Radio Script #140
Little Talks On Common Things,
March 16, 1952
Peop Ie are getting rightly concerned about the vast number of federa I employees. Not counting the men and women in the uniforms of the Army, Navy and Air Force, there were 14,365,785 persons on the federal payroll when the fiscal year closed last June. In the eighT months since June the number has risen to 15 million. Think of it — one person in every ten men, women and chi Idren In the whole United States are work i ng for the fede ra I government.
When we say federal government, everyone thinks of the big army of government workers in Washington. What many of us do not realize is that not more than one out of 60 federal employees works in Washington. In fact there are more people on Uncle Sam’s payroll in Cal ifornia than there are in the national capita,l. The number of persons now on the government payro II is one-fourth of the number of voters in the last presidential election. When one out of every four voters Is worki ng at taxpayers I expense, we have come to a sorry pass in our American economy.
Don’t you think it is time we did something about It?
LasT week we told you a bit about Waterville in 1909. What about the whole State of Maine at that time, 43 years ago? The Governor, Bert M. Fernald, had a salary of $3,000. The Attorney General, who was Warren Philbrook of Waterville, was paid better than the Governor. He got $4,000. The State Treasurer got $2,000 and the Secretary of State had the princely salary of $1,200. The Commissioner of Education was then called the State Superintendent of Schools. His pay was $2,500, and his deputy received $1,500. The Superintendent of the State School for Boys got $1,000, the Warden of the State Prison $2,500, the State Librarian $1,500, the Superintendent of the Insane Hospital $2,000.
In 1909 the largest number of members in any Protestant denomination was claimed not by Methodists or Baptists, as one might suppose, but by the Congregationalists.The 1909 Maine Register tells us that there were then in the state 263 Congregational churches with 22,000 members; 239 Baptist churches with 21,000; and 316 Methodist churches with 18,000. The Methodists therefore had the most churches, but were third In number of members. There were in the state 113 Roman Catholic churches with 120,000 parishioners, which cannot fairly be compared with the Protestant figures because of the different methods of recording members and pa r I sh i one rs •
Although a/ways a minority, the Quakers were more numerous than the Unitarians In 1909, and nearly as numerous as the Advents. There were 24 organized Friends Meetings with 1,800 members. The annual fairs were going strong 43 years ago. There were fifty different county and district agricultural societies, among them four that I remember very well: Bridgton, Cornish, Fryeburg and Norway. We a Iways called the latter the Norway Fair, although’ believe its proper title was always the Oxford County Fair, and I think its fair grounds were originally as much in South Paris as in Norway. At least they are right on the line between the two towns.
In 1909 the big fairs were three: the Maine State Fair at Lewiston, the Eastern Maine Fair at Bangor, and the Central Maine Fair at Watervi lIe. The Watervi lie Fair was then held for four days, from August 31 through September 3. Martin Bartlett was president and George Fuller was secretary. Waterville was we II represented in the state ranks of fraterna I orders 43 years ago. Warren Phi I brook was Deputy Grand Commander of the Masonic Commandery. Walter E. Reid, remembered best as the benefactor of the Waterville Fire Department and the donor of the new state park at the mouth of the Kennebec, was then Commander of the Maine Brigade of the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias, and Edgar Brown was its Assistant Adjutant General. Miss Maude Merrick was state president of the Woman’s Relief Corps of the GAR. W. I. Sterling was Grand Counci Ilor of the Good Templars, and the Grand Vice-Templar was Mrs. E. G. flIes. W. J. Thompson of Ch ina was then, as he was many years afterward, Lecturer of the State Grange. The State YMCA, with its state office then as now in Watervil Ie, had the beloved Uncle Jeff Smith as state secretary, William Bowen as field secretary, and Clarence Robinson as boys’ and students’ secretary.
Horace Purinton was treasurer of the Maine Sunday School Association and was also president of the Maine Bible Society. Rev. C. E. Owen was superintendent of the Maine Anti-Saloon League, whJle H. N. Pringle and Wi Ibur F. Berry were joint secretaries of the Christian Civic League. The Maine branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution was headed by Miss Louise Coburn of Skowhegan. Hascall Hall was secretary of the Maine Bankers Association, and Dr. Claire Brown was vice-president of the Maine Osteopathic Society.
In all the years from 1820 to 1909 Waterv! lie had produced no governor for Maine. Our honored Governor Haines came later. In 1909 Wi Illam T. Haines Is named in the Maine Register as attorney for the Maine Sportsmen’s Fish and Game Association. In 1909 Watervi lie was represented in the legislature by two Democrats, J. L. Fortier and Wi Illam R. Pattangall. At that time the Democrats were relatively stronger in the legislature than they are now. The Knox County delegation. one senator and seven representatives, was comp letely Democratic. In the House Penobscot had twelve Democrats and five RepUblicans. lincoln County was evenly divided, two and two. The total representation was in the Senate 23 Republicans and 8 Il3mocrats; I n the House 99 Repub Ilcans and 52 Democrats. Waterville was well represented In the State MiliTia. On the staff of the Adjutant General Elliott C. Di II were Lt. Col. Matthew Goodrich and Captain James F. Hill. Waterville’s own militia company, Company H of the 2nd Maine Infantry, was headed by Captain Harold Pepper. Its fi rst I ieutenant was Will iam Murray and the second lieutenant was Ralph Thompson of Fairfield.
I wonder how many of the old farmers’ line telephone compan les stll I operate in Maine. I believe the Sidney line is sti II locally owned, and we have all seen the nation-wide publicity given to the farmers’ line in Franklin County, where you can phone from Farmington to Rangeley, or from Kingfield to Phillips, without paying a toll charge. It would be Interesting to know how many other such lines are s t I II go i ng • There were a lot of them in 1909. Bridgton had the Ossipee Val ley line; Belgrade and Rome had the Northeastern. Readfield had two lines: the Readfield Telephone Company and the Crosby Telephone Company. Waterv! I Ie, Oak land and Fa i rf i e I d were already part of the New Eng land system, but operating private Iy were the Ch ina Telephone Company, the Athens Te lephone Company, the Hebron Te lephone Company, and the Sweden Telephone Company. The Maine Telephone Company operated in Skowhegan, Madison and Hinckley. Then there were companies named for the towns they connected, as the New Portland and Eustis, and the New Sharon and Norridgewock. One of ‘ the m<hst interesting of the loca I I ines was cal led the Van Te lephone Company of Bethe I • I ts manager had an almost unp ronounceab Ie name of 15 lette rs, Vandenkerkhoven. So inevitably the line was named the Van Telephone Company.
think the town of Paris took the prize for different telephone lines in 1909. Operating in that town were no fewer than eleven different phone companies: the Maine, the Citizens, the Greenwood, the Norway Local, the Oxford, the Curtis Hi II,the Paris” the Andrews, the Greenwood Valley, the Pleasant Pond, and the Union Va I ley. Watervi I Ie was well represented in state and county government In 1909. Not only was Warren Philbrook the attorney general; Colby Getchell was county sheriff, and his local deputy was John Davison. Harold E. Cook was judge of probate. E. P. Mayo was Inspector of Prisons and Jai Is; Charles F. Johnson, later U. S. Senator and federal judge, was on the Board of Legal Examiners; and A. Joly was one of the veteri nary examiners.
The cause of political socialism never had many followers in Maine. The great socialist, Eugene Debs, though he secured a rather sizable national vote, got only 1,758 votes for president in Maine in 1908, whi Ie Wi II iam Jennings Bryan 90t 35,000 and Wi I Ii am Howard Taft 67,000. The Socialist candidate for governor didn’t do so well in September as Debs did two months later. Perry, who wanted to be a socialist governor of Maine, got only 1,416 votes. Ames, the Prohibition candidate, got 5 more votes, 1,421. The Prohibition strength was greatest in Cumberland, York and Aroostook, and was weakest In Waldo, Hancock and WaShington. Outside of Portland, which had 103 Prohibition votes in the September election, the largest Prohibition votes were 39 in Bangor, 26 In Houlton, 25 In Bath, 29 in Auburn, 29 in Westbrook, 26 in Berwick and 25 in Kennebunk. As is sti II usual In a state election, Watervl lie went Democratic in 1908. Obadiah Gardner, the great Granger, carried the city with 1,253 votes. More than 400 behind ran Bert Fernald, the Republican, with 807 votes. We wonder what happened to keep so rreny Watervi I Ie voters, especia Ily Democrats, at home when the vote was cast for Presi dent in November; for then Taft carried the ci ty over Bryan 906 to 640.
There is another curious thing about that presidential election in Maine. It concerns the Socialist vote. Except for Portland, the largest Socialist vote was cast in Madison, where 86 ballots were for Debs. He got only 15 votes in Waterville, only 33 in Skowhegan, and only 24 in Anson. What accounts for that big vote in Madison?
Thanks to Mr. Percival Wyman I now know the names and locations of the many rai I roads that were later consolidated into the Maine Central system. Mr. W)lman himself made, many years ago, an engineer’s map of Maine with all the rai I roads carefully marked, together with the dates of their charters.
Believe it or not, “there were 58 different charters granted the rai I roads that later came to be known as the Ma ine Centra 1. Th i rteen of those roads were chartered before the Civil War, and their names are worth knowing. The first railroad was chartered in Maine actua Ily seven years before the I ine from Boston reached Portland in 1842, and that first charter was granted, not for a rai I road near Portland, but in the distant extreme corner of the state. It was the Calais Rai Iway Company, chartered to bui Id a line from Calais to Milltown. The Portland and Kennebec, authorized to but Id from Portland to Augusta, got Its charter in 1836, but did not bui Id until much later. The Penobscot and Kennebec, from Watervi lie to Bangor, got Its charter in 1845; the Androscoggin and Kennebec, fran Port … ,< land to Watervi lie via Lewiston, In 1848; and the Somerset and Kennebec, from Augusta to Skowhegan via Watervil Ie, in 1848. Then In 1849 came the charters of the Penobscot, Lincoln and Kennebec, and the Calais and Baring. In 1850 came the charter of the first road to go beyond the Canadian border, the European and North American, over whose roadbed stili go international trains like the Gull. In 1853 came the Dexter and Newport; in 1854 the Lewis Island Rai I road from Baring to Princeton; In 1857 the Port land and Oxford Centra I from Buckfle Id to Canton; and in 1860 the Somerset Rai I road from Oakland to North Anson. That completed the thirteen rail roads chartered in Maine between 1835 and 1860.
Some of the rai I roads, long since forgotten by most people, were the branch of the European and North American from Orono to Stillwater, another branch from Enfield to Montague. Then In the western part of the state there was the line from Rumford to Roxbury and the separate road that once ran from Canton to Gi Ibertsvi lie. Except for my favorite narrow guage, the Bridgton and Saco River, the rai I road knew best as a boy was the Portland and Ogdensburg, now the Mountain Division of the Maine Central. Its first charter, authorizing it to bui Id from Portland to the New Hampshire line between Fryeburg and Conway, was issued In 1867, and two years later it was chartered on to Lunenburg, Vermont, then finally to St. Johnsbury. Three years ago, when we were talking a lot about narrow guage railroads, told you thaT seven dl fferent roads made up what eventually came to be Maine’s longesT narrow guage line, the S~ndy River and Rangeley Lakes. What I did not know at thaT time, and what Mr. Wyman’s map has now set straight for me and you, is that it took 13 different charters to build that system of narrow guage tracks north of Farmington.
First was the Sandy River Railroad, chartered In 1879 from Farmington to Phillips. Then in 1884 came the Franklin and Megantic from Strong to Kingfield, and in 1889 the Phi’ I ips and Rangeley, between those two towns. In 1893 the Kingfield and Dead River got a I ine from Kingfield to Carrabasset, in 1900 extended It from Carrabasset to Bigelow, and In 1906 built from Kingfield to Alder Stream. In 1902 a separaTe road from Ph il lips to No.6 was chartered under the name of the Madri d Railroad, and in 1903 the Eustis Rai I road got rights from Eustis Junction to Green’s Farm. In 1906 the Phillips and Rangeley built a branch from Rangeley to Marbles.
It was not ,until 1909 that a road named the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes took out its first two charters, one for a line from Brackett Junction to Littlefield, and the other from Mt. Abram Junction to Mount Abram. Three years later, in 1912, it got two more charters, from Perham J unct i on to Barrytown and from Madri d V’id I age to Log Landing. From that modest beginning of four tiny branches, the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes grew unti I it had absorbe9 rights and roll jng stock of all the other nine charters, and the whole road was just the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes, In 1922 — the winter of tremendous storms, bitter cold, and a paralyzing coal strike — I spent one long day on that Sandy River line. In the midst of a bl Izzard much I ike the one we had a month ago, that little train finally struggled through from Strong to Kingfield only seven hours late. And how proud that engine crew was when they learned that the big Maine Csntral locomotive on the evening train into Farmington cou I dn ‘t get through unti I the next morn Ing.
Last week we menti oned a number .of bus lness firms now operating in Watervi lie which were dOing business under the same name in 1909. We probably made more than one omission, but we are aware of only one, and we want to make that correction tonight. In 1909 Charles Pomerleau was d.oing a market business in two locations, 22 Ticonic Street and 113 Water Street. So we are glad to add P.omerleau’s Market to the list.
We certainly owe an apclcgy to one .of Watervi lie’s leading attcrneys. We asked last week if any lawyer practicing here in 1909 was sti I I active except Mr. Harvey Eaton and Mr. Carrol I Perkins. We have no excuse fcr overlooking Mr. Frank Plumstead, but we do have a rather weak explanation. Among the law firms listed in the 1909 Register is Pattangall and PII.umstead, 82 Ma,ln;Street. In running cur eye dCltln the list we caught the Pattangal I, but missed the Plumstead. Tonight we are glad tc give Mr. Plumstead recognition along with Mr. Eaton and Mr. Perkins.
New for our last week’s questicn about the Kennebec tcwns. All the way from Bewdoinham to Fairfield, why are the larger tCltlns .on the west bank of the river? I have found that there is .one man in our community whc has more detai led informa”:’t i .on about the tcpography and the industria I deve Icpment of the Kennebec Va lIey than any other man, because as a civil engineer he has walked ever almost every foot of the Kennebec I ands and has po led or padd led up every stream big enough to take a canoe. Sc I was nct surprised to have Harry Green te II me just why the big tewns a re on the west side .of the ri ver.
Mr. Green pcints out that the streams wi th fa lis .of any consequence enter the river from the west. He says not unti I 1907 was the dam at Winslow built across the Sebasticeok; that previous to that date there was ne water power on that stream between Fort Ha I i fax and Bentcn Fa I Is. On the othe r hand the Messa lonskee ~- former Iy ca lied the Emerson Erook or Emerson Stream — had two sharp drops close to its junction with the Kennebec and other falls nearer Oakland. Altogether the descent from Messa I onskee Lake to the Kennebec is severa I hundred feet. The early settlers did not bui Id mi I Is at first on the big rivers. The small grist mills and saw mi lis, and the family industries which developed — like the beginning of the Watervi lie Iron Works, for instance were started on the smaller streams, where dams could be built with minimum expense and where there was not too much water. It is therefore the Messa lonskee Stream that is respons i b Ie for the industrial development of Watervi I Ie beyond that of the mother town of Winslow. And, says Mr. Green, you wi II find the same explanation for Gardiner, Hallowell and Augusta.
Now notice this. After you leave Fairtf-eld, going up the river, the location of the larger villages is exactly the opposite. The larger, part of Skowhegan, and all of Madison, Solon and Bingham are on the east side of the river. Does Mr. Green’s explanation of the lower Kennebec towns apply to them? Who knows?
Year: 1952