More than once on th Is program we have tal ked about Inf I ation, that econom\u00a0i c s I tuat I on when too much money chases too few goods. On Iy the most reactionary\u00a0of business men contend today that there should be no government control.<\/p>\n
You won’t find one business man in a thousand who wants to see the old,\u00a0un restra i ned “publ I c be damned” days of the nineteenth century.\u00a0But when you get inf lat Ion that Is government-I nduced and government-prolonged,\u00a0that Is something a lot of people have a right to condemn. It is something\u00a0that affects all of us — producers, distributors and consumers alike.\u00a0Under the guise of what Is called a planned economy, we have seen what we Yankees\u00a0usually mean by economy thrown out the window, and mounting debt let in\u00a0the front door. We have seen deficits met by increasing floods of printing press\u00a0money.<\/p>\n
A couple of Negro waiters were discussing inflation the other day. One said\u00a0to the other, “Sam, I ‘se got a ten dollar gold piece I didn’t turn in back in\u00a01933, but now they tells me It’s only got five dol lars worf of gold in It.\u00a0What wants to know, Sam, is where’s the rest of that gold gone to.”<\/p>\n
“Well”, said Sam, “ah don’t rightly know, but ah reckon It’s mos’ly powdered\u00a0eggs.”<\/p>\n
There are two fundamental facts about Inflation that we persist In forgetting.\u00a0First, inflation cannot be stopped without a balanced govemment budget.\u00a0The government as well as its citizens must live within Its income. Second,\u00a0the great over-all need in economics is increased production. Production\u00a0has always been and stl II is the best answer to high prices. That, of course,\u00a0is the reason why rabbits are cheaper than mink.<\/p>\n
There are men in Congress today — though the i r number is stili sma II -and\u00a0these men belong to both political parties — men who are striving honestly\u00a0and persistently to stop government waste, to balance the budget, +0 stimulate\u00a0production and crush inflation. But they cannot succeed without the vigorous\u00a0support of the citizens of America.<\/p>\n
I have Just been looking at the program of the 58th Commencement of Colby\u00a0Col lege, held on Wednesday, July 23, 1879. Yes, 73 years ago Commencement was\u00a0held in the middle of the summer.<\/p>\n
That Colby class of 1879 had some members who became very well known in\u00a0Maine and even farther afield. Two men who were long distinguished citizens of\u00a0Waterville had parts on that canmencement program. They were Charles E. Owen,\u00a0long the head of the Christian Civic League, and Edwin Carey Whittemore, pastor\u00a0of the First Baptist Church, secretary of the Maine Baptist Convention,\u00a0president of the Trustees of the Waterville Public Library, historian of Colby\u00a0College, and editor and principal author of the Centennial History of Water,…\u00a0vi I Ie in 1902.<\/p>\n
Another prominent member of the class was Hannibal E. Hamlin, son of Abraham\u00a0Linco In’s vice-pres I dent, the first Hann i ba I Ham I in. George Merriam, a Baptist\u00a0minister who, in his long and useful life, held only three pastorates, the\u00a0last being one of more than thirty years In SkONhegan, was also In the class of\u00a01879.<\/p>\n
The last surviving member of that Colby class died only a few months ago.\u00a0He was Wi lIiam W. Mayo, at one time associated with George Hinckley at Good\u00a0Will, then for many years the head of Opportunity Farms, the harte for homeless\u00a0boys in New Gloucester.<\/p>\n
