1950 Columns, January - June
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Roaming in the Gloaming

With Bob Forrest

Things Material and Immaterial

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January 5, 1950
   See where a woman when arrested admitted that she was not drunk while driving her auto. She did admit she had drunk a fifth of whisky and 8 pints of beer. There's a woman that should get her Plimsoll line lowered.
---   Two years ago the vitamin wave was at its height. Everybody talked vitamins and calories, but it is now dying out. Tablets that are said to prevent colds have pushed vitamins into the corner. Some doctors say you should not drive after taking the cold tablets, as some types bring on drowsiness. But it will be a grand thing for the world when a cold preventive is produced.
---   We are living in a cookie era now: counted as many as 38 different kinds of cookies in one of our stores last week. At Christmas time every house was full of cookies of all sorts of shapes and sizes. They were about as plentiful as box-elder bugs in October. Quite a change from the '80's. We only had ginger snaps then, and on rare occasions the new dainty, the soda cracker, was served.
---   This week the congress is full of shouting members who bellow for a cut in taxes: everybody is trying to get into the act, and one wonders how they ever passed these laws. Don't suppose that this being an election year has started a wave to stop government spending.
---   Some crusty old guy, not so old either, thinks there should be a curfew law, and not for kids either. Coming home at three o'clock in the morning and arousing the dogs and children in his neighborhood should be stopped: who ever heard of stopping love? Some guys evidently never had any romance in their lives.
---   North Dakota has a rather odd auto law. If a driver is unable to pay the damages caused by his auto the aggrieved gets a judgement and the state pays the bill. The fund for that purpose is created by a levy of one dollar on every auto in the state.
---   The Brotherhood of Man depends largely on what brotherhood you belong to.
---   The new committee that was selected last week as a Murray County Memorial hospital board, whose names appeared in the Herald last week, is composed of representative farmers and business men and will be of valuable assistance in maturing plans for operation of the new hospital. These men represent the various sections of the county and will give their best services.
---   The heavy apple crop last fall tempted us to try an experiment on Greenings. We got some fine looking Greenings, then wiped them carefully with mineral oil which was supposed to prevent them from spoiling. On January 1st, thirty per cent were hard and in fine shape, the rest had started to shrivel and some of them were rotten to the core. Apples are a good deal like humans.
---   The horse has not yet been driven from Murray county. According to the assessment books last year, there were 2,902 in the county: that includes ponies of all descriptions.
---   Be kind to old men. See where a Chicago waitress waited on an old man for a number of years with so much grace, charm and efficiency that he left her $100,000 when he passed away recently. No doubt the waitress got a lot of pleasure in bringing happiness to the old widower. Wrong again, she is a married woman with a family. But be a little kinder to those old men. In the long run kindness and courtesy pays out to both the giver and the recipient.
---   According to the old tradition the weather grows colder as the days lengthen. That has been true here, only the days are the same length as they were in July: the hours of daylight increase.
---   Looks as if the investment board in Minnesota was unnecessary as the governor has assumed full control of the board. The members of the board can just sit and twiddle their thumbs: and we thought we were living in the land of democracy.
---   The Plimsoll line is that broad black stripe around the hulls of seagoing vessels, to denote the cargo load that a vessel can carry.
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   January 12, 1950
   One of the worst winters in Minnesota history was that of 1936. For continued cold it holds the record. In January and February there were 36 consecutive days of sub-zero weather. The lowest reading was on January 22, when it was 34 degrees below. The coldest day in February was on the 16th when the mercury hit 26 below. Last January we experienced no sub-zero weather until the 19th, when it was 13 below.
---   The Brannan plan seems to be simmering down to the point where republican voters will vote against it and the democrats for it. Nothing new about this division. Forty years ago one farmer would be a rabid protectionist and his neighbor across the road a free trader. One farmer however was frank enough to tell us that he would vote for the plan that would bring in the most money: there are still some independent thinkers left in the rural districts.
---   The majority of editors don't seem to like Truman, but the voters do and that's what counts in November. Time was when the newspapers were able to sway a lot of votes, but that has gone. Take the big papers in the Twin Cities. While they claim to be independent they have republican leanings, yet the state goes democratic in the national elections. In state politics the Skandinavians have kept the state republican for the last few years.
---   You don't know what a real good hearted guy you really are. You might not know it but you have sent $200, and so did every other man, woman and child in the United States, to our colonies in Europe. Total amount sent across so far is thirty billion dollars and the end is not yet.
---   College officials say there is not too much wrong in the morals of their schools, even if there were two slayings of late. Both of these murders were caused by too much liquor, and in the eyes of a lot of people a little closer check on student activities might have saved two lives. But like Cain of old we feel, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
---   The head of the home economic division of the Miami university has been sued by her husband, who wants a divorce. Reason: he didn't like her cooking. Women folks have gone daft of late on cakes and cookies, spurred by glamorous advertising. If the lady had paid more attention to stews, roast, johnny cake, beef steak and onions, soups and pancakes, he would be eating out of her hand instead of eating alone.
---   The great seal of the United States is decidedly out of date. To be in line in 1950, the eagle should be supplanted by a pair of naked female legs pointing upwards, flanked by beef steaks, a fringe of cigarettes, dotted with fried chicken, and a base of new shiny automobiles surrounded by a lake of gasoline.
---   A Minneapolis groceryman pled guilty last week to an indecent assault on an 11 year old girl. He also admitted that he had been too familiar with ten other teen agers and some of the women folks that traded at his store, testified that he was over amorous. Judge Frank Reed gave him the green light. He sentenced him to five years in jail, but suspended the sentence and turned him over to the mental doctor, a sentence the judge should have given himself. The judge should have given him the choice of submitting to an operation or ten years in the pen. Anyway, if the judge was going to turn him loose he should have made him wear a ring in his nose. Two following the above trial, encouraged by the helpful attitude of the judge, another Minneapolis man kidnapped a 12 year old girl for indecent purposes. Did you ever stop to think that if two black men had committed those crimes there would have been blood on some of the city's streets last wee.
---   The dairymen are making the fight of their lives in Washington. The oleo bill is up and the milk and butter men are fighting it tooth for nail. For years, newspapers and magazines have been full of virtues of oleo. The radio lanes sing its praises. In our own state it occupies the best radio spot, in the noon hour, and from the kind words said one gets the impression that oleo is the only thing that you can fry potatoes in without getting a hear burn, and from the small amount of space used in newspapers and on the radio by the milk folks, one could not be blamed from assuming that the oleo folks are right. What the cow needs is a bunch of guys that will get out and tell the people how much she means to the human race.
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   January 19, 1950
   One interesting thing of the conventions held in Minnesota is that of the county fair association and the state fair meet. Here gather representatives from every fair in the state to discuss their problems and secure attractions for the coming fair. The convention was held at the Radisson hotel last week, and over fifty firms and individuals were there to display their wares. There were over three hundred acts to choose from, ranging from the latest European importations to the humble dog and pony act. As in every line of endeavor there is a constant change in these programs and acts. What thrilled the fair goers twenty years ago are out of date and these agents and producers are striving for something new. One of the biggest acts to be presented is an ice skating act. This form of entertainment is now available for county fairs, providing they can stand the pressure. This new act provides all the glamour and thrills of the Ice Follies, etc. on a rink in front of the grandstand. The rink is 20x40 and is made of real ice. The ice comes in solid blocks of a foot square, and by a series of pipes and chemicals is made solid and firm, and it lasts through the show in sunshine or rainy days. Big motors keep manufacturing ice through the entire performance. Ice skating is perhaps the most popular attraction of the day. At present the act is a little high for the average county fair, as it costs $8,500 for the three days. This ice show worked through the big Railroad show at Chicago last season. There were agents with trained elephants, lions, tigers, rodeo men by the score, hot rod, stock auto and midge auto racers. No amusement feature was omitted. Another new one was a lad from Florida. He is a bull whip artists and while standing on his head cuts sheets of paper to shreds with a fifteen foot bull whip. Jay Gould was there with his circus. Quite an original promoter is Jay. He worked in Illinois last season. Saw a bill where the six churches went in with him on putting on a show on Memorial Day. Trotting races are fast running out of the picture. Several county fairs are dropping them this season. One thing surprised us was that no delegation appeared before the state fair resolution committee to protest the dropping of harness races. The harness people are partly to blame. The jockeying at the wire with its many fake starts does not fit in well in this rapid atomic age. There will be fewer girl revue shows this season. Folks are getting tired of looking at a bunch of dancers and singers, even though they wear glittering costumes. Too often, instead of a group of professional dancers the chorus is generally a bunch of high school girls. An old standby and one that always proves satisfactory are the fire works. This feature was hampered by the war but is on its way back. More attention is being paid to the evening shows instead of the afternoon program, due to the fact that people are becoming more night conscious as the years go by. Dr. J. O. Christianson of the state extension division was the main speaker at the banquet. We have heard him three or four times, and like wine he improves as the years go by. A sound thinker, a patriotic American and a keen observer, Christianson always brings a message that makes audiences talk. The annual state fair election was more like an afternoon tea party than anything else. No auto engine buried in oil ever ran smoother, and verbal medals were scattered around like leaves in autumn. Some were almost round shouldered as they blushingly carried these medals. It was a tragic change from the days when Col. Wilkinson, John Furlong, Frank Murphy, etc. were on earth. The election in those days was the main event, and the language used during the nominating and seconding speeches ran from excitation to vitriolic as they fought and bled for their different candidates. What there was about the state fair elections that drew men in wordly battle is hard to understand now. All they fought for was glory and power. Remember when one candidate hired two full floors in a Minneapolis hotel in which he housed his delegates, and then was defeated. Another time the Minneapolis Journal got in bad. It went out on a limb for C. P. Craig of Duluth, a candidate for president. It got out a special edition, but unfortunately it got to the convention just as the delegates were going to vote and what a Roman holiday those early orators made of it. Mr. Craig was naturally defeated that election, but he succeeded in a few years after.
---   Over in Germany a German judge sentenced the widow of the late Ludendorf, big man in World War I, to an unusual sentence last week. The widow, with Nazi leanings, is an author and did a lot of writing at the start of the last war. She is 72 years old and instead of giving her the usual ten year sentence he sentenced her to do "low" type of work for two years: what could be lower than a writer?
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January 26, 1950
   Wonder how many of our readers can remember the old custom of turning the plates upside down when the table was set for a meal. The Roamer saw it first at Kasota in 1883 and for many years thereafter, but the custom soon disappeared. We thought it was on account of the dust storms but on reading the "Life of Johnny Appleseed" recently, we found that the custom was in vogue in the revolutionary war period. Still wonder what started the habit.
---   In these days of subsides, appropriations and parities the towns in Minnesota are overlooking a good bet. The movement is gradually growing in this state for sewage disposal plants in every town to prevent the pollution of public waters. To put in these plants according to the state board of health plans would almost bankrupt many villages. The installation of these plants would mean an absolute halt in plans for improved and enlarged school facilities. The League of Municipalities and our representatives in Washington should immediately take steps to secure a federal grant to help the villages in these projects. The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build dams to put more land under cultivation, in a country already filled to the bursting point with grain. Why not use some of this money to aid the villages and promote better health?
