Turner's Public Spirit, January 5, 1924
A look back in time to a century ago
By Bob Oliphant
Center. Master James Lambert of the Westport Home School for Boys spent the Christmas vacation as the guest of his grandmother, Mrs. Lucy Lambert.
Richard and Huntington Wells spent part of their Christmas vacation as the guests of their aunt in West Newbury [Mrs. Frank D. Bailey, nee Sarah M. Morrill]. Forrest White and John G. Fletcher, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spent their Christmas vacation in town, the guests of their parents.
Mrs. Ernest W. Christensen is at a Boston hospital, where she recently underwent an operation on her throat.
Through the generosity of Abbot Worsted Company the pupils of the William E. Frost school enjoyed their annual Christmas tree with a gift, and candy and oranges for each pupil. The company is to be congratulated for the thoughtfulness shown towards the children throughout the town.
Another thoughtful act of the Christmas season is shown by the Ladies’ Aid society of the Congregational church in the sending of very attractive Christmas boxes to the aged people and also to the shut-ins about town.
The next meeting of the Tadmuck club will be held on Tuesday afternoon in the Unitarian church. Two one-act plays will be presented by the members of the Sudbury Woman’s club, “Ashes of roses” and “Alice Maud,” and there will also be a club tea with Mrs. Annie Hamlin as the hostess.
Miss Lillian Sutherland is ill with tonsillitis.
Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Sutherland quietly observed the thirty-second anniversary of their marriage by a family gathering at their home on last Sunday. Three of their four children were present—Mrs. Beatrice Olsson, of West Chelmsford, Alfred Sutherland, of Boston, and Miss Lillian Sutherland, of this town; another son, Bertram, is in California. The many friends of Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland extend their best wishes for many more anniversaries.
Philip Prescott, of Lawrence academy, Groton, spent the Christmas vacation at his home.
Robert and Barbara Hildreth, children of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur G. Hildreth, are reported ill with chickenpox.
Master William Prescott, son of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Prescott, is reported on the sick list.
Eleen [sic, b. June 18, 1919, in Clinton, Mass.], the little daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Keizer, met with a painful accident last week, having slipped on the steps of her home. The child had a glass jar in her hand at the time and sustained a bad gash under one eye, necessitating stitches being taken on the same. Dr. Coburn took the child to the Forge Village hospital, where necessary aid was rendered.
The firemen enjoyed a turkey supper with all the fixings on Tuesday evening. There were twenty-five present to do justice to the excellent supper prepared by Mrs. J. E. Knight. Oscar R. Spalding, Robert Prescott and John Greig were the committee in charge.
Fisher Buckshorn entered Amherst Agricultural college this week to take a short course in pomology.
Mrs. Adeline Buckshorn will spend the winter with Mrs. Alma Richardson.
The next meeting of the Alliance will be held at the home of Mrs. Harry Prescott on Thursday, January 10. A paper will be read by Miss Lucinda Prescott, and it is hoped that there will be a large attendance.
Mr. and Mrs. Perry Shupe entertained a large party on Christmas day. The house was prettily decorated for the occasion and a large Christmas tree was one of the features, with an excellent Christmas dinner. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Anderson, Dr. and Mrs. Benway, Webster Youlder and Miss Eleanor Youlder, of Somerville, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Anderson and son Robert, of Hartford, Conn., and Mr. and Mrs. Perley Wright and son Harold, of this town.
A watch-night service was held at the Congregational church on New Year’s eve. A social time and basket lunch were enjoyed together with the usual watch-night service of prayer and song.
Mrs. A. J. [Joel Alvin] Blaisdell [nee Elizabeth Ann Hutchins] entertained a large family party on Christmas day. All of her children [she had 11] were present except Mrs. Arthur Wilson, who was ill with an abscess in her throat. A Christmas dinner and tree were enjoyed. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. Asa Robbins, of Littleton, Mr. and Mrs. George Fawson and children, of Waltham, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Blaisdell and son, Harry, Jr., of Melrose, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Jarvis and son Frank and Mr. and Mrs. James O’Brien and daughter Lillian and Arthur Wilson and four children, of this town, and Messrs. Edson, Arthur, George, Frank and Chester Blaisdell.
