davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
LET US TAKE A
SOLEMN vow

Big news of the day is the European
situation. Next biggest news is the wide
spread discussion on the subject: "In
event of another big war, will the United
States get into it?" Already, on street
corner, at lunch counter, in offices and
homes are heard such questions as: "Will
we get into it? How? Why? Should we
try to stay out?" All too soon, do we
hear the first arguments in favor of our
entry. They are in the same terms as
q years ago. They are predicated on
the assertion that if Germany is going
to bully Europe, next she will be bully
ing us. In 1917 that was the foundation
for our rationaliZing which ended with
the purpose of making the world free
for Democracy. And today we wonder
what Democracy?
We went to war in 1917 because we
got war-mad. Our emotions ran high.
Ships were torpedoed. Americans were
killed. There was not so much reasoning
as there was emotion. Europe's troubles
are her own. Well knowing that we are
tied to the rest of the world by thousands
of small and large strings, let us deter
mine now that in event of widespread
armed conflict we will never sever those
ties, and stick to that declaration, made
so often during the last two decades,
that we won't lay down American lives
unless America is endangered on her
own shores. Argument can and would
be mustered to show cause for again
crossing oceans with our forces, but in
the long run, these are not nearly as
concrete and weighty as the fact that
this country will be paying for the last
war for decades to come, and that Amer
ican blood was shed for cause which
not two persons in ten can define. Many
World War veteran has said, "Td be
against another war unless we are COM
PEELED to fight defensive war" Let's
take vows to stick by that resolution.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
CORRiGAN PUTS PARENTS
IN TIGHT SPOT

CALIFORNIA; men, women and children
are showering welcomes on Douglas
(Wrong Way) Corrigan. He returns like
conquering hero with his Irish wit and
compelling smile, his fable of flying to
Ireland by mistake, and draws adult and
infant into his train of followers by the
pure daring of his deed and the compell-
ing personality of the man. Unwittingly,
however, he is putting many a parent on
the spot, and they would like to have
him pull them out just as capably as he
he picked Ireland out of the Atlantic.
The rub comes when children ask father
or mother, "Why is Corrigan such a
great hero?" The fact that this bad boy
of the air. did what he wasn't supposed
to do, broke all the rules and regulations
not only of the aviation department, but
of good sense and science combines to
make mother and father stumble around
and hem and haw in making an intelli-
gent reply.
Truth of the matter seems to be that
Corrigan accomplished the impossible
with all the odds against him. He held
to a purpose, had the courage of his
convictions, livened his accomplishment
with fabricated story, and found that
all the properties of the melodramatic,
and all the power of hero-worship were
his allies. This much we can tell the
youngsters. Beyond it we dare not pass,
lest we involve ourselves by commencing
disregard of authority or find ourselves
unable to clearly differentiate between
Corrigan's getting away with some
thing he shouldn't have attempted, and
efforts by children and adults, to do the
same thing in other fields of endeavor.
Anyhow, he succeeded where 80 of 100
others would have failed, and we're
proud of him.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
BETTER TOOLS
FOR DEMOCRACY
(Christian Science Monitor)

At times it has almost seemed that
Lord Bryce was correct in his charge
that democracy had failed in Americas s
large cities. New York and Chicago
have been pictured as examples. Even
Philadelphia, with its gentle traditions
of those upright folk who called them
selves Friends, has had its political ma
chimes.
! Today, however, the United States has
a growing list of cities-led by Cincin-
nati-whose local administration is such
as to make them world models of the
well-governed city. In large measure
they have achieved this advance by i'm
proving democracy's machinery.
Steps were taken to insure elections
at once immune from machine manipula-
ton and accurate in reflecting the aspi-
rations of the voters. One device for
achieving this end was proportional rep
resentation.
With it has been linked plan to CEN
ter authority in trained administrator
to conduct the affairs of the city in the
same manner expected in successful
corporation. Thus was a cross-section
of public purpose refined into a fleX-
ible, concentrated administrative imple-
ment. The result of this evolution is the
so-called p. r. council-manager form of
government.
After fifteen months of study of all
available forms of government a special
commission appointed by Governor Earle
of Pennsylvania has just recommended
this form for Philadelphia 1t is hoped
to have new charter approved by the
Legislature and by the voters of Philadel-
phia so the plan can become effective
by Jan. 1, 1910. Successful operation
of the nations third largest city would
give decided impetus to this adaptation
of democracy to a streamlined age.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
Bruce Carton Says
Good Sense Achieved Century of Progress

