anaheim-gazette 1930-09-04

THE ANAHEIM GAZETTE ESTABLISHED 1870 HENRY KUCHEL, Editor and Publisher ISSUED EVERY THURSDAY SUBSCRIPTION PER YEAR $2.00 SIX MONTHS 1.00 Entered at the Anaheim, California Postoffice as second-class matter. WE ARE STILL RURAL According to the United States Census, the majority of the people of the United States live in "urban" rather than "rural" communities. The Census of 1920 showed 51.4 percent of urban population as against 48.6 percent rural. The Census of 1930 will undoubtedly show a much larger proportion living in communities of a size which the Federal government calls urban. The catch in this is in the definition of "urban" and rural." The Government's position is the arbitrary one that any community with more than 2,500 inhabitants is "urban" and anything less than that in size is "rural." We agree that the line has to be drawn somewhere, but we submit that this is drawing it too far down the line. Certainly there are thousands of communities of more than 2,500 population whose interest are still rural, whose inhabitants have not got the big city point of view on any of the important matters of manners, mortals and outlook on life generally. We can name cities of 50,000 and more whose interests are still almost entirely agricultural, or in lines which depend directly upon agriculture; and a city like that, no matter what its size, is definitely rural. Rural communities are growing in size; that is clear from the incomplete Census reports already published. Towns which had 2,500 population ten years ago are now for the most part nearer 5,000. But that does not make them any less rural. We are almost inclined to agree with the New York Times, which suggests that only cities of 100,000 or more should be classed as urban. If that classification were adopted, about 36,-500,000 of the United States would be in the urban matters of manners, mortals and outlook on life generally. We can name cities of 50,000 and more whose interests are still almost entirely agricultural, or in lines which depend directly upon agriculture; and a city like that, no matter what its size, is definitely rural. Rural communities are growing in size; that is clear from the incomplete Census reports already published. Towns which had 2,500 population ten years ago are now for the most part nearer 5,000. But that does not make them any less rural. We are almost inclined to agree with the New York Times, which suggests that only cities of 100,000 or more should be classed as urban. If that classification were adopted, about 36,-500,000 of the people of the United States would be in the urban group, and the remaining 70 percent would still be rural folk. That would be drawing the line somewhat closer to the top than probably is justified, but there is something in what the Times says about Los Angeles, with more than a million and a quarter population; it is astonishingly metropolitan in some respects but "on most of the issues on which the American people vote, small town." There is a difference between "small town" and "rural." Mere size of the community in which one lives does not necessarily affect one's point of view. It has been said that there are more "small-town-minded" people in New York than in any strictly agricultural community, and that is probably true. Certain it is that the dominant point of view of the people of America is opposed to the point of view which we think of in connection with the big cities. Probably the Times is right in saying that the "effective" urban population of the nation is not more than a quarter of the total. THE COST OF LIVING Living costs have come down nearly a quarter since the end of the war, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They are still two-thirds greater than they were in 1913, however. Stated another way, a dollar today will buy as much of the necessaries of life as 60 cents would have bought 17 years ago. Reduction in the average cost of many of the items which enter into the cost of living is still going on, however. In the past eight months average food prices have declined more than 6 percent, and they are still falling in some commodities. Just now, for example, meat prices are very low because the drought has forced many farmers to rush their cattle, sheen and hogs to market. Milk in the large cities, on the other hand, is up a cent a quart, because of the short supply. The biggest increase in living costs since the war is in the items of fuel and house furnishings. The latter averages nearly double the cost of 1914. Food is less than half again as expensive as it was before the war, clothing only slightly higher than that. There are a lot of things on which the average family spends money today which did not figure in the domestic budget before the war, however. Radio sets are one of these. Automobiles are another. So are electric refrigerators and a good many other kinds of electrical household equipment, which were luxuries for the very rich only a few days ago. Maintenance and operation of cars, radio, electric equipment, telephone—things which were luxuries only recently but which most people now look on as necessities—run family expenditures up but those things are not officially classified as "cost of living" since we could get along without them if we had to. However we have set a standard of living in America to which in time we... There are a lot of things on which the average family spends money today which did not figure in the domestic budget before the war, however. Radio sets are one of these. Automobiles are another. So are electric refrigerators and a good many other kinds of electrical household equipment, which were luxuries for the very rich only a