USA > Indiana > Lake County > The First Hundred Years (1938) > Part 39
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Most of the civilized countries of the world are spending more money for machinery to kill one another than was ever known before.
There are more strikes in this country than was ever known before. Where is your Christianity ?
John L. Lewis can kick up more disorder and hatred than all the preachers can bring about love and kindness.
Who is this John L. Lewis who is cutting such a swath here in this United States of America? He is 57 years old, six feet tall and weighs 230 pounds, but carries very little flesh. He is hard, straight, broad and very active. He has good health, plenty of endurance, determination and bull-dog tenacity. He seems to think he knows what he is doing and many others seem to be of the same opinion !
Lewis is a powerful speaker and somewhat of an orator with power in his voice. In many respects an exceptional man and in others very ordinary. . He is an exminer who has risen from the ranks by force of sheer character and ability, who can use the modern ballyhoo and work a shrewd political game.
In him labor has found a powerful leader who they feel sure is going to lead them out of the wilderness. But the question is-do he and his followers know enough to handle this im- mense business of labor without over doing it? The big in- terests over did it and took too much of the wealth of the country to themselves and this brought on the panic, got everything out of balance so we could not keep business going. Labor now feel- ing its strength in a bad way is very apt to do the same thing. They will not consider facts and common sense. There is a limit to everything. The manufacturer or railroads do not care how much they pay for labor just so they can pass the cost on to the last buyer, but they know there is a limit to that.
The New Deal is going to put the price of the farmer's prod- ducts upon an equality with other products so it is going to be a race for the moon. Everybody's price going up and it won't be long before we are in mighty good shape to take another big tum- ble. We are afraid that John L. Lewis and the rest of them are not looking very far ahead. If they are not careful they will find that he is only leading them to destruction. Labor can only get its share in the long run of general prosperity. If through their greed and ignorance they overdo the thing they will be the first to reap the consequence of their folly.
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.John L. Lewis is ambitious. He proposes to lead labor and curb capital. If the people are willing he would not object to doing it from the white house in Washington. But he lacks a good many essential qualities that are required to make him a good president of these United States.
REASONS FOR THE CURRENT LABOR AGITATION March 1937
There is a reason for the strenuous demands now being made by labor. It did not just happen. There is a chain of events that led up to the present conditions. The Republican organization was originally for the purpose of preventing the extension of slavery. It was called the Free Soil Movement.
After the civil war the slavery question was, of course settled but other questions of national importance came up. One of these was the protective tariff for American industries. That is-put a duty on foreign products shipped into this country so the American producer could charge more for his product than he otherwise could if he had to compete with foreign production. There were conflicting opinions in regard to the justice of this protective tariff within the membership of the Republican party. It was a long bitter fight. Through the promises of the protec- tionists, that if given protection so they could charge more for their goods, they would pay better wages to their workers, the protectionists won control of the party. Their campaign cry was, "A full dinner pail." "The American workman does not have to compete with the pauper labor of Europe." "The Ameri- can standard of living" and later on, "A chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage."
That word "protection" was soothing and labor voted for "protection and prosperity." A few got the protection and prosperity. They brought the foreigners over here and hired them by the thousands because they could hire him cheaper than they could the American worker. Not only the European fore- igner but the colored people from the South and Mexicans from Mexico.
The protectionists promised the farmer a good market at good prices. The farmer, with his improved machinery, skim- med the cream off of millions of acres of the most fertile land God ever made, furnished the American people with an abund- ance of food and shipped abroad vast quantities which gave us a balance of trade in our favor and made it possible for the manufacturer to obtain capital to go into his line of business. The manufacturer was delighted with this protection as he was getting millions out of it at the expense of the masses. They
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furnished the campaign funds and got more protection and final- ly got the walls up so high the foreign countries could not sell their goods in this country on account of the tariff. So they retaliated with a tariff wall so that the farmer could not sell his products on the foreign market. About that time the prices of everything the farmer had to buy were high and what he sold was low. Beef and pork went down to three and four cents per pound and grain was worth on the market about the cost of get- ting it to market so it was worth nothing to the farmer.
