Now that Congress is aga i n In sess Ion, we are al I i nte rested to know what\u00a0legislation it wi II pass. Unlike the program that precedes this one on the air,\u00a0over this station, we are not given to predictions of things to come. We can\u00a0only tell you what leading members of Congress themselves say about legislation\u00a0ahead.\u00a0Senator George and Representative Doughton, the leading authorities on\u00a0taxation within the Congress, both state emphatically that taxes will not be\u00a0raised again in 1952, and we may look for no further change in social security\u00a0and we I fare laws.\u00a0On foreign policy that veteran senator, Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate\u00a0Committee on Foreign Relations, says foreign econanic aid wi II end in 1951,\u00a0just as originally planned, but that military aid will probably continue. He\u00a0says there wi I I be no Ambassador to the Vat I can, that the Senate w I II never ap.,.prove It. The Japanese Peace Treaty will be ratified, but the St. Lawrence Seaway\u00a0Is a dead issue.<\/p>\n
On mill tary affai rs Senator Russe II, chaf rman of the Armed Services Com ..\u00a0mfttee, hopes “there wi II be early enactment of Universal Military Training, but\u00a0no Senator or Representative is bold enough to predict its passage. Propone\u00b7ntst:,,of\u00a0UMT know that they have a fight on their hands. There are a lot of people\u00a0in the United States who do not want to see us tied to a permanent ml litarlzation\u00a0of youth, and those peop Ie have strong support in the Congress.\u00a0As for labor, not even the bitterest enemies of the Taft-Hart ley Act four\u00a0years ago now expect its repea I. They admit that I t has worked rather we 1\/\u00a0and needs minor amendments, rather than repeal. As for oommunism within the\u00a0ranks of labor, Representative Barden, chairman of the House Cormlittee, says:<\/p>\n
“I think CIO and AFL have done a good job of cleaning house, and they found that\u00a0indeed some house cleaning was needed. Unfortunately there are still a few\u00a0un ions In wh i ch the colTmun i sts hoi d power. II<\/p>\n
What about government controls? Representative Spence, chairman of the\u00a0House Commi ttee on Bank i ng and Currency, fee I s sure that we do not now have\u00a0suffidient control to fight inflation and sti II carryon defense production at\u00a0a high level. That, as we have more than once pointed out on this program, is\u00a0the crux of the problem. How can Increased defense production and decreased\u00a0clvi I ian production do otherwise than bring higher and hi gher prices as long as\u00a0the workers have more and more money to spend for fewer goods? Let us repeat\u00a0again what we have tried to emphasize before: No partial control solves that\u00a0kind of problem. You can’t solve it by freezing prices and profits, and letting\u00a0wages alone. You can’t accomplish much by control of processing and trade without\u00a0contro I ling raw mate ria Is at the i r source. I f we have a s i tuat i on that demands\u00a0all-out control, let’s have It. If we have no such situation, take off\u00a0all controls and let free enterprise do\u00b7<the job.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago we tol d you about Dr. Ambrose Howard of Sidney — his wi II\u00a0and the inventory of his estate. Tonight we want to tell you about a letter\u00a0wri tten by Dr. Howard’s younger son, Erasmus D. H~ard, in 1834. Li ke many other\u00a0Maine youths, young Howard had gone far from Maine to seek his fortune. On\u00a0Apri I 23, 1834 he wrote to his father from New Orleans, where he had been settled\u00a0for several weeks. This is the way the letter begins: “Dear Father:<\/p>\n
received your letter in due time after its date and was happy to learn that you\u00a0were all enjoying a measurable degree of health and prosperity. I hope you wi II\u00a0pardon me for not giving your letter a much earl ier answer. The delay has proceeded\u00a0from two causes — first, the necessity of devoting all my tIme not\u00a0required for relaxation and rest to my business; and secondly, my intention,\u00a0when I wrote you last, of giving you a general description with some outline\u00a0sketches of the ci ty. But strange as I t may seem, I have not yeT been ab Ie\u00a0to obtain enough Information to accomplish that purpose. I must Therefore defer\u00a0the matter for the present, but I shall not lose sight of it, if I have a convenient\u00a0opportunity before I leave the city.”<\/p>\n
Why young Howard had gone to New Orleans is not entirely clear, but apparently\u00a0he was seeking hi s fortune in that southern port, for he goes on to\u00a0tell his father:<\/p>\n
