Radio Script #159
Little Talks On Common Things
October 26, 1952
first of alf tonight let us straighten out the facts about Maine’s mountains and lakes. The lake question is easy to dispose of. Several listeners have cal led me or wri tten me that they be I leve Moose lookmegunti cis our th i rd largest lake. They are wrong. The .thlrd 1ake is Ghesuncook. Here are the figures: first Moosehead, 117 square mi les; Sebago, 44.8 square mi les; Ghesuncook, 38 square mi les; MooselookmegunticJO 26 square mi les.
My question about mountains has stirred upa controversy, and what I supposed was our second highest mountain proves not even to be among The first five. I t never occurred to me that I nformat ion about Ma I ne mounta I ns pub I i shed 25 years ago could be hopele?sly inaccurate, but so it proves. In 1928 Harry Cee,. th.en secretary of the Maine Publicity Bureau, published a work in several volumes called “Maine — a History Resources, Attractions, and Its Pe6p lell •
On page 7 of Vot. 1 of that work Goe said: HMaine’s second highest peak is ‘;” ‘” ., a long distance from Katandih, way over in the Rangeley Lake region. It is SaddlebackMountain”lh1-he township of Macfrid, 4,456 feet in height. The third highest is towering Old Spec in Grafton Notch, 4,150 feet. There are 15 moun+{~i tains in ~~aine over 3,000 feet!n b~ight.tr
Apparently the method of measuring mountain heights has been impnoved since 1928, or else somebody did a lot of guessing to provide Harry Goe with his figures. He had.Saddleback too high by 350 feet. The Official State Highway Map of 1952 gives second place among Maine mountains to Sugarloaf, 4,237 feet … – a peak which Gee didn’t even mention. It is indeed not far from Saddleback, in the Rangeley region, but it is 121 feet higher. Third in height, just as Goe said, is Old Spec. Instead of Maine having only 15 mountains over 3,000 feet, there are actually 22, seven of which are over 4,000 feet. Of those seven, five are close together in the Rangeley region: Sugarloaf, Crocker, Bigelow. Saddleback and Abraham. It was from Cae’s book also that I got the statement that only five Maine mountains have Indian names. He said they were Katahdin, Kineo, Kenneba90, ~.!Je .• 9 unt kook and Wassateq u i ck.
Now on the 1952 highway map I can’t find l\fegunticook and Wassataquick at all. But I do find six mountains not mentioned by Coo which have what I be·~ lieve to be Indian names. They are Musquacook in Aroostook County, Mattawisconti 5 and Musquash in Penobscot ,Az i seoos j n Oxford ,and Ossipee and Agament icus in York. 1 n the future I must be careful not to take as present-day facts of geography what I read in books 25 years old.
~~e have sa i d so much about the huge nati anal debt, the heavy fede rat taxes, and the exhorbitant government spending, that you may think we are incl ined to b I arne a II our troub les on Wash i ngton. But that is not true. A lot of th is tax'” at i on p rob I em hits much nearer home.
Every year the state governments in our 48 states are tak ing more and more money from the taxpayers’ pockets. For every dollar that the average taxpayer paid to support his state government in 1940, he now pays $2.50. Since 1946, when World ~/ar II was allover, state taxes across the nation have more than doubled. Last year the total amountcolleded in state taxes exceeded ten bi II i on do I I a rs •
Yet that huge sum was not sufficient to pay the bi Iisin our states. Excactlythree- quarters of the states, 36 out of the 48 .• fai led to balance their budgets in fiscal 1951. State debts have jumped since 1946 from two and a half TO four and a ha I f bi , I Jon.
How does Maine compare with the other states in respect to state taxes? In per capita taxation we hit almost exactly the national average. Over the whole nation the states collect an average of $64 for every man, woman and chi Id in the population. Maine’s per capita state tax last year was $63.04. It is worth noting that thirty states have a higher per capita tax than Ma ine, and on Iy seventeen states a lower tax. We have togo to the far Northwest to find the highest per capita state tax. In the state of Washington it i5$102.72. Louisiana is second with $102.70. Those are the only states with per capita taxation more than one hundred dollars.
In total dollars per year, the largest amount is not collected by New York, as you might suspecT, but by.California. That state takes in from its taxpayers $1,064,000,000 a year. In per capita collection it stands third, with $96.51 for every person in the state. Surprisingly the state with lowest per capita is New Jersey, $35.83 com-pared with f..1aine t s $63.04. Nebraska’s per capita is only $41, and Alabamals $43. In total amount of money annually collected in state taxes, Maine stands 37th among the 48 states. Highest, as we have sa i d, is Ca Ii forn j a, and lowest is Nevada.
Our i n9 recent years s tate taxes have so expanded that they now reach into many areas of life. The sales tax is so new in Maine that it may surprise you to learn that sales taxes prov! de the biggest revenue for the states taken as a w~ole — $2?200,OOO.OOO. Second come gasol ine taxes, accounting for $1,900,000,000. Automobile and operators I icenses bring in $900,000,000.
Especially interesting is the fact that personal income taxes provide the states with no more money than do auto licenses — $900,000 , 000. The states have clearly found that sales taxes bring much better revenue than do income taxes. Finally here is a bit of informatfon that came to me as a shock. Taking our 48 states as a whole, more money comes into the state treasury from another source than comes from auto licenses, state Income taxes, I iquor and tobacco taxes, or property taxes. What 1s that source? It Is inheritance taxes. That source of taxation was the only one except sales and gasoline taxes which yie I ded more than a b I II Ion do liars last year. I n fact one dollar in every e I ght,;collected by the states came from lnherl tance taxes.
Did you Know that there was once a plan for an elaborate system of canals in Maine? The famous Erie Canal, completed in 1825, started a canal-building craze a II over the country.
As early as 1826 John Holmes, U. S. Senator from Maine, submitted a re- . solve in the Senate, instructing the Committee on Roads and Canals to inquire about the expediency of a survey to provide a canal to unite the waters of the Kennebec and the Androscoggin with Casco Bay as wei I as the possible uniting of the Kennebec a nd the Chaud i ere.
On June 24, 1826 the Kennebec Journal stated in an editorial: “The union of the Kennebec, Penobscot and Chaudlere may be regarded as a nationa I project and may receive national encouragement, if our state legislature shows sufficient spirit, and if they do not, as so often happens, order us to advance backwards In the march of improvement. ~I
Governor Albion K. Parris was an ardent supporter of the canal project. In a message to the Legislature in the winter of 1826 he said: “The faci lity with . which some of our large rivers may be rendered boatable to a great distance above tide water challenges us to action. Without great expenditure, the Kennebec can be made navigable to a considerable distance within Somerset County, perhaps even to The Forks. There is a/feady a continued chain of water communication, with the exception of twomi les, from Bangor through the interior to the waters of the St. John.”
In March, 1826 the Committee on Roads and Canals of the national Congress reporJed favorably on the great project to connect Interior Maine with Canada·by canal s. Sa I d the report: “The numerous and large lakes. wh i ch abound at the height of land, where the Chaudlere and the Kennebec approach each other, leave no doubt that it is practicable to connect them so as to accompl ish continuous inland navigation from Quebec, to the Atlantic. The Kennebec Is already capable of sloop navigation to Augusta; thence It is navigable for’ boats to Watervl lie. Ttlence it is only 50 mi les to the Chaudiere.”
Soon a number of canal projects, large and small, were being ardently proposed. One was designed to connect Brunswick with Casco Bay; another to connect the Androscoggin and the Kennebec at the r r upper waters; another from Gardiner to Winthrop and on to the Androscoggin via Wayne Pond and Dead River. Sti II another was the so-called Seboomook Sluiceway — a proposed cana I to connect Moosehead Lake with the Penobscot, at a point off the northwest angle of the lake where the river is nearly twelve feet higher than the lake. The purpose was to divert timber Into the lake and thence Into Kennebec waters and thus avoid what the cana lads of the time ca lied “the long, d Iff icu It, and expensive driving” down the Penobscot.
But It Is :, the canal plan for the Upper Kerinebec Tn which we are most in.,. terested tonight. Early in 1827 the Kennebec Journal launched a vigorous campaign for opening up the Kennebec to navigation all the way to Skowhegan. The river then reached Its head of tide at the foot of Cushnoc Rips just above Augusta. There it was proposed to bui Id the first dam and lock. As most of you know, a lock was actually built there, enabling fairly large boats to make the trip to Watervil Ie and making our city a prominent shlp-bui Iding center in the 1830’s and 1840’s.
The plan called for another lock at Tlconic Falls, and another at the Great Eddy just below Skowhegan, and dams at the eollege;~R.fps:~t Watervi lie and at Kendal Is Mills. The College Rips were the rapids near the present Maine Central carshops; and Kendal Is Mi lis was of course fairfield Vi Ilage. The Kennebec Journal went all out for this plan. ORe of its numerous editorials on the sub …. ject said: “With two dams and three locks, the heaviest loaded boats may ascend a nd descend from T j coni c Bay to the Great Eddy, 250 rods be I ow Skowhegan Fa I Is. There a lock, construct.ed at sma II expense, w I II ra i se boats the 19 feet f nto Morse’s Mill Pond. Thence is smooth and uninterrupted navigation to Norridgewock Vi Ilage. ”
The Kennebec Journal admitted the di ff iculty of computing accurate Iy the cost of construct i on • “In this part 0f the country”,i t noted, “we lack experience iii constructing locks. Much depends on the sol idity and elegance of the work. lfbuilt wholly of granite in even dimensions, laid in lOne mortar arid secured by iron fastenings, a year’s revenue .in the whole state woul d hardly pay the bi I I.. But substantial structures of timber can be bui It at relatively I ittle expense. Wooden dams can be bu i It at College Rl ps and Kendal Is Mills for $600 each. A substantial lock and gates should not exceed $2,000. Surely such expense is within the abi I Ity of the state and county to pay.”
The State of Maine once.9stablished a lottery to finance a canal, and it . turned out . that it was the on I y cana I actual I y bu.1 I tin Ma i ne, except for the shorter cana I s wi th in single mun i cipal i ties, such as those in Lewi ston and Ban~} gor. That lottery sponsored canal was the Cumberland and Oxford, the old canal which connected the City of Portland with Sebago Lake, along the course of the Presumpscott River. You have heard me speak of that canal before on this pro …. gram. I n my boyhood days it had a I ready been abandoned, but my father reme m~ti)~· bered It well. He always cal led it the Presumpscott Canal, and it was over its waters the huge hogsheads of rum and molasses were transported to the old Dixie Stone store in Bridgton. Over that canal traveled the five hogsheads of Jamaica rum which have always suspected of playing a partin a Baptist convention in Bridgton In 1838.
That cana lout of Sebago Lake was qui te a project for a time II ke 1830. It cost $206,000, $136,000 of which was raised by the lottery. Folks in many small communities yearned also for better transportation. China Village, strategically sJ:tuated on its big lake, developed several schemes, the most I ikely of which was to connect with the Kennebec at Gardiner. Butnothing came of it, and noth,Jng came of all the other Maine projects — more than fifty of them. Fate had decreed otherwise: Neither the Chaudiere and the Kennebec, nor the Kennebec and the Androscoggin wou Id ever be connected by canals. No lock would be bui It at Ticonic falls •. Boats would not be lifted the 19 feet from the foot of Skowhegan Fa 115 to Morse’s Mf II Pond. What hapo:.. pened?
Surely you know the answer. It was the coming and rap I dexpansion of the i ron horse on iron ra i Is. In 1842 the ra i I road reached Port I and _ Sma Iler lines were alieady open between Bangor and Old Town and between Middle Falls and Machiasport in.Washington County. In 1848 the Atlantic and St. lawrence opened to Danville Junction. In 1849 the Androscoggin and Kennebec reached Watervi lie. The rai I road had come to stay_ The canals were doomed. 1 uOth Br-oadcasT
Do ‘lOU rec: r ize that one dol fer out of ever”y six paid in w2Iqes 01- sedar”ies a I i over the Un i ted States now goes to a qovernment worker? One civi Ilan out of every ten now worl~s for the government. :’lore than t’l’!enty mi II ion ,A,mericans uiar!y receive government checks — for” wages, saiaries, subsidies, social security, Old age pensions, veterans; benefits. or’ some other form of 90vo3rnment compensation.
Verytew people would advocate getting rid of these benefits. I’le know very wei r that socia! security has come to stay, that veterans j benefits are with us for many years. What we do have a right to ask is that these th i nqs be managed efficiently and without waste. And we have especial fy the right and duty to demand that the padd i ng of payro! I s be stopped and that for its amp loyees the government set standards of efficiency no lower than those In private business. for government is today America’s biggest business –.8 business for whlch every one of us is charged, for in this particular big business it Is the taxpayer who foots the bl! Is, For 90vernrnent is not like ordinary business’ it is not conpel led to show a profit if it would escape bankruptcy, because it always has a sour”ce of r”eady cash — the taxpayer! s pocketbook.
Just think what has haDpened in 40 years. In 1910 each American 0’i4sd $12 as his or her share of the national debt. Today each of us has a share of $1,400 1n that debt.
Now let’s not lose siqht of one sobering fact. We can’t al I of us live on 90vernment checks. Somebody ‘Ii i I I 8! ways have to be found to produce the wea! th and earn The waqes whi ch can be taxed to make good those gover-nment checks.
flboui a vear- ago I mentioned tnat vigorous weeklv newspaper published mrG than a hundred years ago at China Vi I fage, called i”he China Orb. Tnis summer.
through ihe courtesy of [”irs. Pol lard of the Fi r’st f~anqeway, I had a chance to peruse several issues of that old paper for the years 1834 and 1835.
The masthead reads as follows: ‘IThe China Orb is published everv Satdrdav by an association of qent!emen. Devoted to agriculture and the mechanic arts; temperance; religious, Il-h9rar-y and po!il-lcal intellioence; and whatever eise is calculated to render a weekly journal interestinq, useful and pieasinq. The underta k 1 ng is expens i ve; therefore the patr~onage of a gene rous pub I ic i s !~espectfully solicited. Two do! lars a year if paid anv time within a year. A. discount of 12t per cent wi! I be made if payment is within three months. No paper will be discontinued until all arrearages are paid. J. C. \/[ashburn, General Agert.n
The Orb was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson, who was in his second term as President. ,Iackson cal led himself a Democrat, but the Orb refers to his party as Republican. This, of course, is not to be confused with the modern f~epub ! i can Party. wh i ch was not born unti! 1854, twenty vears a fter these issues of the Orb appeared. This was the old party of Thomas Jefferson, variously called Democr-atic and Pepublican,. but which officially had the hyohenai-ed name Democratic-Republican. They were the ani-i-federalists, the str’onq suppori-er-s of statE’:s! rights, and after the passlnq of the Federalist party, were the vigorous opponents of the Whigs.
By 1834 the Jacksonlans were called Democrai-s in most of the states, bui;”, ialne supporters apparently preferred the name Republican, -for other’ papers besides the China Orb so labe!ed the Jacksonians — especially i’-he influential Kennebec Journa I .
Lei’s have c few wor-ds from one of the Orb’s politica! editorials of 1<334:
“Prospects are bright. Our worthy Chief jvlaqistrate (that was Jackson} received a pOl’lerful majority of votes last year-, and has adm.inis-rered the 9()Vernment to tIle satisfaction of most citizens. Yet every r~epub!!can must be on his quard, while tite enemy searches for somc~ vulnerable poini- to attack the stronghold of our I iber-t-les.!
In 1d34 i”li3ine 1s fir’5t Governor, ::c,eneral ‘Iii!! ian.! Kinq, was sti! I i ivlno’ but the China Orb had no use for him because rw had deserted ‘tlhat the Or-b con- Sidered the true and righteous cause and Vias now labeled a ItJhiq. The Orb so hated the V”higs i’hat tt frequentlv and deliberatelv spelled the name\lJiqs’~ in derision.
Concerning a social gathering at General r(inCjl s home the ;:.kb vented its Scorn: !IOn the return of the members of the Federal convention from !’\uqusta, The steamboat touched at 8ath, and the passenqers were i nv i ted to the house at General r(jng. f\Her drinkinq as much old wine as they pleased, -rhe company pre-pared to depart. The candidate for Congr’ess, [.’Jr. Brooks, thanked the General for hishospitaiiiy and congratulated him on havinq sDurned all rewards to induce hi III to desert the ‘vi i 9 banner. That WdS an unk: i nd cut. ! tis “‘Ie II known that General King did not spurn any reward untl I he was sure it was vain for him to seek one. He was a warm friend of the Jackson Administration unti! he found he must lose his office. Then he became a \’tiq of the first wotel-. His old federal principles, his insatiable desire for office, and above all his p doiie conuuct durinq the last war, in ministarinq to the wants of a foreiqn enemy, have rendered riim a fit associai-e for -rhe ~·iiG party. They ai-e welcome to hi rn ”
This old China newspaper reveals that the former’ name of East Vassalboro was utiet Vi llaqe. /\n 2dvedisemen1- in the issue of f\pri I 5., 1 reads thus:
“To let –, the farm now occupied by ~’iI II iarn Bl Iso of Vassalboro, about 40 r”ods south of ina Oui-l at Ii i I I age; 10;) acres we I! fenced Vi i th 500 rods of 5 tone We I ! . [h,va I 11 r.~1 house 37 x 26 feet, barn 82 >< 30. I araG woodhouse cha i sehouse, nil k room and granary. Flourishing orchard producing 300 bushels. The situ_ation is very pleasant, commanding a full view of the village and pond. Privileges of every kind are handy, such as stores, blacksmith shop, grist mill, saw mill, carding and spinning machines, and various other machinery carried on by water.”
Speaking of ads, the firm of Owen and Duel ley made this announcement in the spring of 1835: “The subscribers have just received from Boston a good assortment of English, West India, and Domestic Goods, crockery and hardware, which they offer for sale, as cheap as they can be purchased anywhere, for cash, country produce, or approved credit. A new lot of 7 x 9 glass has just come in.”
A departing physician was trying to collect what was due him from the folks in China: “Dr. A. Hatch wi II positively leave the town of China for the eastern country on the first of September-next. All persons who wish to settle their accounts wi th him wi II do we II to ca II before that time.”
Vvhere was the eastern country to which Dr. Hatch was departing? It proves to have been fa r-away E II swo rth •
One of the Owen and Due Iley ads has me stumped. I t announced for sa I e a good assortment of settee crad les. What was a settee crad Ie? Sure I y some Ii stener can te I I me.
What did people wear on their feet here in Maine 117 years ago? Listen to th i s ad of the Ch ina shoemaker: “S. Hanscom has removed his boot an d shoe-making business from his former stand to a part of the shop occupied by Haml in and Lincoln in China Vi Ilage, where he intends to keep a supply of boots and shoes of all kinds, for the accommodatoon of his customers. Thick and thin boots, thick and thin shoes, ladles’ morocco and prunella, chi Idren’s leather and morocco. -All to be sold as cheap for cash as can be bought in Hallowell and Augusta.