Speaking of old programs, I was noting recently the old printed sheets\u00a0announcing the annual prize speaking exhibitions at Coburn in the years 1873\u00a0and 1874. That was before the school took the Coburn name, when It was sti II\u00a0called Watervi lie Classical Institute. On those programs are some names which\u00a0many of our older people wi II remember. In 1873 the first speaker, reciting\u00a0John Q. Adams’ oration on the character of Lafayette, was Charles F. Johnson,\u00a0who became Un i ted States Senator and federa I judge. Bert Getche II gave Horace\u00a0Gree ley’s speech on labor; Laura and Myra Fi fie Id both spoke; George E. Murray\u00a0of Lebanon, who was to become also a distinguished Colby alumnus, gave Charles\u00a0Summer’s oration on the abolition of war; and Fannie Philbrick spoke on Unwritten\u00a0History.<\/p>\n
One of the listeners wants to know when we are going to say someth Ing more\u00a0about words. We II, here it is.\u00a0I wonder how many of us know the true mean Ing of some very fami I jar phrases.\u00a0Take, for Instance, the. phrase “a strait. and narrow path”. That kind of path\u00a0may be very winding Indeed, a very maze of curves and twists. How is that possible,\u00a0you ask? How can anything that Is straight be also crooked? The answer\u00a0is that the word in the saying is not “straight”, but the old word “straltll ,\u00a0which meant narrow. But then, you may insist, the saying is foolish. Why say\u00a0narrow twice, because, if strait means narrow, the saying is “a narrow and narrow\u00a0path”? The answer to that is even more interest Ing.<\/p>\n
Many of our English proverbs and familiar expressions rome from the Bible\u00a0and are therefore only translations of biblical expressions originally expressed\u00a0in Hebrew or in Aramaic Greek. Now a favorite Hebrew device for emphasis\u00a0is what is called reduplication, saying the same thing twice in different\u00a0words, for the sake of pounding the point home. “Wisdom is the principal thing,\u00a0therefore get wisdom; with all thy getting get understanding.” “Enter not Into\u00a0the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil men.” “I have not\u00a0obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that Instructed\u00a0me.” ”Watching at my gates, waiting at the posts of my door.” “She was a wIdow\u00a0and her husband was dead.” “The man was bl ind and he could not see.” So\u00a0when we say a strait and narrow path, we simply mean a very narrow path, and\u00a0have no reference at all to one that goes In a straight line.\u00a000 you remember the quoted line from poetry, “There Is a lady pass ing fa I r”?<\/p>\n
It doesn’t mean that the lady Is parading by. It Is the old English use of\u00a0pass I ng I n the sense of surpass ing Iy, and the express ion means, “there goes a\u00a0girl exceedingly handsome and attractive”.<\/p>\n
“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin”. There’s a good old saying~.<\/p>\n
What do you think it means? Most people think it means the objects of\u00a0nature have a universal appeal; that everyone takes the same de) Ight In a sunset,\u00a0for instance. But the meaning is just the opposite. The expression originated\u00a0with Shakespeare, who used it in Troilus and Cresslda. In it Shakespeare\u00a0used the word touch in one of its common meanings of his time, In the sense of\u00a0blemish or fault. “One fault of nature makes the whole world kin”.<\/p>\n
Old you ever think about the phrase in the marriage ceremony Tlti” death\u00a0us do part”? Why isn’t it, “tl II death us does part, or shall part”? The sense\u00a0doesn’t warrant the use of the subjunctive lido”, because there is no doubt about\u00a0the outcome; the parting will some day be certain. The answer is that the original\u00a0phrase was “ti II death us depart!l, the word “depart” being used in its:\u00a0old active sense of to separate. “Ti II death us depart” meant “unti I death separate\u00a0us”. Somehow as time went on and the word depart lost its active meaning\u00a0of separate, the “depart” became “do part” in spite of its bad grammar.<\/p>\n
What did our children read 80 years ago, in the years before even the Alger\u00a0or the Henty or’the Sophie May stories were popular? A few of them, like my\u00a0own father, were reading Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, and copies of Little\u00a0Women were in most households. The great heyday of the dime novels and the\u00a0nickel magazines — Nick Carter and Deadwood Dick and Frank Merriwell and the\u00a0Liberty Boys of ’76 — had not yet come. What kind of reading did children\u00a0have in 1 8701<\/p>\n
