Radio Script #55
Little Talks On Common Things
February 12, 1950
It is not too early to initiate plans for two waterville anniversaries. In 1952 our city government should recognize, with appropriate ceremonies, the l50th anniversary of Waterville’s incorporation as a town. For it was in 1802 that the inhabitants of the growing community on the west side of the river secured their political independence from the parent town of Winslow. Waterville is a much bigger city now than it was in 1902 when our centennial was held. Then they had a glorious three-day celebration with the mammoth parade I told you about two weeks ago. perhaps we do things with more restraint in the middle of the century and we are unlikely to devote three days to honoring our 150 years of corporate existence. But we certainly must have a fitting celebration. Right now the city government ought to start thinking about it.
Four years hence in 1954 comes an event of much greater significance -one in which Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield and Oakland may all appropriately unite. Nineteen fifty four is the 200th anniversary of the building of Fort Halifax, and that is the most important slngle event in the history of this section of the Kennebec Valley.
In 1661 the Colony of New Plymouth sold all the lands for 15 miles each side of the Kennebec River, from what is now Merrymeeting Bay to the present Skowhegan, to Antipas Bo!- es, Edward Tyng, Thomas Brattle and John Winslow. This tract was called the Kennebec Patent. Settlement was slow and insecure. The few hardy souls who ventured to make homes in the vicinity of Cushnoc Falls (now Augusta) were constantly harassed by Indians until the building of Fort Western. The fate of settlers who came farther up the river to Ticonic Falls was even worse. Their lives and fortunes were never safe from Indian raids.
When, therefore, in 1749 a company was formed called the New Plymouth Company to encourage settlement on the Kennebec Patent, they petitioned the new governor of the Province of Massachusetts, William Shirley, to build a fort at the junction of the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers. The bitter struggle between the English and the French for control of North America was at its height. Brunswick had been burned flat in 1722; Father Rasle had been killed at Norridgewock in 1724. Other settlements had been wiped out. Our Maine historians tell us that in 1749 there were only two families of white people living above Merrymeeting Bay. Governor Shirley responded to the plea and appointed tQ build the fort General John Winslow, descendant of the John Winslow who had become one of the four proprietors in 1661. With 800 soldiers of the king he built a fort consisting of five buildings and a stockade 800 feet long. It is one of the corner blockhouses that still stands and that we call Fort Halifax today. Of course Winslow got its name from the general who built the fort, but the actual master builder in charge of the workmen was a man who already lived in Maine, Isaac Ilsley of Falmouth (which was, of course, the old name for portland).
As soon as the fort was built General Winslow and his 800 men departed, and in their place was put a permanent garrison of 80 men under the command of Captain William Lithgow, for whom Winslow’s present Lithgow Street is named. Here at last was protection for the settlers. Threatened by Indian raids, they could take refuge within the stockade and have protection of the soldiers’ guns. By the accident of war and diplomatic negotiation, Captain Lithgow proved to be the only commander that Fort Halifax ever had. Nine years after the fort was built England and France signed the Treaty of Paris ending the French and Indian wars. The fort was then dismantled, but its work had already been accomplished. settlers were now numerous and their homes were permanent. Eight years later in 1771 there were enough of them to secure incorporation of the town of Winslow.
So I vigorously contend that 1754 was the most important date in the history of this region. The building of Fort Halifax made settlements possible. To Fort Halifax the communities of Winslow, Waterville, Oakland and Fairfield owe their very existence.
Now for a new topic of local historical interest. I am told that in certain parts of the business section of Waterville are reservoirs or water storage places long ago covered up or filled in. One of these is said to have been in Post Office Square, another in castonguay Square. Who can give me information about them? Were they really large, stoned or bricked wells, fed by springs or underground veins; or were they receptacles into which water was poured and kept for use in fighting fires?
A number of persons have asked me when certain modern conveniences first appeared in Waterville. One such question is, “When did we first have city water?” Long before the splendid and epoch-making accomplishment of Harvey Eaton in forming the Kennebec Water District, assuring that what is happening to New York City in 1950 can never happen to Waterville long before that –the waterville Water Company had been formed. As early as the 1870’s the need for a supply of water beyond the private wells was keenly felt. So in March, 1881 the Legislature granted a charter to the Waterville Water Company to lay pipes and furnish water to the town. Several years went by, and the company could not come to agreement with the town on terms, especially regarding the source of supply and the service of hydrants for fire fighting.
In 1886 the town voted to accept the company’s proposal to introduce an adequate supply of water into Waterville “for the extinguishment of fires and for domestic, manufacturing and other purposes”. It was agreed that the water should be taken from Snow Pond ~n Oakland and delivered through 14 inch pipes to Pleasant Street, then graded in size so as to meet the requirements of the different streets. Finally it was agreed that the system should be finished by December 31, 1887.
But both the company and the peqple of waterville had reckoned without the folks of Oakland. The citizens of that town arose in wrath and passed the following vote: “The town of Oakland does hereby earnestly and emphatically protest against the taking of any water from Snow Pond by the Waterville Water Company, and that the selectmen b~ instructed to use every legitimate means in their power to prevent the consummation of the subtle, underhand and wicked scheme of said Water Company to rob the people of this town of their vested rights and property.
