Mercedes News-Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, August 4, 1933 Page: 4 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 23 x 17 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Page 4
MERCEDES NEWS-TRIBUNE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 1933.
AHrrrrDrs Nma-^ribun?
Published Each Friday Morning at Mercedes, Texas,
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley
By the United Printing Company, Inc.
SUBSCRIPTION RATE.
$2.00 PER YEAR
ADVERTISING RATES UPON REQUEST
Entered as second-class mail matter at the postoffice at Mercedes,
Hidalgo County, Texas, Jan. 23, 1914, under the Act of Mar. 3, 1879
TEXAS
PRESS
A ASSOCIATION
“When truth or virtue an affront endures
Th’ affront is mine, my friend, and should be yours.”
TWO IMPORTANT POINTS
THERE are two points of the President’s
1 voluntary agreement which many people
are apt to overlook. These points are, more-
over, of great importance. One has to do
with the hours that a business stays open; the
other with the price stabilization provisions.
All of those who sign the voluntary agree-
ment pledge themselves, among other things,
to keep their place of business open not less
than 52 hours per week unless a shorter period
prevailed before July 1, 1933, and in such case
not to reduce hours whatsoever.
Secondly, the agreement pledges its sign-
ers not to increase their prices over the July
1, 1933 level except as their production or in-
voice costs increase and even then to take into
account increases in sales or production. Profit-
eering is also banned.
We call these points to the attention of
the people of Mercedes because through mis-
understanding it is possible that these provi-
sions of the agreement may be violated. It
must be remembered, above all, that the main
object of the blanket code and of the group
codes which are being worked out by the vari-
ous industries is to increase employment and
raise wages; the blanket agreement is design-
ed to force an increase in employment.
THE ALTERNATIVE TO SIGNING
"THE Sign of the Blue Eagle,” as it has been
1 named, is now visible in a prominent place
on practically every show-window in Mercedes.
A majority of the merchants and business-men
here, in other words, have swung in behind the
National Recovery Administration. Maximum
hours of work and minimum rates of pay are
assumed to have been installed in all those con-
cerns which display the “Blue Eagle” and
thereby indicate that they have signed the
President’s voluntary agreement.
As a matter of fact, the term “voluntary”
as applied to this blanket code would seem to
be something of a misnomer. While it is cer-
tainly true that ostensibly no one is forced to
sign the code, nevertheless the projected arous-
ing of public opinion on the subject will show
many a hesitant or rebellious business-man
that such is in truth not the case. It has been
pointed out that while a blanket is most often
employed as a means of coverage, snug and
comfortable within, it can also be used and is
Mercedes 13 Years Aqo
Joins American Company
Force of Experts
H. H. Kidder of San Antonio has
arrived in Mercedes and taken over
the position of canal superintendent
with the American Rio-Grande Land
and Irrigation Company. Mr. Kid-
der succeeds 0. E. Van Berg in this
position. Mr. Van Berg having
been transferred to the engineering
office to succeed F. F. Friend who
left Wednesday for Santo Domingo.
“Sunny Jim” Has a Tooth
The following message “collect”
was received yesterday by the
baby’s proud father from Mrs. Mc-
Queen, who is visiting relatives in
Mississippi:,
Jackson, Miss., T. Warren Mc-
Queen, Mercedes, Texas: James
Carlton (better known as “Sunny
Jim”) has one upper tooth through,
causing much excitement. Love,
Maude Marion.
It’s lucky all these aviator parades are
hitting New York in a time of unemployment
so that the rubbering doesn’t interfere with
anything.
Italian newspapers say Balbo is a greater
hero than Lindbergh. No denial has been re-
ceived from Balbo.
FROM $4.10 TO $10.30
WE have dwelt before on the certain results
which will attend the carrying out of the
C. P. & L.’s ultimatum; with the fire hydrants
cut off the insurance key rate here will go
away up, and all present fire insurance policies
held by the citizens of this city will be can-
celled. Now another threat to the key rate
and therefore to insurance policies is at hand.
The companies owning the mortgages on the
fire trucks are threatening to take them back.
Their threat, moreover, is certain to be made
good since the City has put them off to the
last moment already.
