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Show THE RICH COUNTY REAPER, RANDOLPH, UTAH (l&pxvit&n, in WASHINGTON Released bv Western Newspaper Union. By CHANGE FROM MULE TO TRUCK SYMBOLIZES OUR PROGRESS It was in the late 1880s that I knew Krueger and his dray, at Keokuk, Iowa. Few, if any, of such vehicles as that dray are to be found today. It was but a flat platform, mounted on two one-mu- WNU Washington Bureau 1616 Eye St., N. W. le Lobbies Have Spent Million "'ollars on 80th Congress DURING the first quarter of 1947 some 124 organizations spent almost a million dollars lobbying the 80th congress on one issue or another. Almost half of this amount was wheels, with a pair of shafts for the mule. When the motive power was hitched the platform sloped backward at a rather acute angle. Adjustable iron pegs, fitted into holes in the timbers of the platform, prevented the load, whatever it might be, from sliding off the back end. Merchandise came into Keokuk either by railroad or Mississippi river steamboat. In either case, to reach ' the stores of the merchants, it had to be transported from the waters edge up the steep Main street hill to the business section on top of the bluff. For such transportation the merchants were dependent on Krueger and his dray. To move a ton of merchandise meant four trips up that hill. That was the maximum of a days work. It might be three, or only two, such trips. It was never five, for neither Krueger or the mule would hurry. That one man, one, mule and one dray set the business pace for Keokuk, and it was slow. one-mu- spent by 10 organizations. Paradoxical as it may seem, in view of the fact that we are supposed to oper- ate our government under the constitution, the Committee for Constitutional Government spent the largest amount, $137,910, to ward off Communism and collectivism, to urge passage of a 20 per cent tax reduction bill and to seek passage of a bill to break the strangle hold of labor monopolies. The committee expects to raise $720,000 to pay f6r its 1947 program. While $58,368 was spent by Rural Electric Cooperative association to urge further development of public power, National Association of Electric Companies was spending $65,081 ' looking after the interests of the private power companies. Many expenditures come under the head of lobbying. For instance, National Association of Real Estate Boards, which has been fighting all housing controls, includes an expenditure of $612.50 for initiation fees le GASOLINE POWER COMES I left Keokuk in the spring of 1890, and it was not until 1912 that I was back for a few days. Then I looked up Krueger. Years and events had changed him from a genial man of middle' age to a bitter old man. His mule and dray were gone. A truck, propelled by a gasoline engine, had replaced it. The truck moved more in one load than the mule and dray had moved in four, and did it in nr ff ... Not a 1947 model, but J. J. Ruth, York, Pa., and his IN HORSELESS CARRIAGE wife say it will get them there. They are shown on the Atlantic City boardwalk before they set out on a y engine and a chain drive. Ruth jaunt aboard their 1902 buggy. The car has a of He doesnt know how long it to 15 the 30 and miles an will miles hour travel it gas. gallon gets says will make it. will take to get to the Pacific coast, but he is sure the old buggy COAST-TO-COAS- T two-cylind- er cross-countr- less time than it had taken Krueger to do one fourth of a days job. But the old drayman was not at all in sympathy with the contrivance that prevented an honest man from making an honest living. ..The world was moving while Krueger had been standing still. A quickened pace was needed if Keokuk was to survive. The contrivtruck a ance had provided the needed speed. True, it had deprived Krueger and his mule of their job, but it had provided many new jobs. It had made the handling of more merchan- dise possible, and that called for employment of more store clerks. It meant more business for the railroads, more production in factories, with a. reduction in the needed hours of labor for all. new-fangl- ed THE GOP labor bill likely will go to the President sometime in late June. And on June 30, the government is expected to turn back the coal mines to the private operators. Two questions arise. Will President Truman veto the tough labor bill and will John L. Lewis call a coal strike and shut down industry? If the President Vetoes the labor bill it means that the nation will have no new labor legislation out of this congress, and this is precisely what the GOP leadersnip is banking on. They are putting the old squeeze play on the President in an attempt to force him to sign the labor bill although it goes far beyond a labor reform bill and has become in many respects a punitive labor bill. Theres politics spread thickly on both sides of the fire which swept nine buildCONEY ISLAND' IN SMOKE . . . Airview showing the