Twenty-f I ve years after these issues of the Ch ina Orb appeared, the most famous name in American journalism was that of Horace Greeley, editor of the i’jew York Tribune. But in 1834 Greeley was just starting as an unknown journa! ist. In the China Gr-b hE: inserTed an aovedlsernent for his new paper in New Y::nk, which, believe it or not, he callE:d thE: ”i’~ew Yorker’. “Th,;:) [‘Jew Yorker”, declared Greeley, Hl-d!1 combine rnor-e completely than any of its rivals the distinguishing characteristics of a literary Journal with those of a regular, systematic chronicle of passing events.”
Greeley wanted to be sure his reader’s oidn’t get confused, so he said: i’The New York”er has no connection with an ephemeral affair of the same title, which had a brief existence last season. But in order to free our good name from a I! opprobri um, we hereby agree to send our- paper free -1-0 all patrons of that defunct sheet for the v/hole term for which they paid that publisher. Ii Then, at the end of the statement, we discover \/Ihy the Orb printed Greeley’s announcement. !lEditors and publishers who wi t f give this prospectus an insertion wi II positively receive the New Yorker free for one year.”
These rural weeki ies of the early 1800’s contained very I ittle of what we would call nevIS, They were, indeed, as they pl-oc/aimed themselves to be, I iter- ary, religious, and political publications. In all the issues of the China Orb that i have examined for 1834 and 1835 there is not a single local item of news. Only the ads give the local touch. And I noted just one item that fe-ferred even to any place in fJjalne. It was brief and to the point. -‘/\t a fire in Old Town lastrnonth a man nam(?o i’kCarty was run over by a fire engine and suffered a broken arm.”
Can you stand a revi more of those schoolboy boners tonight? Here are a few from a civics class in high school. ‘The President has the power to appoint and d i sappoi nt his cab i net”. “A U, S. Senator must not be an i nhab ii-ant of the state in which he lives”, ilCitizens of i-he U. S. maybe either mare or female, on reachino the age of 21, if of good moral character.!! ”\lie have fish laws so the fema Ie fish wi I I have time to go up the rive r to spoon!!. “The d i ffe rence between a king and a president is that a king is the son of his father, but a pres i dent i sn ‘t” •
Of course not a II the twi sts of language that pass for boners are acc;dents. Some of them are intentional wise-cracks of smart-alec youth. Such we suspect is this one: “What is the longest day in the Southern Hemisphere? SundaY. 1I Here are a few more of the same kind. “Name six animals peculiar to the Arctic regions. Three bears and three seals.” “The principal exports of Sweden are hired girls.” “Who said ‘Kiss me, Hardy’? Laurel.” “FoiJr minor prophets of the Old Testament were Hosea, Joel, Amos and Andy.” “Draw an inference from the fact that when water freezes, the pipe bursts. have never seen an inference, so I cannot draw one.” “In what circumstances does the fourth act of Hamlet begin? Immediately after the third act.1T “Give an example of hard water. Ice.”
Science papers in high school provide some weird examples of true boners. “Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog’s tongue wi II ki I I the strongest man.” “Sound is a rapid series of osculations.lT “In some rocks you can see the fossi I footprints of fishes.” “It is a scientific fact that women die tw i ce as often as men. If “The co I d at the North Po Ie is so great that the towns there are not inhabited.” “A_ vacuum isan empty p lace where the Pope lives.
And just to round out our information tonight, you may be interested to know that Alexander the Great entered Troy disguised as a wooden horse, that the people of Japan ride in jigsaws, that at dinner the Romans recl ined on one elbow and ate with the other, that monasteries are places where monsters are ept, that savages are people who don’t know what wrong is unti I missionartes show them, that the element is hottest nearest the Creator, that when a man has only one wife it is called monotony, and that two sports of Ancient Rome were An-t hony and Cleopatra.
Year: 1952