Claude News (Claude, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 1934 Page: 7 of 12
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Th# Country Press
GOOD idea of what the country
press is able to do in this country
is shown by some figures gotten
out by the editor of a small daily
over in Alabama. He calls attention to
the sworn statement of the big dailies
in Birmingham, Mobile and Montgom-
ery and shows that the total circulation
of all of them is 236,000. Then he pro-
ceeds to show that the circulation of
what is known as the Alabama country
press is 760,000, almost three times the
combined circulation of the big dailies.
We are inclined to believe that the
circulation of the smaller papers in
Texas and' Oklahoma, over the big
dailies, will show even a greater pre-
ponderance in favor of the country pa-
pers.
Politicians and others are sometimes
absolutely astounded at the small in-
fluence exerted by the big dailies. The
trouble is that the people are not read-
ing the big dailies. The country press
has shown so much enterprise and is
furnishing such good papers that they
are getting to be the only papers that
the great mass of people read. And
the home paper goes into the homes and
is a part of those homes. The big dailies
lie around in the professional man's of-
fice, on the bankers desk, on the mer-
chants counter—not one in ten going
into the homes.
But the editors of the rural press
are known to their readers, and if the
papers have merit enough to survive,
the readers pin their faith to the rural
press, knowing that the men and meas-
ures they support are not tainted with
ulterior motives.
What is known as the rural press
when it stands together can bring about
any needed reform in the State, because
it has the greatest number of readers
and because its readers know the editors
personally and believe in them.
The impersonality of the metropolitan
press has rendered it impotent to in-
fluence the public. Such papers are ta-
ken for their news value alone.
A Good Resolution
One of the things our people should
put in their New Year's resolution is to
firmly resolve that they are not going
to buy any fake stock during 1934.
Every year this section contributes hun-
dreds of dollars to some kind or other of
these fake concerns. It's oil, or mining,
or auto manufacturing, or foreign bonds,
or picture show stock and a dozen other
fake things that the slick promoter un-
1 loads on our people year after year.
So let us resolve that this is one year
we are not going to allow some slick
talker to get our money.
It Can't Be Done
Verne Miller's strussed, naked and
•T-r* -
COMMENT
bruised body, found on a lonely street
in Detroit, should be accumulative evi-
dence that crime doesn't pay. He is the
lnni -1— -t «- « 4* 1
WOK Ui OlA iiiClt Willi LMJU11U UlCltlflClVCO
together to prey on society by robbery,
hijacking and murder when necessary.
One year ago this gang represented
what appeared to be an unconquerable
menace. Three of them are dead now
and three are in Federal prisons under
life sentences. These men wanted to
make easy money. Life with all its
alluring opportunities to an honest life
did not appeal to them. But what be-
fell them has befallen men of their kind
since the time of the James brothers,
the Yqunger brothers, the Sam Bass
gangs, the Rube Burrows and all the
rest. Even before they are apprehend-
ed or killed they are "vagabonds on the
face of the earth with every man's hand
against them." Yet there is always a
new crop of foolish ones coming on who
think they can outwit law and society.
It can't be done—crime has never paid.
Humanity the Same Everywhere
The lynchings in California, Missouri
and Maryland, all happening in a few
days of each other, indicate that hu-
manity is about the same everywhere.
Heretofore this characteristic was sup-
posed to only flourish down in Dixie.
But give the people the same cause and
the mob may appear anywhere. The
crimes for which these four men were
lynched were atrocious. There was no
doubt in any of their cases as to their
guilt. In each instance the crimes were
admitted. But this was the best of
reason why the courts should have ad-
ministered the penalty. The mob spirit
must not be encouraged. Mobs are
usually recruited from the criminal and
ignorant classes. In the California
lynching the leader of the mob said he
planned the lynching and the day be-
fore it was executed he was busy
visiting the speakeasies, the dives, the
gambling dens, the bootleggers and
the vice districts raising recruits.
More than half the mob, according to
the press reports, were drunk. As
much as $5.00 was paid for one toe-
nail of one of the victims to be kept
as a souvenir: bits of their cloth-
ing sold as high as 50 cents. Society
was injured more from the brutality
that resulted than from the crime that
these men paid for with their lives.