1t is an odd thing, when you stop
to think about it, that this country
never got around to dedicate the
Perry Memorial at Put-in-Bay until
the fall of 1898.
The official government commits
sion which is putting the big mon
ument through the hoop is, to be
sure, formally commemorating the
125th anniversary of the battle OF
Lake Erie. But it is an observance
too long delayed, for the story
which begins with a battle and
ends with monument is one which
cannot be told too often.
The annals of the worlds wars
are full of stories that can be de-
scribed that way, of colrse-stories
that begin with a battle and end
with a monument. Enough pain,
loss, and suffering is packed into
that short compass, usually. to
make the angels weep, and OTTER
enough, looking back, one is hard
put to say whether the net gain
was worth all it cost.
But the Perry story is different
Out of those frenzied two hours
on Lake Erie there came some
thing which is a priceless possess
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
Well I'll
TeIIYou..
says
Bob Burns

You can look at any newsstand
today and get an idea of how our
taste in literature differs. Some
body must like all those things or
the publishers couldn't stay in bus
mess.
When l saw my Cousin WaffOrd
readin' one of them wild magazines
with pictures of drippin' daggers
all over. the front page, 1 said,
what do you want TO read that
trash for aSout people that never
lived?" 1 says, why don't you read
some good biographies of famous
people? You would not only inn
prove your mind that way but you'd
be readin' about people that actual
ly existed"
When 1 saw him two weeks later,
he came runnin' up to me and said,
Il took your advice about readin
biographies and l like 'em better
than fiction" Then he said, "Was-
MT that sad about Jessie James,"
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

phia. But that was not what he
wanted. He came back to Balti-
more and got work in a real estate
office. He made some money, but
not enough. Then he decided upon
n momentous change - to go to
Oklahoma and jump into the oil
business. Here was new industry;
money must be lurking around
somewhere.
He didn't know any more about
oil than a South Sea Islander does
about frostbite, but he went. He
decided to go into the refinery
end, and set about it with tremend-
Gus energy.
But something else in Oklahoma
had tremendous energy, too. One
day a cyclone came ripping, roar
ing, and laundering across the
flatlands and picked up the cabin
he lived in and set it down hun
dred yards away. Nayl flung it
down, for it was so knocked to
pieces that it looked like widows
woodpile.
He didn't even have a place to
sleep, but he wasn't going to give
up. Not Joshua S. Cosden.
A cave had been dug in the
yard to serve as a cyclone cellar,
and he lived in that
He studied oil, talked oil, lived
oil. He did not have much of the
real article to run through the re-
finery, but that didn't stop him.
His wells were four miles from the
refinery, so he hired a second
hand tank-wagon, filled it with
crude" and started his team of
horses to get the oil to the refinery.
The rickety old wagon leaked. He
had to walk beside it and hold a
bucket under the worst leak. The
bucket filled, he would leap up on
the wagon and pour the oil back
into the tank.
He had only eighty barrels his
biggest month. But he kept on. He
caulked the old wagon, and hired
a man and a team to help him.
A spirit like that can't be down.
ed. He began to make money. But
he needed more to invest in his
business. The only place he could
get it was Wall Street, New York.
How would those mighty nabobs
treat him?
This was to be the plea of his
life He must make it simple, He
worked for days over his plan until ,
he knew the answers to every con-
ceivable question. Then he boiled
the plan down to one single page
of typewriting.
When he met the directors Of
the great bank, he passed around
copies of that one sheet OF paper.
They asked him questions. He an
swered convincingly and to the
point. Exactly one hour and forty
five minutes later he walked out
with twelve million dollarsl
Quite come-up from a hole in
the ground.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
You're Telling Me -

The new trend in fashion calls
for women to be feminine. Sup
pose they're trying to get back
the seats in the street cars?
A burglar in South Gate, Cal,
sent back $1OO of the $12O he had
taken from a housewife. Probably
tax dodger.
A Chicagoan who crashed a
traffic light got a minimum fine
when he blamed his hay fever. 1t
sounds like a bad precedent. A
traffic light is not something to
be sneezed at.
A 400-pound pig ran wild in the
Borough of Queens, New York,
and tied up traffic. Just another
road hog.
A scientist says mosquitoes can
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
Barbs -.-.

