davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-08-28

Food Advances Nj = 4 HID bul
Prices Are Doub1ed II Many y

.. ~ ssES1 Il I q ~ ~ Il ~
citi6ss ssglSsS n
Washington, Ausu,t is. General
increase: Of about % per cent in the
cost of living during the period are
shown in tables made public from
December, 1914, to June, 1910 here
today by the Department Of Labor.
The tables are based On inyestiya-
ton in various representa- alive cities
over the country. In every sinstance
greatest increases are recorded in the
prices of clothing and house furnish
iings. Food advances are Of third i'm
portance. Figures are for the period.
December, 1917, to June, 1910, show
general average increases Of about 20
per cent. .
Total increases in the two items Of
food and clothing, without consid-
ering other items in family budgets,
show enormous increases from De-
cember, 1914, to June, 1919; the adj
vance in the case Of Chicago being
I57.07 per. cent.
The same items went up las per
cent in Detroit, 12s per cent in
I4o per cent in Buffalo,
1903 per cent in Portland, Me-; I37
per cent in Boston, ISL per cent IN
New York, 13s per cent in Phi1a-
delphia, I27 per cent in Baltimore,
ro4 per cent in Norfolk, 146 per cent
in Savannah, 13o per cent in Jackson
vile, 90 per cent in Mobile, I3s per
cent in Houston, Tex; IFS per cent
IN Portland, Ore; ITO per cent in
Seattle, 1873 per cent in Los Angeles |
md 134 per cent in San Francisco
md Oakland. Cal.
Smaller increases in such things as |
housing, fuel and light and miscel-
aneous items lowered the general av-
rage increase.
The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1919-08-28
Root Branch.

iuvoice the 22nd. He had one of the
best statesmen in Kansas, c. +. Beard,
and one of Missouri's choicest, Clyde
Robbins. The are both high grade
men, but when the sales are over
farmers say their work don't cost one
cent.
The community thresher is on the
north side of Root Branch. Manager
on the north side Lon Williams; on
the south side Frank Blankenbaker
and Baker and Ghere.
Charley Adams and family, of AL
tona, motored down Sunday to sec
his wifas people, the family of Chas.
kisner.
John Baker, the furniture man,-of
Rich Hill, Sundayed with his broth
er. Charley. accompanied by his FAM
lily in his auto.
Charley Potter spent Sunday with
Pink Ellington.
There was large crowd at Or
chafd grove Sunday and Sunday
night.
u. Ira Wiser is the community thresh-
er separator man.
Jesse Little says he heard from
<AuAt Ill NAOuldud, WIG
writes that the crops dried up before
maturity. The oats were fairly high
but dried down until they could not
cut them.
Jim Hays, of Amoret, says the
horse and jack business did not come
up to expectations and he is going
to get pair Of autos.
The bungalow that Walter Classify
recently built is sure worth going out
OF your way to see. :
Ira Clark says that since all the
votes went dry he spends his dimes
with the picture show in Butler.
J. Dillon. of Parsons, Kas., has
sold his farm and is on the way to
Nebraska in his car with is family.
They came by the old stamping
ground to visit his wife's people. He
received $50 per acre.
All Carroll and family visited the
family of Clyde Beach Sunday.
P. Tharp says he saved 90 acres of
his wheat. 10 acres went down on
him and then his 90 acres OF oats
were ready to cut and he left the
wheat and saved the oats.
Roy Baker and family spent Sum
day afternoon on Double Branches.
Henry Tharp and family, formerly
merchant of CORTLAND, has moved to
Kansas City. He is clerking in the
order house of Jones Bros.
Jesse Little says some of the
thresher help has been cut down to
S. per day.
The Eddy boys were out Sunday
looking for horse trade. They are
good judges and honest traders.
w. B. WEIGH is on the complain
ing list and has hired a good sep
arator man in his place, Ira Wiser.
Charley Daniels had the threshers
four days At S. per hour on his down
wheat and only expects half price for
it. 1t will only make feed.
The rain we had Monday forenoon
was light and heavy wind accom-
panied it which did some damage to
orchards and hay fields. It put a
stop to the threshers until Tuesday
noon.
Claud Green and wife Sundayed
with his parents on the Miller ridge.
, Ira Smith had his wagon wheels
cut down and painted and before he
LETT town he treated it to q new box
aud now he has q new wagon that
will hold or haul anything. Farmers
It you want to thresh, Ira Smith has
a new wagon.
Coal costs 2oc per acre to thresh
with and the down wheat costs S.
per hour for the thresher machine.
Stove wood at old Nels Nestle
r0des timber, e per cord. Delivered
- Would prefer selling in timber
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
The Recent FURRY in the Home Town
of Governor Allen---A Result Of
the Lure of Oil

