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Show t THE RICH COUNTY REAPER, RANDOLPH. UTAH Rural America Has Major Role In Annual Red Cross Campaign Agency to Stress Four Main Fields Of Service in 1947 Released by Western Newspaper Union. SPECIALISTS COULD CURE OUR ECONOMY FOR hall a century, or more, we have had administered to us shots NON-POLITICA- L WNU Features: in the arm, nostrums, temporary palliatives, by quacks serving selfish interests. We have been given sleeping potions to. keep us quid while some one or more minorities walked away with our birthright. Now we demand the calling of expert practitioners who are capable of diagnosing our national ills anc prescribing 4 remedy. H surgery is needed, let us know it now, and have it over with. If the appendix is inflamed, take it out before it bursts and poisons all of oui tystem. There are those who are capable of . determining these things. They may not now be found in the offices' of elected, either legislative or administrative, officials. We are demand-- , ing of Dr. Congress a complete and thorough diagnosis of the ills from whfch our intricate .and complicated governmental system is suffering. We will not. be satisfied with an examination by any but the best available experts. We do not want more nostrums and palliatives prescribed by the inexperienced. We want the type of experts who are big and broad enough to consider all of our ills; to investigate all of the, maladies that afflict us, without considering only the minor complaints of special groups such as labor, farm, management, capital, transportation and others. Their bellyaches will disappear when the reme- dies have been found to cure the ills of the nation as a whole. Capable men should be called by Dr. Congress, not merely to be questioned, but to diagnose and prescribe for the major ailments. When the major ailments are cured not merely temporarily relieved the minor ones of minority groups will disappear. SHOULD HIRE EXPERTS Congress has full authority to engage experts, if congress will do so. What is needed is not to call experts merely to be questioned, but to call them for consultation, so that they may prescribe a remedy for our national ills. No elected official in either the administrative or legislative branch of the government, does, or can, think of legislation without considering the effect it will have on votes at the next election. What the nation needs is consideration of a number of basic subjects without that thinking of votes. There are a number of extremely men who are not coiinected in any way with any one of the minority groups; men who think only of the good, of the nation as a whole; fnen who could not put partisan advantage ahead of national needs; men of demonstrated ability and loyalty, who could be called upon as experts to diagnose our ills in the light of present day conditions, and prescribe a remedy. America needs the services of such men at this time. Congress would the provision stockpile of the nation has an g farm elabbrate of is but a sample today, equipment of what is in 'store for the almost immediate future. Manual labor as factor in producing farm crops is passing rapidly. It does not mean the farm is passing. It does mean that farming as a way of life is be- coming more attractive. It does mean that the long, hard hours of hired man are passing. It does mean that soon the long hours of arduous toil for the farmer will be over. What is happening on the farms also is happening in the factories. New and improved machines provide greater production with less hours of labor. We should welcome the new conditions rather than fight them. From the new conditions, the introduction of mechanisms as a replacement for human labor, the farmer is assured more time for recreation, more time to enjoy living. It is not depriving us of an opportunity to work. It is assuring us of less hours of work, and more hours for play. It is the day of technology. work-savin- AS THE bottom drpps put pf real estate values, there will be millions of bag holders. This time the greater number will be city folk, rather tfrn farmers, who were caught hardest following World War I. . , national headquarters empha- THE family unit in the Home Towns of America on the way out? The answer to this question has IS A With a 1947 campaign goal of 60 million dollars, the Red Cross again is relying upon the rural areas and the small towns which center the farming communities for substantial support in attaining its quota. Because 1947 will be in the nature of a shakedown cruise for a nation newly returned to peacetime, and because in the uncertainty of . MORE GOODS, LESS WORK FROM the days of the plow, the hoe and the scythe, as representative of farm implements, down to Rising Tide of Divorce Alarms Nations Leaders size. . that need. especially important share in the current fund campaign of the Ameripan Red Cross, officials at the Washington, D. C., , do well to recognize WNU Washington Bureau. JSJS Eye St.. N. W. Rural America the postwar existence many Americans are inclined to question the need to support even the most deserving of organizations, Red Cross officials have related the answers to some of the whys of the fund campaign. Major Red Cross responsibiliin 1947-4ties will be four-fol- d to veterinclude service They ans and their families; to men in army and navy hospitals; to men serving with the armed forces overseas or in this country, and to the community. During the war period of 1941-4Red Cross was supported by contributions