Peop Ie are getting rightly concerned about the vast number of federa I employees.\u00a0Not counting the men and women in the uniforms of the Army, Navy and Air Force,\u00a0there were 14,365,785 persons on the federal payroll when the fiscal year closed\u00a0last June. In the eighT months since June the number has risen to 15 million. Think\u00a0of it — one person in every ten men, women and chi Idren In the whole United States\u00a0are work i ng for the fede ra I government.<\/p>\n
When we say federal government, everyone thinks of the big army of government\u00a0workers in Washington. What many of us do not realize is that not more than one out\u00a0of 60 federal employees works in Washington. In fact there are more people on\u00a0Uncle Sam’s payroll in Cal ifornia than there are in the national capita,l.\u00a0The number of persons now on the government payro II is one-fourth of the number\u00a0of voters in the last presidential election. When one out of every four voters Is\u00a0worki ng at taxpayers I expense, we have come to a sorry pass in our American economy.<\/p>\n
Don’t you think it is time we did something about It?<\/p>\n
LasT week we told you a bit about Waterville in 1909. What about the whole\u00a0State of Maine at that time, 43 years ago? The Governor, Bert M. Fernald, had a\u00a0salary of $3,000. The Attorney General, who was Warren Philbrook of Waterville,\u00a0was paid better than the Governor. He got $4,000. The State Treasurer got $2,000\u00a0and the Secretary of State had the princely salary of $1,200. The Commissioner of\u00a0Education was then called the State Superintendent of Schools. His pay was $2,500,\u00a0and his deputy received $1,500. The Superintendent of the State School for Boys\u00a0got $1,000, the Warden of the State Prison $2,500, the State Librarian $1,500, the\u00a0Superintendent of the Insane Hospital $2,000.<\/p>\n
In 1909 the largest number of members in any Protestant denomination was\u00a0claimed not by Methodists or Baptists, as one might suppose, but by the Congregationalists.The 1909 Maine Register tells us that there were then in the state\u00a0263 Congregational churches with 22,000 members; 239 Baptist churches with 21,000;\u00a0and 316 Methodist churches with 18,000. The Methodists therefore had the most\u00a0churches, but were third In number of members. There were in the state 113 Roman\u00a0Catholic churches with 120,000 parishioners, which cannot fairly be compared with\u00a0the Protestant figures because of the different methods of recording members and\u00a0pa r I sh i one rs \u2022<\/p>\n
Although a\/ways a minority, the Quakers were more numerous than the Unitarians\u00a0In 1909, and nearly as numerous as the Advents. There were 24 organized\u00a0Friends Meetings with 1,800 members.\u00a0The annual fairs were going strong 43 years ago. There were fifty different\u00a0county and district agricultural societies, among them four that I remember very\u00a0well: Bridgton, Cornish, Fryeburg and Norway. We a Iways called the latter the Norway\u00a0Fair, although’ believe its proper title was always the Oxford County Fair, and\u00a0I think its fair grounds were originally as much in South Paris as in Norway. At\u00a0least they are right on the line between the two towns.<\/p>\n
In 1909 the big fairs were three: the Maine State Fair at Lewiston, the Eastern\u00a0Maine Fair at Bangor, and the Central Maine Fair at Watervi lIe. The Watervi\u00a0lie Fair was then held for four days, from August 31 through September 3. Martin\u00a0Bartlett was president and George Fuller was secretary.\u00a0Waterville was we II represented in the state ranks of fraterna I orders 43\u00a0years ago. Warren Phi I brook was Deputy Grand Commander of the Masonic Commandery.\u00a0Walter E. Reid, remembered best as the benefactor of the Waterville Fire Department\u00a0and the donor of the new state park at the mouth of the Kennebec, was then Commander\u00a0of the Maine Brigade of the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias, and Edgar\u00a0Brown was its Assistant Adjutant General. Miss Maude Merrick was state president\u00a0of the Woman’s Relief Corps of the GAR. W. I. Sterling was Grand Counci Ilor of the\u00a0Good Templars, and the Grand Vice-Templar was Mrs. E. G. flIes. W. J. Thompson of\u00a0Ch ina was then, as he was many years afterward, Lecturer of the State Grange.\u00a0The State YMCA, with its state office then as now in Watervil Ie, had the beloved\u00a0Uncle Jeff Smith as state secretary, William Bowen as field secretary, and\u00a0Clarence Robinson as boys’ and students’ secretary.<\/p>\n
