Roaming in the Gloaming -- Opinion Column in a Minnesota Weekly Newspaper, July-December 1949

July 7, 1949

  This is a funny country. A New York judge placed the bond on Eisler, the spy, at $30,000. This is the most serious of all crimes. Last week a Chicago judge put a kindly old man by the name of Engle under a bond of the same amount for gambling, using red roses for bait. Every one of the old hens he picked on were not marrying him because he was “a poor old man” but they though here’s an old guy with a cough and lousy with money--we can’t help but win when his number is called. Both were gambling and as usual the shrewd gambler won out. He was doing fairly well until John Law stepped in.
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  The attitude of the public on the Greyhound bus strike is hard to fathom. When the bus line was tied up for a day last winter it was the talk of the town and if it had lasted a week Gov. Youngdahl would have been looking into it: no nobody seems to care. We’re getting so regimented that like the oxen of old we seem to submit without protest to the yoke which is slowly and gradually being forced upon us.
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  The Roamer watches with pleasure the continued improvement in the Murray County Herald. John David has a big job on his hands. He was replace the late Vin as editor: a job that would have been tough for any editor in the state. Vin had a lot of experience which combined with his natural ability gave the county one of the best papers in the state. John David was expected to start in where his dad left off. It just could not be done: that takes time and experience. Two years ago people were saying, “He’ll last about a year,” “All he puts in the paper is something about basketball, football or baseball.” Yet in spite of the catty criticism John David kept steadily at work, improving and enlarging the Herald. Naturally for a kid, he was shy about getting acquainted but he has gradually increased his list of friends among village officials, county officials, farmers and the village folks. The late Vin was the best friend we printers ever had. Having a larger plant, every other paper went to Vin when the press broke down, the machine didn’t work or the ready prints failed to arrive, and John is following in his footsteps. No small paper is ever turned down when in distress. Give the young lad time. He’s as clean as a hound’s tooth, not vindictive and will not knowingly slur anyone. He will grow mentally in breadth and stature as the months go by.
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  The weeds have grown so high on the railroad track that engine crews are afraid to go out without a guide. Trains are getting stuck in the weeds and in one case they say it took a section man two days to cut his way out of the jungle. Cutting down section crews to only one man, and he not allowed to take the car out alone, is only inviting disaster. The old Omaha link with the branch folks is gone, but the big powerful Northwestern is heading head on for wreck on the Pipestone branch that could have been avoided.
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  The Pipestone Star had its 70th birthday last week. The story of the Star is the history of Pipestone county since its inception back in the ‘70’s. The Star covers the county like a blanket and when opposition comes it runs merrily along for a few weeks until it runs up against the stone wall which the Star has been building for years.
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  Minnesota has a little Hoover commission patterned after the one doing such splendid service in Washington. If the Minnesota group will do as much valuable research in proportion, it will be doing Minnesota a real service. Don Weck has been selected to represent the 7th congressional district and if he will give as much research time and as much energy to the commission as he did for the Murray County Memorial hospital he will be one of the most valuable members of the commission.
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  Some folks are beginning to wonder if all this DDT stuff is going to pan out as well as its advocates think it will. When you start killing the bees, the lady bugs and all the various insects that aid in pollination, are we not going to upset Nature’s balance?
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  J. F. Nelson recently applied for a license to operate a self serve laundry in the progressive town of Tyler. My won’t that be nice. We gals can take our washing down to the automat, one of us can lug along a card table, and we can play bridge (with sometimes a little dirt added) while the dirt comes out of the family wash: ain’t civilization grand.
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July 14, 1949

  Mrs. Melvin Rabideau of Kaukauna, Wis. gave birth to her seventh son last week and all of them came into the world via the Caesarean method: this lady should have a zipper installed.
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  Great Britain is in sore financial troubles these days. She went into the socialized medicine business, looked good at first glance but after she had paid for legs, arms, wigs, teeth and eyes for folks who had needed them for fifty years, she was at the bottom of the barrel. She’s in pretty sore straits and she has received more from this country than she really should. Dumping her socialized medicine racket would lighten the load.
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  Bought some potatoes for seed last spring. They were marked, “Certified Seed Potatoes” on a big blue tag. The harvest proved that every bloody potatoe was full of black and brown spots on the surface and in a lot of the potatoes brown sections were appearing on the inside. What does the word “Certified” stand for? Has the word any reference to the soundness, quality or breed of the potatoe or is it just striking evidence of the inefficiency of another state bureau? We certainly need a small Hoover commission in Minnesota. If Minnesota collects a tax on seed potatoes by placing the tag “Certified” on the sack, it should be tried for flim-flamming the public.
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  John Randolph sold his interest in the Westbrook Sentinel last week and is moving to Chino, Cal. His going leaves only three members of the old second district editorial association in the state. They are John L. King of Jackson, John Haydon of Lakefield and the Roamer.
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  One of the real jokes of today is to listen to some of the senators tell Europe how to run a government. Here the whole outfit: senate, house and the president have been fighting to pass a housing bill to take care of the veterans for years. In Minneapolis three men are thumbing their nose at the government and saying that there won’t be any homes built in Minneapolis until we get what we want, even if it is only $2.50 an hour for house painters, and this U.S. is telling the world how to run a country. We’re just like some rich folks: if we didn’t have any money we’d be a joke.
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  Farmers in this vicinity are not feeling too cheerful over present conditions. During the past year, prices of farm products have dropped to an alarmingly low level. Sows that sold for 29 cents a year ago went as low as ten cents last week. Two hundred pound hogs brought 33 cents a year ago, now they bring as little as 20 cents. Fat cattle dropped from 40 to 25 cents. Grain has tumbled in sympathy with the live stock market: in corn alone the drop has been over a dollar a bushel. The farmers say they do not mind the cut if everything dropped in proportion, but the price cut in food stuffs from farm products has not yet reached 8 per cent. Just why some smart congressman does not forget the Marshall plan long enough to start an enquiry into the drop in prices from the farm and the continued stiffening of prices in retail markets, makes John Q. Public wonder.
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  Was over in Fulda last Saturday and found them getting ready for an old time celebration next week. They have the finest line of old photos and relics on display in the store windows that we have ever seen in a town of that size. Women folks, loyal as they always are to the home town, are wearing nifty sunbonnets that makes ‘em look ten years cuter. Jay Shuler showed us two of the relics with a lot of pride. One was the first type of a phonograph: the kind that used to stick rubber tubes in your ears. Years ago it was the custom of the men who ran the “Wet Emporiums” to give gifts at Yule Tide. They had real evidence of that in Fulda last week. In one of the windows stood a half pint of whisky. ON it was a sign, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 1906, from John Plut.” That’s going back quite a ways.
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  Men do get a break once in a while. Several years ago the heiress to the A&P president took unto herself a man without thinking. She got tired of him, as she has of everything else, and wanted to get shut of him. He balked, she offered him money for a divorce, he agreed, but when she got the divorce she reneged. It made Louis Reed mad and he sued. Besides getting $44,500 in back pay he will get $1,650 a month as long as he lives. Things are looking better and brighter for us males. The day may come when we can go down town without asking.
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July 21, 1949

  Over in Walnut Grove the council limits the hours of sale of soft drinks. Youngsters coming home from dances raised so much Old Ned that the council just had to roll up the sidewalks. Didn’t think a council could limit the sale of pop any more than they could coffee: but we live and learn.
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  Within the month, the Pilot and the Roamer celebrate birthdays. The Roamer and the Pilot have been going hand in hand for nigh onto a half a century. Funny thing, this newspaper business: editors receive more criticism for saying nice things about people that are true than they do for the mean things they write about folks.
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  Pete Wagner of Wilmont got out a fifty page supplement last week honoring the town’s Centennial celebration. Business men and outside interests vied with each other to see that the pages were crammed with attractive advertising.
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  “Bob Forrest, who writes an interesting column each week in the Lake Wilson Pilot hits far from the mark when he lays the blame for the pending Greyhound bus strike on the attitude of the public. Forrest should look around. If he did he would find that Minnesota’s strong labor organization has ham strung the governor. In other words he finds it too hot a potato to assist in pulling out of the fire. Politics were ever thus.” Jackson Co. Pilot.   The public at times elects governors so it must assume responsibility. We notice not only governors but presidents stand in awe before this modern judgement.
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  Two top army men are accused of taking a measly five per cent rake off from successful bidders on army contractors. They are in the same position as that seventy year old commissioner in Meeker county. Trouble is with petty crimes of this nature is that it takes too long to live it down.
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  Wish Secretary of Agriculture would take a few minutes off and introduce the price of meat on the hoof to the price of meat on the block.
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  Mrs. Alphe Mae Hule got six months in the county jail at Crookston for trying to warm up her husband. Alphe, who is only 19, poured kerosene on her husband and then set it on fire: they seem to have men to burn up in that section of the state.
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  See where a woman is suing her husband for a divorce. She is 81 years old and he is 84. She claims he feeds her meat that he bought for a zoo. Can’t understand how a woman of that age ever lost the command of the ship--it just ain’t natural.
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  Best news of the month: fuel oil has dropped again. It is now 23 per cent cheaper than it was last winter: looks as if John Lewis will have to give his men longer vacations.
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  See where a Crookston woman her paramour hired a young farm hand to kill the old man. He shot him in a rain storm, then buried the body. Human life up there is about the price of a cow. They paid the poor simpleton $150 and then he squealed because they did not pay him the balance: have they got a union among murderers up there?
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  Pete Thiesen of the Rochester Herald paid the Roamer a visit one day last week. Pete ran the Murray County Herald in the old days. The late Vin Weber used to set type by hand for him. Vin seemed to take to the newspaper game like a fish to water and bought Pete out. Pete has the old paper in Rochester and he now has all the dignity and smoothness of a bureau official in Washington.
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  When they say Murray county, take off your hat. We had the opportunity to take a 200 mile auto trip last Sunday. Went out Flandreau way, then to Brookings, S.D. and Elkton. Then back by Lake Benton, Tyler and Tracy, and Murray county looked better than anything we saw. Worst patch was about six miles south of Tyler. For short grain and an abundance of weeds, it stood out like a spike on a bullhead.
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  Jack Thompson who used to edit the Lismore Leader is the new editor of the Westbrook Sentinel. Besides being a good printer Jack has as pleasing a personality as you could wish to meet: something necessary if you are going to get in the newspaper business these days.
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July 28, 1949

