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.)
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