Now don’t miss the main point of this story. That space didn’t belong <\/em>to\u00a0the War Assets Administration; it belonged to the United States of America, and\u00a0what is the Uni ted States? It Is you and I, the peep Ie who pay the taxes to buy\u00a0the space originally. That army camp surplus storage space belonged to you and\u00a0me. The inefficiency, the callous Indifference, of the men who operate our government\u00a0agencies, mi Iked you -and me and the other taxpayers of America of\u00a0$382,000 for property that we already owned.<\/p>\n It is Impossible to keep up with the numerous alphabetic agencies that now\u00a0Infest Washington. How we used to laugh about them back in the 1930’s, the WPA,\u00a0the NYA, the NRA and a few others. The cartoonists had a field day with !hem.\u00a0Humorous verses and witty stories about them went the rounds. NOt these expand ..\u00a0ing and overlapping agencies are so many and so costly they aren’t funny any\u00a0longer.<\/p>\n Recently U. S. News and Worl d Report pub II shed a two page spread under the\u00a0heading ”Washington Alphabet”. The magazine makes no attempt to gIve a co~lete\u00a0list, for in the Pentagon alone there are more than 1,500 approved abbreviations.\u00a050 U. S. News Ii sts only those abbrevi at Ions wh I ch the average ci tl zen ought to\u00a0know in order to understand dally newspaper accounts. The I ist contains only\u00a0113 of the thousands of alphabetical agencies which infest our government. Many\u00a0of them are of course faml liar to a II of us. We a II know the Wacs, the Waves\u00a0and the Wafs. We have heard a lot about the RFC (the Reconstruction Finance\u00a0.Corporation) and the NLRl (National Labor Relations Board), Right here In Water …\u00a0vi lie we have a unit of the ROTC, and this radlo.station is subject to control\u00a0by the FCC (the Federal Comnunl cat I ons Convni 55 Ion).<\/p>\n But how many of you ever heard of the FNMA (Federa I Natl ona I Mortgage Association),\u00a0entirely separate from the HLBB (Home Loan Bank Board), which is In\u00a0turn quite separate from the HHFA (Housing and Home Finance Agency), which again\u00a0has nothing to do with the PHA (Public Housing Administration)?\u00a0This alphabet soup’has become so thoroughly stirred that sometimes exactly\u00a0the same set of letters refers to two different agencies. For instance, DMA may\u00a0mean Defense Manpower Admi n I strati on or Defense MI nerals Adml n Istrati on. OSC may\u00a0refer to the Office of Secretary of Commerce or the Office of 5011 Conservation.\u00a0When GPO Isn’t the General Post Office It is the Government Printing Office.<\/p>\n But why go on? U. 5. News po I nts out that these agencl es I <\/em>many of wh I ch we\u00a0have never even heard of, will spend 69 billion of our dollars between July 1,\u00a01951 and June 30,1952. <\/em>The s<:,d truth is simply this: our government is trying\u00a0o do so many things which private enterprise once did and might stl II do, and\u00a0is creating so many conflicting and overlapping agencies to do them, that it is\u00a0Impossible for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.<\/p>\n You will recall that last winter I devoted several broadcasts to the entrancing\u00a0diary of William Bryant, Fairfield pioneer. I became curious to know\u00a0where Wi I II am Bryant is buried. No one of the living relatives seemed to be\u00a0sure. So I made the rounds of the rural burying grounds in Fairfield. thought\u00a0pe rhaps t”h i s grand 0 I d pi onee r of the town lay in the Ii tt Ie cemete ry at the\u00a0Junction of the Skowhegan and Fairfield Center roads, not far from his home between\u00a0there and Pishon’s Ferry. But I could not find the marked grave of any\u00a0Bryant there. The same proved true of the little cemeteries In the northern and\u00a0western parts of the town.<\/p>\n M:lanwhi Ie I thought I would take a look at the grave of Wi IIlam’s son Cyrus\u00a0Bryant, who himself lived to the age of 85 and whom older people stili living in\u00a0Fa i rfle I d remember very we II. Severa I persons tol d me they were sure Cyrus Bryant”\u00a0is buried in the village cemetery at Fairfield.\u00a0So one day this summer I found the graves of Cyrus Bryant and his wi fe Olive,\u00a0in the older part of the Fairfield Village Cemetery. Cyrus outlived the Vassalboro\u00a0girl who became his wife by more than eleven years. She had died in 1892,\u00a0whi Ie h~ lived untl I 1903. It must have been a great blow to Cyrus and Olive\u00a0when they lost their only son. For beside them In the cemetery lot lies Fred L.,\u00a0son of C. F. and O. P. Bryant, died November 24,1886, aged 25 years.