  The first gun of the republican state campaign was fired at the capitol last week when Governor Youngdahl opened fire on the state investment board. It was fired at Charles Foster, secretary of the board, but the shots were aimed at Julius Schmal, Mike Holm, Staff King and Atty. General Burnquist. If Charles Foster has been guilty of any crime or any of the other four, they should be brought to justice. The governor filled the air and the press with insinuations and some people believe that there are sums of illegal money involved. Right now it looks as if Youngdahl has started political fireworks that will have a marked influence, and like Sampson of old may bring the party down with him.
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  South Dakota has the smartest road signs we’ve seen yet. They read, “What’s Your Hurry?”
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  When presidents and governors appoint negroes as supreme court judges then and not till them will we believe that they are sincere over the Civil Rights plank. (We realize that governors do not appoint supreme court judges except in case of death or resignation, but there has been a lot of opportunities in the past.)
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  A Lake Benton young man was fined $100 and had his license revoked by the Tyler justice for having too much liquor aboard: as they used to say the old days, “That ought to break him of sucking eggs.”
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  Saw an account of a fashionable wedding in the east last week and was wondering whether the old boy could charge it up to “Charity” in his income tax report, or if he would have to pay the straight 20 per cent amusement tax.
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  An old time disease is raging in several towns around this section. It grips the folks from youth to old age and puts them in a frenzy during the hot weather when they hardly need any excitement. You’ll see them standing on the corners, some of them that don’t know a base hit from a triple play talking over the situation with earnestness. Nothing new about the disease except it generally hits towns that are spending money for outside players. It seldom becomes virulent with an all-home team. We had it here in Lake Wilson once and it took us years and years to get over it. The name of the disease: baseballitis.
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  Lakefield finally secured enough funds for its new hospital, and bids are not being asked on the new building. What a magnificent fight those Lakefield folks made: everything was subordinated for the hospital cause. Money was raised by selling popcorn, dances, parties, subscriptions from farmers and business men, baseball games, and in fact everything that goes on in a small town was for the hospital. All cash memorials at funerals went into the hospital and even some of the good citizens who passed away during the 3 year fight bequeathed cash for the hospital. The new hospital will contain 16 beds and will be built without government, state or county aid and it will forever be a monument of what American people can do when every faction unites for the benefit of a worthy cause.
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  See where a Mrs. Hunt writes the governor to put the political bond debate before a grand jury. Fine idea, put it up to a grand jury instead of a hand-picked witch outfit composed of disgruntled bond dealers as Youngdahl suggests. This Mrs. Hunt who seems so patriotic to root out incompetency, however is a top ranker in the D. F. Labor party in this state and up to date no copies of her letters to President Truman asking that the 5 per cent that includes Vaughman should be taken before a grand jury. It has been our observation in the past that those sudden disclosures in any political party has always a man or group behind the curtain.
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  In an item in this column last week a word was used that sounded rather ambiguous. Here is the item as it was written:   “Bob Forrest, who writes an interesting column each week in the Lake Wilson Pilot, hits far from the mark when he lays the blame for the pending Greyhound bus strike on the attitude of the public. Forrest should look around. If he did he would find that Minnesota’s strong labor organizations has ham strung the governor. In other words he finds it too hot a potato to assist in pulling out of the fire. Politics were ever thus.” Jackson Co. Pilot.   The public at times elects governors so it must assume responsibility. We notice not only governors but presidents stand in awe before this modern Juggernaut.
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August 4, 1949

  In the death of Supreme Court Justice Murphy, the little man in the U.S. lost his best friend. His life was spent in an earnest fight for the betterment of living conditions for the average human being. Tom Clark was appointed to fill his shoes but he’ll rattle around in them like a bean in a dry pod.
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  Minnesota duck hunters are mad. They feel the federal government is giving them the brush off. Last year the season was set at October 8th. This year the season is set to open October 7th. The local hunters believe that the season should open two weeks earlier as that is the time hunting would be best here.
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  Gov. Youngdahl has professional investigators working for him all the time. They are called public examiners. Why not get them to investigate the board of investment? Why get a committee that has already put the finger on the present board.
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  A movement has been started to get the price of gasoline lowered. The man that can get this done will be a hero in the eyes of the people. Years ago when the Government was asked for aid to get barge lines started and to get the Mississippi river channel deepened we were told what wonderful things water transportation would mean to the folks that live in Minnesota. Everything has gone up steadily since the barge line started. Millions of gallons of gas comes from the barges: have you noticed any difference in the price?
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  Sold a pail of cucumbers at the store last week. Got seventy cents for the cukes. Was back in twenty minutes for a can of bug dust powder. It was fifty cents. We’re all for the Brannan plan now: get more for what you sell and pay less for what you buy.
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  Hear there’s an umpire school in Lake Wilson now: didn’t think it was as bad as that.
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  Wolves of the United States include the gray wolf of the north and west and the red wolf of the south central states--Minneapolis Star. What about the wolf that infests street corners?
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  “Bob Forrest of Lake Wilson fame, in his column in the Pilot, tells of a two hundred mile trip he made the other Sunday. ‘Went out to Flandreau, then Brookings and Elkton, Tyler and Tracy...’ He was bragging about Murray county of course, ‘Worst patch was about six miles south of Tyler. For short grain and an abundance of weeds...it stood out like a spike on a bullhead.’   Now bob...what were you doing six miles south of Tyler, when you were on your way to Tracy? Our map shows that Tracy is just about due east of here. No, you’re mistaken there...we haven’t got a weed in Lincoln county!”--Tyler Journal Herald.   Roamer did not get err, the weeds are still there. We took two truck loads of weeds up to you Tuesday, but you were at the circus. What is the name of the president of your Ananias club.
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  When you have company and don’t know where to take them don’t forget the Roe Trading Post at Pipestone. The post has the finest collection of Indian relics and curios in the central west. You can browse about the shop for an hour and not get tired. Just why the Chamber of Commerce of Pipestone has never had a set of bill boards on the main highways to the south and southeast telling the tourists of the romance and history connected with the Pipestone quarries is hard to understand. No other city in the country has been so richly endowed by Mother Nature.
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  Up in Northern Minnesota a female hired a young lad to kill her husband because she didn’t like him. In North Dakota last week a female shot a man and woman because she didn’t like them. In South Dakota last week a mother shot and killed her seven year old son. Over in Wisconsin a two-year old heifer gored a farmer and like to have killed him. The old guy that wrote, “The female of the Species is More Deadly than the Male” evidently had something.
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  According to “The Minnesota Poll of Public Opinion” in last Sunday’s Mpls. Tribune, 79 per cent of the people are against teaching Communism in the school T’would sound more sensible if the paper could have reported that 79 per cent of the people are in favor of teaching anti-Communism in our schools. Someone should set some of the big illegal fire crackers under the chairs of the men on the State Board of Education that decide just what brain food the growing youth should have.
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August 11, 1949

  Just why the Brannan plan was turned down by congress is hard to understand. It would accomplish two things that the economists are striving for: living prices for the farmers and lower priced food stuffs for the consumer. All this talk of regimentation is bunk. We’re all regimented. It was regimentation that pulled the farmer out of the hole.
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  Well the Youngdahl committee endorsed him: what else did anyone expect? Right now it looks as if this may happen: King to run against Youngdahl at the next election and defeat him. At the general election the D-F [Democratic Farm Labor Party] will run someone with a Skandinavian name and elect him.
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  Don’t think that all the trouble is in the republican party. That Cardinal Spellman and Mrs. Roosevelt episode put scars on the democrat party that will not heal up over night. There’s a lot of folks in Washington worrying what the end will be.
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  Corn, the big tall kind, is a menace when it gets into bottles and it is also a menace to auto drivers these days. The road corners that have fields of corn are a potential death trap to the unwary driver. But what’s the use in talking “Safety.” More time is spent on Safety First talks each year, and the death toll increases alarmingly--so what’s the use.
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  Miss Bebe Shopp was call “too fat” by an English reporter. To a man that has lived in the tight little island for the last five years on an almost starvation diet, any gal thicker than a match looks fat.
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  The local baseball boys getting ready for the tournament fixed up the diamond, and in keeping with the necessary sanitary arrangements installed two buildings that used to stand under the apple trees a little ways from the house. The new safety zone buildings were of the Chick Sales type, but a little different from the ordinary. One of them has a large window and the other one, presumably a bachelor type by its size, has a three-foot ventilator. You just can’t stop progress.
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  What has become of the gophers? We hardly ever see them any more. Can’t be any left judging from the wonderful crop of corn this season.
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  Too bad some of the heat over the weekend could not be bottled up for next year. If someone did come up with an invention to bottle it up he would soon be squelched by the oil and coal men. Invent all you want to, but don’t plan anything that will upset big business: Tucker found that out [a reference to the Tucker car].
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  Standing on the streets of Tyler one day last week watching a crew of men working on the streets, we asked a man, “What are you going to put in your curbs?” He said, “Sand and oil.” Then there was a long pause and we overcame our timidness and meekly asked, “Do you expect a large crowd at the circus today?” Without batting an eye he barked, “How the hell do I know?” That abruptly ended our conversation. Yes, he was a Tyler man, had his place of business between the bank and the printing office. Travel does broaden one, doesn’t it? We snickered several times on the way home. A guy that couldn’t get a kick out of that would have to be a mummy.
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  We have the greatest and most wonderful country on earth and from the way things are shaping up, about the poorest government. Take this bus strike that paralyzed travel in thousands of towns. Why should travel be stopped just because the men and company disagree? Service should be maintained. The impotency of Gov. Youngdahl and the federal government to even try to do anything to settle the dispute was pitiful, yet as one Irishman used to tell us, “And they call this a government.”
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  Ruthton stepped out in front last week when the citizens of that town organized a Community Chest Board. This means there will only be one drive for funds in that village each year. Fine idea, one that could well be followed by every small town. It would mean fewer aching feet and fewer aching hearts. Canvassing your neighbors is not always the most pleasurable job in the world.
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August 18, 1949

  Why the unions fight the Taft-Hartley law is one of those mysteries of life. They strike and strike and they always seem to bring home the bacon. Sometimes it looks like Labor and Capital are in cahoots: neither of them lose and the public in the end pay the bill.
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  These deep freezers at Washington, D.C. seem to have turned into hot-boxes.
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  See where Commissioner Wilson fired a couple of his men that were supposed to search the planes when they returned from lakes you and I will never see. The game hog fishermen from out of state have been carrying a lot of illegal fish. Evidently the two men were letting some of the violators get by. Wilson hired two women to search planes after the firing: just tell the gal the plane is dirty and she’ll do the cleaning and she will do a better job than the men.
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  Over in Sweden, a good Swede, one that had led a clean decent life, went berserk in a small way. He stole, forged, committed burglary and was a real bad man. He was sentenced to a year in jail at hard labor. His lawyer asked the judge for leniency. He said, “He was a decent man until his mother-in-law came to live with them. She not only moved into the house but moved into the same room.” Three in a bed, even in Minnesota bed, would drive some men to murder. What did the judge do--you guessed it. He suspended the sentence: bet he was an old gray-haired man with a sad look in his eye.
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  While the citizens of a California town were celebrating the construction of several blocks of new paving, someone gasped, “The manholes and the storm sewers have all been covered up.” It never could have happened in Minnesota: too many kibitzers.
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  The U.S. Supreme court has decided that if you want to stay in the good old U.S.A. you’d better take the loyalty oath, or else.
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  Old Man Shopp is doing his daughter more harm than good. Let Bebe alone, she won’t disgrace him or anyone else. Too many old folks fail to understand that we are living in a different era than the young folks and besides anyone in public life that is taking the applause must expect some booing.
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  If the weather is good on Saturday afternoon, load up the missus and the kids and attend the Murray County Historical pageant at the fair grounds at Slayton at one thirty p.m. sharp. It will not be a gaudy affair with professional actors, expensive scenery and backgrounds. Some Minnesota counties paid as high as $4,000 for a pageant of that kind this summer.   This story of Murray county is told by a group of Murray county folks who are giving time patriotically and cheerfully to present to you the simple story of the Pioneer days in what was Murray county in the making. Some events of course had to be left out.
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  Pioneer days passed out of the picture when the hard coal stoves came in and that was in 1880. The Scottish American colony of Cameron township, of which the Roamer was a member, was omitted for the reason it did not start until 1882. There will be a lot of information, humor, etc. in the program. Come over and see what a fine job your neighbors can do.
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  What are we going to do with our bumper crop of corn? You’ll be surprised to learn that there are over a million bushels of corn in farmers’ cribs and bins at the present time. What to do with the new crop is a real problem. If the Chinese would only start eating it, corn could be sent there, but they won’t eat it.
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  Junior Hook was a sad and happy lad last week. He was to appear in his Ford at the fair but on account of age could not get insurance. Corbin Packard, who’s got a real heart in spite of his hard looks, bought the Ford, had it insured and gave it to Junior who will in the pageant with his gal Saturday afternoon.
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  Weather was hot the last week and the corn enjoyed it.
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August 25, 1949

