As we enter into the new year of 1952, it seems as if public morality had\u00a0never sunk so low. The scandals in the Bureau of Internal Revenue. the influence\u00a0peddlers in Washington, the raw deals in the RFC, all bring to light a\u00a0condition of graft and corruption that extends widely through our government.,\u00a0Why is this the case? What is happening to personal confidence and public trust?\u00a0It takes neither a social analyst nor a psychiatrist to tell us what is\u00a0fundamentally the trouble. It is the old story of human greed and human frailty,\u00a0but it is a new story of the kind and quantity of temptation. It is the price -an\u00a0extremely high price — that we are thus paying for the extension of government\u00a0power into almost every phase of our lives.<\/p>\n
We have no excuse for the businessman who bribes a public official or even\u00a0one who pays fees to the five percenters who claim influence in the agencies or\u00a0even in the White House itself. We do not excuse; we merely seek to explain why\u00a0the temptation placed upon them is greater than businessmen have ever known before.\u00a0Today a businessman can be fined or sent to jail for working his employees\u00a0too long, for paying them either, too much money or not enough, for charging too\u00a0high prices. He can be given or denied loans. He can prosper with the help of\u00a0government allotted materials or go broke because the materials are denied him.\u00a0His tax deductions for business expenses can be accepted or turned down. Intricate\u00a0laws govern his business activities.\u00a0Now the point is that all of these regulations over the businessman are administered\u00a0by human beings persons who can be harsh or lenient, watchful or\u00a0neglectful, play fair or play favorites.\u00a0To the businessman a contract or tax adjustment may mean thousands of dollars. It may keep him in business or drive him out of it. How great then is the\u00a0temptation to use a favor or a fee where the hand of an equally human and fallible official’s ready to receive it.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the government \u00a0itself is spending billions upon billions in the\u00a0armament program. The present Truman administration in six short years has spent\u00a0304 billions. Congressional Investigations have shown that by no means all of\u00a0the orders represented by these billions were placed on merit or for the lowest\u00a0price. Those investigations have all too clearly revealed that, as spending\u00a0grows, political pull, strategically placed mink coats, TV sets, airplane trips,\u00a0and free vacations accompany the growth.\u00a0Of course we need a deeper sense of moral integrity in public life. But let\u00a0us not forget that it gets harder and harder to maintain that integrity if we\u00a0keep on putting more and more power in the hands of government officials. As men\u00a0in the Washington agencies get more and more opportunity to reward or punish,\u00a0more and more control over the daily lives of all of us, the greater is the temptation\u00a0to reach those officials by favors, gifts, or outright bribes.<\/p>\n
It is not a pretty picture that the investigators are turning up day by day:\u00a0the picture of unsavory Individuals, some even with prison records, able to get\u00a0choice licenses, able to line up scarce materials, because they are very chummy\u00a0with officials of high rank. Not only must we try to have honest officials; we\u00a0must also find some way to keep so many officials from getting so much power.<\/p>\n
This is the year when we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the incorporation\u00a0of Waterville as a town. The Citizens Conmlttee of 100, appointed by the\u00a0outgoing mayor,\u00a0<\/em>Hon. Russell Squire, under authority voted by the City Government,\u00a0will hold its first meeting in the administration of the new mayor, Hon. Richard\u00a0Dubord. That meeting will be held in the Municipal Court Room, City Hall, Thursday evening of this week at 7:30. It is an important meeting, for the committee\u00a0must decide what kind of celebration shall be attempted, when it shall be held,\u00a0and of what the program shall consist. Every member of the committee should make\u00a0a special effort to be present.<\/p>\n As a child I somehow escaped what so many of my contemporaries endured -repeated\u00a0doses of Mrs. Winslow’s soothing syrup. We nCffl know that this patent\u00a0medicine never cured anything, that it simply drugged infants into such a stupor\u00a0that they stopped crying. But our grandmothers certainly swore by it.\u00a0A little booklet called Mrs. Winslow’s Domestic Receipt Book was recently\u00a0shown me by Mrs. Mary Stobie. It is for the year 1876, though the inscription\u00a0reads: “This book will be issued annually, with entirely new receipts. By preserving the issues and sewing them together, you will have in a few years the\u00a0best collection of receipts in the country.”