Horace Purinton was treasurer of the Maine Sunday School Association and was\u00a0also president of the Maine Bible Society. Rev. C. E. Owen was superintendent of\u00a0the Maine Anti-Saloon League, whJle H. N. Pringle and Wi Ibur F. Berry were joint\u00a0secretaries of the Christian Civic League.\u00a0The Maine branch of the Daughters of the American Revolution was headed by Miss\u00a0Louise Coburn of Skowhegan. Hascall Hall was secretary of the Maine Bankers Association,\u00a0and Dr. Claire Brown was vice-president of the Maine Osteopathic Society.<\/p>\n
In all the years from 1820 to 1909 Waterv! lie had produced no governor for\u00a0Maine. Our honored Governor Haines came later. In 1909 Wi Illam T. Haines Is named\u00a0in the Maine Register as attorney for the Maine Sportsmen’s Fish and Game Association.\u00a0In 1909 Watervi lie was represented in the legislature by two Democrats, J. L.\u00a0Fortier and Wi Illam R. Pattangall. At that time the Democrats were relatively\u00a0stronger in the legislature than they are now. The Knox County delegation. one senator\u00a0and seven representatives, was comp letely Democratic. In the House Penobscot\u00a0had twelve Democrats and five RepUblicans. lincoln County was evenly divided, two\u00a0and two. The total representation was in the Senate 23 Republicans and 8 Il3mocrats;\u00a0I n the House 99 Repub Ilcans and 52 Democrats.\u00a0Waterville was well represented In the State MiliTia. On the staff of the Adjutant\u00a0General Elliott C. Di II were Lt. Col. Matthew Goodrich and Captain James F.\u00a0Hill. Waterville’s own militia company, Company H of the 2nd Maine Infantry, was\u00a0headed by Captain Harold Pepper. Its fi rst I ieutenant was Will iam Murray and the\u00a0second lieutenant was Ralph Thompson of Fairfield.<\/p>\n
I wonder how many of the old farmers’ line telephone compan les stll I operate\u00a0in Maine. I believe the Sidney line is sti II locally owned, and we have all seen\u00a0the nation-wide publicity given to the farmers’ line in Franklin County, where you\u00a0can phone from Farmington to Rangeley, or from Kingfield to Phillips, without paying\u00a0a toll charge. It would be Interesting to know how many other such lines are\u00a0s t I II go i ng \u2022\u00a0There were a lot of them in 1909. Bridgton had the Ossipee Val ley line; Belgrade\u00a0and Rome had the Northeastern. Readfield had two lines: the Readfield Telephone\u00a0Company and the Crosby Telephone Company. Waterv! I Ie, Oak land and Fa i rf i e I d\u00a0were already part of the New Eng land system, but operating private Iy were the Ch ina\u00a0Telephone Company, the Athens Te lephone Company, the Hebron Te lephone Company, and\u00a0the Sweden Telephone Company. The Maine Telephone Company operated in Skowhegan,\u00a0Madison and Hinckley. Then there were companies named for the towns they connected,\u00a0as the New Portland and Eustis, and the New Sharon and Norridgewock.\u00a0One of ‘ the m<hst interesting of the loca I I ines was cal led the Van Te lephone\u00a0Company of Bethe I \u2022 I ts manager had an almost unp ronounceab Ie name of 15 lette rs,\u00a0Vandenkerkhoven. So inevitably the line was named the Van Telephone Company.<\/p>\n
think the town of Paris took the prize for different telephone lines in\u00a01909. Operating in that town were no fewer than eleven different phone companies:\u00a0the Maine, the Citizens, the Greenwood, the Norway Local, the Oxford, the Curtis\u00a0Hi II,the Paris” the Andrews, the Greenwood Valley, the Pleasant Pond, and the Union\u00a0Va I ley.\u00a0Watervi I Ie was well represented in state and county government In 1909. Not\u00a0only was Warren Philbrook the attorney general; Colby Getchell was county sheriff,\u00a0and his local deputy was John Davison. Harold E. Cook was judge of probate. E. P.\u00a0Mayo was Inspector of Prisons and Jai Is; Charles F. Johnson, later U. S. Senator and\u00a0federal judge, was on the Board of Legal Examiners; and A. Joly was one of the\u00a0veteri nary examiners.<\/p>\n
The cause of political socialism never had many followers in Maine. The great\u00a0socialist, Eugene Debs, though he secured a rather sizable national vote, got only\u00a01,758 votes for president in Maine in 1908, whi Ie Wi II iam Jennings Bryan 90t\u00a035,000 and Wi I Ii am Howard Taft 67,000. The Socialist candidate for governor didn’t\u00a0do so well in September as Debs did two months later. Perry, who wanted to be a\u00a0socialist governor of Maine, got only 1,416 votes. Ames, the Prohibition candidate,\u00a0got 5 more votes, 1,421. The Prohibition strength was greatest in Cumberland, York\u00a0and Aroostook, and was weakest In Waldo, Hancock and WaShington. Outside of Portland,\u00a0which had 103 Prohibition votes in the September election, the largest Prohibition\u00a0votes were 39 in Bangor, 26 In Houlton, 25 In Bath, 29 in Auburn, 29 in Westbrook,\u00a026 in Berwick and 25 in Kennebunk.\u00a0As is sti II usual In a state election, Watervl lie went Democratic in 1908.\u00a0Obadiah Gardner, the great Granger, carried the city with 1,253 votes. More than 400\u00a0behind ran Bert Fernald, the Republican, with 807 votes. We wonder what happened\u00a0to keep so rreny Watervi I Ie voters, especia Ily Democrats, at home when the vote was\u00a0cast for Presi dent in November; for then Taft carried the ci ty over Bryan 906 to 640.<\/p>\n