---   Hiss was found guilty as anticipated. He lived in the days when it was popular to be, not red, but pink, and this color seems as hard to remove as pink lip stick smudge from a white shirt collar.
---   The curt dismissal of Admiral Louis Denfield, head of U.S. naval operations, is nothing new in American history. Back in the revolutionary days when the young American navy was in sore straits, a young sea captain offered his services. He proved to be the right man in the right place. With a small fleet of vessels he singed the beard of John Bull, capturing a lot of prizes, ending up with a sea battle in which his "Bon Homme Richard" defeated the "Serapis," which brought glory and inspiration to the budding nation. After the war he went to Washington and asked for another ship or his back pay. The politicians told him there was no money, but to go to France and collect the money due on ships that he captured. He did, and when he had collected the money, he received another message ordering him to give the money over to "our" French ambassador, who by the way was Thomas Jefferson, and who used the money to pay his own and the salary of other diplomats. Disgusted, he never returned to his adopted country and for years his body lay in an almost unknown grave in Paris. In 1905 the body of John Paul Jones was returned to the U.S. by a "grateful" nation, and given one of the most magnificent tombs in all America. (What a lot of satisfaction that must have been to Jones.) Political minds in Washington seem to run in the same channel as they did one hundred and seventy years ago.
---   Heard in the Corridors (these items from the state fair meet were crowded out last week)--Not one in fifty delegates favored five billion dollar deficits--a large majority looked for a decrease in farm products this year--if the oleo bill passes, it's going to hurt the Trumanites in the coming congressional elections in the rural districts--the democrats have a good chance to win the governorship in Minnesota this coming fall, if they can get the right candidate--unless the republicans have some outstanding candidates this fall the going for the elephant is going to be tough and somewhat muddy--the state house dissension is not healing--the governor threw a few barbs about "boards" that would have sounded better if left unsaid--the old county fair with its gambling games and hootch shows is a thing of the past--so is the old bunch of delegates--"Sweet Genevieve" that was heard far into the early morning hours is a thing of the past: never heard it once.
---   Ninety per cent of the towns in southwestern Minnesota have raised their water rates in the past year. The added expense of our water supply will eventually compel the local village council to advance the rates here: the rates have never been changed in the last thirty years.
---   Just why the powers that be at Washington do not invoke the Taft-Hartley law is a mystery. If it's so good now's the time to show it up. In these broad minded civil rights, equal franchise, etc. days, there are men that would rather see the country go to heck than invoke a good law passed by the other party.
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February 2, 1950
   Out in California a woman secured her divorce last week. Her husband, after a night with the boys, would wake her up when he got home and ask her if she was angry. That guy was too dumb to get into a mental hospital.
---   Motorist Roy Smith of Detroit, Mich. drove up to an oil station for some gas. His wife hopped out for the rest room. He paid for the gas and drove away. Thirty miles away a speeding cop overtook him and told him of his loss. He drove sadly back. Evidently it was not his lucky day. We'll bet he turned off the car heater when his better half got back into the car.
---   Over in Germany a German judge sentenced the widow of the late Ludendorf, big military shot in Germany. The widow had intensive Nazi leanings and wrote for magazines and newspapers. She is seventy-two years old, and instead of giving her the usual sentence he ordered her to do "Low Type" work for the next two years. What could be lower than a writer?
---   Some folks are beefing because the census jobs are going to the democrats. When the republicans were in power the jobs went to the faithful elephant assistants. In this country the spoils belong to the victors even if more efficient enumerators could be secured outside of the party.
---   It pays to advertise. During the Indian outbreak here in 1862, a young fellow by the name of Brown rode down the Minnesota river for sixty miles in a country where well-armed Indians lurked in every thicket, and warned the settlers of the outbreak. A man by the name of Paul Revere rode twenty miles warning the citizens that the heavy footed marching British were on the move. Acclaimed as a hero, he was lauded in poetry and story. After the ride was over Paul Revere put in his bill to the town fathers for the trip and was paid. Brown sleeps today in a nameless grave: such is fame.
---   The members of the local Auxiliary decided at a recent meeting that they would not sponsor the coming Red Cross drive. If ever an organization in this village was ever entitled to a badge of merit it is the local Auxiliary. For the last thirty years they have carried the load in civic endeavor, the last drive being the Community Chest drive, and some of the members felt that it would not be sincere in handling other drives except in the case of a national emergency.
---   By all means, the government should start on the hydrogen bomb: it will do us a bit of good mentally.
---   Folks today seem to be more warm blooded than they were in the old days. Fifty years ago, everyone wore heavy arctics; some had five or six buckles on them. You never see them now. Everybody wore heavy union suits: men, women and even the school ma'ams wore 'em. (We know because we worked in a country store then.) Men wore fur caps that tied under the chin or heavy Scotch caps; heavy leather mitts or the big buckskin mitts were worn: very few gloves. Big, heavy fur coats running from buffalo coats to scrawny affairs made of wolf or dog skin. Big mufflers were as common as chewing gum is today. We must have been a tender lot. Wednesday, two young women walked to work with bare legs when it was 27 below zero, and across the street we watched a young man shoveling snow bare headed and he was wearing oxfords. And here we've been telling you for years about the hard winters of the early days.
---   Newspapermen in the seventh district are congratulating D. W. Johnson on his election to the post of third vice president of the Minnesota Editorial Association. "Bill," as he is better known among the craft, is one editor who always has his conscience with him when he writes.
---   After a fair trial, Hiss was found guilty of lying. Federal Judge Warren Goddard said to the jury, "I think you have rendered a just verdict," and he was one man who heard every bit of testimony. But neither the jury or the judge were right in the eyes of several high officials in Washington, D.C. who evidently have but little respect for our government. Acheson, the secretary of state, was bitter in his criticism of the case, even going so far as to bring in the Scriptures. While he was in the Good Book he should have said something about Judas Iscariot. Even syrupy Eleanor Roosevelt stuck in her jib and intimated that the jury and judge were nuts. Time was when Eleanor was hovering too close to the pinks and the late F. D. had to take away the green light.
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February 9, 1950
   Our long cold spell was broken last Saturday, and by Monday even the woodpeckers were paying us a visit. So far we have had a fine winter. No severe snow storms, no sleet storms with icy pavements, no delay in school busses, rural mails or evening papers. We have a severe storm yet, but up to date most of the folks are satisfied with the winter of '49-'50.
---   There's a lot of bunk connected with the operations to aid the snowbound in North Dakota. What kind of people do they have up there? They experienced a severe winter last year, but instead of stocking up with food for the winter months they still kept up the daily or weekly trip to the stores. In the early days in this county, the early settlers prepared for the winter. They got a load of flour from Currie in the fall and while there they stocked up with the necessary groceries, killed a coupl of steers and with well filled root cellars lived through winters as bitter as any in North Dakota. There were no radios, no airplanes, no "weasels," no army corps to aid them. They just stuck it out. There seems to be too much outside propaganda in this snow business. Gov. Aandahl of North Dakota said last week that distress calls to his office were limited to only one county.
---   Here's something that will be hard for some folks to believe. For generations we've been told about George Washington being first in peace, first in war and first in the hearts of his countrymen. But the record is different. Washington ran for president twice, but in neither election did he have a majority of electoral votes. There were no parties in 1789. The electors numbered 142 and Washington received 69. In 1792 there were two parties, Federal and Anti-Federal. There were 267 electors that year and Washington received 132. In these elections the candidate that had the most votes won.
---   Mary Flannery writes us that she has a new thermometer that is very interesting. She has a big woolly Brazilian caterpillar in a glass vial. When the beastie starts crawling up the vial it takes the mercury with it. Mary is a deep student of natural history. She reclassified the box-elder bugs last fall as "Democrats," there were so many of them, she said.
---   They had a big fight up at Minneota two weeks ago over a special election voting on a municipal light plant. Statements were made that should not have been made. The council got mad and from now on no more proceedings of the village council will be published in the local paper. If you want to read about how your money is being spent in Minneota you'll have to hunt up the village clerk. Whenever a council assumes that attitude a lot of folks say, "What are they trying to cover up."
---   Four hundred million dollars sunk in potatoes in the last two years is the record made by your Uncle Sam. Hard to believe, but a hard headed committee of senators, both Democrats and Republicans, when asked by Secy. Brannan did not have any idea. They evidently consented to the destruction of the spuds and that's what is happening to them right now. Potatoes are colored blue so as to make them "unfit for human consumption" and over in Wisconsin the Indians said in Madison, "We are appealing to you for aid, we need food, we are starving." Your Uncle Sam needs a new hearing as well as a trial of the Brannan plan.
---   When one thinks of the many characters represented by Ingrid Bergman in days gone by, one cannot help but feel she betrayed every character she every portrayed. Few women have sunk as low. Actress Gypsy Rose Lee was a hunk of virtue compared to this woman. Flagrantly and bodily she broke commandments and laws as though they never existed. But is the average American who loves to talk and prattle about American womanhood and belongs to "Decent Pictures" organizations that will throng the movies whenever her movies come along.
---   Free Advice:--for men only. Should you get hit with this new intestinal flu bug, bear in mind it can be mighty inconvenient for you. It strikes you right on the button without a moment's warning, and when the zero second-had strikes, grab a cream can and a pail and head for the bathroom, shedding your uppers and lowers along the way. If you make it, stand by for a major upheaval. That bug has more kick than a jet rocket. You stand or sit as the opportunity arrives, and retch, surge and shiver till you feel like the old Mo being pushed around by tugs. The bug is a two-headed contraption and works both fore and aft. When it's all over you're as clean as if you had been before Golling and his public examiners for two weeks, and you're as limp as a wet rag. Next morning, still weak with a temp of 99, and the next morning you are out again: don't forget the cream can.
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February 16, 1950
   Sixty years ago the initials of the greatest fighter in the United States were the same as the greatest fighter in the country today.
---   Those folks who are continually harping for higher taxes on iron ore may sooner than they think kill the goose that lays the iron eggs. If the steel industry ever pulls out for fields in South American and Greenland, northern Minnesota's iron range will become a land of ghost towns.
---   Farm moving time will soon be here, and farmers and movers should remember that all horse drawn vehicles and tractors must display a red light at the rear of the vehicle, that must be visible for at least 500 feet. That's the law. And don't try to get around it by displaying a white light on the rear of the vehicle as that will cost another hundred bucks. This law was passed for the safety of the mover and the unwary auto driver.
---   If your Pilot fails to show up, don't blame Rodney Smith. A post office inspector went over his subscription list a short time ago, and drew a red line through all the names that were over a year in arrears. Perhaps that's the reason you failed to get your paper. Send him the amount due and the paper will come regularly.
---   Gasoline dropped two cents a gallon in the Twin Cities last week. That's the date the congressional committee was to start investigating the price. Hope the committee will start on fuel oil next week. A fuel oil reduction in July availeth but little.