still hoeing potatoes in blue overalls.
but not through necessity, for the royal
ties from tho oil wells on his worthless
quarter sections bring him some $780,
600 month. (IIc was the largest in
dvidual purchaser Of Liberty bonds in
the statc.) To-day the gently rolling
prairie east of Eldorado is thick with
clusters of derricks like the masts of
ships in harbor. Dirty precious streams
of the most valuable liquid the earth
can yield flow from scores of wells, to
be transformed into grease and gasolenc
and gold
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

this thirty -hve-ton mass being swung
on pivot The cells are wedge shaped
six feet wide at the entrance and taper
ing to a foot and half at the inner
end.
Around this circular cell block is a
wall of sheet iron, with one narrow
entrance. When n prisoner is put in
cell the "tank" is turned around with
n scrccching noise that wracks the
nerves Of it's human inmates until the
cell comes opposite this entrance, which
is also the only source of light, so that
the prisoners are in darkness day and
night except for n few seconds at
n. m. and 3 p. M, when their food is
showed in to them, as to animals in n
cage. 1t is said that there are only
three such chambers of horror in this
highly civilized country.
That more of the men have not already
da.' o; h.ss.ss sl1 p.'vatinu = n,vs.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
The I. w. w.
And Oil

Now, the |. w. w. followed oil into
Butler County as inevitably as pipe lines
and oil stock and oil promoters or any
of the other consequences of this wildly
adventurous gambling game The oil
business requires vast skill and mex
haustible patience. A we'll can be ruined
by drilling it a few feet too deep. If
something goes wrong a couple of thou
sand feet down months of patient "fish-
ing" to recover a lost tool or broken
casing may be needed. There is the
skilled oil worker, who follows the game
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
Revolutions
I'm Kansas.

Two indictments have since been found
against those men. The final Indictment
was brought in last September md
charges tho defendants with opnosiny
the draft and with conspiring to limit
the production of oil. II also chnrpcs
the defendants, in the broadcast terms
with seeking to foment revolution
agalnst\thc government of the United
States. No act Of sabotage is charged
but the theory of sabotage as advocated
in the I. w. W. pamphlets is set forth
and the defendants are charged with dis
trlbuting these pamphlets. The indict-
mcnt also charges the defendants with
circulating the ~. w. W. SONGS to Fnn
the Flames Of Discontent." The much
quoted parody Of "Onward. Christian
Soldiers" is set forth in the Indictment
as is also the song of particular interest
to the Kansas farmer:
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

from field to field, and whose son often
takes up the game where his father
leaves off. There is also the roustabout,
in large numbers, day laborer, shifting
from field to field as wells are brought
in" or go dry. He is not ideal soil for the
/. w. w. seed. He is too we'll paid and
he remains on Il job too long. 1t is the
true hobo, like the tramp and the home
less seasonal laborcr, like the harvest
hand, who is most easily persuaded.
But certain conditions make for dscon-
tent in an oil field The home Of the
worker is a shack in that most dcsoIate
Of spots, an improvsed oil town, with
"gumbo" for streets, the husky, cough
ing oil pumps for music night and day,
and somebody else's stream of gold slip
ping through his fingers. Some of the
larger corporations have done much to
improve the housing conditions of their
men. At best they are none too good in
the nature of things. At the worst they
are dangerously bad.
1t was in the spring Of 1916 that oil
was discovered in Butler County, and it
was a year later, in the summer Of 1917,
that the /. w. W. appeared on the scene
That was nearing the crucial year of the
war, when the Allies needed every gallon
of gasolene that this country could
produce. The general aim of William d.
Haywood and his organization has now
been established beyond question at the
Chicago trial 1t was to fight the gov
ernment in every way possible--by op-
posing the draft, by striking in essential
war industries, by sabotage.
So when the I. w. w. began to colonize
the Kansas oil fields in 1917, there was
about as much question of its purpose
as there might be of the purpose Of
crouching tiger. The authorities could
have waited until "job control" was com
plete; that is, until an I. W. w. man had
been placed on every well and tank, and
until sabotage began. But an oil field
IS most destructible. A few seconds of
concerted sabotage could render every
well in field useless for months and
burn up enormous tanks Of oil With the
war at stake, the Federal authority,
United States District Attorney Fred
Robertson, Of Kansas City, Kan, acted
at once. After only few weeks OF
propaganda every member Of the I. WV.
who had reached the Butler County oil
field was one day quietly arrested and
placed in the county Jail in Wichita The
effort TO organize the |. w. w. and OBJ
tain job control was snuhcd out as soon
az started. The thirty-four arrested con.
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