in the amount of $784,151,000 in five fund campaigns. In numbers, rural community chapters 2,908 of them account for more than of all the Red Cross chapters in America. With the overwhelming majority of their workers unpaid volunteers the Red Cross said, these smaller chapters were the backbone of the ARC during the war and will continue to be so in peace. Expand Services. In the coming year, on a greatly reduced budget, the Red Cross will conduct a program exceeding any previous peacetime operation in its entire history. , Services for veterans and the armed forces and their families will be the major concern of the Red Cross. The increasing need for assistance to veterans will continue for years. Approximately 1,100,000 veterans and their families were assisted by Red Cross last year through its workers in chapters alone. Thousands more were aided by Red Cross workers in hospitals. Under 'authorization of Veterans administration, there are 155 Red Cross field directors and assistant field directors in 105 VA hospitals. matter how great th6 need, he Nearly 350 Red Cross claims extinued, it has always been able to perts are stationed in VA offices accomplish its mission of mercy be-- throughout the nation, in Puerto cause of the generosity of the Amer- Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines. On army posts and naval stations ican public. 8. 6, three-quarte- rs j j con-capab- le Small Town Rates Frequent Mention Churches Utilize Chartered Buses To Swell Crowd PA. PHILADELPHIA, - a means of swelling attendance, 15 Philadelphia churches are engaged in a novel experiment of providportal-to-petransportation ing services. The program involves buses char- tered by churches to make sched-th- e street uied stops at corners to pick up- parishioners, carrying them to church and then returning them home after serv-- a w pre-arrang- ed - ices. ihe 15 churches hire from one to jour buses regularly every Sunday, clergymen admit they are prepared cater to members as a means e 0f maintaining and increasing tendance. : Attendance at Holmesburg Methodist church has been boosted 30 to 40 per cent in the year the church has used chartered buses. Historic Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Protestant Episcopal church, situated in a neighborhood formerly residential but now entirely commercial, also has resorted to char' tered buses. Old Swedes bus riders pay a minimum of 10 cenfs a ride, with the sky the limit. On a rainy Sunday, one grateful parishioner slipped the driver a $10 bill. Church officials agree that the transportation . problem is more pressing now than ever and that it affects all denominations. Many families have moved from the old neighborhood, yet still desire to attend their old church. In other cases, public transportation is not available to residents of outlying areas and new residential districts. at-th- : in this country and overseas, Red Cross field directors are serving, giving emergency assistance, counseling and helping keep the men in communication with their families at home. In the field of community service, Red Cross disaster k work is a operation the country over. National, state and local governments expect the Red Cross to assume leadership in disaster preparedness and relief, and rural areas know well the work of Red round-the-cloc- tornadoes, Cross following x floods and fires. Red Cross first aid, water safety and accident - prevention services have been carried on in all communities of this country. First aid instruction for young people and adults, swimming classes for children of the community,' and spreading the gospel of safety from farm accidents, are several ways these Red Cross safety services function. ' Aid Rural Areas. g Cross instrucRed tion in rural communities where hospital facilities are scarce is receiving greater emphasis. Community nutrition classes teach the homemaker how better to prepare and preserve foods. The American Junior Red Cross, with its 19 million youngsters, provides effective channels through which school children throughout America may put to practice citizenship responsibilities and good neighbor practices with children of nations overseas. home-nursin- , Sawing Proves Easy as Sewing, As Coldest Spot9 Woman Insists BIG PINEY, WYO. Although g this little community nestled in the Wyoming mountains has only 241 residents, it probably rates mention in the nations newspapers more often than any other small town in the country. Its not at all unusual for stories about weather conditions to include the statement that the coldest spot in the country was Big Piney, Wyo., with 20 degrees below zero." The dubious distinction of being the nations ice box is blamed by the weather bureau on a cold air drainage off the mountains lying to the west of the town, which is situated in a mountain valley of 6,280 feet, altitude. Masses of cold air drain off the mountain range into the valley just like streams of water, the weather bureau explains. There is also an elevation to the east. This inclosure prevents the wind from sweeping out cold air and warming up the valley. Frigid blasts are almost a proposition. Big Piney had only a growing season last year, compared with 148 growing days at Cheyenne, some 300 miles ' .to the southeast. JACKSON, MICH. Although she has. made her living for years as a dressmaker, Mrs. Myrtle Ann Dibble is as adept with a hammer and saw as with a needle and scissors. For proof, she soon will have a seven-roohouse completed practically entirely by her own efforts. Faced