---   The baseball league of the First Night League will be an eight-team affair this summer. The new members are Sibley, Iowa and Fulda. This assures the baseball fans of a fine article of ball this year: one that will bring aching hearts and slim pocket books to some. Baseball is one game where many a fan bets his sentiment.
---   One of the greatest changes in the past years has come to grandmothers. Once upon a time they were the real foundation of the family: the human cement that bound the group family together. When trouble arose, especially in her daughter's family, the kindly gentle influence bound up the wounds, and her presence brought solace and comfort to the aching hearts of so many a young couple with small children. Modern civilization has changed the status of Grandma. In many a home she is not wanted. The homes of today have no room for Grandma. She is shifted about from one to the other until the break comes and grandmother soon finds herself in an old ladies home and sometimes, we regret to say, in a mental institution. What about Grandpa? Statistics say that the old gent had been called home five years previous. Several years ago an old German farmer told us, "I raised a family of twelve children, but the twelve children can't keep me."
---   The county commissioners of Douglas county are firmly convinced that it pays to advertise. A few years ago the board discontinued the publishing the names of those receiving county relief. What happened? The total rose from $12,000 to over $30,000. Now the board is going to resume the names of the persons receiving relief. In the old days this would have come under what was called "pitiless publicity."
---   Farmers in Minnesota will have to cut their corn acreage 24 per cent if they want to stay in the present parity plan. This will mean quite a drop in production. Every fourth acre will have to remain idle, that is corn land. And still many a farmer is opposed to the Brannan plan as it would regiment the farmer.
---   It must have been irksome for President Truman to use the Taft-Hartley law as the only legal weapon to combat Lewis and his associates. This is the measure that the majority of union labor leaders said was the most vicious ever passed. Yet there are some loyal union men, like brakemen, firemen and locomotive engineers, laid off on account of the lack of coal, that must be pleased that there is a Taft-Hartley law. As a campaign slogan "The Taft-Hartley Law" will be among the missing in the coming campaign.
---   During the dark days of the last war, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met several times to discuss the problems of war. In these dark days of peace, it might be just as helpful if Truman and Stalin would get together for a common-sense talk instead of going around with a chip on their shoulders and snarling at one another. Some day this wild armament race will stop.
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February 23, 1950
   The railroads did not lose any sleep over the coal shortage. Trains have been taken off that will never go back. For years the roads have been petitioning commissions to cancel trains that were running at a loss. They're off now: the Omaha even took off the Diesel train between Worthington and Mitchell.
---   Well, the Arkansas bond deal is closed and the state of Minnesota made several hundred thousand dollars on the deal. But it ended in no hits and no runs for either side: the errors seem to have been made by disgruntled bond dealers in Minneapolis.
---   South Dakota has quit coddling the brutes in men form that moles little girls and then kill them. From now on these devils have a one-way ticket to the electric chair. The state should have gone just a little bit farther and passed a law prohibiting parole boards from assuming any jurisdiction over rapists.
---   It looks like when we were busy capturing Italy in the last war, the Dagos were busy in the U.S. capturing our cities. Men of this nationality have seized command of every racket in the United States. Time was when these birds got too strong in New Orleans: they were more powerful than the law, and the citizens got het up and hung a bunch of them. Italy got made about her citizens and the U.S. paid over $8,000 a head for racketeers that were hung to preserve law, order and decency.
---   Up in Duluth two weeks ago, a U.S. revenue agent sued a doctor and got a judgement for $25,000. The doctor was charged with stealing the affections of the revenuers wife. Quite a hunk of money to pay for something that evidently never existed. How will the revenue man list it in his income tax report. Will it go in the depreciation or profit column.
---   The demand for the publication of real estate taxes is growing in Minnesota, and a bill will introduced at the next session of the legislature to provide for the amount of taxes paid on real estate. It is argued that the publication would tend towards the equalization of taxes. As long as you can see what your neighbor pays you're happy--providing he is in line with yours. After all, all the equalization tax boards will never be satisfactory to everyone. Ever since Jacob tended his flocks on the hills of Judea, taxation has been a problem and will continue until the hydrogen bomb makes all property values equal.
---   Jay Jackson, former editor of the Ruthton Tribune, was laid to rest last Saturday. Jay belonged to the pioneer country editor tribe, one that helped settle and develop the prairie territories. Braving the droughts and the blizzards and the hardships, these men entered the territories right on the heels of the sturdy pioneers. With a cigar box of type, a hand press and a hat full of brains and energy they made country towns in the old days. Their work is done. Jay was one of that type of man. Not perfect was Jay, he would not like to be called that, but his faults were buried deep under the life time of service he gave Ruthton, a town that he loved passionately. He helped lead the way for better schools, roads, parks and water works in the days when it was not always pleasant for him. His endeavors to boost his town brought him a loss financially at times because there was then, as there always will be, those that are opposed to progress. But Jay kept on: never even hesitated, and the group of fine men and women that attended his funeral services was evidence that those he worked with were humbly grateful for Jay's deeds when he was in the harness.
---   A Movie Man With A Conscience In answer to an item in this column anent the Ingrid Bergman journey into indecency, he writes: "Dear Bob: As long as I do the booking and buying for both Murray county theatres--The "Murray" and the "Fulda," "Strombolio" will not be shown in Murray county. I will never run another Bergman picture. Too much is too much. D. G. Rauenhorst, Slayton, Minn. There is not a church or a school in Murray county that should not congratulate Mr. Rauenhorst for his stand for decency.
---   Ralph Hart and Kittie Forrest are retiring from management of the Pipestone Star. The Hart family has been associated with Pipestone ever since there was a Pipestone, Isaac Hart bringing his press and type by horse and wagon by way of Luverne. The Star has twinkled brilliantly for over seventy years and covers the county of Pipestone like a blanket. Younger members of the Hart family are taking over the management.
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   March 2, 1950
   Minnesota has too many one room schools: the fifth largest in the United States, and most of them have less than nineteen pupils. Can the other 42 states be wrong. This state does not stand too high in educational standards. Neither does your county of Murray. It can't be on account of teachers' wages. Even back in 1947 Murray county was paying higher salaries to rural teachers than sixty-five other counties in the state. Our average for country teachers that year was $189.00 a month.
---   The U.S. Coast Guard cutter "Minnetonka," patrolling Pacific waters, had a seaman stricken with appendicitis. His condition was serious and the captain radioed the big luxury Matson "Lurline" for help. The big liner hauled up close to the "Minnetonka" and a doctor was hustled aboard, and performed the operation that saved the seaman's life. Who was the doctor? It was Dr. Earl R. Lowe of So. St. Paul, a son of Alex Lowe, early Murray county pioneer. Earl was born in Hadley, and we remember him as a kid when he was peddling through the country with an obsolete buggy and a decrepit old nag, gathering rubbers, antiques, brass and copper to make money so that he could attend school.
---   An error of one figure last week made the number attending the Lutheran parsonage open house as six hundred when it should have been three hundred. After all, numbers don't count. It is the numbers of people that are truly interested that count. A Chicago gangster always has a bigger funeral than a Chicago mayor or any other civic leader.
---   A British workman, in company with his group, went on strike and his hours were cut down. Last week he appeared at the factory and asked to work more hours. The inclination of mankind and sometimes womankind is to spend more money when they have leisure time (excluding old folks). Evidently the Home Sweet Home sign at the factory worker's house had been torn down.
---   Harry Lauder, who sang "Roamin' in the Gloaming" into the hears of millions of people, died in Scotland last wee. Not a great man by the world's standards of today. He was a singer with the gift to handle songs as Will Rogers did prose. "Roamin' in the Gloaming" has a lilt and a swing, it carries with it the scent of the heather and memories of the glens, burns and scones of old Scotia. Harry has gone beyond the gloaming, into the land of his dreams, far away from the bonny banks of Clyde.
---   Wisconsin folks will try to get a bill through the next legislature that would turn over five per cent of monies collected from liquor taxation for the treatment of alcoholics: good sensible law, a sort of a hair from the dog that bit you cure.
---   Can't blame the coal miners for striking for a contract. Men that work in such hazardous work should have a contract for at least 200 days a year. But miners should remember that they are helping cut down the consumption of coal: more and more of the people are turning to oil and gas.
---   Mountain Lake voters carried a $20,000 bond issue last week by a vote of 220 to 24. In every special bond election in the past few years the ayes have carried by whopping majorities. Folks today are in favor of getting the best education possible for the youngsters.
---   Seventy years ago the Pipestone Star carried the following item on February 19th: "The leaders of the Scotch colony who were expected last week have been delayed but will be here in a short time." This was the vanguard of thirty families that settled in the territory north east of Woodstock to the north of Lake Wilson. A number of the families could not stand the bitter winters of the early days and returned to Scotland. Of this settlement only members of the Pattinson and Forrest families are still living in Murray county.
---   Here's some weather notes: last year the thermometer never went below zero in the month of March. The coldest March recording was 27 below in 1948. The warmest recorded was on March 23rd, 1910 when the mercury soared to 83. March consumes 13 per cent of your fuel. We may be getting new spring, but those blustery March winds seep to creep into the house.
---   If the government wants to cut down the deficit it should start taxing political speeches. We're going to have a lot of them in the months to come.
---   The cut in corn production does not set very well with the man that is feeding cattle, and most of them will not sign up this year.
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   March 9, 1950
   Three weeks ago stalwart women were striding through the halls of congress demanding equal rights with men. Last week at Glencoe, woman was a broken reed, a faded lily and a clinging vine, and she pulled out all the stops in an effort to clear herself from a charge of murder. Her act was simply superb: she sobbed, moaned like a dying calf, mopping up floods of tears and walked out of the courtroom free by order of the judge, who used the Stalin method, taking the case from the jury which had listened to the sordid love affair between a man and a woman. It was the old, old story, as old as time itself. The passions of mankind and womankind have at times been hard to curb or control. In this case the woman, who by her own admission is not in the amateur class, was a willing partner in the program that led to the death of the Hutchinson attorney. To say it mildly, he was a man about town with a yen for doing things he should not do. She was a woman looking for free drinks and dinners, and the inevitable happened. Jones evidently tired of her; then the Green Eyed Monster crept into her mind and with fire in her eyes and a gun in her handbag she started for Hutchinson. She visited his office. There was a scuffle. The gun was discharge and last week she said that Jones had shot himself. He naturally could not give any testimony and that was that. One woman said, "She could not be guilty, she swore that she did not kill him." What did you expect her to say. This case is a warning to those who dawdle along the Primrose path at times. Many men and women who have no evil intention, just a little fun, find that the mud along the Primrose path sticks like gumbo. The woman was freed, but after the trial a relative burst into Judge Moriarty's office and shouted this annoying question, "How can you, a political judge, declare that Jones is the father of the unborn babe?" The sheriff promptly ushered the guy out. Lessons are, "The Wages of Sin are Death," and "Don't try to keep up with the Joneses."
---   Two weeks ago we saw some kids shoveling the snow from the ice so they could skate. Last week over at Sturgis, S.D. a school teacher was acquitted by a jury for chastising an 18 year old boy who wanted to bust out of the schoolhouse: signs of returning normalcy.
