4 Lancaster Farming, Friday, March 15, 1957 <r— Lancaster County’s Own Farm Weekly Newspaper Established November 4, 1955 Published every Friday by OCTORARO NEWSPAPERS Quanyville, Pa. Phone STerling 6-2132 Lancaster Phone EXpress 4-3047 Alfred C. Alspach . Robert E. Best .... Robert G. Campbell Robert J. Wiggins .. Subscription Rates: $2.00 Per Year Three Years $5.00; Per Copy Entered as Second-Class matter at the Post Office, Quarryville, Pa., under Act of March 3, 1879 That Post Office Deficit Postmaster General Summerfield has expressed serious concern _ and with good reason _ over his depart ment’s deficit problem. The deficit will soon approximate a billion dollars a year, he warned, unless postage rates are raised to realis tic levels. Indeed, the deficit would have passed the billion mark by now, had it not been for certain financial and man agement improvements put into effect during the last four years including increased parcel post rates, higher for eign mail rates, and payment of postage by Congress and government agencies. < The situation is worsened further by the fact that the department faces higher operating costs, due to in creased wages and mailing charges. And the fiscal plight is compounded by'the department’s need to modernize its physical plant to expedite the handling of an ever-increas ing volume of mail. As Mr. Summerfield sees it, “The only possible solution is increased postage rates to assure bet ter service and to introduce financial sanity in the hand ling of the fiscal affairs of this huge businesslike operation within government.” We usually think of these proposed increases in rates in terms of letter postage. But fiscal reforms should not stop there. Parcel post (the fourth class mail classifi cation) is still operating at a deficit, and is thus subsidized by the taxpayers, despite the rate increases Mr. Summer field mentioned. And parcel post imposes a heavy burden on the department’s physical facilities that are now in need of modernization and expansion _ for it accounts for more than 56 per cent of the weight of all domestic mail. Making the user pay the full cost of parcel post serv ice would both relieve pressure on the post office depart ment, and on the strained Federal treasury-itself. And this would help the department, to quote Mr. Summerfield again, to “. . . contribute its share to the balancing of the Federal Budget, so essential to the economic well-being and security of 170 million Americans.” . ‘ Industrial News Review Just Common Sense « Once again an all-out political effort is underway to pave the government build a high dam on the Hell’s Can non reach of the Snake River even though the Federal Power Commission authorized an independent power com pany to undertake a three-dam project there. The FPC’s ac tion, incidentally, was no hurried one it conducted ex-; haustive hearings for a year and the record contains 20,000 pages of testimony and over 400 exhibits. We’ll be hearing a lot of the alleged virtues of the high dam, so it is a good idea to state a few facts how tacts developed in the FPC hearings. The installed capacity of dependable power on the high dam would be but slightly larger than that of the three low dams 800,000 kilowatts as against 783,400 kilowatts. The cost of the three dams is estimated at $133 mil lion by the company and at $175,766,000 by the FPC. The cost of the high dam is estimated at $399 million _ wejll over twice the higher estimate for the low dams. And the low dams, of course, will be built entirely with private funds, while the high dam would be paid for by all the tax payers. Annual tax payments of the three-dam project would be $lO million a year. The high dam would pay ex actly nothing in taxes. According to the FPC, flood control, navigation and recreation purposes can “be effectuated to about the same extent under either plan of development/’ In other words, thes factors are not an issue at Hell’s Canyon. There is the story. There is why the FPC said in its formal report; “It is our judgment that the United States itself should not undertake the development of the water resources of the Hells Canyon reach of the Snake River.” STAFF Advertising Director Circulation Director BY JACK REICHARD 50 YEARS AGO (1907) - 50 YEARS AGO (1907) March 15, 1907, thousands of persons residing in Pennsyl vania’s Johnstown, were maroon ed in their homes, when flood waters rushed down the Cono-- maugh River, transforming the streets of the city into lakes filled! with floating fences, gates and all sorts of debris. It was the' highest water recorded there; since the great flood of 1889,i when 2,500 lives were lost, fol-i lowing 'the breaking of Johns-1 town dam. ; Publisher Editor In addition to the thousands, marooned in the city, other thou-' sands who fled from the low. points were packed in houses on higher ground. Residents along the Juniata Valley were also witnessing the; most disastrous flood in that! section since the memorable one of 1889. Melting snow, combined 1 with heavy rains, raised the Juniata River 17 feet above the low mark. Farmers living along the Raystown Branch of the Juniata suffered great damages, many having lost .their barns and out-buildings, cattle and crops. Reports from points along the. Susquehanna River were morei favorable, where a general break-; ing up of the ice was moving off freely, with no serious gorges rg-. ported. t > > CHURCH BLOWN UP BY GAS In Lanaster County, that week, the Church of Gpd at Washing ton Boro, along the Susquehanna River, was blown up by the ex plosion of an acetylene gas plant installed when the edifice was rebuilt in 1895 About thirty members of the congregation were in the annex of the church holding prayer services, when the plant in the ce. ! a • exploded. The floor of the main church was torn up and the long benches tossed into the air. The glass from the windows was blown into bits and scattered over the adjoining cemetery The pulpit, Bible, organ and choir chairs were blown into a corner of the church. The Rev. J. H. Gervin, Jos ephine Stamen and Jacob Kane, were all severly cut by flying glass. Every member present suf fered minor cuts about the hands, face and body. Following the blast, fire broke out in the basement and the entire town responded to an alarm by the rining of the church bell. f * » RATS ROBBED DEALER 20 YEARS Frank Speakman, Coatesville after 20 years, found Where his oats had been going. After tear ing down a building to make Im provements, over 200 bus. of oat hulls were found under the struc ture. Rats had carried the grain from the third story under the