A large number from the surrounding towns attended the New Year’s ball held by the Legion in the town hall on Monday evening.
Miss Alice E. Chapman, who coached the American Legion Auxiliary play, some years ago had some pupils in elocution in town, by whom she will be pleasantly remembered.
Well Presented. The American Legion Auxiliary presented the four-act comedy, “The Cassilis engagement,” in the town hall on last week Thursday evening, and at Abbot’s hall in Forge Village on the following evening. Each part was well taken and much credit is due the coach, Miss Alice E. Chapman, of Boston. Those in the cast were Miss Hilma S. Hanson, Miss Alice E. Chapman, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, Miss Julia Hooley, Mrs. Sacie Sanders, Miss Doris Dickerman, Gordon Seavey, Mrs. Arthur Hildreth, Leon M. Huntress, who took the place of George H. Leavitt at very short notice, and Miss Marion Lord. The cast was made up of Ayer and Westford talent. The proceeds will be used for the benefit of the welfare work of the American Legion. Mrs. Charles MacLean, of Ayer acted as pianist. Miss Florence Caunter was the accompanist for Misses Dickerman and Hanson. The chairman of the committee in charge was Mrs. J. Edward Clement, who was assisted by Mrs. Clarence Hildreth, Mrs. Norman Young, Miss Eva M. Lord, Mrs. Joseph Walker, Mrs. Alice Wells, Mrs. Eben Prescott and Miss Nancy Paterson of the Auxiliary, and Com. Harold Hildreth, Edward Healy, J. B. Gray, J. Edward Clement and Harry Paterson of the Legion.
About Town. And so unchristian America has been entrusted to feed 2,000,000 starving German children and their mothers, the result of the world war of Christian Germany. What I want to have done is to feed the Hohenzollern leaders who started this war a little electricity. Oh, sure, only a very little, just the press of the button’s worth, as an inoculation experiment against war in comparison with “Resolved that war is illegal and from now on resolved it doesn’t exist.” I would take my chances with a “Resolved electric button.”[1]
A Christmas present reads, “One advantage of keeping your mouth shut is that people may think you know something.” So sorry that this advice wasn’t presented me many, many years ago, but at this late day there is nothing left but to wag an old tongue at the usual speedometer rate in chin-chat talk and “ignoramus” in correspondence. I wish that I had concentrated my efforts in saying “Um” when I was young and stuck to it.
Auto accidents to children are alarmingly on the increase, ranging as follows: 1920, 20; 1921, 2435; 1922, 4614.[2] This increase has been growing since 1908, when only thirteen persons were killed in the state, to the present time when nearly thirteen children are hurt each day. In view of this increase in accidents to children a campaign was carried on last year in some of the larger cities and towns in the state to give practical illustrations to the children on “The safe use of the road.” The committee in charge have sent out a letter from their office in Boston to motorists which reads “Contribute $1.00 toward defraying the expense of this demonstration. We make this plea in behalf of the 5,000 children who may be struck down by autoists in 1924.”
Oh, yes, indeed, we were very much pleased to receive a copy of the Kissimmee Valley Gazette, representing Osceola county, Florida, from our old friend and townsman, Emory J. Whitney, and while there are long stories of long snakes large enough to swallow an Oklahoma frog as large as an ox or whale, that for an encore would beat Jonah and the whale; yet in these inducements to go to Florida the paper was decidedly newsy, sunny and entertaining.
Yes, thank you if you please, and must know, we ate chicken at W. R. Taylor’s all of the forenoon and played Santa-tree at Mrs. Esther P. Taylor Snow’s all of the afternoon; thus did we spend Christmas day [the homes of Samuel L. Taylor’s son and daughter].
