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Show Millard County Chronicle Thursday, April 3, 195.8 GIVING OUR WORLD THE Once Over By Dick Morrison Greatest Boon If you were required to choose one, and only one, oU all the modern wonders which together contribute so much to the enjoyment enjoy-ment of what we call modern living, liv-ing, and to dispense with all the rest, which would you choose? At first thought, you might call to mind a number of things, all of them desirable, and some quite essential, and then try to select the one which would seem to offer the most to the satisfactions of life if all the others were eliminated. elimin-ated. You might think of television, televis-ion, electric refrigerators, electric lights, the automobile or airplane, hot running watter, and a flock of others. Yet you know you could do without all tit these things if you had to, because your ancestors did, and 'because through the whole long history of the human race, people did do without them from the very beginning until so very recently. Nor is there any need to give an exact definition of what is meant by modern wonders. In such a hypothetical proposition as this, there Is room for plenty of leeway. We can make room for any invention inven-tion of the last four hundred years, if we wish to name it. Furthermore, on the other side of the picture, almost all of us can probably think up rather quickly a few modern inventions we should be glad to dispense with! After all, not all of them seem to hold unmitigated good for humanity. Atomic bombs, for Instance. It wouldn't foe hard at all, though, to dispense with hot and cold running water. Why, in my own lifetime, for some years after the family moved onto the Sugar-ville Sugar-ville farm, we not only didn't have running water. We had to run and get the water, instead, because our own well was contaminated and the only supply of drinkable water was the well on the farm across the road, about a block away as we commonly measure distances. At least once a day someone had to take a couple of buckets and go and get the drinking drink-ing water, years on end. As fof TV my own household doesn't have it yet, and the way things look it may be some time before we acquire it. So that item can "be dispensed with, for sure. With motoring becoming the hectic and harrowing experience it often is on today's crowded highways, I sometimes think we could better do without automobiles, even. We would surely miss the electric light but, again, we did without that on the farm for a good many years, too, and the effect was not at all serious. But to get back to the opening question. Have you thought about modern medicine? How would you like to live in a world without that? There is a modern Avonder that would really be missed if it were taken away. It is one of the things we often take for granted. It doesn't touch upon the lives of most of us every day, Taut when we do need it, nothing else will do. It seems to me that modern medicine, in all its branches, such as surgery, therapy, dentistry, and so on, should rate at or near the top of any list of the greatest boons of modern science. It is not entirely a matter of simple life and death, in critical situations. It is also a matter of the alleviation of pain, and of the lengthening of the average aver-age span of life, and of enabling people to preserve and retain their faculties, to the end that they may realize fuller enjoyment of life, and live useful, productive lives, as. well. A book by Dr. Frank G. Slaughter, Slaugh-ter, "Science And Surgery", is a most informative work dealing with its particular branch Of medical science. It is written in a way laymen lay-men can understand. It highlights some of the great discoveries not only in surgery, but in other medical medi-cal lines, and reviews the long, arduous, yet ultimately fruitful work of research which led to their success. It is good reading, on a suoject often neglected even by well-read people. First published in 1946, it has been re-issued In paper bound edition at only 35c, by Perma Books. The chapter topics include such as The Battle Against Shock; Injecting In-jecting Sleep, which tells the history his-tory of anesthesia; God's Powders, by which are meant Penicillin, Sulfanilamide, Sul-fanilamide, etc.; Chest and Heart Surgery; Brain Surgery, which chapter chap-ter tells us that open head wounds are no longer necessarily fatal; Psychosurgery; Plastic Surgery; and several others. Also included are discussions of "Why Surgery Is Expensive", "Medicine In The Atomic Ato-mic Age", and "A Plan For Medical Care", which last deals with group medicine and medical insurance. To me, the chapter entitled Injecting In-jecting Sleep was among the most interesting. It deals with anesthetics, anesthe-tics, reviewing the history of this sub-division of the science, and explaining the latest development making use