About this time labor and the farmer began to wonder where the great benefit of the protective tariff was for them. That was about the time we all voted the Democratic ticket and elected Roosevelt. Now he comes forward with a plan to help the farmers and labor and we are all falling for that-especial- ly labor. It has been encouraged by the President and by John L. Lewis as a master mind in that channel of endeavor, and there is considerable said at this time on the communistic influence which is not going to lose an opportunity to stir up trouble so they can present their claims. With our great body of labor- ers foreigners, and with the capacity of our American born labor, many of them are willing to listen to any crack-pot propaganda that comes along knowing that they did not get protection and prosperity with the Republican plan, they are willing now to grab off something else and give that a trial. Although capital did not give labor a fair deal they are the ones that give labor a job and labor had better be careful and not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. Labor has found its strength. If it going 10 100semanal justice for everybody else has business sense enough to demand 11929109 as well as for itself we can have"a 35a prosperous country here but if they act the hog like the capitalists did and get everything out of balance they are going to be the first to suffer?' The gold- fogº WAP en rule seems to be in a class with the weather "we talk about it a great deal but do not do much about ttid vodT
Tuin 9ftd .blijos ved] sausped abusagodt edt -9101 Through days giving special special privileges. to the few they t88k advantage of the many and got immensely wealthy causing a buros. ved great part of the wealth to be in the hands of a small part of the population which got everything out of .balance. Labor knows this and now they are going to get theirs.
T90ISf 9fIT 290iq boog BIR. ODS COMMENTS ON W. E. ISENHOUR'S ARTICLE -DiffdB ffs fljfw 91909q 1185179mA gdf boffafrist ,9bsm 1949 bof) BU 9voy doidw esititnsup 120 April 1937
That was a rouser of Walter E. Isenhour's-
begging bus beweel Lana
bis HOVsI Wo IL absit to sonsisd s of Liberty. He says We shall soon cease to sing of TIq69, ffisido of 19wtostunsin My country, 'tis of thee
asw od as noitostorg Sweet land of liberty. 920190×9 911 js, jj to tuo znoillim guittog Of thee I sing.
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He then mentions numerous conditions that now exist and gives a very gloomy word picture of it. Here are a few quota- tions from his article :
"Now our nation is trembling on the very brink of destruc- tion."
"Let me repeat our only hope is in God."
"I am sure every loyal, red blooded, true hearted Christian American who loves dearly this 'sweet land of liberty' is very sorry to see the nation going as it is."
What surprises me is if these dear Christian people feel so sorry to see the nation going as it is, why do they not do more about it?
It seems to me it would be nearer the truth if we were to sing :
Our country gone to pot Bad politics and rot. We pray to be saved Act the coward and the slave.
Where were your red blooded, true hearted American citizens when we put on the dry campaign. We put up a strong candi- date at the head of our ticket-Ora M. Riggs-for Congress. We got in the whole county about as many votes as there was in one large church in Gary or Hammond. At that time an old politician who had been "through the mills" laughed at me for running on the dry ticket and said, "You won't get anywhere. I would rather have one saloon keeper working for me than six preachers." He was working as a politician for success-not for a principle.
Down in New York, some time ago, politicians were talking about how to get the saloon vote. A church man spoke up and said "How about the church vote?" The politician's reply was, "We do not consider it." They do not get out the vote as an organization does, nor demand something as the liquor interests do. When we got prohibition they worked as a unit and won, for they put up a good fight, but they went to sleep afterward and lost all they had gained, and more.
Good business judgment should have told the Drys that the liquor interests never give up and they should have been just as wide awake after the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted and continued just as great a fight to see that the law was enforced.
If every church community in the United States had appointed committees of law enforcement, as was done in Griffith, the Eighteenth Amendment would never have been repealed. The law was allowed to become a dead letter and people were dis- gusted and voted for repeal. So the Drys have only themselves
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to thank. This "land of the free and home of the brave" is a government by the people who work and strive (eternal vigil- ance is the price of liberty). The Drys got their victory by hard determined work and lost it by inaction.
