USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 22
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And in passing, Mr. Anderson, what is the matter with our education in this country? We have spent billions on education, and where are the results? We have not enough business brains in this country to run it. Instead of our educators' talk about more pay, they should give us more for our money.
October, 1933
SKOKIE MARSH TO BE MADE INTO BEAUTIFUL PARK
We have become considerably interested in President Roose- velt's civilian conservation army, which as you know has enlisted 320,000 young men and organized them into an army of industry, principally to give these young men employment, where they can be self-sustaining and also help their folks at home; and secon- darily, consideration for doing work in reforestation, draining swamps, etc. As we have figured it out, it is costing from $500,- 000 to $600,000 a day to keep this army going.
In the first place, they paid out $25,000,000 on equipment. The 320,000 will average more than $1.00 a day in wages given them. It is costing $100,000 a day to feed them; they are clothed from head to foot at the expense of the government. Now they have commenced to build winter quarters up by Winnetka and Glencoe, northwest of Chicago, to cost $150,000. This no doubt is a good thing for the young men, but mighty expensive for the taxpayers. This Skokie marsh is a great territory of peat bogs growing wild grass, big weeds, willows, and mosquitoes and frogs. The Skokie project, being the nearest to us, we drove up a week ago to get a first hand view of just what they were doing and to determine whether they were doing something really worth while or just killing time, as some claim. We got there about noon and saw them eat dinner and they certainly did a good job of that. Everyone seemed to have a good appetite and stowed away a good portion of spare ribs, potatoes, gravy, sauerkraut, bread, butter, pie and coffee. They have one and a half hours for noon. We then went and watched them work in digging ditches and making lagoons, as this marsh is to be converted into a beautiful park which will contain seven lagoons of from nine to twenty- nine acres, altogether will cover 131 acres.
You see, it is going to cost something, especially the way they are doing it. There are shovelers in the ditch and others with wheelbarrows. They have plank runways which carry the wheel- barrows of dirt from the ditch to an embankment which is built as a dyke to keep the flood water from overflowing this vast coun- try. In the construction of the lagoons the runways are long and up grade, and it is a mighty expensive process to make 131 acres of lagoons. They are not hurting themselves at work, but I
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would say they are doing fully as much as the general gang on public works. The locality is going to be wonderfully beautiful; and so the young men that are put to work benefit, but how long can the taxpayers stand this and other drainage on their pocket- books, is a question.
These jobless people must find work and go to work pretty soon-not go on a strike, as some of them are doing who have jobs. As Lincoln said: "We cannot live half free and half slaves." Nor can half the people of this country support the other half very long.
LAKE COUNTY FAIR
There seems to be considerable interest and criticism on our late Lake County Agricultural Fair among those who have been interested in bygone years and know the history of our fair. The management and conduct of the late officers of the fair are astonishing if not positively ridiculous.
Our county was organized in 1834, and from that date to 1852 the settlement was comparatively rapid. Barring some grist mills, saw mills and blacksmith shops, they were all farmers -and generally high class and intelligent, and they organized the Lake County Agricultural Society, meeting once a year for the purpose of showing their products-both men and women-and having a good, sociable time. The early fair grounds, of ten acres, was north of the present grounds and on the west side of the street where Dr. Iddings and others now have their homes.
This fair was conducted according to its original purpose up to the time of the great increase in population, caused by the manufacturing interests in the county, which made the attend- ance big and brought in a lot of money and a lot of other things that some of us thought were of no particular benefit to the peo- ple of the county. All kinds of fakers and gamblers wanted to ply their trade at the fair and tried their best to get control. Some years ago at one of our business meetings the place was filled with the toughest looking bunch of bums that could be raked up in the north end, and it was said some came from Chi- cago. Their object was to elect officers for the fair who would allow their low-life business to be carried on, but the better class of citizens rallied to the rescue and kept them out.
