La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1931 Page: 1 of 8
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By B. F. Harigel
CiKftrunac Journitl
Opposite Masonic Building. Published Every Thursday Morniny and Entered at the Post Office as Second-Claas Matter
Democratic in Principle and a Worker For LaGrange and Fayette County
$2.00 Per Year
Volume 52
LaGrange, Fayette County, Texas, Thursday, April 9, 1931
Number 15
THINGS IN GENERAL
Remarks by the Editor
Endorsed by the heads of big business, tho
idea of launching a campaign—in the code of
publicity—and to adopt the slogan, “better
times are here" makes candid the admission
that the movement is not without merit. Al-
most generally, however, when a movement of
this kind is introduced and the generals of busi-
ness seek to fasten the idea on the minds of the
public that “business is getting better every
day”, we get a severe jolt and find the things
that we are encouraging, are beset with the
usual annoying facts that: while some are put-
ting on the brave front, a number of others are
digging deep with the swords and forcing us to
recognize deficiencies, lack of nfioney and fail-
ures of small business concerns. Look over the
events of the week and agree with us. And now
for the poison:
Last week industrial leaders of the world,
governors of states, senators, radio stars, movie
stars, etc., let the world know that “better times
are here.” And capping all that came the cable-
gram from the good old Irish sport, Sir Thomas
Lipton: “laugh and grow rich.” Which isn’t
bad, if we are willing to eliminate the sarcasm,
but it does not remove the stubborn facts that
confront us on every hand. We are not going to
say that political influences are at work, but we
do say, and say it harshly, that these facts coip-
pel us to hesitate to give full endorsement to
the movement and the slogan that “better times
are here.” There is still too much of the local
color, biting with sarcasm, and the defeated
candidates’ and their henchmen’s, including the
defeated politicians’ opinions, and their ham-
merings at the state institutions, corporatons
and chief executives, both present and past.
Let us draw the line down to where we can
get a better view of the flit«ati’etfr,«dinitting
that this movement to adopt the slogan: “bet-
ter times are here” is not without virtue, and
that the generals of big business mean what
they say, how can we overcome the alarming
fact that our state is bankrupt? Wrong word,
you say? Maybe it is, but we have this to con-
tend with: Our legislature is in session, they
are talking of a deficit in the treasury and how
large it is going to be when the appropriations
are made complete; former candidates for gov-
ernor are hacking with a broadaxe at the pres-
ent and the preceding governor, and such terms
as “former idealistic governor and extravagant
present governor” are being heard. It occurs to
'us, unanimity of thought might be expected to
bring “better times here” and if that does, then
the back-biters need not howl, but they are
howling and that is where the ethiopan is to be
found in the wood pile. .
Everybody wants better times, everybody
with the energy of a June bug—rather prema-
ture to mention him, but he is here—is seek-
ing to “get by” and folks are willing to help,
for the sake of the cause, to do something. The
fact remains, however, that when our greatest
corporation—the State of Texas—is showing a
howling deficiency, and members of the legis-
lature are seeking to eliminate property taxes
for state purposes, and our legislature is mak-
ing still more appropriations, we are merely
stalling when we yell about “the better times
are here.” Everyone knows that when we stand
at the threshold of our own door-step, we must
be in a position to back up what we are yelling.
If that door-step is filthy with an overburdened
deficiency, we cannot tell the private individual
that times are better. They are trying hard, up
at Austin to do something, and if let alone, they
may Succeed, but as long as every measure is
attacked, and every man advocating such meas-
ure is likewise attacked, especially by the rele-
gate#!, we are not going to have an easy sailing.
What the public needs is a more candid and
more willing front, based on fact, and not gush
that sounds as though it was belched through
a fog horn. We are not altogether in a fog, we
know, and everybody else knows that we have
to co-operate in order to accomplish; if there
ever was a time when co-operation was essential
for the future of our great state and nation,
that time is right now. One man can’t get the
thing over, even if he is the governor, or is at
the head of some big business. The wage earner
is daily making an inventory of his holdings and
applying the knife where it is necessary; this
same method should apply when the big busi-
OUR WEEKLY POEM
BUILDING
We are building every day,
In a good or evil way,
And the structure as it grows
Will our inmost self disclose.
Till in every arch and line
All our faults and failings shine;
It may grow a castle grand,
Or a wreck upon the sand.
Did you ask what building this
That can show both pain and bliss,
That can be both dark and fair?
Lo, its name is Character. *
Build it well, whate’r you do;
Build it straight and strong and true;
Built it clean and high and broad;
Build it for the eye of God.
—I. E. Kiekenga, Minneapolis Journal.
ness delegates assemble, and the machinery—
the legislature—is at work. False economy does
not bring the result, real, practical economy is
essential; blaming the past governor and the
present gdvernor as well, eliminates nothing,
yet it leaves the ragged edge on the state gar-
ment, and this edge is what is in need of
trimming.
