Dropouts A Problem

HELLO FOLKS — Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil: Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, h o p e t h all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. —Corinthians, Ch. 13.

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I HAD PLANNED for the next few columns another topic. Then it occurred to me that there is a much more important subject that needs to be taken care of before I delve into this other.

The one that I am going to dwell on now is the subject of school dropouts.

In every one of our communities there are young citizens who get discouraged with school, then by quitting it doom themselves, for the most part, to a life of mediocrity and low income.

By quitting at that age they often become discouraged with themselves. They they get a poor outlook on life in general. This affects the community and eventually the nation as a whole.

We cannot afford such an attitude. The very reason we have people on relief rolls and on unemployment is because we haven't developed the attitude of continuous education and re-evaluation.

There is a lot of talk about the Gross National Product and how we can increase it. Here is the only sure way: Get every boy and girl back into school, get them to realize the value of proper attitudes and training. Get them to realize that there are millions of people depending on them to direct the future of society. There are a lot of things each of can do to contribute to solving this problem. Parents are of course most directly concerned and too often we do not give the problem the attention it deserves. As parents we should be constantly on the alert to see that our children are working up to their capacity; that their attitudes toward learning are good and that they respect their teachers and school.

For each one of us we can take an interest in the youth of our community by getting better acquainted with them, by encouraging them to better deeds and let them know that we are expecting great things from them.

We have a lot of senior citizens who could help out with loans to students at low interest rates. The satisfaction derived from such projects would give more real joy than a lot of things the money could be used for. This could give a number of young people the courage to go on to higher learning.

Next week I am going to tell you about three young fellows who could have ended with the ranks of discouraged youth but who by their own efforts practically lifted themselves out of the ruts and are on the way to being real successes.

I am inviting others of you who know of someone in your community, who has picked himself up from mediocrity and gone on to success, to tell about it in this column.

Do You Know Interest Pay?

Hello Folks — Usually when a man gets too big for his britches his hat won't fit either.

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As of today Freeborn can be called the county of 10,000 lakes. My, what a lot of water, I have seen more, I think it was in 1953 we had more during the summer than we have now. This kind of weather does things the politicians could never do — take care of the surplus corn. I don't think there will be much of a surplus next year.

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How much interest do you pay out in a year? I believe that few of us know, and if we get it figured out we pay a lot more than we realize.

Credit is a wonderful thing when it is used right, but abused it can be. a mill stone and keeps many a man from getting ahead.

There are many ways of figuring interest and some of them are deceiving. One per cent per month sounds pretty reasonable but when it adds up to 12 per cent it gets mighty big. There are a good many people paying much more than that. Most of the time pay plans run around 16 per cent.

...tion it in the contract, It really makes a 'whollaper' of a lot if one gets 'bit' by such a deal.

The best thing is to stay out of debt for anything but a home or business. Then we learn to be thrifty and we are more apt to watch the purchases and see to that they are bought right.

I think it is very important to teach our children thrift and how to buy wisely. They have to learn sometime and it should help by giving them an allowance when they are too young to earn it themselves and see to it that they learn to know that before there can be a penny spent there first has to be one earned. We are all creatures of habit and by teaching the youth the value of a dollar the nation grows stronger and more financially secure.

The credit and finance system is what has aided us in getting the great standard of living that we have but the abuse of it can also be our downfall. Borrowing when money is easy to get and then having to pay it back when the dollar is scarse is a situation that none of us would envy. Let's watch it. Huh.

One day a salesman stopped in and wanted to sell his wares. Had a good product but he didn't want cash. It had to be time payments spread over two years. I insisted on figuring up what the interest rates were and they added up to a mighty 24 per cent per year. No wonder he didn't want to sell for cash. He probably could get his financing for around 6 or 7 per cent, then turn around and get about. four times that for the same money. That is what I call a raw deal. We had better all look out for our own financing lest we get taken into such a deal.

A feed salesman drove in the yard and insisted on selling some feed. He had a grand plan for the farmer, Pay when the hogs are sold.

I asked him what the interest figured out to. His answer was," Oh, just about the same as the bank charges. I took a pencil and figured it out, It came to 11 per cent. The catch was it was on about a 6 months term, The interest didn't sound like much but it counts up when you really go to adding.

