anaheim-gazette 1926-05-06

THE ANAHEIM GAZETTE ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY HENRY KUCHEL, Editor and Proprietor SUBSCRIPTION PER YEAR.....$1.50 SIX MONTHS.....$1.00 THREE MONTHS.....$ .50 Entered at the Anaheim, California, Post Office as second class matter. OUR NATION'S FINANCES REFUNDING of the French war debt to the United States brings to a close negotiations for settlement by all but three of our foreign debtor nations. The agreement is based upon France's capacity to pay, and while terms are lenient, we must recognize that she was our ally during the war and suffered great losses in the struggle, the loss of her man power having been appalling. Payments begin at $30,000,000 per year for the first two years, gradually increase, and in five years time amount to $50,000,000. Each year thereafter payments increase $10,-000,000, until they amount to $125,000,000 in seventeen years, at which amount the debt will be wiped out in sixty-two years. This agreement is much more advantageous to us than that offered a year ago, and should be speedily approved by the senate, which has already approved settlements by other of our foreign debtors. The gross public debt of this nation stands today at something under $20,000,000,000. We are reducing this debt by $750,-000,000 per annum, and our annual interest comes to $800,000,000. Our interest payments represent a quarter of the government's entire income. We have recently paid as high as a billion dollars a year in interest, while our entire funded debt before the war was not much greater than this amount. We have paid off more than $6,000,000,000 of our debt in six years and shall liquidate it in twenty-five years. No such colossal financial transactions were ever attempted in the history of the world. This money is all due to our own people. Of the total amount, one-half represents the net debt owing by our government, the balance is that owing to us by our foreign debtors. Our net debt will be ex- thing under $20,000,000,000. We are reducing this debt by $750,000,000 per annum, and our annual interest comes to $800,000,000. Our interest payments represent a quarter of the government's entire income. We have recently paid as high as a billion dollars a year in interest, while our entire funded debt before the war was not much greater than this amount. We have paid off more than $6,000,000,000 of our debt in six years and shall liquidate it in twenty-five years. No such colossal financial transactions were ever attempted in the history of the world. This money is all due to our own people. Of the total amount, one-half represents the net debt owing by our government, the balance is that owing to us by our foreign debtors. Our net debt will be expunged by 1940, when payments to us by our foreign debtors will be more than enough to care for interest payments on the remainder. Previous to the war the American people owed England $6,000,000,000, our interest payments aggregating $300,000,000 per year. England now owes us more than $4,000,000,000, the overturn being more than $10,000,000,000. A further decrease in income taxes will be made in the not distant future. We are recovering from the effects of the great war and the future is roseate with promise for the continued prosperity of the nation. Our money is coming back to us, and the nation is sitting pretty. There remain five foreign nations indebted to us for war loans. Greece owes us $17,600,000, Rumania $46,000,000, Russia $255,000,000, Armenia $15,000,000, and Liberia $32,000. Russia has repudiated its debt, and Armenia has ceased to exist. The total amount of the principal owing the United States by the nations which have already refunded their obligations, including France, stands at $11,500,000,000. In sixty-two years they will have paid this back to us and $11,500,000,000 in interest. A DISTINGUISHED ENGINEER IT WAS a great pleasure to meet our former fellowtownsman, Fred J. Fischer of Los Angeles, on the occasion of his visit to Anaheim last week. Mr. Fischer is a son of pioneer parents who came to this city in 1861. He and his family were in the great flood of 1862, as was also the family of the writer, when waters stood many feet deep over the entire valley from the foothills to the ocean. Great trees were swept down from the mountains and were for years a source of firewood for the Pioneers. We believe the writer is the only man now living in Anaheim who went through that flood. Little do the people of Orange county today realize the everlasting debt of gratitude they are under to the sturdy Pioneers for their fighting off the myrmidons of evil in the early days when they defeated a proposed bond issue to be used as a bonus to railroads in the amount of $875,000. Besides this vast sum were to be land grants for rights-of-way, sidings, depots, and harbor frontages at Wilmington. The father of this eminent engineer took a leading part in fighting off and