been postponed over two terms of court
at the request of the defendants 1t is
now set for the March term of the
United States District Court at Wichita.
Meantime the defendants have been held
IN the Wichita county Jail and other
Jalls in nearby counties and two uues-
tons have arisen, more or less con-
nected. One is the treatment Of the
prisoners in the jail; the other is the
attitude Of the people Of Kansas, and
especially Of Wichita
Accusations Of abuse in jail arc COM
mon !. w. w. propaganda by which bit
tcrness and hatred Of the government
are kept alive and subscriptions to aid
the prisoners obtained The Wichita
charges are important enough to give at
some length. Here are the essential
charges as widely circulated in folder:
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
Mr.. BurieSOn
In the WeSf

The whole town promptly found itself
in fine mess The girls blundercd by
walking out with very little warning.
But the city seems to have sympathized
with them none the less. The Mayor,
the city's attorney and the city manager
(Wichita has the very latest brand of
commission government sought to per-
suade the Bell officials to arbitratc tho
dispute, and the Bell officials took posi-
tion which, as the strikers asserted, de-
MED them even the right Of petition.
The request for wage increase never
was even submitted The whole town
was upset and n serious strike begun
over the single issue OF Miss Leila
Phipps.
Union labor promptly camc to the aid
of the girls. There was talk of general
strike, but soberer counsel prevailed and
some leve-headed Union leaders, headed
by printer, John Gre vford Zone Of the
city's commissioners) kept the strike
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

orderly and confined it to its natural
limits. Union labor has been paying
each girl $40 a week ever since the strike
started. The girls have organized thor
oughly and meet daily in q labor hall.
They have shown high degree of loyalty
to their cause. The company has brought
in strike-breal1ers and maintained a fair
service. The strike is still on
The larger aspects Of the strike are
two. One is the position in which the
Postoilicc Department and MIR. Burlcson
are placed. The telephone officials an
nounccd that they were only obcying
the orders Of Washington. Appeal was
accordingly taken to Mr.. Burleson, and
several orders have duly como down
The last one "pcrmittod' the company
to rchire the girls as "vacances oc-
curred'-a permission that has only
made the girls angrier and rolled union
labor a little more. The point is that in
taking over the wire companies and
seeking to operate them economically.
Mr.. Burleson is manufacturing about
as unpleasant batch of labor troubles
as anybody could conceive. Mr.. BurIe-
son may be the best friend of labor, but
he will soon have hard time convincing
organized labor that ne is anything but
the natural enemy cf unions. At
Wichita he is alternating support from
the Administration faster than anv d
rector general of railways can possibly
win support among trainmen. Govern
ment operation is not proving the easy
road to political power that some poll
ticians conceived
The other noteworthy aspect Of the
strike is that it could have occurred
over such an episode, so provocative of
a feeling Of injustice on the part Of the
workers. Wherever the blame lies.
whether in Wichita or at Washington.
the strike should not have resulted from
any such minor issue, according to the
general view in Wichita. The wallout
has not produced any general strike or
violence, for the union men in charge
are clear headed lot So are the tele-
phone girls. They had no use whatever
for an |. w. W. organizer who addressed
them. But having handled a batch Of
revolutionists successfully, Wichita
seems justified in wondering why one
efficient telephone supervisor with a
widowed mother and two brothers in the
army cannot be so treated as to avoid
fomcnting discomfort on the part of
every union laborer in the city. The
revolution" is still long. long way
from this centre of the United States.
But why uproot the propaganda Of
Boshevism with one hand and SOW fresh
seeds OF unrest with the oteer?
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
ichitas Way With Wave of l. W. W. Bolshevism

