davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
CLIPPED COMMENT
THE CRUISERS AND THE

Senator Boi'ah says he believes
that the Senate should pass the
cruiser bill, providing for fifteen
ships Of this class. This support of
the navy is very welcome and in
circumstances it means a great
deal. Ordinarily there would not
be much question of passing the
bill. 1t would be part of the nor
NAL process of keeping the fleet in
condition. There is nothing sensa-
tional in adding fifteen cruisers I'M
less it is to be regarded as incon-
sistent with other purposes for the
United States to have any navy at
all.
That happens to be what is in
the minds of the pacifists what have
proved that they can make a drive
on Congress and do considerable
damage to army and navy plans.
The moment the Kellogg peace trea-
ty was signed it was apparent what
the pacifist argument would be. The
United States proposed to the other
nations that war should be re-
nounced. They agreed to this.
Whereupon the United States pro-
poses to build fifteen cruisers of
the very type to which Great Britain
objects.
The pacifists say what they are
expected to say: that this is incon-
sistent and hypocritical, that it de-
feats the purpose of the outlawry
of war and fills the world with sus--
picion rather than confidence
1t is for this reason that Senator
Borah's statement in favor of the
cruiser bill is useful and important.
He is not regarded by the pacifists
as a die-hard. He was an advocate
of the Kellogg proposal, but he
makes a rational Interpretation of
it.
President Coolidge approved Of
Mr.. Kellogg's undertaking, but he
also makes a sensible application
of it. We insist that it would have
been an exercise of better judgment
words which can be used to make
needed legislation the harder to get,
but the situation must be taken as
it is.
The best that can be said for the
peace treaty is that 1t represents a
sentiment. So long as the senti-
ment prevails, the treaty will re-
main formal statement of it. No
other nation will make it alone the
basis of any alteration in military
plans. That being the case, and
selfevident, the United States can
not afford to do so.
The peaceable purpose of the Uni
ted States ought to be evident to
any one who knows anything of the
history of the country and the char
acter of its people. 1t is quite out
rageous for any of its citizens to
endeavor to commit it to imprud-
ence, with its consequent weakness
and exposure to unnecessary danger
in the future.
1t is presumed that the Kellogg
treaty will be ratified by the Sen
ate, but before that document is
submitted the cruiser bill ought to
be passed. A decent regard for in
terests of the United States requires
that.-Chicago Tribune.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
SoS
TAXATION BEING STUDIED

The Chamber of Commerce of the
United States, by attempting to de-
velop a national consciousness of
the influence of taxes upon progress
and prosperity, and to promote a
wiser spending of public funds, is
carrying on an activity of the first
importance.
A short time ago the Chamber is
sued a pamphlet on the subject of
Indebtedness incurred by municip-
alities, advocating that, whenever
possible, the "pay-as-you-go" plan
be adopted. Future surveys are plan
ned on equally outstanding similar
phases.
The Chamber is making no effort
to influence communities to refrain
from spending money at the expense
of progress. 1t is attempting to ex-
pedite civic progress, that the maxi
mum of constructive result may be
had from every dollar of tax money.
There is too little popular under
standing of the modern tax situa-
ton. Activities of such organiza-
lions as the U. S. Chamber of Com
merce are hopeful signs toward bet
tering our present tax condition.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
THE PRESIDENTS INAUGURAL
ADDRESS

The inaugural address of a new
president tells the American people
many things they need to know for
their own good, but many of them
would say it would make their
head ache to read these extended
remarks. They want something
short and snappy.
Yet if people want their country
to improve and abolish evils and
wrongs, they must pay attention to
what the big men say should be
done. We may not agree with our
president, but anyone who is elected
to that job is a big enough man so
we should be willing to listen when
he speaks.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
THE GENESIS OF
THE OIL INDUSTRY

The amazing growth of the petro-
leum industry is hardly realized by
the average person. The first oil
well in this country was drilled in
1859 and produced but a few barrels
a day. Fifty years later, in 1909,
the entire investment in the indus
try was less than the present invest
ment in pipe lines alone.
Two generations ago petroleum
was best known as a medicine, and
then as an illuminant. The inven-
ton of the automobile was of
course the turning point that deter
mined the future of oil.
Gasoline became a necessity of
life. The development of aviation
opened up another great field. Bat
tleships and merchant vessels be-
came oil burners. Fuel oil grew
in favor in industry and now many
homes are using oil burning heat
ing plants. Thousands of miles Of
asphalt paving, a substance derived
almost entirely from petroleum,
have been laid in this country.
As a result the oil industry is
prominent today. And by scientific
progress in locating leases, produc-
ing and refining, oil products are
marketed and sold with maximum
of service at minimum cost.
The great problem at the present
time is to effect conservation and
cooperation between producers to
prevent waste Of this Liquid gold"
Intense efforts to attain this are
being made that both the industry
and the public may reap the benefit
of soundest business methods.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S
BIRTHPLACE