Just exactly what this would mean to Mer-
cedes can be easily shown. Our present rate
per $1,000 insurance is $4.12. Outside of the
City, where no fire protection is available, the
rate is $10.30. But with the fire hydrants
cut off and the fire trucks repossessed the re-
sulting rate here would be even higher than
the rural rate because of the congestion pre-
vailing in a city and the consequent increased
hazard. For in a city block, with no water or
fire-fighting equipment available, a conflagra-
tion of any proportions would go from one
building to another.
But even to place at a conservative level
the difference in rates which the elimination
of fire hydrant and truck will make is to place
the additional cost per $1,000 fire insurance
policy at $6.18. Furthermore, it is assumed
that after Mercedes is left without fire protec-
tion policies will continue to be written here;
it is entirely possible that insurance companies
will consider the risk too great and refuse to
write anything at all.
And so, once more, here is another result
of the non-payment of taxes. This particular
result, we are afraid, will strike right at home,
both for those who are paying or trying to pay
used to do a little tossing. And it stands to
reason that with the public at large convinced
that the blanket agreement is a worthwhile
step those who do not fall in line are due for
some sudden and unpleasant tossing in the
form of boycotting.
The Administration does not, of course, re-
fer to its drive for public opinion as being a
specific encouragement for the boycotting of
those concerns which do not sign the voluntary
agreement. On the other hand, the pledge
which the consumers of the nation are being
asked to sign and which, of more importance,
they are signing, prohibits them from patron-
ising non-cooperators. Yet so strong has
public approval of the N. R. A. proved itself to
be even at this early moment that the ordin-
arily avoided process of the boycott is con-
doned and even praised. Rightfully so. The
Liberty Loan drives of the World War and the
elimination of the slacker of that period are
finding their parallels today and will be sur-
passed; of that there can be little doubt. For
we are today faced with an enemy which is all
the more terrible since it cannot be eliminated
by the simple process of shooting it. More
people are affected more intimately and more
disastrously by the present period of depres-
sion than by the Great War—particularly in
the United States.
All of which brings us back to the inevit-
able conclusion that those concerns, those busi-
ness-men and merchants who do not place
themselves under the voluntary agreement are
shortly going to find themselves branded with
somewhat harsher a term than that of “slack-
er.” A new principle has been injected into
American life and civilization. Rugged in-
dividualism sufficed for the days when there
was a continent to be exploited and develop-
ed. It is utterly insufficient and disastrous
today. The good of the people as a whole
must now be considered above everything else.
The difference between nudist and these
jabber-wocky new-artists is that he thinks you
can’t improve on nature and they think they
can.
The National Guard of Louisiana was call-
ed out and then mysteriously dismissed. Al-
falfa Bill Murray must have wandered down
there by mistake.
"REGULATING" THE FARMER
THE new industrial control bill will bring
into being a new relationship between
government and business — a relationship
in which the government will seek to eliminate
uneconomic business practices and legislation
that are harmful to the country.
It is not so generally realized that the new
farm bill embraces a similar relationship be-
tween the farmer and the government. Under
it, acreage is to be retired from use; there is
to be more rigid control over prices, and great
effort will be given to equalizing production
and consumption. In this work, the farmers’
cooperatives will be of tremendous importance.
They are the logical organizations through
which this type of regulation may be effected.
They are immune both t.o political considera-
tions and to minority prejudice. They repre-
sent the farmers of their areas. Their very
and for those who, have refused to do anything.1 1
' . J 5 existence depends on benefitting both the
The Chicago idea is that there ought to
be a code for hunger marchers under which
they wait until their dinner has had time to
settle.
We admit that China needs foodstuffs, but
there have been times when we suspected she
needed backbone stuffs, too.
California is struck with the Texas "jail
on wheels sent thither to gather in rolling
stones extradited hence.
farmer and the public.
It is significant that in preparing the farm
□ill, as well as other legislation which had a
bearing on agriculture, cooperative executives
have been widely consulted by high govern-
ment officials. The new farm bill, like the
old one, takes notice of the cooperative idea,
and is designed to further it. The cooperatives
have had a fine record in the past—it looks
now as if they were just on the verge of their
greatest period of achievement.—Industrial
News Review.
Mrs. H. E. Hager attended a
dance Tuesday evening at McAllen
given by Mrs. D. W. Glasscock.
Railroad To Make Extensive
Improvements At Mercedes
Immediate construction of 2,740
feet of additional trackage, a pass-
ing track sufficient to accomodate
one hundred cars and a two story
addition to the present freight de-
pot, all to be completed this year
and the building of a new passenger
depot next year is the agreement
made at a conference of railroad of-
ficials and Mercedes citizens, Wed-
nesday.
