The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1916-07-27
LIVE WIRE SPARKS

We have so much real honest ar
gument to present this week that we
haven't much room for nonsense.
First-there's the matter of registra-
ton. In some districts less than fiji
teen percent of the voters have regis
tered and here we are with town.
ship organization petition to be signed
and handicapped by our own indiff-
erent members. IT'S a shame. just
as we are getting ready to do some
thing of real value to the community,
we find ourselves handicapped by the
Indifference of the farmers. The Ho-
yer people need Earring up the worst,
and we sincerely hope that they will
wake up and register so they can lend
us a hand in the work we are under
taking. Our first task will be town.
ship organization, which we will dis
cuss at length next week after we
have gotten that Kennewick Milk Or
dinance No. 1913 out of our system.
When we first read this ordinance
we felt like Bill Tewalt did last Mon
day. C. Tillery has sixty or eighty
stands of bees down on Bills place
and Monday morning he worked
among them smoking them out as he
took away the honey. When he left
he didn't put out his rags, and the
wind soon famed them into flame and
set fire to the dried grass. The flames
tore across the field, burning up sew
eral hundred feet Of flume and would
have taken hundred tons of hay but
for the efforts of the Finley fire de-
partment, who fought the fire for a
couple of hours. When the hay was
out of danger Bob Cannon, Phillip
Hitchcock and Buzz Quimby went to
look for the bees and found several
stands burned up and some still burn
ing. They carried water and put them
out but Phillip got stung in the eye,
Buzz on the back of the neck and
Cannon all over the face. About
then Bill came along. "Gosh, look at
the honey" he said and walked up to
hive just as Cannon doused it with
pail of water. About $50 bees took
after Bill and you ought to have heard
him yell. Everyone this side of Ken
newiek did. "Where did you get
stung?" Goss asked. "They didn't
sting me yet" said Bill, but just then
he got about three and ripped off his
shirt and got busy.
The editor of the Live Wire column
is surely overworked. Not only must
he supervise the oiled road, give adj
vice to the various county officials
county engineer in particular pass
judgment on the Hover ferry contro-
versy, but he must also look after the
ordinances passed by the Kennewick
council. The Kennewick traffic ordi-
nance was open to criticism, but or
dinance No. 1913, prohibiting the sale
of all dairy products from cows which
have not passed the tuberculin test, is
open to severe condemnation.
The purpose of the ordinance is,
supposedly, to safeguard the health
of the citizens of Kennewick, but the
effect will be much more far reaching
than the council evidently contem-
plated for it will doubtless turn eighty
per cent of the cream away from the
local creamery and either bankrupt
that institution or drive it to Pasco or
Finley. In larger cities where the
milk supply is protected in this way,
the municipality, county or state not
only pays the cost of testing but also
partially reimburses the dairymen for
any loss in their herds, and since such
laws are passed for the benefit of the
city, the city should foot the bill, at
least partially.
The ordinance as passed provides
that all the cows tributary to Kenne-
wick, estimated at 1000, must be test
ed prior to July oath, physical inn
possibility. Figuring on the same per
C6IlCdS0 VI TcdCIOIS tld6 nave UCCA
found among herds already tested, viz
three per cent, this means a loss of
some sixty cows, valued at, say $4,000.
Under conditions prevailing for year
past, and almost certain to prevail
again in few months, practically half
this loss would have been borne by the
state, and the city council is mistaken
if they think the dairymen are GO
ing to pocket this $2250 loss for the
privilege of sending their cream to
Kennewick when the markets of At
Italia, Tacoma, Spokane, Walla Walla
and Seattle are begging for their
cream. Even now movement is on
foot to organize a cooperative cream
cry at Alfalfa, and the whole lower
valley will surely turn that way ra-
Their than have such loss forced upon
4.