---   When folks in the sticks read of the everlasting strikes and raises in wages in the east, they begin to feel like Moses did when he said, "How Long O Lord, How Long."
---   Talking to a South Dakota farmer last week. He said he was sort of dizzy wondering about the dams being built in that state to put more farm lands in cultivation, and in the same issue of the paper was an order to curtail crops.
---   Youngdahl set his troupe of Golling's trained blood hounds on the trail of the board of investment over their actions on the Arkansas bond deals. The found "obvious" sections in the minutes, but could not discover where any member had received any money unlawfully. Why all the fuss?
---   The coal strike is over. It will not cost the mine owners a cent. You, Mr. soft coal user, will foot the bill as usual.
---   The people should send more intelligent congressmen to Washington. It takes millions of dollars to show them how to vote--that is according to the organizations that maintain lobbies. The most expensive lobby the past y ear has been the American Medical Association. It's lobbyists spent $1,434,000. That should have given every congressman and every senator a post-graduate course.
---   Telephone rates are going to be increased soon. Silence from now on will be a sort of an economic virtue.
---   Square dances are part of our school program these days, and it is a fine idea. They soon will be taking up the cakewalk. Remember when the Roamer and Time Whitney won a prize for cake walking at Slayton: but that was back in the good old days, when life was young.
---   The case of the spy Fuchs runs parallel with the Hungarian spy trials. The prisoners in each case pled guilty. Evidently John Bull must have got hold of some of the Hungarian methods that are being used against political offenders.
---   Spring came, at least part of it arrived here Saturday and Sunday, and the snow melted rapidly. Birds have already started their migration north and folks are ordering their garden seeds.
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   March 16, 1950
   Minneapolis folks gave a testimonial dinner last night for Cedric Adams and he well deserves it. He has done more to publicize Minneapolis and Minnesota than any other man in the state.
---   Just why J. Edgar Hoover has never been mentioned for president is a mystery. In a recent poll for efficiency he received 88 per cent of the republican votes and 77 of the democrat votes. Only two per cent of the people interviewed had no faith in him.
---   In spite of all the shouting, cheering and political propaganda spread after elections, it might interest you to know that President Truman did not receive a majority of the votes at the last presidential election.
---   Lake Wilson folks bow in appreciation to Carl Knapp and son Russell of Slayton. The light and power went off at five o'clock during the blizzard on Tuesday night of last week. Folks that needed power for furnaces and juice for cooking and other motors were beginning to fidget and worry. The outlook was bad, the visibility was about fifty feet, when Carl and his son left Slayton at seven o'clock. They arrived here when the storm was at its very worst. The little truck crawled down the narrow road from the village to the sub-station a mile south. Swirling snow faced them. The only aid they had was the strip of weeds at the roadside. At the end they found the stiff wind had blow the telephone booth up into some of the wires. Carl worked twenty-five minutes in the bitter blinding wind and snow, got it fixed and started back to Lake Wilson, facing the wind, moving at a snail's pace. We want you to know, Carl Knapp and son, that the Lake Wilson folks deeply appreciate the service you gave us: a continuation of the Northern States Power Co. service that we have enjoyed for years.
---   At the 75th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Peters of Heron Lake last week, Mrs. Peters was asked, "How do you account for the longevity of you and your husband?" She answered sweetly, "I always let my husband have his own way." So girls, if you want that man of yours to live a long time, don't try to boss him.
---   A South Dakota man sued an osteopath doctor for $60,000 for stealing his wife's affections and the things that go with it. The jury evidently looked on the deal as a sort of give-away contest where one gets a lot of stuff he can't use, and the income tax that generally takes all the cash. So instead of worrying the poor man with a lot of financial matters, it acquitted the doctor.
---   Quit worrying about that income tax of yours. It's too late, so just figure out the penalty and send it in to Uncle Sam along with the tax.
---   Sportsmen sustained a severe loss in the storm of last week. Blizzards of that high wind velocity take a heavy toll of pheasants. Snow gets in their eyes and feathers, and the strong winds roll them over the prairie until they are exhausted. Farmers tell of many dead birds around their buildings. Some day the sportsmen or the state will rent a half an acre or so from the farmers and construct a shelter belt that will help stay the heavy loss to game birds.
---   Prospecting for oil in Watonwan county will be resumed in the spring. The state of Minnesota should do everything in its power to aid in the work to secure this modern fuel. Hundreds of homes and other buildings in the state are at the mercy of the oil producers of the southern states, and who knows how soon they'll take up where John L. Lewis left off.
---   The game of Canasta is sweeping over the nation and is making inroads in the high-hat game known as bridge. Naturally some of the devotees who belong to the bridge union look sneeringly at the new game, referring to it as a kids' game, in which holding wild cards is all there is to it. Never heard of anyone bidding a grand slam or even a small slam in bridge without having an ace. When you see the gals coming home from a bridge party, with a dainty gift under their elbows that never fails to be dubbed "cute," you can tell that they were not holding treys or fours all afternoon.
---   Here's a tip for sales people to remember. At the Independent Lumbermen's Association meeting in Minneapolis last week the problem came up, "Why do customers quit our store?" An investigator was on hand. He said twenty per cent leave on account of prices, 36 per cent for various other reasons and forty-four per cent on account of the sales force: a pleasing personality in the clerk seems to be the most important factor in business.
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   March 23, 1950
   Have you taken the time to visit the County Memorial hospital at Slayton. You'll be amazed at the amount of work that has been accomplished. There are miles of water pipes and electric wires, and the amount of steel uprights, steel grills and girders will interest you. The building is as near fireproof as man can contrive: only the doors are of wood. Partitions are being put in place and so are the ceilings. The furnace work is well under way, and everything points to August 1st as the day which it will be complete. You paid $340,000 for this building and it's about time you gave it the once over.
---   One of the things that the local school district really needs is a Parent-Teachers association. It would bring the country and the local folks closer together on school matters, as it would be the means of an exchange of ideas and opinions that could be of aid in the developing educational problems in the district.
---   Well, the government has at least found a way to get rid of the potatoe Orgy that has been haunting it for years. If you are in the downtrodden, weary and heavy laden class, the government will ship them to you prepaid. Why not clean up at the beginning instead of at the end: don't plant too darned many.
---   Looks like Senator McCarthy took in too much territory. He should have worked up instead of down. One thing that the investigation has proved: pink was the favorite color of many a budding diplomat several years ago. The state department, by refusing to submit the loyalty records of its employees, has brought many a bitter headline and aching heart to those suspected.
---   See where a New York girl got a judgement against a Minnesota farmer and his wife for inducing their son (her husband) to leave her. Serves the folks right. They had no business sticking their noses into the son's marital affairs: he made his own bed, let him lie in it.
---   We wore a green ribbon for St. Patrick, one of the great Scotsmen of all time. St. Patrick was born at Dunbarton on the Clyde, and when a young man was captured by Irish pirates and carried to Ireland, and later converted the island to Christianity. St. Patrick and the Roamer were born about forty miles apart, but not in the same year.
---   Experts say that only thirty per cent of the people know enough to make out their income tax report. Better start income tax periods in the high schools, and make it a permanent affair as from all accounts we're going to be needing that knowledge for many a generation.
---   How we ever get anything done at Washington is a mystery. Sometimes when bills are being discussed there are not enough senators present to wad a shotgun. Last week a senator called the attention of Vice President Barkley, who was still day-dreaming in the backwash of an almost forgotten honeymoon, that there were only seven senators in the chamber. Bill Sample used to say many years ago, "And you call this a government."
---   "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile" is an old saying that can aptly be applied to the gambling fraternity. The Bingo game law was passed by a recent Minnesota legislature for recreation and church bazaars. The gamblers have made a racket out of it in Minneapolis, and prizes as high as $1,200 are offered. Some widows craving amusement and excitement have lost their homes along the Bingo trail. Bingo gets to be a disease, and there should be some way to crack down on the game.
---   President Truman signed a bill last week that removed all federal taxes on oleomargarine. Minnesota, one of the few states to have a state tax on oleo, no doubt will remove it at the next session. After all, when butter is 68 cents a pound you can't say dairying is a declining industry.
---   Railroads are having a lot of trouble in sparsely settled parts of the country. They want to discontinue passenger trains in sections that bring in nothing but a deficit. Naturally the folks in the towns, who never ride the trains, are fighting mad and want the trains maintained. Why don't the two of them get together and ask Uncle Same to take care of the deficit: everybody else does.
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   March 30, 1950
   What three people should be saved in Minnesota, if there were only room for that many in a bomb cave, has been the $64 question the past two weeks. Most guessers elected 3 noted men. Those guessers or planners are nuts. That's an easier problem than the Minnesota state slogan. The Roamer suggests a sturdy healthy farmer and 2 women, one of which should have a university education. Editors, engineers, scientists, doctors and dentists never start a country or a nation. The farmer always does this job, and when there are enough farmers in the neighborhood the store keeper, the lawyer, dentist and all the rest all flock in. Some of the queasy ones will arch their eyebrows and say, "Two women?" "Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth."
---   Increased chattel mortgages in Murray county, decreasing business in restaurants, ice cream parlors, theatres, and liquor stores might indicate that the leveling off period will soon be with us: the bootstraps must wear out sometime.
---   What has become of the old knee high rubber boot, a "must" in the springs of bygone years. Hardly ever see them now.
---   Can't remember of a tax being paid more cheerfully than the $5 bonus tax for the servicemen and women. They had it coming.
---   Warm days are bringing out the forerunners of a new crop of box-elder bugs. Get the fly swatter and slay every one of them. Experts say that a single box-elder bug will produce over a million bugs in a season, so keep on with the swatter, some day you might get a married one.
---   In the Minneapolis Journal last week a woman, a catty woman, occupied space in the mail bag to flay Cedric Adams and the friends who gave him a testimonial dinner. No man has given more freely of his time and talents for the betterment of humanity, and that reaches into every corner of the state, than Cedric Adams. You'll always find that kind of a dame in every community. Crammed full of jealousy and envy, they just seem to be happy when they are smearing or tearing down. Like the poor, we always seem to have them with us.
---   A well-known writer said the other day, that "The sale of the Alaska territory by Russia to the United States was the biggest blunder in history," in feeling that the Russians were dumb. That guy is all wet. The biggest blunder was made by the top notchers in the United States, including Truman, Eisenhower, the state department, etc. when we in a deal with Russia allotted ourselves a part of Berlin without a road in or out. Ain't those Russians dumb?
---   Why all this bother about selling horse meat? The cleanest animals we have, the sheep and the horse are on the black list when it comes to food in Minnesota. If some of those folks with the tender appetites and tastes would only remember the source of the choice juicy hams, the fried chicken, the roast duck and goose--yeah and even choice creamery butter, from cans of cream which sometimes include mice and rats, they would start eating mutton and horse meat.