defeating this iniquitous measure. He went to Los Angeles, denounced the scheme and warned the people that unless they desisted, Anaheim would cut away from Los Angeles county. The bonds were defeated. Two attempts were made to divide the county and each failed, but in 1889 the fight for division was finally successful. The total amount of the railroad bonus in money and lands was around one million dollars. The total assessed valuation of Los Angeles county was fifteen million dollars. Think of a bond issue today to be used as a bonus to a great corporation running into the hundreds of millions of dollars! This is comparatively what this early day bond issue really amounted to. The Pioneers arose in their might and beat them down, and in so doing earned the everlasting gratitude of the people for their noble work. Fred J. Fischer spent his school days in Anaheim. He was Anaheim would cut away from Los Angeles county. The bonds were defeated. Two attempts were made to divide the county and each failed, but in 1889 the fight for division was finally successful. The total amount of the railroad bonus in money and lands was around one million dollars. The total assessed valuation of Los Angeles county was fifteen million dollars. Think of a bond issue today to be used as a bonus to a great corporation running into the hundreds of millions of dollars! This is comparatively what this early day bond issue really amounted to. The Pioneers arose in their might and beat them down, and in so doing earned the everlasting gratitude of the people for their noble work. Fred J. Fischer spent his school days in Anaheim. He was a boy of studious habit and nobility of character, always thoughtful and considerate of those about him, always studying intently about things which engaged his attention, always of a mechanical turn of mind, and perhaps dreaming of the day when he would come to be one of the state's greatest engineers. We remember the day he left for San Francisco, going on the stage to Wilmington, to begin his course as an apprentice in a large iron foundry in that city. His youthful associates gathered about him, eying him with wonder and admiration. His father came out of the hotel, kissed the boy and bade him goodbye and God speed. He learned his trade as an engineer in the northern city. For 38 years he has been in the employ of the Los Angeles Water and Power Company. Associated with Engineer Mulholland, he was engaged in the construction of the Owens aqueduct, and will be with that gentleman in bringing hitherward the waters of the Colorado river. He makes three trips East annually to purchase machinery for the rapidly growing city. Well do we remember the day he made his first balloon, obtaining the idea from a new book just received by the public school library. The balloon was constructed in a room under the stairway of the hotel, where oil and gasoline were stored. It stood several feet high, was made of tissue paper and had a tin receptacle at its base for oil. It was to sail aloft by means of hot air, and invitations were issued the old-timers to come and see the sight. When the oil in the receptacle was touched with a match, there was an explosion, and the balloon went up instantly in flames. There was great danger of a very bad fire. We smothered the flames with our hat. We never wore it again. The last we saw of our youthful friend that day, his father was leading him to the woodshed, tightly holding him with one hand and in the other a deck of forbidding garden hose four feet long. That hose did not look good to us and we beat it to the hills. What troups of recollections come surging by at recall of these bygone days, with their lights and shadows, their trials and tribulations, their joys and sorrows, their pleasures and heartaches all swept away into the remorseless abysm of the years! Children have come, the old folks have been laid away, and still we plod on, facing the future with its work to perform and rewards to bestow. So runs the world away! ANAHEIM GAZETTE LEST WE FORGET By A. B. CHAPIN OBSERVATIONS BY A CONTRIBUTOR Like Hen With Brood of Ducks With a belligerent dictator running around his country with a chip on his shoulder, and with a ruler of an adi- cent domain saying if he starts any- thing Asa Minor will be drenched in blood. Uncle Reuben wonders if Uncle Sam would spend any sleepless nights were he a member of a league of nations. Must Step on Somebody's Toes Much has been said about paving streets and installing ornamental street lights. Some citizens incline to the idea that a majority of frontage in city blocks should say whether or not these improvements should be made. Were this plan followed, those who believe otherwise, say these units would never materialize. Of course, under the Vrooman act, trustees have the legal right to order the work done. It is indisputable that these commendable improvements enhance the value of the abutting property. This, in