The aroused citizenry of Oakland won their fight. In 1887 a new charter was granted to the water Company, providing that they should take the water from Messalonskee Stream instead of Snow Pond. On May 5, 1887 the town of Waterville and the waterville Water Company came to an agreement, and Charles H. Redington was appointed chairman of a committee to locate fifty hydrants.
So Waterville’s first municipal water supply came from Messalonskee stream. I have found a number of citizens who, when told that fact for the first time, say they just cannot believe it. But back in 1887 people didn’t know nearly so much about contaminated water as a carrier of dread disease as they know today. Yet some of them knew enough about it to make a determined fight to substitute the pure water of China Lake for the polluted water ofMessalonskee Stream, and the victorious leader of that crusade was Waterville’s honored and greatly respected elder statesman, Harvey D. Eaton.
In his recent economic report to the Congress President Truman ~oke an emphatic word for the free enterprise system that has been the bed-rock of our American economy for two centuries. The President said: “Of all the dynamic forces of expansion in America, one of the most important is business investment. If we are going to attain the goal of a $300 billion nat~ ional income in the next five years, we must equip ourselves with more and better industrial tools.”
Unfortunately what the President did not say is that there is a definite shortage of business funds to pay for more and better industrial tools.
A careful survey of business plans for new plants an4 equipment in 1950, made by the famous McGraw-Hill Department of Economics, shows that all industry manufacturing, mining, transportation and utilities — plans to invest $12,400,000,000 in new plant and equipment this year. And that is 13% less than was actually spent in 1949. The $6,300,000,000 which the manufacturing industries alone plan to spend for new plant and equipment in 1950 is 15% less than their 1949 expenditures. With the need for more and better industrial tools clearly evident, as President Truman points out, why are the industries actually planning to ~end less?
The answer is that they cannot get the money. Most companies cannot sell new common stock except at ruinously low prices. Investment capital is not attracted.
What can be done about it? One way is to lower the taxes on business income so as to release money for new plant and equipment. Perhaps an even better way is to repeal the present double taxation of dividends, which are now taxed once as corporate income, then taxed again as personal income. Whatever method is adopted, the main point must not be overlooked. If business cannot get enough new tools, five years from now we shall have not a higher, but a definitely lower total income in the United States.
On this program we do not pretend to economic wisdom. The confusing opinions of the professional economists only confuse us the more. But old-fashioned Yankee common sense tells us that if President Truman or anyone else wants expansion of industrial plant and equipment to assure that much talked about $300 billion national income in 1955, the money must be found to make the expansion. And that: money can be found only by ploughing in the profits of industry or getting new investors to take risks which increasing government regulations make them more and more unwilling to take. It is a problem not easy of solution, but one which American ingenuity must somehow solve.
Several months ago I paid tribute to the Railway Mail Service, pointing out that two of my neighbors are retired members of that honored brotherhood.
It must have been with a feeling of sadness that the older men: of the RMS learned that this respected name would be heard no more. For on November 1, 1949 the Railway Mail Service went out of existence, and the Postal Transportation Service took its place. Thus did Uncle Sam bow to the changing times. The Air Postal Transport had grown to such proportiqns that efficiency dictated a united postal service, including both rail and air. Hence the RMS is out and PTS is in. But our reason for mentioning tonight these men who form the arteries of the postal service, whether by rail or air or any other method, is not to bemoan the passing of a name. It is rather to call attention to the stiff examinations these men must pass.
Many students in high school and college have just come through the ordeal of mid-year examinations, and the glad news or the sad news is beginning to reach the folks at home. The passing mark in most high schools is 70; in most colleges it is 60. What about the clerks of the Postal Transportation Service or the old Railway Mail Service? In the original examination for appointment they must get at least 85 in postal laws, space regulations and junction connections, and in the examination on mail routes no mark is acceptable if it is less than 97. Each clerk must learn the names and routes of from 4,000 to 8,000 different post offices.
Unlike men admitted to many other occupations, the postal transportation clerk is examined not just to get the job, but repeatedly at intervals while he is on the job. He must not get rusty or careless. Records of the Post Office Department show that, on every such examination wbile in service, almost all regular clerks made a:: grade better than 99, and some of them hit a full 100 over and over again.
OUr young people are irritated by examinations. They want to know what is the sense of such terrible ordeals. Perhaps many a teacher is hard pressed to give boys ·and girls an acceptable answer. But not so the Post Office Department. Just because Uncle Sam requires that 97% of perfection in frequent examinations, your letter, however crudely addressed and wherever mailed, seldom goes astray. In the shortest possible time it is delivered to the person for whom you intended it.
Of course the transportation men do not deserve all of the credit for this achievement. The men and women in the post offices, from the tiny hamlets to the big cities, the postmen who trudge weary miles over icy and slushy streets, the rural carriers who encounter every hazard of tricky weather all these efficient, 10yal people play their part so that “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor cold, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
Year: 1950