John D. Rockefeller, Jr., has
bought 267 acres of the Wakefield
estate in Virginia on which George
Washington was born. The house
is to be rebuilt in time for the 200th
celebration of Washington's birth,
which comes in 1892.
This is fine move, for the birth
place of a great national hero
should be a kind of temple of pa
triotic reverence, to which people
are invited to go and catch a little
of the spirit of this man from his
early associations. The nation that
forgets the men that made it what
it is, is like an ungrateful child,
and it is likely to get into trouble
through departure from its funda-
mental principles.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
Ma-
LENTEN OBSERyANCES

One of the oldest customs pre-
vailing among Christians, is that of
observing Lent through fasting or
some form of self denial. The per-
sistence of this custom is remark
able, since it goes contrary to hui
man nature. People enjoy the flesh
ly pleasures, and like to have
good time with their eating and
drinking and amusements. One
would think that the modern world,
with its intense materialism and
selfish ways, would so scoff at this
custom that it would be abolished.
Yet a multitude of people still adj
here to it, though the strictness of
the observance has been modified.
Some will ask just what good
comes from such a practice. There
are a great number of people, who
apart from any spiritual considera-
tions, have always injured their
health by overeating. 1t is a god
send to such ones, to have custom
observed each year that calls for
some degree of abstinence. And
there are many people who injure
themselves by too much social dis
sipation. If any of these folks can
be persuaded to go a little slow
during this penitential season, and
spend quiet hours at church with
early return to home and rest, they
are better off physically.
Any form of self denial is useful.
When people deny themselves
something they want, they gain a
greater control over themselves. 1t
becomes easier for them to deny
themselves things that are harmful,
and they are likely thereby to live
more wholesome and useful lives.
The ideals of eating and drink
ing and money making and sporting
life are the coarser side of exist
ence. If we are ever to rise to any
better character, we must learn to
subordinate that side of life and
bring it under our full control. Lent
should teach people that they can
dc that thing.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
THE SANDUST TRAIL

Doubts of the effectiveness of old
fashioned religious revivals have
been prevalent among observant
churchmen for some years. There
has been in some quarters a DISPOSE
ton to feel that whatever good may
be accomplished by leaders in this
kind of religious work is overhaul
anced by the air of professionalism
which attends their campaigns. Now
leaders of a number of denomina-
lions are united to substitute less
obtrusive and more intimate meth
DDS to stimulate religious feeling in
their communities.
No one may say how deeply the
religious experience of the sawdust
trail was actually felt. But to say,
as some critics of the revivalists
have been doing, that spectacular
revivals do no permanent good is
to assume that which probably is
not true. 1t will hardly do to sup
pose that any man of great elo-
quence can speak powerfully to null
titudes day after day in behalf of
sobriety, clean living and all the
simpler virtues without doing some
good.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
THE STANDING INVITATION

The past is a pleasant field for
memory, the future for speculation
and good intention, but it is an old
adage that for action there is no
time like the present. No other mo-
ment can truly be called our own,
for memories may fail and dreams
fade, but the unforgiving minute of
the present is real and ready for
what we can make of it.
They talk of critical moments in
history, yet the long story of man,
now, as always, hinges on today.
Men look backward to cross-road
decisions in their lives or forward
to expected opportunities, yet real
crisis is always close to hand. The
long road of the past has led to it
and the future will be guided by it.
We owe it to our unknown future
to make the best of the present. We
owe it to the cause of progress to
meet the issues of our own time.
The present problem is the touch
stone of our courage and capacity,
and the days work is the only
record of our strength and worth.
The present moment is a standing
invitation to learn our powers and
use them, and in its 1ieeting chal-
lenge there is opportunity to stamp
ourselves and our times with char
acter that endures.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
PRACTICAL EFFECT OF BEAUTY