building. Elsewhere in Coatesville that week, when Mrs. Agnes Ross went to ithe springhouse to get a pall of water, she was horrifi ed to find her two-year-old child lying headfirst in a dip hole, drowned. At Hancock, Pa., Emanuel Baer killed a chicken hawk which measured 47 inches from tip to tip of wings, 50 years ago this week. On the Lancaster farm of Amos Hershey, near Kinzer, that week, fine destroyed over 1,000 • * “Week :cr Farming bundles of fodder. The barn, which stood nearby, was on fire sevpal times, but saved. *'* » S 25 Years Ago The entire world was shocked by the tragic death of Ivar Kreuger, the world’s-greatest in dustrial figure and financier, a quarter century ago. Kreuger, -a Swede, extended enterprises all over the earth and was the world’s largest" individual lender of money to industries and governments. He controlled International Telephone and Telegraph Com pany, that owned the American Postal Telegraph Co. in this country. His suicide was attri buted to a nervous breakdown, affecting his mind, caused by financial worry. Shares in his various companies fell suddenly during January, 1932. Kreuger. according to close associates, claimed a powerful ring of speculators in Amster dam were working to wreck his business, by selling short and luokfromul ;S«ripitrit Matthew 11:1$ —22 46. Oivotlwiit Ritdloft Isaiah 93:10-12, Highest Command Lesson for March 17, 1957- WE ALL live by authority of some kind. When some one says, “Do this!" we do dt—will ingly or unwillingly, but we do it it we can. If a man says, “1 wear no man’s -collar, I do as 1 please, I am my owm authority," a close observer can often per ceive that the mai oh hin self. He may have c-er4ain habits, certain appetities. He may be one whom Dorothy Parker de- scribes: “Some men cannot pass a bookstore.” It may be books, _ _ or liquor, or Dr. Foreman fishing tackle, or women,—some thing says with compelling voice to this boastful man, “Come!” and he loses no lime coming. Some times the man who brags most of his own freedom is the man who is the most willing slave. Who Is In Charge Here? Consider some of the many bosses of the human race. One authority whose voice is loud in the land is the “Voice of the People " Some politicians live by it. A politician will split the welk in telling the world what a low grade rat hi« opponent is; hut then the opponent beats him in -the primary, and the politician sings another tune. “The people have spoken, I*' 1 *' he says; and turns around to support the very man who (he had just been saying) was hardly fit to be dog-catcher. Others again regard the law as ‘he highest command. In their, yes, law can turn right into rong or wrong into right. But e law is a human thing; any od lawyer will admit that there a gap between what the law nmands or permits, and what morally -right. Law tries to hup with morals;.it never ites right or wrong. 3Y Talks damaging values. •jj; . M.S HA. STUDIES TEENAGE MARRIAGES According to Peter ex ecutive secretary of the Missouri Social Hygiene Association, the marriage rate among young peo pie between eighteen and twenty* four been steadily increas-‘“, ing, 25 years ago. Twice as many girls between the ages of fifteen and nineteen married on the Pacific Coast as compared with the number _ojf marriages between the same m the New England states, in 1931. “Climatic conditions, religious views, social upheavals and cul tural, economic and educational - factors influence ■ such “ young marriages’’, Kasius decared. 42 HEAD OF LIVESTOCK PERISH Fire of unknown origin de stroyed fl large bam on the Lan aster farm of Joseph M. Davis, Gap RjD. Twenty cows, six mules, four iJ horses, a pony and 11 pigs perish ed in the blaze, along with tons of hay, a quantity of wheat, straw and oats. <• On the Lancaster farm of Earl Walton, near the birthplace o€ Robert Fulton, thieves broke the lock on the henhouse door and carried off 36 fine Plymouth Rock chickens, 25 years ago this week. Others again find their highest authority in money. Some will admit it, aome will not. But when ever you find a person making;' all his decisions in the light ofi the one question; What will makel the most money? Or, What will, cost the least? then you know that tor that person the last word isj with the cash account. Onefprnv of this authority is Business. If it’s good for Business it’s good' for the country. In the name of this authority'many practices are ady vocated which are definitely not 1 good for the people who make up the country. For many other persons, the highest command is* the voice of the one who is most' loved. In times gone by, it might" be the King’s Favorite. In our more democra .c era, individual citizens may take their wife’s or husband’s word as the last word. Or—to take one more type,, for a vast number of persons the highest authority is their Church. Some people even think the church cannot make a mistake! lesus, Lord of All For the Christian, however, his' ' highest command is that of Jesus, Christ. The vows taken when a person is confirmed, or joins the profess, sometimes- ia these very words, “I take Jesus Christ for my Lord and Savior.” ‘‘For my Lord . . If the word' means what it was intended to mean, it means that above all other authorities is His. All these other" commands have their places; but his is supreme. In a great corpora* tion there are many persons with' authority; but only one President. No decision at -lower levels is validi if it conflicts with a policy the President has laid down. So there are situations where the mon ey question is decisive. There ara other situations In which a poli tical party’s decision, slate or platform may be decisive for the party worker, and so on. But if decisions on these lower levels - come into conflict with what we. may call the policy of Jesus, then those lower decisions must give way. In Jesus’ lifetime He chal lenged every authority that con fronted him. He was responsive to authority within proper bounds (as when He paid taxes or when placed on oath in a trial) but even, over the church, even over the inspired Law, He claimed first right The sensible Christian does i not claim for Jesus what he £id not claim lor himself. He did not set up to be an authority on forms of government, financial affairs or farming. But He did lay down certain great principles founded in the will and nature of the heavenly Father. (Baud on outlines •opjrrlfhted kT DiTlslon of Christian Edocatlen.Ns. tlonal Connell of the Churches of Christ In the V. S. A. Keleased hjr Community rrepa aerrUe.) U 1
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers