Milford chronicle., 1957-02-15
"OTD ARE"

Brother was sworn to kill brother ReaS-
on had been abandoned and peoples sins
were about to be bathed away in blood. The
experiment that had been called "the last
best hope of mankind" seemed destined to
fail. 1t was in these troubled times that
gaunt prairie lawyer came to the White
House.
His face was already lined with care.
Failure, disappointment and sorrow were no
strangers to him, and they were not likely to
become strangers. He knew this as surely as
he knew that the Union must be preserved.
The fingers, gnarled from the years of
grasping an axe, held pen. Every time he
signed his name, armies moved and men
died He wrote words that gave voice to the
spirit of his timeS-WOrdS SO carefully chOS
en-, so perfectly sculptured to the message he
wanted to communicate that they would be
quoted as long as men could read.
Men around him lost faith. The people
sometimes seemed ready to concede defeat;
the price for victory seemed so high. The
tired man in the White House grew lonelier,
older. Yet he never wavered; the Union
was worth whatever price was asked
And as the end of the struggle approach
ed and it became apparent that his people
would remain one people, he turned his
thoughts to rebuilding-to binding up the
wounds, to healing the terrible scars. His
critics became more bitter; those who had
for vengeful triumph.
Only when he was dead did the love the
people felt for him become so apparent, even
to the people. They had called him "Old
Abe from the time he was 30. And now
"Old Abe" was dead, and the people bid him
farewell as they would a patriarch. He had
come from the "dirt poor" and his life had
been reminder that clay was made noble
when it was infused with the Divine breath.
NEEDED: MORE HOUSES
The nations general economy doomed in
1856, but there was Is per cent decline in
the construction of private housing. Although
continuing prosperity is foreseen in 1857,
further drop of perhaps 10 per cent in pri-
vate housing construction is expected this
year.. These facts should be of concern to
the entire nation, especially when laid
against the additional fact that there is still
a housing shortage in the United States.
This was brought out in a recent report by
the housing subcommittee of the Senate.
Kenneth S. Keyes of Miami, president of
the National Association of Real Estate
Boards, thinks that abnormal tightness of
the mortgage money market is mainly re-
spopsible for the decline in housing construc
tions. There is considerable support for this
view outside the building industry, also.
Whatever the reasons, the fact is that we
are steadily falling short of the nations
needs in new housing construction. 1t is con-
Servatively estimated that between now and
1860 housing units should be added at the
rate of 100000 units annually, and that in
the 1960s this figure will jump to 100000
year. Yet only 100000 units were produc-
ed in 1856, and it is expected that the total
this year will be even lower.
What the federal government can do
about all this is a moot question. Some re-
Taxation of the tight money market to ease
housing credit might be helpful. In any
case, however, it is clear that a shortage of
housing does still exist, and that it is likely
to become worse if construction continues
only at present rates. In the press of other
demands on its time, Congress should not by
pass this matter.
INTELLECTUAL FACADE
Some years age, famous public man
surprised the pres with an unexpectedly
witty speech. Hitherto, in his many ad-
dresses, he had usually been innocent of the
symptoms of wit and humor. How did it
happen that he was suddenly witty? The
problem was easily solved the eminent man
had gotten hold of new ghost writer.
startling and even shocking proportion
of the speeches, articles and books written by
living candidates for immortality are actu-
ally turned out by ghost writer's. In some
instances, the great men did not have the
time to write their own speeches, or all OF
them. But whether they do or not how can
we accept their speeches as their own? There
are instances of public men who do not see
their own speeches until they rise in public
to deliver them.
In the case of articles and books, what is
the intellectual morality of public men who
sign their Ian es to work which they hire
someone to w11fa for them? There may be
quotations from books they have not read,
citations of facts they have not investigated,
even thoughts and ideas their ghosts gave
them.