“I began at once to search for emp loyment. It has been a di fficult and\u00a0laborious task. The immense numbers that had preceded me here from all parts\u00a0of the Un f ted States, brought hither by the I dea that the cl ty had been rendered\u00a0nearly empty by the sickness of the last two seasons, had filled every\u00a0vacant place in every branch of business. The papers are filled with advertisements\u00a0of young men seeking employment. Scores — yes, hundreds — have been\u00a0leaving this city for the North in the New York packets.<\/p>\n
“I spent five or six weeks in fruitless search of business, three of those\u00a0weeks amid incessant rain. Wading in mud half way to the tops of boots, I explored\u00a0the city and the adjacent country, for 15 miles up and down the river on\u00a0both sides, but to no avail. All were full, many having already more help than\u00a0they needed. My only encouragement came from the other side of The river,\u00a0nearly opposite to the upper part of the city, by a wealthy Frenchman, who had\u00a0been building a double steam sawmi II which he expected to get into operation\u00a0by early summer. He would then need a clerk and bookkeeper and thought no\u00a0doubt he cou I d then emp loy me at about $50 a month.”<\/p>\n
Young Howard could not wait until summer before getting to work. Although\u00a0he was getting precious little food, his stomach was fed up on New Orleans itself.\u00a0He vents his wrath on the old city In these words to his father: “Had\u00a0it not been for my obligation to complete Lovejoy’s business here, as committed\u00a0to me before I left home, I should long ago have left this sink of the\u00a0western world, this region of interminable swamps, fearful inundations, incessant\u00a0ra 1 n or scorch i ng sun, perpetua I mud or smothering dust — a mora I Sodan,\u00a0the puogatory of the ebony race from a II the other states — the Immense storehouse,\u00a0repository and vortex of all the superfluous wealth and fatness of half\u00a0the world — the city of refuge for this lone creation — the Babel of a thousand\u00a0tongues, the Pandandrum of as nany different colors — but sti II the resi …\u00a0dence of some good, amiable, kind, and religious people.”<\/p>\n
Then young Howard tells his father how he had made plans to go up to the\u00a0sources of the Mississippi as an employee of the American Fur eo””any. He already\u00a0had visions of what he calls “scal ing the R:>cky Mountains in search of\u00a0the buffalo and other game of the Far West”. But what Howard calls a “Provi ..dence -that watches over the strangers in a strange land” Intervened. At last\u00a0he found a job in New Orleans. Before leaving Maine he had learned the carpenter’s\u00a0-trade, and in those days every carpenter worth his salt was a’-cabinet\u00a0maker. Howard was no exception. He found a room for which he had to pay what\u00a0was then an exhorbitant rental of ten dollars a month, and determined to set\u00a0up In business as a cabinet maker and joiner. He got his chest of tools and a\u00a0few other possessions trucked up from the ship, where they had lain since his\u00a0arriva I. Then he obtained sufficient lumber to construct a work bench and began\u00a0work on the most essential articles of furniture for his own needs — bedstead,\u00a0chai r and tab Ie. Then he te II s hi s father about hi s first work for pay in New\u00a0Orleans:<\/p>\n
“The first job I performed was working the molding 00 the mislon (sic)\u00a0channels of the ship Ceylon, which I wrought entirely by hand, as I could find\u00a0no sui-table molding tools In this city. I had scarcely finished that job when\u00a0the sh i p was run into by another vesse I, wh i ch carried away her starboard mt d-\u00a0ship works. That gave me another job of three or four days.<\/p>\n
“After fi nishing on board the Ceylon and arranging my shop and household,\u00a0app lied to my I and I ady for further patronage. She is a French lady, an 01 d\u00a0rna I d of about 45 years — and a much better woman than anyone wou I d expect to\u00a0find renting quarters in New Orleans. She gave me encouragement, and a few days\u00a0later gave me a job repairing another house that belonged to her. That job gave\u00a0me emp loyment for near Iy a month. Then she recommended me to other members of\u00a0her fami Iy who in turn recommended me to their friends. Thus, through the kindness\u00a0of Mi ss 5T. Vertorby, I have prospered.”<\/p>\n
Other men from Maine were down there in New Orleans, and young Howard made\u00a0the close acquaintance of John Cottle of Windsor, Maine, a lad of 19, who had\u00a0graduated from Ch I na Academy, served an apprent i cesh I pin Bangor, and had come\u00a0down to New Orleans, as he said, “to make five or six hundred dollars and return\u00a0home in the spring with enough money to set up in business for himself near\u00a0his father’s p I ace in Wi ndsor.” Li sten to what Howard wrote about young Cott Ie\u00a0and his hopes of fortune: “Poor disappointed youth of self-sufficiency and\u00a0vanity. After six weeks of wading through the mud — spending nearly all his\u00a0funds and meeting with a continual series of disappointing expectations — he\u00a0was tempted through despair to try his fortune with his last money on the roulette.<\/p>\n