turn, indirectly pays for the improvements and more besides, for a well lighted, paved thoroughfare is far more preferable than one that is not. It is said that some property owners are hard hit in making their payments, especially during times when money is hard to get; but again, these worthy civic better- nents tend to make depressed condi- tions fade away in great part through the progressive spirit of the citizens and property owners. And again, others will say that this is too much of a burden to place upon these people directly, and that the cost of these improvements should be met by a bond issue; but if bonds were voted, every Tom, Dick and Harry would want his street paved and a couple of orn- mental lights put in his backyard for good measure. So there you are. Seeking the Real Stuff The expert taster of liquor is a new fangled job that has sprung up in some of the larger cities. It is said that there is so much Mountain Dew in the country that only about one bottle in a couple of thousand is safe for human use. Would Hardly Know Old Place A Texan is reported to have sent a money order to a former liquor firm in a nearby state, enclosing a list of liquids he wanted. He is a plainsman, does not read the papers, and evidently has not as yet heard of prohibition, and must live a long way from a movie show house. He must have been on the water wagon, had a setto with the old woman, and decided to drown his sorrow in the flowing bowl. The erstwhile drink emperium he formerly knew has been turned into a gents' furnishing store and barber shop for men and women. Waistlines Wasting Away It is said golf has worked wonders in the ranks of the ultra rich, because leaping over the links is sauce for the system, and a fellow is not so likely to get the gout. Curbing the Zephyrs Far-sighted citrus growers look with favor upon the planting of trees to serve as windbreaks as a protection to their orchards. Evidences are at hand here where orange groves are benefitted when shielded from the damaging effects of a dry desert wind. Nebraska has made a new departure in the afforestation of its treeless plains by supplying to the farmers, free of charge, hardy young jack pines and encouraging their planting as protection against the strong winds which sweep over the central and western parts of the state. Governor McMullen is able to carry out till tree planting program through the co-operation of the Federal Forestry Service, which offers to furnish the young pines from the government nurseries that within recent years have been successfully developed at Halsey and other points in northwestern Nebraska. To the early settlers of Nebraska the growth of forests appeared as one of the urgent necessities. Many of them had emigrated from eastern states where timbered tracts were familiar, agreeable and profitable features of the rural landscape. In the new territory absorbring Topic for Solution There are many questions before the people that, were they solved in the right way, would tend to enhance the progressiveness of any community. Civic betterments are always interesting topics of discussion, and were people actuated by a spirit of amity, much good would result. Anaheim has room for much improvement, and projects now lying dormant may be infused with life of far-reaching effect. The storage of flood waters, that annually run to waste during torrential rains, is ever an important and interesting question before the people of Southern California. The Southwest as a whole is more or less an arid domain, and the conservation of water at all times is a paramount problem. The people of Orange county should make the impounding of flood water a household slogan. The saving of river water is far more important than the creation of harbors for, be it known, were lands unproductive the harbors would be valueless. Up the Santa Ana canyon are natural sites for check dams, and these could be built at a nominal cost compared to the vast benefit to be derived from the successful tillage of soil through irrigation. This question should receive more earnest attention from civic bodies and the people generally. The rainfall this year, while of good proportions, is still below normal, and the three years' previous record of precipitation has been decidedly low. Just what would happen to this section were this dryness to continue is problematic. People should look more intently upon the irrigation water problem, and the time is opportune for laying plans for its conservation. During the first week in April enough water was wasted in the Santa Ana river to irrigate thousands of acres, were it properly stored and distributed when needed. The necessity for foresight in the storage of water for present and subsequent use each year becomes more apparent. It should be safeguarded and used in the upper reaches of streams. Water when sperad upon the surface in the upper valleys will find its own way back to the stream to