The Great Danger From Mobs
However, the great danger from the
unthinking mob is its liability to lynch
an innocent person. This has been done
in this State to the eternal shame of
Texas. That is the reason we should
have courts to decide on the guilt or in-
nocence of persons charged with crime.
The mob always defends its action by
declaring their victim confessed before
he was hanged or burned. Here in my
county (Harrison) to my certain know-
ledge our sheriff during his term of of-
fice has prevented four innocent men
from being lynched. Only one of the
men saved from hanging or burning was
ever indicted and he received only a
short sentence in the penitentiary. I
saw and knew the men who were in-
stigators of these mobs, and to say the
least, they were not men who were
paragons of virtue in their own lives
or men who one would look to as ad-
vocates of law and order. Many years
ago, possible 35, a man was burned in
this county for an aggravated crime. He
was guilty and deserved death. It was
in the time when there were no less
than 20 saloons in the county. The
time for the burning was set and the
place several miles in the country. As
a correspondent of a newspaper, I went
to what was an orgy of drunkness such
as I havfc never seen in my life. One
saloonkeeper, before the whole crowd,
sliced off a bit of the burnt flesh of the
victim and amid cheering from the
crowd ate it. But that same crowd
when it became sober ran that saloon-
keeper out of the county. The mob is
a relic of barbarism and a step that
is easily taken. Our courts often crucify
justice but that is our fault. Too many
of us evade jury service, we allow crafty
lawyers to defeat justice by all sorts of
chicanery, we elect politicians to office
instead of honest men, we send too
many criminal lawyers to the legislature
and we put the ermine on shyster law-
yers and call them judges.
* * #
A Belligerent Old Chap
There is a complacent feeling in the
average American that his nation is a
peaceful one, always striving for peace
and that it's the other naughty nations
that want war. A writer in a recent
magazine article attempts to overthrow
this "holier than thou" attitude. He
states that during our 157 years as a
nation that we have been engaged in
more wars than any other nation on the
globe. And he further shows by quot-
ing from the record that in every in-
stance it was this country which first
made the declaration of war. that no na-
tion has ever declared war on the Unit-
ed States until after we had declared
war on it. And this magazine writer
goes on to show right now that this
country is spending more money for war
purposes than any other nation. Great
Britian is spending almost as much but
most of that country's expenditures are
on its navy which must protect her pos-
sessions that are almost world-wide.
When we come to think of it, maybe we
are not as peace-loving people as we are
wont to think. In our seven wars
against other nations we first made the
declaration of war: twice against Eng-
land, one against the Barbary State,
against Mexico, against Spain, against a
government set up by the Philippines,
against Germany, against Austria and
Turkey. Uncle Sam really appears to
be quite a belligerant old chap.
• m m
Machinery and Unemployment
There is one report of a Senatorial
investigating committee, made in 1927,
at the very height of the boom, that is
just now for the first time receiving
earnest attention. Even in 1927 there
were some four million men out of em-
ployment. Senator Sheppard estimat-
ed the number as being much larger.
