One strong tenet of the free-enterpri se system of industry in Ameri ca has\u00a0always been the value of competition. The American people have had a wholesome\u00a0fear of monopo Iy in any commodity or servi ce needed by the pub I i c. That expia\u00a0ins the interest in anti -trust legi s I ati on and in other efforts to keep open\u00a0the ways of competitive trade.<\/p>\n
An excellent example of the value of competition in this 56th year of the\u00a0twentieth century is shown by the decision of the Ford family to approve of the\u00a0placing on the public market of 90 per cent of the Ford Motor Company stock held\u00a0by the Ford Foundati on \u2022 Many reasons are given for the deci s ion, among the most\u00a0persuasive of which was the splendid phi lanthropic motive to enable the Foundation\u00a0to make larger donations to the public welfare. When the Foundation recently\u00a0made the unprecedented gift of $500,000,000 to colleges, medical schools,\u00a0and hospitals, it released the information that such a large sum actually exceeded\u00a0the book value of its financial holdings. Because no Ford Motor stock\u00a0was held by the public, that stock had no definite market value. The Foundation\u00a0knew it would sel I on the market for much more than the value it had on\u00a0their books. But how much more? Only public sale could answer the question.<\/p>\n
Fine and logical as that motive is, another quite different reason has for\u00a0some time persistently claimed attention of the Ford interests. Quite frankly,\u00a0that reason is the competition of General Motors. That company’s stock is wideI\u00a0y d i stri buted among thousands of stockho I de rs rep resenti ng a I most eve ry soci a I\u00a0and financial section of the public. As a result many thousands of citizens\u00a0have a vested interest in the sale of General Motors cars. On the other hand,\u00a0no one except the Ford fami Iy and the Foundation and the Ford dealers had any-\u00a0thing to gain by the sale of a Ford car. This situation was having an effect on\u00a0the strenuous efforts of each company to surpass the other in sales. Very soon\u00a0there may be just as many informal salesmen of Ford, Mercury and Lincoln cars in\u00a0the form of stockholders as there are now such salesmen of Chevrolets, Oldsmobi\u00a0les, Pontiacs, Buicks and Cadi I lacs.<\/p>\n
It is just as true in 1956 as it was in 1856 that competition is the life\u00a0of trade.<\/p>\n
Listeners to this program know that one of the men toward whom I have long\u00a0had a kind of hero worship was the great Quaker phi losopher, native of South\u00a0China, Dr. Rufus Jones.<\/p>\n
About a year ago the South China Library Association published a neat mimeographed\u00a0volume of fifty pages under the general title of “Reminiscences of\u00a0South China”. It consisted of six addresses given by Rufus Jones at the annual\u00a0summer socials of the South China Community Fellowship from 1942 to 1947. The\u00a0book can be obtained from Mrs. G. J. Walenta, Mrs. Ralph Austin, or other members\u00a0of the South China Library Association, and I assure you it is eminently\u00a0worth reading by any citizen of Central Maine. Tonight I want to tell you about\u00a0some of the incidents of by-gone days in South China which Dr. Jones recounted\u00a0in those addresses.<\/p>\n
One of the best of those stories is how the community of South China began.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jones tells us that in the spring of 1774 Ephraim Clark walked from Gardiner,\u00a0leading a cow, to bui Id a log hut and clear a farm near the present vi I I age\u00a0of South China, where at that time was no vi Ilage, not even any settlement at\u00a0a I I. He had purchased two lots of the John Jones survey at the south end of the\u00a0pond.<\/p>\n
Ephraim found, instead of the cabins of fellow settlers, an immense pine\u00a0forest, with trees a hundred and fifty feet high and five feet in diameter.<\/p>\n
Clearing and planting seemed too much of a task for one man. So Ephraim summoned\u00a0his three brothers to help him. Before winter set in, they had bui It a\u00a0log house, sheltering eight persons, and they had a sma I I crop of corn and\u00a0potatoes.<\/p>\n
In spite of relatives of both sexes around him, Ephraim Clark felt lonesome.<\/p>\n
He had no wi fe. Especi a Ily when the brothers left to make .nearby homes\u00a0for themselves, when his mother died, and Ephraim and his aged father were<\/p>\n
