people, once inhabited southwestern Russia. They were conquered by neighboring tribes, and disappeared from European history in the second century B. C. Bird Lays Polished Eggs The tinamou, a South American ; game bird resembling the quail, lays eggs having such a highly polished, glasslike surface that they reflect images like a mirror.—Collier’s

Washington!l Digest National Topics interpreted By WILLIAM RPIICK APT I NATIONAL PRESS BLDG. WASHINGTON D C

Washington. —ln this so-called modern civilization of ours when we are supposed to N etwork keep pace with of Spiet progress, every one of us is confronted every day with some sort of government regulation or restriction. We are told what to do and what not to do and a good many politicians want to increase the number of things we are told to do. Included in this modern civilization is a perfect network of spies who bear official titles of one kind or another, and probably the most insistent of these spies are the agents of government who look after taxes. All of which is necessary because tax payers undoubtedly will dodge a little if they can get away with it. The federal government has a good many thousands of them; state governments have them and county and city governments maintain a veritable army of employees whose job it is to check up on taxpayers. They do their job thoroughly. Make no mistake about that. If the taxpayer does not come through in accordance with the orders of the tax collectors, there is plenty of punishment. Which brings us to the point of and the reason for this discussion. It sets the stage for the question: Ia the government, national, state or local, is so punctilious about tax collections, the gathering in of people’s money, why is it that government is not equally punctilious about the way the money is spent? This question is very much to the forefront now. It is a question of paramount importance because of a proposal for governmental reorganization which President Roosevelt insists must be considered by the forthcoming session of congress. The federal government must be reorganized. The reason for this reorganization, according to the President’s argument, is that the present structure is inefficient, wasteful, and generally quite unwieldy. It is to be granted, I think, that much of the present federal government structure is inefficient, wasteful and unwieldy. Throughout the government one will find various agencies charged with the same responsibilities, doing things in opposite directions, winding and binding red tape around the citizens until some of them scarcely can get a hand free to mark their ballots. The whole thing needs a thorough going over but, as I see the picture, this going over should be done with a view to making governmental machinery workable and rebuilding only where hastily conceived governmental agencies and functions have demonstrated that they are acting as a deterrent rather than an encouragement to the nation as a whole. * • • I have no quarrel with Mr. Roosevelt concerning the need for chang- _ ing some parts of Changes the governmental Proposed machine. I have a very definite objection, however, to some of the changes he proposes. I object strenuously, for example, to his move to destroy the present setup for protection against improper spending of the taxpayers’ money. Specifically, I can see no possible excuse for Mr. Roosevelt’s demand that the general accounting office be made subservient again to the whims of politicians by placing that agency under the control of a political appointee, namely, the secretary of the treasury. That is exactly what is proposed, and if the President’s governmental reorganization program is accepted by congress in its present form, the President of the United States, whether Mr. Roosevelt or his successor, again will be able to determine to a large measure how the taxpayers’ money is spent. That may appear to be an exaggerated statement. One may ask about the constitutional provision which requires that all appropriations shall be made by congress. This would seem to prevent executive mismanagement of the taxpayers’ money. Such, how’ever, unfortunately is not the case because we have had proof under President Roosevelt’s administration what can be done when one political party has such complete control of the machinery of government. Congress appropriated billions. True. But had there been no general accounting office in existence, I doubt if anyone could have even guessed w'hat would have happened to those vast sums of money. It has been my privilege to watch operation of the federal government almost 20 years. Because of that experience, I think I am able to say that I am more conversant with the tricks to which politicians resort in getting money out of the treasury than persons who have not had an opportunity to study the government as it actually functions. And because of that experience, I am going to make the unequivocal statement that unless congress repells Mr. Roosevelt’s plan to destroy the curb on trick and illegal spending, this nation and its citizens will pay for the folly in waste not now conceivable. * • •

Irvin S. Cobb

Someone might arise and say that my statement is unjustified because . there was not such Drain on a terrific drain on T reasury the treasury before the general accounting office came into existence in 1921. My answer to that is that there was a tremendous tlrain on the treasury before 1921