---   Hibbing had a real bitter post office fight. The present postmaster, wife of a disabled veteran, was a candidate for re-appointment. She has given splendid service and raised the office standing from 61 to 91. But the job had been promised to someone that had worked for the party. An example of the fairness and squareness of our civil service law. Bet the women folk and the service men up in that section won't take the slap and curl over and go to sleep.
---   Onions skidded to a low mark in Chicago, when they hit a cent a pound. They have the same weapons that women have when things go wrong. They should try their tears on some Washington bureaus. Tears always get results for the feminine sex.
---   Dr. Pierson of Slayton was suggested by an Avoca woman as one of the three men that should be saved in Minnesota when the big bomb raid comes. She said that the genial doctor had done so many dangerous operations for charity. In this hectic day and age when business comes first, any doctor that will do major operations for charity is entitled to a spot in the sun.
---   Down in the state of Mississippi two white men were found guilty of murdering three negro children. The judge surprised everyone by sentencing the men to the pen for life. Actions of this kind will do more the colored race in the south than all the long-winded pink civil right programs.
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   April 6, 1950
   See where a woman is suing her man for a divorce: after three years of married life she discovered that he had one glass eye. Must have been the woman that was blind. Love is blind, they say, but not for three years.
---   Some of the fancy flours, the two- and three-minute kind, the labor-saving sort, are not going so hot these days. Women folks have found weevils, little white crawling things, wandering through the flour when they went to make a hurry-up cake, and a lot of the stuff is coming back to the store keepers. Fresh meat may be high these days, but some are so dainty that they don't want fresh meat with their cake.
---   Sec. of defense Johnson and Eisenhower should get together on what is needed for the defense of the United States. Whatever is needed should be done at once and not talked to death. Let's not be caught with our pants down as we were at Pearl Harbor.
---   Years ago a farmer living north of Lake Wilson (no he wasn't Scotch) bored a hole in a board. All the eggs that went through the hold went to market: the big ones were used in the home. Florida seems to use that same system with her grapefruit. We got a few from Albert Ottilie last week, who spent the winter in Florida. They were thin skinned, sweet as sugar and were 24 inches in circumference and delicious.
---   While northern dairymen are lamenting the abolishing of the federal tax on oleo, up comes Gov. Talmadge from Georgia to Wisconsin last week to buy dairy stock to improve the herds in his native state. Living as he does in an oleo state, he seems to have a lot of faith in the necessity of milk and butter.
---   Most folks think that when they have a state tax title deed for their lot, they have the best deed in the world. Wrong again. A State Tax Title Deed sounds very impressive, but between you and me it ain't worth much. Before you can sell that piece of property and give the buyer an abstract, you've got to go clear back to the very beginning to start clearing up the abstract. Men that owned the property in the days of long ago are dead and you've got to their children and their heirs and get them to sign a quit claim deed. If the property has changed several times, you've got to repeat the operation, up to the present year. A Lake Wilson man recently sold a lot and had to give the buyer and up-to-date abstract. He did, but it cost him over three times the assessed valuation of the lot: seems there should be a new law, etc.
---   The phrase, "It May Be Later Than You Think" is a Stop, Look, Listen and Think sign to those whose face is towards the setting sun. To others not so old it should bring thoughts of the little rifts in friendship caused by indifference, words that should not have been spoken and little things that should have been avoided. "It May Be Later Than You Think."
---   Senator McCarthy may have taken in a bit too much territory, but there are a lot of people that think that where there is so much smoke there must be some fire. From all appearances there may be some smoldering ashes in our state department.
---   "Music hat charms to soothe the human breast," was written by Wm. Congreve in the year 1702, still seems to be true. To the Roamer there is no music like the old hymns. Hymns that have words of meaning and music filled with harmony and uplift. They are full of inspiration and hope.
---   The republicans in Washington should stop their darned nagging at everything said and done, and get busy on a common-sense platform for legislation that will inspire and encourage the humble followers of their party. Folks would rather follow a fighting man with an ideal than one whose sole stock in trade is to nag and abuse: leave the nagging to the women folks.
---   Two weeks ago this column had an item about a Minnesota farmer and his wife who had to pay heavy compensation for butting into his son's affairs. Last Thursday we received a letter from Ewald Nepp of Albert Lea who said he got a kick out of the item because he was a member of the jury when the case was tried in federal court in Minneapolis. The P.S. he added to the letter was encouraging: "I read the Roamins every week and hope you can write until you are 150." Kind words, Ewald, but we don't think we can make it.
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April 13, 1950
  Miss Sally Le Vento of Chicago, a pretty brunette secretary, is being sued by an irate wife for stealing the affections of her husband. Only $50,000 is asked for the affections and good will of this guy. The secretary above mentioned admitted that she had been seeing the gallivanting Casanova nearly every night for four years, but the meetings were platonic, pure and untainted by carnal desires, and it had indeed been a kissless friendship. That ain't the part we're interested in. She might have had halitosis, but there's a lot of guys we know, that would pay real money for the list of excuses the man gave his wife during the four years.
---   Saw a picture the other day of two top pugilists, Graziano was one of them, kissing each other at the end of their fight. Bet John L. Sullivan and Bob Fitzsimmons are reclining face down. First thing you know, those birds will be appearing the ring with knee length white pants, with about three inches of lace at the bottom. This world is surely getting, or is, topsy turvy.
---   The Townsend plan will sooner or later come into being. Pensions from private organizations look good now, but some of them will go broke and where will their pension plan be. The federal postal plan is about the soundest of all pension plans. Some of the officials in the Lake Wilson office pay in $15.00 a month towards their pension. In forty years of service they will contribute $7,200.
---   Five readers of this column have sent in their applications for one-man job in the cave, when the bomb war starts in earnest. More applications are expected this week: the line forms on the right, boys.
---   The railroads are whimpering about the trucks using the paved roads, for what they say is a very minor sum, and that every business should stand on its own feet. Fine sentiments, but Mr. Railroad man, have you forgotten that when the railroads consented to come to Minnesota they demanded and got every other section of land for 5 miles back along their right of way, and after getting that much they demanded bonuses from counties and towns. Pipestone county paid a $30,000 bonus to one company, back in the days when $30,000 was real money.
---   See where the Kansas City police are striving to stop a gangland war. That's one kind of a war that we're in favor of. Why not let those leeches on humanity kill each other? We'd be in favor of giving them the fair grounds free for a battle ground, and if they wanted to fight at night to turn on the lights. Why stifle their ambitions to do a good deed for their country?
---   Something unusual happened last week--North Dakota did not apply to the federal government for aid. Every time it blows or snows up there they start bawling for help. It's got so that now the government will have to add more teats to the cow that has been feeding them for the past two years.
---   The Brannan plan got a good airing at St. Paul last week. It will be the most important item on the political bill-of-far in Minnesota this fall.
---   After reading the testimony of the brutal murder of an Iowa college girl and listening to the verdict of a mediocre hypnotized jury, one gets the idea that justice is not only blind but deaf and dumb, and getting dumber all the time. There was a time when tears were shed for the dead, but that jury just blubbered and sobbed all through the trial for a nervous, high strung, emotional young man, a type of our boasted educational system, that allows the youthful mind to grasp and advance all the crazy ideas that get into their heads. The prisoner was of the rat type: the type that only remembers that there is a God when he gets into a hole. This apologizing for a crime by stating the "Everything went black" is being worked to a frazzle. If you want to murder anyone in these days all you have to do is bump him off and say, "Everything went black." If a girl steps out with this chap (and they will, just think of the thrill they will get), she had better wear a suit of chain armor with a necklace of barb wire, as there might not be a chair in the room.
---   Fulda plans on making good their title as the "Baseball Capitol of the Southwest." To say it mildly, the city of Fulda is inhabited by 100 per cent baseball fans, surrounded by Worthington on the south and Slayton on the north. The Fulda team this year looks better and faster than it did last year. It has a team that will take on anything there is in the state of Minnesota. They have Indian pitchers, colored pitchers and white pitchers this season. They range in height from 6 ft. 8 to 5 feet. Other players in the line up include three from the House of David. It looks like there will be some goings on this summer, in the baseball line.
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   April 20, 1950
   Poultry and eggs had the props taken from them last week, and hogs got the same treatment. This might, if prices go down, curtail production. If prices go up or stay fairly good it would indicate that the "law" of supply and demand would set the prices for several years. Any way you look at it, these separations from parities is going to make some difference in congressional elections next fall.
---   Another big oil field has been discovered in Canada, but that does not mean that gas will be cheaper. The oil industry seems to be able to regulate prices without parities or subsidies.
---   Supreme court judge Henry Peterson is stomping through the state to see how the wind lies. Henry would like to run for governor, but he would have to resign as judge. That $5,000 a year pension looks pretty good to him: politics are so uncertain.
---   A brand new grand jury is working on crime in Kansas City, Mo. They'd better take their records home with them at night.
---   An Albert Lea farm woman who had been messing around with the hired man "went black" last week, put a slug of strychnine in a bottle of whiskey and put it the old man's car with the hope that he would take a shot and be wafted away from all gaiety and sorrow. An innocent bystander, a pal of the farmer, got to the bottle first: he's among the missing now. The woman and her paramour were jailed and accused of murder. Then the woman forgot all about the hired man and took up with her husband again. Next month she'll put on a pair of rubber boots and start shedding tears before a jury. Some women are fickle, some are just plain nuts. Won't they ever hear that there is a scarcity of men in this country?
---   Gov. Youngdahl and Staff King have kissed and made up, good thing for both of them and the republican party in Minnesota.
---   An orchid to President Truman for vetoing the vicious gas bill that sneaked through congress with the help of some republican congressmen. Just why republican congressmen would dodge this bill by being "absent" puts the party in a bad light. There seems to be as much unanimity among the republicans at Washington as there is in a drove of hogs, when you are trying your best to get them through a gate.
---   Some of the smaller towns that put in municipal lighting plants several years ago are doing a lot of worrying. These plants were installed with the argument that power and light would be cheaper. Time has come when the machinery has worn out, and there's no money in the kitty to buy new equipment. The people wanted cheaper power and they got it, forgetting all about the morrow. No arrangements were made for replacement, for that would have made power and light as high as public service companies. One town is seriously considering connecting up with a public service company.
---   Minneapolis hosiery workers are fighting a cut in wages. They only $130.00 a week now. The workers claim that the companies are ganging up to cut their pay to $100.00 a week. They used the same tactics to get the $130.00 a week: sure makes a difference whose ox is gored.
---   Our admiration goes out to the town of Westbrook. The folks over there are building a hospital all on their own, and everybody seems imbued with the community spirit that existed in the pioneer days. Everything that is one in a civic way is built around the hospital. Some residents gave over $2,000 towards the new building. The women folks as usual are doing their part. There are 415 members in the hospital auxiliary society, and they work incessantly for the new project. They are divided up in groups. At one meeting 156 women were present: they sew and knit on materials for the coming patients. These gals are into everything: never a week goes by but what they are doing their part to make a little more for the hospital: you just can't beat community spirit.
