The La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 29, 1957 Page: 2 of 10
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EDITORIALS
"* THE LA GRANGE JOURNAL THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1957 , "
Fayette Soil conservation district
Petitions have been circulating in Fay-
-ette County lor the purpose o 1 dissolving the
Bastrop-Fayette Soil Conservation District
No. 310 in order that two separate districts
might be created.
The petition is made out to the Texas
State Soil Conservation Board in Temple and
reads as follows:
“We the undersigned landowners ol the
Bastrop-Fayette Soil Conservation District
No. 310 pursuant to provision o£ Sec. 7 of
House Bill 103, do hereby petition the State
Soil Conservation Board to conduct a public
hearing or hearings on the proposal to dis-
solve the Bastrop-Fayette Soil Conservation
District No. 310 lor the purpose ol adjusting
boundary lines by reorganizing the District
two districts, one ol which shall consist
The Colorado Valley Telephone Coop-
erative now seems certain with the report
last week that only 38 more names were
neeeded to meet the requirements set down
by the Rural Electrification Administration.
The deadline is September 15, and with only
B8 more to go, it is quite likely that the fig-
ure will be reached before then.
However, lest we gjory prematurely, let
it be pointed out that when the list totals
435 subscribers, the project will only then
(begin. Many hurdles, obstacles, and problems
still have to be solved. But with victory in
•rfjghf it is commendable that our rural people
ol Bastrop County and one ol which shall
consist ol Fayette County.”
The Journal is happy to see this action
being taken. For some time we felt that there
is not enough homegeneity between Bastrop
and Fayette County to warrant a common
district. The problems lacing the cattle rais-
ing, rancher territory ol Bastrop are not the .
same as the problems lacing the small, fam-
ily-size farmers ol Fayette County.
Back when the District was organized Soil
Conservation was in its infancy. It has grown
to such proportions today that a separate
district ol Fayette County only is still a tre-
mendous amount ol work.
The Journal favors creation of a sep-
arate Fayette County Soil Conservation Dis-
trict.
certain
have taken the initial step.
Also special commendation is due%Bill
Meyer, coordinator who has worked tireless-
ly on this project lor some time, along with
the directors, and the community workers.
Once again Fayette County has taken a
progressive step forward. Rural telephone
today Is just as important as rural electrifi-
cation was yesterday. The modern, dial sys-
tem proposed here will mean a great deal to
the area.
Although a little early, The Journal con-
gratulates the people ol this central area ol
Fayette County lor their progress.
Rural Telephones now seem
Welcome, Texas Jersey cattlemen
Tbe city ol La Grange and Fayette
BoaOly Is honored this week to have coming
Blare Jersey cattlemen from all over Texas.
They will be here to participate in the state-
wUe fall sale ol Jersey cattle.
The Journal extends a warm welcome
Bo these folks and hopes that their stay in
Xja Grange and Fayette County will be a
pleasant one.
The La Grange Chamber ol Commerce
is acting as host lor fne visitors Friday night
with a chicken barbecue.
This is a commendable action which
Should result in making many friends lor our
town.
The state sale is made possible through
the efforts ol local interested Jersey men
and through the new Exposition Building
which has just been completed at the Fay-
ette County Fair Ground. We believe that
with this new building, La Grange is in a
good position to bring more ol these live-
stock shows and sales to our town. Such
events will serve to acquaint more people
with La Grange and will also be a help in a
more progressive agriculture here.
Again, welcqjne to the many visitors
who will be in our midst on Friday and Sat-
urday ol this week.
Hie Soil Bank racket
Sometimes I get the feeling that our
lawmakers in Washington think the voters
B>ack home have got bubbles in their think
- Banks.
We write and write them to cut that bud-
get or we'll vote the vegetarian ticket so they
cut like crazy. Then when they think we
aren’t looking they vote the money right
back in again.
I don’t know who they think they’re
fooling because millions ol us who went to
.school B. P. E. (before progressive educa-
tion) can read real good, and when we add 2
and 2, it usually comes up 4.
But when our solons put a bunch ol the
taxpayers’ dimes in the slot and pull the
handle, it comes up lemons.
I thought the Washington Redskins (and
wWS But thcaflrwhat irt$‘ they’go anil do but
reverse themselves and extend it lor another
‘ year.
This is in spite ol the record ol a brave
cotton grower named Jack A. Harris who
was Iredited With being a force behind an
Arizona Cotton Growers Association resolu-
tion calling for an end to government farm
price supports and controls.
Anyway that was history.
•
Just to show he was on the side of the
angels, Jack Harris put his whole 1,800 acre
Dima County farm in the soil bank when the
authorities offered $145 an acre to anyone
■who would quit planting cotton.
This netted him a cool $209,701 ol tax-
payers’ money.
T wanted to show how silly, and how un-
necessary this whole thing is,” he said.
Then just to show that his cotton-picking
heart was in the right place, Jack leased
4,500 acres of farm land in Arizona’s Marico-
pa County. Trekked his work crews, tractors
and cotton gin 125 miles and planted the
place to cotton.
When he harvests the crop, according to
Timp magazine, he will have to pay 18%
cents per pound for growing cotton without
an allotment.
But before you start crying into your
beard about Jack’s penalty, even if it adds
up to $800,000, he ain’t in the red.
If he just gets an average crop, he’ll take
in $1,200,000 plus his soil bank payments
. and end up With a $600,000 profit.
•
.Harris also haf a .2,000 acrejcotton patch
near I’resno and a 1,000 acre Ifield near
Phoenix,-both in line for full price supports.