A dispatch from Buenos Aires
says that Lily Pons won an un-
precedented ovation at her fare
we'll concert there. That's pretty
good for an opera singers very
first farewell concert.
A boom has been reported in
5he buggy business, and Chicago's
city fathers have Cancelled an or
dinance requiring bathing girls to
wear bloomers. What do you sup
pose Taft's chances are?
There's a girl in Detroit whose
boy friend lost control Of his car
and ran into three other automo-
biles after kissing her. There've
been three offers from Hollywood
already but she's holding out for
a better one.
An authority on military mat
ters predicts that Switzerland will
be the Belgium of the next World
War. That1l probably be ok with
Belgium.
Comes a report of farmer who
got kicked in the mouth when he
yelled at his horse: "You isn't
worth a cent?" It was probably
one of those educated horses.
Late news from the European
countries seems TO indicate that it
may be months before they actually
get down to brass hats.
A strike at an eastern tannery
has finally been settled, and all the
workers have gene back into hiding.
A psychologist announces that the
well-to-do worry more than the
poor. OF course the poor have
nothing to worry about-practicalIy
everything has already happened.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
LEGAL ADVERTISEMENT
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
OF THE INTERIOR
General Land Office
District Land Office
Los Angeles, Calf.

Los Angeles, Calf.
August B, 1888.
NOTICE FOR PUBLICATION
Involving State Selections
Serial Nos. 053365, O53373, 053376
NOTICE Is HEREBY GIVEN
that the State of California, De-
partment of Natural Resources,
Division of Parks, has filed in this
office, applications to select lands
under the provisions of the act
of Congress, approved June 20, 1896
(49 Stat, 2026), described as fol-
lows:
T. IS S., r. 9 E., SB.M., Eh;
Lots 5, 6, T. 8, 9, 10, II, 13, Is, 16,
II, 19, 10, 20, 81, %, %, 25, 26, 81,
%, 20, 30, 81, 81 Sec. Z, Lots l, 2,
3, 4, NJ; N15Sh Sec. 8, Lot l,
NE; NhSh; ShSEA; SEA SWH
Sec. 9, Eh; E1sNWA; E1kSWH;
Lots 1, Q, 3, 4 Sec. 16, Lots 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, Sec. II, Lots 5, 6, 7, 8, 8,
10, II, IL ,13, IA, Is, 16, II, 10, 10,
20, 21, %, %, "a, 25, 26, q, %, 20,
80, 81, Eh Sec. 10, All Of Secs. 10
II, 13, IA, Is.
All of the above described lands
are in Imperial County, California.
ANY and all persons claiming ad-
yersely the land described, or de-
string to object because of the
mineral character of the land, or
for any other reason, to the dis
posal to applicant, should file their
of protest or contest in
this office.
PAUL B. WITMER,
Register.
L h1tn II Gnnf Id 01 OQl
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

German soldiers have been for
hidden to do any applauding, and
the women have been ordered to
give a modified version of the Nazi
salute. He seems to be sure of
everybody now but the male pri-
vate citizen.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

him. 1 promise
you'll be inter-
ested.
He was born
near Baltimore,
and very young
m a d e up his
m in d to G e t
ahead in the
world. He got a
job as a report
er on a newspa-
ner in Philadel-
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

The Japs and the Chinese seem
to be applying old-fashioned indus
trial methods to warfare. The for
mer go in for the speed-up, and
the latter counter with the stretch
out.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
News Behind
the News
MOUie MOguls E.
Face Quizzing -.
BY RODNEY BUTCHER

