You have often heard me speak of my native town of Bridgton. Well, this\u00a0summer it showed its superiority over my adopted city of Waterville, and ironically\u00a0enough paid tribute to this Kennebec city. Waterville people have missed\u00a0their summer band concerts. It seems there were no funds to provide such a\u00a0luxury. But Bridgton, with only about one-seventh of Waterville’s population,\u00a0conducted all summer weekly concerts by the Bridgton Community Band. At one of\u00a0those concerts eight of the eleven selections were compositions of R. B. Hall,\u00a0Watervillets famous bandmaster and composer. In a little town In Cumberland\u00a0County one could hear Hall’s spirited marches, but in his own city’ of Waterville\u00a0the band was silent.<\/p>\n
Do any of you follow one or more of the rural Maine weekly newspapers? In\u00a0them you can find many an amusing item. Here are a few that I recently gleaned:\u00a0“Grandma Wilkfas was being escorted home from baby-sitting by her son-in-law\u00a00ne night last week, when she heard a noise ahead of her in the driveway.\u00a0She asked him what it was. He said it was nothing but a tree squeak. Grandma\u00a0turned on her flashlight and two tree squeaks ran grunting across the lawn. She\u00a0says, since her son-in-law is a country boy, he must know what he is talking\u00a0about, but them tree squeaks looked an awful lot like hedgehogs to her.”<\/p>\n
Classified ad: ”We specialize in Italians and hot dogs.”<\/p>\n
The correspondent for one of the small communities to one Maine weekly\u00a0writes: ”When I went for the cows Saturday night I found Old Roxie choking on\u00a0what from the looks of things I took to be an apple. So I rushed back to the\u00a0barn for a piece of garden hose I keep for just such cases. I ran down the cow\u00a0run from the barn and down the lane to where Old Roxie stood. Major, our collie\u00a0dog, was right with me- Just as I was going to prod the piece of hose down\u00a0Roxie’s throat to push the apple down, I fell over the old dog. It tickled Old\u00a0Roxie so she coughed up the apple. ”<\/p>\n
The same correspondent also writes: “By way of the grapevine I hear that\u00a0the culprits who scattered nails on the road up this way were caught. One of\u00a0them got the seat of his pants warmly tanned.”<\/p>\n
Our hopes that Congress would reduce the appropriations for wasteful government\u00a0spending have not been realized. The same old pork barrel legislation went\u00a0on all summer. Senator Douglas, Senator George and a few others tried\u00a0valiantly\u00a0to stem the tide, but to no avail.\u00a0Now the point about this reckless government spending that we can’t seem\u00a0to get through our heads is that it is our money the spendthrifts are throwing around. This spending is a hidden drain on every family pocket-book.\u00a0But there is another point equally important. In time of national emergency,\u00a0when the very safety of our nation is at stake, unnecessary spending by government\u00a0agencies is a verifiable fifth column working from within to do the very\u00a0thing Stalin most wants to see done — ‘break the back of the American economic\u00a0system.\u2019<\/p>\n
Not one American in a hundred realizes that tax collections in 1949 — before\u00a0Korea — exceeded the highest peak of tax collections during World War II.\u00a0The war peak In taxes was reached in 1945, when tax totalled $52,500,000,000.\u00a0In 1949 the take was 55 billion dollars, and the Korean campaign had not yetstarted.\u00a0Now just think that over. In 1949 you and I were contributing to federal,\u00a0state and local governments more money than we did when our country was fighting\u00a0a global war with 11,000,000 men under arms.\u00a0Last year In addition to income taxes the average family paid $700 in other\u00a0taxes, most of them hidden and indirect.\u00a0Twenty years ago the spending of our federal government amounted to less\u00a0than two-thirds of the income of the residents of California. In 1949 that spending was equal to the entire income of all the states west of the Mississippi.<\/p>\n