The Senate appointed a committee to
investigate the cause for this unemploy-
ment of which Senator Wagner was
chairman and Senator Sheppard a mem-
ber. An exhaustive investigation was
made; a report sent to the Senate, but
we were in the midst of what we thought
was an era of prosperity that would
never end; stocks were skyrocketing
and political speakers were telling us
that poverty was to be a thing of the
past—no wonder we didn't pay any at-
tention to a report of what we thought
was the uttering c*f some pessimistic
Senators. But here are some things
that report showed as to why in times
of great prosperity more and more men
were losing their jobs. For the five
preceding years invention and machin-
ery had been speeded up to breath-tak-
ing bounds. For example: the com-
mittee found that a brick-making ma-
chine was turning out 40,000 bricks per
hour and only required two men to run
it; hundreds of men were once needed
to blow glass carboys alone, but a single
machine was then making all the car-
boys needed and only eight men were
needed to operate it; the committee
found out chemistry had tossed the
thousands of iron-puddlers out of their
jobs; the dial system of the telephone
had let out 35,000 telephone girls; the
automatic device inaugurated by the
telegraph company had caused the dis-
charge of 65 per cent of the telegraph
operators. Thus in every industry they
found the same situation. In the tex-
tile mills they found a machine, operat-
ed by one man. had displaced 42 textile
workers. Maybe this committee found
the real cause of the depression—the
machine. Men out of employment have
no purchasing power, no money to buy
agricultural products or the things,
made in the factories. Possibly it
would be better to smash 40 per cent of
the machines instead of retiring 40 per
cent of our cultivated lands. Give the
millions work and the depression is
over. Instead of reducing our crops to
a point where an impoverished people
can consume it, wouldn't it better to go
the other way round? Give the unem-
ployed work so they can buy the pro-
ducts of the farm and the factory. But
I'm not an economist. Possibly Secre-
tary of Agriculture Wallace is right
when he proposes the South shall only-
raise enough cotton for domestic con-
By HOMER M. PRICE
Martha 11, Tcxaa.
(Copyright. 1984. by the Bom* Color Mat O*.)
sumption. But I just can't figure out
what is to become of the tenant farmers
and the owners of small farms when
Mr. Wallace retires 20,000,000 acres of
cotton land from cultivation. This will
mean many thousands more added to
the list of unemployed. I hope it's all
right but if we should reduce our cotton
crop to only supply our domestic needs I
can't imagine where we are going to get
the $350,000,000 for the 7,000,000 bales
we have been getting from cotton sold
abroad. I believe it's something the
South should seriously consider.
* # *
One of the Seven Hundred
And now here is something new, al-
though it is something like 4,000 years
old. These people who go digging in
the ruins of the past have run up on a
tomb in Egypt that contains the mum-
my of one of King Solomon's seven hun-
dred wives. There seems to be little
doubt of the genuineness of the find and
on a scroll in the casket (which is made
of solid gold) is unquestionably the
handwriting of the wise king.
It seems this particular wife saved
her many-wived husband from death by
drinking poisoned wine intended for her
royal spouse, and because of this
Solomon encased her body in what is
probably the finest tomb the world has
ever known. It is filled with objects
of beauty and of great value. The body
of the queen resting in the golden casket
is wrapped in the richest coverings set
with precious stones. The fingers bore
rings of almost priceless value and on
t!he head was a crown set with sapphires,
emeralds and pearls. The scroll en-
cased in the coffin was written in
Hebrew characters and on it in the
writing of the king recounts that this
crown was presented to him by his peo-
ple on the 25th anniversary of his reign.
The scroll concludes with these words:
"When Moti entered bearing cups and
wine I noticed that she was deadly
white, but I did not suspect treachery.
When Moti poured out the wine in cups
1 noticed that Ami'ito did not hold out
his hand for his cup. Nevertheless,
still unsuspecting, I raised the cup to my
lips. Moti. nho -vat standing beside
me, instantly snatched the cupanddrank
the contents herself. For a few min-
utes she remained standing while I
seemed to turn to stone. Her father,
with a cry of rage, fled from the room.
Shortly after Moti staggered and fell
dying into my arms. The wicked
Amento tried to poison me, but his
daughter, Moti, my beloved wife, saved
my life at the sacrifice of her own."
The probable genuiness of the story
is strengthened by the fact that the
Bible names the daughter of one of the
Pharoah's as one of Solomon's wives.
If the wise king's life had been saved
by all of his wives and lady friends (he
had 350 of the latter) it would have ex-
hausted the world's supply of gold to
have provided golden caskets for them.
M
eanderings o
f a Greenhorn in the Big City
By JOE SAPPINGTON
522 Sedvrirk At«., Waco, Tmm.
(Copyright, 1934, by the Home Color Print Co. •
olCIENCE and invention have hclp-
5! ed remove the social barriers that
once existed between the city-
bred man and the man brought
up in the country. When I was a boy
it made no difference how much sense
a fellow had—if rais-
ed in the country he
couldn't keep from
acting "green" when
visiting the city.