few days ago. Maintenance and operation of cars, radio, electric equipment, telephone—things which were luxuries only recently but which most people now look on as necessities—run family expenditures up but those things are not officially classified as "cost of living" since we could get along without them if we had to. However we have set a standard of living in America to which in time we shall have elevated the whole nation, and that includes the unkeen of hobbled hair, the price of golf balls and numerous other items which do not figure at all in the average citizen's budget anywhere else in the world. DON'T BE TOO PESSIMISTIC Since last fall the country has been going through a period of depression. The condition is of course not peculiar to the United States but is world-wide. Before the depression came so unexpectedly upon us, it seemed that economic rules had been changed and that it was impossible for our progress and prosperity to slow down. We know better now. But now that we have reached the bottom of the depression, the pessimism which has been created seems as unwarranted as was the glittering optimism of a year ago. A great many people who thought a year ago that business would never slacken seem to be just as sure now that it has never been so bad as it is and that it will never get better. This is of course absurd. There have been many worse periods of depression in the country and there are already plenty of signs that we have scraped bottom and are about to climb the hill again. In this regard it is interesting to note a statement issued recently by the Alexander Hamilton Institute which says: "While business for the half year was materially lower than a year ago, the profit levels for 1928 were closely approached. Returns for the first six months show a drop in income of 28 per cent from last year, but profits were less than 2 per cent below those of 1928. "Thirteen industrial groups now show net incomes for the half year exceeding their earnings for six months of 1928. They are beverage and confectionery, chemicals, drugs, electrical equipment, food products, iron and steel, oil, printing and publishing, railway equipment, chain restaurant, miscellaneous service companies, and miscellaneous service companies, and miscellaneous manufacturing. House financing, installment sales show profits slightly higher than last year and materially above those of 1928." She Certainly Earns Her Keep By Albert T. Reid COME CHICK-EE CHICK-E CHICK OUR GREAT AMERICAN HEN BY PRODUCTS AND SCRAP OF FARM FARM WIFE ONE TENTH OF THE VALUE OF ALL FARM PRODUCE IN THE U.S. Bruce Barton Writes— Better Times Who Are The Provincials? Bruce Barton Writes— NEW STANDARDS A man whose wife had died, leaving him heartbroken, was complaining bitterly. Said he, "I have been a member of such and such a church for eighteen years, and not one man or woman in that whole congregation took time even to write me a letter. He proceeded with a harsh criticism of the church, and of folks in general, calling them selfish and callous. I sympathized with his emotion, but his conclusions about the human race were too sweeping. People often seem thoughtless because they do not know just how to act or what to say. Much that is branded as heartlessness is really diffidence. For years I hesitated to write or speak to anyone who had suffered the loss of a relative or friend. "How empty and futile my words will sound," I thought. "What an impertinence it is for me, who am well and blessed with an unbroken household, to intrude myself upon such grief." Surely it will only intensify the hurt." Then one day death came to our house. Suddenly the world was stripped from us. All around were people going about their work and play as usual, laughing, hoping, full of health. And we were huddled together, wounded and silent and terribly alone. The first night was agony. But in the morning a wonderful thing began to happen. Letters arrived and telegraphs. People called up on the telephone. Flowers came in great bunches. The wall around us was broken down by friendly hands. We were no longer alone. With what eagerness we pored over every letter! What a relief it was to answer the telephone or the front door bell, and to have a chance to talk. And all though the years I had thought that words were futile; that a message might be an intrusion! Great changes are going on in America, and a new order of society is in the making. As long as the continent was an untamed wilderness there was no time for the niceties of life. Only the strongest hunter of the most vigorous treechopper was honored. Then came the period of increasing population and mounting wants and the feverish effort to produce. Captains of industry were worshipped, and millionaires were our heroes. Better Times Statements issued by Alfred Reeves, general manager of the Automobile Chamber of Commerce; David Sarnoff, president of the Radio Corporation; A. G. Baumhogger, first vice president of Montgomery Ward & Co., and Lammot du Pont, president of the E. L. du Pont de Neuvours Co., indicate that business generally has begun to see its way out of depression. Mr. Reeves states that the depression has reached its limit and that the automobile industry at present is in an exceptionally healthy condition. Mr. Sarnoff finds conditions considerably improved; Mr. Baumhogger says that "all signs indicate that the low point of depression has been passed," and Mr. du Pont observes that the foundation of prosperity is now secure. These are spokesmen for four prominent industries, each giving employment to thousands directly and to additional thousands indirectly, each an important consumer of basic raw materials, and each sensitized through an elaborate