be used again and again. Much good has already been done in spreading flood water in the upper Seeking the Real Stuff The expert taster of liquor is a new fangled job that has sprung up in some of the larger cities. It is said that there is so much Mountain Dew in the country that only about one bottle in a couple of thousand is safe for human use—and here is where the taster gets his work. A case is reported as having happened in a big city up the boulevard, where a fellow was arrested for possession of liquor when the cops raided his apartment and found a whole slough of bottles of booze. The guy tried to explain it to the judge by saying a number of his friends had brought in the hooch for his official O. K. and all he did was to sample each brand. The man allowed he has been kept busy and no ordinary bootlegger can best him when his taster is in good working order. Wolves in Sheep Clothing Almost every day one hears of how some man or woman has lost money through some fraudulent transaction. A Placentia woman is said to have lost $65,000. Usually it is through some irresponsible concern that the bulk of money is lost, and there are many avenues open to the smooth bunko artist. Before a person puts his name on the dotted line, he should take some of the propositions home with him mentally; think them over; talk it over with the wife, or the whole family; sleep on them for a week, and then make up his mind to chuck them aside. It is better to be safe than sorry, and when some of the smooth guys ring the doorbell, size them up, and if you don't like their looks, call the police. Let Out the Hem, Girls! A civic organization in an eastern city has started a crusade against the short skirt, and as an inducement to high school girls to have their garments hang not less than 11 inches from the ground, will give prize badges to the fair sex who comply. A Mormon leader says a short skirt is immodest, while others allow they are restful to the eye. In Case Anything Happens An Aberdonian was traveling from London to his home. At every station he got out and returned breathless and perspiring a few minutes later. An English traveler watched him in astonishment, and asked, finally: "Would you mind telling me why you keep rushing out at every station?" The Aberdonian replied: "Awoll, ye ken, I've been to London to consult a specialist. He told me that I was awful' ill and that I might drap deid before I got hame, so I'm just bookin' ma passage free station to station." You Wonder Why There's Crime It is reported in the paper that a society matron who attended a function left her bag in her car, standing at a curb, the bag containing, among other things, $8000 worth of jewelry. Later, when the lady went to look for the bag, it was gone. EDITORIAL NOTES CAUSES FOR COUNTY DIVISION Now that reference has been made to the action of the Pioneers in defeating the million dollar railroad subsidy in the early 70's which made them feel themselves impelled to strike out for county division, it is proper to say there were other matters of a serious nature engaging their attention which conspired, after years of political warfare, to bring division about. It has been hitherto shown that Los Angeles had collected more than two million dollars in taxes since its organization, all of which was expended in and about that city. Very little of this public money was disbursed in what is now Orange county. There were no bridges here and rivers and creeks in times of heavy rainfall were dangerous and impassable. Roads were quagmires in winter and a waste of dusty chuckholes in the summer time. The Los Angeles river was bridged at several places, and roads leading into the pueblo were graded and gravelled for ten miles around. The Pioneers had difficulty in fording Coyote creek and New and Old San Gabriel rivers, but once they attained the high ground beyond the latter stream, the highway was found to be in very good condition. This is perfectly well within our recollection and was many times referred to by the patient and long suffering old-timers. There were no local banks here and money had to be transported to the city for tax payments. It took citizens three days to settle with the tax collector—one day getting into town, a whole day standing in line at the courthouse, and the next day driving home. The bandit, Vasquez, operated in these parts at the time, and at least one citizen with $2000 in his carriage to pay off his hands in this county had a narrow escape from molestation, meeting the bandit on the road at the head of a cavalcade of desperadoes, and getting away only by the merest ruse. The bandit's raids caused terror, and no one could tell where he would next appear. All these things pointed unerringly to the creation of a new local county, but it was many years before that fact was brought into existence. Two attempts at division having failed in the 70's, another effort was made in 1889, when a working