<\/p>\n On the Inside cover the old-time remedy Is heralded with these words: “Mother!\u00a0Mother! Mother! Are you disturbed at night and broken of your rest by a\u00a0sick chid suffering and crying with the\u00a0excruciating\u00a0pain of cutting teeth? If\u00a0so, go out at once and get a bottle of Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup. It will relieve the poor little sufferer immediately — depend upon it. It gives rest to\u00a0the moTher and relief and health to the child, operating like maloce.”<\/p>\n The book let seems to have been the joint product of Jeremiah Curtis & Sons\u00a0and John L. Brown & Sons, both of whom held several patents for medicines. So we\u00a0find Brown’s Bronchial Troches for coughs and colds, especially recommended for\u00a0singers and public speakers; Brown’s Vermifuge Comfits and Worm lozenges, guaranteed\u00a0to get worms out of chi Idren’s intestine.1 tracts; and Brown’s Household\u00a0Panacea and Family Liniment, which was sure to cure cramp in the limbs, rheumatism\u00a0in all Its forms, neuralgia, worms, tooth ache, sore throat, pain in the\u00a0stomach, bi Iious col ic, cholera, chapped hands, spinal comPlaints, chills and\u00a0fever. It was, says the ad, purely vegetable and all-healing.<\/p>\n Now let’s take a look at some of the recipes in this 1876 publ icatlon. Some\u00a0of them certainly provided for healthy appetites of big fami lies. Here, for instance,\u00a0are the Ingredients of a single cake: one pound of flour, one pound of\u00a0butter, one pound of brown sugar, ten eggs, two pounds of currants, one-half\u00a0pound of cl tron, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste.\u00a0Here’s another cake: one pound of flour, one pound of sugar, one-half\u00a0pound of butter, four eggs, one cup of cream, one pound of raisins, nutmeg and\u00a0cl nnamon.\u00a0Here’s one ca lied imperl a I cake: one pound of flour, one pound of sugar,\u00a0one pound of butter, one pound of raisins, stoned and chopped, one -half pound\u00a0of blanched almonds, one-quarter pound of ci tron, eight eggs, two g lasses of\u00a0Wine.<\/p>\n These were all what we would call fruit cakes and expected to be rather\u00a0rich, but qere is one with no fruit at all. It is called Rai I road Cake: one\u00a0pound of flour, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, one-half pound of butter, one\u00a0teaspoon cream of tartar.\u00a0How many of you ever heard of pork and apple pie? Here is the recipe: line\u00a0a tin basin with pastry. Nearly fl II It with quartered apples; spice with pepper,\u00a0and cover with thin slices of salt pork. Put a paste on top and bake an\u00a0hour I n a mode rate oven.<\/p>\n Among the miscellaneous — not the cooking — recipes is this one: How to\u00a0cure sma II pox without ca I ling a doctor. For adu Its gl ve one tab lespoon of\u00a0brewer’s yeast in 3 tab lespoons of sweetened wate r th ree t I mas a day, and keep\u00a0the patient on a mi Ik diet. Th is wi II cure without leaving a pock mark.\u00a0What a time our grandparents used to have with tough meat! No wonder the\u00a0old recipe books contain many d I recti ons for tenderl zing meat. Here is one: To\u00a0those who have worn down their teeth masticating poor, old, tough, cow beef, we\u00a0wi II say that carbonate of soda will be found a remedy for the e’li I. Try it, all\u00a0you who love delicious, tender dishes of beef.<\/p>\n Apparently artl ficfal coloring of butter was uncommon in 1876. A quarter of\u00a0a century later I can remember some of the colorless butter that came into my\u00a0father’s store from the surrounding farms, but by that time'” the best butter\u00a0makers were using the vegetable coloring that came In small bottles. But back\u00a0in 1876 we find this recipe to make ye Ilow butter in winter: put in the yolks\u00a0of eggs just before the butter comes, near the end of the churning. This practice\u00a0is kept by many as a great secret, but its great value requires publicity.\u00a0That centennl a I year of 1876 was a year of financia I depress ion. Consequently\u00a0we are not surprised to find in the booklet this heading: “A Few Hints\u00a0for Hard Times”. Here are the hints: Rutabaga, grated and prepared as you dp\u00a0cabbage, makes an excellent substitute for that article. Today, when cabbage is\u00a0about as cheap as turnips, that advice strikes us as strange.\u00a0Here’s another: pumpkin pies can be made wlthout”‘- mt Ik, by using water instead.\u00a0We think they are as good as when made of milk. Custards can also be\u00a0made with water, instead of mi Ikj also puddings, especially the baked India\u00a0pudd I ng. Just add a few pieces of butter.\u00a0Did you ever hear of “almacks”? I cannot find the word in any dictionary.