  When you see that old gray-haired man shuffling along the street go up to him and pin a medal on his breast: he deserves it. In “family” divorce cases the woman of the species, the mother-in-law, gets the credit for breaking up three out of five of her children’s weddings, while the quiet meek and friendly old father-in-law is only to blame for one divorce suit out of seven. What a grand old man he is to keep the family together: of course, just remember that he has not very much to say in this day and age.
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  Cedric Adams in a last week’s column said it was a grand thing for the sportsmen of Minnetonka, Inc. to take over the weekly paper and do the entire work from editorials to the ads. He complacently added that it might be a good idea for other weeklies to follow suit. So far so good, Cedric, but why stop at weeklies. Why not include the dailies which also includes the Star Journal. Why not let our secretary run your column as she has been doing for years, but give her the credit and in the sporting dept. let the members of the Minneapolis baseball team run that section. And why not let some country editor take over the editorial page on the Star? What’s sauce for the goose could also be sauce for the gander. Why not take a look at ourselves?
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  Those section line corners with the tall waving corn and the clouds of dust from the gravel are proving more deadly than the busy highways. Stop, Look and Listen is the slogan for every driver on a county highway until that tall corn is picked.
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  A County Commissioner of Cottonwood county is facing a serious charge. He is charged with getting $600 for his vote to buy a $13,000 road grader. If you monkey with the buzz saw long enough you’ll get a sore finger. Here’s a man honored and respected in his county: a big shot. Yet he leaves a family of children and grandchildren to live down his treachery to the people who elected him.
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  The tempest in the tea pot over the purchase of Arkansas bonds seems to have been pulled from the stove burner and is being allowed to cool off gradually, which does not suit the folks that got the headlines for skullduggery. Let’s get to the bottom of the whole deal. If the powers that be, don’t, the DFL will next fall. As long as the water is hot and there’s plenty of soap, right now is the time to bring on that dirty linen.
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  They’re sure going to be a clean-up in Lud Roe’s town. The voters of Montevideo went to the polls last week and by a vote of 1,023 to 490 approved a bond of $100,000 for a municipal swimming pool, for the young people of that community: what about the adults? Some of them need a cleaning.
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  The Historical Pageant of Murray County went over with a band last Saturday afternoon at the county fair grounds at Slayton. It could not help but be a success. First of all the weatherman was with us, then there was the skillful handling of the program by Bob Wagner of KMHY who did a magnificent job and the bunch that took part. What a grand bunch of men and women they were to work with. No rehearsals were held, yet the entire cast went through their parts without a hitch. It was a real pleasure to see and hear the interest they took in depicting the various episodes in the county’s history. Of the thirty-two numbers on the program every member of the local group was present: something that was really remarkable. The only one missing was the Centennial Queen and she was absent on account of illness, but Princess Trese Carstens of Redwood Falls gracefully took her spot in the program. From the first number on the program to the fine showing made by the Legionnaires the program was well presented. the program was a credit to Murray County.
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  The argument over aid to Europe goes on merrily. We’re in favor of helping them all we can, but can’t see the sense in giving them three layer cakes and pie ala mode--lots of folks in the U.S. don’t get them only once in a while.
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September 1, 1949

  Lake Wilson can be mighty proud of its 1949 baseball team as they go into the finals of the regional playoffs next Sunday. Every American thoroughly believe in amateur sports and the Lake Wilson team of ‘49 exemplified that idea. There was not a salaried member on the team, they are a bunch of clean young ball players, playing the game because they love it. And they are just as clean a bunch of young men off the diamond as they are on it. There should be a banquet with an outstanding sport speaker. The Roamer, for one Lake Wilsonite, will be glad to purchase a ticket for one of the ball players as his guest. The town should get behind the team, as it has stood all season long as an emblem of good sportsmanship.
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  The Greyhound bus strike ran true to form: the people, the poor saps, pay the bill. The company is asking for a raise of passenger rates, and they’ll get it. If the Taft-Hartley law is a parent to the strikes of this summer it should be repealed. After all, what do all those so-called strikes amount to: in the end the strikers get their raise and so does the company.
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  See where they are streamlining the chicken: not the human kind but the sort that wears feathers. First of all some growers got rid of the wings, another guy has shortened the neck. So far so good, but what about the grotesque part that sticks up at the rear end like a blasted fir tree. Why it is left on the bird till it comes to the table is just another of the mysteries of life.
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  “Where was Queen Mary, why wasn’t she at the Centennial program?” asked an interested female. Last June a contract was entered into with the brass hats of the Minnesota State Historical Society for the appearance of the Centennial Queen at the Murray county fair on August 20th. Everything went along as merry as a wedding bell until the day before Mary’s schedule appearance at the fair, when a telegram was received from Mr. Searles, big shot in the historical society, saying that on account of illness Miss Durey would be unable to be present. So the management secured Miss Carstens of Redwood Falls who had more queenly grace and shape than Mary but couldn’t play the flute. While no one wailed over the non-appearance of the Minnesota Queen some were irked when they read in Sunday’s Tribune that she had been presenting flowers to members of the cabinet in Washington that day. This man Searles of the historical society and the educated slogan of the state Centennial carry the same aroma to the nostrils of the Roamer.
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  The plucky little town of Lakefield had seven bids on its forthcoming hospital last week. The low bid for general construction work was $95,773. This is a real home project coming under the jurisdiction of the village council, and the support given the project by town and country people has been outstanding in town and community spirit.
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  The fine effort presented by amateur performers at the recent Murray county fair has brought more favorable comment than one ever anticipated. The audience in the grandstand that afternoon was the most representative of any in the history of the county fair, and their staying through a program that times seemed superfluous was an indication of their interest and pleasure in amateur performers. A number of the favorable comments suggested that more amateur performances be given at the county fair instead of a lot of would-be actors dressed up in spangles and bare legs. There is room at the county fair for the development of talent in the county, and it could be possible that, come another fair season, groups from the various sections of the county could present a program that would give more satisfaction to a majority of the folks than some of the professional numbers. Finest tribute of all for the program came from pastors from the Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.
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September 8, 1949

  Robt. Burns, a Scottish poet of years gone by, wrote:    “It’s No in Makin’ Muckle Mair    It’s No in Land, it’s no in gear    That Makes us Truly Blest.”   Burns was right. Money, fame and honor are not the only things that the average man and woman crave. The greatest asset that one can have is Friendship, the kind that means it--with the hearty handclasp that is genuine. The Roamer and his better half on the day of their Golden Wedding realized this thought to the fullest last Sunday, when friends gathered to extend good wishes and congratulations. We humbly and gratefully acknowledge our appreciation of the many old friends who called to extend good wishes, and to those who brought gifts, beautiful flowers, sweet and kindly remembrances and for the many card carrying good wishes. We’ll never have another Golden Wedding and we just wanted you to know how much we appreciate your warm and friendly greetings. After all, it’s the friendly touch of your hand and mine that means so much to those who are facing the sun as it sets in the west.    Mr. and Mrs. Robt. Forrest
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  The biggest crowd in the history of Lake Wilson will attend the Jackie Graves boxing bout here on Wednesday, September 14th, and it behooves the council, Community club and the citizens of Lake Wilson to see that every aid possible be rendered to make this event a success. You may not like boxing but that makes no difference, lots of things you like other people sneer at, so forget your fears and prejudices and buckle down and see that the town does its best to take care of the big crowd on September 14th.
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  Some old crab has an item in the Star Journal criticising Bebe Shopp, “Queen of America,” for attending a bull fight. He’s like a lot of other folks that try to curb and cure the morals of the people. If this guy had been sincere he’d have called people’s attention to the faces on the contestants in the Golden Glove bouts, or at the wrestling matches at the auditorium or even at the big football games. Too many folks are trying to guide the evil habits of others when they ought to be taking an inside look at their own.
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  Truman is sticking by Vaughn--why? The price of friendship even has a price tag. You can go so high. If Vaughn gets into the senate web deep enough, the unfavorable odor would not bring any glory to Mr. Truman. If Vaughn was half as good a friend to Truman as Truman is to him, he would have resigned long ago. Out here in the sticks they’re sending county commissioners to jail or fining them for doing the things Vaughn is doing. Sending a flock of deep freezers to the big shots in Washington is just the same as sending a $300 roll to a county commissioner.
---
  The Ruthton Community club at a recent meeting asked the council to urge the justice of the peace to fine reckless auto drivers $100, and to fine those who shot fire crackers within the village $100. If the latter suggestion had been enforced in Lake Wilson we would have had enough money to pave all the streets, construct a storm sewer, build a community hall and add a good-sized gym to our school house.
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  When you talk of reckless driving we’ll admit that it’s bad enough, but what about the parents who permit their kids to recklessly ride bicycles on the main streets. We saw two youngsters a while back, weaving in and out of the parked cars, and then another came along. There were two on this bike, and it was the youngest kid that was doing the pedaling. And he was only about eight years old.
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  After scanning the pictures of the Roosevelt boys and girls and a list of their divorces, one kinda gets the idea that the old saying, “Love at First Sight,” should be changed to “Divorce at the First Spat.”
---
  Well, the corn borers did but little damage in this vicinity, and some of the farmers are beginning to wonder if all this ballyhoo about investigations is absolutely necessary. One said, “I sprayed my crop, put in a lot of money, and my neighbor did not suffer any more from the borers than I did.” Some day, those high-toned specialists are going to shout “Wolf” and the farmers will not pay any heed: the result may be disastrous. Some of the criticism against those top notchers is rather acrid.
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  Did you ever stop to think that the Milwaukee deep freezer manufacturer received over $2,000,000 in advertising on that deep freezer deal? We’re a nation of apers, and many and many a woman will want a deep freezer like the upper ten in Washington endorsed.
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September 15, 1949