Then there is the service charge. I have been told that a lending institution can add a service charge and they don't have to men...

It Tells On Him

HELLO FOLKS — A woman who has a temper she can't control usually has a husband she can.

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FEW THINGS are needful to make the wise man happy, but nothing satisfies the fool.

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HE CAME HOME from his first day at school.
"Ain't going tomorrow," he said.
"Why not, sonny?"
"Well I can't read, I can't write and they won't let me talk, so what's the use".

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SUMMING UP the farm situation, as I see it, goes like this.

Dairying needs a good house cleaning, both from the standpoint of the dairyman and the government. Present government support prices are all to the benefit of the consumer. It gives them food cheaply. The dairy herds need cleaning up. More than half the cows are not returning the owner enough to be worth the effort. Were they to be cleaned out as fast as they start slowing up in production there would be a serious shortage of milk that would set prices soaring.

Beef finishing is in a tough spot and I don't see any hope for improvement in the near future. The consumer doesn't want his beef fat any longer. The rancher is doing a lot of his own finishing and so is the processor.

Hog raising is the brightest of all the livestock enterprises. There will be rough going there if these finishing units take the country by storm, just as did roto tubes, laying units and the like.

Poultry is on the decline in this area and likely to keep on declining.

Feed grains are in a brighter spot, as are soybeans. Now if we can just get a better program out of congress.

Overall, there is dire need for better farm economics. It is the blind spot in agriculture. Few farmers know what they are getting for an hour's work or for each operation. They would do some changing in their op-

Direction Is All Important

HELLO FOLKS — A French man asked a German guest how they told the difference between an optimist and a pessimist in Germany.

"Very simple," the German explained. "The optimist is learning English, the pessimist is learning Russian."

THE NEW father learned all about relative humidity by holding his infant daughter on his lap.

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AT TIMES my son has got me fearing
He might, perhaps, be hard of hearing
When out at play, although I call
and when I say, "Go wash your hands,"
Or "Put your toys away," he stands
Around as if he hadn't heard
A single solitary word.

It's only when I tell his mother
Some whispered little thing or other
I'd just as soon he would't learn,
I find his hearing's no concern

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I HAVE HEARD a number of great speakers in my life. I love to listen to people who have something to say.

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Sterling W. Sill. He is manger of New York Life Insurance and one of the nation's greatest personnel motivators. I listened to him for a total of about three hours and wearied not one bit. The mind of Mr. Sill is so full of ideas to motivate people into doing things that he doesn't bore you.

Among the many things he said was that in 1830 it was recommended to Congress that the patent office be closed because nearly everything that could be invented had been.

Since then 2 million patents have been issues. Without these patents we would not have any of the conveniences which we have today, among them being the telephone, phonograph, radio, television, autos, tractors, electricity and most of the fine clothes we wear. We would still be about 80 per cent farmers, wearing home spun clothes, home tanned shoes and walking most every place we go.

He mentioned that the brain is the size of our two fists, is composed of 70 per cent water, has 2 billion cells and can store more there than all the libraries in the world, and that only a fraction of it is used during the lifetime of a man. He also stated that we literally create our own mind by how we develop it.

He went on that the mind is something like a climbing vine. It tends to pull itself upward by the things it attaches itself to. When we build bars in our homes instead of altars our minds tend to follow the action.

There are 168 hours in the week. He said that 40 of them we use to make a living, the other 128 we use as we please. We need about 56 of those to get our rest and the other 72 we could use to improve ourselves.

He state that the most valuable thing in life is life itself. The one business in life is to succeed, he said, and no man need fail. The fundamental law of the universe is that we all get paid for what we do. We do not always reap as we sow but we often reap what others have sown, and the rewards are not always seen immediately. For instance George Washington is still receiving rewards for the good he did, as are the other good and great men.

This is of course, just a fraction of what he said but gives you an example of what he has to offer.