Mr. E. E. Evans, chairman of the
citizens committee, through whose
efforts the meeting was brought
about, presented the requests for
the improvements in the service
here which are so necessary to re-
lieve the present congestion in both
freight and passenger facilities and
to take care of the constantly in-
creasing business of this communi-
ty.
Slumber Party
Miss Mildred Morrison entertain-
ed on Thursday evening with a
slumber party, in honor of Miss
Arlene Herndon of San Antonio.
After a moonlight swim in Lake
Campacuas the guests repaired to
the home of Miss Morrison in South
Palm Gardens where an evening of
music and merriment was spent.
At a late hour the gentlemen de-
parted leaving the ladies to spend
the night.
Those present were Misses Beulah
Blackwell, Marion Reiss, Arlene
Herndon, Louise Steel, Ruth Stuart,
Messrs. C. W. MacVean, Dave
Blackwell, James Howze, Jerry
Storm and Ralph Ridenour.
Dr. and Mrs. E. H. Kasey of
Houston are spending a few days
in town renewing old acquaintances
and looking after their property
Other Papers
Prices and wages are doing an adagio
dance with prices doing the jumps and wages
getting the thumps.
Now that Pa has been to Washington and
back Governor Ma knows what she thinks
about the President.
RIDDLE DEPARTMENT
Question: When is a tax-payers’ meeting
not a tax-payers’ meeting?
Answer: When the tax-PAYERS are not
present.
The President aims to extend the civil
service and us Democrats aim to stretch it.
THE INDICTMENT IS TRUE
Meeting in America’s second city,
European police authorities express
the opinion that no such wave of
criminal activity exists in their
countries as in ours. The view be-
comes a serious indictment of de-
mocracy’s ability to preserve law
and order. It is a criticism that
can not be met with denial. It is
a statement of fact that must be
faced and measures taken to cure.
To put it baldly, our own crime sta-
tistics reveal a condition of continu-
ed threat to life and property, dupli-
cated in no other country where a
legitimate government is operating
in presumably complete 'control.
In no other country is it possible
for organized crime to retain a paid
legal staff, for the principal purpose
of effecting liberty on bail or under
habeas corpus proceedings when the
criminal is arrested under direct
proof or well-grounded suspicion.
Most observers of the criminal law
agree with Herbert Ehrmann who,
in a discussion of an unexplored
angle of the Sacco-Vanzetti case for
the current Survey Graphic, says:
“A crook is never so dangerous
as when he or his pal is facing trial
for a serious offense. Money must
be raised at such times in large
amounts for lawyer’s fees, bail,
bondsmen, and expenses. Facing
a desperate situation in any event,
the criminal has less to lose by
risking another crime. The indicted
gunman on bail is doubly a men-
ace.”
“I haven’t the money,” says the
imprisoned criminal to the high
priced legal service offer, “but put
me on my feet and I can get it.”
Putting him on his feet merely
means getting him out of durance.
As to how he can get the money,
little imagination is required.
Police forces, the Nation over,
complain that as fast as they arrest
known criminals, Judges turn them
loose. Much of this is due to illegal
police practice of arresting and
holding “on suspicion,” a procedure
at which neither continental officers
nor courts balk. But there is far
too much ability on the part of the
American criminal to escape from
the laws’ net, both pending trial and
after conviction.
There is much to what Roderick
Ross, the Scotch Constable from
Edinburg, told American police of-
ficers at Chicago:
“Don’t mollycoddle your convicts.
Meet violence with violence. If they
want to shoot it out, shoot it out,
but be sure they’re the ones who
get killed.”—Dallas News.
interests here. Dr. Kasey estab-
lished the Mercedes Drug Company
and was numbered among our most
prominent and enterprising business
men until three years ago.
* * *
Hotel Has irst Guests
Jack Arsers and his aggregation
of Jazz artists from Point Isabel
have the distinction of being the
first guests registered at the Mer-
cedes hotel. The orchestra came
up from Point Isabel Thursday to
play for the American Legion dance
and were roomers at the hotel.
* * *
Valley Amity Club Formed
At Meeting In Mercedes
Farmers from every section of the
Valley gathered last Friday night
at the Community house and signed
membership cards and approved the
by-laws for the Valley Amity Club.