NGTON.-LeaderS OF tne
movie industry, faced with anti
trust prosecutions, will come here
some time this month and promise
to be good.
Justice Department officials pri-
vately doubt whether the film
moguls will promise to be good
enough" Assistant Attorney
General Thurman Arnold h S
asked dissolution of theater owner
ship and control by producers,
and an end OF the block-booking
practice which ofen compels the
aters to accept films they don't
want. If the movie men con-
ceded that much, prosecution un-
doubtedly would be double. But
Justice officials suspect their anti
trust suit will go to trial-prob-
ably in January.
Abanonment of a federal study
of price maintenance laws in the
states, begun last April as a WPA
project, is formally attributed to
fear the work might be duplicated
by the Temporary Natinoal Econ
omic committee investigating mon
opolistic and other business prac-
tees.
Actually, the halt was called be-
cause of belief trade association
executives were having too much
of a hand in the project. The OBJ
jective was an impartial survey OF
the economic effects Of these price
laws, which operate
in most states and usually require
that retailers must sell drugs or
other items at a price set by the
manufacturer. Most Of these laws
we're lobbied through state legis-
latures by trade associations. The
T. N. E. c. probably will take over
the survey.
President Roosevelt's disregard
Of the A. F.. OF LIS protest against
of Donald Wake
field Smith to the National Labor
Relations Board may or may not
De due to the fact that Smith has
been more friendly to A. F. of l.
lnionS than the other Smith on
he board, Edwin S., whom Will
lam Green also denounces.
Chief objection of the A. F. of
!. to NLRB has arisen from the
,oard's occasional notification of
contract between an A. f. of L.
nion and an employer on the
round the employer had influ-
need workers to join the A. F. OF
!. union and Disseminated against
CLIO. union.
But the board several times has
pheld the A. F.. OF LIS conten-
ion that votes to choose worker
representatives for collective bar
aiming should be taken by craft
nits-or partly by crafts-and on
UGH occasion, Donald Smith has
oted in the majority with Chair
ian Warren Madden, while Ed
in Smith stood by the c. I. O.'s
ldustrial unionism position. Hence
OWNS sin, in Green's eyes, Is
reater than Donald's. But Ed
ms term doesn't expire until
341.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
Photographs

If you dip heated copper into
cold water it softens it. Heated
iron dipped into cold water, how
ever, is hardened.
The prefiXes Mac" or INC" in
surnameS merely means "son".
SO the name Macdonald" means
son of Donald.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
thoughts for the Day

There is no darkness shadow of death, where
the workers of iniquity may hide themseves.-Job
S4:22.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14
DALE
CARNEGIE
Author of How to Win
Friends and Influence
People

Here's a story about a man who
started from a hole in the ground
and
Did you ever hear of Joshua S.
Cosden? Well, I'll tell you about
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

American fire eaters stopped
talking about the Conquest of Can
ada; English imperialists gave up
their old idea of Gripping the up
start republic. Instead, all hands
decided to get along together in
peace.
And it worked. That is the great
point to remember. Two virile, ex-
panding, and ambitious peoples
showed that disarmament is prac-
tical. And there has never been a
time when the world could medi-
tate on that fact with more profit
than today.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

sion of two great nations and an
ideal to inspire the whole world.
In its immediate effects, of course
Perrys victory was important
eneugh. 1t saved the northwest
for the United States, kept the
bungled war of 1872 from ending
in disaster, and ended the Indian
menace in the Northwest Territory.
Even more important than that,
however, was the fact that this
great battle was followed by more
than a century of peace. Shortly
after the war, English and Amer
lean commissioners drew up and
signed the Rush-Bagot treaty, lin
iting armaments on the Great
LakeS-the first disarmament treaty
in the history of international re-
lations. The spirit of that treaty
has been kept ever since, until it
is something that neither the Unit
ed States nor Canada would con-
ceivably give up.
Now the thing to remember
about it is that there was nothing
in the cards TO make such a peace
full relationship inevitable. The two
nations might just as easily-more
easily, in fact-have gone ahead
in the traditional way, nourishing
grudges because of the last war
and laying plans for getting even
in the next. Every factor that ordiz.
narily makes for rivalry and enmi
between two nations was present.
But it didn't happen that way
principally because the people in
volved used good sense.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

Automobile manufacturers ad-
vertise a new machine to be called
the Ideal family car" We're anx-
ious to see one of the models to
find out how they manage to put
the stearing wheel in the back
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

live six weeks without food, but
fails to tell us why they don't.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

BRINGING
ALL The NEWS
TO IMPERIAL.
VALLEY
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