---   The school kids that attend Sunny Side school, District no. 81, west of Lake Wilson, while Uncle Sam was so busy feeding the world that he forgot the starving youngsters of the Navajo Indian tribe in New Mexico, took over and sent three boxes of clothing, food and candy. A fine gesture, kids, and we're all proud of you.
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   April 27, 1950
   What the country needs is more cold wars in labor disputes.
---   The stopping of shipping of slot machines and other gambling devices into Minnesota is growing evidence that the decent people of the country look upon them as a running sore in our economic system.
---   Can you remember of anything dropping out of sight so quickly as Ingrid Bergman and "Strombolio?"
---   A Lake Wilson female says there is a crying need for a "Lovers Lane" in the village: spring must be here.
---   Thirty-eight per cent more gasoline was received in Minnesota in the past March than in the same period a year ago: Minnesota is what you might call a going concern.
---   Bankers in the U.S. map out the circus routes each year. They route them according to the prosperity of the various sections. President Truman said last week that all sections of the country were prosperous. Someone is wrong.
---   Did we go off half cocked in the Baltic plane affair? We have no reliable information just where the plane was. If a Russian plane had flown over the U.S. proving grounds for atom bombs and refused to stop, it would be shot down by American fliers without batting an eye. We know so little of real facts that it seems we should follow the Teddy Roosevelt slogan, "Speak softly, but carry a big stick."
---   County politics are beginning to simmer, and the wise one say that at least two county officials will have opposition this fall.
---   Medical scientists assert that if you eat a meager breakfast you reduce your efficiency. A breakfast of eggs, bacon or ham and potatoes, sparked with a bowl of oatmeal, as they did in days of old, would give added power and also tend to reduce the surpluses. In days gone by, farm hands would get breakfast at six and worked until twelve without a let-up or time out for lunch.
---   You've listed to cancer talks and cancer appeals for aid, for years, yet the most important news in regard to cancer was stuck in the inside pages of the dailies last week. A new blood test that is now being given will tell in 98 per cent of the cases if cancer is present. What a blessing this will be to many a man or woman that feel in some way they have cancer. Get your blood tested and that will be one thing less to worry about.
---   See where the government is putting a stop to the one cent sale offered by some drug companies. Free enterprise and rugged individualism must be stifled at any cost.
---   North Dakota has cried "Wolf" so long that it finally arrived, and sections of that state are in a terrible state on account of floods. The government and the Red Cross are assisting as they should do in time of a disaster of this kind.
---   The complaints of the people asking for more economy in the post office department has brought results, and the postmaster general started out last week to cut down that $555,000,000 deficit of last year. The service will be curtailed sharply all over the United States, especially in the larger towns where deliveries will be cut to one daily. It may be that the RFD will be cut to a 2 day service and routes consolidated. Who knows? You asked for economy. Trouble is, everyone wants economy to start with the other guy.
---   Senator McCarthy, while he never will fulfill his early promises to disclose Reds in the government, has stirred up enough stink that the mess smells more like a lutefisk than a puny red herring.
---   The school board at Jeffers last week passed a resolution which read as follows: "Motion made and seconded that we do not hire any new teacher who is a resident of this community." When a board can pass a resolution like that in this day and age it's a sign that teachers can't be as scarce as they were.
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May 4, 1950
   A hundred years ago, Charles Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities." This little story is about two--something else. It involves two of those little "Havens of Rest" that were moored lovingly under the apple trees down by the fence in years gone by, and were cheerfully decorated with Chic Sales designs of crescent, stars, etc. on the door and sides. One of their descendants last year stood on the brow of a hill, a short piece from the backstop at the local baseball park. The wind did it wrong: one stormy afternoon last fall: it was leveled to the ground. Through a comedy of errors it was given to a local man for firewood; he in turn sold it to a farmer for six bucks and a half, for it was a roomy one, one of the old fashioned family affairs with two apertures. The farmer hauled the wreck to his home on Buffalo Ridge, repaired and remodeled it and made into a thing of comfort and service. Come baseball season this year, the baseball lads missed their life saving station. They heard it was out in the country, so half the infield and two outfielders went after "Relief Station No. 1." The farmer had bought the edifice in good faith and was loath to part with it. The boys insisted that it belonged to them. The argument grew pretty hot and finally the meeting adjourned. The next morning a new, second-hand "Mrs. Murphy" was seen on the brink of the little rise, at the ball park. It is a slim, slender silhouette with a tilt that resembles "September Morn," but it was not the old one, the homey one with the intricate carved seat and the art drawings on the back of the door and sides. One where one could sit and meditate, be away from the umpire and look at the pictures in the Sears & Roebuck catalog, and the boys were sad at heart. A cherished memory had been removed from their midst and it is doubtful if the new one will ever make a spot in their hearts, and if the depression lingers they may lose their first game. The Buffalo Ridge farmer, who paid $6.50 for the old wreck and $10.00 for "September Morn" naturally feels that there are better investments in the world than city property. The poor shrinking violet of a "September Morn" weaved in the snow last Saturday looking disconsolate even if she wore a wan smile, as she leaned forward willing to do her best towards a successful season for the Lakers.
---   Typical Judge Moriarty melodrama is holding down the boards at Glencoe. It has all the color and aspects of a deep thrilling tragedy. Threatening letters, armed guards, acrimonious verbal duels between opposing Irish lawyers--all help to make it the leading show in the state this week. The drama lost a consummate actor when Joe took up the legal profession.
---   Harvey Butterfield, urbane and debonair agent for the Omaha, was pouting over an article in McCalls. He said, "Do you know that a woman gives up her social security rights when she gets married?" So what! Look what men give up. Incidentally, Harvey is a bachelor: but he'll know better some day.
---   The butter folks are getting busy after the horse is stolen, and will do some advertising for their product. While butter always will have a place in the stomach of American food eaters, the butter people have stood idly by, while insinuating ads and radio broadcasts inferred that butter had been outmoded. Butter is here to stay as long as there is a slice of bread to spread it on, and a little advertising will only make it more palatable--from a printer's point of view.
---   Lurid and sensational stories swept this section like a prairie fire last week. It was about a group of Worthington boys and a girl in a neighboring village. From what we can learn the girl did not die--there was no inquest--that the boys involved were not all high school boys--that the hush-hush is on--that no one has been arrested--that Worthington unfortunately is getting some acrid criticism--that the probate judge down there should make his talk before things happen--that none of the boys involved in the scrape of a year or so ago are connected with the affair. There are always folks, however, who look for the blackest part of the cloud.
---   There's a movie at Lakefield this week with the title, "Who Wears the Pants?". Sixty years ago that might have been debatable. Today it is not in the $64.00 class.
---   Let's go slower on that Baltic affair. The Roamer remembers when the U.S. went to war because Spain had blown up the Maine, in the harbor of Havana. It was the battle cry of the war that followed. After the war the wreck was raised and it was discovered that it was an inside explosion that had sunk the battleship.
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   May 11, 1950
  Drew Pearson, the columnist of Washington, D.C., predicted that Senator Pepper would carry Florida by a landslide in the recent primary. Pepper lost the state by 70,000 votes: Pearson seems to be taking up where Dr. Gallop left off.
---   The Roamer was evidently misinformed last week as to the actual figures in the story about the Rest Rooms on the baseball grounds, and we wish to make the following corrections in the figures. The farmer on Buffalo Ridge, we are reliably informed, paid $2.00 for the wreckage of the first one, not $6.50. Instead of paying $10.00 for the one on the baseball grounds now, he did not pay one cent. There were no names mentioned in the article and no malice whatsoever intended.
---   Should a boy kiss a girl good night the first time he takes her home is the burning problem presented to Emily Post. That depends on the personality of the girl, not her looks: in the dark all cats are black.
---   At long last President Truman has suggested aid to the small business men that need it. One of the ironical things confronting the small business man is that he pays social security all his business life to all of his employees, and when he is forced to the wall by bad debts, he is out in the cold while his employees bask in the benefits of social security and he has nothing left: some way should be found where he could also receive some sort of security.
---   Will the price of gas and oil go up with the birth of the new oil wells in Canada? It costs time and money to cap some of the unnecessary wells.
---   Emperor Hirohito's daughter married a commoner and a lot of criticism was raised in Japan: with a face like she has, she should be glad to get anybody.
---   J. F. Gould died last week after a long illness. Jay was Game and Fish Commissioner back in the twenties, and was responsible for the installation of the first dam at Lake Shetek to maintain the water levels. Few men had more friends and more enemies. He was in there when the going was tough. Game and fish were slaughtered by the thousands, illegally, and his job was not a pleasant one, as it was his duty to see that game law offenders got their just deserts.
---   One of the few really merry customs left of the old days is the May Day habit of carrying baskets of gifts by the little ones to their friends. The youngsters certainly get a real kick out of making their baskets, then slyly approaching the homes to deposit their tiny gifts.
---   The cold late spring weather means that more corn will be planted in this area than was planned for two months ago, and that a lot more cattle will be fattened next fall.
---   The president has decided to open the files of the state department that pertains to the loyalty of various officials. If this had been done several months ago, and Acheson had kept his mouth shut after the Hiss trial, there would not have been the criticism that there is now.
---   While this section of the state is experiencing one of the worst springs in history, we are really lucky compared to the people in the northern part of the state where flood waters are still doing millions of dollars in damage.
---   There is still thirty inches of ice on many of the lakes in central Minnesota around Walker and Longville. If these conditions obtain in northern Minnesota, the season for lake trout fishing will be a short one this year.
---   Politics are out of the simmering stage are getting close to the boiling point. The two parties are busy with inside strife, but most of that will be cleared up or settled in two or three weeks and way paved for the big race next summer.
---   In the account of the Liz Taylor-Hilton high-toned wedding last Sunday was the following sentence: "On her wedding night Miss Taylor was to wear a white satin nighty and sheer negligee with two pockets of rose point lace over the bosom." What a load that little item lifted from our mind.
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   May 18, 1950
  Why do so many columnists and newspaper writers refer to the ordinary 1 cent mailing card as a "Post Card?" They write and talk blithely about the "Penny Post Card," but you can't buy that kind at any post office. the ordinary 1 cent mailing card is a "Postal Card," not a "Post Card."
---   Some county medical societies that are publishing ads in county newspapers, in regards to the advance of the medical science and other matters, fail to attach the signatures of the members to those ads. When they do this they have lost ninety per cent of the value of their advertising. Murray county doctors add a personal touch of interest when they sign their names to the articles: and anyway it is good to see brethren dwell together in unity.
---   Harry Peterson quit his job as justice of the supreme court last week to run for governor. He has that right, but there must been inducements. Through the dim political haze it looks like a Humphrey job, and no doubt Cousin Harry was in on the deal at the capitol, with a Safety First cushion in case calculations should misfire. Freeman has been dishing out the jobs of late and naturally has a lot of warm friends in the D.F.L. party, and could be hard to beat. Of course, in Minnesota Peterson is always a better name than Freeman around election time.
---   Rumors are beginning to spread about a rift in the Bing Crosby family, and a break in domestic relations is said to be in the offing. Too bad if it is true. Few men in public life have more friends than Bing and his boys. From the pictures we saw of Bing last week while dancing with a French countess, he seemed to be doing real well, if he is all alone in the wicked city.