  Last week Archbishop Spellman visited Mrs. F. D. Roosevelt and they had a cup of black tea together. The wordy brawl over the bond sale in Minnesota shows signs of being a tempest in a tea pot. Fall seems to bring a mellowness to the human race.
---
  It took four pages in Look last week for a writer to answer the question, “What is the most Dangerous year in Married Life?” He must have been a bachelor, as he said the first year. Every year in married life is fraught with danger and peril.
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  Hunters, that is deer hunters or those hunting in deer territory, must wear red hats or caps and red coats. This law was passed by the last legislature in the hope that it would tend to reduce the annual hunting toll: a good law.
---
  See where a woman was killed in Cleveland last week when a plane went out of control and fell on a house. Of course no life, not even that of a young mother, counts for much in this day and age: the folks must have their thrills. Why authorities allow the planes to do their fancy stunts over the tree tops of the towns is just another of the $64.00 questions.
---
  Carl Nepp of Absaraka, North Dakota paid us a visit Saturday. Carl has been a Pilot reader for forty years and read what we said about “Certified Potatoes” last spring. He lives up in the potato country along the Red River valley. The growers have gone modern and now ship their potatoes in ten pound net bags. That area has been shipping six car loads in small bags every day. They are fine looking and fine eating potatoes this year, and to us are superior to the irrigated “Idahos.” We know, because Carl brought us a bag of North Dakota’s best spuds.
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  Baseball fans of days gone by will be interested to know that John Donaldson, famous negro pitcher, is still active: Axel Bangson, an old Lake Wilsonite, sends us a clipping from a Lehigh, Iowa paper that states, “John Donaldson, famous ball player” would take part in the “Old Timers” game on August 11th.
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  Canada’s new oil wells should make a difference in the price of fuel oil in Minnesota if congress does not freeze it out. At the present time we are at the mercy of the oil trust. Talk about regimentation, this oil business is worse than that. Home after home is putting in oil furnaces and there is no guarantee as to how long the supply will last and what the price will be.
---
  The British are over here for another loan, and they’ll get it. If the Russians would turn their swords into plow shares and start eating borscht, drinking vodka and singing “Volga Boatman,” Britain would be asked to pay up their old debts. As is now, Britain is our first line of defense and if war ever comes that country will be so full of American planes that the British won’t be able to get to their pubs or clubs.
---
  The senate committee put the finger on Gen. Vaughn, but it was so light that it did not leave a smudge. Over in the land of the kilts, the heather and Bobbie Burns, juries can bring in one of three verdicts: guilty, not guilty, or “not proven.” Looks like the last one would be fitting for the deep freezer man.
---
  One man over in Fulda put his town on the baseball map this summer by getting together a team that wiped up the southwestern part of the state, both in games won and in cash earned. Dick Reusse is the spark plug and general manager who interested his town in baseball, and no town is more baseball conscious than Fulda. The Fulda team fought its way up to the state tournament at Detroit Lakes this week, and they carry with them the best wishes of every lover of the sport in Murray county.
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  See where Ingrid Bergman, movie star with a tarnished record in Italy, is coming back to the U.S. Movie goers care but little for the morals of their heroes and heroines. Errol Flynn, whose record is as black as coal, is again back in the eyes of the fans.
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  A Pennsylvania husband asked for a divorce last week on the grounds that his wife had “beat him up.” But the judge said, “No.” Man, added the judge, was supposed so constituted that he could handle his wife, so the battles can now start on even terms. Slowly but surely, men can see signs of getting their rights back: we’ll soon have equal enfranchisement again.
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September 22, 1949

  A short item that appeared in this column a year ago landed in Atlantic City, N.J. last week. The directors of the American Queen contest decided to include cooking and housekeeping as one of the necessary accomplishments the girl must have before she dons her regal robes: why not include “Ironing a shirt?”
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  While we deplore the over supply of apples and plums, what about corn? In years gone by, Johnny Cake was one of the real delicacies. What fond memories good hot Johnny Cake with butter and plain store syrup brings to the lad and lassie of the old days. Corn was hard to get in those days, and often we ground it in the coffee mill. Nowadays who would eat Johnny Cake?
---
  What the state of Minnesota needs right now is a good daily paper. There are lot of good papers in the state but they only bring a half day’s news. It might get here a half day late, but we’d get all the news. Speed is not everything in the world to old folks.
---
  More adherents are coming to take more interest in the Brannan farm plan. The parity plan is having a lot of trouble and the Brannan plan seems to solve the problem It guarantees the farmer a good price and guarantees lower prices for food for those in the lower group. Few families in this group can afford to pay a dollar a pound for butter or a dollar a pound for beef steak. If we can afford to feed all of Europe, why can’t we help those in the lower five in this country that are struggling to get along?
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  If these Tommy Manville Roosevelts keep up the pace they are not hitting, it’s going to keep Mother Eleanor pretty busy writing up the family genealogy.
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  Some of the folks have asked, “How about the new well, what’s it doing?” Except on the days following when the mains are flushed, the water is running out of the cistern every morning. After flushing the mains it takes a day longer.
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  An air show is about the poorest revenue producer of any outdoor show. There’s no way you can get any admission money. The air show at Pipestone last Sunday had more kibitzers than lined the road on the west side of the Murray county fair grounds each afternoon. The weather was not favorable for air performances last Sunday and old guy Morgan did not make the parachute jump. For miles around, the airport interested groups, but not interested enough to buy tickets watching the abbreviated show.
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  The congratulations of the Roamer goes out this week to Mrs. S. Barrows of Chandler who celebrated her 90th birthday last week. It has been the good fortune of the writer to have known her for over sixty years. She is the oldest female pioneer left that settled in the seventies in Chanarambie township, coming here when there were more sod shanties than wooden homes. What a wonderful power for good she was in the early days, always interested in church work and school activities. In fact, all the life she has spent here has been in the interest of the better things for the community.
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  See where the Star, the Minneapolis Star, that is, placed the scene of the recent Jackie Graves show at Pipestone instead of Lake Wilson. We walked out to the park that night but did not think we walked eighteen miles. Anyway, it was a pretty good boxing show, and we got the opportunity to see Graves in action and catch a cold at the same time. It was a big undertaking for the committee, but the chill atmosphere kept the crowd to a minimum.
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  A one-year bride got a divorce because she was “allergic to men.” Sooner or later they get their mentality twisted, but not often in the first year.
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  See where one of the daily papers states that pheasants are plentiful in Murray. That writer is seeing things. While there are some pheasants here, there are not enough to warrant as long a season as has been set by the powers that be. Most of the sportsmen in the county believe that the season should be shortened so as to insure a crop of birds in 1950.
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  A Mrs. Hunt in Montevideo is asking the governor to investigate the legislature. Good idea, smoke out the guilty ones. She’s doing this work as a “public service.” We notice that last week 200 citizens of that town had asked for an investigation of the city’s finances, especially the liquor store: never saw a word about Mrs. Hunt doing her “public service” stunt at home.
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September 29, 1949

  The townships and villages have just received their annual cut of the semi-annual liquor tax from the state. It is distributed according to population. Mason received $351.00, the highest amount, and Skandia $239.00, the lowest. The village share goes direct to the villages. The township tax comes through the auditor’s office.
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  Golling, the Minnesota public examiner, has his troubles too: some folks say that he has been guaranteeing immunity to witnesses so they will tell all they know. A lot of lawyers say that he is taking in too much territory.
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  Seventy per cent of the Minnesota citizens polled in a recent Public Opinion Poll were in favor of giving a bonus to the Minnesota residents who were in the regular army during World War II. These regulars might have had just as much love of state and country as the others. About the first thing that the selected service men found out when they got in was that the army pay was altogether too low.
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  Following many of the society women of today, hogs are going on a diet. But it’s not on account of style or shape that the porker is going be more svelte. Soybeans and cottonseed oils have driven the price of lard to around ten cents and there is not much sense in feeding high-priced corn to bet fat mama pigs.
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  Bob Dunn, leader in the last legislature, is urging Mrs. Hunt to continue her investigation of the members of the last house. All this will open up the question: what is bribery? For years the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis “put on” swell feeds. So have the railroads, the brewers, the mining companies and in fact everybody with an ax to grind has invited the “boys” to dinner. These feeds cost several thousand dollars--that is, some of them. Is that bribery? Bribery does not always mean money. Sometimes it means the securing of an office for a certain member, or a job for that relative of his. Some men secure positions through their influence that they would gladly hand over $1,000 to secure. But when money goes across the line from one party to the other, that’s bribery. Legislatures like every other group are not 100 per cent honest: even Montevideo is having a house cleaning, or somebody’s lying.
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  A Tyler man, to clear his character against any vile slander, paid for the following notice in the Tyler Journal last week:    NOTICE: This notice is to stop rumors that    Ray Meyers has been stealing chickens and is    now in jail. He has been out of town working.   One sorta wonders: if he was at home, would it be open season then?
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  We learn something every day: the most deadly disease in the world is malaria.
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  Many townships have notices in the county papers relative to the mowing of weeds along the highways. In years gone by, highways were not used extensively during the winter months, but progress has changed things a bit. Now they are used as much in the winter as they are in the summer. Trucks, school busses, mail men, electric line men, telephone men, etc. use the highways. No matter how cold it is nor deep the snow may be, they have to go. A weedless highway means safer and quicker transportation: see that those weeds are mowed.
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  Just wondering why there was not a water sprinkling system on the Noronic. Sitting as the boat was, with plenty of water available, a sprinkling system might have saved a lot of lives.
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  Lots of people are thinking that it would be a good time to end the cold war. If Russia had as many atomic bombs as the U.S. has, we’d be eating out of her hand right now, or not eating at all.
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  Talk is cheaper than every these days. It only costs twelve cents to talk to Slayton for five minutes. It used to be 17 cents for three minutes.
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  The potato price aid cost the taxpayers $213,000,000 this year. In order to sustain the prices, potatoes were sold in North Dakota last fall for 25 cents the hundred. Isn’t there a man in the senate or house of representatives, cabinet or in the White House that has brains and guts enough to devise some plan whereby these fine potatoes can be sent to the relief agencies for humans instead of going to the hogs?
  ========================

