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34 Cleveland Plain Dealer, Monday, September 2, 1946 

The Byproduct
Hungry Days Coming
The American Farms
A Study of Changes
BY RICHARD T. F. HARDING

Many conditions unite to indicate that America has outlived her days of farm abundance "that we are in a fair way to becoming a food conscious nation." That is one of the more interesting conclusions reached by Jared Van Wagenen, jr., in a brief study published in Barron's. The quotation is direct.

In this situation he sees a possibility of greatly improved and long continued prosperity for farmers. His argument, in brief is that the normal increase in population will add to the new demand for food, that nearly all the land practically available for production is being cultivated and that figures do not indicate any great gain in our ability to make the acres fruitful. If he is correct, domestic need is steadily gaining on output. Obviously, if it catches up we shall be about as near as possible to having an established sellers' market, which should relieve farmers of the violent price fluctuations that have plagued them since the country was young.

Analyzing Figures About Land
The statement that nearly all the good acreage is at work demands elaboration. Van Wagenen says only 10% of this continent can be regarded as desirable farm land. About 30% of it has winters so fierce and summers so short and cool as to be practically useless for growing. An even larger area has less than the theoretical minimum of rain. Next to throw out are the marshes, the sterile sands and the forbidding mountains.

Marshes can be drained and brought into rich production. Great dry regions can be made fertile by irrigation. Such additions are made slowly and at great expense, and while they are being made, unless an old tendency is reversed, the abandoning of marginal lands will to a considerable extent offset the new, so far as area is concerned. Here it might be objected that the general purpose value of captured marshes is so far superior to the lands being abandoned as to make comparison impossible.

Wet and Dry Regions to Be Captured
It might be objected, also, that the author unconsciously underestimates the amount as well as the value of the land to be brought into use by draining and irrigating. Along the Atlantic coast, roughly from the Virginia capes southward, are great marshy areas, some of them under profitable cultivation, the rest awaiting only the expenditure of the big sums of which he speaks to put them among the richest of our lands. That has been done here and there on a small scale in some instances for special crops. But it is to the big scale operation by which much of the Dismal Swamp was tamed that we should look for an example.

Irrigation of the deserts, provided it is not applied to poisoned land, where it can be of only temporary value, also should not be overlooked as a means of postponing the day of hunger. And we have yet to achieve, as Van Wagenen points out, the higher technical development that will help us to grow the yield to the acre known to the intensive farmers of northwestern Europe.

Small Gains in Our Yield to Acre
In that connection he points out that in 75 years we have made only insignificant gains in the acre yield of staple cereals. He finds that in the period 1915-40 the wheat yield increased about one bushel an acre over the period 1890-15. The corn record was a little better and cotton was up 13 pounds. He remarks that this year's corn crop, expected to be the biggest in history, is only 6% bigger than that of 1920. But without an acreage comparison that means little.

It means much more when he says that in the last 25 years there has been practically no increase in our farm acreage, and that in the same time, though the total food production has increased, the per capita has declined.

Union of All Men Stressed in Labor Sunday Sermons
The union of all men before God and themselves for universal good was the theme of many Greater Cleveland Protestant sermons in Labor Sunday messages preached yesterday. Excerpts of some of these follow:

At Franklin Circle Christian Church, Rev. Gaines M. Cook, state secretary of the Christian Missionary Society, said people were ends in themselves, not cheap commodities to be used, bought and sold.

"Tis Labor Day Sunday calls for renewed emphasis upon the interdependence of all men if society is to survive," he said. "It is utterly false to divide men into classes of those who toil and those who don't. Unless every man is willing to assume his share of responsibility to serve, all men will suffer.

"A classless society based on respect for every man as a son of God, where every man shall eat because he works, is our hope. Mutual needs have now linked us to world-wide dependence upon each other, and we must recognize that every human life is sacred. To exploit life is abhorrent to God, who made us.

"Christianity demands self-giving even though it means tasks without glamour. Our youth today must learn the lessons of disagreeable work, along with the honors, if they are to be either happy or useful."