When everything was soaring high the receipts of the fair were as much as $47,000. At that time the help received $1,700, and they were paid good wages, too. A year ago a bunch of en- terprising young men from the north, who, it was said, were back- ed up by Commissioner Baran, got the idea they wanted to run the fair, and they brought enough along to elect their men; a job
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printer was elected president and a railroad man secretary. They knew about as much about running a decent county fair as a hog knows about heaven, and they made an awful botch of it and did a great deal more harm to the community than they did good. Their expense connected with the fair was $16,294.80. They took in $9,975.15, making a total deficit of $6,319.65. That is the officers' report. Some say when all bills are in it will be near $7,000. Their hired help bill was $2,445. They must have been paying more than one political obligation, as "Shuffle" Callahan relates through the Herald and Examiner. He worked for the Fair Association and got a check for his services, but it was re- turned marked "No Funds." He says: "You can inform my publie I am out of politics and will return to the fight game. This job at the fair was supposed to be a political plum for my services in the campaign last fall."
That is fine business-paying political debts of the north end through the Lake County Agricultural Society. It seems to us that it will be a bad boomerang which will come back hard.
Fram all appearances they had neither business ability nor conscience, and they have made a bad mess of it. Now they have the "gall" to come before the county council to ask them to al- low the amount of their shortage out of the general funds of the county. The hearing was October 2, when farmers appeared be- fore the council objecting to any public money being paid for the support of that kind of a fair; and we feel that the council is good enough not to allow it.
We have the finest fair grounds and buildings of any county in the state of Indiana, yes, of any in the United States. These grounds and buildings are owned by the county for the benefit of the people of Lake county, and its public spirited citizens should be interested in a good fair for the benefit of the community.
At this time more than half the wealth of the county is in manufacturing. Why not change the name to "Industrial Fair," -both agricultural and manufacturing-and put on an annual exhibit that we could be proud of? The schools could put on an educational exhibit, and the 4-H clubs have already made a good showing. They could be further encouraged and would attract and interest the best people in the county.
MR. WOODBRIDGE PASSES ANOTHER MILESTONE
Another year has passed by, and another birthday party held at Ross in honor of Sam Woodbridge's eighty-fourth year. We begin to think he is never growing old. He has gotten used to years passing by and they have no effect on him. Mr. Wood-
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bridge can remember back when the early settlers hauled grain to Ross with ox teams, and now he can sit on the front porch and see the flying machines go by. Seventeen of his old friends and neighbors were there wishing him 84 years more of happy and useful life, and it looks as if he might make it.
The average age of those present were 68.8 years, who were as follows: Samuel Woodbridge, 84; Louis Southworth, 74; Wm. Lohman, 76; Wm. Sikes, 74; Florence Koedyker, 62; Peter Bei- riger, 67; Wm. Nicholson, 62; Louis Vanderludt, 53; George Baker, 67; Wm. G. Woods, 82; James Forsythe, 62; Mathew J. Beiriger, 61; Alvin Bothwell, 72; Alexander Jameson, 60; Thom- as Turner, 75; Sam B. Woods, 78; John L. Johnson, 60.
His daughters, Violet and Jessie, are fine to entertain and gave the large company a big feast of good things in the eve- ning.
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
The wets are now in the position of the fellow who had a hold of the bear's tail and going around in a circle. It was hard to hang on, but he dared not let go. Now, when they begin to realize that the Eighteenth Amendment will be repealed, they are mighty concerned how they are going to control these happy days. They won't control the liquor traffic because that doesn't believe in being controlled, and they won't obey any law that tries to control the traffic. Even the Chicago Tribune begins to wonder. They have a picture representing public opinion as a big woman with a rolling pin and a bad looking bum as John Barleycorn. The big woman is telling John : "I do not think any more of you than I ever did. The reason I am taking you back is so I can keep my eyes on you." Probably if the drys had kept their eyes on him more and had seen that the laws were better enforced they would not take him back now.