Practical people have commonly
held that beauty is a kind of luxury
and superfuity, nice to acquire If
you have the money, but something
that every day folks have to get
along without.
A different idea was expressed by
President Coolidge few days ago,
in his address for the dedication of
the Box bird sanctuary and singing
tower at Mountain Lake, Florida. Mr..
Coolidge thought that such places OF
beauty give the common people adj
yantages formerly reserved to the
fortunate few.
If the presidents ideas were car
ried out, we should have public res
ervations of natural beauty dotted
all over the country. What effects
can be expected, if family f.om a
decadent district in neighborhood,
is able to get few days off to visit
such a place?
Such family should be impressed
by the loneliness of the scene, and
by the beauty of the homes that or
dinarily are developed near such a
resort. They would return to their
decadent neighborhood with more of
distaste for ugIiness. In many
cases the family would take hold and
try to do something to improve the
appearance of their own place, and
transport to their home location
something of the beauty they had
just seen.
When one family does that, it has
a tonic effect on the neighbors, and
they are likely to clean up. These
influences are contagious, and when
people thus come in contact with
scenes of beauty and taste, there is
a desire to initiate them.
When people acquire these higher
tastes, they acquire a distaste for
people of coarse feelings, and they
draw toward more refined pursuits
and companionships. This produces
nicer homes, better brought up chill
dren. finer communities. The infu-
ence Of beauty is a tar-reaching
thing
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01

REPUTATION FOR PROGRESS
IVENESS

The question is often asked, as to
how town can obtain a reputation
for progressiveness? Well, this is
usually acquired by a willingness to
adopt modern ideas. The people
have to be watching out for plans
and methods that have been success
full elsewhere, and they have to
show some willingness to try out
these ideas in their own community
in an energetic way.
Communities that are full of
doubts and hesitations and carping
and knocking rarely get a reputa-
ton for progressive spirit. They
should not rush into every new and
costly fad. But new ideas should
be examined on their merits, and if
they are within the range of city's
means and possibilities, there
should be a willingness to put some
effort into adopting and working
them out.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
So@
CHANCES FOR DEVELOPMENT

It would seem as if the chances
for development here in Milford
for the next 10 years were wonder
fully good. We have been improv-
ing our schools, our roads, our
stores, our homes. Conditions are
much more attractive here than
they were 10 years ago. People who
visit us are impressed by these i'm
provements.
Furthermore, our people are
working more tremendously than
they used to. They are willing to
pull together for good projects. AS
chances for development occur, our
people will be in a mood to take
advantage of them. There is an OPP
portunity in Milford for progressive
people, and decided advantages can
be gained here by those who come
for residence or business.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
WOMEN AS JURORS

Women are serving as jurors in
many states, and in many states
they are not permitted to serve in
that function. In Wyoming, which
was the pioneer state to grant wo-
man suffrage, the senate has just
voted down a proposition allowing
women to perform this service. 1t
was argued that the absence of the
women on jury duty created hard
ship on the men of the family.
1t will create inconvenience in
many homes, and father will growl
some, to come home and find no din
ner, because his wife has been out
at the court house all day. Some
people maintain that many cases
are tried in court which women
should not hear, but that kind of
consideration has gone by. Women
have to take their share of dealing
with the soiled side of life, regard
less of the prudish squeamishness
Of former days.
Some people might argue that wo-
men are more emotional, and would
be moved by their tender sympa-
thies in many cases to grant too
lenient treatment to offenders.
Yet the woman's point of view is
needed. The point of view of one
sex alone is one sided. They would
have a clearer view of the condi-
tions surrounding the lives Of wo-
men and children. .
AS far as the inconvenience goes,
it is no worse for the husband to
miss some of his usual household
comforts, than for him to leave his
work or business to do jury duty.
To keep up our institutions, we all
have to make sacrifices. Many men
dislike to call on women for jury
work, feeling that they have enough
cares now. But as the tendency is
for women to constantly take a
greater part in public and govern
ment affairs, it seems likely that
more of the states will call on them
for this service.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
THE GRADE CROSSING PROBLEM

While the country is spending
about $3.50, 100000 annually in elimi-
mating grade crossings over rail-
roads, new crossings are constantly
being laid across these tracks, so
that the number of such crossings is
continually increasing. The people
will never be free from the peril of
getting run over at these crossings.
We should try here in Delaware
to get rid of some Of the more dan
gerous crossings each year. Con-
sidering the advantage to the rail-
roads in such abolition, they can
afford to contribute literally. But
in spite of all, our people must
learn to look and listen when they
come to a railroad track, and it
would be better if they would also
stop and listen.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
CHURCHES AND GOVERNMENT
ADOPT BUSINESS PRACTICES

