I have no doubt you are getting tired of my harping on government spending,\u00a0but It Is a subject that won’t bear letting up. It behooves every one of us to\u00a0keep informed of the as to unding facts.<\/p>\n
Everyone of us wants to see the nation strongly and securely defended, and\u00a0we are willing to pay a high price for that security. But is there no limit to\u00a0what we can or ought reasonably to do? The cost of girding our nation for possible\u00a0war is already going sky high. Four years of peace may be almost as expensive\u00a0as was the whole cost of World War II. In fiscal year 1950 we spent\u00a0nearly 23 billions for defense; in 1951 it mounted to 61 billions; in fiscal 1952\u00a0already authorized are 108 billions, and the end is not yet insight.<\/p>\n
Now the least we can ask of such huge spending is that it get one hundred\u00a0cents worth for every dollar. And the way the money is thrown around — at\u00a0the Limestone Air Base, for Instance, to take only one case near home — It is\u00a0at least a fair question whether a lot of it isn’t wasted. And how about that\u00a0huge civilian\u00a0personnel\u00a0 in the Pentagon? For everyone of them that replaces a\u00a0uniformed soldier we have only praise, but any visitor to the great five-sided\u00a0building can see a lot of idle sitting around. As one Congressman said the\u00a0other day, the busiest places in the Pentagon are the coffee counters at any\u00a0hour of the day.<\/p>\n
We are to Id that, even if we keep out of war we must expect to spend\u00a0twenty per cent of the national income for defense. That means that every worker\u00a0in America must work one day in every five for the military protection of the nation.\u00a0Surely that is not too high a price to pay to save our country, but it is\u00a0too high a price if waste and Inefficiency is the method, for that way the country\u00a0can not be saved.<\/p>\n
Last week we left Solyman Heath on the prairies attending a Mason I <\/em>c funeral.\u00a0By that time some of the company were getting enough. On June 8th Solyman wrote\u00a0in his Journal: “One of our teamsters has been discharged for fomenting discontent.\u00a0There has been a lot of growling, but I think very few are sympathetic\u00a0with it.”<\/p>\n Solyman himself was getting somewhat calloused by the experience, though he\u00a0was sometimes so sick — but not with cholera — that he could not write in the\u00a0Journal for several days and had to cover the elapsed time in one day’s account.<\/p>\n Yet it is with a touch of uncalloused sympathy that he records the eleventh\u00a0death. “It took”, he writes, “a young lady only 18 years old, married Just before\u00a0we left Independence. was present at the wedding and recall with what\u00a0eagerness she looked forward to gohlen California.” But on the same day he\u00a0tells us that he passed a tent, where four men with spades waited for a sick man\u00a0to die, that they might bury him. “Such”, says Solyman, “Is the estimate of life on the plains. ” Then he adds, without apparent emotion, ”The sick man was\u00a0named Harlow from Belgrade, Meine.”<\/p>\n There seemed to be no end to the plague. On June 24, when they had been on\u00a0the westward trek for 49 days, it still stalked their camp. On that day Heath\u00a0wrote: ”We have just passed eleven graves, all occasioned by cholera. We had\u00a0supposed we had passed beyond its ravages, especially since we have had drier\u00a0weather, but we are horribly mistaken.” On that night they made near famous\u00a0Chimney Rock their fortieth camp since leaving Independence. Forty camps in 49\u00a0days shows that they had indeed had to remain in some of the camps more than one\u00a0day.<\/p>\n Yet they had now seen the worst of the disease. Only an occasional mention\u00a0of it from here to the end of the Journey, and no more deaths among their own\u00a0company.<\/p>\n All of Heath’s Journal is by no means so grim and ghoulish as the passages\u00a0have Just been talking about. At the risk of making the whole program morbid\u00a0and doleful I have carried you through Solyman Heath’s experience with cholera\u00a0because that is’ the only way I think you can get the picture of how it haunted\u00a0the emigrants’ steps day after wearisome day.<\/p>\n But now let us take a look at some of Solyman’s more cheerful passages. He\u00a0never got over his wonder at the vast expanse of the prairie, the beauty of\u00a0the colored cliffs, the seeming closeness of the starry sky at night. On May 26 he wrote: “Ever since leaving the creek, we have been on high\u00a0roiling prairies. From some of the highest elevations the view has liIeen en …\u00a0chanting. A Maine farmer placed here could ask for nothing tetter.”