TRYING TO CLEAN UP THE UNDERWORLD AT LAST
The results of the Chicago courts at this time in cleaning up the underworld are very gratifying. But does it not prove that heretofore they have been giving mighty poor service, and could have done better than they have been doing if they had done their duty? The trouble has been : crime and politics have been considerably mixed. The people paid for protection and did not get it until they got desperate and demanded something be done. That is the reason the courts are getting action now.
It comes right back to the old question of the rule of the peo- ple. We have just as good government as the people make it and
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no better. Don't lay it on to anybody but ourselves. We are responsible and when we acknowledge our responsibility and act intelligently, we will have a more satisfactory government.
Senator Copeland says : "Certain cities in the United States are almost wholly under the domination of the underworld." He is chairman of a senatorial committee on crime. It seems our lo- cal governments of state and county are so lax in their duty that the federal government has to step in and clean up things. We are so weak we have fallen down on the job.
According to an estimate prepared by the Manufacturer's Record, the annual crime cost in the United States is nearly thir- teen billion dollars. Crime costs six times as much as educa- tion. The cost is ten times as much as the cost of maintaining the army and navy. Is not that enough to interest you and cause you to act in a public way to secure good public officers-from the constable of your small town to the congressman who repre- sents your district? Public opinion and public action have a mighty influence on our courts. We are now getting swifter justice than we did a few years ago, just because the people won't stand for so much "monkey business," and they would still get better service if they would demand it.
MORE ABOUT THE COURTS AND LAWYERS
We have criticized the courts, lawyers and bar associations on different occasions for their ability to spend a lot of hard earned money and getting mighty poor results for time and mon- ey spent in this county. When we tried to get a bill through the state legislature to simplify court procedure for swifter justice, the lawyers and bar associations did not favor it and would not allow it to come out of the committee. Here is how the Chicago Tribune sees it up in Cook county, Illinois :
"If the Bar Association does not insist that the trial of civil cases be expedited as much as possible and that the judges cease granting needless continuances, it will be impossible for decent citizens to pay any further attention to the recommenda- tions of the Bar Association in judicial elections. When our courts cannot give a reasonably prompt hearing to those who bring civil suits and cannot give defendants in these suits a rea- sonably prompt opportunity to clear themselves and their credit standing, the courts are not instruments of justice but instru- ments of injustice. There is no good reason why 99 per cent of the civil suits filed in this county should not be heard within three months of the time they are filed. As long as the bar ac- cepts and even encourages the outrageous delays which now
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ensue between the filing of a case and its trial there is no reason why voters should believe the Bar Association is interested in promoting justice in this community."
A GET-TOGETHER MEETING
Houses and people do not make a community. It is the so- ciability and co-operation of these people that make a desirable community. And there is considerable sentiment abroad in the land that if the people would organize a forum, debating club, an old-fashioned literary society, or what have you, and discuss some of the very important questions of the day it would be both pleasant and profitable.
So we are going to call a meeting for next Friday evening, November 3, at 7:30, at the class room in the school house to talk things over and organize. Everybody come !
It was said that there was only one man in the world that un- derstood the money question. That was the head of the Bank of England, and he said he did not know anything about it. Now we have it given to us: "First you inflate the dollar until it is as big as a pumpkin; then you scratch off the words 'In God We Trust,' and then you put 'em back on again; then you let it stand in a cool place for ten minutes, and then raise commodity prices." Do ye understand ?
WE WILL FOLLOW-WHERE?
We are going to follow orders and obey the captain in this new deal. But it has been the means of bringing about some funny quirks in the public management of things. Take it in the business of farming. Our national and state governments have spent millions of dollars to educate and encourage more produc- tion of agricultural products. "He that will make 2 blades of grass grow where one formerly grew is a public benefiactor." Now we have brought calamity on ourselves and the nation by producing too much. We now have too much land under culti- vation and through building great dams and holding back the water for irrigation purposes we will put thousands of acres more to producing crops to come in competition with an already surplus. Flood control along the lower Mississippi river will make thousands of acres of the richest bottom lands available for great fields of corn and cotton when without that we have too much. Millions of dollars for the improvement of inland water- ways to compete with railroads transportation when they now have to be helped by government money.