I admire Mr. Isenhour's intelligent attitude toward the situation and there certainly must be a general waking up of the better class of people to save this country. He says, "The main thing now is to resort to prayer and call mightily upon God for help."
That is all right but do not lie back and expect the Lord to do it all, as it seems to me is done in most cases. If you pray, earnestly believing that your prayer is going to prompt action, you will go to work and do it yourself. If you pray for God to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, you do not expect to see second-hand clothes and baskets of food fall down from heaven. Your prayer should prompt action or your prayer is no good.
We hear so much about following Christ. What do they mean? Is that just idle words, or do they mean business ? Christ took a straightforward course to his death for a cause. How many are anxious and willing to follow him to that end ? If there were many there would be a mighty change in our public and private affairs soon. I sometimes think the good people see what Christ got for standing for a principle, and they are afraid to act for fear they will get the same treatment.
Not a thousand miles from here the good people got to- gether and discussed manner and means to rid the community of sin and corruption. They are anxious to do something to better conditions, but it is dangerous business. Interfering with the underworld's plans may cause you to lose your job, or you may get bumped off. In most any of these towns they can hire a man shot for $100. A man with a wife and children look at it in a business way and think it is a better part of good judgment not to follow to the death. But you can pray "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth" and if this does not prompt action, the underworld will not be disturbed very much.
But I am satisfied that if your prayer should prompt ac- tion, and the good people would fearlessly and courageously fight the devil and all his angels, they would come out vic- torious.
As Lincoln said, "Let us have faith that might makes right and in that faith let us, to that end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." If the good people in and out of the church would dare to do their duty as they understand it, there would
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be a great change come over this United States of America, and the church would grow in power and favor as never before.
April 1937 PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT NOT A DICTATOR
Some are calling President Roosevelt a Dictator. He is not the Dictator. John L. Lewis is the Dictator. He is telling the president what to do. He is telling the secretary of labor, Madam Perkins, what to do. He is telling the governor of Mich- igan what to do and he is telling all the sit-down strikers what to do, and also telling every cowardly official-who wants to keep their office through the labor vote-what to do.
So you see he is dictating a plenty, and if he has his way there will be more of it. If he does not wish to be president of the United States in 1940 he will be in a position to dictate who will be-that is if his plans work out according to his program. Lewis is ambitious and pretty smart and has the tenacity of a bulldog.
He is just the kind of man to lead a mob of working men. We have allowed the off-scouring of the earth to come here and instead of our Americanizing them they have foreignized us. They have no principle or high standards of American citizen- ship. They have brought their conceived ideas of socialism and communism and some of our American workmen have been influenced by their propaganda. Just as sure as John L. Lewis and his gang get control and run this country they will wreck it, and the first ones to suffer will be the working class.
We know that heretofore there have been great wrongs done the farmers and working-for-wage people, but it was no one's fault but our own for we had the majority of votes, but we did not know enough to use our votes intelligently. In this form of government of ours we must have intelligent and honest voters who will select intelligent and honest law makers and public officers. Until we get a majority of intelligent and honest voters we cannot expect a good government. We do not have to go back farther than our last elec- tion of a Congressman in Lake county, Indiana, to prove that the people are not capable of selecting a good representative. The one that was elected prided himself on doing just what he was supposed not to do as a rule. If all he had to do was "to follow the president" he might as well have stayed at home and let the president run the whole thing.
It was the labor vote that decided the election in this coun- try and of course they expect to reap the benefit, but do they know enough to think this thing through. Short hours and high
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wages make the cost of their product high. If farmers do not get enough for their products, and unorganized labor and old people retire on an income, the farmer cannot buy the high priced manufactured goods. The factory will have to quit mak- ing them and men will again be thrown out of work. If pros- perity is going to continue in this country we have got to keep trade and prices well balanced, and if we keep prices and con- ditions well balanced and everybody show and act common sense, we can all live in luxury in this United States of America. Congress is waking up to this sit-down strike business. Senator Wm. E. Borah, as usual, has something to say. He has a full knowledge of the affair, which gives him a large viewpoint. He says, "The primary cause of the wave of labor troubles is lack of enforcement of federal anti-trust laws and the rebirth of monopolistic control of industry just as they did in 1928 and 1929 and the people on the bottom are no better off than they were then."
