Radio Script #131

Little Talks On Common Things
January 13, 1952

It looks as if we are In for another round in the spiral of inflation, as wages and prices chase each other upward. As raises and bonuses go to Industrial workers, it Is hard for the boss to get any credit for the raJ1se. All the boss does Is pay the bill. Because of recent federal laws, it Is no longer possible for an employer, with a union in his plant, to pay a Christmas bonus of his own free will. He cannot raise wages, share profits, or pass out other benefits to his workers on his own volition. He must first consult the union. If he doesn’t, he may find the government on his neck. It Is even questionable whether an employer can present Christmas hams or turkeys to his employees. It all depends on how the NUB interprets its atn rulings. The ruling says an employer is free to make a genuine Christmas gift, but It does not say how much he can spend for It before he begins to break the ru les.

A genul ne ra i se can a Iso get an emp lover in wrong with NU~. I f wage ta I ks are deadlocked, he cannot give a pay raise untl I the deadlock Is broken. Even a raise required by law to meet the minimum pay rule of the Wage-Hour Act may have to be discussed with the union. More than once the NUB has Insisted that, before bringing the pay rate up to the 75 cent minimum, the employer must first notify the union, thus giving the union a chance to get credJet for the raise. Now this radio program is not opposed to organized labor. We believe that organizations of workers and organizations of employers are both Justified In our modern industrial society. What we are talking about is the increasing tendency for government to give all the benefits to one side. Equal treatment of both employers and workers Is the only hope of halting the upward inflation sp I ra I of wages and prl ces.

This program devotes so much time to the good old days, f suppose many of you think I long for those old days to return again. Not so, I assure you. The other night, as I was putting up my car, I thought how simpler It was than put.,. tl ng up my veh I cle of 40 years ago. I wou Id get tack from that 01 d grocery route from Bridgton to Sandy Creek after seven o’clock, and before I could have my supper I must wash off the ice-crusted fetlocks of the horse, put a double blanket on him, warm h Is mash and feed h 1m. Then I must water him and bed him· down before I could go to bed myself, completely exhausted — because that old nag and I had started out together at ha I f past s r x on that wi nter morn I ng.

An automobile eats a lot when it Is traveling, but It doesn’t eat and doesn’t need bedding down when Its trip is done. What Is more, a horse wasn’t something you could park like a car beside the curb and, barring thieves, be sure to find It when you returned. You had to tie a horse to a hitching post or a tree, and If you tried the latter, the tree’s atner might sue you for damages, for, un” ke a car, a horse will gnaw at a tree trunk. And the 01 d-sty Ie hi teh”, Ing weight wasn’t always securllty. We had one old gray mare who would drag a twelve pound weight with her mouth, a quarter of a mile while the driver was deIi verlng a sing Ie basket of groceries. How would the average citizen of 1952 like to go back to the days of perpendicular roads, unmanageable horses, and the occasional hazard of parachutI ng out of the wagon seat? A II was not s unsh I ne and roses I n the good 0 I d days. Nevertheless we are going to keep right on talking about some of the interesting happenings of the long, long ago.

Last week we told you about the building of the Canada Road from The Forks to the Canadian line above Jackman. That leads us to a discussloo of some of the old stage routes and highway connect ions I n other parts of Maine before the comi ng of the ra II roads. You wi II reca II that I t was not unt, I 1842 that the railroad reached Portland, six years later when it got as far as Lewiston, and almost exactly the mid-century, December 1849, when it reached Watervi lie.

By what routes did people travel early in the century? That 1813 almanac, to which I referred a few weeks ago, gives the route from Portland to Caratunk Falls, and it is quite a different route from the way one would travel between the two places today. It didn’t go anywhere near either Brunswick or Lewiston. It went from Portland to Falmouth to Gray, then to New Gloucester, Poland and Minot. From there it went to Tumer, Livermore and Jay; then to Wi I ton ,and Farmington; then to Mercer and St)arks, and on to Norridgewock, Anson and Caratunk Falls. Notice that the route never crossed the Kennebec, but kept west of the rive r a I I the way.

The most favored route from Boston to Bangor was called the Upper Road. It went through Medford, ~ading, Andover, Haverhl II, Plaistow, KI ngston and Exeter — a common route today — then across to Portsmouth, by fe rry ove r the PI scataqua to Kittery, and over the old post road through York, Wells, Kennebunk, Saco and Scarboro to Portland. Then It followed the st! II well known route to Falmouth, North Yannouth, Freeport, Brunswick, Topsham, Bowdoin, Gardiner, Hallowell and Augusta. But it did_not pass tlirough ~elther’-Waterville or Winslow. At Vassalboro it turned east to Harlem (what Is now called China Village), from there to Fa i rfax (modem A Ib Ion), then to Un Ity, then over the Di xmont Hi 115 to Hampden and Bangor. The distance from Boston to Bangor by that route was 234 mi les.

By 1813, however, the almanac was announcfng that the best road from Boston to Portland was not the Upper Road, but a newer route, past Lynnfield Hotel, Topsfield Hotel, Newburyport, Hampton Falls, Greenland, Dover, Somersworth, Berwick, ():)UghTY’S Fa lis, We lis, Kennebunk, Saco and Stroudwater — 112 mi les from Boston to Portland — almost exactly the mi leage of the old Eastern Division of the Boston and Ma i ne • As long ago as 1813, seven years before it became a separate state, Maine was al ready prosperous. Its seven banks had capital of $1,320,000. Its 87 post offices did a good business. Education had taken finn hold, for there were already 19 academies, situated at Berwick, Limerick, Portland, Bridgton, Gorham, Wiscasset, Warren, Newcastle, Bath, Hampden, Be I fast, BI ueh III, Fryeburg, Hebron, Hallowell, Bloomfield, Monmouth, and Farmington. In that part of Massachusetts whf,ch is In the territory of the present Commonwea Ith, there were 14 counties and 296 tams in 1813. It Is a I most incredible to note that Maine then had more than two thirds as many towns, 204, and more than half as many counties, eight. Every Maine school chIld knows that our state now has sixteen counties. What were the eight counties In 18131 They were, in order fran the New Hampshi re border, York, Cumberland, Uncoln, Oxford, Kennebec, Somerset, Hancock and Washington.

Kennebec County then had 31 towns, the names of some of which sound very strange 10 modem ears. Yes — rl ght here In Kennebec County were the towns of Dearborn, Fairfax, Harlem, Kingsville and Malta. In 1813 Kennebec also includedsome of the prominent towns now in Franklin County1: Farmington, Wi Iton, Cheste rvi lie and Temp Ie. Travel was so difficult in 1813 that the county courts were held not merely at the county seats, but at several places In each county. In Kennebec, for instance, 1813 sessions of court were scheduled for Augusta, Monmouth, Mt. Vernon, Readfield, Waterville, Winslow and Vassalboro. The Somerset courts sat at Norridgewock and Canaan, not at Bloomfield — for Norridgewock was then the county seat. The Lincoln county courts were widely scattered, sitting at Wiscasset, Newcastle, Wa I doboro, Warren, Dresden, Bath and Topsham.

Some of those old academies mentioned In 1813 were sti II going strong half a century later. In that 1860 directory we referred to a few weeks ago is an advertisement of Gorham Seminary — a gl rls’ school fomed to comp lement the old Gorham Academy. That old academy building, by the way, stili stands, pretty m\JCh Intact, on the grounds of the present State Teachers College at Gorham.That 1861 seminary ad Is quaintly fascinating. listen:

‘~y an aCT of the last legislature the Maine Female Seminary and Gorham Ma Ie Academy have become one Inst Itutlon known as Gorham Seminary. The seminary bui Iding wi II, as heretofore, be a boarding school for· young ladies, as the union is to effect only recitations and other general exercises. The building Is heated ent Ire Iy by furnaces, from wh Ich hot at r Is takeD–to each r:oom separate Iy, thus obviating the {nconvenience of stoves, and securing a more equable and more healthy temperature. The school year Is divided into four terms of eleven weeks each. J. B. Webb, principal. tt

After the rai I road was pushed beyond Port land Into Central Maine, the ads proudly announced how fast a person could go from one point to another. In that 1860 directory a Boston and Maine ad said: “Portland and Boston. Two trains dally In each direction. Leave Portland 8:45 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.; leave Boston 7:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.” Now qet this: “On Saturdays passengers on the 2:30 t ra I n from Boston can go as far as Augusta the same night.”

But in 1860 the favorite mode of travel between Maine and Boston was not ra i I road but steamboat. The Portland and Boston Steamboat Line advertised its three new sea-golng steamers, the Forest City, the Lewiston and the Montreal. The fare between Portland and Boston was $1.25 In cabin, $1 .00 on deck. Even 1860, to say nothing of 1813, was before the days of Standard Time.

That 1860 dl rectory gives the follOo·ling local time as faster than Port I and time: Augusta 1 minute, 39 seconds; Watervl lie 2 minutes, 16 seconds; Bangor 5 minutes, 50 seconds; Houlton 9 minutes, 32 seconds; and Eastport 13 minutes, 10 seconds. Even Cape Elizabeth’s and Yarmouth’s ti~s are glwn as different fran Portland’s, the former 13 seconds faster, the latter 16 se:conds •. -~,– .. –:f- Of times given as slower than Portland, Saeo was 44 seconds, KennebUnk 55 seconds, with Boston s lower by 3 minutes, 15 seconds.

My native town of Bridgton, according to the statistics in the 1860 directory, had lost population in the ten years since 1850, failing from 2,710 to 2,558. But the 01 d town had 402 oxen as compared wi th 232 horses and 597 mi Ik cows. Watervi I Ie, on the other hand, had Increased its population from 3,900 to 4,400. It was one of The few towns east of Portland that, In 1860, had more horses than oxen — 370 to 340. It had not so many milk cows as had Bridgton, only 589, but It raised nearly three times Bridgton’s production of wool 8,867 pounds to 2,300. Watervi lie just edged out frriI native town in the production of cheese, 10,500 pounds to 10,395. But Bridgton was ahead In the produc-i tlon of butter, 54,785 pounds to 53,105.

A tremendous amount of butter came from those 01 d farm chums In 1860. I became curious to see wh I ch was the I argest butter-producing town at that time In Maine. You would never guess. It was the tiny town of Greenwood — a tewn which many central Maine people have never heard of,-though many folks know two of the town’s vUlages, BryanT’s Pond and Locke’s Mills. Yes, it is the little town between Paris and Bethel. That town of Greenwood, which had only 878 people in 1860, produced and marketed 171,828 pounds of butter in a single year, 195 pounds for every man, woman and chi Id in the town. Second came Waldoboro with 129,000pounds; third was Augusta wiTh 107,000. Then came Wells, over in York County, with 95,000; Then Gorham with 91,000; and sixth was Vassalboro with 84,000. Those six towns alone pnoduced 678,000 pounds of butter.

Year: 1952