sales organization to the condition of the public pulse. When they say that business is on the upgrade there can be very little reason to question the soundness of their opinion. What is more important, when these four industries determine that times are improving and adjust their production machines for increased output, they put into motion a force that itself contributes materially to increased prosperity. The automobile industry, for example, is basic. When it is depressed, the effect is felt over a wide territory. When automobile manufacturers anticipate expanded buying and swing into large production schedules, they provide extra work for steel mills, rubber factories and a score of additional industries. Now population begins to be more nearly stationary. Enough of everything can be produced by fewer hours of work. Leisure has come suddenly, and we shall have new standards. Another generation will not have as its heroes either soldiers or captains of industry. It will give its praise to those men and women who, inheriting larger leisure, develop the technique of thoughtfulness and practice kindness as an art. We need not wait for this next generation in order to make a beginning. Today would be a good time to start. Who Are The Provincials? The summer institutes of government at Williamstown, Mass., and Charlottesville, Va., it will be noted, have been chiefly devoted to lusty knocking of everybody and everything American, and the praise of internationalism as contrasted with attachment to American interests. C. Dellisle Burns, professor of citizenship at the University of Glasgow and former British Minister of Construction, in an address at the University of Virginia summer institute of politics, lectured the American people on the desirability of studying history from an international rather than a national standpoint. History was being taught, he said, from the assumption that civilization was a local product. America he said, was one of the chief offenders in this respect. Recently an Oregon student who had received a scholarship for study abroad returned from a year's stay in England, where he was enrolled as a student in Pristol University. He went to England, he stated upon his return, for the purpose of majoring in American history. To his surprise he found, upon investigation, that the British universities did not seem to know there was such a thing as American history. He was unable to find an institution in the United Kingdom where special courses in this subject were available. On the other hand, English history is a subject in which courses are offered in nearly every American university, and even in many high schools. Yet a university professor from Great Britain admonishes us that we are too nationalistic in our history teaching. We have within the borders of the United States more people of British descent, and more English speaking people, than Great Britain. Yet our history is not deemed of sufficient importance in the United Kingdom to justify more than casual attention to it in the land from whose soil so many of our people, so much of our civilization, sprang. Millions of Amelricans, of course, have a national inferiority complex which causes them to swallow this sort of stuff cheerfully. If we were to export a covey of college professors to tell the British what a provincial, narrow lot they are, we would justly be accused of national arrogance and bad manners. thought that words were futile; that a message might be an intrusion! Great changes are going on in America, and a new order of society is in the making. As long as the continent was an untamed wilderness there was no time for the niceties of life. Only the strongest hunter of the most vigorous treechopper was honored. Then came the period of increasing population and mounting wants and the feverish effort to produce. Captains of industry were worshipped, and millionaires were our heroes. Enough of everything can be produced by fewer hours of work. Leisure has come suddenly, and we shall have new standards. Another generation will not have as its heroes either soldiers or captains of industry. It will give its praise to those men and women who, inheriting larger leisure, develop the technique of thoughtfulness and practice kindness as an art. We need not wait for this next generation in order to make a beginning. Today would be a good time to start. JUST GIVE ME A BIG PUSH AND WE'LL SEE IF IT WILL FLY PLOP! N-NO-PE! SHE DON'T FLY OSCAR! SHE DON'T FLY! Pinky, Dinky JINGLES I ROSE AND GAVE HER MY SEAT; I COULD NOT SEE HER STAND—SHE REMINDED ME OF MOTHER WITH THAT STRAP IN HER HAND ALLEY, S. NEW YORK CITY OBSERVATIONS MAKE TWO BLADES GROW WHERE ONLY ONE GREW BEFORE If all the people would obey the law there would be no use for that animated amendment; and if all those guys who took good money for bum oil stock had refused and said, no siree, why they could now use all the hinges on the jail doors for making plowshares. CARRYING THE BANNER If all the folks would take the pledge and swear off, the bottle manufacturers and glass blowers perhaps would have to go through bankruptcy. Corks would also be a drug on the market, but the tailors could save material because there would be no use for hip-pockets. FATHER, DEAR FATHER COME HOME WITH ME NOW When the slimy bribers were working up there it is said one go between got his hooks on a whole lot of jack. He got so much that he went out and got drunk, and forgot to report It is said he made whoopee. "'Sall rite, dearie, (hic) waita minnet (hic) let's have one more 'lil drink, (hic) and then (hic) we all go home, (hic). ALL THE EGGS IN ONE BASKET A man and a woman in the fillums "starred" in the same "pitcher" and from