agreement was arrived at with San Francisco and the bill passed the legislature and was signed by the governor. That it cost a pretty penny was known, but the amount is buried with RAYMOND NEBELUNG'S ADDRESS Few of the boys born and reared in this city have made a better record than our young friend, Raymond Nebelung, whose address before the Kiwanis Club last week was interesting and informative in every respect. He showed that while the oil and tourist crop are both of great importance to the locality, the products of the soil are far more important, and that millions of dollars flow into the community from the Valencia orange and walnut crops. In addition are lima-beans, chili peppers, tomatoes and other vegetable crops, running up the aggregate into many millions of dollars. Our Valencia oranges are even now speeding eastward on transcontinental railroads and through the Panama canal for Europe. All the top-notch prices received for Valencia oranges in eastern markets are for fruit grown, packed in this county. The Anaheim Citrus Association tops the market, the Orange and Lemon Association achieves similar honors. Mr. Chapman's Old Mission brand takes the lead, the Fullerton and Placentia associations do likewise, and this is true in turn of the many other associations of the county. Our oranges top the eastern market every time. As the speaker showed, Orange county is the sixth richest county agriculturally in the United States. It is small in area and, mile for mile, we believe it tops the list. Mr. Nebelung occupies the responsible position of land appraiser for a Federal bank, and appraises land values in the counties of Southern California for loans on mortgages. He spent nearly two years in South Africa, being selected by the University of California from a list of many applicants to be instructor in horticulture in that far away land. He was to have been gone five years, but his father's illness called him home. His father passed away shortly after his arrival. He declined to go to Africa again, feeling that his interests were here in caring for the home orchard and being engaged as consultant specialist by many growers in the Southland. Our young friend is making good work in every way well worth listening to... Mr. Nebelung occupies the responsible position of land appraiser for a Federal bank, and appraises land values in the counties of Southern California for loans on mortgages. He spent nearly two years in South Africa, being selected by the University of California from a list of many applicants to be instructor in horticulture in that far away land. He was to have been gone five years, but his father's illness called him home. His father passed away shortly after his arrival. He declined to go to Africa again, feeling that his interests were here in caring for the home orchard and being engaged as consultant specialist by many growers in the Southland. Our young friend is making good. The address was in every way well worth listening to and well worthy of perusal. Letters to and from Anaheim in the air mail continue to increase, and days are few when many of them are not in transit. Mail reaches New York from Los Angeles in 30 hours and will soon be making the trip in 20 hours. Thus New York is brought as near to us as was San Francisco a few years ago. The first day's air mail conveyed 40,000 letters east and west. Mail leaves Los Angeles for New York once a day, going by way of Salt Lake and Chicago. We shall soon have mails several times a day. The trend of the times is to annihilate distance. A letter leaving Anaheim for Washington on Saturday morning reached the national capital early on Monday. That Italy is taxing itself to pay off its war debt and taxing itself heavily, must be apparent at a glance. In the United States married men have an exemption up to $3500 and $400 for each dependent child. In Italy there are no such exemptions. An Italian with an income of $1000 pays $189.21 income tax, on $2000 he pays $392, and on $3000, $599. If the American people were similarly taxed, our entire war debt would be paid off in three years, besides paying the running expenses of the government. Certainly we are justified in dealing leniently with this nation which was so greviously hurt in the World war. Senator Reed, the irreconcilable Missouriian, declares he will oppose the settlement of the French debt, in that it is made, he avers, at less than 50 cents on the dollar. The French debt now stands at $4,300,000,000. In sixty-two years that nation will pay the United States $6,800,000,000. Does the gentleman from Missouri expect his Uncle Samuel to sting France for $13,600,-000,000? Vanderbilt's tabloid Los Angeles publication has gone into the hands of a receiver, and his San Francisco paper has suspended publication. Vanderbilt is east, endeavoring to obtain a loan of money. It takes dinero to publish a newspaper, and there is little room for the tabloid nowadays.