October 6, 1949

  With millions of folks unemployed in the U.S. what’s the sense in bringing in all those Displaced Persons: wouldn’t it be cheaper to feed them over there? Why give them the jobs that belong to Americans?
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  December 7th was the date of the Pearl Harbor calamity: is the stage set for another?
---
  Strikes and sit downs seem to sift through the Taft-Hartley labor law as if it was made of tissue paper. Why labor is so keen to have it repealed is another of the $64 questions.
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  An Englishman was arrested for cutting off his wife’s nose with a razor. He admits having the razor and making the pass but adds he never thought of cutting off the nose: it was an error on his part. You know what he wanted to cut off.
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  Every postal worker received a raise last week by congress, and the post office department is $500,000,000 dollars in the red. Looks as if there should have been a bill increasing the postage rates to sort of balance things up.
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  While “experts” see increased pheasant flocks, both Minnesota and South Dakota forbid the shooting of hens. In Jackson county last week two men were fined $100 for shooting hen pheasants. Back in Ohio a woman shot five times at her husband and was only fined fifty bucks. Those poor males.
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  Former Gov. Stassen is over in Great Britain investigating the socialized medicine plan. Whether he’s for or against it won’t make much difference, as he will know but little about it. Even the bitterest opponents of the plan in Britain concede that it will take five years before sound judgment can be passed.
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  A Leif Erickson monument is being erected on the state capitol grounds this week. Just another reminder that the Skandinavians are still in the majority in Minnesota. The only monuments on the grounds are dedicated to members of Skandinavian ancestry. More power to them, but some changes should be made. The Nelson and John A. Johnson statues look like a picture of gloom and despair. There is not even a scent of inspiration or stimulation in either of them: what they need is a new look.
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  Looks as if Minneapolis has gotten away from the liquor ring at last: off-sale licenses were raised from $250 to $1,000 last week.
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  See where a patient in an operation lived for four minutes without the use of a heart. No record in that, there are folks that live almost a lifetime without one.
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  From the innocent bystander’s point of view the D-F party seems to be making more efforts to capture Minnesota next year than the republicans are to retain it.
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  Under the Brannan plan the tax payer would get more for his price support dollar than he does now, as the consumer would be able to buy goods at the market prices instead of the support price. The farmer would get just as much for his products as he does under the present parity plan. Trouble is, some don’t like the method of approach, forgetting that a subsidy is a subsidy no matter how and what kind of sugar coating you use.
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  The big steel strike is now on, which coupled with the coal strikes has brought the labor management out in the open: are the labor unions more powerful than the people? In two weeks the strike will be felt hard in some of the large manufacturing plants. Out here it means a lowering of prices and a lot of inconvenience.
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  Murray county will have the largest number of exhibitors at the Live Stock show in South St. Paul this fall of any county in this section of the state. Some of the counties will have as few as three exhibitors. Murray county will have nine. Exhibitors are admitted to the show in the basis of numbers enrolled. This will give you the true picture of the number of boys and girls entered in the 4-H Club movement in Murray county.
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  What splendid weather this section has enjoyed the past month. The hillsides have been a riot of color--every tree seems to have its own particular shade of gold. Nature has certainly put on a glorious show this fall.
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  Try buying in Lake Wilson--after all it is your town, the place where you make your living.
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October 13, 1949

Did The Governor “Falsify the Records”
Youngdahl Wins Bunyan Battle
  “Chicago--Gov. Luther W. Youngdahl emerged victorious Tuesday in his battle to have Paul Bunyan brought home to Brainerd, Minn.   Bunyan is the animated replica of that legendary Northwest giant who just completed a 100-day visit at the Chicago railroad fair.   Brainerd will henceforth be the resting place of the lumberjack about whom ‘tall tales’ are told, thus shutting off a controversy which ranged from Minnesota to Florida.   Youngdahl, and Brainerd, won out when the governor flatly declared:   ‘Any inference or contention that Bunyan was not a native of Minnesota is as presumptuous as it is ridiculous.’   Bunyan, one of the top attractions at the fair, was purchased by a group of Brainerd citizens for permanent residence in their city of 14,000 persons. He wears a size 42 cap, a 150 inch belt, and a shirt cut from 768 square feet of gaudy plaid.”--Pioneer Press.   After reading the above the Roamer wonders whether the governor forgot or if he “falsified the records.”   Centuries before Paul Bunyan was ever heard of a legendary hero was born three hundred miles from Paris, France. The story about this freak of imagination appears in a book written before the Pilgrims came to this country.   Here are a few excerpts taken from this book from which the character of Paul Bunyan was stolen.   “So great was Gargantua, even when a babe of a day old, that 17,013 cows were required to furnish him milk. And in ancient records at Monsoreau, I find that 9,600 ells of blue velvet were used for his gown, four hundred and six ells of crimson velvet were taken up for his shoes with the hides of eleven hundred brown cows.   “About this time the king of Namibia sent out of Africa the hugest and most enormous mare that was ever seen. She was as large as six elephants, but about all she had a terrible tail, for it was as large as the pillars of St. Mars, which is 86 feet in length. When his father saw the mare he said, ‘Here is the thing to carry my son Gargantua to Paris’”, and the book says, “He passed his time merrily along the highway until above Orleans at which place there was a deep forest, five and thirty leagues long and seventeen wide. The forest abounded in gadflies and hornets and was a purgatory for asses and horses. But as soon as the mare entered the forest she drew out her tail and swished about and swept down all the trees with as much ease as the mower cuts grass.”   “After Gargantua and his mare had cleaned up Europe, they took one running jump and landed in North America (evidently in the timber region of what is now the United States)”.   “The story goes that when they lit, the great lakes appeared. They met three Swedes left over from the Rune Stone expedition. They could not spell “Gargantua” so the name was changed to Paul Bunyan and as they were scared of a horse he was turned into a Blue Ox.” The Roamer does not vouch for that last paragraph.   The book containing the exploits of Gargantua, who on his immigration to this country was called Paul Bunyan, was written in 1542 by Francois Rabelais, who was born at Seuille, France. Rabelais studied for a secular priest and later took up medicine. He died in Paris in 1553 and was the leading satirical and sarcastic writer of his time. The name of the book is “Gargantua and Pantagruel.”   We give the paragraphs space for the sole purpose of keeping the record straight and to remember that there’s not much new under the sun.
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  No doubt the activity on state highway No. 91 is due to the fine work of the Lake Wilson Community Club. Last fall the club got busy on the proposition--called and attended meetings towards this end. Had the state engineers and Senator Peterson at their meetings: the result has been pleasing to the club. President Cy Koob and Secy. H. R. Lexvold did most of the heavy work.
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  The Ivanhoe Times criticised Congressman O’Hara for making a sixteen day trip to Europe, visiting seven countries and coming home loaded to the gills with authoritative views. That’s nothing, we elect congressmen, some of them had never out of the state in which they live, but after two days in Washington they become reliable statesmen on everything from international banking to astronomy: ain’t politics wonderful?
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October 20, 1949

  Looks as if V.P. Barkley will need a guardian to get him away from the wiles of that busy beaver, good looking dame from St. Louis. We’ve read that males are scarce these days, but we never thought that they were that scarce.
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  A county commissioner who was accused of bribery a short time ago elected to stand trial and won his case. There’s nothing new in this bribery trend. It starts in Washington, almost as far back as the beginning of the constitution. Rich men with millions subscribed heavily to the party in power and after election claimed their pound of flesh. A number of years ago, a prominent household goods manufacturer was ambassador to a leading European nation, and a member of Swift Packing Co. secured a similar mission. These men would never have been ambassadors if they had not donated $50,000 to the political treasurer. When big business gives, there’s always a string attached to it, somewhere.
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  Reams of paper and volumes of noise are being used in a proposal to have a showdown on the atomic bomb question. Before we go sticking our nose into Russia or anywhere else, we’ve got to have the wherewithal to back up our request--or rather, demands.
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  A mechanical bricklayer has been invented that with a half day’s experience a man can lay 3,000 bricks a day. What’s the use of inventing anything these days. About the time the new machine got going, the union would issue an “order” forbidding anyone from laying over 500 bricks a day.
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  Most folks don’t know it but the Ford folks really won their battle with the unions. Ford offered them a better deal some time ago, but the top men turned it down. The agitators asked for 15 cents an hour increase: they finally took two and one-fourth cents.
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  The U.S. Wildlife Bureau, in company with the Census Bureau, will take a census of wild life in Minnesota--the outdoor kind. It is going to count deer, bear, fox, etc. If the bureau ever starts to enumerate the box-elder bug, there will be no unemployment.
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  In announcing the 57th birthday of the Murray County Herald, the boys said that their only ambition was to give their home town and county of Murray a newspaper to be proud of--you do.
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  A Kentucky man sued his wife for a divorce. Said his wife chewed and smoked and he never knew it. He can’t have done much necking or she must have been a mail order bride. Some women do worse things than use tobacco and their men still live with them.
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  Fulda by three to one voted in favor of a $12,000 bond issue to erect towers, etc. for night baseball. Dick Reusse said last season that he would make Fulda the baseball capitol of this section of the state and with the backing of the community-loving folks of Fulda, he is going to do it.
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  A. H. Engebretson (Inge to you) has completed his 25th year of service to Murray county and a large group of friends tendered him a surprise party at Valhalla last week. A fine type of a citizen is Inge and a competent road man.
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  Edgerton folks are having a “Hobby Day” celebration next month. This is a type of gathering that is both interesting and constructive. Everyone has a hobby of some kind and they have the opportunity to present it at this show. Edgerton businessmen are to be congratulated in presenting this type of a show and program.
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  Family quarrels should be kept in the confines of the homes or thereabouts: brawling in drinking places and on the street generally end up in justice court, and too often the “fun” is not worth the fine assessed. Curb your emotions, folks.
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  Many a cornfield in this section was “posted” this year that had never been posted before. Farmers took this precaution to save more corn from being spilled on the ground. Some farmers and some theorists thought the schools could be closed and the boys and girls could get out and pick up the fallen ears. One farmer told the Roamer that it could not be done. “Kids,” he said, “just don’t believe in going out and picking corn from the ground--that’s work. I have boys and started to talk about it, and that’s as far as I got. If my own kids won’t get out, how can I expect anyone else’s kids to?”
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October 27, 1949

  If there are any orchids left after decorating the football and baseball heroes, a small one at least should be sent to Judge Harold Medina.
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  A kind hearted man is Judge Rogers of Minneapolis. A prisoner stood before him for sentence last week. He had two previous convictions and was headed for a lifetime residence at Stillwater. The good judge took compassion on him and sentenced him to eighty years.
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  The frosty nights seem to have clipped the activities of the box-elder bugs, and it is almost safe again to eat raisin pie or raisin cake. These bugs crawled their way into autos, busses and trains. Many a man who had an air tight home found out he was wrong. The bugs infiltrated the homes as swiftly and cleverly as if they were members of the Communist party.
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  One of the finest radio shows that has come out of Minneapolis is that “I’ll Never Forget” number M.C.’ed by Cedric Adams. It is the kind of music that the average man and woman likes, and Cedric’s quips and comments are always interesting. If you adore classical music don’t waste your time listening on Tuesday evenings: it’s a program for the common folks, and if Peter’s sausage is just half as delectable as the program, it is fitten to eat.
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  An increasing number of auto accidents caused by drunken drivers is really appalling and we look for the next legislature to put more teeth in the law. Necessary is a mandatory jail sentence for the first offense. Besides a jail sentence a second offense should mean the forfeiture of the driver’s license.
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  The Farmers Grange, although almost unknown in this section of the state, still thrives in the north central section. At the annual Grange convention last week, it went on record urging a divorce of the Farm Bureau from the state extension. It’s the old old story. The Farm Bureau has built up an organization that has been of service to every farmer of the state, and agriculture has profited by it. The Grange, jealous naturally, wants all ties severed. What a change there has been in the Farm Bureau organization in this county. The organizations were jeered and sneered, called paper farmers. Other farmers rode them so much there were places in every little town where they hated to visit. Many of the men who sneered in the old days are not loyal members, and the men who had the nerve to organize the Bureau just chuckle.
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Rev. Gehman of Philadelphia visited the Roamer a short time ago. He was interested in a Rev. Weber, being a distant relative of Mrs. Weber. Rev. Stanford Weber was the third pastor to hold services in the new United Evangelical church, which by the way was the first church built in Lake Wilson. Rev. Standford Weber came to Lake Wilson in 1902. Lake Wilson was in the making in those days. Had a population of about 200, and everyone was busy digging out new homes and new business places. We weren’t rude or unkind, but there was that sturdiness found in a new frontier. Rev. Weber came from Pennsylvania, was well educated, but physically unfitted for the rigors of the early horse and buggy days that meant winter driving over the snow-blocked roads. He came here in May and in the following November he went back to his home where he was married to Miss Ida Gehman. They returned to Lake Wilson and started housekeeping. The Webers, a shy slim young couple, did not fit in with the folks of the west. There were few luxuries here then, and not all the necessities. Money was scarce and hard to get. A son, Albright, was born to the Webers while they lived here. The Webers returned to their home in 1903 where another son was born. Rev. and Mrs. Weber both passed away early in life. But what we wanted you to know is that one of the sons is now treasurer of the Hershey Chocolate Company at Hershey, Pa., the largest chocolate factory in the world, and the other brother is chief technician of the same company.
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  If ever a man was sorely needed in the U.S. Senate it is Robt. Taft. Keen, alert, and brainy, he is a tower of strength to the country. We would rather see him in the senate than in the White House.
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  See where a popular young movie actress is making arrangements for her sixth husband: some farmyard animals have a greater sense of decency. A man or a woman may make one mistake, but when they make six of them they should either be sent to the bug house or be compelled to live in an igloo eight miles south of the North Pole.
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November 3, 1949