A former resident of Watervi lie, Karl Kennison, for many years the dis …\u00a0tinguished chief engineer of the Metropolitan Water District in Boston, has\u00a0sent me a number of chi Idren’s publications of that time. One of them is a\u00a0paper pamphlet of 16 pages, entitled “The Story In Verse of the Children in the\u00a0Wood”. It was published by J. A. Merriam and Rufus Merri II at Concord, N. H. in\u00a0186’7 _ I t had been p repa red by somebody whose I n it I a I s were H. S. B., and the\u00a0preface reads:<\/p>\n
“L1 tt Ie Ch I I dren: It is wi th much pleasure I am ab Ie to p resent to you\u00a0this story_ Should it serve to instruct you and cause one heart to earnestly\u00a0strive against a too strong desi re for riches, and to guard against wrong doing,\u00a0shall be fully repaid.”<\/p>\n
Most of us heard at some time in our chi Idhood the story of the chi Idren\u00a0in the wood, but few of us heard it in the crude, doggerel verse of this Concord\u00a0edition.\u00a0“Now ponder we II, you parents dear,\u00a0The words which do write;\u00a0A doleful story you shal I hear, \u00a0Wh i ch time brought forth to I I ght \u2022 ”\u00a0You know the story. A dying man left his two chi Idren to the care of his\u00a0brother, and decreed in h is wi II that if the uncle survi ved the ch i Idren, he\u00a0should Inherit their money_”He ba rga i ne d with two ru ff I ans rude,\u00a0Who were of furious mood,\u00a0That they should take these chi Idren young\u00a0And s lay them in the wood. If\u00a0Then the ruffians fell Into a dispute and finally a sword fight. The kin …\u00a0der one ki I led the other, then left the children alone in the wood, promising\u00a0to return. An old lady found them.<\/p>\n
“She kindly took them by the hand,
\nAnd to her home they went;
\nShe loved and kindly cared for them,
\nAnd they to schoo I she sent.”<\/p>\n
Then such disaster fel I upon the wicked uncle that<\/p>\n
“On a voyage to Portuga I
\nTwo of his sons did die;
\nAnd, to conclude, himself was brought
\nTo utter mi sery.”<\/p>\n
Then in the two final stanzas the author had to make sure that his warning to al I guardians went home with a punch.<\/p>\n
“Come, a I I you executors,
\nAnd overseers, else,
\nOf ch I I dren that be fatherless,
\nAnd infants, mi Id and meek.
\nTake your example by this thing,
\nAnd yield to each his right,
\nLes t God, with such – I I ke mise ry
\nYour wicked deeds requi te.”<\/p>\n
We th i nk today’s ch i I dren listen to some pretty thri I I lng, nerve-tlng ling\u00a0yarns on the radio and see a lot of horrors on television, but we wonder If It\u00a0is any worse than the mixture of gore and sentiment that was dished out to kids\u00a0a century ago.<\/p>\n
Then there were the goody-goody books — the stories of the Li ttle Lord\u00a0Fauntleroys and their feminine counterparts, who never got into mischief, were\u00a0always obedient, and didn’t have to be constantly reminded that crime doesn’t\u00a0pay. Such were the contents of a chi Idrein’s magazine called “r.1erry’s Museum”,\u00a0published by E. H. Fales in New York in the 1860’s. The issue sent me by Mr.\u00a0Kennison is No.1 of Vol. 53 for January, 1867. The magazine I ists four editors,\u00a0a II obvi ous Iy pseudonyms. Perhaps a II four were the same person. They\u00a0were Robert !’Jerry, Hiram Hatchet, Uncle William and Aunt Sue.<\/p>\n
Now let’s take a look at one of the cults that fascinated our grand-parents.<\/p>\n