Whenever the individual gets into deep
water, he argues not at all; his mind is bent on
what we call, the “essential”—and.that “essen-
tial” is to swim out. This can be done, if the
man is a good swimmer, if not he calls for help.
And “help” is what the people need, not flowery
words of rhetoric, nor patting on the back, not
vitriolic attaAffrSJntil one is commissioned to
take the lead, he need not apply; generally, when
these attacks on our officials occur, a tracer
shows that they come from the same old source.
And that source ever acts as a stumbling block,
if the man in charge of the machinery does not
close an eye to that obstacle. Which, summed
up and boiled down, is to suggest that this great
hullabaloo about the good times be side-tracked,
the situation handled without the brass and
gall, and the proper appliances be used to the
end that we do get the better times. It does not
set well, even if the message comes from the
greatest loser on earth, to tell the public that
it “should laugh and grow rich.” Growing rich
is the thing that makes people get bugs.
Texas deficit has to be overcome; measures
that the people are interested in must be hand-
led with calmness and preciseness that will ap-
peal to both the prejudiced minds and those of
an indulgent nature. We see so much about the
state bond issue, and the cause for it, chiefly, to
give the rich bond holders another million or
two in bonds and to escape taxation; placing the
burden of payment on the small chap. We see
that the same old criticism comes that makes
the average tax payer stroke his brain covering,
in order to determine, who appointed the Moses
to lead them out of the mire. We see the same
wise-cracks that were used in the last campaign
paramount at this time, and yet these same
creatures call themselves defenders of the peo-
ple, their protectors in fact. To give the people
a chance to swat an issue is eliminated by these
critics. They pose, and then dispose—of them-
selves, of course—by their conduct. The people
pay the taxes, let them have the opportunity
to swat the bond issue, instead of denying them
such an opportunity. .
Back in 1917, when there was in session
the State Legislature, and the members were
being fast divided on impeachment and other
vital issues, the black cloud of the world war
was hanging on the western horizon, and our
nation was battling with the old contention:
"to be or not to be”—-which meant to enter the
war or to remain out of it. Between this and the
matters before the two houses of the legisla-
ture, the boys had something to do, and hanged
if they didn’t forget the main issue, the “sub-
mission question” which had been voted on by
the people and carried. When the submission
question—to determine whether there shall be
an election in Texas in the Fall of that year, to
determine whether or not, the sale of liquor
TEXAS AND TEXANS
By Will H. Mayes, Austin, Texas
Will Live at Home.
One result of the late, lamented “hard
times” is that the people, and especially the
farmers, are changing their methods of living.
The country has gone through a wild orgy of
spending, during which few home products
were used if substitutes could be bought on
credit at the stores. If the papers are to be be-
lieved—and usually they reflect existing condi-
tions pretty well—there is more gardening and
truck-growing under way in Texas now than
ever before. City and country folks alike are
interested in producing at home such things as
they can consume in the homes. Dealers in home
canning outfits are having a big business, and
preparations are being made to can large sup-
plies of home-grown vegetables and fruits to
store for future use and to exchange with local
grocers for such foods as can not be raised at
home. There is hardly a county in Texas in
which the people are not studying local produc-
tion to see if cooperative canneries will not pay,
and canneries are being built in several locali-
ties. If Texans have really learned the advan-
tages of living at home and will apply the les-
son, the hard times and drouth through which
the country has gone will prove of far more
value than harm.
* * • • *
Increasing Some Crops.
Reports indicate that about 2,000,000 morn
acres will be planted to com in Texas this year
as compared with last year’s planting, an in-
crease of about 15 per cent. There will also be
a large increase in grain sorghums and oats,
and a decided increase in the numerous truck
crops adapted to Texas. It is too early to predict
what the acreage in cotton will be, but present
Pfjfet &nd the large left-over crop should dis-
courage over-planting. *
HIGHWAY NO. 44
Under Advisement by Highway Commission
* 4 * * •
"East Texas Booms.
The low price of oil seems to hold no terrors
for the East Texas oil field. Development is
going on at an unprecedented rate, and the
whole area of Central East Texas appears to be
in a wild maelstrom of speculative fever, justi-
fied however by the oil production. East Texas
communities are all doing everything in their
power to get extensions of the field and are of-
fering large purses to the first producers who
find oil in their localities. Many geologists and
producers think that what is now most gen-
erally known as the Kilgore field will become
the greatest in this country—perhaps the
greatest in the world.
(Continued on page four)
There Are Dangers Ahead.