of Pentothal Sodium, a drug which, when injected into the blood stream, "brings unconsciousness unconsci-ousness very quickly, which is easily controlled by competent anesthetists, an-esthetists, and which is free from many objectionable effects which had accompanied tha use of earlier anesthetics such as chloroform, ether, nitrous oxide, and so on. I was slightly alarmed by the title of Chapter 4, "God's Powders", fearing that the author might descend des-cend into a mental morass of theological od metaphysical considerations. con-siderations. Fortunately, this did not happen, and at no point does he take refuge in any purported supernatural power. Of certain of the new wonder drugs, he simply remarks that "People even referred to them jokingly as God's powders". I was glad he did not attribute the wonderful progress of medical science to any supernatural force, because the truth is, the early truth-seekers in this science, as in all sciences, had to fight entrenched en-trenched religion every step of the way toward enlightenment and to some extent still have to to this day. The chapter on "The Battle Against Shock" is most informative, and like the others, Interestingly written and reada'ble. It reviews the growth of understanding of the subject from the time of the first World War, when thousands of wounded soldiers died, not from the wounds themselves, but "from a strange, then only half-understood by-product of the wound that, for lack of a better term, we call shock", leading up to an explanation explana-tion o1 the ways in which blood and blood substitutes, such as plasma, are used in transfusions to overcome the effects of shock. Of this, "The story of blood and blood substitutes in shock is far from finshed. Every month new progress is reported in the medical journals. Shock isn't licked yet, but we're In the last rounds of the battle and we're winning". To me, Science And Surgery was well worth my time. f Making Things Do It would tie Impossible to calculate cal-culate the . amount of economic waste that is attributable to discarding dis-carding things before they are worn out, but the aggregate would be tremendous. I have often speculated spec-ulated that a good many people don't realize half the potential value of some things they buy, such as automobiles, various kinds of machinery, and household gadgets. Charles V. Neal, Jr., the Family Finance Counselor, who writes a syndicated column which is run in the Deseret News among other papers, touched upon this subject Saturday, in a most revealing way. Fact is, I have found several of these "Family Finance" articles by Mr. Neal to be the very epitome of common sense. This one was no exception. Discussing the "cost" of home appliances as differentiated from the price, Mr. Neal pointed out that to one buying a group of household appliances priced at $1500 and using them only five years the cost would be $25 per month, whereas were the period of use extended to fifteen years, the cost would figure down to only $8.00 per month. He illustrated his point with a case history of a woman who asked his financial advice on how she might buy a new washing machine to replace one which was out of order, it being needed because she had to do washing for a family of five. Then she added, "Since we are going to have payments, couldn't you see if the store will just add a TV to the contract so we can pay for 'both items at the same time?" He found that her used washing machine, which was not even then paid for, was repairable with one new part which cost $5.00, and that her TV needed only a new tube, which was installed for $8.50. Thus, for $13.50, she had two perfectly per-fectly satisfactory appliances, whereas new ones would have cost hundreds of dollars. (Mr. Neal intimated that the more well-to-do families will often use appliances twenty years or more, whereas families who can least afford it are often the ones who are inclined to replace them frequently fre-quently with new, rather than make economical repairs. The net result is that the families fami-lies who can least afford it often pay much the higher actual costs for their conveniences. And it is almost entirely their own fault. Not infrequently, they are the very ones who buy out of considerations of vanity, or who want, to make the greatest show of always own-( own-( ing the latest thing out, cost or no CUSl. Now, my own experience in such things is that, very often a mechanical mech-anical device will develop "bugs" while relatively new, hile once these are worked out of it, it will give many years of perfect service. This proved true of our own dishwashing dish-washing machine, an appliance which, now, must be nearing the age of fifteen, and has worked more satisfactodily the last half of its life than it did the first. A man-ufactoring man-ufactoring defect in the motor, which was not detected until it had given us several years