<\/p>\n On June 5th he set down this account: ”Have seen many antelope and some\u00a0elk. Wonderful country, but no inhabitants. Not a single wigwam in sight. Desolation\u00a0reigns on one of the fairest regions on the face of the earth. Yet In\u00a0the past few days we have traversed enough of rich soil to furnish bread for the\u00a0whole world. When shall this land be settled? That Is an Interesting question .. “On June 11th he wrote: “Country covered with beautiful cactus. What a\u00a0magnificent plant!”<\/p>\n On June 24th they called near the famous Chimney Rock. “At our distance”,\u00a0wrote Solyman, “it truly resembled a giant chimney shooting 300 feet into the\u00a0air. It is of sandstone and has a large crack, Indicating that this remarkable\u00a0object of the plains will disappear in a few years.” Well, solyman, a hundred\u00a0years have gone by sl nce you looked on Chimney Rock, and it is still there.<\/p>\n On the 25th our diarist was given to a bit of religious reflection. “Today\u00a0we got our first for glimpse of the Rocky Mountains”, he writes. “How far away\u00a0we do not know. Distances are deceptive on the plains. A bluff that appears to\u00a0be not more than a mile away may be six or eight miles. To a religious mind the\u00a0prairie views afford the very highest themes for reflection. Whether one gazes\u00a0upon the unbroken, treeless prairie, or turns upon these gigantic, broken,\u00a0storm-beaten cliffs, one Is led Immediately to the contemplation of the Divine,\u00a0and feels his own weakness and littleness amidst this wonderful display of\u00a0omnipotence. Yet how few who have beheld this have given a thought to the Almighty Architect.”<\/p>\n Of the Black Hills Solyman writes: ”These hills present a beautiful, deep\u00a0color, such as I have never seen before, and the shapes are continuously changing\u00a0like the figures of a kaleidoscope.” Two days later he tells us: “We have\u00a0been proceeding over a region which had evidently been swept by the ocean. The\u00a0region is terribly dry. The greatest droughts we ever have in Maine are pleasant showers compared to the burning on the Upper Platte. The moisture has evaporated\u00a0from my skin, my face and hands are cracked, and it seems as though I would dry\u00a0up. Yet I confess it is a region of magnificent beauty. ”<\/p>\n On July 17 he says: “We are in sight of the Wind River Mountains, a magnificent outline spotted allover with snow. We begin to take courage, In the\u00a0prospect of soon reaching waters that run the other way.”\u00a0The hot springs 0f Wyoming we re another novel experience. ”We came”, he\u00a0says, “to some hot springs covering a quarter acre. The water bubbled up from a\u00a0marshy place. In some spots it was much hotter than in others. We parboiled\u00a0beans there for supper. I washed my hands and face in one of the springs, but\u00a0with some difficulty because the water was so hot. less than a hundred yards\u00a0distant was a spring of the clearest, coldest water, wonderful to drink. Within\u00a0such proximity are heat and cold, even at the surface of the earth.”<\/p>\n The next day Solyman found at the base of a mountain a large stream of hot\u00a0water, in which he took what he termed “a delicious wash, the temperature being\u00a0about that of high-toned dish water.” Then he adds, “last 1’1 f ght at our ca”1l\u00a0water froze an inch thick.” That was on August 18th. They were indeed high up\u00a0in the Rockies.<\/p>\n Many persons have an entirely wrong picture of these journeys across the\u00a0continent in the prairie schooner days. They think of a family starting out\u00a0alone with wa~on and oxan, or perhaps horses, and making their lonely hazardous\u00a0way across the plains and the mountains. The truth Is that the journey, though\u00a0hazardous, was anything but lonely. The emigrant had plenty of company. By the\u00a0time that Solyman Heath reached Independence in May, 1849 emigrant trains were\u00a0leaving the Missouri town every two or three days. A train might be composed of\u00a0as many as fifty wagons, though thirty was a more usual number. Often the persons in one of the trains numbered 200, and there were trains that had double\u00a0that number. There were whole families — men, women and children. There were\u00a0single, unattached males. There were the professional teamsters, and In some\u00a0cases even slaves. Solyman Heath found plenty of other people to talk with all\u00a0the way to California.