The organization has as its purpose
as outlined by President J. J. Elliott
of the American Rio Grande Land
and Irrigation Company, father of
the Amity Club idea, the advance-
ment of every worthy movement
that has for its object the growth
and development of the Valley.
* * *
New Corporation
For Mercedes
The Mercedes Supply and Con-
struction Company, which is also
known as the Electric Shop, is now
incorporated under the name of The
Electric Supply Company, with a
capital stock of $10,000.00. The
officers are Geo. H. Wilson, presi-
dent; J. H. Jackson, vice president;
Warren Shoemacker, treasurer, and
E. R. King, secretary.
Prohibition Issue Changes In Character
As 18th Amendment Repeal Is Certainty
(By Dale Miller In The Texas Weekly)
The triumph of repeal, now con-
ceded by even the most sanguine
drys, has removed from the forum
of public controversy all speculation
on the fate of the Eighteenth Am-
endment and has substituted there-
for the more fundamental question
involving the consequences of re-
peal. So rapid has been the en-
dorsement by one State after an-
other of the repeal amendment that
the grave problems portended by
repeal have suddenly become cata-
pulted into prominence as real ad-
versaries challenging the ingenuity
of the American people. The only
question now admitting of contro-
versy evolves not about repeal but
about its aftermath, and this transi-
tion changes the whole character of
campaigns, whereas an outright de-
feat would demoralize their ranks.
Drys can moderate the effects of
repeal by guiding rather than op-
posing it, and for this reason sur-
render would be a greater victory
than defeat.
A disturbing aspect of the whole
situation—and one that has not
been given much thought—is the
dangerous position in which Texas
is being placed by repeal. Texas
will remain constitutionally dry for
at least two more years—and it is
significant that Texas will be the
most populous of the dry States and
will thus be the goal of organized
crime. It is no secret that the same
racketeers who plundered the popul-
the prohibition struggle.
It is of the utmost importance .Texas
that we realize that this change has
come about. Really, all things con-
sidered, it is fortunate that the re-
peal amendment is being accorded
such overwhelming majorities, for
the certainty of repeal now removes
the necessity of combatting it
further and permits us to turn to
the more important task of con-
trolling the dangers contingent up-
on it. There are those obstinate
drys who will resist the tide to the
last ballot, but it seems to me that
a more intelligent course to pursue
would be one of moving with the
tide and attempting judiciously to
to direct its channels rather than
futilely erecting a dam of opposi-
tion that would obstruct the chan-
nels and cause a wide and uncon-
trolled inundation. To change the
metaphor,
a discreet withdrawal
Great art is neither old nor new from the field would leave the dry
—it is ageless.
forces intact for further temperance
ous North will be attracted immedi-
ately to States remaining dry, and
: will thus offer the most
lucrative field for their activities.
What is worse is the fact that these
racketeers, bloated with wealth,
have an immense capital with which
to begin operations, and they will
constitute a menace that will re-
quire the concerted action of all
Texans to overcome. Moreover, in-
asmuch as the Federal government
is lamentably exhibiting no inten-
tion of protecting dry' States, the
problems of enforcement will be
tremendous, and, we cannot be so
naive as to hope that we can suc-
ceed where the Federal authorities
failed. There is considerable cred-
ence for the belief that State prohi-
bition will ultimately go the way
of the Eighteenth Amendment; but
be that as it may, the danger that
Texas may become a haven for
racketeers is an immediate reason
why there are problems before the
(See PROHIBITION, page 7)
*
il 1®#
Advertising
^n Aid To
Recover
Advertising, properly employed,
should play an important part in as-
sisting recovery by accelerating the
sale of products for which postpon-
ed buying during the depression has
built up a latent need. Furthermore,
many large advertisers are reported
to be prepared to increase their ad-
vertising appropriations immedi-
ately upon signs of any sustained
improvement in business. Since ad-
vertising closely reflects the state of
trade, it may be expected to be
among the first groups to benefit
from recovery. The prospects for
advertising appear to be particular-
ly bright if those controlling its
policies consider it in relation to
sales and take full advantage of
their opportunities to rehabiliate
and stabilize distribution.
—The American Press.
4
E
e
%
1
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Mercedes News-Tribune (Mercedes, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 30, Ed. 1 Friday, August 4, 1933, newspaper, August 4, 1933; Mercedes, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1630407/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dr. Hector P. Garcia Memorial Library.