There is something wrong but when this thing is settled right it will be by intelligent voters at election selecting good intelligent and honest men to make our laws and intelligent and honest men to enforce those laws. It is not going to be brought about by mob rule.
Charles E. Hoffman of Michigan charges that President Roosevelt gets his labor orders from Lewis. There is no ques- tion in my mind that Lewis and the president had an under- standing and the attitude of the president goes to show that he is "hog tied" by his bargain with Lewis. Can we imagine a man big enough to be president of the United States entering into an understanding with any clique or clan that would put him under obligations for his future decisions as president of the United States? What Lewis said proves he did.
A man writing to the Hammond Times very kindly suggest- ed that the Saloon Keepers take care of the drunks so they would not go out and kill people.
FROM MR. WOODS
Griffith, Ind., May 28, 1937. Editor Times :
We were very much interested in the nice letter of Harold Cross in the nice way he had in taking care of the drunken auto owners. But is he not asking too much of the tavern keepers? Why their back room would have to be larger than their front room. To put a lot of those fellows together would surely cause trouble and if the bartender would quiet them by a hard hit on
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the head with the bung starter that would be liable to cause trouble and be the means of losing a "valuable customer." I would suggest that the mayor appoint a committee of the best citizens of Hammond where the chairman of this committee shall be a minister in good standing to see that these drunks are taken home safely as well as protecting the general public and it also should be their duty to stay with the family for some time to see that the man in his cups does not kill some of the children or knock his wife's teeth out.
But if this man has spent all his wages at the tavern-they should see that a further appropriation be made for the support of the family.
Why should the liquor dealer be expected to take care of the drunks? By the laws of the state of Indiana his is a lawful business and he has a right to sell the goods that he does even if these goods do cause customers to go out on the road or kill people with a deadly weapon.
Some years ago it was said that alcohol and gasoline would not mix, but Hammond and vicinity have proved that was false for the result shows that it has been mixed to a considerable ex- tent with very determined results. No, we did not get the saloon back, but a "rose would smell as sweet by any other name."
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REPORT OF THE CELEBRATION
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
Last Saturday we had the experience of visiting a Lake County farm which has been the property of one family for one hundred years. It was very interesting to hear again the story of Bartlett Woods, who came to this country as a boy and took up the government land which now constitutes the Woods farm. The English boy became a patriotic American citizen and made his voice heard and his influence felt in the questions of the day. He became a Free-Soiler at a time when the general public was bitterly opposed to that principle. Later when the Republican party appeared upon the scene he was an active Republican and was a delegate to the convention which nomi- nated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency.
One of the intriguing exhibits which was to be seen at the centennial celebration was a copy of a hand bill calling at- tention to a series of meetings held in the fall of 1848. The following is a copy of the poster. Mr. S. B. Woods states that he is sure from the way it is worded that it was his father, Bartlett Woods, who wrote it.
FREE SOIL AND FREEDOM
The undersigned will address the citizens of West Creek on the issue of Free Soil and Equal Rights against Slavery and Aristocracy, at the Methodist Meeting House on Thursday, the 5th day of October next-of Cedar Creek, at the home of Leonard Stringham on Friday the 6th-of Eagle Creek, at the place of holding elections-of Winfield township, on Friday, the 13th, at the place of holding elections-and of Ross township, at the home of S. B. Straight, in Centerville on Saturday, the 14th.
Now Come One And All And See What A Horrible Demon That Free Soil Demon Is.
You Shall Not Be Injured. Come And Learn Whether It Be McDonaldism or The Republicanism of 1776.
Bartlett Woods. A. McDonald.
September 10, 1848.