You have heard me complain before on this program about the huge number of\u00a0government employees. To say there are more than two million of them doesn’t\u00a0mean much. So let’s put it in a more concrete picture. Those employees, whose\u00a0salaries you and I pay, occupy floor space equal to 170 Empire State Buildings,\u00a0each 102 stories high.\u00a0It is an old saying that what we don’t know won’t hurt us, but in this matter\u00a0of taxes what we don’t know does hurt us a lot. It Is not the state sales\u00a0tax, that we hear so much griping about, which really hurts. That is a visible,\u00a0understandable tax, whether we approve of it or not. But it is the hidden taxes\u00a0that pile up all along the way from the raw material, through manufacturing processes, on the transportation and distribution of articles, right down to the\u00a0finished product on the retailer’s shelves.<\/p>\n
Here are a few facts you will find hard to believe, but The National Tax\u00a0Foundation, which keeps up a constant study of taxes, assures me they are true.\u00a0There are more than 100 taxes on a dozen eggs sold in a city; there are 116\u00a0taxes on a man’s suit of clothes; but as usual the woman beats the man, because\u00a0there are 150 different taxes on a woman’s hat.\u00a0The 56 billion dollar appropriation for the armed services will bear some\u00a0scrutiny, because those biggest of all our spenders, the procurement divisions\u00a0of Army, Navy and Air Force are no models of frugality. Yet few of us will\u00a0quarrel with the fundamental principle that we must expect to spend a lot of\u00a0money for national defense. The taxpayer, on the other hand, has every right to\u00a0ask: “Is the money being spent as efficiently as possible?”<\/p>\n
Most government agencies are monopolies. ‘They have no competition and thus\u00a0no fear of l0sing money or of going out of business. The result is almost unbelievable inefficiency. For instance, while private Insurance companies handle\u00a01,762 policies per man year, the Insurance Service of the Veterans Administration\u00a0is only 25% as efficient as the private companies, handling only 450 policies per\u00a0man year. Patients having tonsils removed in civilian hospitals stay an average\u00a0of one and one-half days. In the Army and Navy hospitals the average stay is 16\u00a0days. Does it make sense to an ordinary business man that the Army should take\u00a0288 separate steps to process a simple order for buying onions, putting that\u00a0order through 18 subdivisions and having it handled by messengers 110 times?<\/p>\n
Every business and professional person knows the importance of records. Of\u00a0course the government must keep records. But what can we say of a record system\u00a0so great and so comp Ii cated that more than one government agency has not on Iy ad …\u00a0ml tted, but has rl ghteous Iy avowed, that it Is eas ier for them to start an Investigation\u00a0allover again than it is to find the papers on the same subject once\u00a0Investigated and completed? Yet, what can we expect when the government uses\u00a018,500,000 cubic feet c:I <\/em>storage space for records which, according to fl ling experts,\u00a0are nearly half of them completely worthless? Those dead records occupy\u00a0the equivalent of six Pentagon Buildings, and the Pentagon Is the largest office\u00a0building In the world.<\/p>\n The simple fact is that government spending today Is so big we must all pay\u00a0the bi II. It Is our money they are spending, not somebody else’s. No one Is\u00a0getting a free ride. When wi II the American people rwally wake up to what is\u00a0happening?<\/p>\n The footba II season has now begun, and we are remi nded of intercollegiate football in Maine, as reported in the. newspapers of half a century ago. At that\u00a0time each Maine college played two games with each of the ather three colleges,\u00a0fill ing out the season with games against the preparatory schools.\u00a0In 1896 the Colby schedule carried ten games. Besides the six with Bates,\u00a0Bowdoin and Maine, Colby played Andover, Exeter, Berwick Academy and a university\u00a0that has since abandoned football, M. I. T. That ten game schedule began\u00a0on September 30 and closed on November 18. Only three games were played on\u00a0Saturdays; seven were played on Wednesdays. Two games were played In the second\u00a0week in October; two I n the last week of that month. On October 7 Colby played\u00a0M. I. T.; then th ree days ,I ater, on Octobe r 10, went up aga I nst Ma I ne. On Octo-ber\u00a028 the team met Exeter; then on Iy three days later on the 31st took on\u00a0Maine for the second time.