McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1922-02-10
w ASHIN GTON
w -LETTER-AN
By Lindsay S. Perkins
Feb. 6, 1922.
Editor Independent:

the good wife of my old friend J.
W. Purviance has passed away.
| feel for him in this heavy loss,
although my acquaintance with
the lady was slight. When one
loses the companion of his hest
years, on whom he has depended
for his chief comfort and guild
ance for half a century, mere
words will not meet the situation.
Col. Purviance has my deepest
sympathy, but all the sympathy
of all mankind would not restore
the one whom he wiIlhave to wait
to see until he follows her to an
other and better life than that
afforded by this sad world.
The conference on disarmament
here is about to close. and Am
erica, followed by the greatest
powers on earth, will take the
first practical step ever taken to
Danish dreadful war. We did not
undertake too much, and will &C
complish what we tried tn do and
our country comes out of the con-
ference far stronger and more in
fluential than ever before, and in
fact the strongest nation on the
globe. What a responsibility to
be the head of such a nation! But
the burden is on worthy shoul
ders, and will be safely borne.
Washington is just struggling
out from under a thirty-inch
snow. Small mountains of the
dirty slush lie at street crossings,
while hundreds of men are try
ing to haul it away. Washington
is poorly managed by Congress.
A third-rate Western town has
better local administration. 1t
should be one of the greatest
cities in the world; now it is only
the twenty-second city in size
among the capitals of the world
while it is really in some ways
the capital of oil the world. No
sooner does a member appear in
Congress to improve some part
of Washington than a member
from Postum Shout or some other
Way-Back district jumps up and
knocks it out ION a point of or
der"
More than a hundred people
were killed when the roof of the
Knickerbocker Theater, a NOV
ing picture theater, fell in and
crushed men, women and child
rem, a few nights ago. Faulty
construction, Insufficient iDspec-
rion, etc, as welleas the weight
Of snow on the roof, are blamed.
The real fault is in Congress and
it's poor management of affairs
in the District of Columbia.
Preachers in their sermons ascrif.
ed this terrible disaster to an
act of God" l don't believe in
blaming mans carelessness on
the Creator. Why should He
crush the life out of innocent
children and men and women who
were getting harmless amuse-
ment in a carelessly built struc-
ture? Some Inspector will be in
dicted for this awful loss of life,
but his case will be put off from
one term of court to another and
in six months the whole thing
will be forgotten, except by the
crippled victims of the accident
(some had their legs cut off and
their arms torn out of the socket
and those whose dear ones We're
lost there. Such is life in a great
city. Your life is never safe.
The Independent says eggs are
retailing in Selmer for twenty
cents a dozen. A neighbor of
mine who has 700 hens gets 70
cents a dozen for his eggs from a
big restaurant in Washington,
which takes all he can produce
the year round. One man writes
from New York State that he
gets $50 a day from 1900 hens.