Harland P Knowlton is cutting off his wood and lumber on Frances hill, adjoining the forestry of S. L. and W. R. Taylor. The prospects are good for guessing that he intends setting out an apple orchard on this land, and the prospects are good that we are all preparing to cheapen apples below the present cheap prices. Lumber is growing scarcer and dearer with the passing years, while apples are cheaper and cheaper with the coming years. Nature preserves her balance, we are told. Lumber at $100 a thousand or less and apples at twenty-five cents per bushel, or a cent or two more, raised on the rocky land where lumber once grew, looks like an unbalanced balance.
Here is a condition that I wish Nashoba would try and fit an answer to. I will pay the freight on the answer if it is so long and ponderously heavy that it has to come by freight. Why is it that when apples take a slump in price, as a rule, only the high-grade apples slump in price? Listen; going back a few weeks handpicked Baldwins, red, rosy red and large, sold as high as eighty-five cent per standard box. (If you don’t think I got as much as that I can show you the return cards.) At that time second-grade cider apples sold for fifty cents per box. Before Christmas handpicked Baldwins went up to $1.25 per box and cider apples still held firm at fifty cents. Since Christmas the $1.25 apples dropped to ninety cents and cider apples still held firm at fifty cents. Now, if you Nashoba folks can scratch out of the spaces in your head why the slump is usually piled all onto the high colored grade apples I will present you with a box of cider apples after deducting the cost of production.
According to statistics diabetes is largely on the increase in the United States. In 1921 there were 14,923 deaths from this disease; in 1922, 17,182—16 per 100,000 of the population in 1920 and 18 in 1922. New Hampshire was the highest state with 31 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, and Mississippi was the lowest with 7 deaths per 100,000 of population.
As a Christmas-New Year’s present from Faneuil Hall Market I received a small thermometer to inform me how “het up” I am. What I want to be informed is how cold my feet were when I got my last returns for apples from Faneuil Hall Market.
“The American people produced more, spent more and saved more in 1923 than in 1922. As a whole the year was characterized by the larger industrial output, practically full employment, a sustained customers’ demand for goods, and a level of prices more stable than in any year since 1915”—the federal reserve board in its annual report, December 31.
Prison population is on the decrease according to figures just announced by the National Probation association. The decrease, it is stated, follows as a result of the increasing use of probation along with other factors. There is no chance to dissent from such a statement and you do not need to have a mathematical brain above a kindergarten scholar to figure it out, that as you increase probation and let the criminals loose into society you decrease the population of the prisons. I hope that you do not expect to find anyone so simple-minded as to argue the negative. Personally, I think that this whole probation business has been dangerously overworked and our empty jails are no evidence of decreasing crime but rather a warning of an increasing unsafety for society.
Representative George L. Richards, of Malden, filed at the state house on last Saturday a bill for the appointment of a “friendly housing commission” in each city of the state for the purpose of adjusting rent disputes between landlord and tenant and prevent ejecting the tenant without justifiable cause. If there is unjustifiable extortion beyond the law of supply and demand practiced on honest, temperate, helpless tenants by the landlord, it is time his nose was ringed like any other four-legged hog and it could wisely be passed on to a class of speculators, hold-ups on farm produce when the consumer pays 1300% on a few carrots for health and complexion over and above what the producer gets for health and complexion carrots. It is far cheaper to take care of these robbers of the honest poor at public expense; it could be done for less than 1300% carrots.