<\/p>\n Someti mes the games were not so long as they are now, but without the forward\u00a0pass and the open field plays, the bodi Iy contact was terrific. The old\u00a0flying wedge, which was sti II in existance in my high school days, was a human\u00a0battering ram that gave both offense and defense a lot of punishment.\u00a0The game with M. I. T. In 1696 consisted of only 30 minutes of playing time,\u00a0two 15 minute halves. Colby won 4 to 0, which was the score of one touchdown,\u00a0made by Colby’s right halfback Gibbons.<\/p>\n Colby was dol ng we II that year, for on Iy three days after the M. I. T. game,\u00a0her eleven beat Mal ne 10 to o. But the team struck troub Ie when they met Bowdoln.\u00a0The Brunswick boys were victorious 12 to O. The Watervi lie Mall sai d of\u00a0the contest: “Colby was fal rly beaten. Her men were outplayed at every point\u00a0by the Bowdoin footballists. Colby’s line was easy for the Brunswick boys, who\u00a0also made long gains around the ends. Colby’s interference was pretty rocky. It\u00a0would be unwise, however, for Colby to lose heart over the defeat. let It be\u00a0the first and last of the season. There is stuff In the Colby eleven to beat\u00a0Bowdoin yet. When the Bowdoin team comes here next month, she should be paid in\u00a0he r own co in. ”<\/p>\n So the Colby crowd waited eagerly for November 11, whIch was then, of\u00a0course, Just an ordinary day, not Armistice Day. t’eanwhl Ie something went wrong\u00a0after the Bowdoin game so tllat the Colby coach resigned in a huff. So Marshall\u00a0of Dartmouth departed and Hopkins of Brown took his place. In those days athletlcs\u00a0were distinctly student activities; the college administration did not\u00a0emp loy the coaches; they were hi red and pai d enti re Iy by the Ath letic Associ ation.\u00a0That policy explains the following report In . The Waterville Mail of O~:,\u00a0tober 29, 1896:\u00a0“At a meeting of students yesterday afternoon iT was decided to engage W. B.\u00a0Hopkins of Brown to coach the football team for the remainder of the season.”<\/p>\n Apparently Hopkins put new life Into the team. On October 31, when he had\u00a0been on the campus only two days, they defeated Maine 4 to O. Then on November\u00a0I’\u00a04 they beat Bates 8 to o. So on November 11, when the Brunswl ck hosts invaded\u00a0Watervi lie, the Co Iby team was at the peak of form. To the amazement of Impar’;’\u00a0ti al spectators they he Id the much superior Bowdoin team to a tie score of 6 to\u00a06. It was not an official victory, but It was a mora lone.<\/p>\n Is college football better or worse than it was tn 1896? There are argu …\u00a0ments on bothsldes of that question. In these days when the sport has become\u00a0so highly commercialized, there is something to be said for the old days.when\u00a0the game belonged to the boys.<\/p>\n To remind us of how some of ollr common th Ings were greeted by our grandfathers,\u00a0when those th I ngs were new, let me read you a brief statement in the\u00a0Ma i ne Farmer’s A Imanac for the year 1878:<\/p>\n ”Wi II wonders never cease? We have regarded the electric te legraph as the\u00a0greatest wonder of our age, but now comes a greater wonder yet – the telephone.\u00a0Not ma\u00b7n;r Signals, but the very sounds of the human voice, are reproduced so that\u00a0we have the curious phenomenon of two persons sl tuated at a distance of many\u00a0miles from each other carryl ng on a conwrsati on and recogn I z tng each other’s\u00a0voices as well as If they were In the same room. During the first pub’ Ic exhl …\u00a0bltlon of the Instrument, a ballad sung by a young lady del ighted an audience\u00a0six miles away.”<\/p>\n What would that young lady of 1878, to say nothing of the Almanac writer,\u00a0think If they could see television today?<\/p>\n Next week , have a rea’ treat for you. I want to ta’ I you then about the\u00a0diary of a Forty-NI ner, the fl rst-hand record of a Maine man who went to Ca 11-fomla in search of gold. And with that promise, I bid you good night.<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #116, broadcast on September 30, 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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