From the time the
country boy boarded
a train to leave home
until his return, every
move he made, as a
rule, was awkward
and embarrassing.
The first thing he
usually did was to
misplace his railroad
ticket and when the
conductor came
around he would
startj sweating and
clawing at his pock-
ets, turning them inside out, in an ef-
fort to find the missing ticket, which
was always tucked away in the corner
of some inside pocket. After finally
producing the ticket, the greenhorn
would settle in his chair with a sigh of
relief, trying to let the back down like
the rest of the passengers, but the dern
thing wouldn't work. He "rasseled"
with it until the negro porter, coming
through the isle to call out the next
station, would see his predicament, walk
over, press a little button, and down the
back of the seat dropped quickly and
easily.
Six-Bit Tclescope
Arriving in the city, said country boy
shuffled out with his little "six-bit"
telescopc and walked
into the city, if not
over five miles from
the depot, and start-
ed looking for hotel
signs. If true to
form, he would fol-
low the crowd that
got off the train,
which u s u a 1 ly
brought him into tho
lobby of the leading
hotel. As the porter
came dashing up to
take his telescope, he
would eye the porter
suspiciously andgriD
the telescope more
tightly. At last, with
an eye still on the
porter, he puts the telescope on the
floor between his feet and looks around
the walls for placards that might tell
him the prices of meals and lodg-
ing.
Finally he gives 'er up and follows
the crowd, just registered, into the
dining room, stuffs his baggage under
the table and calls for a regular "two-
bit" meal. The waiter smiles, and in-
forms him that they do not serve "two-
"Aslied where he could find a good
wagonyard hotel."
bit" meals; whereupon, he reaches for
his tclescope, walks out on the street,
stops a drayman and asks him where he
can find a good wagonyard hotel.
Its been a long, lonvr time, but 1 shall
never forget some of the things that
happened to Tom Mason and I the time
we were sent as delegates from the
local lodge of our village to the grand
lodge that was to be held in St. Louis.
Neither of us had been fifty miles from
home, had never seen a building more
than two stories high or registered at a
hotel. Since our expenses were paid by
the lodge, we decided to go in state and
engaged a berth on a pull man. Up to
that time we had never looked inside of
a pullman and had no Idea how the seat-
were made up into berths.
Couldn't Figure Jt Out
Having been assigned to a seat, Tom
and I began to speculate on where the
beds were. It was still early—not
more than 8:00 p. m.—when the porter
came along, and we asked him what
about our bed.
"Is you gemmens sleepy?" he asked.
"If you is, I'll make up your bed any-
time you wants it."
"Yes, we are awful sleepy," Tom told
him. "We didn't get to bed until al-
most 10:00 o'clock last night on account
of a lot of lodge work we had to do."
"All right, gemmens, go back in de
smoker and I'll fix it up."
For fear some one would make off
with our baggage, we took it with us
into the smoker.
"Say, Joe, how's that blame porter
going to make down any bed; there
ain't no place for a bed that 1 can see.
Derned if I wouldn't set up all night be-
fore I'd go to bed before them wom-
en."
"Same here." I replied.
Just then the porter announced that
our bed was in order.
"How do we get to it?" Tom wanted
to know, "and where do we pull off our
clothes?"
"Keep voar clothes on and toiler me,"
the porter said, leading the way.
It took a great load off of our minds
when we saw our berth was curtained
in from prying eyes of other passen-
gers.
Slept in Their Trouseris
Now, that we were in the thing, we
didn't know how to dispose of our
clothes, and proceeded to sleep in our
trousers with our coats and vests fold-
ed under the pillows. We tried out-
best to go to sleep, but couldn't to save
our lives. After rolling and tossing
around for about two hours, we finally-
got up, put on our coats and vests and
sat on the side of our berth till broad
daylight.
The next morning, just before arriv-
ing in St. Louis, the porter brush-
ed our clothes, which were badly wrin-
kled, and we gave him a nickle a piece
for his trouble.
The grand lodge opened in gala form
that morning. After the roll-call of
delegates, Tom and I pulled out to see
tho sights of the big city. However, late
in the afternoon we got pretty tired.
went to our hotel and sat around till
nearly 8:00 p. m., which was our usual
bed-time at home.