From that time on, as the battle against slavery waxed more and more furiously, Bartlett Woods made his views known
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through the newspapers of the county and through personal contact with his friends and neighbors. When the Civil War came his oldest son enlisted and soon thereafter gave his life to the fight for human freedom. Through those dark days Mr. Woods stood by the President and when Lincoln issued his Emancipation proclamation he rejoiced that this great coun- try was at last the land of freedom in every sense of the word.
There is a lesson to be learned from the life of this man. He, and his fellow pioneers, made this country what it is and we of today should be able to gather courage, from the study of their lives, to keep the heritage they gave us.
CENTENNIAL OF WOODS FARM
In spite of the chilly, threatening weather last Saturday, more than two hundred friends and neighbors gathered at the Woods farm near Lottaville to help celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the purchase of the farm. Mr. Bartlett Woods took up his residence in Lake County and purchased from the government, in 1837 for $1.25 per acre, the land which is now the Woods farm.
The program was a splendid one, full of pathos and mirth. Promptly at one thirty Mr. Sam B. Woods introduced the chairman, Mr. Foster Bruce, who called upon Rev. Trodie, of the Griffith Methodist Church to lead in prayer. Mr. Bruce, in an interesting way commented on and read portions of a letter written in 1865 by Bartlett Woods to his son, a soldier with the Union troops, who later died from a fever caused by exposure and hardship.
Rev. H. H. Leasenby, retired Methodist minister of Ham- mond, and a long time friend of the Woods family, gave an interesting address honoring the pioneers who blazed the trail, sacrificed and endured hardship to establish homes. He told how he and Mr. Sam B. Woods, standing beneath the trees at the farm in 1927 promised each other to live ten years more so as to be able to take part in this centennial celebration in 1937. Each had kept his promise.
The crowd enjoyed the two songs, "Home Sweet Home" and "Love's Old Sweet Song," sung by a quartette consisting of Mrs. Emma Summers, Mrs. Davis, Mr. W. K. Adams and Mr. Clarence Hutchins. Later Mrs. Summers sang a solo in memory of Mrs. Mallue Vilmer Woods, deceased wife of Mr. Sam B. Woods. Miss Roberta Malmstone furnished piano accom-
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paniment and an orchestra of eight girls from the Froebel High School of Gary gave several selections.
Dr. F. A. Malmstone read the address given by Bartlett Woods at the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the Lake County Historical Society in 1884. In a talk preceding this reading the doctor paid a splendid tribute to his father-in-law, Mr. Sam B. Woods, telling how, since the two had lived for several years under the same roof, Mr. Woods had been a daily inspiration to him.
Mr. W. C. Belman, of Hammond, read in a scholarly, in- teresting manner, an address which he gave on "Bartlett Woods, 1818-1903" on the twenty-sixth of August, 1922, at the un- veiling of a bronze tablet in memory of Bartlett Woods. It was fitting that this address should be again given by Mr. Belman.
Mrs. Bennett, of Chicago, a granddaughter of Bartlett Woods, gave a splendid paper eulogizing her grandfather and grandmother : and Mrs. Alice Mundel Demmons, of Hobart, with very fitting words dedicated a bronze marker to the memory of Ann Eliza Siegler Woods as it was unveiled by Charlotte Clark and Barbara Malmstone, both of the children being great- grand-daughters of Bartlett and Ann Eliza Siegler Woods.
Several of Lake County's old residents gave reminiscences of the pioneer days and after the dedication the guests partook of a delicious luncheon prepared and served by Mrs. F. A. Malm- stone and Mrs. C. A. Clark, both daughters of Mr. S. B. Woods. The occasion was one that will live in the memories of those present for many years.
BARTLETT WOODS 1818-1903
The following address in memory of Bartlett Woods, pioneer of Lake County, Indiana, was delivered by W. C. Belman of Hammond, at the forty-sixth annual meeting of the Lake Coun- ty Historical and Old Settlers' Association, held August 26, 1922, at Hickory Ridge Farm, the home of Sam B. Woods, near Crown Point. A bronze tablet commemorating Bartlett Woods was unveiled. It read, "In Memory of Bartlett Woods-pioneer 1837-Public Spirited Citizen-Who Stood for the Right."
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