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The Seaforth News, 1959-07-09, Page 3FSw p ness Dwells ilii Amish $leclrts May came drifting over the valley with the 'honeydew smell of crabbapple and plum blos- soms. In the woods the dogwoods are cool drifts of white; the oak trees flaunt leaves the size of a squirrel's ear, a sign that it is Erne to plant the corn. The 9r - chards are filled with the soft haze of apple blossoms, beautiful In the moonlight, droning with the buzz of bees by day, In every field a man or boy is. walking behind a plow in the long, tireless plowing gait, watching the rich red -brown earth turn back in layers. The farm magazines give hints on how to make the best possible use of a tractor, and tell how helicopters are being pressed ^ into service on the farm for spraying and crop dusting, even for rounding up cattle. But the Amishmen are not envious. They know their way is best for them. The golden kernels are buried in the hollows left by the seeder • shoes; disk and harrow dig their steel across 'the curving furrows; and after each shower the harrow teeth will "break the crust" in a fashion that is tried and true, Oats and barley are in. And Amos is sowing clover in the winter wheat. Eli prepares the potato field with the same meticulous Dare Emmeline gives to her garden. She and the girls have most of the vegtable garden planted by now. The scallions (called "scullions" hereabouts) stayed outall winter; the early peas are up. Spring onions were^ planted before the last snow fell, carrots and beets are up too in straight rows that were made to toe the mark with the aid of a stretched string. Some early cabbage plants have been set, and when all danger of frost is safely •past the tomato and pep- per plants will go into the ground and beans, squash, and cucumbers will be planted. Meanwhile, Anna uses snitzed apples to make the fried pies the Zauggs dearly love. This requires cooking dried apples until soft, sieving and sweetening them to taste, spicing them with cinna- mon and perhaps a whisper of nutmeg. Then two heaping table- spoons of the fillingare put on one half of a small round of pie - crust — the other half folds over to make a half-moon — aria the pies are fried in deep fat or baked in the oven as one desires. Emmeline' likes to fry them when they are to be eaten hot at home, but for school lunches she bakes them. The subject of school is a pain- ful one just now to people of the Amish faith. For centuries their children have attended school only until the completion of the eighth grade, or until they were 18. The Amish feel they do not need the advanced education to prepare themselves for farming or craft work. They contend their religious beliefs do not per- mit them to send their children to high school where they would encounter "worldly things"; they know the children have learned by practical experience at home the fundinentals of farming, and feel that only reading, writing, and arithmetic can be of • any value to them in the field, writes Mabel Slack Shelton in the Christian "Science Monitor. However, some public school officials are not content to have the Amish private schools in their districts. They .contend the schools do not meet state stand- ards and that the Amish teach- ers are not qualified for certifi- cation. The bishops will un- doubtedly -say to what extent the schools shall be defended. But one thing is certain. Faced with a choice of sending their children to public schools where new in- _ fluences could break down their way of life, some Amish parents will consider leaving their homes and pressing on to new plaees, as they have done in other states when school troubles developed, Meanwhile, Miss Alma Glick, the local Amish teacher, shows us some of the written opinions of her pupils on the school ques- tion. If contentment and satis- faction with one's lot is a criter- ion, the case could be settled to- day on the evidence of these papers alone, for they show a love of home and the experience gained there that is rare. "I like our school, This way we get more time for learning about the Bible, which is worth a great deal more than anything else I know of," a boy of fifteen writes, And another boy gives as his reason for not wanting to go to publiee school, "There are' many things there which do not go with our belief." But one and all say in some form or other, "I like the school situation because it doesn't take you away so much from your home and the work there." Trained to fear God and love work, even the youngest consider these their paramount reason for living, Farming is their chief