spectacular Doctors and nurses from Brooklyn Island. at famed amusement Coney concessions, of most them ings, flimsy structures along Henderson walk and hospitals were rushed to the scene as flames roared through resort holocaust. a the 35 were firemen More fighting than Surf avenue. injured five-alar- bread. m l( THE mematorphosis of Sen. Joseph E. Ball of Minnesota is a continual subject of discussion here. d The tall, lank, Minnesotan came down to Washington a disciple of then Gov. Harold Stassen who first appointed him to broad-shouldere- fill the unexpired term of the Sen. Ernest Lundeen. Senator late Ball was a political writer for a St. Paul newspaper, considered as a liberal and acted it. But in 1942 he was elected to a six year term on his own. He (jjegan to turn more and more toward the conservative faction of the party and has fostered the toughest and most punitive section of the senate labor bill. He, with Senators Taft of Ohio and Donnell of Missouri, likely will be the senate conferees on the final labor bill draft. The gossips have it that Mrs. Ball, the former Elisabeth Robbins of Minneapolis, is highly influential in guiding her husbands thinking. Party Regularity SENATORS.Morse of Oregon and Taft of Ohio have different ideas on INSTEAD of military training, call it a citizenship training law; show where the money to pay for such a training will come from, and the public will take to it more kindly. Regardless of the name or purpose such a law would provide those things most essential in training a citizen soldier: discipline, and the individuals ability to take care of WE ARE told it will cost 50 million dollars to find out if our government employees are loyal to those they are working for, the American people. Coun- rent controls. v Labor Bill Squeeze Play RUSSIA PREPARES FOR WAR The day may come when we will have to fight Russia if we are to maintain our American way of life. When that day does come it will be neither a land or sea war. ' It will be air. Russia is stalling for time in which to construct an air force of character and strength with which to attack us and defend herself. She has the resources for such a job, and with the help of German scientists she now has tile know to make such preparation how within a comparatively few years. We could defeat Russia now, and wreck the Soviet system. What we can do 10 or 20 years from now is questionable. Shall we continue to give Russia the time she seeks in which to prepare, so she can carj ry war to our shores? himself. Its greatest citizenship value would be the breaking down of growing class distinctions. and dues into Congressional try club for one of its lobbyists, C. K. Snyder. National Home and Property Owners foundation, which reported an expenditure of $4,443, is part of the active lobby of real estate and building interests seeking to end all rent and building controls. With National Association of Real Estate Boards and Producers council, an organization of building supply manufacturers, it supported the Wolcott bill, which already has passed the house and which would, if finally enacted, remove nearly all building controls and seriously impair continued new-fangl- ed That truck represented progress, and Krueger and hig mule could not stand in the way of progress. It is but one of many thousands of similar instances which mark the advance of America while most of the rest of the world has stood still for a century and more. The competitive free enterprise system, backed by that American spirit such a system has encouraged, is what makes of us a great, the greatest, nation in the world today. Walter Shead WNU Correspondent party regularity. Senator Taft chided the Oregonian on his votes against the majority of Republicans in the senate labor committee and his stand in seeking to break up the omnibus labor bill into four sepSaid Senator arate measures. Morsel After all, should not the test of party regularity be decided according to what is best for the party in terms of what is best for the country rather than in terms of wheth- - , gr or not the leaders of the party in the senate, by an appeal to party regularity, can carry enough votes in their pockets to play politics with an fcaue as vital as this one. j ' MEALS FOR MILLIONS . . . Believing that if the governments of the world took every step recommended by United Nations committee, millions still would be without enough food. Meals for Millions foundahuntion has started the shipment of vast supplies of food to the of form in meals of 40,000 shows shipment gry of the world. Photo food, costing three cents, a meal. Two million such meals already have left Los Angeles harbor. multi-purpo- se i UP AND ABOUT . . . Little Dickie Landry, 4, of Lynn, Mass., shown with his mother, Mrs. Mary Landry, and his puppy, Princess. It was only a year ago that Dickie lost both ol his legs in a train accident now he can walk. i |