“WHAT GOES UP—”
Land Prices Soar
Released by WNU.
Is speculative ownership of
land becoming the “No. 1 Ene
my” of future farm prosperity?
Are land prices due to tumble
as they did after World War I?
Will the cost of land go so high
that the farmer cannot make a
profit? These are questions that
are being asked from California
to Maine.
Land prices have already soared
71 per cent above the 1935-39 aver
ages. They are approaching the
boom levels that followed World
War I. Many bankers are frankly
worried lest the crash and deflation
of the early 1920 s be repeated.
Government figures show
farm land prices during World
War II more than doubled in
Indiana, North and South Caro
lina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Colo
rado and Wyoming.
Increases of more than 90 per
cent have been recorded in Ohio,
Michigan, Georgia, Mississippi,
Arkansas and Montana. For the
country as a whole, farm real
estate values have jumped 13 per
cent in the past year.
From the beginning of World War
I to the inflation peak in 1920, land
prices jumped 70 per cent. Prices
at the start of World War II were
lower than in 1914, but the in
crease this time is already 71 per
cent, although the actual prices are
not yet at the 1920 peak.
Higher Land, Less Profit.
Farm sales are continuing at the
high level they attained during 1945.
The number of farms resold after
a limited period of ownership has
increased, indicating speculation.
Farmers who have a “yen”
to acquire additional acreage,
says a statement by the Middle
West Soil Improvement commit
tee, should bear in mind that
the higher the cost of land goes,
the harder it is to show a profit,
even at present prices received
for crops.
“With sons home from the war
INFANTILE PARALYSIS
No Community Is Safe
From Polio Epidemic
Areas that have been free of in
fantile paralysis outbreaks for a
number of years may be more vul
nerable to the disease than those
with recent epidemic experience,
Dr. Thomas Parran, surgeon gen
eral of the U. S. public health serv
ice, recently stated.
Discussing “cycles of epidemics”
in the June issue of Hospitals maga
azine, official pub
lication of the Amer
lean Hospitals asso
ing had no scien
tific basis but was |p||
sumptive evidence, ‘,f
ers have theorized
that as an epidem- Dr. Parran
ic spreads through
out the community, it reduces the
number of susceptible individuals
to a point where the epidemic cab
no longer maintain itself. Until a
new group of potential victims grow
up, which may be from four to six
years, that community should be
less vulnerable to attack.”
Dr. Parran said there was dan
ger in “relying too strongly on this
theory” since recently exposed
areas may be "lulled into a feel
ing of false security” while locali
ties which have been free of the
disease for several years “may
become unduly alarmed.”
“The safest procedure by far,” he
advised, “is for all communities to
prepare for epidemics.”
Dr. Parran’s article in the AHA
magazine was one of 10 on infan
tile paralysis timed to reach more
than 3,500 member hospitals
throughout the country before on
set of the polio epidemic season,
usually ranging from late June to
September.
The other articles provide in
formation on methods of treatment,
organization of community re
sources, the key position of the gen
eral hospital in the over-all care
of poliomyelitis patients, and the
role of the National Foundation for
Infantile Paralysis in financing polio
treatment at general hospitals.
Dr. Parran said that all communi
ties should inventory their facilities
New Matches Can Be Rain-Soaked and Still Light
Matches which can be sub
merged in water for four hours and
still light have been announced by
a U. S. match company. It is stated
the matches will withstand innum
erable drenchings and still function,
and will be a boon to farmers, hunt
ers, fishermen and others who often
get caught in showers.
These water-resistant matches
were developed during the war to
<*- _____
—1—1342 1943 1944 134£ 194 b 1347
30 <,O
80 80
70 70 [— >-
bo b0 — /
50 -L i_ 50 L
40 -J- V 40 /
50 j ' j
20 jL 20 J
io —J io
ioo —-V
**“ -u 'C*tuwe s WNU fCATimtS
LAND PRICE'S . . . Went up during and after World War I—and then
came tumbling down. Prices have not gone as high in World War II
as before, but they are soaring. These charts show same trend as In
1914 to 1920.
and with more and better farm ma
chinery in immediate prospect,
many farmers figure it would be a
profitable move to work much more
land than heretofore,” the state
ment points out. “If they will re
member the bitter aftermath of
World War I’s land boom, when food
prices were even higher than they
are today, they will see the hazards
of such a move.
“Sooner or later the present world
food emergency will be solved and
the mammoth demand for Ameri
can food products will end. Then
American farmers will have to com
pete in world markets. The only way
they can do this successfully is to
produce crops at a lower cost per
unit. In such a program, the steady
use of fertilizer containing nitrogen,
for the treatment of polio, includ
ing hospitals which normally do
not accept patients suffering with
contagious diseases, and he added:
“Such pre-epidemic planning is
necessary if adequate care is to be
given to all who contract the
disease. Under the guidance of those
officials charged with the commu
nity’s health and with the substan
tial support of the National Founda
tion for Infantile Paralysis and its
local chapters, every community in
the United States can be prepared
to meet epidemics of poliomyelitis
without fear or panic.”