concern. Yet the'A.mise also have among their number watch repairmen, tailors, smiths, buggy Makers, lumber -mill workers, harness^ and saddle makers, cabinet. makers, cobblers, and feed -mill workers. There are no modern tools or electricity in the shops. The Amish believe these things would make them dependent on people outside their own com- munities. Small diesel engines or gasoline generators supply any power they need to operate their shops, Mrs. Elora Glick, a widow, makes hundreds of Amish suits and coats annually in this com- munity alone, using a sewing machine with a foot pedal. The buggy maker is busy enough for two men, building about 50 new buggies a year and repairing hundreds of others. He uses foam rubber to pad the seats now- adays, and rubberized or plastic coverings. -But the lights are still lanterns, and there is no whip - socket hip-socket.on any buggy he and his helpers turnout. Since horses are their only means of 'travel, the Amish are good customers at the harness shop, where leather goods and blankets are sold. Using machine stitchers run by generator power, and hand leather cutters, the workers turn out horse harnesses and saddles, thus proving that expert craftsmen do not have to use modern tools. It is amazing to recall that the Amish leader, Jacob Ammen, laid down the principles by which his people were to gov- ern themselves more than 265 years ago. He instilled in his fol- lowers a strict and serious ob- servance of what he called "the old ground and foundation," a belief that they should shy away from all modern -type living and stay close to the soil. No matter what rulings go against them, these they will cling to, the tenets of their faith, Everything here ties in some way with the past. The "Aus- bund," the Amish hymnal, which was first published in Switzer- land in 1564, has upon its title page the words: "These are some of the beautiful Christian hymns as they were composed here and there in the castle or dungeon of Bassett by the Swiss Brethren and other believing Christians." One could ask: Shall people forever be persecuted for their beliefs? Instead, Eli and Katrina have a "singing" in their barn. In addition to the "Ausbund," there is the small hymnal ("Lieder Sammlunger") which employs the "fast'.' tunes instead of the slow or medieval folk tunes. A sample of the fast tunes is the ever lovely "Silent Night!' But fast •or slow, all tunes are beautiful when sung by folk in the hearts of whom true happi- ness dwells. CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Sunken tence 4 h'Izzle (slang) 8 Court bench 32 5lotns 73 ;,earning 34 Vice 75 That whlEh brings hack 77 Nimbi, 33 Persia 39 Deceived 21 Piece of property 23 Amc-,Ican inventor . 24 Compassion 25 Deteriorating 26 Devoured 811 Dtfl'kult deedt. $1 13nlloon basket 32 Second conies A4 Misr ut history 86. I'oems 80. Young person 87, Volcano npcntny 40, Vessel 41, Final 42. 'rook t..,8, 48. Crooked (dial) 47. Ages 48. Adherent.. (aortas) 40, Tntcnd 00. mat 51, Container DOWN C Ventilate 2 Cultivator 2 Helped 22 Location 9 [tuff 23. Defeats 0 Forsaken 25 Poe potted 6 Metal-vielrllna 20 San s path Pork 27 Fn<Innr, 7. Makes 28, Walked flawless 30. Lose 8, Sae brightness 9 (Orandparenta133. Decayed 10. Egyptian 39. Facial part river 86, nun after ll Earthen lump 87. 131valve 10 Three -spot mollusk 80 Palm leaves 38, .Fury 21 Arn adlllo 89. On the open (nater 90. Loolc over 43,Assam 611k 44, (Sr. Iettter. 45 S1111n room 2 3 4 2 6 7' 10 11 12 13 14 15' 2) 24 29 22 16 • 16 32 33 15 37 ' 30 39 48 46 49 1 42 17 20 /36 43 26 ' 38 - 7, 28 44 45 47 SO rsi 5-11 Answer elsewhree on this page WHAM! — Steel ball at right, some eight feet in diameter, is one of several linked with anchor -type chain' to produce a gargantuan land -clearing device at Kariba, Rhodesia. Balls, honey -combed to make them light to tow yet sturdy enough to provide , momentum, act as "wheels" for the giant 'chain. The 100,000 acres being cleared will provide fishing grounds ,and harbor areas when land behind' a new clam is flooded. TllflA2N FRONT Jokii2ea. When a Michigan farmer like Stanley Yankus wants to leaye the United States because he is - opposed to government crop con- trols and subsidy, some citizens begin to ask if it wouldn't be better to scrap all farm' price legislation. - One farm editor has under- taken to find out - if this would. be sound 'from an economic' standpoint—of benefit to farmer, consumer, and nation. To get an answer, he has gone to the econ- omists of 49 state agricultural colleges. These, men, he. figures, are experts, are not politicians, and are trained to be objective. At a luncheon given by the Chicago Board of Trade,' John Strohm, contributing editor to the Farm Journal and Reader's Digest, gave a summary of re- plies he received. His; basic con- clusion, drawn from question- naires filled out by -economists at 37 of 49 institutions, is that most of-'them.:believe that -"any further hamstringing of the free market will hurt everybody" Four out of five replies were to this, effect, said Mr. Strohm. However, this is not a laissez- faire group. 