And while we’re subsidizing him not to
grow the white fuzzy stuff on his old farm,
the 13,000 bales he’ll grow on his new farm
will cause cotton grown according to the
rules to end up in government warehouses
setting us taxpayers back a further loss of
some $960,000.
“Here is boondoggling on a grand scale,”
said Arizona Congressman Stewart Udall.
“Indeed, the word boondoggling is utterly
inadequate to describe this program. We
should coin a new term, boonswoggling.”
Plenty of other cotton farmers did the
same thing and found when they joined the
soil hank they struck pay dirt.
Wouldn’t yo uthlnk Congress would
put a stop to the whole silly thing?
—From A California New&aper
BIO STEP
u* r
SECURE
FUTURE
Call your SwL representative
FRANK J. KANA
Soitfcweskrj Life Usiraice Ceapaiy
tko ft
S'ditoJkL
Notebo
A. ^buotualL
School opens Tuesday, Sept.
3rd. It has opened many times
before and it will open many
times more, you can be assured.
The fact that school opens is one
ol the most constant things in
our society.
But tbe way school opens
changes from generation to gen-
eration. As times change, so does
our method of education. In fact
one seldom realizes the tremen-
' dous change until he looks back
into his own past.
We came across a nice case of
nostalgia lor the “old days” re-
cently in The Spade column in
the Hallettsville New Era Her-
ald. Virgil Menear had this to
say:
Times change and we change
with the times. This change is so
imperceptible that we are hard-
ly aware of its importance until
we pause to look back. The pat-
terns ol life in the old world,
from which our fathers came,
continue very much the same
through the years. Our country
is very young compared to the
countries of Europe and Asia
and Africa.
Here it is still posible to trace
the history of a given farm back
to the Spanish land grants. And
land was inexpensive in the ear-
ly days. As a matter ol fact land
was offered free to settlers until
a generation ago. And even to-
day it might be possible for set-
tlers to find inexpensive land in
Alaska,
Hereabouts the free land is
gone. Once large farms became
smaller, as landowners divided
their land among their sons. And
each small farm represented a
family home and it made a living
for the family. Now farms are
getting larger. Machinery has
taken the place of stoop labor
and hoe. It takes money, know-
how and a lot of imagination to
make a “go” ol farming now-a-
days. In addition it'will take
faith in Him who furnishes the
rain and sunshine.
These changes have forced a
change in our schools.''The one
room country school has practi-
cally disappeared. We who had
the beginnings ol our education
in our homes and then in a one
room country school have a feel-
ing ol regret as we think of our
teachers, our school mates and
the little building which was
heated by a pot bellied stove. We
were very close to each other.
That old country school is
gone, never to return. School
busses haul our children and
grandchildren over long stretch-
es ol road every day. We walk-
gd two miles or more every mor-
ning and every evening and then
helped with the chores before
and after school. There were
neither radio nor television nor
.moving pictures, so we had to
get pretty acquainted with the
few books at hand. Webster’s
dictionary, the Holy Bible, a
prayer book, a book of hymns,
and such secular books#as Rob-
inson Crusoe, Swiss Family,
and a few papers and magazines.
We had plenty ol exercise
without school athletics. We
sang folksongs, but had to grow
up without juke boxes. We car-
ried our lunch, because cafeteri-
as for schools had not yet been
invented. Sometimes we envied
our city cousfns and thought
they had much better opportuni-
ties for an education than we
country boys and girls. But later
when we went to college we dis-
covered that we really lacked
nothing, because we knew how
to read and write and spell. And
with that basic knowledge as a
master key the doors ol learning
opened for us.
With wistful eye we look back
tc the oid school and realize it
belongs to another age. But let
u? too, look to the schools we
now have and make faithful use
of these newer facilities. Our
young folks do have lives to
build.
Population center ol Texas is
near Waco in McLennan County.
Land area ol Texas is 263,513
square miles.
• Driest year in Texas weather
records was 1917, when only
14.3 inches of rain fell.
Austin Boy Scouts
refuel in La Grange
Boy Scout Post 27 from Aus-
tin stopped in La Grange Mon-
day at 5 p. m. lor refueling ol
their boats. The troop is on a
trip down the Colorado River
from Austin, to San Jacinto
Monument near Houston.
George H. Giesber, agent lor
Magnolia Petroleum Company
who is furnishing the gasoline
lor this trip, was on hand to
meet the boatilla with his tank
wagon.
WE CAN SAVE YOU BIG
MONEY ON A MERCURY
LMDA
THE BIG M
TRADED! RARADE
N6w UNTIL AUGUST 31 Mercury dealers aCroes the
nation are celebrating the success of The Big M with
the greatest sales event in our history. We are pre-
pared to give thousands away every day in trade-in
allowance*. Your present car will never be worth so
much again! So act now. Come ip, drive home
your own brand hew Big M, today
FAYETTE COUNTY MOTORS
Your Authorized
Mercury Dealer
' 529 W. Travis St.
La Grange. Texas—
'You turn a knob on your gas range ... and
'•gas is there. But on many nights, in a hundred
fields or more, meter and well attendants
open valves on lonely “Christmas trees” to put
more gas in the pipe lines that move it to*
> homes and industries served by United Gas.
you z
Day and night, in good weather and bad,
skilled dispatchers, compressor station
engineers and meter and well attendants
stand watch over the flow of gas through
Upited’s vast pipe line system ... to keep ahead-
of the gas requirements of the Gulf South.
“S
:9^'.
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Duewall, L. A. The La Grange Journal (La Grange, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 35, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 29, 1957, newspaper, August 29, 1957; La Grange, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth997611/m1/2/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Fayette Public Library, Museum and Archives.