  The usual wailing spot has been crowded by the football wise ones since Saturday afternoon. Bernie Bierman and Charley Johnson are a feudin’. Could be that one of them would have to go, if the football debacle runs into next Saturday afternoon. Might not hurt anything if both were given a twenty year vacation.
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  There’s a big difference in the cattle market of late: top-fed steers bringing an $18.00 spread between them and the lower grades. Quality fed stock brings a premium in a crazed nation. There are lots of just as nutritious cuts of beef as sirloin. But big beefsteaks are now the brand of royalty in this country.
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  Soft coal struck a new level last week. It now costs $24.00 a ton delivered in your coal bin. Time was when top coal, the Hocking Valley kind, was put in the bin for $4.00 a tone. This section may not get enough coal this winter but the country is dotted with islands of corn cobs and every old grove in the country has cords of wood that is yours for the asking. Not as much heat as coal, but a heap better than the “buffalo chips” the folks were forced to burn in the ‘70’s.
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  The most important meeting of the year will be at Slayton November 16th. This meeting is held for the purpose of discussing the present rural school condition. Neighboring town schools have made raids on rural districts. They offer the pupils a better opportunity in educational lines and the withdrawal of these children leaves a heavy burden on the little school district. Notwithstanding this, many small rural districts are content to get along with the one room school house. The meeting will be an interesting one, as all school board members affected get per diem pay and mileage.
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  Right now is the time for you to stow away two or three ails of fine gravel or sand in the garage. It won’t be long before we’ll have snow, which in turn brings icy sidewalks and streets. Better be ready and perhaps save expensive medical bills.
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  While thousands of miners in northern Minnesota are getting close to the starvation line, a leading Minnesota paper proudly announces that jobs have been found for 147 displaced persons: don’t sound sense.
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  A St. Paul sport expert said that Minnesota would beat Purdue by 35 points: he must have been with the Gallup poll people last fall.
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  From reading the papers one opines that if an extra session of the U.S. congress is called, enough of the members can be found in Europe “studying conditions” so that they could meet over there.
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  Mark up a good point for the late congress. It passed a bill that eventually will give the rural sections better phone service. The small companies will either have to give better service or get out of business. There’s too many patrons on fifty per cent of the rural lines to give anything but inadequate service. People living close by Lake Wilson auto to town and do their phoning from central. Another thing needed is a three minute regulation on phone “visits.”
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  Doesn’t it seem that in an intelligent nation as ours that the unification of the armed forces could be conducted on a little higher plane. Telling high officers that they can come in and offer their views for the betterment of the defense of the country and then firing them if they say anything contrary to the views of defense secretary Johns, who won the Distinguished Service Medal for being the best collector of political funds in 1948. Sounds much like the stuff used by Hitler and Mussolini. Men like Halsey, Nimitz and King worked for less than half the salary Johnson receives. The history of the American navy is a glorious one and it seems sad that men of the Johnson and Mathews type can wipe out the traditions of nearly two centuries with a wave of the hand.
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  Murray county will have an open deer season this fall, something that has never happened before in the history of the county. Funny thing about deer. They are never mentioned in the very early history of the county. There were plenty of elk and antelope, but no deer. Farmers say they have been doing a lot of damage to growing crops. Often wonder if the lust to kill is not more responsible than the little damage the deer do.
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  Joan Davis, radio comic, said in her broadcast last Thursday night, “I have a kid football team and want suits for them.” The stooge asked, “What’s the name of your team, Joanie?” She answered, “Gophers.” “Why do you call them the Gophers?” she was asked. Joanie answered, “Because they don’t know football from a hole in the ground.” Some prophet, wasn’t she?
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November 10, 1949

  Two weeks ago George Grim (I Like It Here) of the Minneapolis Tribune wired asking the Roamer to fill his column for a day. The article appeared in last Thursday’s Tribune. Many of our readers who do not take a morning paper requested that the article be published in this column. Here it is, but the original had to be cut as the word limit was five hundred. We are giving you here the original story.

Little Things Count Big in Small Town’s Life

“I LIKE IT HERE”

  I like it here in Lake Wilson--perhaps it is because I have lived here over a half a century and it is a mighty fine place to live.
  Lake Wilson, one of the smallest towns in the state to have a newspaper, has a population of 420.
  I like it here because the town is made up of scrappy businessmen. Small towns have to be alert. They have a community spirit that knits them close together or they would not be able to survive.
  The bank has more than a million dollars in deposits: one of our elevators pays the highest personal property tax in the county, and there is a machine dealer who is tops in this section.
  We are well supplied with stores and shops that go to make this a good trading point. Four churches, filled every Sunday, look after our spiritual welfare. Our schools have close to 200 pupils. The women have their ladies aids, their study clubs and bridge clubs. Our band gives concerts in the park in the summer. The local baseball team (all amateurs) won the district pennant. Four springs send thousands of gallons of water into the mains each day. We are 15 minutes from a hospital and the same distance from first-run movies. We have a good fishing lake and pheasants in the fields. Something in every line of endeavor in a humble way.
  Towns like ours depend on the right kind of farmers: we have them. Two years ago they raised $5,000 for a new fire truck. They supply the truck. We care for it and furnish the fighting firemen: that’s true community spirit.
  One of the real things that comes with a small town is neighbors. What grand folks they are. When sickness or trouble strike the home, the neighbors vie with each other to see who can get there first. That’s the spirit that binds us closer.
  Don’t think that just because we live in a small town we are as pure as the “undriven” snow. (Driven snow gets pretty streaked). We’re not all saints or angels. Some stumble on the primrose path, but it does not take the town long to condone--there are so few of us we have to excuse and forgive, but alas, in a small town they don’t forget until the third generation.
  And to us there are the little things that come in the gloaming of life: the little park, the paved road, the water works, the school, the athletic field, the merry parties in the old lodge hall, the fine crowds of the old Farmer Days and a number of other things in which one played a humble part. They are things that you can’t shake off even if you wanted to. They are steeped in you and they are memories fragrant of the days when both the village and you were younger and the days when all worked eagerly and willingly for the common goal: their town.
  Tolerance is one thing we have in the town we like. Three weeks ago the Catholics put on an athletic program for a church benefit. It took a lot of time and hard work. Rain and cloudy weather held up arrangements. The weather cleared the day of the program and everything was in a turmoil to get ready for the show, but there was manual help both from the town and country folks. One of the leading Catholics told us the morning after the program, “There were more non-Catholics helping do the hard work than there were Catholics, and if we don’t make a nickel on the event we can well afford to lose, for the kindly neighborhood spirit the Lake Wilson folks showed us on Tuesday night.”
  Another thing--purely personal it is. Three weeks ago we celebrated our golden wedding.
  Among the gifts was a substantial one from the Community Club, which we appreciated not only for its intrinsic worth but for the though that the folks here appreciate our efforts and that we are still of some small value, even at 77.
  “I Like to Live in Lake Wilson”: wouldn’t you?
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November 17, 1949

  Some folks are asking, “What became of the county nurse?” While at the courthouse last week, we found that when the matter came up before the county board at levy time this year, the commissioners were faced with a real problem. There was a huge increase in state rates owing to the soldiers’ bonus and new state institutions, and there were increasing demands for old age assistance. That meant that taxes the coming year would be the highest on record. The county nurse problem does not mean just the hiring of a nurse. It means equipping an office with modern equipment and a stenographer. The cost is estimated at about $8,000 a year, but remember this is not for one year only, and the cost will continue to grow as the years go by. The members of the county board are in sympathy with the county nurse movement and will make arrangements to install a new nurse in Murray county as soon as conditions lighten financially.
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  Don’t think we’re getting uppity because of the cut in the first paragraph [photo of the Roamer]. It was “given” us for that purpose, and besides remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.
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  Samuel Butler should have included football coaches and football teams in the admonition “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child.” Smarting under the oral and written spankings, both the coaches and the team has played magnificent football the last two games.
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  Ten tombstones in a cemetery near Luverne were overturned on Hallowe’en by a group of young men: they must been insemination babies as no father or mother would ever lay claim to such low down morons.
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  Well, it’s a hoss apiece for the governor and the investment board. The governor’s committee advised the board that it should buy only U.S. or Minnesota securities. It could find no evidence of wrong doing by the board, which by the way retained Foster. Stassen bought Arkansas bonds when he was governor and no fault was found. Minnesota repudiated her bonds at one time, so we should go slow in criticising other states that have done the same thing.
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  We’re agin the government appropriating funds for more deep channel work on the Mississippi river. Years ago the federal government put millions in the channel and big businessmen said it would revolutionize freight rates to the northwest. The oil folks said, “Watch the price go down when our barges start moving.” What happened? The price of oil has gone up steadily ever since the barges started coming. Why not build a hundred miles of track for some railroad?
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  That recent gathering of Minnesota republicans sure missed the ball. It should have come out for a soldiers’ pension, then the meeting would have had national publicity; as it is, it was just a meeting.
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  The three-day bow and arrow deer season that closed yesterday reminds one that the bow and arrow hunting of deer is one of the oldest sports in history. Three thousand seven hundred and fifty three years ago, Isaac said to his son Esau, “Now therefore take I pray thee thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow and go out to the field and take me some venison.” If you doubt the above, read Genesis, 27th Chapter, 3rd verse.
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  Some leading republicans feel aggrieve because Truman talked politics in his St. Paul address. Few men of that age ever made as long a trip just to say, “Golly, you sure were good to me a year ago.”
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  While visiting relatives at Washington, D.C. last summer, Oscar Dahlquist visited a county fair over in Maryland. County fairs run about the same there as they do anywhere else, but one of the main attractions was the farm machinery exhibit. There was a fine newly painted machine standing in a crowd of interested farmers. But not one of them knew the name of the machine or what is was for. They noticed that Oscar was a stranger so one of them asked Oscar if he knew what it was. Oscar answered, “That’s a corn picker.” It’s a big world after all.
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  We’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year: wouldn’t it be awful if box-elder bugs had stings like a hornet?
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November 24, 1949