4 4 4 In answer to the question: "Can legislation solve 'the farm prob- lem'?" Mr. Strohm reported that 50 per cent said, "The right kind can help," 2 per cent gave an unqualified "yes" and another 2 per cent said "maybe." That left 46 per cent voting "rib." Other conclusions, as reported by Mr. Strohm: "Four out of five of these economists believe that schemes in foreign countries to guarantee all .farmers a fair income have been costly failures; the law of supply and demand is not out of date; there is no substitute for the free market. Few of these economists believe this country has had the right kind of farm legislation in the past, and most are pessimistic about getting it in the future," * 4 e It must be noted that Mr. Strohm himself is an ardent "free enterpriser," He grew up on a farm—plowedwith horses and mules. Characteristic re- marks he made in an informal talk session were these: "The only thing you can pay for. in the long run is produc- tivity. • ' "Regulation is a Maginot line, It may give you some security for ‘a while, but —bingo;—sud- denly it isn't there. (Congress can vote it out.) "Farmers can ride just so long on government price support but in the long run there will be an explosion and a lot of people will get hurt. It's better to get back to a program 'that can be defended," - In his survey, Mr. Strohm did not, however, put forward his own ideas but asked the econ- omists for theirs. One question he asked was whether the United States has had in the past, and has now, a free agricultural mar- ket. In other words, are Ameri- can farmers free to plan, plant, and sell? Most of the economists an- swered either a straight "yes" or a qualified "yes and no" to this question. As for the, present, the majority said that far' more of the American market is free than controlled. Even in those crops that come under regula- tion, some of them said, farmers still have considerable freedom. There is evidence in this sur- vey of a sharp division of opin- ion among economists, similar to the division one finds among agricultural organizations. This apparently does not indicate that the economies are lined up with the farm organizations or influ- enced by them, but that in every group you find some people of a conservative outlook who think society would be better off with less government supervision and those who term themselves lib- eral and think there is need for more government planning and assistance, writes Dorothea Kean Jaffe in The Christian Science Monitor. 4 4 w This cleavage appears in an- swers to the question put by Mr. Strohm: "In general, have gov- ernment attempts to raise prices during the past 30 years hurt or helped.the growers of these com- modities?" Thirteen replied that they hurt, another 13 said they helped, and eight took the posi- tion that they hurt in some re- spects, helped in others. (For ex- ample, they said they helped raise income in the present but hurt by delaying needed adjust- ments.) A similar division was evi- denced in answers to the ques- tion: "Can legislation solve this farm problem?" While nearly one-half said "no" the other half said "the right kind can help." Most of those in the latter group, said Mr. Strohm, inferred that the legislation this country has had in the past was not "the right kind W 4 4 A Wisconsin economist ex- pressed this view as follows: "Experience in the last 25 years has shown farm legislation has not solved the problem. In- evitably it becomes a political issue. And economic problems can seldom be solved by politi- cal expediency. 'Yet I am con- vinced that large sections of American agriculture will con- tinue to suffer unless the farm problem is attacked through wise legislation." Mr. Strohm sounded out the economists -on their views re- garding the nature of the farm problem and its solution. He asked them for "one sentence" statements on both. * 4 w Typical one -sentence analyses of the problem: , Capacit r to pro- duce has out -run the potential market at profitable prices." "We have failed to move people out of agriculture fast enough" (to keep up with technological chnage). "Congress wants to legislate long-range farm pro- gram and at thesametime give short-range benefits." Typical one -sentence proposals for solution: "Bring capacity to produce into balance with mar- kets by shifts in land use and migration out of agriculture." "Get government out of farm- ing." "Put agriculture on the same basis as business and indus- try from the standpoint of price protection." 