alone, he determined to get a wife. Ephraim was now 44 years old and 21 years\u00a0had gone by since he first came to the foot of the pond. In that year of 1795\u00a0Danet Braley settled about a mi Ie from the pond’s north end. He had a daughter\u00a001 i ve, who was born the very year that Ephraim came to South China, and was\u00a0therefore 23 years younger than he.<\/p>\n
Dr. Jones tells us that Ephraim Clark fi rst saw Olive Braley at a Friends\u00a0Meeting held at the home of Jedidiah Jepson at the head of the pond. Now let’s\u00a0have the story in Dr. Jones’ OlIn <\/em>in i mi tab Ie, witty sty Ie. “AI I of a sudden the\u00a0click came. Here was what Ephraim had been waiting for all the years. But\u00a0one-sided clicks do not settle anything. You have to win the girl, and it is\u00a0not too easy when you are 44 and have quite a beard. But luck was with Ephraim.<\/p>\n He was i nvi ted home to di nne r with the Bra ley fami I y. He watched 0 I i va get the\u00a0pot of beans and the loaf of brown bread out of the steaming bean hole, make tea\u00a0from the kettle hanging on the fireplace crane, and set the big table. They ate\u00a0and ate, and talked and talked, and then Olive brought on the huge apple pie\u00a0she had baked in front of the open fire the day before. As soon as dinner was\u00a0over and Ephraim had helped wash the dishes, as a good man should, he started\u00a0right in courtin’ in straightforward fashion. In colonial days these affairs\u00a0of the heart moved fast. Ephraim started at once making a beaten track to\u00a001 i ve ‘5 door. He had no gui tar like Romeo. He di d not dance. He took no\u00a0bouquets or chocolates to her. He didn’t get down on his knees — he did that\u00a0only when he prayed. He talked about the farms he had cleared, the stone walls\u00a0he had bui It, the bear and moose he had shot, the departure of the last Indians,\u00a0and especially about the prospects for them together in the new world ahead.<\/p>\n “One hot summer day they took a long wa Ik together. They c limbed the hi ghest\u00a0hi II and Ephraim showed 01 i ve M:>unt Blue and the peaks of the Kennebago range.\u00a0There and then 0 live promi sed to marry him, and at the fo Ilowi ng month Iy meeti ng\u00a0of Friends in East Vassalboro their intentions were approved. The marriage,\u00a0after the Quaker custom, took place in the home of Jedi di ah Jepson. After a\u00a0solemn gathered si lence, Ephraim said ‘\u00b7In the presence of the Lord and this\u00a0assemb Iy, I take thee, 01 i ve Bra ley, to be my wife, p romi sing to be unto thee a\u00a0faithful and loving husband, unti I it shall please the Lord by death to separate\u00a0us.’ 01 ive smi led and said ‘In the piresence of the Lord and this assemb Iy, I\u00a0take thee, Ephraim Clark, to be my husband, promising to be unto thee a faithful\u00a0and lovi ng wife, unti lit sha II p lease the Lord by death to separate us. f\u00a0“When it was allover, and the proper amount of kissing had been done, Ephraim\u00a0mounted a horse, with Olive behind him on a pil lion, and rode to the log\u00a0house at the foot of the pond, whe re 0 live cooked her first suppe r for Ephra i m\u00a0in the room hung about with crook-necked squashes, and adorned with old muskets\u00a0and the antlers of moose and deer.”<\/p>\n “Thatff, says Dr. Jones, “was the beginning of South China. Ephraim and\u00a0Olive had twelve chi Idren, six boys and six girls.” That was the first fami Iy\u00a0in the annals of the South China community.<\/p>\n Dr. Jones was one of the best and cleverest re lators of anecdotes who ever\u00a0came out of Maine, a state justly famous for its story tellers. Frankly Dr.\u00a0Jones gave credit for many of his stories to an earlier spinner of yarns, South\u00a0China’s vi I I age blacksmith, whom Dr. Jones identified simply as Theed. What\u00a0made the stories in Dr. Jones’ sermons and addresses so memorable was their\u00a0perfect app Ii cati on. He never dragged ina story. He tol d one a Iways to make\u00a0a point, and the point was thus made definitely and convincingly. The blacksmith\u00a0Theed seems to have had the same kind of abi lity.