<\/p>\n What” was my surprise and delight when, a few lots away from that of Cyrus,\u00a0encountered two other headstones, marking graves I had been seeking allover\u00a0Fairfield. One of those stones reads: “William Bryant, died June 15, 1867, aged\u00a086 years, 5 months.” The other stone has this Inscription: IILydia, wife of Wi 1-\u00a0laim Bryant, died May 22, 1858, aged 77 years, 3 months, 22 days”.<\/p>\n So quite fittingly, right there at Kendal Is Mills lies Wi IIlam Bryant, not\u00a0far from the old town hall whose records he knew so we II, and even nearer to\u00a0the bridge where his wife took toll on a long-ago Thanksgiving Day, and nearer\u00a0still to the highway over which he drove the youngest son Haley down to Water-\u00a0vi lie, to start him on the long voyage to Australia from which Haley would never\u00a0return. And beside him lies lydia, who had a system of predicting the corn ha,…..\u00a0vest, who shed Tears as she darned Cyrus’ socks for his draft ca II to the Aroostook\u00a0War, and who died clutching a tintype of wandering son Haley in her hand.<\/p>\n They have lain in the Fairfield Cemetery a long time now — she for 93\u00a0years, he for 84. They were never wealthy, never prominent, scarcely known\u00a0olftside their own community. But they were the sTaunch, honest, religious folk\u00a0which has made Maine character a mark of distinction allover the world.<\/p>\n It is easy for us to consider the present Time as a very special time of\u00a0troubles. With The long-drawn-out, fruitless struggle In Korea, with the vastly\u00a0mounting national debt, with the great burden of increaSing taxes, we do Indeed\u00a0have plenty of Troub Ie. am not re lenti ng one iota on what I haw sal d and\u00a0shall keep on saying about the senseless, almost criminal waste In federal expenditures.\u00a0BUT I will admit that for myself, as well as for all ofyol:J, It\u00a0may help us feel a liTtle beTter to take a brief, backward look.<\/p>\n Thl ngs do seem preTty tough for us here I n Waterville in 1951. But just consider\u00a0for a moment what was happening here seventeen years ago In 1934. That\u00a0was when I i vi ng was so cheap — porter house steaks 29 cents a pound, a suit of\u00a0clothes $20, a good rent $25 a month. Yes, 1934 was at the height of the great\u00a0depressi on.\u00a0Mr. lewis Whipple, who was treasurer of the City of Watervi lie In that year,\u00a0has shown me a page of the Watervf lie Senti ne I for September 5, 1934. On that\u00a0single page are revealed that the city was nearly bankrupt, that the mayor had\u00a0just died, that the previous winter had ki lied thousands of central Maine’s app\u00a0Ie trees, and 1″hat the workers at the lockwood MI lis were on strl ke.<\/p>\n The city’s Total apor:’oP<tiatlon for that year was $708,498, co~ared with\u00a0the 1951 appropriation of $1,200,000. Ninety thousand dollars, or nearly one\u00a0eighth of the whole appropriation for 1934 was assigned to the relief of the\u00a0poor and the unemployed. In addition to the relatively huge figure of $50,000\u00a0for the support of the poor, the city made a speclal,unclassifled appropriation\u00a0of $40,000 labeled Welfare and Unemployment Relief. To make the situation\u00a0worse, on September 1,1934, with five months of the fiscal year still to go,\u00a0the appropriation for Welfare and Unemployment Relief had been overdrawn by\u00a0more than $5,000. I n seven months of the fl sca I year the cI ty had spent, to\u00a0assist the poor and unemployed, a total of $117,000 against a twelve month appropriation\u00a0of $90,000 plus three thousand In sundry credits. The depression\u00a0had really hit Watervi lie hard.<\/p>\n Which condition is preferable, 1934 or 1951, Is not easy to say. Perhaps\u00a0someday we shall fl nd the wisdom I n both our politi ca I and our I ndustrl a I ‘i fe\u00a0so that we shall not have to choose either a depression resulting from a deflated\u00a0artl flclal balloon, or a time of Inflation caused by lavish government spending.