Bad results of a kind almost invariably fol-
low discovery of oil. Too many people, and es-
pecially small farmers who lease their lands for
oil development, quit their farms, go to the
towns to spend their money and get into the
wild scramble in which they lose their lease-
money while allowing their farms to deterior-
ate. There are not many people who can keep
quickly and easily acquired wealth. Too many
East Texas farms that were being built up to
the highest state of production through scien-
tific diversification will be untilled this year and
so long as the oil boom lasts. Too many good
farmers are deserting their farms for fields of
endeavor in which they are untrained. This is
true wherever oil is found. A few grow rich
quickly, but it is at the expense of the many
who are made poorer by the riches around them.
Improvements Underestimated.
* Col. Arthur Woods, chairman of President
Hoover’s committee on unemployment relief, is
reported as saying that there are $4,000,000 irt,
public and semi-public construction projects
now under way in Texas. He lists a score or
more. As a matter of fact, the correct figures
would be nearer to $400,000,000. There is more
than $40,000,000 of work under way on state
highways and public roads alone at this time.
The absurdity of the report is shown in the
statement that $90,000 is the amount ’ being
spent for county court houses, that being the
cost of the court house at Menard. There are in
fact some 10 or 12 more expensive court houses
now being built in Texas, the one at Austin
costing about $1,000,000 and several others
being nearly as expensive. School buildings in
Texas is given at $250,000, at Fort Stockton and
Local delegation, a number of our business
men including Judge Theo. W. Lueders, returned
late Wednesday afternoon from Austin where
they attended a hearing before the Highway
Commission, regarding the “coming through”
LaGrange of Highway No. 44. We “wonder” if
—outside of Harris county—there has been as
much cussing af\d discussing about a highway
coming through town as this much-prayed for
and “enloved” highway through LaGrange has
been discussed. Local patriotism seems to have
become rampant, interest in getting a thing set-
tled has been granted leave of absence, and per-
sonal opinions have prevailed to an alarming ex-
tent—with good for town eliminated to the full-
est. Whether this meeting of Wednesday at
'Austin will bring results, or whether jt will not,
isn’t for this writer to say.
Predictions cannot be regarded as obnox-
ious ; someone is going to have, to take a back
seat and eat crow; if every idea as to how this
road or highway should run through town was
given an airing, we venture that our prediction,
that it is going right down Franklin street, is
going to be verified. Yes, this writer occupies a
home on the lower end of franklin street, and
if what we have been told comes to pass, the
highway will not reach his sidewalk, but will
make a slow turn to the right, one block north,
leaving this writer to nurse the same old ditch
with weeds left for him to remove, and the same
old contention that it is a nuisance. Hence, it
cannot be said that we are selfish. The high-
way, if it should go down Franklin street, will
pass by the mayor’s residence, and that may be
& reason for opposition. The mayor has had
that same ditch for over forty years to gaze
upoJLa?,ih? Tuld’ w* are n9t saying that he
woniAjks, ^ **—tnrjjr
his last check.
Storm sewers will become a necessity, hi
ways are not to be run through town on a nar-
row street, .these drainage ditches will have to_
be replaced with storm sewers, and the oner
way street relegated. Why argue further? If it
is a matter of personal gain, pardon us, we are
not so meaning, then the idea of annoying the
Highway Commission is wrong. What we all
want is for that highway to come right through
town where it will be available for the trans-
cient as well as the local car driver, and we
to have it safe to drive over, and no crowd
off the highway into a ditch. Hence, we repeat,
we hope that both the City Council And the
Highway Commission will cease this bit of bur-
lesque and vaudeville offering, and make it pos-
sible to have the highway started by designa-
tion. Some folks are not even consoled when
they get a good thing; they have to be humored.
Going north, out of LaGrange, is another
difference of opinion, the Fair Association is
being criticised as having-a personal reason for
the highway going on their road, thus giving all
people an opportunity to see the Fair Grounds
as they ride along. Quit it, the Fair Association
is offering to “give them the road” which ought
to, if it does not, be weighed and considered.
Personally, we have nothing to offer, but the
suggestion is an exercise of privilege, take the
bit between the teeth, and resolve to do some-
thing, and do it for the beat interests of the
people who will have to pay for the highway
and who wish to travel over it. Then, advertise
for bids and get the work started. Get it fin-
ished and give those boys out on the farm a
good highway, they have voted for it, and
should not be denied what they have asked
Here’s hoping 1
ZM
1
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Huntsville; there is probably as much as $4,-
000,000 being spent in the State on school hous-
es alone. Dallas is quoted as having a total of
$55,000 in paving contracts .under way as the
sum total of its public and semi-publie construc-
tion. ‘ ’ *
Semi-official reports of the kind accredited
to Col. Woods do Texas great injustice. Texas
is now doing about three times the total amount
of public and semi-public building that CoL
Woods appears to have found under construction v.
in the entire United States.
Dodge Corporation Report.
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La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 52, No. 15, Ed. 1 Thursday, April 9, 1931, newspaper, April 9, 1931; La Grange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth997921/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.