A strike at an eastern tannery
has finally been settled, and all the
workers have gene back into hiding.
Imperial Valley press., 1938-09-14

Late news from the European
countries seems TO indicate that IL
may be months before they actually
get down to brass hats.
Evening star., 1938-11-06
by H. G. Wells

out of unorganized aspiration than you can
make an engine out of steam. The liberal
impulses of the Atlantic peoples were put of
with that pretentious politicians mockery OF
hope at Geneva There's your world unity,
said the Foreign Offices to mankind And
now for business as usual" A few of us pro-
tested from the outset - almost as effectively
as small dog barking at Party Convention.
The other stirring of the human impulse
towards new life was perceptible chiefly in
Russia. Germany and eastern Europe. The
time may not be very remote now when the
whole career of the Communist International
may be written. The communist project was
far less vaporous than Atlantic liberalism and
less subject to those subconscious impulses
that affect the thought and behavior OF
liberals in comfortable circumstances. 1t was
a definite project to begin human life all over
again on juster economic basis, and it was
hampered from the first by the bitter, in
tolerant dogrnatism which sprang from the
egotism of its leaders That was its tragedy.
Evening star., 1938-11-06

p WRITE these words sadly and anXlously.
not knowing whether, by the time they are
d printed. the thing We all fear may not
after all have taken place. Theoretically, at
the moment. Europe is at peace. But much of
the rest of the world is ablaze. and many of its
corners are ominouslv smoldering. The ex
tinguishers turned upon the conagration by
reasonable folk in all countries are proving
debatably effective.
Let us assume that you and | are among
those reasonable folk. Il am sure we think we
are - the trouble is that the unreasonable
also think they are reasonable We hate war.
More than that we hate what we believe to
be the causes of it. And we have no faith in
it as solver of any of the worlds current
problems. Yet there are. maybe. certain
imaginable circumstances in which We should
be forced to admit that there is no other alter
native. What can we do to prevent the spread
of a disease that looks so inevitable? And,
even if we feel that it is unpreventable. what
can we do. anyway :. since we must do
something.
1t is almost like asking What would you
do here and now if you knew that tomorrow
you would go suddenly and perhaps perma-
nently deaf" think would spend the rest
of today talking to the people love and lis
tening to my favorite records. Maybe |
wouldn't - maybe Id be too upset to do
anything so logical) But in this sense the
parallel is apt. for if and when war comes. we
shall certainly lose more than our hearing.
more than our sight more even. in way,
than our lives me shall lose 0ur minds.
For that is the unique. if not the worst,
devilment of modern warfare, that it poisons
the minds of millions who remain unaware of
the poison and consider themselves unharmed.
1t finds that bombs and bullets are not
enough: there must be venom to clog the
Evening star., 1938-11-06
BEFORE TRUTH BECOMES TREASON
bY James Hilton
TREASON
by James Hilton

thought stream, lies to stoke up the fires OF
hatred. Things we can say calmly and openly
today may, in event of a major war. become
treason even to whisper. Worse even than
that the poison of propaganda may by
that time have done its work so we'll that
many of us may not mant to whisper them.
Such things, for instance, as these:
War does not. and can never, prove which
side is right, but only which side is the
stronger.
No nation is wholly or chiefly composed of
vilainous individuals.
All warfare is atrocious. but most 'atrocity
stories are untrue.
The cause of Democracy is noble, but it
would have been nobler land the world might
have escaped its present agonies) had the
peace imposed by the victorious democracies
in 1918 been nobler also.
In every war, Truth is the first victim.
Once war begins, it is impossible to fight
either with gloves on, or with clean hands,
The longer war lasts. the more is the
second-rate intelligence enthroned and the
first-rate degraded. War protects the fool who
makes mistakes and persecutes the wise man
who dares to say they have been made.
1t requires courage to do many things in
life, and fighting is only one of them.
These are no new discoveries. still less
axioms bound to be supported by that semi
mythical parsonage - every right-thinking
man. They are my own beliefs. and are open
to argument like anyone else's beliefs - but
that is Just the point: they are still open to
argument 1t might not be a bad idea, if we
can be serious for five minutes. to make notes
of few such things that we calmly and SIN
cerely believe today, and file the statement
away for future reference and perhaps (but
let us hope and pray not amazement.