There is another curious thing about that presidential election in Maine. It\u00a0concerns the Socialist vote. Except for Portland, the largest Socialist vote was\u00a0cast in Madison, where 86 ballots were for Debs. He got only 15 votes in Waterville,\u00a0only 33 in Skowhegan, and only 24 in Anson. What accounts for that big vote in\u00a0Madison?<\/p>\n
Thanks to Mr. Percival Wyman I now know the names and locations of the many\u00a0rai I roads that were later consolidated into the Maine Central system. Mr. W)lman\u00a0himself made, many years ago, an engineer’s map of Maine with all the rai I roads\u00a0carefully marked, together with the dates of their charters.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, “there were 58 different charters granted the rai I <\/em>roads that\u00a0later came to be known as the Ma ine Centra 1. Th i rteen of those roads were chartered\u00a0before the Civil War, and their names are worth knowing. The first railroad\u00a0was chartered in Maine actua Ily seven years before the I ine from Boston\u00a0reached Portland in 1842, and that first charter was granted, not for a rai I road\u00a0near Portland, but in the distant extreme corner of the state. It was the Calais\u00a0Rai Iway Company, chartered to bui Id a line from Calais to Milltown. The Portland\u00a0and Kennebec, authorized to but Id from Portland to Augusta, got Its charter in\u00a01836, but did not bui Id until much later. The Penobscot and Kennebec, from Watervi\u00a0lie to Bangor, got Its charter in 1845; the Androscoggin and Kennebec, fran Port … ,<\u00a0land to Watervi lie via Lewiston, In 1848; and the Somerset and Kennebec, from Augusta\u00a0to Skowhegan via Watervil Ie, in 1848. Then In 1849 came the charters of\u00a0the Penobscot, Lincoln and Kennebec, and the Calais and Baring. In 1850 came the\u00a0charter of the first road to go beyond the Canadian border, the European and North\u00a0American, over whose roadbed stili go international trains like the Gull. In 1853\u00a0came the Dexter and Newport; in 1854 the Lewis Island Rai I road from Baring to\u00a0Princeton; In 1857 the Port land and Oxford Centra I from Buckfle Id to Canton; and in\u00a01860 the Somerset Rai I road from Oakland to North Anson. That completed the thirteen\u00a0rail roads chartered in Maine between 1835 and 1860.<\/p>\n Some of the rai I roads, long since forgotten by most people, were the branch of \u00a0the European and North American from Orono to Stillwater, another branch from Enfield\u00a0to Montague. Then In the western part of the state there was the line from\u00a0Rumford to Roxbury and the separate road that once ran from Canton to Gi Ibertsvi lie.\u00a0Except for my favorite narrow guage, the Bridgton and Saco River, the rai I road\u00a0knew best as a boy was the Portland and Ogdensburg, now the Mountain Division of\u00a0the Maine Central. Its first charter, authorizing it to bui Id from Portland to the\u00a0New Hampshire line between Fryeburg and Conway, was issued In 1867, and two years\u00a0later it was chartered on to Lunenburg, Vermont, then finally to St. Johnsbury.\u00a0Three years ago, when we were talking a lot about narrow guage railroads,\u00a0told you thaT seven dl fferent roads made up what eventually came to be Maine’s\u00a0longesT narrow guage line, the S~ndy River and Rangeley Lakes. What I did not know\u00a0at thaT time, and what Mr. Wyman’s map has now set straight for me and you, is that\u00a0it took 13 different charters to build that system of narrow guage tracks north of\u00a0Farmington.<\/p>\n First was the Sandy River Railroad, chartered In 1879 from Farmington to Phillips.\u00a0Then in 1884 came the Franklin and Megantic from Strong to Kingfield, and in\u00a01889 the Phi’ I ips and Rangeley, between those two towns. In 1893 the Kingfield and\u00a0Dead River got a I ine from Kingfield to Carrabasset, in 1900 extended It from Carrabasset\u00a0to Bigelow, and In 1906 built from Kingfield to Alder Stream. In 1902 a\u00a0separaTe road from Ph il lips to No.6 was chartered under the name of the Madri d\u00a0Railroad, and in 1903 the Eustis Rai I road got rights from Eustis Junction to Green’s\u00a0Farm. In 1906 the Phillips and Rangeley built a branch from Rangeley to Marbles.