all reports the man got all the breaks. Too bad. Some one musta pulled a bloomer. Anyhow, the wife says never again, derned shootin', she wont, ever! SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE Nowadays, if it would have so happened that you had been put in an orphanage when you were quite young, and then should it so have happened later you acquired fame and riches, (and then died) you may rest assured a lot of "relatives" would spring up overnight. HEY, EDDIE, BRING THE SPIKING APPARATUS The latest reports on the bulletin board say that they don't believe two seventy five suds would satisfy the taste of the SHAKING THE FAMILY TREE Nowadays, if it would have so happened that you had been put in an orphanage when you were quite young, and then should it so have happened later you acquired fame and riches, (and then died) you may rest assured a lot of "relatives" would spring up overnight. HEY, EDDIE, BRING THE SPIKING APPARATUS The latest reports on the bulletin board say that they don't believe two seventy five suds would satisfy the taste of the proletariat. AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET West of Suez canal will not be much to get excited about after a lotta guys up the boulevard change their forwarding address to a place north of Arroygo Seco. HEY, EDDIE, CALL THE AMBULANCE It is said in some places they call it White Mule. The inference is that if you indulge in one, you take on a wan appearance—a pale face. And if you used up a pail of it you would kick in. A newspaper writer from out the east says in his old home town they call it kitten cordial. That is, after one drink, he says, it takes nine days before you open your eyes. Maybe that's why they gave a cat nine lives, in order to get by. Then there are other localities that have the squirrel syrup—it makes you climb trees and chatter. And yet again some sections have the cooking compounds, one swallow and your lights go out. HERE AND THERE There are some people who have to hustle to pay the grocery bill; but yet again a race horse club down there hung up $125,000 as a prize for the winning horse. NIP AND TUCK It seems an even break between the long and short skirt, although the latter seems to be holding on pretty good. TWO MINDS WITH BUT A SINGLE THOUGHT Up in another town the other night a man was on his way home. He was light of heart, and was whistling. But he said he was not afraid of ghosts. Then from a concealed place, a big burly negro stepped out, with a gun in his hand. "Stick em up," came the command. The man on his way home stood still. Fact is, his feet were glued to the sidewalk. His tongue was tied. He was dumbfounded, flabbergasted, or something. But he had his hands in the side pockets of his coat. He kept them there. He couldn't get them out for some reason. He was surely frightened. "Ain't yuh, gwine to stick em up, brother?" again came the stern command. And still the intended victim stood there. He never moved. He surely must have been scared. And then the six foot negro, evidently realizing that the man held a gun in his hand (in his pocket and was ready to use it), suddenly turned and ran up an alley as fast as the dickens. FINE AND DANDY So far as these western states are concerned if your uncle would spend half as much money for finding water here, as it does for booze locations, things would go along swimmingly and wet. "Ain't yuh, gwine to stick em up, brother?" again came the stern command. And still the intended victim stood there. He never moved. He surely must have been scared. And then the six foot negro, evidently realizing that the man held a gun in his hand (in his pocket and was ready to use it), suddenly turned and ran up an alley as fast as the dickens. FINE AND DANDY So far as these western states are concerned if your uncle would spend half as much money for finding water here, as it does for booze locations, things would go along swimmingly and wet. MAKING MOUNTAINS OUT OF MOLEHILLS Years ago when oak trees got scarce people became alarmed over a stove wood shortage. They began planting eucalyptus trees to supply the fuel. Then people again became alarmed over a shortage of gum wood and coal came into use. Then people became alarmed over a shortage of coal. People began drilling oil wells. Now people are alarmed over a shortage of oil. It is not much of a stretch of the imagination to see that some day a genius will rise up and take the electric energy out of the air or something. Who knows? But why let all that foreign oil come in free? Shutting down oil wells here has increased unemployment many fold. Of course, it may conserve the oil supply here—but of what use will that be if you don't need the petroleum? Looks like we'll have a late fall, anyway, don't you think? BUT, MISTER, WHO LOOKS AT THEM NOW? An expert on fashions says that high heels make shapely ankles. RULES THE ROOST And now a palpitating public in informed by an English big game hunter that the tiger is King of Jungle beasts. A full-grown tiger weighs 600 pounds, is 10 feet from tip to tip and has teeth and claws that are capable of doing considerable damage. The expert says when a tiger and lion engage in a fight the former always gets the decision. When the tiger picks out a certain jungle for his hangout all other animals move out. ONWARD AND UPWARD Years ago we lived in the stone age. Then came the wood age, and quickly followed the coal age. After a while we entered the oil age, and there is every reason to believe we will soon have the electric age. Incidentally what a lot of people would like to know is: Why shut down all those oil wells, throwing out of employment many thousands of men while at the same time they let foreign oil in free?