---   The diesel locomotive firemen, after a Roosevelt and a Truman fact finding board had decided that there was no more need for an extra fireman than for an extra John Lewis, struck anyway. Jesse James may be dead, but his spirit still marches on.
---   Carl Anderson has filed for congress again and from his luck last year should make it. He got more votes in his district last year than Truman did, and that's saying a lot for Harry was riding high in '48. The Brannan plan however may cut some figure in the Seventh district.
---   As anticipated, the senate turned thumbs down on the post office suggestion for economy, and now the postal employees will get their raise. The people of the United States could make, not lose, money on the postal service if the job was subject to a private concern, and the service would be better. But why talk foolishness? Taking the postal department out of politics would be removing the political party in power. For a hundred years the political parties have grafted the post office employees for funds to run the organization and will continue to do so. Economy, phooey, there ain't no such word any more.
---   There are still adventures left in Minnesota. A North Mankato man is drilling for oil near Triumph. He expects to hit oil bearing sands soon. What a wonderful thing it will be for Minnesota when we have our own oil wells. Not that gas will ever be any cheaper--by the way, whatever became of that congressional committee that was investigating the price of gas in Minnesota. The people forgot all about it, and where there's no movement at home there's no action in Washington.
---   The price of muskrats seems to have leveled off. Up in North Dakota last week they sold for fifty cents. Four or five years ago they were bringing around $5.00. Congress will have to lower the luxury tax on the Hudson Seal coats after all.
---   Saw the 1950 edition of the Lake Wilson baseball team in action last Sunday, and it is as streamlined as the Santa Fe Limited. They have life, spirit, ambition and a willingness to take part in a sport for the pure love of it. Their smart thinking got us: three Jasper players got on base in the first inning, one was nipped off 1st, another off 2nd and the third trapped off 3rd. Smart playing, boys: that needs thinking and timing.
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   May 25, 1950
  Emil Dupont, a key man in the big Dupont outfit, married a widow last week with four children. He is about a foot shorter than she, and for looks the back of her head would have made a better picture. Love is getting blinder.
---   Ruthton, thriving village to the north, will soon be without a newspaper according to the editor, who recently moved his family to another town. He says that he has been striving hard to keep the Tribune going, but his time is limited. He has been unable to get a buyer and in his last issue says: "Will the Ruthton Tribune pass into history the same year as its founder, Jay Jackson, passed on?" Smart up-to-date towns like Ruthton just can't afford to be without a paper.
---   Taxpayers who shudder at billion dollar deficits will curdle when they read the inside report of the recent government commission on reorganization. some of the things they found will make your hair curl. Take the army, for instance. It asked for money to modernize 102 more M-26 tanks than it owns. There were proposals to build 910 family houses in Alaska at a cost of $58,350 per house, 828 houses in Guam at a cost of $48,000 a house, and 7,800 houses in the U.S. at a cost of $18,600 each. Some agencies had enough supplies on hand to last fifty years. Excess supplies on hand amounted to over two billion dollars. One hundred thousand employees get over 270 million dollars a year to store and issue supplies. The Hungry Horse dam project asked for $6,000,000. It grew faster than the stalk in "Jack and the Bean Stalk" as the actual cost was 93 million dollars. In one Maryland dairy county there were 88 service employees working with a little over 3,000 farmers. Three million government purchase orders are issued each year for less than $10.00 . The average cost of time and red tape to issue a ten-dollar order far exceeds ten dollars. Shocking, isn't it? Yet who cares? On with the dance and let joy be unconfined.
---   Groucho Marx, most versatile performer on the air waves with his wit, humor and sarcasm entertained millions, but there was one listener that disliked his patter and that was his wife. When he got home from a broadcast she started picking him to pieces for his pert remarks on his program. She picked him to pieces, picking him apart petal by petal as you would a sunflower. Some women assert that right over their better halves, but some of the poor guys can get by, by stalling--Groucho however was out in the open, and she had it word for word. So they parted, and now Groucho does not have to carry his shoes in his hand when he goes to bed.
---   Politics are beginning to bubble in Murray county, and you hear rumors of six or seven candidates for the various county offices. Western Murray county has not had a member in the legislature for the last sixty years, and it is rumored that Dr. G. R. Suedkamp of this village will be a candidate at the primaries.
---   Here's a nice story: we were visiting one afternoon last week with one of the oldest lady residents in the village. Naturally, neighbors came up in the talk. She talked about her neighbors. She said, "Eight children were born and raised to that family across the street, and not one of them ever gave me a sassy word." Nice compliment to pay to your neighbor of thirty-five years. The mother of that fine family is Mrs. Meta Nett.
---   A strange man telephoned Mrs. Catherine Guertin for a date. She turned him down. He was an insistent cuss and called her three more times. She called the police. The poor love-lorn guy was arrested and was held on suspicion of disorderly conduct. Since when did it become disorderly conduct for a man to woo a female?
---   Members of the fourth estate will be pleased to learn that Editor R. G. Shaeffer, editor of the Balaton Press-Tribune who has been confined to his room for the last seven weeks, is able to sit up a little during the day. Gordon has had a hard pull and we wish him continued good health.
---   James H. Bennett, an accountant during the Gov. Benson reign, finished paying his debt to the state last week. Bennett was mixed up in a scandal with Nels W. Elsberg, former state highway commissioner, in a suit in which members of the highway department were accused of gypping the state.
---   Three men spearing fish at the Lake Winnibigoshish dam were fined $100 each. In Minneapolis last week ten men were fined $100 each for drunken driving in which human lives were threatened. Even fish are getting on a par with humans. The old saying, "The Poor Fish" is outmoded.
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   June 1, 1950
  Jack Thompson has sold the Westbrook Sentinel and will take possession of the Adrian Review next week. Jack is a good newspaper man.
---   Seems as if the slot machines that were going to put Youngdahl in the discards two years ago are going to re-elect him in the fall. The sentiment against the one-armed bandits is increasing.
---   Some of the Ruthton business men are fighting to retain their newspaper. Seems like the editor was put out of his apartment and had to move his sickly wife and family to another town. Then he got notice that the building he was in had been rented to another party, so he has been trying to sell without much success. Those Ruthton folks better hold on to the Tribune. If it goes they'll never get another. Starting a newspaper in a small town is something unheard of these days.
---   McCarthy may be a wind bag, but we notice that the State department fired Remington and Lee. They were under a loyalty quiz. Now the forces for good are trying to weed out 3,700 sexual perverts that are in the employ of the government. Too many people look upon this investigation as a political move. It should be of interest to everyone that the government is kept fairly clean. It has never been without disloyalists, sexual perverts, politicians and grafters since the Constitution was adopted, and never will be.
---   Lakefield citizens are surprised and a little depressed over the unofficial census report. The figures show a decrease of 50 in the last ten years. Towns of the Lakefield stamp need not worry. Their efforts in their new hospital building would have been a credit to a town of 4,000. After all, quality not quantity counts.
---   The comic strip plague is growing in intensity. A couple of weeks ago a subscriber of the Minneapolis Journal wrote a letter to the Mail Bag criticising one of the comic strips. Next day the Mail Bag column was full of wrathy subscribers demanding that the darned thing be left in. In fact more letters were written to the Mail Bag over this comic strip than there would be if half the editorial force were fired. Some day some smart daily is going to fill the front page of their papers with comic strips: why should subscribers have to hunt through the paper for their daily sustenance.
---   The two sections of the D.F.L party in Minnesota are waging a real battle for the control of the party in Minnesota and which ever way it goes, it will take a lot of patronage to heal up the sore spots.
---   The government is going to permit another 380,000 displaced persons into the states. The city of New York has been forced to start a W.P.A. project on account of so many unemployed men, to keep them from starving: don't sound like common sense.
---   Shetaky was found not guilty at Glencoe last week. Ever since the trial started the betting was 4 to 1 that he would be set free. the Minneapolis police department received a lot of unfavorable publicity at the trial, that should set the Mill city folks to thinking that there is room for improvement among its police officers.
---   This is about the longest winter we can remember: there's hardly been a day this year that a little artificial heat has not been necessary in the homes.
---   Instead of appropriating millions of dollars for irrigation dams to grow more crops, while the government is putting out a million dollars a day to maintain farm prices, many folks feel that money could better be given to the hospitals and the school districts sadly in need of federal aid.
---   Rosselini and Ingrid were married by proxy in Mexico last week. Evidently they don't do everything by proxy.
---   Was surprised to read in this column last week that "Western Murray county had not had a representative for the last sixty years." Looked funny to us as Cameron had Pat Gildea and Irv Eichhorn, Leeds had John G. Johnson, Alex Lowe and Roy E. York. The first representative from Western Murray county was B. M. Low of Lowville township. Skandia sent Fred Norwood in 1917. Insert the word "Lake Wilson" in lieu of Western Murray county and you'll have what we had intended to write. We must have taken in a little too much territory.
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   June 8, 1950
  For years it has been sort of a tradition that the mayors not vote, except in case of a tie. In Minnesota the mayor can not only vote, but he can make and second motions. Many a mayor has hidden behind the old tradition when a tough problem came up.
---   After all, it don't pay to be a prophet: remember back in March when eighty per cent of the old weather seers were predicting a dry year.
---   The kids of Pipestone are mighty lucky. they have the finest playground layout in this section of the state. A swimming pool that is in a class by itself, fine softball grounds, tennis courts and it is topped off by a fine picnic spot that is crowded during the summer months. A former Murray county man, Dr. W. E. Richardson, was a member of the committee of Pipestone business men that secured the appropriation from the Harmon foundation.
---   The Walnut Grove school board was not discouraged by the defeat at the school election on the $50,000 bond issue. They called for a special election: this time the amount is for $25,000 for new class rooms.
---   Best fishing story we've heard this year is that of the Madison Lake editor who wound up the outboard motor and started for home, dragging the anchor behind him. When he hit the dock he complained that the engine sputtered at times.
---   Looks like Stassen got a real body blow in the recent Pennsylvania election. He backed the wrong man, which will prevent him from getting the delegation to the national convention in 1952. All of which leaves his Minnesota followers up a tree. They can't afford to burn up the prairies for a candidate that can't carry his own state. Like every other delegation, they won't hitch onto a kite that has no tail.
---   Memorial Day time brings memories of the first world war, of the fine action of the late Pete Doyscher. During the depression Pete was commander of the Lake Wilson post. Times were hard and the members were dropping out, so Pete paid the dues for the entire post. A lot of the vets of World War II never heard of this worthy and timely action: the good that men do many times lives after they have gone.
---   Come busting into southwestern Minnesota journalism last week was H. C. Radtke, the new editor of the Westbrook Sentinel. He came in as effervescent as a glass of champagne: bubbling all over with a distinct new style of makeup and story.
---   Even Tracy with a trade mark that is famous all over the southwest has gone modern. This year, "Box Car Day" will be "400 Day," complimentary to the new flash on the Northwestern line.