of rather mediocre service, was corrected, cor-rected, and since then it has given its best service. Again, many gadgets are inadequately inade-quately lubricated when "built. Few, these days, carry provision for periodic peri-odic oiling, the lubricant being placed at the factory. They tend to "gum up" and work poorly relatively rela-tively soon. The cure for this usual- WE NEED GOOD USED T.V.'s ON NEW ADMIRAL'S A FULL LINE OF NEW ADMIRAL TV Delta Auto Supply ly Is to take them apart, clean every part, and see that enough grease or oil of the best quality is put back with the works when re-assembling them. Usually, they( will give at least double the length of trouole-free service that they did at first. And, in my opinion, the best way to service most items is to do it yourself. All that is required is tool sense, and orderliness. When taking them apart, lay the parts on a clean surface, in exactly the order In which they were assembled. assembl-ed. Don't throw them in a pile, unless you are working on an item on which you have had years of experience. The objection to making things their useful life, is often made that if people didn t buy new things, business in general would suffer, This is not a valid objection, for the simple reason that those making mak-ing it would find it impossible to show how waste ever increases anyone's purchasing power. Human wants are unlimited a principle of economics which should be more generally recognized and, therefore, there-fore, whatever purchasing power is conserved through extending the useful life of any item is sure to find its way into the channels of trade for some other item. .The net result of conservation, thrift, and prudence, therefore, can only be a higher all-round standard stan-dard of living, rather than a lower one, and a sounder structure of Mr. end Mrs. Bar Church and children, Susan, Carolyn and M'i-ael M'i-ael Ray, of Canoga Park, Calif., are visiting in Delta this week with their parents, Mr. and Mrs. M. J. Moody and Mr. and Mrs. George Church. They will attend April Conference Con-ference in Salt Lake City next week before their return home. They attended Delta Third Ward Sunday night, when the program was presented by members of the Church family to honor their mother, moth-er, Mrs. George (Sarah) Church, on her birthday. Mrs. Genera Pace is in Salt Lake City for a week, doing genealogical genealogic-al research before having her genealogy gen-ealogy book printed, and will also attend the Cook Reunion there April 5. Keith and lone Mortensen, at Huntsville, Ala., are announcing the birth of their first child, the baby girl born to them March 19. She weighed 6 lbs. 12M ounces, and is named Karen. Grandparents Grandpar-ents are Mr. and Mrs. William Mortensen, at Delta, and Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd R, Hunsaker, at Logan. business and prosperity. Regardless of all the heresies which have been propounded on the subject in recent times, the fact remains that waste is waste, and It does not and cannot contribute contri-bute to the general wellbeing, while thrift and prudence are the sources of general prosperity. CARPET CARPET CARPET LET US SHOW YOU SAMPLES IN YOUR HOME and give you prices NO OBLIGATION YOU WILL SAVE Drop us a card or call your paper today ART CITY UPHOLSTERING CO. 220 South Main Springville, Utah !; CONGRATULATIONS jj jj A. B.C. Co. . jj !; and best wishes for a successful venture !; BAKER PHARMACY jl Your REXALL Store jj jj Delta, Utah jj WELCOME We wish to extend a hearty welcome to the A. B.C. Co. and their families Drop in and see us WRIGHT'S VARIETY STORE Best wishes for success to the A. B.C. Co. FIRST SECURITY BANK of Delta We take pleasure in welcoming to A. B. C. Co. Drop in and ,see us SERVICE DRUG DELTA WE COMPLIMENT A. B.C. Co. on the opening of their new business in Delta The DELMART (Next to the Flower Shop) TRI-STATE LUMBER CO. extends '.vest wishes to the A. B.C. Co. We are happy to have been of some service to you. J IsL U J L JJ Vsl .imparty PLUMBIIiG, HEATING AIID FLOWER SHOP Friday, "FLOWERS by COWERS" PLUMBING, HEATING, SHEET METAL WORK by ALLEN and DEE Visitors Welcome Favors To AH Also, hear LINDA and CLARENCE play the "ELECTRONIC ORG A II" SPECIAL DOOR PRIZES for children ii accompanied by Parents. FIVE PUPPIES to be given away during the day. Must be present in order to receive a Puppy. SUCCESS 1 to the A. B.C. Co. We are happy to have been able to furnish some of the material in your new place of business CHURCH & SONS LUMBER CO. Delta, Utah BEST WISHES to A. B. C. Co. and may their new business prosper Shop at the "Market Basket" QUALITY MARKET Compliments of D. STEVEIIS CO. Delta's complete department store We welcome the A. B. C. Co. and wish them many successful years CONGRATULATIONS and much success to the A. B.C. Co. in their new business venture here in Delta CHROIilCLE PUBLISHING CO. Delta, Utah J |