After citing a number of recent
church mergers, the Los Angeles
Times says in part:
Evidently church unity is not so
much fiimsy dream as many have
imagined.
when armies of different coun-
tries can fight together as allies as
they did in France, there would
seem to be considerable grounds
for hoping that churches may be
able to get together and work to-
gether.
Understanding each other re-
veals fewer difficulties than hereto
fore supposed.
with governments as signatory
powers in a peace pact to arbitrate
their differences, the churches are
shamed into closer affiliation."
The Times might have added that
the mergers in our industrial and
business life with resulting benefits
to the firms involved and to the
consuming public, have shown so
strikingly the advantages Of volun-
tary cooperation that not only
churches but governments are be-
ing forced to adopt the more prac-
teal methods developed by modern
business.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
FACTS-NOT THEORIES

dim dreams Oh IueOIy'
IT is no accident that we, the
Youngest of the worlds great ma
tions by hundreds and thousands OF
wears. lead the world in almost eV-
cry phase of human activity.
From time immemorial, the old
world has been torn between con-
f1icting factions, each offering the
people sure-fre panaceas for all 1lls'
done up in attractive packages OF
rhetoric.
The result has been governments
vaccillating between one economic
system and another. Monarchy has
followed tyranny, to be replaced by
more or less popular rule. The lat
est phase is a wholesale socialism
that nationalizes industry toward
paternalistic ends.
The United States all the while
has gone ahead developing ana
building on the integral ideas Whlcn
form the constitutional foundation
of democratic government. With an
implicit faith in the worthiness OF
private rights of property, private
initiative as opposed to political
bureaucracy, and personal liberty
to the limits of law and ORDER we
have established an Industrial state
which is the high point of civilized
attainment.
The proof of the pudding, in this
case, is in the relative status, social
and economic, of the average Amerl-
can and the average foreigner. We
have avoided experiment and the re-
suit is unprecedented progress and
prosperity.
FAITH IN ONES HOME TOWN
Some people never seem to have
any faith in the possibilities of their
home town. They will invest money
in propositions located a thousand
miles away concerning which they
have little or no information. Then
If someone comes along with a good
chance for investment in some local
property or business, which may be
much more substantial than many
of these distant propositions, they
have no faith in it because it is too
near home.
A good town like Milford should
be sure to grow and develop, which |
will make all business and property |
here more valuable. Those who in
vest their capital judiciously in
such a place should see it steadily
grow and prosper. !
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01

Who remembers the good old days
when the bustling housewife apollo
gized every time she served bacon?
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
COURTESY NEEDED ON BOTH
SIDES

To draw in business from out
side, towns need to give very cour-
teous welcome to shoppers and all
visitors, particularly those who
come by automobile. 1t should not
be assumed that automobile drivers
mean to violate traffic and parking
regulations, unless such attractions
are quite clearly due to reckless de-
fiance of the law. People who do
something wrong out of ignorance
of local regulations, should have the
situation courteously explained to
them.
But when this courtesy is shown,
it can be asked in return. Too
many automobile drivers fail to pay
the slightest regard to the regula-
lions of the towns which they visit.
When they show this arrogant spir-
it. they are entitled to little courtesy
in return.
NOT MANY concerns succeed in
impressing the public with the
merit of their goods, by the policy
of keeping quiet about them while
their competitors are advertising.
@e@
THERE'S nothing much wrong in
the world when an American can sit
down to a beef-steak without feeling
that he is robbing some poor under
dog across the ocean.
%o@
THE BAND that can't play in
harmony gets no jobs, so the town
which can't work tremendously to-
gether, gets no opportunities that
mean progress.
ADVERTISING tells a story to
thousands of people, in the same
time it takes to tell it to one per-
son by word Of mouth.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
FORMER ANTAGONISTS MEET

1t was an admirable thing for
former Gov. Smith of New York to
call on his recent victorious oppon-
ent, Mr.. Hoover, and equally fine
for Mr.. Hoover to encourage the
visit and welcome him with gra-
cious courtesy. Such amenities
sweeten political life and take the
bitterness out of it.
In former years, political candi-
dates would often say such hateful
things about their opponents that
they would never wish to meet So
cially. These rancors accomplish
nothing, and make people less in
clined to listen to reason. There
are plenty of people in all political
parties who have excellent ideas,
and people can learn much from
their political opponents.
Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1929-03-01
@o@
Indy AND HIS BRIDE

The American world was much
thrilled when it heard that Colonel
Lindbergh is engaged to Miss Anne
Morrow. If there was a popularity
contest to see who is the best be-
loved American, Colonel Lindbergh
would stand good chance of win
ming it. He has won plaudits from
all hearts. Our statesmen find it
hard to win universal affection, be-
cause, they differ sharply from their
political opponents. Each section
has it's own favorite athletic heroes.
But the appeal which Colonel
Lindbergh made has fascinated us
all, and we have loved him for his
manliness, his audacious courage,
and his perfect courtesy. 1t will
greatly please our people that he
has found a charming and highly
cultured girl for a wife, of the
most eminent parentage. They are
two of the finest young people that
our country ever turned out, and
well fitted to be models for all boys
and girls. The country ardently
wishes them happiness.