Urges School Support
There is no such thing as a solitary religion, Dr. Harold F. Carr asserted in his sermon on "Who Cares for the Common Good?" at Lakewood Methodist Church.

"It will be the Christians who can believe that the common good can be served as well as our selfish interests," Dr. Carr said. "Jesus tells us: 'Let each of you look not only to his own interest but also to the interest of others.'

"One of the places we had better look is to our schools J. Edgar Hoover reports this county has a potential army of 6,000,000 criminals who threaten our lives daily. There are seven criminals for every school teacher we have. This calls not for huddling in fear but for strong support of our teachers and interest in our schools that work toward the common good.

"Governments, too, ignore the common good. With the very best of intentions, governments seek their own and punish individuals by doing so. We are told by Brooks Atkinson that between the American and Russian people stands the Russian government. An American magazine charges both American and Russian governments to stand between the two nations' peoples.

"In the face of this disunity it must be the Christian who will lead others to the belief there must be a way to serve all people."

Guess Again
Answers to these questions will be found in the Want Ad section.
1-In what year was Labor Day first celebrated?
2-In what year was Labor Day officially adopted?
3-To whom goes the major credit for the labor movement in America?
4-How did the month of September get its name ?
5-Who was the youngest vice-president of the United States?
6-Who built the first airplane with an enclosed cabin?
7-What city was the first in the world to have electric street lighting
8-Who was the first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire?
9-What is the official language of Palestine?
10-Who was the original glamour girl of the movies?

Audience on a Rampage
Caracas, Venezuela, Sept. 1 - (AP) - An angry audience went on a rampage in the Caracas bull ring last night and caused damage estimated at %5,000 after a group of foreign dancers disappointed it by presenting folk dances instead of an anticipated rumba show.

Thompson Line-up. Here are the 11 pilots qualified for today's Thompson trophy speed dash which will feature today's final program at the National Air Races. A 12th pilot, Robert A. Swanson of Cleveland Heights, was to attempt to qualify his second P-51 Mustang this morning. Swanson's original entry was badly damaged when he was forced to crash-land in a field on Carpenter Road, near Pylon No. 3 in Medina County. The race will start at 4 p.m.
[[photos]]
Anthony W. Le Vier
Howard C. Lilly
Earl Ortman
H. L. Pemberton
Alvin M. Johnston
Bruce E. Raymond
Woody Edmundson
Charles Tucker
Cook Cleland
George S. Welch
Steve J. Wittman

[[image]] The Air Races yesterday attracted thousands of visitors, as ths aerial view of the grandstands and parking areas show. The photo, made by Plain Dealer Photographer Norbert Yassanye from an Aero-Ways, Inc., airplane, was taken just before the Weatherhead trophy race for service jet-propelled planes started at 3 p.m. In the foreground are the stands, filled with 55,000 spectators. Some of the thousands of parked cars also are shown.

[[image]] Zionist Mass Meeting. Part of a crowd of 3.200 who attended a mass meeting in Wade Park yesterday is shown listening to Ezra Z. Shapiro, president of the Cleveland Jewish Community Council. Seated on the speakers' platform behind Shapiro are Saul S. Danaceau, chairman of the Cleveland Zionist Emergency Council, and Rabbi A. H. Silver.

[[image]] "Beefing Up" the tail of Tex Johnston's P-39 Airacobra, constituted the big job for Johnston's mechanics yesterday as they prepared the fast plane for today's Thompson trophy race. The "beefing up" process consists here of adding long strips of aluminum along the end of the fuselage and tail assembly to provide greater strength.

Bishop Hoban Dedicates Academy in Gates Mills
"We dedicate this school to the cause of Catholic education and bespeak for the Brothers of the Holy Cross, who conduct it, every success in that purpose," Bishop Edward F. Hoban said yesterday in a brief address at the conclusion of the blessing of the new Gilmour Academy, Cedar and SOM Center Roads, Gates Mills.

