Number 47
Thousands at ecmhmnittes will
conduct Clean-Up Week some time
ttU spring to aa effort to beautify
the town and make It a healthier
i' place to which to Uve. It to also
• good time to Improve lire safety
to yotto community.
Firemen report that the base
. ment to the most dangerous Spot
i to toe house as tar as fires are
' concerned. If your home was ln
jspeeted today toe firemen would
' i look for piles of waste papers, oily
1 rags or discarded furniture,
f' They would examine your ash
barrel—it should be metal. Then
titoey would turn their attention to
; ! furnaces, stoves or smote pipes
. i dose to combustible ceiltogs or par
i titton. Charring of wood,- blistering
of paint, or wood that to hot when
you hold your hand against it, are
signs that the temperature to that
- area to dangerously high.
Your gas appliances would be
Inspected, to bh sure there are no
conditions which might cause,gas
leaks or explosion. Your chimneys
would get a going over from the
inside. Wooden beams extending
into chimney walls have started
many fires.
If you have work rooms in the
basement, they would get their
share of attention, to be sure there
are no shavings on work benches,
and that paints, varnishes, oils and
turpentine are correctly stored.
Electrical distribution channels
and fuses, which are usually in
stalled to the basement, would be
examined tor proper fusing. In
most cases. 15 ampere fuses would
be used.
Winding up the inspection tour,
they would check to see that the
spaces at the bottom of wall studs
are tightly fire-stopped to prevent
a basement, fire from spreading in
to file walls and up to other rooms.
During 1952 tire damaged or de
stroyed approximately $784,953,000
worth of property in the United
States. Measured in dollars, the
losses are at an all-time high for
the secdnd consecutive year.
Since 1935 when fire losses
amounted to $235 million, they have
increased 3.3 times.
These facts point up the need
tor continuous attention to fire pre
vention and to community partici
pation' in spring Clean-up activi
ties.
On the farm front, the fire hazard
is greater today than ever before.
The modern farms have all the fire
hazards ' of a machine shop, fac
tory, gasoline station and paint
shop.
Today's mechanized farm makes
wide use of gasoline-operated ma
chinery and electrical equipment,
all of which have created many
new fire hazards that must be safe
guarded against by the farmer.
And it is important to note that
farm fires frequently result in to
tal loss because of inadequate
water supplies.
Clean up on the farm and dean
up the home is a wise spring prac
tice.
2305 Bell Street, Columbus, Georgia, believes
that uncontrollable fear was developed in him when he had to quit
school at the age of thirteen and go to work in the coal mines, to help
his dad make a living. .
q, He always wanted to be a mining or civil engineer and the
V only way to get the education whs by Correspondence Courses. He was
laugnea at ior wasting ms time siuaymg correspona
ence courses rather than being out having a good
time with the rest of the boys who said, "Whoever
heard of a coal miner being anything but a coal
miner.” He was even called « 2x4 Correspondence
School Engineer by a famous lawyer before the Court
Of Claims. All this had a bad effect. However, he
thinks the one thing that had the greatest effect in
bringing on chronic fear, a fear of people, was a lack
Of association with his fellow men.
After all, to get a technical education, by corre
spondence requires a tremendous amount of time,
CARNEGIE
and the exclusion of practically everything else. He put his heart and '
soul Into his work and into research and study to become an Engineer.
He would work In the mines all day and study at night. Many times
; >:be stayed up all night studying.
But by persistent diligent effort he reached his goal and established
; himself as an Engineer. The next problem to conquer was fear. He read
. Dr. Emerson Fosdick's book on “Being a Beal Person” and “Personal
; Achievement,” by Roberts, as well as all other available data. Still he
I was afraid—of people! Then he decided on a night course in public
j speaking, where he had to stand on his feet night after night facing
i those fearsome people. The first time, he didn’t do se well, nor the
,j second nor the third. Then fas began comparing notes on himself at
i each gathering. Why even the third time he did, a little better than the
first—and those people didn’t seem so fearsome after all. Suddenly he '
realized they were not so different from himself. He was one of this
.world of people. And once that idea filtered through his brain, he was
'no longer afraid of people. Certainly not—he was pne of them! *
DIXIE GOVERNORS SEE PRESIDENT . . . Pres. Eisenhower poses with Gov. Allan Shivers (left) of
Texas, and Gov. James F. Byrnes of South Carolina after lunching with a group of governors and
congressional leaders at the White House.