Fond Memories Of Cold Snow

Hello Folks! Just a year ago we visited Virginia City, Montana. I hadn't heard of the place before, so I wasn't too excited about going there, but this was our vacation and it was hot in the Gallatin Valley where we were staying with my in-laws. We left early one morning. As we looked westward we could see snow capping the mountains over which we were to pass. With the temperature over 90 degrees in the valley it would seem good to throw a few snowballs.

Virginia City is not on a main highway. We left No. 10 and took state highway 34. It is a new road and very good except for a few miles that is rough and gravely. As we climbed the mountain range the temperature became very comfortable; finally we even rolled up the windows. We got very close to the snow but didn't get to throw any snow balls.

Virginia City lies right in the heart of the Rockies. A gulch goes right through the town along side the street (there is only one street). The sights we were to see that day I will remember for a long time. Virginia City has a fabulous history. Silver was discovered there is such quantities that is became a boom town and, at one time it was one of the largest towns in Montana and its capitol. As happens in any boom town prices were exorbitant. Most of the equipment and clothing had to be shipped be stage over poor roads from Salt Lake City, 300 miles away.

Most of the mining was placer or surface mining. Huge equipment was moved in to do the work. The results of the big machinery is still evident as whole hillsides were moved to get at the silver.

A brewery was built and was the next largest industry. A theater was established and New York players were engaged to perform. Of course when the silver gave out everybody got panicky and the town was deserted overnight. Values dropped to nothing and nearly everything left as tho the proprietors had just stepped out for lunch. Hauling costs were too high to warant moving anything out. I'll tell you more about Virginia City next week.

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"Why won't you marry me?" he demanded. "There isn't anyone else is there?"

"Oh Edgar," she sighed, "there must be."

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Sometimes we hear the argument that our surpluses are not so high and that we should prepare for famines just as the pharoah of Egypt did under the direction of Joseph. I think it is a good idea to follow good examples whenever and wherever possible, but we should also analize the conditions and determine whether they apply to us or not. For one thing today we have swift means of transportation, we have knowledge of the use of soils, how to preserve moisture and fertilize them for maximum production. In other words our conditions today do not apply to requirements of ancient days. We know from past experiences about what the needs are for the days ahead, barring any unforseeable conditions. Production by irrigation can be speedily stepped up to meet urgent needs. It doesn't take much surplus to deaden the market and until we have good reason to build up wasteful supplies, I think we ought to keep them within proper bounds.

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You can't kill time without injuring eternity.

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Heaven must be in us before we can be in heaven.

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It seems that congress insists on limiting the flexible program so much that it won't flex off rock bottom. If it won't flex that means we could get lower prices than ever.

Roll Up Your Sleeves, Folks!

HELLO FOLKS! — Warning! — When the politicians tell you that you may have to make sacrifices, they mean that taxes are going up.

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THE RAINFALL for July totaled 2.6 inches around here. That makes a total of 16.6 inches for the year, so far.

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THE POULTRY business has been agonizingly slow in returning to normal profit levels. For three years eggs have been selling much below profitable prices. I personally thought that two years of such prices would be all the poultrymen could take, and that before long the supply would level off with the demand, bringing with it fair returns for the producers. Now the experts are predicting better prices for eggs in the days ahead.

Poultry raisers all over the nation have gone broke. In the eastern states, where the trouble started and was caused by integration, there are third and fourth mortgages on some of the enterprizes. Feed dealers and companies who extended credit have found themselves in trouble. I understand that loan companies and banks managed to keep from getting hurt too badly.

I predicted about a year ago that the worst of it was about over and Minnesota could soon be profitable area for expansion of egg production. That prediction has been slow in fulfillment.

I understand now that the astern markets went in for the locally produced eggs, thinging that they would be fresher and therefore more acceptable to the public. In this they were disappointed. The eastern eggs, while fresh, do not have the quality that the midwestern eggs do. Many of the seaboard mixes have feeds that do not produce hih quality eggs. The feeds there are higher in price, and therefore the cost of producing eggs is higher. Now they are again beginning to look to this area for their eggs.

We can produce the best eggs in the world, due to our abundance of corn and soybeans, which make up the best ingredients for quality eggs. If we insist upon quality control in the care of the eggs I believe we can get our markets back and keep them. Competition will always be keen, but that has to be expected and is a good thing if it is not over-done.