<\/p>\n It was not ,until 1909 that a road named the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes took out\u00a0its first two charters, one for a line from Brackett Junction to Littlefield, and\u00a0the other from Mt. Abram Junction to Mount Abram. Three years later, in 1912, it\u00a0got two more charters, from Perham J unct i on to Barrytown and from Madri d V’id I age to\u00a0Log Landing. From that modest beginning of four tiny branches, the Sandy River and\u00a0Rangeley Lakes grew unti I it had absorbe9 rights and roll jng stock of all the other\u00a0nine charters, and the whole road was just the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes,\u00a0In 1922 — the winter of tremendous storms, bitter cold, and a paralyzing coal\u00a0strike — I spent one long day on that Sandy River line. In the midst of a bl Izzard\u00a0much I ike the one we had a month ago, that little train finally struggled through\u00a0from Strong to Kingfield only seven hours late. And how proud that engine crew was\u00a0when they learned that the big Maine Csntral locomotive on the evening train into\u00a0Farmington cou I dn ‘t get through unti I the next morn Ing.<\/p>\n Last week we menti oned a number .of bus lness firms now operating in Watervi lie\u00a0which were dOing business under the same name in 1909. We probably made more than\u00a0one omission, but we are aware of only one, and we want to make that correction tonight.\u00a0In 1909 Charles Pomerleau was d.oing a market business in two locations, 22\u00a0Ticonic Street and 113 Water Street. So we are glad to add P.omerleau’s Market to\u00a0the list.<\/p>\n We certainly owe an apclcgy to one .of Watervi lie’s leading attcrneys. We asked\u00a0last week if any lawyer practicing here in 1909 was sti I I active except Mr. Harvey\u00a0Eaton and Mr. Carrol I Perkins. We have no excuse fcr overlooking Mr. Frank Plumstead,\u00a0but we do have a rather weak explanation. Among the law firms listed in the 1909 Register\u00a0is Pattangall and PII.umstead, 82 Ma,ln;Street. In running cur eye dCltln the\u00a0list we caught the Pattangal I, but missed the Plumstead. Tonight we are glad tc give\u00a0Mr. Plumstead recognition along with Mr. Eaton and Mr. Perkins.<\/p>\n New for our last week’s questicn about the Kennebec tcwns. All the way from\u00a0Bewdoinham to Fairfield, why are the larger tCltlns .on the west bank of the river?\u00a0I have found that there is .one man in our community whc has more detai led informa”:’t\u00a0i .on about the tcpography and the industria I deve Icpment of the Kennebec Va lIey\u00a0than any other man, because as a civil engineer he has walked ever almost every\u00a0foot of the Kennebec I ands and has po led or padd led up every stream big enough\u00a0to take a canoe. Sc I was nct surprised to have Harry Green te II me just why the\u00a0big tewns a re on the west side .of the ri ver.<\/p>\n Mr. Green pcints out that the streams wi th fa lis .of any consequence enter the\u00a0river from the west. He says not unti I 1907 was the dam at Winslow built across\u00a0the Sebasticeok; that previous to that date there was ne water power on that stream\u00a0between Fort Ha I i fax and Bentcn Fa I Is. On the othe r hand the Messa lonskee ~- former\u00a0Iy ca lied the Emerson Erook or Emerson Stream — had two sharp drops close to\u00a0its junction with the Kennebec and other falls nearer Oakland. Altogether the\u00a0descent from Messa I onskee Lake to the Kennebec is severa I hundred feet.\u00a0The early settlers did not bui Id mi I Is at first on the big rivers. The small\u00a0grist mills and saw mi lis, and the family industries which developed — like the\u00a0beginning of the Watervi lie Iron Works, for instance were started on the smaller\u00a0streams, where dams could be built with minimum expense and where there was not too\u00a0much water.\u00a0It is therefore the Messa lonskee Stream that is respons i b Ie for the industrial\u00a0development of Watervi I Ie beyond that of the mother town of Winslow. And, says Mr.\u00a0Green, you wi II find the same explanation for Gardiner, Hallowell and Augusta.<\/p>\n Now notice this. After you leave Fairtf-eld, going up the river, the location\u00a0of the larger villages is exactly the opposite. The larger, part of Skowhegan, and\u00a0all of Madison, Solon and Bingham are on the east side of the river. Does Mr. Green’s\u00a0explanation of the lower Kennebec towns apply to them? Who knows?<\/p>\n Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #140, broadcast on March 16, 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\/7301"}],"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=7301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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