Rev. William Robinson, C.S.C., professor of philosophy at Notre Dame University, said in his sermon that the new school was another unit in the great catalogue of educational institutions which the Catholic Church had fostered through the Ages.

Clergy attending included Msgr. Vincent B. Balmat, chancellor of the diocese; Msgr. Maurice F. Griffin, pastor of St. Philomena's Church; Rev. Michael L. Moriarty, pastor of St. Catherine's Church; Rev. Clarence Elwell, director of Catholic high schools and academies; Rev. William B. Gallagher, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi's Church; Rev. John M. Powers, pastor of St. Ann's Parish, and Rev. Kenneth E. Saunders, master of ceremonies.

Brother Throphane Schmitt is headmaster of the academy, which opens Sept. 10. It is on the 133-acre former Drury estate.

Nuns Invite Ninth Graders
With the object of establishing a senior high school, Sisters of the Incarnate Word yesterday invited registration in the ninth grade at their academy, 6618 Pearl Road, Parma Heights, up to Sept. 10. Bus transportation is available for pupils. The academy already has an enrollment of 210 in the elementary grades. Registration may be made by telephone at FLorida 4351 or SHadyside 7430.

The Young Ladies Sodality of Holy Family Parish is sponsoring a 30th anniversary banquet and social in the parish auditorium, E. 131st Street and Southview Avenue S.E., Sunday evening. Reservations may be made with Rev. Francis Masin, WAshington 2035, or Miss Josephine Obermayer, LOngacre 7094.

Store Robbed of $90
A sports-jacketed robber escaped on foot with $90 after holding up the Standard Delicatessen at 9307 Hough Avenue N.E. late yesterday, the proprietor, Herbert Little, told police. Little said the robber produced a revolver, forced him into a corner and made his clerk, Mrs. M. Romano, hand over all the money in the cash register.

Official Tells of European Unrest
Europe today is a great sea of unrest, Dr. Edwin A. Bell, European representative of the Northern Baptist convention, told an audience that filled West Side Czechoslovakian Church, Scranton Road and Clark Avenue S.W., in a report last night of conditions on the continent.

Dr. Bell, who has spent the last year and a half abroad, said that, while he saw no mass starvation in Europe, there were plenty of hungry people in Poland, Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece and other countries. Most of the children in France are suffering from malnutrition, he asserted.

"The political and social pattern is not clear in many nations of Europe under the play of present forces," he added. "Out of the turmoil and distress anything may come. The matrix of a third world war may lie in the present confusion and hopelessness of the peoples over there."

In Dr. Bell's opinion the situation is not without its bright side, however. He said the relief agencies all had well-executed programs of material relief. Moreover, there is every reason to feel optimistic about the progress of Christianity in Europe.

"The cross is obscured in many countries overseas, but it is still there," he said.

We The People
Slide in Wall Street 
Millions Not Buying
Lessons From 1929
By Jay Franklin

If anybody wants a tipoff on how this far-famed economic freedom is wringing the purchasing power out of the American people, he need only take a look at the recent slump in security prices on the Wall Street Stock Exchange.

Until June 30 we were living in a more or less managed economy, with stabilized wages and prices, priorities and controls. The result was a series of very handsome corporate dividends and glowing reports of profits after taxes. 

[[image]]
Jay Franklin

Nobody bothered to inquire whether these dividends went to middle and low-income groups - as of course they did not - or to the well-heeled, including banks, insurance companies and other institutions, which were in a position to salt the cash away where the money couldn't be spent for the purchase of the goods produced by the industries represented by the outstanding stock.

Slide Takes on Speed with Collapse of OPA
Once Congress allowed OPA to lapse, the sky became the limit and Wall Street interpretations of the selling wave that hit the market include "the rise of manufacturers' inventories to a record peak." In other works, the manufacturers are unable to sell to the American people the goods which they produce at the price which they ask.

It is true that one or two commentators have argued childishly that it is the "duty" of labor to pay these high prices on the ground that wages are high, but the rise in food prices has sopped up much of that purchasing power and the latest Washington - go - round presents the unlovely spectacle of a cabinet officer who is himself a cattle-raiser trying to block price ceilings on meat.