when the accounting, auditing of bills and checks, was done by individual agencies of the government. The difficulty is that, except for war time agencies, the cost of running the federal government before the general accounting office was established was only about one-sev-enth of what it is now. None of the federal agencies then in existence were as large then as they are now; none had as much authority nor as great a scope of operations, and the bulk of the new agencies have been born in legislation that is haphazard and undigested to say the least. The older agencies of government have scores of workers who know how to handle their business. Regretfully, it must be said that most of the new agencies are controlled by, completely filled up with, men who are unfamiliar with the gigantic problems their jobs entail. Public sentiment is a thing difficult to understand. For example, millions of people became wrought up when President Roosevelt sought to increase the membership of the Supreme court of the United States by the addition of six judges of his own choosing. They rightfully fought back against the destruction of our judicial system. Fighting words characterized the criticism of Mr. Roosevelt and his New Dealers w'ho sought to break down the system of checks and balances created in our government by the founding fathers when they provided for executive, legislative and judicial divisions of governmental authority. So, I am wondering why thus far there has not been an outburst of vehement criticism of Mr. Roosevelt with reference to the proposed destruction of the check on spending. I am wondering, too, why people who complain so violently against spies in the form of tax investigators should not demand of their government equal protection for the funds after they have been taken away from the taxpayers. It is amazing how far the federal government and even the state and local governments go in telling a taxpayer what he must do. Every regulatory agency of the government prescribes how books of account shall be kept by business under its jurisdiction. Farmers will remember not too happily the difficulty they had in complying with the regulations laid down by the illfamed agricultural adjustment administration. Merchants in small towns or large cities, employing one or a thousand workers, are learning what it is to keep their records and make reports for the social security board. Income tax payers long have been accustomed to having an internal revenue agent go over their records, their checks, their bank account, every business transaction they have made—they are used to it and don’t kick much any more. But if this sort of thing is necessary for the protection of the revenues of the United States or the state or county or city governments, why, I ask, is it not equally necessary that the records of the federal government be watched just as closely? Why is it not necessary for an independent agency of the government to enforce the orders of congress about the spending of this money? • • • There are two other agencies of the federal government which Mr. Roosevelt’s reorTivo Good ganization plan Ones Doomed will eventually destroy. Each has proved its worth. Each has a record of service to the nation and protection for individual citizens that cannot be ignored. I refer to the interstate commerce commission and the federal trade commission.

The ICC has supervised the railroads nearly half a century. It has compelled them to be fair when some individuals in the railroad industry were inclined to cheat or take advantage of an unorganized segment of the population. Sometimes there has been criticism of the commission for placing the railroads in a strait-jacket, but the good that the ICC has done far outweighs any damages it has caused. Yet, it is proposed in the President’s reorganization plan to take away the independence which has characterized the history of the operations of this agency. The President wants to place over the commission a political appointee responsible only to the Chief Executive. Through all of the years I have worked in Washington, there has been a never-ending effort on the part of politicians to get their hands on the agency that controls the railroads. It takes no stretch of the imagination to see what would happen if the politicians were able to succeed in this direction. I am quite convinced that if the ICC is subordinated to the political philosophy of a presidential appointee, every one of us who uses the railroads will be paying toll. The toll will not go to the railroads but to the politicians. With respect to the federal trade commission much the same can be said. Like the ICC, the trade commission is quasi judicial. It is an independent agency. Times unnumbered, it has stepped on crooked business and has forced business of this stripe to play the game within the regulations. On occasion, I have criticized specific actions by the commission as lacking in judicial consideration. By and large, however, I think no one can say unqualifiedly that the federal trade commission has failed to do its job in the interest of individual citizens. iC Western Newspaper Union.