Another thing that seems to be in the wind is a trent to smaller or shall we say, family sized flocks. We are finding out that these large flocks cannot maintain as high production per hen as the more moderate sized flocks and that the extra savings made in labor does not offset the loss in feed efficiency.

It all adds up to the belief that perhaps at long last we have learned a big lesson in eggs and that the farmer may again soon be the one to produce the bulk of the eggs. I hope so anyways.

What Else To Consider?

HELLO FOLKS — Rudy had been walking past the Midtown National Bank the afternoon of the big hold-up, and they had summoned him as a witness. The D.A. was quizzing him in the hope that a lead might be found on the identity of the daring bank robbers, and was listening intently to Rudy's eye-witness account.

"So I'm walking past this bank, and these guys come running out a second or so after there's a great big explosion inside the bank. And they have bags of money in their hands, these guys, have, and they chuck these bags in a car what's at the curb, and they pile into that car and take off like sixty,"

"And you say you just stood there?"

"Yes sir."

"You didn't do a thing?"

"No sir."

"You didn't think anything about it?"

Rudy nodded emphatically. "Oh yes sir! I thought to myself. 'Well this is a helluva way to run a bank, and I'll be damned if I put any of my dough there.

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Winter?! Don't mention it. I have had all of it I want and enough to last next year too.

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YOU PROBABLY saw a feature in The Tribune a few days ago about some of our citizens studying, "Facts for the Future – A Growing Minnesota." As was mentioned, this course is sponsored by the extension service of the University of Minnesota and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.

This is the kind of course that should be studied by every person in the state. In fact it must be understood by the majority of citizens if we are to have the kind of future in which we can all live and prosper.

We hope that in the near future someone will invite you to their home and with the interest of your neighbors you will all sit down and study and discuss the problems and the solutions for a growing and changing world.

This is a course that is bound to stimulate interest in anyone remotely interested in the future (and we had better all be). It is divided into four parts, to be discussed in four separate meetings.

Regardless of political or religious preferences we must all unite in such a worthy cause. In a democracy the general public is depended upon to keep the nation and it's various cultures keyed to a high standard. Without the public taking part and understanding these complex factors, the nation falters and we find ourselves thinking and doing the things that lead to the downfall of our society.

The extension service is to be congratulated for this fine effort to bring the facts to the public. It will take the co-operation of all of us to put it across, so let's get in there and pitch.

Automation Helpful Too

HELLO FOLKS – The idea still persists that automation causes unemployment.  I wish we could once and for all dispel such a motion.  

The truth is that it is in the times of engineering stimulation that we have the greatest prosperity.  It has generally come during times of war or war scare.  The reason is that we generally sit back at other times and let ourselves slip into a lull.

For several hundred years and, perhaps ever since creation, labor has fought automation, because they sincerely believed that it took away jobs.  

Of course it does take away jobs in the particular industry that is automated.  However, it also creates jobs elsewhere.  The other jobs created stimulate industry and raise our standard of living.  

CASE IN POINT

One good instance is in the communications business.  A.T. & T. is one of the most automated industries in the world, yet in ten years the company has not laid off anyone.  In fact it has created scores of jobs in the company and thousands of jobs outside of the company.  

With the development of the laser light beam, the communications experts predict, we will eventually have the equivalent of a billion wires to the moon or to satellites that will direct communication to all parts of the world.

With this development they also predict that someday we will each have a permanent telephone number and that we will be able to communicate with anyone on the world by the simple means of dialing the other party’s number from the telephone that is attached to our wrist much as a watch is today.  

The instrument, they predict, will also carry a televised communication.  

With such a development there will be many industries developed which will stimulate education, job opportunities and higher standards of living for all of us. 

THE REAL PROBLEM

The job will not be to find employment but to find the properly trained men to fill the jobs.  This will create a terrific demand for teachers who will keep up with the latest ideas. 

Right now there is no unemployment among the educated.  We are short of trained people in many fields.  We are not turning out nearly enough engineers now and the demand for them in the future will be acute.   The lack of enough qualified men in that field could create unemployment in other fields. 

The real security for the future is to see that our children get the proper education in mind, spirit, and attitudes.