Here are some more 1300% carrots that all of the taxpayers of the state have got to help pay for charging ten dollars for carrying a state official from Lowell to Tyngsboro, a distance of eight miles, or $1.25 per mile. It is a good illustration of the law governing human conduct, “the larger and wealthier the employer the easier it is to rob and the larger will be the crowd of robbers listed about like this United States, state, county, town and privation [sic] corporations.” Mercy, do not let us think of the United States running railroads, coal mines and factories generally until we can weed out of our conduct the robbery element with its premeditated planning to “reap where it has not sown and gather where it has not strewn.”[3]
- Frederic Mullalieu, son of Mrs. Henry Howard, of North Chelmsford, died Monday in Los Angeles, Cal., aged 46 years and 9 months. He was well known in North and West Chelmsford, Brookside and Westford.
The backbone of the winter started in to do business on Tuesday evening when the measurement apparatus of the weather signaled zero at the Old Oaken Bucket farm.
John Foye died at his home on Oak Hill road, near Whidden’s Corner [intersection of Groton & Oak Hill Rds.], Sunday, aged seventy years. He leaves a nephew, Michael Foye. He was an employee of the H. E. Fletcher Co.[4]
The next meeting of West Chelmsford Grange will be held on next Thursday evening in Abbot’s hall, Brookside, when the newly-elected officers will be installed by Willard G. White and suite from Ayer Grange.
Edmund B. Whitney, of Brookside, has been elected as assistant steward of West Chelmsford Grange.
“Within a decade or two because of exhaustion of forest resources within the United States, the tanning and leather industries of the country are likely to be dependent on foreign sources, or else they must fail.” Down with the forests just the same.
Mr. and Mrs. Julian Abbot Cameron announce the engagement of their daughter, Miss Eleanor Abbot Cameron, to Howard Shepard Hayward, of Commonwealth avenue, Boston, formerly of Newton.
Middlemen’s Profits. As a bearing on the low price to the farmers and the high cost of living to the consumer, I wish to quote some prices in New York city as a bearing on low prices to producer and extremely high prices, comparatively, to consumer with this preliminary instruction: “When Colonel C. H. March was summoned to Washington to report upon the agricultural situation by President Coolidge, he was reported as saying to the president, among other things, (Col. March is from Minnesota), ‘A gloomy picture of the agricultural situation is the only one that I can present. The wheat farmer is not the only one in trouble. Virtually every farmer is in a bad predicament and facing ruin. The farmers find themselves unable not only to pay their taxes and debt, but cannot pay their interest.”
Of the above statement the only section that is so true that it is not debatable is “the wheat farmer is not the only one in trouble.” The other statements are not universally true; if they are, then the tax collectors and savings banks are universal liars. But there is enough that is true to make a gloomy picture that ought to be remedied and changed to an optimistic picture for producer and consumer, and here are a few figures that produce a depressing, gloomy picture, taking New York market as an illustration. Senator Copeland[5] estimates the percentage of perishable food consumed to be 5% of the total, and that without vegetables, fruits and berries, etc., to balance our diet, we would soon be in the throes of the dreaded disease Beri.
Here are some percentages paid middlemen by consumers over the price paid producers: Beets 150%, cabbage 800%, spinach 150%, carrots 1300%, potatoes (not even in percentages) the difference between what producers received and consumers paid was $600,000,000, so you see consumers paid speculators a heavy tax to get their potatoes pushed into their eating apparatus; tomatoes 250%. The price for farm produce that consumer pays is almost invariably three times what the producer receives.
“I discussed cooperative marketing with these farmers and cooperative farms, and they all shook their heads in a No Sir manner (is it any wonder with the history of it behind us and befront of us?). On the other hand they were unanimous that the farmer must find a way to take care of himself.” There are some of the sample of crops below cost of production as an offset to the starvation wailings of wheat farmers.