Woman Has Churned
10 Tons of Butter
EVERTON, MO. Mrs. Gala O.
Fletcher of Everton, by actual ac
count kept in an old ledger, has
churned 21,000 pounds of butter by
hand in an old-fashioned brass
bound churn in her 78 years. She ex
plains that she has been churning
butter since she was four years old
when she had to stand on a wooden
box to grasp the dasher handle.
“It would be quite a lake if all
the cream I have churned should
flow into one pool,” she said re
cently.
The churn she uses is a century
old and she has worn out many a
home-made dasher in it. She keeps
the cream only a short time before
she churns it so that the butter she
makes will be sweet.
After the butter is churned she
places it in a large earthen crock
which has been sunning for several
hours. Then she starts working ft
with a circular movement, using a
flat wooden paddle. That works the
milk from the butter in about 10
minutes. She puts the butter away
for several hours and then works it
again to get out the last of the milk
drops. The finished butter is a gold
en ball.
In order to have the best butter
milk, Mrs. Fletcher leaves flakes of
butter floating in it. After 75 years’
experience she believes she under
stands all phases of butter making.
Contentment among cows is as
important to good butter as the
right kind of feed, she believes.
provide a sure-fire light for mem
bers of the armed forces under the
wettest conditions of amphibious
and jungle warfare, but will soon be
available to civilians.
Accepted by the war department
in 1943 after rigorous tests, millions
of the water - resistant matches
were shipped from the factory to
fighting fronts. Most of the service
water-resistant matches were pack
aged in the familiar nickle-size
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL. PERRY, GEORGIA
phosphorus and potash will be a ma
jor factor. More bushels per acre
can, and will, mean more food from
less land.
Increase Yields, Not Acres.
“The wise farmer will be the one
who does not buy more land, but
who increases the crop-yielding ca
pacity of his present acreage by
soil improvement measures. He will
study the most practical uses of
plant food. He will consult agrono
mists at state college and agricul
tural stations for the most effective
methods of fertilizer application,
the analyses best suited to his par
ticular soil and crop conditions and
the quantities to use.”
This advice to farmers to Im
prove their present holdings rather
than to acquire greater acreage,
was corroborated by the commit
tee on farm land prices of the Amer
ican Bankers association which
urged member banks to admonish
would-be farm buyers “go slow,”
to discourage borrowing to specu
late in farm lands, and to tell vet
erans of “the hazards inherent in
excessive land prices.”
“Country bankers,” a committee
spokesman said, “are fully cog
nizant of the dangers inherent in the
present farm land price situation.
They are urging farm owners now
to reduce their debt and to plan sav
ings for farm improvement during
these years of high income, because
when conditions return to normal
and American agriculture is in com
petition with other countries for
world markets, it is probable that
farm earnings will not support
prices at current levels.”
lISb
CHECK LADDER ... To prevent
farm accidents, the National
Safety council warns those who
use ladders to set the base firm
ly about one-fourth of the ladder’s
height from the wall or tree, and
grasp the sides not the rungs—
as they climb up.
boxes for the armed forces, but an
other type, a tiny waterproof light
little more than an inch long, was
also produced for emergency kits.
The water-resistant matches for
civilians will be sold in packages of
eight boxes of pocket size, each box
containing 40 matches. These new
matches, which “shed water like
a duck’s back” carry a money-back
guarantee if they fail to light after
a four-hour submersion.
kJfome
WASHINGTON
Walter Shead
WNU Washington Bureau,
1616 Eye St.. N. W.
Urgent Need for National
Health Insurance Revealed
WHILE the National Health bill
is not expected to be taken up
at this session of the congress, its
final adoption may have moved near
er because of the amazing and em
barrassing testimony which has
been given before the senate com
mittee on education and labor dur
ing three weeks of hearings.
This measure, known as the Wag
ner-Murray-Dingell bill (S. 1606) is
opposed by the American Medical
association as “socialistic,” and by
others who declare that voluntary
health programs will meet the needs
of the nation. Nevertheless, its pro
ponents declare otherwise and say
that nothing short of passage of the
measure will provide for the na
tion’s health needs.