We thereupon asked to be shown our
room. The bell boy took us to the
room, waited for a tip which he didn't
get. and then left in disgust. Once
more we were confronted with another
bed problem—a hotel folding bed. It
was the first folding bed either of us
had ever seen, but we knew of its dead-
ly record and looked upon it with awe
and distrust.
"Say, Joe. you can sleep in that dang
thing if you want to." Tom said, in a
loud tone of voice, "but I'd sleep on the
bare floor before I'd risk my life in its
clutches."
"Why, Tom, do you suppose folding
beds are really that dangerous?"
"You dern fool, don't you know its
victims are numbered by the thou-
sands?" he replied. "Go ahead if you
have no regard for your life and get the
stuffin' mashed out of you."
We finally compromised by pulling
the bedding off and sleeping on the
floor. Next day Tom had the hotel
clerk give us a room with an old-fash-
ioned bed in it and bowl and pitcher.
The night following our return home,
we came to the lodge hall literally ablaze
with many colored badges we had
garnered and brought back as trophies
of the trip.
Naturally, we said nothing about the
pullman car and folding bed experience.
We just looked wise, thumbed our
vests, and assumed an air of consider-
able importance.
WARNING TO FARMERS
The Bureau of Internal Revenue has
been advised that in many instances
farmers and others are slaughtering
hogs and selling the products to con-
sumers without payment of the pro-
cessing tax. This is a violation of the
Agriculture Adjustment Act and regu-
lations promulgated thereunder which
provide that any person who slaughters
« hogs for market must file appropriate
returns and pay the processing tax, ac-
cording to Guy T. Helering, commis-
sioner of internal revenue. The tax ap-
plies even in the case of the producer
who slaughter his own hogs and sells or
otherwise disposes of all or any part of
the products. Heavy penalties are pro-
vided for violation of the law or evasion
of the tax and any person who slaugh-
ters and sells all or any part of the hog
should confer with the collector of in-
ternal revenue for his district who will
assist him in preparing and filing the
required returns.
101-YEAR-OLD TEXAN DIES
Col. Thomas Allen Burns of Burkett,
who celebrated his 101st birthday last
July, died November 22. He was re-
puted to have been the oldest male resi-
dent of Texas. Col. Burns was born in
1832 at Dungarven, Ireland, and came
to America with his family in 1840.
Sixteen years later he migrated to Tex-
as. In 1860 he was clerk of election
"for or against secession" in Bexar
county. Two years later he went to
Mexico as an English teacher where ho
took up the study of Spanish, which he
continued until a short time before his
death. In 1870 Colonel Burns took tho
census of Caldwell county, three years
later assisted in surveying the town
of Lipan, and was its first post-
—PAGE 8—
master. In 1877 Col. Burns was made
postmaster at Granhury, from there go-
ing to Coleman county where he had
purchased several thousand acres. His
first wife died nujny years ago. His
second wife was Miss Elsie M. Cochran,
postmistress at Burkett, whom he mar-
ried when he was 90 years old. For years
he assisted his wife with her postal
duties.
COLLEGE PLANS CELEBRATION
The West Texas State Teachers' Col-
lege at Canyon will^be 25 years old next
fall, and already plans are being made
for a fitting celebration. It is proposed
to have a Parents' Day in connection
with the two-day festivities on the
campus, when special attention will be
given ex-es who have married and have
families. Dr. J. A. Hill, president of
the college, has appointed a central com-
mittee with Prof. L. F. Sheffy as its
chairman to organize the faculty, stu-
dents and ex-es for the big event. Other
members of the committee arc Miss
Mary E. Hudspeth, D. A. Shirley, Miss
Ruth Lowes, Prof. C. A. Murray, Mrs.
T. V. Reeves and Mrs. Wallace R. Clark.
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Claude News (Claude, Tex.), Vol. 45, No. 19, Ed. 1 Friday, January 12, 1934, newspaper, January 12, 1934; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth348548/m1/7/?q=waco+tornado&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Richard S. and Leah Morris Memorial Library.