---   The cool weather of late has given promise for a fine small grain crop in Murray county this season. Corn is doing well and so are the gardens. There's no place as fair as Murray county in June, when it rains.
---   Charley Smith, who lives six miles out in Cameron twp., came to town Friday on his fine riding horse. Charley believes that there is a lot more sociability in a horse than there is in a tractor. There are still a few horses left in this locality, but darned few.
---   "Accident Recovery Chances Improve Over Former Years" headlines an article from the Minnesota Highway Department: it should also state, "Accident Chances Improved Over Former Years."
---   Lured by the high profits of neighboring villages, the Brewster folks bought out the private saloon and now have a "Palace of Sin" of their own.
---   The General Federation of Women's Clubs, alarmed by the ever increasing number of sex offenders, urged life sentences for incurable sex offenders. Something must be done to stop these violations. Life sentences, death or an operation are the answers. Political parole boards the best friends these sex offenders have.
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   June 15, 1950
  Yesterday was the opening day of the coming fall campaign for the election of county officers in Murray county. The filing fees are $10.00, and for that amount you can pick the office you want and start electioneering. Filing closes on August 3rd. After making your campaign and you find that you have not got a chance, you can withdraw your name from the ballot before August 11th. But your $10.00 is gone forever.
---   The senate investigation committee disclosed the fact that there was no shortage of coffee. A group of speculators originated the plan of starting the scare about a coffee shortage. The coffee fiends, fearing that their neighbors would beat them to it, got busy and started running, with the result that the increased demand naturally boomed the price skywards. The greediness of the coffee drinkers was to blame for the high prices. Coffee by the way has decreased 20 per cent in price. This is one time that a senate committee really performed a public service.
---   Notice that the Marshall baseball team is away out in front in the First Night League. When one team gets in a commanding position in any league it hurts attendance, and when the attendance goes down it begins to pinch the pockets of the backers of the other teams. It will take every cent available in some towns to keep some teams from ending the season in the red.
---   As far as an increase in population in the last ten years, southwestern Minnesota virtually stood still: most of the counties went into the red. No need of starting the Birth Control movement in this section of the state: it's already here.
---   Again the farmers are threatened by another menace. This time it is the corn borer. The farmers in this section have been threatened with extinction many, many times since we came here 67 years ago. There were the prairie fires, the rates of interest of the old line elevators, the Russian thistle, the yellow mustard plant, the quack grass threat, and the Creeping Jenny, the potato bug and numerous other ills. While at times they all seemed dangerous and gave the farmer cause for worry, really there were a benefit to the farmer instead of a detriment. They were the stepping stones in his development and taught him the way towards better and more improved methods of agriculture. The farmer today does not go into a panic: he knows there will be a method to stop these ills.
---   Judge Moriarty threatens to sue a Minneapolis newspaper for libel: is telling truth libel in Minnesota? If any of the state's witnesses committed perjury, that is a different matter. Some folks like to dish it out but just can't take it.
---   The average citizen will find it hard to smile with pride about our congress, when he finds out that millions of dollars are being spent by congress in building roads in Africa, and also irrigation projects. Some of the places we are going to build roads in are Tanganyika, Uganda, Conakry, and many other sections of Africa. Over in Cyprus we are going to do some road building. These projects will cost around 385 million dollars. Then you are going to rebuild several gambling casinos in France. A committee of northwest congressmen asked for an appropriation of four million dollars for reforestation in the northwest, but could not get a cent. In the last two years the ECA has spent thirty-six million dollars in Italy alone on reforestation projects: so says congressman Carl Anderson in a recent letter.
---   Seems odd so much money in foreign lands, while we seem to be unable to get enough funds to building additions on our schools: just don't spell common sense.
---   The man McCarthy seems to be far from "out." Every day bears out his contention that there has been and still are some disloyalists that are yet in the employ of the government.
---   The 59th National convention of Women's Federation clubs has urged life for sex offenders. This movement should start locally and not nationally. Boards of parole, through unguided sympathy or party loyalty, have caused the death of many a young woman. When you get those debased criminals in jail, keep them there or else see that they are unable to commit more crimes.
---   Iowa is going to be the battle ground for the Brannan plan this coming election. Every big gun from the president down will be thrown into the Iowa battle. The fight naturally will be between the members of the Farm Bureau and the Farmers Union, who will be assisted by union labor. It's going to add a lot of interest to the campaign.
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   June 22, 1950
  Not even the Canadian thistles in Ellsborough township can cover as much ground as a rumor. Last week some nut said that he had read, heard or had been told the government had "frozen" all sales of lumber. The story spread and many calls were received by the local lumber yard about the freeze. The answer was they "had never been notified, either by phone, wire, freight or mail of any anticipated freeze."
---   If folks would scrutinize the expenditures of congress as carefully as they do their bridge, pinochle and canasta scores, there would be a political revolution in the good old U.S.A.
---   Baseball umpires are having a hectic time in this section this season. Over at Tracy last week, Balaton was playing the Box Car city: two old rivals harking back to the days of Al Towne. The game ended with Balaton beating Tracy over a disputed decision at the plate. For half an hour after the game ended the two teams and their followers argued, and during that time the two umpires discreetly hit for their cars, forgetting their check. In the First Night League there is the complaint that the umpires have not been able to keep up with the snappier play of the teams. Some fans say they should pay more attention to the perusal of the rules than to their uniforms.
---   The better school advocates finally won out over at Walnut Grove, the last election giving it $25,000. This sum will be used to construct two much needed classrooms. Some day your local board will be asking you, the voters of Lake Wilson, what you think about adding three classrooms to the present building.
---   The fat reducing tablet for humans is getting quite a play these days, and in most cases are cutting into the suet. They are presented by the medical men and do you no harm. The action of the tablets takes away one's appetite and makes stuffing yourself disgusting and nauseous. Wouldn't it be a grand thing if some doctor scientist could produce a tablet that would have the same effect on drinking liquor with alcoholic content.
---   The latest town to install baseball lights is Lismore: how long will it be before the electric lighted baseball parks will be following in the wake of the tourist parts of the days gone by.
---   Women have been prominent in criminal cases in Minnesota this year. First there was Laura Miller in her killing affray, then came Mrs. Shetaky who came all the way from California to tell the world that the man she once promised to love and honor was better dead than alive, and down in Freeborn county last week a woman in a sordid case was found guilty of murder: women have changed from the clinging vine to the poison ivy type.
---   For the present at least it looks as if Fulda was losing her grip on the title, "Baseball Capitol of the World."
---   The biggest man in the world since 1776 is Joe Stalin: even Uncle Sam trembles when his name is mentioned.
---   The grand jury of Scott county failed to indict the writers on the Minneapolis Star last week for libel of Judge Moriarty, and is he mad. It took him over two hours to tell his story to the grand jury, and still the jury failed to indict the newspaper men. The judge has called for another grand jury: he should ask for a change of venue. By the way, a former Murray county lad, Harold Flynn, is the county attorney for Scott county. He's a son of the late Dick Flynn of Slayton.
---   The Augustana Lutheran Church modified its ban on dancing last week and will not permit it, under strict supervision. In our time, we can remember a lot of girls going to dances and still becoming splendid wives and mothers and good church members as well: some of them unfortunately forget their younger days and now frown on dancing. Age does change our ideas.
---   The filings for county offices have started and what looked five months ago to be a dull primary is going to be one of real action, and a lot of work is going to be done throughout the county before the primaries close.
---   The woman Gavle got just what she had coming. For two years she had been playing around with the hired man, and at last got to the place where she was willing to kill her husband for her new lover. The plan went awry and both she and her lover got life sentences, which ought to give them time to meditate that you can get by for a while, but in the end the law of averages catches up with you.
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   June 29, 1950
  Minnesota is recognized as having the most modern plan in caring for mental patients of any state in the Union. Quite a feather in the cap of Gov. Youngdahl and that fine group of workers that have labored so hard to improve the treatment of mental patients in the state.
---   Eisenhower, who has been hovering over presidential nominations for a few years, had better make up his mind in 1952. The bloom has begun to decay just a little even now: it may be later than you think, Ike.
---   The band concerts in the park on Wednesday evenings are drawing ever increasing crowds each week. Cars were double parked around the entire park last Wednesday evening. The present organization is the finest musical band group we have ever had in the history of the village, and the business men as well as the listeners are beginning to realize its value, not only from a business standpoint, but from a cultural view point.
---   A squad of New York's finest policemen with drawn pistols raided a poker party as day was breaking on Monday morning, arrested the culprits. The haul: fourteen women, most of them middle-aged housewives. "We gals" are surely getting our equal rights with the male sex.
---   In spite of the heavy downpour of rain this spring and summer there is but little water in the creeks and lakes. Our water was down dangerously low and these showers have been a blessing.
---   Finest sight on a trip through the country these days is the fields of soy beans. The straight narrow rows, always immaculately clean, and the striking green of the foliage makes it a pleasing view to the eye.
---   From the looks of things, the going is going to be tough and hard for Julius Schmall for the state treasurer nomination. If we were Julius we would retire while there is yet time.
---   Here's Something to Think About In the Mail Bag of the Pioneer Press the following letter was written by a violator, but it's worth reading twice. Difference in Penalties Sir: To the people of Minnesota, I should like to ask a few questions and state a few facts. I am a businessman in the town of Hugo. I own and operate a 3.2 tavern and cafe. On May 24, 1950 I was brought into district court at Stillwater and charged with selling liquor without a license. This being my second offense, to which I pleaded guilty. The judge looks at me very sternly and tells me in a very dignified manner what an unscrupulous person I am. I'm a detriment to society and my fellow businessmen. Therefor the only course he can take is to fine me $1,000 or 240 days, eight months, in jail. Today I read in the St. Paul Pioneer Press of a man who has been arrested 4 times for indecent exposure, so what happens. He gets a suspended sentence. It cost him not one cent, and he goes free. Tomorrow some young girl or woman may be raped or murdered. What is the answer? Hugo, Minnesota           HARRY CLINTON.
---   One thing the cold late spring did give us: the finest pastures we have seen here in sixty years, and the cows are revelling knee deep in foliage.
---   Here's what helps keep the deficit alive. The federal government loaned the Lustron corp. $37,000,000 to construct prefabricated steel houses. The company went broke, and the entire assets of the company were sold for $6,000,000. To the guy looking over the fence, it looks as if some of the officials who issued the loan could not complain if someone asked, "How much did you get out of the deal?" Anyway, Uncle Sam should give walking papers to men who allowed the loan. Of course the loan may have had the endorsement of several V.I.P.'s: that makes a difference.
---   Where in thunder do the women folks get all these oversized buttons that they sew on men's shirts and lingerie? Never found one that you did not have to poke and shove into the button hole.
---   If you never defrosted the family refrigerator, you're in for a real surprise, brother. There's more junk in cups, bowls, saucers and packages than a magician ever pulled out of a hat: how it ever gets in there is a mystery.
---   A new bill that is being discussed in congress, and it probably will pass, provides for a reduction in the tax on luxury furs: good news for us folks who were planning on buying $3,000 mink coats, come fall.
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