<\/p>\n Travel In those bands or trains was necessary, not only as protection against\u00a0hostile Indians, but to insure safety for those whose wagons broke down or whose\u00a0draft animals died or strayed away. Then it was very important to have someone\u00a0along who, if not a regular doctor, at least knew something about the care of the\u00a0sick.<\/p>\n Solyman Heath’s journal gives us striking information about the numbers of\u00a0people who were lured to California by the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill.\u00a0On June 5, Solyman set down this record: “Met three teams returning. Said they\u00a0had lost most of their oxen by stampede and had to turn back. They told us that\u00a0there are more than 5,000 wagons ahead of us, that 4,000 had passed Fort Kearney\u00a0in the last month.”<\/p>\n When, on the national holiday of July 4, they crossed the south fork of the\u00a0Platte, Solyman wrote: “We were determined to get ahead of the mass waiting at\u00a0the upper crossing. There are said to be over 2,000 wagons waiting there to get\u00a0across. So we took the lighter passenger wagons across on a ferry farther down\u00a0stream, and the baggage wagons managed to get across with great difficulty some\u00a0distance above, but not so far as the upper crossing where the congestion existed.”<\/p>\n Crossing the Platte was a major event of the trip and deserving of recognition\u00a0on the holiday. So Heath tells: “It being the Fourth of July, a dozen of\u00a0our passengers celebrated, after the crossing, with a large allowance of whiskey,\u00a0brandy, songs and wit, which latter grew keen as the bottle went around. A due\u00a0quantity of powder was exploded, with the usual noise that characterizes the\u00a0holiday in the States.”<\/p>\n In a group of people, living closely together under such trying circumstances\u00a0for several months, peace and harmony did not always reign. You will\u00a0recall that they had to discharge a teamster because he was foment.og discontent.<\/p>\n It was only three days after that Fourth of July crossing of the Platte that\u00a0some-thing really exciting occurred. Solyman thought it worth a detailed account\u00a0in his precious Journal. ”We came near”, he tells us, “having a dl:l8l In caq> between\u00a0an Englishman and a Frenchman. The former called the latter an S .O.B.,\u00a0and -the Frenchman demanded satisfaction. They had no seconds, but went out some\u00a030 rods, armed with pistols. Naturally most of the camp followed along. After\u00a0getting on the ground, the Englishman recanted his charge, and they walked back\u00a0again, as whole as they went out, to the great amusement of the passengers.<\/p>\n When they got back the Eng II shman sa i d: ‘Gentlemen, I do not think Mr. LaMa 1-pheu is an S.O.B.; I think he is a pretty good bas.’ Thus the matter ended, with\u00a0the parties good friends.” Evidently that word beginning “bas” was no insult at\u00a0all.<\/p>\n However plentiful the co~any and however exciting the Journey, Solyman\u00a0would\u00b7 have been less than human had he nat suffered occasional pangs of homesickness.\u00a0Yet he entll’Q’Sts such feelings to the journal only after he has been\u00a0two full months out of Independence, and more than three months from home. On\u00a0July 5 he wrote: “last night I lay In the light of soft. mellow moon, thinking\u00a0of home, wife and child ran. These thoughts cheer rather than depress me.\u00a0love to contemplate the probable enjoyment of each member at home.”<\/p>\n July 15 was, for some reason not clear to us, an especially trying day for\u00a0Solyman. That night the journal received these words: “Our journey is becoming \u00a0tedious. It is altogether too long and the food is much too monotonous. Already\u00a0here months have passed since I left horne, and It all seems like a dream.\u00a0I often wonder how those at home have fared, for no word from them has reached\u00a0me. “With those thoughts of home we leave Solyman Heath tonight, promising you\u00a0that next week we shall get” \u00a0him through to the gold fields.<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #118, broadcast on October 14, 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\/7249"}],"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=7249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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