  It is rather interesting to hear President Truman speak so nonchalantly about the government going 5 1/2 billions in the red this year. To the average man a “billion” means nothing, for the reason that ninety per cent of the people cannot conceive the magnitude of a billion. If the president had said that the government had gone behind a staggering amount, which procedure if kept up would ruin us, we folks in the lower grades would realize that something was happening. But 5 1/2 billion is as vague to us as the sands of the sea. It’s hard to realize that five and a half billion in one dollar bills, if laid one on top of the other, would make a pile 352 miles high, and it would take 969,375 gallons of ink to print the bills. If you wanted to transport the bills it would take 5,632 one ton trucks. If the bills were printed at the average country newspaper shop, the printer would have to forget all about the forty hour week, as it would take him 16,042 years to get the job done. The president is not entirely to blame. What about congress? The directors in an institution must share part of the responsibility.
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  Whether you burn oil, gas, or coal, right now is the time to fill up that tank or bin: we generally have cold snaps in December and January.
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  Much alarm is felt over the increasing auto accidents, but the thing that really surprises us is that there are not more accidents. Take for instance the fall football crowds. Thousands of autoists jam the roads both day and night, yet few accidents are reported.
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  President Truman received several turkeys for Thanksgiving and one flip newspaper man in Washington blurted out, “Deep freezers come in mighty handy these days.”
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  The rate of auto speed has increased rapidly in the last four years. If you drive fifty miles an hour, seventy percent of the cars pass you. If you drive at forty the only cars you pass are the ones you meet.
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  A Mississippi man has been sentenced to jail for four years because he married a woman that had an eighth of negro blood. There’s a lot of folks in the world today that have an eighth of blood in them from some strain that they are not very proud of, yet they seem to survive the so-called stain. And anyway, if those so-called chivalrous southern gentlemen had only let the colored women alone, it is doubtful if there would be quite as many cocoa colored negroes.
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  The Brannan plan for maintaining farm prices will be one of the main issues in the coming congressional elections. The Farmers Union is all out for it and the Farm Bureau is lining up against it. Advocates of the plan say it will maintain prices and still give the consumer lower prices for food products. It if is workable, the Brannan plan looks like it was just what we need.
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  Someone started a run on coffee after the pattern of a run on the bank, and right away the hoarders moved in. Good commonsense prevailed and the run is now over. Funny thing about some of those coffee “drunkards” is that they are generally the ones that keep pouring it on the cigarette smoker and the beer drinker. They refer to them sneeringly as addicts and slaves to their baser appetites, forgetting their own craving for coffee. The most fertile ground for a reformer is in his own self.
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  A man stooped over in Ohio last week. His bitter half could not resist the temptation and planted a good swift kick. The big calf went to court and got a divorce on account of her drop kicking. What a dumb judge. He should have sent the guy home with instructions to place a couple of short heavy planks in the seat of his pants, and let his wife try her toeless shoes on them for a spell.
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  See where the democrat senators from way down south found out last week just how ornery the Skandinavian people are. Their tit for tat spat with the Swedes brought credit to neither one, even if both sides think they are right. Wonder how Mrs. Anderson of Minnesota, the new ambassador to Denmark, will fare. She is Scotch and English and will naturally have to mix with the Danes: three of the most stubborn, cocky and always right races on earth. If the going gets tough, it will be worth listening to.
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  The nudist party in Brazil is going into politics and naturally will have a platform. No doubt their platform will give the bare facts so that can see as well as read about it.
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December 1, 1949

  Duck hunters in this section of the state are trying to get a staggered season on ducks next year. They would like to have the season open about the time it did this season and continue open for a week, then close the season for ten days. It should then be opened for at least thirty days. The hunters rightfully claim that most of the local ducks are gone the week after the season opens and that the mallards do not come down until later. The season closed on November 15th, but the largest number of ducks of the entire season are still with us. There are over forty thousand ducks in Lake Shetek, Lake Sarah and Lake Maria. The duck hunters are willing to brave the cold and chilly weather to get a shot at those big mallards, and common sense says they should.
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  Just who to congratulate on the success of the recent high school carnival is a problem. The carnival was outstanding as the total receipts were over $1,400. Of this amount there was some expense, but when it was all over the high school auxiliary fund was over $1,200 to the good. A fine showing for any town twice the size of Lake Wilson. A showing that could only be secured by the fine cooperation of the school, the generally willing workers such as the Auxiliary, the public and not to forget the boys and girls that did the hard work. We mean the kids who went out into the fields and picked up the ears of corn and turned in every cent to the carnival fund. You can’t beat a healthy community spirit.
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  The Townsend plan that was laughed at several years ago is going to play a big part in the coming session of congress. The pension plan agreed on by the steel and Ford people is giving the Townsend plan a real boost. The Townsend plan provides a pension of $100 a month for every needy person over 65. This provides, however, that every dollar of the pension money you receive must be spent in the following thirty days. With prices as they have been, a man won’t need a book instructions to comply with the last provision.
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  Harness racing received its worst blow in the history of the state, when the state fair board decided to abandon horse racing at the 1950 state fair. Reason given was that horse racing did not draw the crowds of the days of Dan Patch of 46 years ago. What a grand horse Dan was. He won one world’s record at Memphis, Tenn. in 1903 when he whisked a racing wagon around a mile track in 1:57. The board was sentimentally in favor of horse races but not as much as they were of well filled grandstands.
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  Some DFL papers are still commenting on the wonderful reception that President Truman received on his recent visit to St. Paul. It was grand, but was nothing compared to the one Teddy Roosevelt got at the state fair grounds when he was running against Alton B. Parker back in 1904. The crowd went nuts to see him; there was no room in the grandstand so the crowd pushed and trampled the stout barb-wire fences and surged onto the track and up to the grandstand where Teddy spoke. Might be interesting to remember that Teddy was running on a progressive ticket and Parker on the conservative.
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  Congressman Carl Andersen while on his way home from Washington was stricken with appendicitis and was fortunate enough to have the attack occur at Rochester. Carl no doubt was hurrying home to get ready for his big battle next year and we hope he regains his former health. Not only Carl, but every state official has a fight on their hands. Too many men in the republican party want to carry the ball. Their way is the only way, and then there are a few fancy Dans both inside and outside the state who still believe in personal politics. They will find out if they don’t quit dilly dallying that practical politics counts up faster in the election returns, so they had better get their house in order, which by the way should have two front doors and no back doors. The old Prince Albert type of politics is gone: these are the days when you have to get out in your shirt sleeves.
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  Here’s a pitiful state of affairs. Doctors of the Mayo clinic at Rochester are asking for donations of funds that will be used to produce more the new drugs Cortisone and ACTH that are doing so much for folks suffering from arthritis and rheumatic fever. Isn’t it a disgrace to see those men, tops in their profession, stand with hat in hand begging for funds to get more of those new drugs that are doing so much to alleviate suffering and pain, when we have a government that spends millions of dollars in potatoes that are left to rot. Eggs that cost an equal sum yearly, while drugs that do so much for us have to depend on public charity, and as old Bill Samppe used to say years and years ago, “And we call this a government.”
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December 8, 1949

  There’s a considerable drop in the amount of money for charitable purposes since the war ended. Patriotism rolled high in those days, and coupled with a lot of sentiment nearly every town went over its quota. The public today want a close check on its donations, and for that reason the Lake Wilson folks are favoring the Community Chest. Only four organizations elected to come into the Community Chest plan, and from reports the outlanders are going to be disappointed in their harvest this year. Too many small organizations have sprung up of late, and there’s a feeling that too much of the money collected is being spent for operation and distribution, which no doubt is true in some cases. Every organization seeking donations, even if they are in the Community Chest group, should submit a financial statement showing how much money was received and how, where and when it was expended. The people would like to know just how many cents in the dollar go to the place the donor thought it was going.
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  Seventy years ago was the most important year in the history of Murray county. It was the year the railroads came to the county. The Milwaukee in the south section of the county and the Minnesota and Black Hills R.R. (which later became the Omaha) through the central part of the county. These two roads were racing for So. Dakota. The Milwaukee won out. The branch we live on only reached Woodstock, which town was the end of the road for several years. Hadley and Avoca were the first towns on the branch. Lake Wilson was not started until 1883. Railroads don’t mean much in this modern era, but in the old days they “Ran by everybody’s door.” Everything that was bought and sold came over the railroad.
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  We had a chance to visit with George Grim when he was in Slayton recently, and naturally we asked him some questions. He said the people of Europe seemed to be getting enough to eat. The grain being collected by the farmers in the northwest states goes to orphan homes, homes for the aged and other institutions of that sort. The people over there seem willing and able to work. In fact, everything is look up except one: there are no markets for their goods. Europe has no money to buy with and Uncle Sam does not need them. Looks to the Roamer as if the only solution is for Uncle Sam to find a country that has nothing at all and then lend it the money to buy goods. If that won’t work, perhaps there could be a curtailment of American manufactured goods.
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  When you send that Christmas package this year, don’t send it because you owe it or that you expect something in return: wrap it up in a friendly, kindly spirit and tie it with the string of sincerity.
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  Saw a picture of V.P. Barkley last week. It don’t take as long for the bloom of love and courtship to fade or that keen alert twinkle in the eye to dim when you are seventy as it did when one was young. Poor brave, gallant and courtly old man. He must be brave. Few men would take unto themselves a young wife after they had reached the alloted age of three score years and ten. The folks that were all het up over the romance and drooled over every picture of the courting couple are now the first to start saying, “There’s ___ ___ ___ ___.”
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  Say girls, and that takes in all of your from five to eighty seven, don’t buy those little bit of dainty Christmas cards this year. Your Uncle Sam don’t like those teeny weeny ones. They are hard to handle. But if you must send them, remember they will cost you three cents whether they are sealed or not. Four inches wide and three inches long is the limit for regular Christmas cards. Better ask your postmaster to be sure as there is also a large size limit on cards.
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  Ninety per cent of the people in Minnesota are really proud to know that negroes are now admitted to the Minnesota National Guard. This is their country as much as it is yours.
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  Jackson county has set their fair dates for August 17-20 next year. There’s a tendency among fairs towards earlier dates. The grandstand draws better on warm nights than it does when the cold winds come. All outdoor attractions are drifting towards night shows. The tendency of evening civic gatherings, baseball games, and football games has made the folks just a little night-minded.
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  All Farm Bureau organizations are not dead set against the Brannan plan. One Farm Bureau unit in Freeborn county has voted in favor of giving the plan a trial.
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December 15, 1949