terry. When one of them falls i'll it is
usually three or four days before doc
tor appears, and he is often drunk when
he does come. Recently one prisoner
lay i'll with typhoid pneumonia for three
weeks before the prison quack would
consent TO his removal TO hospital.
This is certainly an impressive array
of charges Probably most people at
distance who read them were impressed
and felt that there must be some ground
FOR complaint. know that felt that
way. But after inspecting the Wichita
jail and investigating the facts from
local newspaper men who had seen the
prisoners practically every day, | am
convinced that the charges are utterly
false-shecr invention put out to gain
converts and sympathy. TO take up the
main points:
|. All the delay in The trial had been
at the request Of the defendants coun
sci. They were indicted promptly. The
district attorney has been ready for trial
at each term Of court held since the men
were arrested. They could have been
tried in March, 1917. Apparently, they
preferred to wait until the war was
over before going to trial
2. After the first four days the pris
oners were distributed among the sur
rounding county jails. Only eight or
ten have remained in the Wichita iail
The latter is an old jail-about thirty
years old-just how "barbarous" will be
explained later. But the one prisoner
who did die of influenza, James Gossard
died in the Newton jail a new building
up to date in every respect, and con-
cernlng which no complaint has ever
been made. No other prisoner has died
from any cause. SO much for the Give
die No prisoner has lost his mind One
prisoner, S. Shurin, who is subject to
melancholia, tried to kill himself by
cutting his throat. He was rushed To
the Wichita Hospital and his life saved
by skilful surgery One other prisoner
at Wichita, Wencil Francik, came down
with influenza, was removed to the
Wichita Hospital and recovered. The
health of the men has been generally
good, and the prison doctor seems 70
have been faithful and attentive.
3. AS for the "chambers of horrors
1t is called the rotary" in Wichita. and
was the wonder of the county when if
was built. (There are, as the folder
states, only two others in the countrv)
1T is no more a torture chamber than INV
other arrangement Of cells 1t is simply
very compact and secure cell block.
Being clumsy and hard to handle. it is
little used The cells (wcdge shaped,
as described) are amply large to contain
a bunk, and they are not dark, for
the rotary is surrounded by bars, not a
metal wall. They are unusually light
and we'll ventilated, in fact. For another
important detail, only a few Of the
]. w. W. leaders were ever confined in
the rotary. They were so confined, on
bread and water because the thirty
four prisoners started noise strike
when they were locked up-a "battle-
Ship as they called it. That is they
took turns in squads, yelling, singing,
shouting insults to .passersby. Some
Catholic nuns living across the street
moved out. The whole neighborhood
was in turmoil. The threat to turn the
fire hose on them brought a protest
from some Of the quieter prisoners, and
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

the leaders were locked up on bread and
water IN the rotary instead. After four
days, the noise strike ended The pris-
oners kept in the Wichita jail had a wing
with a corridor all their own, including
bath and a picture of Bill Haywood on
the wall. The Wichita jail is not modern
or hygienic, and the county certainly
needs new Jail. But the T. W. w.
prisoners had the best that it afforded
and were certainly not abused or i'll
treated.
What was the attitude of Wichita
through all this? IF the Kansas mind
had any slant toward free speech" in
the name Of "revolution," here was the
chance to display it. If "The New Re-
public" swung much sentiment in
Wichita here was a good chance for it's
subscribers to uprise and shower the
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02

did not have to make it in two jumps.
just one was enough.
He came to the west coast in prairie
schooner and worked his way through
hardship and toll, in spite of a frail
body. He has a copy of the Twenty
third Psalm hanging on the wall of his
office, but when a committee of Boil
sheviki called on him to request that
he keep his hands off the strike he told
them to go to hell"
The way to deal with treason il to
smash it and not coddle it. We have
lot of maudin sentimentalsts in the
country who weep great gobs Of tears
every time the |. W. W. are mentioned.
But tho leaders of real workers, who
understand what real work is, do not
sympnthizc with the American Boil
shevik.
Roosevelt, who spoke softly but car
ried big stick, is gone. And so when
a man like Ole Hanson comes up, it is
refreshing and encouraging.
AS -matter Of fact, the Kansas
farmer had his fill of I. W.. w. three
and four years ago, when |. w. w. men
enlisted among the harvesters and burned
barns and rioted in a dozen counties.
They have never returned to Kansas
with the exception of this one venture
in the oil fields. Neither war unrest nor
industrial discomfort seems to have
weakened the states wrath toward these
hobo revolutionaries
The telephone strike has stirred
Wichita far more than its Bolshevists.
1t is tempest in small teapot, but
a noisy one. Nine weeks ago 1874 girls
at the Southwestern Bell Headquarters
walked out because one of their super
visors had been, as they considered, un-
justly discharged. The supervisor was
Miss Leila Phipps, and Wichita was par
ticularly interested in her case because
she was born in the town, supported
widowed mother, and had two brothers
in the American Expeditionary Forces.
The telephone girls formed a union last
autumn, shortly after the government
took over the lines. Under the govern
ment ruling, the Bell Company could do
nothing to stop the unionizing and about
two-thirds Of the girls had Joined the
union when the strike occurred A peti-
tion for an increase in wages was being
circulated among the girls, union and
and Miss Phipps violated a
rule of the company in leaving her
switchboard to ask a girl to sign the
petition. The company was, under the
rule, justified in discharging her. But
her general efficiency was unquestoned
and the girls felt that advantage had
been taken Of a technical breach of n
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
The Inevitable lnpouring of Malcon-
tents, and the Vigorous Way
They We're Handled