I will add a personal illustration of “ye hard pressed farmer.” “The blunt direct answer that one of these farmers gave us was interesting. He is a splendid young fellow, American to the core, who cultivates rented land. I asked him why he didn’t buy a farm and farm for himself. He answered, ‘Hell, I can’t buy anything. I am head-over-heels in debt and don’t know how I am going to get out.’” It is evident from the description of the above market gardeners that if the government is going into the guaranteed-price legislation that they must go the whole distance and take in carrots, beets, spinach, cabbage and cucumbers, etc., and then Mr. Uncle, if there is any money left I want you should come to the Old Oaken Bucket farm and guarantee a crop of apples and potatoes and guarantee a living price for them, and the Old Oaken Bucket boy reserves the right to be the jury to decide what is a living price. Now if you do all this, Dear Uncle, as there is feeling abroad for it you will have to issue paper money by the trainload and the German marks would be at a premium compared with it. Even if congress thought favorable of this modern relief system with its loud, roaring demand to be heard, Mr. Speaker, I have too much faith in the silent, meditating Calvin to believe that he would consent to sign up for any such love of the farmer as this while all other industries paid the penalty.
Nature-balance. I have before me as I am writing a copy of Forest and Stream as a Christmas present. Someone is a mind-reader and knew what in nature would fit in best; of course it doesn’t take much to read a little mind, but thanks just the same. At present I am reading “The reason for the unstable balance of nature.” As a change from “Unchristian America” I wish to quote a little on the above subject to the courtesy of the editor of this paper and make a few comments as I go along and extend the discussion beyond this week.
“People talk of the balance of nature as if it were stable and permanent as the lasting hills. They forget that it is unbalanced more often than balanced and that it requires very little to upset it. Aside from the reckless and too often brutal unbalancing by the hand of man, there is but very little unbalancing of nature by nature. It is true in an all-round survey that the ‘big fish eat up the little fish’ in a variety of ways besides fish. Big fish eat up the little ones and nature balances by little fish multiplying so abundantly faster than big fish that this preserves the balance. Snakes swallow toads, but there are millions of toads to swallow, where there are hundreds of snakes to do the swallowing. Thus does nature preserve the balance. Cats catch the birds and dogs catch the offspring of the cats, and as the dog cannot climb trees to catch birds he reduces the enemy who can climb trees.
“The large trees in the forest shade out and cause to be stunted and die out the smaller trees, and when old age causes the larger tree to answer death’s roll call the ground is loaded with the germs of reproduction and this preserves the balance against any danger of forest or lumber famine, and only the greedy and wasteful hand of man with axe and match causes us, the government and individuals, to cry from the debts of their well-founded fright, ‘lumber famine.’ and back it up with a well-defined system of forest reservations and reforestization [sic] of waste land. But why illustrate further on nature’s equipment to preserve her balance? It is self-evident that nature is equipped to prevent annihilation. Cats climb trees to catch birds, but birds fly and cats cannot; besides, forests covered the earth and too extensive for flying birds to be annihilated by climbing cats, which have their enemy in dogs and other animals, and so this balance of nature is everywhere. Muscle against swifter feet, as in the more savage animals; brute force against wings; short-lived balance long-lived; non-susceptible balance against an easy prey to disease. This balance of nature prevents annihilation, and not until man comes upon the scene with his shot-gun, [and] trapping apparatus do we see much evidence of annihilation.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson. The New York Times book number of recent date has this to say of Emerson:
“We are a long way from that August morning in 1837 when an obscure young man, Ralph Waldo Emerson, astonished and shocked conservative Boston with [his] Phi Beta Kappa oration on ‘The American scholar.’ But in the revolutionary years that have intervened the iconoclastic doctrines enunciated on that far away day have become an accepted part of the ordinary intellectual currency of America. ‘We will walk on our own feet,’ cried Emerson. ‘We will work with our own hands, we will speak our own minds.’ It was a new Boston speaking here, a Boston whose accents carried across the Atlantic and struck an answering chord even in the hard-headed Carlyle.
“Therefore, it was but right that Boston should gather to itself the administration of America. For the first time in the history of American letters a clear voice not to be obscured by the outdated conservatisms of a fossilized tradition had made itself heard. And from that day in 1837 Boston steadily evolved into a heroic gesture. It produced a race of giants, a breed of men who if not born in its precincts were yet near enough to be part of its tradition.”