This is the rendezvous with the great American pocketbook of which this column has repeatedly warned.

That pocketbook contains about $40 a week for all purposes, so far as 25,000,000 American families are concerned. There are 10,000,000 more families that have considerably less than $40 a week, and only about 5,000,000 families whose income puts them in a market for furs jewels, automobiles, vacuum cleaners, mechanical refrigerators and the other evidences of the more abundant life.

25,000,000 Families Pulling in Belts
The 25,000,000 families are pulling in their belts and not buying the goods and services of American industry. In connection with the hiccup in market quotations, it is well to remember that the first sign of the panic of 1929 came in August. For a time the market was stabilized, and then the toboggan slide began in those mad October days.

This is not to say that the wild scenes of the advent of the Hoover depression will be verified this coming October, but the hotsy-totsy optimistic reports emitted by Reconversion Director John Steelman at the White House sharply recall the boob-a-doop market reports put out in 1929 by Dr. Julius Klein in the Department of Commerce and other little friends of the golden calf.

However, there is no definite probability of a bear market in Wall Street which will break before elections and add the last bitter touch to the gallant effort of the Truman administration to cover the same ground as Harding, Coolidge and Hoover in less than 18 months of public office. By the time the new Congress is elected, the parallel may be still more perfect, in which case the best election slogan for 1946 is the old saying: "Hold onto your hats, boys and girls, this is it."
(Released by the Consolidated News Features, Inc.)

Defiance Youth Killed
Defiance, O., Sept. 1 - Wilbert Riblet, 19, Defiance, was fatally injured and Robert Fidler, 16, also of Defiance, suffered serious cuts today when an automobile driven by Richard Cooper, jr., 17, struck a utility pole along Oakwood Road near here, according to the state highway patrol.

Uncle Ray's Corner
Flying God
Ancient Greeks were fond of telling about Hermes, a god with winged sandals. Often he was pictured with a winged cap on his head, and sometimes wings were placed on his shoulders.

The ancient Romans "borrowed" this god and called him Mercury.

Statues of Hermes were common in olden Greece. They were placed by the sides of roads, in doorways, and inside houses. A visitor to the market-place in a Greek city would find there a statue of this deity, who was looked upon as one of "the 12 great gods."

It is likely that far back in their history the Greeks began to worship Hermes as a god of the rain, or a god of the wind, but in later periods they spoke of him in other ways.

We are told that Hermes served as messenger for his father, Zeus, king of the gods. He also was supposed to guard travelers, and to help shepherds and merchants. Robbers prayed to him because (according to legend) he had stolen cattle from Apollo, the sun god.

Now and then we hear someone speak of "a godsend." That idea may be traced back to Hermes, a god who was said to send good fortune to human beings.

Still another service of the god was to guide spirits of the dead on their way to the kingdom of Hades. Small statues of Hermes were placed in graves.

It is in the air, however, that he find Hermes playing the most striking part. Using the winged sandals given him by Zeus, he traveled far and wide. The Greeks said he took messages from gods to men.

As he journeyed, Hermes was said to move "as fast as the wind." In those times, it was hard for anyone to think that even a god could move faster than that. If ancient Greeks could have seen a modern airplane going at the rate of five miles a minute, perhaps they would have given up worship of Hermes and have turned their prayers to the pilot!

The Greeks seem never to have made an effort to build a man-carrying flying machine, but one clever man among them is supposed to have made a pigeon which would "fly by its own power." We have have more to say about the pigeon in a later story.

Grand Landlord
Chicago, Sept. 1 - (UP)- Arthur J. Arthur, jr., 34, has been offered $10,000 in cash, 13 new 1946 automobiles at ceiling price, a diamond wrist watch, 21 pairs of nylons and a new two-pants suit for 15 apartments he has for rent, but he's said no to all offers. A war veteran, he will rent his apartments only to servicemen.