Our laws are made or influenced by lawyers which should be
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so constructed and executed that would keep us out of trouble. But it seems that our workings get us into trouble. There is a movement on in Indiana for the flood control of the Wabash river costing 18 million dollars. They want the whole state to pay for it. If these rich bottom lands will be benefitted let an assessment be made on these lands benefitted to pay the cost of control. Why tax highlands which have to buy fertilizer to grow a good crop?
GOOD INTENTIONS NOT ENOUGH
There must be a bug or microbe that is effecting the people of good intentions at this time. Some years ago they worked so earnestly and long and they got what they wanted in the 18th Amendment, and then this bug got in its work and they lost all ambition and interest and let the other side trump their cards and win the game. We have a beautiful fair grounds and an Agricultural Society holding an annual fair, supposing for the education and benefit of the community, which should interest the better element of the county and especially those good peo- ple in Crown Point who "pray Thy kingdom come," but who never come to the fair business meetings which determine who the officers shall be and what the fair will be so let it go to the devil for all their influence. And in most any community this bug or microbe seems to be affecting the would be good citizen. Some thing proposed that they all admit would be a good thing and should be put over, but can get no action and the good thought died without a struggle. If the Rockefeller Foundation could find a cure for this ailment and destroy the bug it would be of great- er blessing and benefit to the people of this United States than their discovery and cure of the hook worm. Sometimes we feel like joining the other side and working with them, for it is a great satisfaction to work with some one that has pep and de- termination to get what they are going after. This bug does not seem to have affected that side. It may be the 3.2 beer is a disin- fectant that destroys the germ or causes it to be inactive and probably when we get the 60 per cent whiskey there will still be more action.
LET US HELP, NOT HINDER
Soon after our last national election the G. O. P. elephant laid down and was very sick, caused by exposure and mixing with bad company. But of late he seems to be making an effort to get on his feet. At least he is showing some life by those you all know and I would mention if it was not for the fear that I would be sued for slander. They are the same old bunch that were in con-
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trol and who wrecked the country and now they have nothing constructive to offer. Only complain of and criticize what the present administration is trying to do. If there is not some new blood injected into the old G. O. P. with new and progressive ideas, these old has-beens might just as well go a way back and sit down and keep still, for the people as a whole know for the last 8 years of the republican party in power they did nothing to stem the tide that was approaching us, where if they had vision of true statesmen all this trouble might have been averted. We should have no respect or sympathy for any ballyho or dead cat slinging, as Johnson says, without they have something con- structive to offer. And the administration invites that. Says they have made many mistakes and expect to make more. But they are on the road and their aim is profit in industry and decent conditions for labor and that is what we all want and the only way to get it is to follow a leader who is working to that end and doing the best they can and can not succeed without the support of the people. This is just as much the government of the people as it was and will continue to be if the people have sense enough and action to get results for the good of the coun- try.
November, 1933
THE SCHOOLS AGAIN
The past week has been Educational Week and devoted most- ly to speeches and writing, encouraging more education and more money for our public schools.
By most of the writers and speakers you would be led to believe that the people of this United States have never spent much money for educational purposes, and the fact of the busi- ness is we have spent billions and billions. We have not only been liberal, but we have been lavish. If there is any kick com- ing, it is on the other side of the house-the side that has fur- nished the money for these schools. They have a right to ask : Have you put this money that has been raised for public educa- tion to the best possible use? Have you gotten results? If you have gotten results, where and what have we got to show in the people of this United States today for the billions of dollars that have been spent on education the past fifty or seventy-five years?