Church Notes. First church (Unitarian) –Sunday service at 4 p.m. Music by chorus choir; solo, “Come unto me,” Miss Eleanor Colburn, soprano. Preacher, Rev. Frank B. Crandall, the minister. Subject, “The fool’s paradise.” Church school at 2:30 p.m.
The parish meeting will be held on Saturday evening at 7:30 in the vestry.
On Sunday the preacher will deal with the most serious fault of Christendom and of each of the parts that make it up, pointing out a better way.
Graniteville. A son [Kenneth Stuart] was born to Mr. and Mrs. James Stuart on Friday, December 28.
Mr. and Mrs. Louis Manti of Lowell are rejoicing in the birth of twins, a boy [Albert Louis Manti] and girl [Gloria Corrine Manti], at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Barretto on Groton road, Saturday, December 29.
Excellent coasting is now being enjoyed by the young people on the various hills in this village. Skating is sidetracked for the time being.
The Abbot Worsted-Shawsheen soccer game scheduled for the Walpole street grounds in Boston for New Year’s day was called off, owing to the poor condition of the grounds. This game was the semi-final for the state championship and will doubtless hang over until early spring unless there is a great change in the weather. The Abbots will meet the Fall River club at Pawtucket, R.I., on Saturday, January 19, in a national cup game. This game is the semi-final for the eastern championship.
Ayer
District Court. Stanley Wilk of Westford charged with operating an automobile in Pepperell while under the influence of liquor was found not guilty.
Two Westford liquor cases, which were continued from the preceding Saturday, were again continued until January 12.
Ayer Woman’s Club. The literature department will hold a meeting on Wednesday, January 9, at three p.m., at the home of the chairman, Mrs. Clara F. Hill. All interested club members are invited. A report of the address by John Clair Minot on “What’s what among the new books,” as given by the Westford Woman’s club, will be given. There will also be a discussion of some of the books recently read by the book club.
Real Estate Transactions. The following real estate transfers have been recorded from this vicinity recently:
Westford, Edmund J. Hunt et al. to Ellsworth H. Sunbury et ux., land on Robinson road.
The Man About Town. The Man About Town has been trying to figure out what all this talk means between the two camps of Harvard and Westford. It was reputed three years ago that the mighty majority given the G.O.P. nominees was a decision made by the electorate against the league of nations plan. In other words, it was a dead issue. Why waste discussion on it now? Warren G. Harding has gone to the peace which the world cannot give, and with him went all hopes of the United States ever joining a world court. It therefore appears that we are practicing an isolation which knows no change, in fact, defies any alteration. Reams of country newspaper stock may be crowded with the printed word anent the issue, but it resists resurrection by modern Gabriels.
[1] The electric chair was first used in the U.S. in 1890. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#First_execution.
[2] In 1908 there were 17,630 automobiles registered in Massachusetts, 223,112 in 1920, 305,471 in 1921, and 325,307 in 1922. Using these numbers the percentage of auto accidents involving children per number of autos registered was .009% in 1920, .8% in 1921 and 1.4% in 1922. Registration numbers are from the Federal Highway Administration table at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/summary95/mv201.pdf.
[3] This is a corruption of Matthew 25:26b. “His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed.” KJV
[4] “About Town. I reported erroneously on the death of John Foye, whose name was “Thomas Foye,” a resident of Graniteville for many years and a man who was esteemed in this community, who died on Sunday, December 30, after a brief illness, at the home of his nephew Michael Foye, on Oak Hill road, Whidden’s Corner, Westford, aged seventy years.” The Westford Wardsman, Jan. 12, 1924.
[5] “Royal Samuel Copeland (1868-1938), a U.S. Senator from New York from 1923 until 1938, was an academic, homeopathic physician, and politician.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_S._Copeland.