The result was what common sense might suppose, Finding him destitute,\u00a0I invited him TO live with me. He was with me about five weeks before he obta\u00a0i ned any bus i ness, and he rendered me some ass is tance on the heavi es t work on\u00a0my job. Finally he obtained employment in a baking establishment at $25 per\u00a0month. Then the bakery burned, but he fortunate I y got another job where he is\u00a0now recei vi ng $30 a mnth.”\u00a0After Cott Ie got settled on hIs job, Howard took in another Mal ne youth,\u00a0Nathan Sims of Union, who, I Ike Cottle, had graduated from China Academy, and\u00a0had then determi ned to go to sea. So he sh ipped on the bark Tamerand of Thom-\u00a0aston for New Orleans and thence to Europe. But on the voyage from Maine to\u00a0New Orleans, Sims learned~ as Howard puts it, that “his constitution was not\u00a0at all adapted to a sea-faring life.” So he obtained the captain’s leave to\u00a0stay In New Orleans rather than sail across the Atlantic. Howard describes\u00a0Sims as “a young man of good sense about 23 years old, having a good English\u00a0education with principles and habits of the old Puritan stamp.”<\/p>\n
Young Howard was concerned about some of the financial affairs he had left\u00a0unsett I ed InS i dney \u2022 He gave his fathe r the fo II ow i n9 Ins truct ions: “The ha rness\u00a0and saddle were company property with bi II of sale to Elisha Hayward. The\u00a0crosscut saw belonged to Sawyer and myself in common. The Smith Co. papers\u00a0delivered to Mr. Ames, who Is treasurer. Please inform me In your next letter\u00a0whether you have settled with Newell and Henry Lovejoy. Ask Sawtelle and Bailey\u00a0if S’alwyer has taken up rrrt note. lowe Char les Ham I I n a sma II trl fIe, or he\u00a0owes me, I do not know wh i ch \u2022 I a I so owe Asa Red i ngton five sh i I I I ngs that I\u00a0ough t to have pa i d \u2022 P I ease attend to these ob I i gat Ions on my beh a I f. It\u00a0You have heard me say on several occasions that these old letters were\u00a0mal led without postage stamps and no envelopes were used. The letter itself\u00a0was ingeniously folded and the address written on the outside. This letter of\u00a0E. D. Howard’s is long — writte n on pages one, two and three of a foolscap\u00a0size sheet, with the fourth page left blank to make the outside folding and\u00a0carry the address of the letter. Now comes a practice with which I had never\u00a0been fam; I iar in such old-time letters. Having finished the third page, Howard\u00a0goes back to page one and continues the letter between the already written lines\u00a0of that page. I assure you that practi ce does not make the letter any eas ler\u00a0to read 118 years later, but I finally managed to decipher It, as I have been\u00a0te I I I ng you.<\/p>\n
Now why didn’t Howard simply use another half sheet of foolscap, fold It\u00a0inside the four page sheet, and thus save his father the trouble of making out\u00a0that inter-lined script? Interestingly enough I found what is probably the\u00a0answer in that 1813 edition of the Farmers Almanac, loaned me by Mr. Lewis\u00a0Whipple. In that old almanac are published the rates of postage. Thl$ is the\u00a0way they read:<\/p>\n
“For every letter of single sheet, delivered by land, 40 mi les, 8 cents;\u00a090 mIles, 10 cents; 150 miles, 12i cents; 300 mi les, 17 cents; 500 mi les, 20\u00a0cents; more than 500 miles, 25 cents. Every double letter, of two sheets, Is\u00a0to pay double the said rates, every triple letter, triple the rates. Every ship\u00a0letter, originally received at an office for delivery, 6 cents per sheet.’T\u00a0There you have It. Letters” for which the receiver, not the sender, always\u00a0had to pay postage, were charged for, not by weight, but by the number of\u00a0sheets. So, mindful of his father’s pocket book, young HC\u00bbIard economically used\u00a0just one sheet of paper, managing to get five pages of writing on three pages,\u00a0by going back and writing between the lines of pages one and two. A young man\u00a0with that kind of Yankee thrift deserved to prosper in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #135, broadcast on February 10, 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\/7287"}],"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=7287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}