And in an enlightened democ
racy such as ours where medi
cal and surgical science have
made such tremendous strides,
where curative and preventive
medicine have reached such
heights of accomplishment, one
can only use the word “dis
graceful” after listening to the
testimony describing the state
of the health of the American
people. Here are some of the
facts in the testimony:
The bill provides for a health in
surance plan for all necessary med
ical, surgical, hospital and clin
ical needs, including dental and op
tical treatment, child and maternal
care, at a cost of approximately 3
per cent of income to be paid ap
proximately one-half by individuals
and the other half by employers and
public funds. Services of physicians
of their own choice would be avail
able to all persons and doctors
would have the right to come into
or remain out of the insurance sys
tem and to accept or reject patients
as they now do. The bill provides
for larger grants of federal money
to the states for preventive services
and it would expand the G.I. Bill
of Rights to provide these services
for the veteran and his family for
non-service connected illness.
Only 22% Now Covered
Other testimony was . . . that only
about 22 per cent of the people have
voluntary insurance against hospit
al costs, less than 4 per cent for
physicians’ service, that health in
surance plans sponsored by medical
societies are operative in less than
half the states and only offer limit
ed service at high cost . . . that
more than 23,000,000 have some
chronic disease or physical im
pairment . . . that in any 24-hour
period, 7,000,000 people are incapaci
tated by illness or other disability
. . . that about 500,000,000 man-days
are lost annually due to illness and
accidents . . . that 15,000,000 people
in 40 per cent of the counties do
not have any recognized general
hospital . . . that there is no full
time public health officer in 40 per
cent of the counties . . . that one
half of the deaths of women in
child-birth and a third of the infant
deaths could be prevented if known
measures were fully applied.
Since introduction of the Nation
al Health Bill last fall, 13,500 babies
and 1,300 mothers died whose lives
might have been saved, and each
day of delay on the bill we lose
85 more babies and 8 more moth
ers needlessly. To do anything less
than to give children, no matter
where they live, a healthy start in
life is wasteful of future man and
woman power. Letting fathers and
mothers struggle unsuccessfully to
find what care they can for chil
dren is not good enough. Under
present conditions, the average
family spends 4 per cent of its in
come for medical care, but over 40
per cent of the total burden of med
ical costs falls on 10 per cent of
the population. People with low in
comes have more sickness and need
more medical care, yet they receive
much less.
Three Cents a Day
Over 40 per cent of young men
and women were found unfit for
military service, one-sixth had re
medial defects and many more
were preventable. Doctors and hos
pitals are located according to
wealth of population and not ac
cording to health needs of the peo
ple. Medical practice in rural areas
must be made more attractive.
Complete health service including
cost of dental care for a child would
cost about $8 per year or less than
3 cents a day.
We now have 2,500 pediatri
cians and need 7,400, we need
34,000 more dentists ... we
have 10,000 public-health nurses
and need 50,000 more and need
at least 15,000 more graduate
nurses . . . need 1,000 more
orthopedists and 5,000 obstetri
cians and 10,000 additional psy
chiatrists for children. Cost to
the nation in man days lost
from illness and accidents last |
year amounts to eight billion ,
dollars. We lag behind other 1
countries in many health rec
ords. j
YOUTHFUL ARTISTS
Over 1,200 Pieces Shown
In Sche - .stic Art Exhibit
By WNU Features
PITTSBURGH Students ranging from seventh grade to
senior year in high school submitted entries in the national
scholastic art awards exhibit recently held here. Youthful art
ists from every state in the Union sent in approximately 100,000
paintings and sketches, and over 1,200 pieces were put on
exhibition.
An annual event, the display was<s
held in the fine arts gallery at Car
negie institute. Seventy seniors
were given scholarships to leading
American art schools, and more
than 600 awards were made.
Established artists and art edu
cators who saw the exhibit report
ed that it showed abundant talent.
Among the 31 judges were such emi
nent artists as Louis Slobodkin,
sculptor and illustrator; Georges
Schreiber, whose works hang in
the Metropolitan, Whitney, and oth
er galleries; Homer Saint Gaudens,
director of fine arts at Carnegie in
stitute, and Royal Farnum of the
Rhode Island school of design.
Artists Painted Surroundings.
One of the typical talented stu
dents was Moise Smith, 17, whose
portfolio of paintings won him a
scholarship to Carnegie institute of
technology upon his graduation
from Cass technical high school, De
troit. In addition, he won first
prize in oils and a Collier’s maga
zine award of $lOO.
The young artists displayed an
acute awareness of the details of
their surroundings and included
scenes of school and community
life. Sam Sarkisian, 18, of Cleve
land, Ohio, displayed a pencil draw
ing of students in a drug store com
plete with juke box. The artist even
included the bored reaction of the
soda-jerkcr as he watched a couple
jitterbug.
Other artists such as Rose A.
Greco of Endicott, N. Y., and Doris
Friedrich, Denver, painted their
physical surroundings—an aban
doned log farm house and a sub
urban Colorado street scene through
a window.