<\/p>\n Anyhow, here In the 1876 Receipt Book is a redpe for almacks: Take 4 dozen\u00a0rl pe plums and sp lit them; two dozen app les and two dozen pears, pee led and\u00a0cored. Stew all together without water. When well b~tended, take out the\u00a0plum stones and stir in three’~ pounds of sugar. Boi I gently, stf rring often,\u00a0for an hour. Then spread on flat di shes, and dry et ther in the sun or in a cool\u00a0oven. When nearly dry, mark it in square cakes. Sounds rather good at that,\u00a0those a I macks.<\/p>\n ~ome ti me ago on “th is program I referred to the Canada Road. At that time\u00a0I did not know it was Lewis Whipple’s grand uncle, Jim Jackman, who supervised\u00a0the clearing of that famous road in 1828.<\/p>\n Before that date cattle raised in the settlements north of Skowhegan, as\u00a0we II as those a II a long the Kennebec down to Merrymeeting Bay, were dri ven to\u00a0the Brighton Market near Boston. For Instance in 1817 when Abner Coburn, the\u00a0benefactor of Coburn Classical Institute, was 14 years old, his father collected\u00a0a drove of catt Ie in the settlements above S,kowhe:gan, and young Abner was one\u00a0of the drovers, trudging on foot from Skowhegan to Boston and back home again.\u00a0Not unti I Uncle Jim Jackman cleared the Canada Road from The Forks north of\u00a0the Bingham Purchase to the Canadian line, and a road was brought south from the\u00a0St. Lawrence to meet it, were Somerset cattle driven to the nearer and more\u00a0profitable Quebec market.<\/p>\n In 1827 the Maine Legislature appropriated money and contracted with Uncle\u00a0Jim Jackman to supervise the road building. Sumner Wh ipp Ie, who was born in\u00a01817 and lived unti I 1902, wrote for the old Somerset Reporter several articles\u00a0about the old days in what is now Jackman. He says he was told the following incident\u00a0by an old man, Charles Grant, who as a young fellow had worked on the\u00a0road.<\/p>\n When the job was nearing the Canadian I ine and they were getting an opening\u00a0wide enough for a team to go th rough, the crew ran short of rum. Capt. Jackman\u00a0— as Uncle Jim was usually called — ordered a man to go to Canada for a supply.\u00a0The man returned wi th a barre I of rum and there was rejoicing in the camp. It was\u00a0a very hot day, and the sun was pouring down into the opening they had cut in\u00a0the forest, and the work of removing roots, stumps and boulders was arduous. The\u00a0men de~nded frequent rest. But Capt. Jackman kept them going with, “Boys,\u00a0we’ll take another dri nk of rum and then a II get to work, because we must hurry\u00a0up and finish this road. We must have it to get the silver through. We need\u00a0that si Iver very much.”<\/p>\n The reference to silver is verified by SurmerWhipple’s recorded memories\u00a0of his own ch I I dhood \u2022 “The Humph reys, then II v I n9 InS kowhegan”, he w rote In\u00a0one of those old Somerset Reporter articles, “dealt in horses and cattle. As\u00a0they came horne from Quebec they s topped at father’s a I I night. When they came\u00a0in, they brought thei r saddle bags. In the evening they talked of the succsss\u00a0who! ch was I n the sadd Ie bags, all in s i I ver. The ch I I dren had to see I f they\u00a0could lift It. I, being the oldest of a large family, could do so ($1,000 In\u00a0silver weighs approximately 64 pounds), but when about half way down the line\u00a0of children they came toone who could not 11ft it, nor could any of the smaller\u00a0ones. “Not only cattle, but dried app les and other produce went over the new road\u00a0to be exchanged for precious si Iver in Quebec. In lent the Maine fishermen\u00a0reaped a harwst, for Sumner Whipple tells us, “Then the Frenchmen, unable to\u00a0eat meat during the 40 days of Lent, came in long trains to purchase our cured band ~alted fish.”<\/p>\n Captain Jim Jack..” after the road was built, saw the need for a tavern\u00a0in that region. So he built a house in the southeast part of Jackman Plantation,\u00a0sawing out the boards with a whipsaw — a very slow procsss. Here he\u00a0Ilwd for 15 years. After he was 75 years old he went to California, but returned\u00a0after a few years, settled up his affairs in Maine, and went to Kansas\u00a0to live with his daughter, Mrs. Solon Ward. There he died at the age of 83.\u00a0AI I that is left of Jim Jackman’s 0ld home bes I de the Quebec highway, a\u00a0short distance beyond Parlin Pond, Is a c:e liar hole. The once cultivated\u00a0fields have reverted to wilderness, but along the Canadian border, men say,\u00a0still stalks the ghost of Jim Jackman, shouting to his road crew, “Hurry up, we\u00a0must finish the road and get the silver through.”<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #130, broadcast on January 6, 1952<\/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":[787,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276"}],"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=7276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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