with a housing problem, Mrs. Dibble decided that if she could cut and sew dresses she also could run up a house for herself and her two young daughters. Work was commenced last May when the basement was dug, the only time Mrs. Dibble called in professional help. She mixed her own cement, the two daughters, Laur- 6 As HELPING HAND . . . Red Cross Gray Lady Mrs. John W. Johnson has a long shopping list. She is shown adding items wanted by a patient at Bay Pines Veterans' hospital, St. Petersburg, Fla. Shell buy them at the canteen and downtown. cattle-raisin- m etta Lee, 13, and Mona Mae, 12, hauling the blocks while she set them. More than 1,000 blocks were required for the basement. A mason, inspecting the work, described (it as a pretty good job." As the next step, Mrs. Dibble purchased green oak logs and had them cut into boards at a sawmill. She fitted them herself, displaying blistered palms as evidence that saws plenty hard. green oak Driving nails into that wood was the hardest job I ever took on, : adds. she f Mrs. Dibble did all the electrical Street Strays work in the basement and plans to SANTA FE, N. M. Camino de wire the entire house. She also will las Vacas Street of the Cows has do her own plumbing. A divorcee, Mrs. Dibble used her been lost or strayed in this ancient city. Notified that the street is 40 life savings' to Btart the house. With feet south of where it was originally expenses tunning higher than anestablished 60 years ago, the city ticipated, Mrs. Dibble was forced to council ordered the street commit- return to dressmaking to get money to finish the house. tee to corral the straying street. year-arou- nd 61-d- . economists, government and business leaders, and religious leaders here in a state of alarm, as well it might. For the family unit, bound together by ties of love, by religion, by patriotism and the pride of community and country, has been and still is the foundation and backbone upon which we have built this republic. And family units are breaking up at an alarming rate. Look about you in your own community. You will find that, on the average, one out of four marriages are ending up in the divorce courts, and the trend is upward. In 1946, for instance, there were more than 2,300,000 marriages and more than 600,000 divorces, or a ratio of 26.1 per cent. While the percentage of divorce to marriage generally has been on the upgrade steadily since 1887, government figures reveal today that the impact of the disruptive forces threatening the solidarity of American family life is greater in times of high income and consumer spending than in periods of low income. In the depression years of 1921 and 1922 following World War I, divorces numbered 159,580 and 148,815 respectively. In the lush years of 1938 and 1939, divorces jumped to and 201,468 per year. Durthe ing depression years of 1932 and 1933 the divorce rate dropped to 8 for 1932 and 165,000 for 1933. However, in the prosperous era starting in 1940, divorces skyrocketed to 264,000, and the number of divorces and ratio to marriages have been increasing each year to the record high in 1946. 195,939 160,-33- Debts and Divorces Economists point to the fact that consumer spending and a spurt in individual debt totaling some six billion dollars were factors in the increase of divorces last year. They also point out that the trend of personal debt is in marked contrast to the wartime pattern, which shows that in the three years following Pearl Harbor personal debts of the billion people were reduced by 6 dollars both by voluntary payments and as a result of credit restrictions. So the total individual debt declined from 39.4 billion dollars at the end of 1941 to 32.7 billions at the end of 1944. The reverse started in 1945 with a debt gain of one billion dollars for the year and picked up momentum during 1946 so that at the end of the year the debt increase totaled 6 billion, or equaling the reduction of the three war years. Leaders in and out of government and in the religious life of all churches are alarmed over the apparent decadence in American home life. They declare the present day situation has profound implications to the nation in the political, economic and moral spheres, in view of the fact that the whole structure of American industry and government rests on the foundation of serving the needs of the American family, children as well as parents. In view of the apparent relation of divorce to economic depression and well being, and the apparent conclusion that mphey management in the home is one of the causes of divorce, leaders here profess to see in the constant striving for higher income, for easier and higher living standards, a cause for the breaking down of moral fibre and the breeding ground for selfishness, greed, intolerance and other indications of moral turpitude which eventually lead into the divorce courts. Church leaders, too, point out that in time of great prosperity there is a falling off in religious fervor and a rise in times of stress. Loss of Confidence Economists and psychologists point to a growing indifference and lack of reverence for our traditional institutions, even for government itself a lack of confidence and security in our business, industrial, labor and governmental leadership and they declare that there is a vital need for a . of the ideals, the traditions and the fundamentals of our American democracy, a rehabilitation of the minds and hearts of our people in the constitution, the bill of rights, the Declaration of Independence. |