<\/p>\n When one passes any of Waterville’s public schools these days, he realizes\u00a0that the bicycle Is by no means an obsolete and defunct vehicle. There are hundreds\u00a0of the two-wheel speeders In the possession of Watervi lie kids. Time was,\u00a0however, when the bicycle was the fashionable mode of travel for young and old\u00a0al ike. On September 1, 1896 the Waterville Mal I announced: “The Bangor and\u00a0Aroostook R.R. has adopted a new schedule of prices for carrying bicycles. The\u00a0charges range from 10 cents to a dollar, according to the distance the wheel is\u00a0transported. ”<\/p>\n On September 7 the Mall recorded: “Bicycles were numerous at the Repub …\u00a0I ican Rally In Benton Falls last night. Although it was a very dark night, the\u00a0bike riders were out in large numbers.”\u00a0I n one I ssue of the Mall , I n the autumn of 1896, a rura I correspondent waxed\u00a0eloquent on the subject of bicycles. He wrote: “On the main road In the summer\u00a0bicycles are almost as numerous as teams. Every few minutes a scorcher from\u00a0town whizzes past with a suddenness to make one’s heart leap In his throat.<\/p>\n Where do the old wheels go? They go to the farmers’ boys and girls. The farther\u00a0out of town one gets the more antiquated the bicycles he encounters. Rickety\u00a0old frames, some of them wi th sol I drubber, . rather than pneumatic, tl res -wheels\u00a0In the height of style ten years ago, but no tOtnsman would be seen riding\u00a0one today.”\u00a0How the times change! Out on the farms today you wi II see the latest m0-\u00a0tor cars, and only In a big city are you likely to see a Model T Ford or Jack\u00a0Benny’s Maxwe I I \u2022<\/p>\n It Is a long time since I said anything about the old narrow guage rat Iroads.\u00a0was rem’inded of them recently when a friend of mine showed me his rather costly\u00a0memento of one of the old two-foot I ines. His not so fondly remelYbered item is\u00a0a thousand doll ar bond of the Wi scasset, Watervi lie and Farmi ngton Rat I road Company\u00a0of Maine. It is a first mortgage five per cent gold bond, issued on July\u00a01,1901 and failing due In thirty years on July 1, 1931. The issue was handled\u00a0by the Real Estate Trust Company of Philadelphia, at whose office the Interest\u00a0was payable on July 1 and January 1 of each year.<\/p>\n This bond originally carried 60 numbered coupons of $25 each. FI fty-four of\u00a0those coupons are stili attached to It, for on Iy six of them were ever honored\u00a0for payment. The road stopped at the east bank of the Kennebec I n Wi ns low,\u00a0never went on its I ntended way to Farml ngton, and before January, 1905 the\u00a0company had to stop payment on Its 1901 bonds. As tl me went by that part of\u00a0the railroad which operated between Wiscasset and Albion became less and less\u00a0profitable. As a result the 1901 investor lost whatewr he had paid for the\u00a0bond, less the one hundred fi fty dollars he had received for the first six coupons.<\/p>\n And In expected Interest return he lost all the other 54 coupons or\u00a0$1,350.\u00a0As a matter of fact that WI scasset, Watervt lie and Farmi ngton bond, wi th\u00a0its beautifully embossed borders and picture of a WW&F train, all steamed up\u00a0and ready to go, was part of a mi I I i on dollar issue. Fi ve hundred of the bonds\u00a0were of the thousand dollar denomination, 800 were for $500 and 1,000 of them\u00a0were for $100. There are probab Iy a lot of folks In Central Maine who have\u00a0reason to reca II the 0 I d narrow guage ra I I roads with someth i ng othe r than senti\u00a0menta I memories.<\/p>\n Year: 1951<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #122, broadcast on November 11, 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\/7258"}],"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=7258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI s there no way to stop, or at least di mi ni sh, the waste and extravagance\u00a0of our government? LIsten to this glaring example. The War Assets Administra~\u00a0tion had some storage space going to was1e In an Army carq> In the Middle West.\u00a0The Commodity Credit Corporation was, at the same time, looking for space to\u00a0store fl va to ei ght mil Ii on bushe Is of gral n. FI va men, who knew of the sf tua …\u00a0tlon and who also knew how slow and stupid the officials of different government\u00a0agencies are in dealing with each other — those five men got busy. They first\u00a0leased the ArTttf camp space from the War Assets Administration. Then they tum …\u00a0ed around and sub leased it to the CommodltyCredi t Corporati on, at a profit of\u00a0$382,000. The whole proceeding took them less <\/em>than a week. A right smart prof\u00a0I t for a week’s wC!>rk.<\/p>\n
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