In the 1860’s phrenology was In its ascendancy. By examining the head,\u00a0carefully measuring all the lumps and nodes, the phrenologist could tell al I\u00a0about your past, p resent and future. Fow ler and We II s, 389 Broadway, New York,\u00a0advertised in 1866 a variety of books to help the layman understand the won.derful\u00a0new science of phrenology. There was the Annual of Phrenology and Physiognomy\u00a0for 20 cents; a chart for recording various deve lopments for 10 cents; a\u00a0Defense of Phrenology for $1 .50; a book ca I led “Matrimony or Phreno logy::app lied\u00a0to the selection of a conoenial companion for life”, 50 cents~ A huge tome,\u00a0handsomely bound and said to contain more than 1,000 illustrations sold for\u00a0$5.00, a lot of money In those days. It was called “New Physiognomy or Signs\u00a0of Character, as man I fested through temperament and externa I forms, especl a II y\u00a0in the human face divine”. For $1.25 one could ~et a phrenological bust, showing\u00a0all the organs of the brain fully developed. Finally for $1.50 a year, he\u00a0could get the monthly issues of the Phrenological Journal, which dealt not only\u00a0with the science of phrenology, but, according to S. R. Wells, Its editor, was\u00a0“devoted to phys i 01 ogy, phreno logy, psycho logy, soc i 01 ogy, educat ion. art, literature,\u00a0and measures to reform, elevate and improve mankind”.<\/p>\n
Our listener and correspondent who calls himself “111”, knowing of my\u00a0interest In the year 1847, has written me about some items he has found In an\u00a0old day book and journal of a farmer who lived In Vassalboro at that time, a\u00a0hundred years ago. The Journal notes that on October 21, 1847 the man hauled\u00a0a load of what he spells “llome” — a load of loam — from Augusta to Vassalboro\u00a0for 50 cents. Now that spe Iling Interests me very much, for It proves that\u00a0this Vassalboro farmer a full century ago pronounced the word “loam”, the modern\u00a0standard pronunciati on, not “loom”, as I t was a Imost un I versa Ily pronounced in\u00a0my boyhood town, and as we sometimes hear it In rural communities today~\u00a0Our 111 fe I low comnents on the re latt ve stabll i ty of prices over the years,\u00a0as revealed by these accounts. Of course some items changed with the seasons.\u00a0Says my friend 111, ”When the price of eggs dropped to 10 cents a dozen, did the\u00a0farmers se II the i r hens In di sgust? They did not. They sort of pastured them\u00a0out and wasted little grain on them unti I the price’ of eggs went up again”.\u00a0As for the stabl i Ity of prices, I can personally declare that 111 Is right.<\/p>\n
We don’t have to go back a hundred years to show that. My personal acquaintance\u00a0with a country grocery store was in the first ten years of the twentieth\u00a0century. In that whole decade Arm and Hammer Soda was always 7 cents a pound;\u00a0Cmam of Tartar was 10 cents a quarter pound; common crackers were 8 cents a\u00a0pound and soda crackers 10 cents; all spices were 8 cents a quarter pound package,\u00a0except ginger, which for some reason sold for only 7 cents. Year in and\u00a0year out Seward Brand A laska Red Sa Imon was two cans for a quarter. The f tnest\u00a0Mocha and Java coffee was 35 cents a pound; the yellow labeled cans of Excelsior\u00a0coffee were 25 cents; and you could buy a bitter Rio coffee for 20 cents. In\u00a0ten years those prices never varied. Nor did those fine old emblems of the\u00a0country store, whole salt fish. Whole pollack, weighing from three to five\u00a0pounds, with the yellOW meat and the forked tai Is, were six cents a pound.<\/p>\n
Whole cod, weighing from six to nine pounds, with thicker, whiter meat and\u00a0square tai Is, were eight cents a pound.\u00a0We are not tryin9 tonight to point out how cheap commodities were in the\u00a0old days. We are rather emphasizing their stability and predictability. A\u00a0man’s wages were low in those days, but he cou Id be pretty sure what the necessities\u00a0of life would cost him next year as well as next week.<\/p>\n
Year: 1952<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #151, broadcast on June 1, 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\/7334"}],"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=7334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}