OCR Text |
Show mmkn Beleased by Western Newspaper Union, AMERICA A 'GOOD LAND' OUR GRANDMOTHERS, oui great-grandmothers and, in the case of we oldsters, our mothers, bought such food products as they needed for their families out of a barrel, a burlap sack or a pine box. They had but little choice. They could not call for some particular brand of coffee. There was one kind and lt came in a burlap sack. It was green and had to be roasted In the oven before it could be used. The men folks of those days, U they had a good job, would receive as wages as much as 410 a week, for which they worked 72 or more hours. There was no such thing as overtime over-time at any price. They worked as long as there was work to be done. The wives and mothers of today demand the privilege of picking and choosing what they buy. They like the peas, tomatoes or peaches canned by one concern better than those canned by another. They want the breakfast food the family likes best. They have a choice in the way of a dentifrice. Each member oi the family has a choice in the make of shoes he wears, and when Dad buys a car, he selects it by name and not by number. The cost for variety, for the privilege privi-lege of picking and choosing, is but little, if any more than grandmother grandmoth-er paid, but Dad today makes nearer $10 a day, or more, instead of the $10 a week his father and grandfather were paid. Dad works 40 hours, not 72, and is paid time and a half for any additional hours. It is a good land, this America in which we live. It has advanced from the horse and buggy conditions of yesteryear to the airplane period of today. We, the American people, like it and what we, the people, like, we, the people, will have we think. We realize that the variety we like has, made for more jobs and for more wages. It had created a demand de-mand for more commodities. It has increased our living standards. It has made possible a greater number of stores to offer the ever-increasing variety we demand from which to select. No one could, or would, stop such progress we think. There is, however, a group o( theoretical bureaucrats who think differently. They believe the conditions condi-tions of the horse and buggy days are better for us, and they propose that we largely return to those conditions. con-ditions. They would dispense with all the variety. They would put production produc-tion and distribution in the hands of the government. They would provide pro-vide A, B and C grades of each commodity, whether it be canned fruits or vegetables, coffee, bacon, shoes, automobiles, or what have you. There would be only one store in the average community and in it you would buy of the very limited variety it offered. There would be fewer jobs and lower wages. "But," we say, "such a thing cannot can-not happen to us. We do not want it that way and we will not have such a system." We forget that group of theoretical bureaucrats has the authority to issue is-sue decrees which have the force oi law. Of their own volition they can create a system in which they believe, be-lieve, unless congress the senate and house of representatives says "no." It is not unlikely that congress con-gress may fail to say that "no." As it stands right now, that group of theoretical bureaucrats has authority by which it can change the whole American way of life. It is considered a war emergency measure, but once applied, it would take more years than those now living liv-ing have left in order to change back again. To prevent such a change, we must do more than think it cannol happen. PRESIDENT AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF JUST WHAT does the position oi -President of the United States imply? im-ply? What authority goes with thai job? Under the Constitution, the President is commander-in-chief ol the armed forces. "To our soldiers, sailors and marines, his word i! law. To the Joes and Johns anc Jims, the Marys, Marthas and Matildas, Ma-tildas, he is the President, the chiel executive. He is the manager of the civilian operations of the government, govern-ment, but subject to the will of con gress. Congress can, and has. passed along to the President som authority he would not otherwise have, and congress can take awaj the authority it has given him a' any time. We, the civilians, respeci the job of President as such. . W selected the President as our chie: executive, and to be the command er-in-chief of our armed forces. SHORTENING DAYS and lengthening length-ening nights mean increasing wof for Hitler. ONE OF the popular radio com . mentators is also a chicken raiser He includes in his broadcast a pie for corn with which to feed 1,501 starving hens. GIVE THE RURAL PEOPLE a America honest information abou the operations of government anc they will write their own opinion! that will be right and safe. |