With all the natural advantages and God-given wealth of soil and mines, the people of this United States have made a botch of running this government and have wrecked the country to such a condition that good honest people are suffering for the common necessaries of life, and those who have something are taxed beyond endurance. Have we educated to make intelligent,
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honest, industrious citizens, capable of fighting the battle and maintaining the government? We think not or things would be different at this time.
If the educators have a right to ask for more money we think the tax-payers have a right to ask for better results in a more intelligent citizenship. Is that right-or what have you?
November, 1933
HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN
But it does not seem to be all happiness. They begin to feel the responsibility of taking care of John Barleycorn and they have not their house in order to receive him because he has a lot of luggage and he is not always so easy to entertain when he arrives. There will be 57 different varieties of whisky, wine, gin, 6 per cent beer and other articles too numerous to mention and besides they do not know whether to give him nourishment stand- ing up or sitting down. If he sits down by a table he may go to sleep on it or under it and be in the way of other Johnnies. By scientific investigation it is found he can drink more standing up than he can sitting down. Therefore those best able to judge pre- fer standing up, especially if there is a brass rail to put one foot on and besides, if John should go to sleep standing up, it would be handy for the bartender to hit him on the head with a scooner or whisky bottle to wake him up or in case he hit him pretty hard and put him further to sleep, they could put him in cold storage in the back room where he would have time to recover. In our state they were stretching the law so as to give him all the priv- ileges he could desire and some even were insisting that an extra session of the legislature be called to make rules for the grand reception when John does arrive. But McNutt thinks he is equal to the occasion and will have everything in apple pie order for John when he arrives. There seems to be an honest difference of opinion whether he should be fed out of a bottle or with a scoon- er and from the best information we can get he is liable to be fed very different in different states and some states declare they are not going to feed him at all. But he probably will grow pret- ty lusty and strong and hard to manage and get over the line in those desert states and show them we have personal freedom in this U. S. of America. That is the way that John and his friends are going to bring about temperance. It is rather a new idea, but we are getting used to new ideas, so we will just have to wait and expect most anything.
TAXES AND MEMORIALS
The old showman Barnum said, "A fool is born every min- ute." And it seems of late it is worse than that, especially among
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the taxpayers. It does seem that if we were not a lot of fools we would not stand for a lot of this rot and extravagance put over on us by the tax spenders. The contractors and monument builders have worked a racket on these memorials to our heroes to a finish and have got a pile of stone and mortar at a cost of millions which is no particular good to anybody only the con- tractors and grafters who had a hand in building them. The World War Memorial on Meridian Street, Indianapolis, just late- ly erected at a cost of 12 millions of dollars is an example of what can be done to blow the taxpayers' money ; $1,500,000 spent for Nancy Hanks Lincoln Memorial; $2,350,000 that they are try- ing to spend on the George Roger Clark Memorial; $1,500,000 for the proposed LaSalle Memorial, and we may not have them all yet. But that is enough for us to pay for. It is all right to honor these heroes, but do not make it so expensive. Without we get something for our money, they had better give the 12 million to the soldiers or build a good home or hospital for them. Why not buy 100,000 acres of the hills and wood lands of Southern Indiana and make a state park and grow a lot of good timber which we will need after a while? It is a good thing we had a panic, or where would we have gotten to?
FAVORS OLD TIME BAR
According to the Lake County Star, Christ Lassen, one of our representatives, went to Indianapolis to a rump session of the legislature where they were discussing the question of hold- ing an extra session to control the liquor traffic when the 18th Amendment is gone. Mr. Lassen grew eloquent and said he "wanted the return of the old saloon. All the old time bars are open." Why not make everything above board and give the public back the old foot rail and bar? Just as we prophesied and expected. They all declared, and I think Christ was one of them, the old saloon would never come back. But we did not believe them when they said so, and we do not expect them to live up to what they say. Go to it, Christ, and we will have prohibition again in a few years.
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