  Few hunters realize what they are up against when they invade a farmer’s field that has been posted. Two Springfield men were arrested during the hunting season, charged with trespassing on legally posted land in violation of the state law. The justice of the peace at Mountain Lake fined them $75.00 each, and in addition the men forfeited the deer that they killed. The “No Trespassing” signs are things not to be taken lightly.
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  The daily press stated last week that Mrs. V.P. Barkley said, “Put our arms around me Albin and help me keep warm.” Changing world ain’t it. Fifty years ago it was different. The brides were saying, “Oh gee, don’t hug me so tight.”
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  The last congress will go down in history with the post office workers, as it abolished the 1/2 cent stamp. No longer does the poor P.O. clerk have to scratch his head when some dame comes to the office window, throws down a dollar bill and curtly says, “Gimme 19 three cent stamps, nine one cent stamps and seven postal cards, and the balance in 1 1/2 cent stamps.” There were four or five folks in line with packages and it sure did irritate a guy when some of them hollered, “Are you going to be all day?”
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  If you are interested in the weather, and who isn’t, you should tune in KSSO, 1140 on your dial, at 12:15 daily. The news comes direct from the weather bureau station at Sioux Falls, so you get it red hot. Sioux Falls is only sixty miles from here and the forecasts are pretty reliable.
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  Over at Watertown, S.D. last week at a meeting of the ministerial group, the Episcopal minister started to smoke a cigareet at the dinner, which was held in a private room in a restaurant. Rev. Raines of the Evangelical United Brethren evidently did not like tobacco smoke. He was incensed and offered a motion that the minister quit smoking or that the meeting be adjourned. The motion carried and the rector retired to eat his meal alone. We have faith and love in Christ the same as they had centuries ago, but if we remember right, Christ was an advocate of tolerance. He refrained from the humiliation of others. He advocated a set of moral laws that have been our guidance. He gave us hope, strength and faith in tolerant religion, and as such he has been accepted. The action of this minister will not change our ideals of Christ but it does not enhance our admiration of those who seek to enforce their private views on others. The Roamer is not an advocate of cigarette smoking but most folks have worse inward sins than smoking a cigarette.
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  Notice that the Extension division of Minnesota has developed a superior type of hog: wish they would develop one that had meat on its spare ribs. The spare ribs you get today come only in the nude.
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  Former Democrat Congressman May and Republican Congressman Thomas are receiving pay or pension from the government that they defrauded. These two men helped pass their pension law that provided they would still receive their pensions while in jail. Mrs. Thomas has more intestinal fortitude than her man: the crazy woman wants to run for congress.
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  From the talk of some guys that have their political lightning rods up, one would think that Mike Holm, genial secretary of state, made the auto license plates. Mike merely issues the instructions as handed down by the legislature. He received orders from the legislature on April 24th and two days later sent them along to the Bureau of Administration. It does the ordering and the buying. Holm has nothing to do with that end of it. Last year’s plates were very unpopular, and naturally the bureau tried to get bids on different materials from several new companies. This couple with the jar the strike gave the steel business naturally had a lot to do with the delay. Most of the guys that do the howling are the ones that are always two or three weeks late in getting their plates on.
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  A radio station that is getting a lot of favorable comment in this vicinity is KMHL at Marshall. This station is broadcasting the games of the famous Minneapolis Lakers basketball team when they play in the state, and fans, whose name is legion, are sitting on needles, pins and thrill through those red-hot games. They start around eight p.m. or shortly after.
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December 22, 1949

  The Brannan plan got away to a good start in Minnesota when 4,000 farmers enthusiastically endorsed it. In Chicago the going was different: 5,000 Farm Bureau delegates voted against the theory of the plan. The Farmers Union will carry the ball in the northwest states and it will be the issue at the coming elections. The Union delegates have the fire and zeal of the Farmers Alliance and the Populists of days of old, and while they did not win many election, a lot of their theories became laws. Some of the best and now considered conservative laws of today were started by those that used to be called “Nuts.”
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  Two Iowa men broke into a tavern at Jefferson, South Dakota and stole $300. Circuit Judge Wall at Sioux Falls, So. Dak. gave them two years in the pen, but added he would suspend the sentence on condition they would pay a fine of $104.00. These men have long criminal records in Iowa, and rather than face the Iowa courts, said “We’d rather take the two years, judge, thank you just the same.” While newspaper columns are filled with articles urging “Down with Crime,” this old judge in So. Dak. is making a mockery of enforcement of the law.
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  Eggs have taken the worst slump in years, and no wonder with a backlog of millions of pounds of dried and frozen eggs that hangs like a dark cloud over the market. Some of the eggs were retailing at 90 cents a dozen when they were dried. Too high a price for the moderate income family. Here is one place where the Brannan plan would have been a benefit to the folks in the “lower five.” They would have been able to purchase these much needed eggs for their families at a price they could afford, and there would have been no surplus. The Brannan plan may not be perfect, but it would create a home market for much needed perishable commodities instead of dumping them into the sea.
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  The Bingo game has been declared unconstitutional by a Minneapolis judge and a move is on to abolish the game in the state. The game may have some faults, presume it has, but there is such a thing as going a little too far, and will draw kickbacks that will have a tendency to make things worse. Too many restrictive laws often have the tendency to develop a movement to break down the moral code just a little.
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  What has become of our vociferous senator and congressmen? They talk glibly about the New Deal, the Square Deal, the Crooked Deal, the atom bomb, the European situation, the Chinese situation, the villainy of Stalin, but have you ever heard one of them say that the congressional pension should stop whenever one of the brethren has been sent to prision for defrauding the government? Irks a lot of folks to know that congressman May that stole from the U.S. still receives a pension for the time he spent stealing from the U.S.
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  See where an eastern group is trying to kill Santa Claus. That’s high treason! Why should they kill Uncle Sam?
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  Come to think of it, what would we do for ties and socks if they killed Good Old Santa. He unlocks the pocket books of more tightwads than any other agency we know.
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  The Roamer received several letters on the article about Lake Wilson in this column. One came last Saturday, and it brought out the thought that most old folks know: that when we get old, our thoughts go back to the days when we were young. This letter is from a lady who is over 77 years old and now lives in Blue Earth. She writes how much she enjoyed the story: “I came to Lake Wilson as a bride nearly sixty years ago. I wish we had stayed there. Your article brought up many memories.” She closes with, “Well, Bob, keep on living in Lake Wilson, ever remembering that it is the little things in life that count.”--Mrs. Harvey W. Lamphere.
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  The farmers are in a real quandary. Sportsmen clubs want them to retain that strip of weeds aong fence lines and in fence corners, as it makes an ideal nesting place for game birds. Another group calls for clean fence lines and corners. They want to eradicate weeds and keep the snow from piling up on the roads in the winter months.
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  The republican party certainly made a fine record in Minnesota during the past ten years. It’s really good and deserves to have a group of men and women who are able and aggressive to sell it to the voters, but alas and alack where are they? A party that lacks energetic leaders soon fades. The party in Minnesota cannot be dominated by outlanders. The leaders must live in the state, as they will have plenty to do without advancing anyone to national prominence.
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  Few men have made as rapid strides in his profession as Cedric Adams. A hard working artist, he has made his way to the top and every man and woman in this section should be mighty proud of him, as he was born in southwestern Minnesota.
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  Sincere citizens are asking for a crackdown on sex crime. The ever increasing number is shocking the nation. Aid could be given the movement by prohibiting judges from suspending sentences, and putting all parole boards on the shelf for five years. This might stifle the ambitions of the youth. For the older men, there is one sure remedy that lawmakers are too timid to enact. When men become animals they should be treated as animals. It might not hurt their looks, but it will have a tendency to curb their sexual passions.
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  See where the head of the Statler hotel system sent a spoon to a Minneapolis woman for saving his life a number of years ago: bet his middle name was either MacTavish or Benny.
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  If you were a politican or a statesman in Australia, it would pay you to have your suitcase packed at election time. The recent election “down under” was held on Saturday, and on next Tuesday the new premier moves into the capitol. The parliament however does not meet until February.
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December 29, 1949

  A well educated, cultured and refined Minneapolis woman with probably some money has been selected by the national republican committee as a member of the policy forming board. If we had been running the show, we’d have picked men like J. S. Jones or Frank White. These men have been interested in agriculture in Minnesota for over twenty-five years, and the farmers’ vote in the state is not to be sneezed at.
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  Farmers were selling eggs in Minnesota last week for twenty cents and under their noses the retail price was thirty-six cents, and here we spend our time trying to fix the national budget. Don’t spell sense.
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  Some folks will have to wait a little longer for their auto license plates. They are made a St. Cloud, and the output is limited to 9,000 a day. Not enough help there, evidently. There’s a grand opportunity for some judge to sentence drunken drivers to St. Cloud to help speed up production.
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  Our old friend Louie Kaplan, Sioux City, Iowa millionaire, is one of the few guys who never forgot his humble start in Lake Wilson: he never fails to have a quarter page ad in the Pilot extending greetings to those who helped him get his start. Only big men do little things.
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  Folks out in the sticks seem to be freer with their expressions of criticism than they are in the big cities. Take New York, for instance, which is in the throes of an acute water shortage. When that happens in Lake Wilson, everyone on the council from the mayor down to the marshall is roundly abused and cussed.
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  The board of parole of New Mexico is responsible for the defilement of three young girls at Carlsbad, N.M. Homer Kelley, a probationer on sex attacks, raped three young girls all under the age of sixteen. He got seventy years in jail. Another kind hearted board of parole will let him out in a few years. Give him an operation, that would settle his activities, would be more sane and sensible and perhaps save other families from having to live in the valley of gloom all their lives.
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  The present parity plan for agriculture seems to be tumbling and the department of agriculture is asking the farmers to cut down their corn acreage twelve per cent. This will soon be followed by a curtailment of butter, eggs and other perishables. Another source of worry is that there will be a good sized cut in the Marshall plan next spring. This means that some plan must be devised for a better control of marketing conditions.
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  Sometimes one feels that the spirit of Christmas has lost its real value. Too often the weary mother, after she has taken care of the kids, works into the night writing the address on a goodly number of Christmas cards, and when she is through there is a sigh, not always with that Christmas spirit of remembering the day, but the relief that comes when the chore is over. The head of the household completes the cycle when he gets to the post office and says, “Gimme some stamps for these darned cards. I don’t see why the woman sends so doggoned many.” The radio is doing its best to drive out the real and true spirit of the day. One sweet singer will start, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Peace on earth and mercy mild,” finishing with “Jones’ pills are two for men and one for child.”
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  Those who are really interested in the subject that is the principal topic of conversation, especially during the winter months, will find som interesting facts in the following article written by E. Dudley Parsons in the Mpls. Star. It gives you some insight of what weather you can expect in an average Minnesota winter.   According to our weather bureau our three coldest months are December, with an average temperature of 19 degrees above zero; January with 14 degrees; and February with 16.5 degrees. March averages 30.2 degrees and April 46 degrees. November averages 32.9 degrees and October 49.8. There are only 20 days below zero in any one winter, and only 22 days about 80 degrees.   As to the destructive storms, tornadoes or blizzards, there were from 1872 to 1946--74 years--167, or 2.3 per cent, in various parts of Minnesota.. And Minneapolis has not suffered from more than 10 storms in the last 50 years. Hence we should feel justified in advertising our climate instead of deprecating it.   Let us understand also that our death rate per 1,000 a year is only 9, whereas in either California or Florida it is 12.
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1949 Columns, July - December
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