KINGS JOINS PIRATES . . .
Concluding his long contract
argument with Branch Rickey,
Ralph Kiner flew from his Palm
Springs home to play with the
Pittsburgh Pirates in Havana.
Kiner's pay reportedly will be
about $75,000.
Play Ball
VI/TTH THE baseball season
'' breathing down everyone’s
neck, here’s how the experts pick
them. Casey Stengel’s Tanks are
favored to break all records by
winning a fifth straight American
League pennant. Cleveland will
provide the toughest opposition. The
Dodgers are still the choice of the
National loop with the Giants,
Philadelphia and St. Louis making
strong bids. The experts report the
'major league benefited from no
merous player deals during the
winter and from the fine rookie
crop that win see action this year.
They also add that the addition of
Russ Meyer to the Dodgers’ pitch
ing staff may be all the Dodgers
heed to become the first National
repeaters since the Cards of 1942,
1943, and 1944. The Phils now have
a long-ball hitter in Earl Torgeson
and may prove tough since they
have such pitchers as Robin Rob
erts, Curt Simmons and Karl
Drews.
A record breaking 455.8 mil
lion bushels of 1952-crop wheat
had been put under price sup
port as of February 15.
Farpis with 500 or more acres
have Increased 40 per cent In
the past 30 years. U. 8. farms
with 1,000 or more acres have
nearly doubled in;that time.
Agricultural products repre
sented 42 per cent of all 17. 8.
Imports last year, compared with
48per cent In 19M, ;
From the Webster Times, Web
ster, Massachusetts: A good ques
tion for today is this: Just how
much of a dollar have we got?
For sente time now, it has been
well bandied about that a dollar
is worth only 52 cents. Cdmplain
ers are apparently comparing the
purchase-ability of today’s long
green with that of about 20 years
ago.
Maybe in the early ’30’s a dollar
did buy nearly twice as much as it
does today, but the old-timer’s re
flection is worth pondering. “I re
member the time,” he says, “when
you could buy a ham sandwich for
a nickel.” Pause. “But nobody had
a confounded nickel!”
Today’s dollar seems to have
stretched on the one end and
shrunk on the other. The period at
the end of the last sentence had
hardly been put on the decontrol
measure recently, when price in
creases were reported on cigar
ettSs. gasoline and copper.
On the other hand, farm and
cattle prices have been dropping
regularly for the past six months;
farm prices are about 17 per cent
below the record high of February,
1951.
From The Herington Advertiser
Times, Herington, Kansas:
Quite naturally, farmers and
farm organizations are greatly con
cerned with the declines that have
recently occurred in the market
prices of livestock and certain other
agricultural commodities. The fear
has been expressed that the de
clines might become so great as to
bring on an agricultural depres
sion.
Forecasting the future is an ex
ceedingly risky business, and no
one can say with certainty what
will happen to farm commodity
prices next month or next year.
But it should be recorded that
many students of agricultural
trends feel that the present situa
tion is not as serious as some have
painted it.
Secretary of Agriculture Benson
is one of these—he recently denied
that the price declines had reached
"the proportions of an emergency.’’
And the Minneapolis Morning Trib
une expressed a widely-held opin
ion when it said editorially that
“the outlook may not be so alarm
ing as it seems.’’
The Tribune found several rays
of light on the price horizon. One
is of a political character—the gov
ernment’s price support program,
whatever one’s opinion of its wis
dom, will carry through the 1954
crop year in its present form.
Others are economic. On the sub
ject of livestock, for instance, the
paper said, "Most spectacular de
cline of all has been the drop in
meat cattle prices. But there is no
mystery about this development.
Many cattlemen saw it coming a
year ago as cattle numbers were
building up to the highest point in
history. Existence of price ceilings
no doubt accelerated herd build
ups at a time when more animals
should have been moving to feed
lots or slaughtering stations . . .
There 'may be some further de
clines in meat prices but they
should level off soon.