4 w * One thing the economists agreed upon. You can't get around the law of supply and demand. Whether you legislate or not, it's there. Only one econ- ' omist was found to agree that "we are in a new era; the law of supply and demand is out of date." There was almost unani- mous agreement, too, on a nega- tive answer to the question: "Can any substitute for supply and de- mand be flexible enough to meet the changes but firm enough to be effective?" Twenty-two an, swered "no." Three, "maybe," only two, "yes." Only on one question was there absolute agreement. "Can we expect perfection in any sys- tem?" Chorus of answers: "No." LAKES AND RIVERS, heavily banked with trees, provide game fish with clean water, cool temperatures, proper food. When fire ravages a watershed, good fishing takes a long holiday. Please, be care- ful with all forms of fire. Pre- vent forest fires. UNDAY SCiiO I LESSON fly Rev R. Barclay Wartea B,R. Jehoshaphat, Wise King of JuIdah 2 Chronicles 19;4.11 Memory Selection! Take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor res- pect of persons, nor taking of gifts. 2 Chronicles 19:7. Some say that men in politics should be very quiet about re- ligion, If they show more than the average interest in religion they are suspected by these same critics of using religion to gain support. Of course, a man in any walk of life should be sincere, A hypocrite is an abomination in the sight of God, But we should have godly men ruling over us. "When the righteous are in au- thority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." Proverbs 29:2. • Jehoshaphat was a good king and gave leadership in calling back the people to the worship of God. He destroyed the places of Baal worship, He sent out princes, Levites and priests among the people to teach the law of the Lord. He instructed the judges, saying, "Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you." God richly blessed Israel during the. reign of Jehoshaphat. It is true that some who enter politics become corrupt. Pres- sures are exerted upon them frommanydirections and bribes are frequently offered. Some yield to temptation, But they need not. God's grace is sufficient to keep a man in public lift walking in the way of righteous- ness. When leaders do wrong and it is discovered it is given wide publicity. We expect a lot of those who serve us in leadership in public office. We want men who are trustworthy. We can forgive errors In judgment but we insist on honesty. We want men in public life who are wor- thy examples for our youth: men like. Jehoshaphat will do their utmost to turn the people to God. If Hitler and Stalin had been such men what bloodshed would have been avoided, Let us pray for our rulers. Let us notseek favors as individu- als or as groups, the granting of which would compromise their sense of fairness. Let us encour- ageour leaders to give righteous leadership. A politician was being heckled by some supporters of the rival. party. For some time he took iL in his stride, then eventually he held up his hand. "I am always reluctant," he said quietly, "to expose those who misbehave during public gatherings, because of an ex- perience I had some time ago. "A young man who sat in front of me was laughing and making grimaces. I was annoyed and rebuked him severely. Later I was told that I had made a great mistake. "The man I had reproved was an idiot." There was peace for the rest of his speech. ISSUE 24 — 1959 Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking NVO.;3Nira 3 J. I ®© ppaW '©©9 v a 32 N D' 0 3 ©W V 7 0 7 mHs .: EJ' ©ZIEIL' 15112a'D '' ; or aVJ -LN9OV ,',, O97OOdlr 0 ;;S2V3d,,lf A iial 'S1dV©©3Ii 03O''Wald 7 a 8 Cel A l i V S V VIP Egli 0 7 '7 / d N tt" A9x;°9a'0 d• y;,.I' o0®M 7;" r3t •p Nir aNVe �". r,^.44 i?! .°' i4.. •e': .Y7 ke aF tik'. a'9'r 5`'Y s, v'3 ... ,a h.x: *t,.,x, q7,l iw.58 �7 ,.e:,n"aarvx't .•Y.$oba4s •,.. • •*^'v"" b.,.:„CFPvc ''t:da BEATING THE BUSH FOR REAL — Giant steel balls linked by flcttens undergrowth. More than 100,000, acres are being batt•eship anchor chain clear land' in Kariba, Rhodesia Tractor. clot,.ed for fishing grounds and harbors of lake that will form h=,used, the ball-ond-chain device batters down trees and behind the Kariba Dam,