The scholastic art awards pro
gram began 19 years ago and is
sponsored by Scholastic Arts maga
zine. It has met with wholeheart
ed co-operation of educators and art
schools and has grown into the larg
est competition of its kind in the
world.
PASTEL . . . E. J. Hall, age 13,
Houston, Texas, did this pastel of
an old woman asking for alms.
He won first prize in pastels for
it in the scholastic art awards
exhibit at Pittsburgh.
Treatment Would
Save Thousands
Who Have Cancer
NEW YORK.—Without the pana
cea of an absolute cure for cancer,
some 50,000 of the 175,000 Ameri
cans who die of cancer every year
could be saved had their condition
been diagnosed in time and early
treatment given.
This startling fact is one of the
motivating forces behind the edu
cational program of the American
Cancer society. This needless loss
of life can be halted if only the
message of hope and alertness is
carried to every corner of our coun
try.
Cancer, in many instances, is
curable. The use of surgery, x-ray
and radium have proven highly
successful in removing many forms
of cancerous growths. Skin cancer,
one of the most numerous types, is
95 per cent curable when treated
in its early stages. Cancer of the
breast and of the lip are likewise
highly curable if given early treat
ment.
Clinical investigators have found
that a conservative estimate of 30
per cent of those who now die of
cancer could be saved if prompt,
proper treatment were given!
California Co-Ops
Gross $237,797,000
WASHINGTON.—Bureau of inter
nal revenue returns show that Cali
fornia co-operatives are expanding
their business volume.
Returns of 201 farmer co-opera
tives in California disclose total
( gross income and receipts of $237,-
797,000. Other bureau figures show
I gross receipts of $3,020,849,000 by
j 5,223 of the nation’s farmer co-op
eratives.
|>
i y ‘ ‘ • ■ -
NOT A WINDOW . . . Painting
in water colors by Doris Fried
rich, 111, of Denver, one of the
scholastic awards exhibition in
Pittsburgh, Pa.,
AVIATION NOTES
AIRPORT CHATTER
A Crow Wing county airport, com
prising about 700 acres, will be de
veloped about five miles East of
Brainerd, Minn., costing $40,000,
with the county and city financing
it. ... A score of flyers winged
through ‘soup” to participate in a
breakfast at Young airfield, Oxford,
N. C., recently. . . . Jimmy O’Neill
is manager of the Fairhaven, Vt.,
airport. . . . Alfred Ward Sr. of
Johnson, president of the Kansas
flying farmers, has his livestock
brnnd painted on the nose of his
plane. ... A municipal airport at
Wudena, Minn., has been opened.
. . . The Windsor, N. C., airport—
the only one in Bertie county—now
h;is a training plane. The port is
operated by Jack Goldstein, Harry
Slubbs 111, and A. J. Smithwick.
. . . Sixteen members of the Boston
flying club visited the Lakes Region
airport near Center Ossipee, N. H.,
using pontoon planes. . . . The
airport at Windsor, N. C., will be
named Spivey Field as a memorial
to the three sons of Mr. and Mrs.
J, B. Spivey who lost their lives in
i aviation crashes during World War
11.
♦ ♦ *
Everybody’s Doin’ It!
Bill West of Medicine Bow, Wyo.,
former pilot with USN ferrying, is
► a chartered pilot with Sportsman
air service, Beyer airport, near
Bridgeport, Neb. He has 4,000
hours in the air.
* * *
FARM AIRPORT
Air-minded farmers of Montana,
such as Cliff Reimche of Wold Point,
are providing landing fields on their
farms. Landing strip, hangar and
gas facilities at the Reimche place
are available to all fliers and the
public.
♦ * *
VETS RUSH FOR PLANES
Of four principal types of trans
ports sold by the War Assets ad
ministration to date, ex-G.l.s have
bought more than half. The ships
will be used primarily on 300 non
scheduled airlines that have sprung
up since V-J Day. Veterans have
bought over 425 Cessna twin-engine
transports, 140 single-engine Norse
men, 150 twin-engine C-475, and 10
four-engine C-545. Primary train
ers and cub type planes have also
sold well.
* * •
Nothing To It
At Red Wing, Minn., Mrs. Emma
Guest took her first plane ride on
her 92nd birthday. When she land
ed she commented she wasn’t nearly
as frightened as when a team of
oxen ran away with her in a two
wheel cart'when she was a child.
• • *
Some airplanes have gadgets
to spoil the airflow over the
wings. They can be raised dur
ing flight and are used for prac
tical purposes, such as shorten
ing landing glides.
* * *
American Airlines has select
ed Rosecrans Field, St. Joseph,
Mo., as headquarters for its new
contract air freight division.
♦ ♦ ♦
Young Jersey bull took a plana
ride from Miami to Jamaica.