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB Ltc , HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI “Escaped Ax-Murderer" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter Hello everybody: This adventure yarn just proves, once more, that you don’t have to prowl around the African jungles to find thrills. No sir, you don’t have to be a big game hunter, either, to run across tough spots where you have to do hair-trigger thinking. Why, if Jimmy Hagle, who lives in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, never I sees a jungle, well—he will have plenty of adventure to look back upon. 1 Hold on to your chairs, boys and girls. Jimmy Hagle—it’s James Ruthven Hagle now—was twelve years old, back in 1917, when America jumped into the World war. Frances—that’s his sister—was eighteen. Both went to the same schoolhouse. Thanksgiving rolled around and school was dismissed at noon the day , before, for the holidays. Jimmy and his schoolmates were leap-frogging home, snowballing and whetting up their Turkey Day appetites. Siren Meant Convict Had Escaped. Right then, from over those snow-covered, vacant lots, came a low’ moan. It sharpened in the crackly air until it became a shriek. That meant just one thing to kids and grown-ups in Fort Leavenworth. There were three prisons around that town and when a siren groaned it meant that one or more convicts had escaped. It meant terror to women at home alone. Jimmy and the boys were too busy with Thanksgiving plans to w’orry much about the siren’s wail. Escaped convicts wouldn’t bother kids. So they all shivered a little, started snowballing again and romped home. j Jimmy neared his house. A strange, black tomcat scurried out of the open coal chute. Jimmy heaved a snowball at it and ran into the kitchen to sniff of Thanksgiving preparation. Mother and Dad were all dressed up. Big affair up in Kansas City they had to attend. Mother would be back bright and early to fix that turkey. Jimmy and Frances had been tentatively planted with the neighbors for the night. “Nix,” said Jimmy. “We’ll stay here. Think we’re afraid?” Well, they did stay. Alone for the first time, the house seemed dark and sinister. The light snow turned into a Kansas blizzard. Rattled doors and windows and howled around the corners. Lights out and twelve-year-old Jimmy lay sleepless, listening to noises of the storm. Memory of that wailing siren came back. Memory, also, of his father’s comment on newspaper articles. Dad had read aloud, before he left, that five convicts—four of them convicted murderers— It Was the Ax-Murderer, Insane—Desperate. had escaped. One was a maniac murderer, guilty of a triple slaying—butcherer of three persons with a knife and ax. Jimmy tried to think of Thanksgiving. Troubled sleep came at last. He was being shaken. His body tensed. Then, a voice called, “Buddy, 1 hear a noise in the basement. What do you suppose it is?” Jimmy put on a brave air. “It’s that cat I saw running out. He must have come back through the coal chute.” ♦ Giant Negro With a Knife. Frances went back to her room. Jimmy’s mind turned again to the siren—the escaped murderers. Ten—fifteen minutes passed. The unmistakable rattle of sliding coal. ‘ Clump clump, clump. Footsteps down there, surely. Frances was at his bedside again—trembling. “I can’t sleep. You must go down and put that cat out.” Jimmy wasn’t sure at all that it was a cat. Cats don’t clump, clump over concrete. But he couldn’t back down before his older sister. Both Jimmy and Frances tiptoed down the cellar steps, turning on the lights. Jimmy first opened the door to the food-storage rodffi" In the dim light he saw nothing unusual. Then he threw back the door to the furnace room and entered. He glanced backward to see whether Frances was following him. She was. But behind her, at the door, was a sight that froze the blood of that twelve-year-old lad, A giant negro—bared teeth and bloodshot eyes—was pressing the door shut with his powerful back. His right hand was on the knob. His left held a long-bladed knife—a butcher knife. It was the escaped ax murderer—insane—desperate. He was mumbling—gripping the knife convulsively. Jimmy and Frances screamed in chorus. Jimmy thrust his sister behind him. They retreated toward the wall. A twelve-ytfar-old boy facing an armed maniac who had fought off armed posses of grim men for days—overpowered prison keepers and escaped. The murderer was weaving stealthily forward, muttering. The knife was bobbling for a thrust. His words were intelligible, now. “They’ll never get me. They’ll never get me,” he repeated. Jimmy’s arms stretched backward to protect his sister. His hands touched something. Dad’s tool bench! Good Hammer Throw by Jimmy. The smooth hickory handle of a riveting hammer was in Jimmy’s fingers. Instinctively they closed upon it. The convict was still advancing. . . Hardly aiming, Jimmy flung the hammer with his good right baseball arm at the leering face less than six feet away. Blood spurted. The heavy hammer had struck the murderei squarely across the bridge of the nose. He sank to his knees, scrambled for a few dazed seconds—staggered to his feet. Frances raced for the dark stairway. A black hand seized her flowing nightgown. Jimmy seized her, literally tore her free. She plunged up the stairway. She fell. Jimmy fell across her. Up again. Into the kitchen. The stairs shook with the heavy tread of the killer behind them. They were crossing the dining room—the front door their goal. A thud on the floor. The butcher knife, hurled by the convict, quivered in the floor beside Jimmy’s foot. Blood spurted high, but brother and sister plunged on. Frances flung open the door. Out into the blizzard, screams rising over the howl of the storm. » Lights flashed on. Jimmy and Frances fell exhausted upon a neighbor’s porch. PoLce found marks of the struggle, and giant footprints leading from the Hagies’ front porch. The convict had disappeared in the blizzard. A few nights later, the killer prowled again. He was captured after a desperate battle. Today he is serving, in solitary confinement, the remainder of his life sentence in the Kansas State prison. © —WNU Service.

A Shake-Down Cruise A shake-down cruise is sort of a pleasure jaunt to foreign shores to acquaint the crew with its duties. It’s an old ship-builders’ custom. Shake-down voyages of United States navy vessels, however, are preceded by other trials. First is the builder’s own trials. Next come the navy’s “standardization trials.” Aboard this time are some navy observers, and the vessel is tried for speed. Then come necessary readjustments, recruiting of the crew and the shake-down. Lake Erie’s Width Due north the distance across Lake Erie is about 51 miles; to the northw'est, at right angles with the shore line it is more than 52 miles. The maximum width, more than 57 miles, is in the vicinity of Cleveland. Mississippi Bay in Japan The ly geographical point in Japan with a foreign name is Mississippi bay, off the coast of Yokohama, which is named after the Mississippi river.—Collier's Weekly.

Model Mate After 50 years of observation Arthur Cleveland Brent, of the Smithsonian Institution, reveals that the red-shouldered hawk is the matrimonial model of birddom. These birds marry very young, never desert their wives, and always live in the homes they stake out, even putting up no-trespassing signs made of fresh sprigs of evergreen. Most amazing of all is the elation with which they decorate the nest with violets when there’s a new addition to the family. Heart Disease Victims In proportion to population, heart disease is found more often in males i than in females, in Jews than in Gentiles, in white persons than in negroes and in business and professional classes than in laborers, says Collier’s Weekly. Bird Flies 165 Miles an Hour Fastest flying bird is the duckhawk, timed at 165 to 180 miles an i hour by a stop-watch. Recorded | I speed of the golden eagle is 120 miles an hour.

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