Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1959-07-03
lilly 1850

the beginning of the second half of 1859, has
sneaked up on us. 1t is the beginning of a
new fiscal year, and from this point onward,
the days will be getting shorter and shorter
until December 22nd, which will be the
shortest day of the year.
July, the fifth month of the Roman year,
was once known as Quintilis, but when the
calendar was changed it became the seventh
month and was named July in honor of Julius
Caesar This change was made by Mark
Antony.
In the United States, the month is re-
membered as the anniversary month of the
Battle of Gettysburg, which occurred on July
1st, End and 3rd, 1868, and marked the high
tide of the Confederacy, July 4th, is remem-
bered as independence Day, the anniversary
of the adoption of the Declaration of indie
pendence.
July 4th is, also, the birthday anniversary
of former President Calvin Coolidge, who
was born at Plymouth, Vermont on July 18th,
1872.
There are many other memorable dates in
July, Hawaii having been annexed to the Uni
ted States on July 7th, 1898, John D. Rookie
teller having been born at Richford, New
York, on July 9th, 1889, and John Quincy
Adams, the sixth President of the United
States, having been born in Braintree, now
Quincy, Massachusetts,, on July 18th, 1857.
Also, the Allied invasion of Europe in
World War II actually opened with an in
vasion of Sicily on July 10th, 1943, by Gener-
al Dwight d. Eisenhower and the American
and British forces although this anniver-
sary is not too well remembered.
July 18th is the birthday anniversary of
Nathan Bedford Forrest, who won fame as
a cavalry leader in the Confederate Army,
and who was born in Marshall County, Ten
nessee, July 18th, 1921.
Florida was coded to the United States
by Spain in 1919, in the month of July, and
John Paul Jones, the famous naval comman-
der, was born in Scotland on July 18th, 1747.
On July 9th, 1866, the first Atlantic cable
was successful, linking Europe and America
by electric telegraph. July 30th is remem-
bered as Crater Day, in Virginia, in men,
DRY of the battle at Petersburg, July 25th is
Frontier Day in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the
oath is Mormon Pioneer Day in Idaho and
Utah, and the 18th is the birthday anniver-
sary of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of
the Church of Christ, Scientist, who was
born at Bow, New Hampshire, in 1921. 5.
SHOULD WE ABOLISH THE STATES?
The proposal that the federal minimum
wage law be extended to cover groups of
workers-such as those in retail trade-who
have been exempt ever since the laws incep-
ton is an appealing one to many people, on
humanitarian grounds. But, understandable
as that is, the arguments against the propos-
ed extension are powerful, and based on prin-
ciple.
The question is not whether wage legisla-
ton is needed to cover retailing and the other
service industries. If it is, the states are per-
fectly capable of taking care of that, and
many have. The question is whether strictly
local businesses, which must compete on the
purely local level, and must deal with local
conditions and needs, should be governed by
an arbitrary federal law which would treat
the enterprises of little country towns as it
would treat the biggest interstate businesses.
A little past history should be recalled.
President Franklin Roosevelt, a staunch
friend of labor, in proposing federal mini
mum wage law in 1887, said: "There are
many purely local pursuits and services
which no federal legislation can effectively
cover"
The sponsor of this original act in the
Senate was another staunch friend of labor
Senator Black, now Mr. Justice Black of
the Supreme Court He said: Businesses of
purely local type which serve particular
local community, and which do not send their
products into the streams of interstate COM
merce, can be better regulated by the laws
of the communities in which the business
units operate"
This principle is as valid today as it ever
way 1t is strictly in accord with the di-
visions of governmental power in this coun-
try. If federal law is to be extended into
every area of local life, we might as we'll
abolish the states
5000
HIDDEN COSTS
The Chamber of Commerce of the United
States recently sent letter to the chairman
of the Post Office Subcommittee of the Sen
ate in which it said: ''Taxpaying private car