<\/p>\n On one occasion Theed was denouncing some of the people who dallied about\u00a0the i r hay i ng. “They ought to keep ri ght at it”, sa i d Theed. “Remi nds me of a\u00a0fe Iler up in Aroosti c. He was se II i ng p lows up there when he saw a Canadi an\u00a0Frenchman and hi s wi fe reap i ng wheat. He asked the Frenchman how much they had\u00a0reaped that day. ‘Oh’, said the man, ‘about an acre and a half, I guess. We’d\u00a0a got more done, but my wife had to stop and have a baby, and that held us up\u00a0qui te a I ot \u2022 ,n\u00a0When, in his boyhood, Dr. Jones and another boy kept at the exasperating\u00a0task of making a water wheel that would saw wood, Theed the blacksmith said to\u00a0them, “You remind me of the kid in the Sunday School class. The teacher asked\u00a0what they had learned from the wonderful story of Jonah, and this bright kid\u00a0answered, ‘You can’t keep a good man down.’ Remember, boys, you can’t keep a\u00a0good man down.”<\/p>\n Theed was always exci ted about pol i ti cs, and he was a staunch Democrat in,\u00a0a community of Republicans. One day Theed orated to the assembled citizens in\u00a0the blacksmith shop: “Remember what Thomas Jefferson did for the country, what\u00a0Andrew Jackson did for the common people. Now we have found a man who has the\u00a0same ideals, the same rugged honesty, the same high quality of wisdom. He is\u00a0Samuel J. Ti Iden, but you in your ignorance wi II probably vote for Rutherford B.\u00a0Hayes. You remind me of the girl who was getting ready to be married. Somebody\u00a0asked her if she had given serious consideration to this momentous step. She\u00a0rep lied, ‘Oh yes, I’ve been to two fortune te I lers and a c I a i rvoyant, I’ve\u00a0stud i ed a sign book an’d dreamed on a lock of his ha i r. Everyth i ng te I I s me to\u00a0go ahead. I ‘m not one to marry reck less like.’ That’s about the way you fe 1-\u00a0lows vote. You don’t want to vote reckless like.- Your old cocrupt party is at\u00a0last going to be turned out of office. It doesn’t know it yet, but that’s what’s\u00a0comi ng. It’s like the turt Ie the I ri shman was carryi ng after the creature’s\u00a0head had been cut off. Somebody asked him if the turtle was dead. ‘Sure’, said\u00a0Pat, ‘he’s dead all right, but he ain’t conscious of it yet.’ That’s the way\u00a0it is with you boys. Your old party is dead, but it ain’t conscious of it yet.”<\/p>\n Both on th is program and in “Kennebec Yesterdays” r have had much to say\u00a0about the schools of by-gone days. As you know, teachers got very low pay a hundred\u00a0years ago, but most of them took what they could get without complaint, because\u00a0supply exceeded demand — there was always someone to take a teacher’s\u00a0p I ace. So it is refresh i ng to di scover a teacher who p laced a va I ue on her serVices\u00a0and wasn’t afraid to say so. Among the papers recently given to me by the\u00a0widow of Jotham Hobbs of Fairfield, is a letter written to Mr. Hobbs’ grandfather,\u00a0then a school supervisor, by Jenny Ware on Apri I 21, 1858. The letter says:<\/p>\n “Dear Sir: Upon reflection with regard to the school in your district, I have\u00a0come to the conclusion that I cannot take it for less than three dollars a week.\u00a0I would like it at that price, but should not feel that I was doing myself justice\u00a0to take it at less. If you wish me to have it, please let me know this\u00a0week.”<\/p>\n Some teachers were more eager to get jobs. On November 24 of that same\u00a0year of 1858 Char les Emerson wrote to the fi rst Jotham Hobbs: “Yours of the\u00a021st is at hand and in reply would say that, although it wi I I cut short my\u00a0present school two weeks, yet wi II accept your offer andre co~ the flf\u00a7.T\u00a0Monday in January next, if you cannot possibly postpone it unti lone week later,\u00a0which would carry the time for its commencement up to January tenth. If you\u00a0could say January tenth, the favor would be gratefully received by this distri\u00a0ct as we II as by myse If. However, I will engage to teach your schoo I and\u00a0you can gi ve me an answer at your lei sure whether it sha II commence the 3rd or \u00a0the 10th.<\/p>\n Why was Emerson so eager to accept the Hobbs’ offer? Because it would pay\u00a0him 25 cents a week mon9, $2.75 instead of $2.50 a week.<\/p>\n Wi th that accent on a quarter of a do II ar, we say good night for 01 d ti mes t\u00a0sake.<\/p>\n Year: 1956<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Read the script for “Little Talks” program #294, broadcast on February 26, 1956<\/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":[790,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605"}],"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=7605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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