American disciples Of Bolshevism with
sympathy Nothing Of the kind oc-
cured. The noise strike confirmed the
general view. which WINS that District
Attorney Robertson deserved all praise
for his prompt action. The newspapers
of Wichita had no fault TO fnd. Neither
had labor, either in Wichita or the oil
fields. AS fair sample OF Wichita
sentiment, here s the comment Of
Governor Aliens paper "Thc Wichita
Beacon on the Seattle strike, which
was settled the day the last Of the
Wichita prisoners were shipped away to
Kansas City:
The strike was not melted by legti-
mate labor but by I. w. W. leaders, who
thought they saw n chance to exploit
their we'll known principles by pro-
noting general strike and parnlyzing
industry. Their purpose was to begin
a widespread revolution. Luckily there
was a real man against them. He is of
Scandinavian descent, but he is all
American. He is a strong progressive
Of the Roosevelt school, and has always
been classed as a radical in his cham
pionship Of the real working man. But
he knew treason when he saw it. Ole
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
A Medieval Chamber
of Horrors

Conditions in the Wichita jail, as de-
scribcd by the men now confined there,
would have warmed the heart of the
judicial torturers of the Dark Ages. In
the centre of the building is what is
called "thc tank a huge metal cylinder
containing twenty cells in two tiers,
New-York tribune., 1919-03-02
E0oP1<tz

geographical centre of The United States,
and as if to justify its position, it has
rounded out its industrial unrest by de-
veloping one other labor trouble, tele-
phone girls strike, that has moral for
other communities large and Small. 1t
has handled affairs in typical American
fashion, with typical ability and typical
blunders, and both episodes are worth
recording.
How does Wichita come to have an
]. W. W. problem on its hands? Not
from any innate love Of Bolshcvism.
On the contrary The event that
brought the I. W. w. into this pros
porous, calm, most American city was
the discovery three years ago Of oil at
hldorado, in Butler County, few miles
TO the east. Up till that time it had
been growing steadily on the wheat and
corn and cattle roundabout Oil has
brought much new wealth to Wichita,
many new and beautiful homes and a
new hotel that is the last word in com
fort, beauty and architectural reserve
the modern "quiet" note 1t has enlarged
the European circle of Wichita, but it
mas not reduced its Americanism. Oil
men overran the town for while, but
tney have mostly passed on to fresh
pastures in Oklahoma and Texas, and
Wichita, with its 10000 population (sec-
ond only to Kansas City in the state),
remains as it was, busy but most COM
1ortable, widespread rural city-"The
Peerless Princess OF the Prairies," as
envious rivals like Kansas City jeeringly
greet her. Let it be added also that
Wichita gave Kansas her new Governor,
henry Allen, even better known to East
erners as the Henry" Of William Allen
Whites "Thc Martial Adventures of
henry and Me-"
There was grim humor in the dis
co'ery Of oil at EIdorado The name is
not new one born Of the burst of
prosperity, but represents an historic
Aansas spot where tradition located the
iurthest reach Of ancient Spanish seek
fS AFTER treasure. The land was poor
ana the prairie schooners creaked on
Westward; and treasure seekers Of 40
ana generation after generation ignored
}" II they had but known they we're
passing over greater wealth than many
MINES! A few did stick, keeping the
''nail hamlet OF Eldorado alive. One
'uen farmer was Norwegian, Pcdcr
'"~@en, who, apparently, liked the thin,
''eky soil out of sheer contraricty and
''ught 1t by the quarter section. He is