PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
TUESDAY, MAY 2, 1950
The Editors ReportRAIN AND DROUGHTS
Kansan And Catskills
If Mayor O'Dwyer really wants to find someone to make it rain maybe he ought to visit Kansas on his next vacation. Here in New York a water shortage is something for headlines and campaigns. In Kansas periodic droughts have been so long a part of nature that in some years a sprinkle that barely laid the dust was reason for all-out thanksgiving.
There were ten bad droughts between 1860 and 1917 and more since then. When a drought gets bad Kansans have to watch their beloved state flying away in dust storms. No one in upstate New York has as yet reported any flying Catskills.
In a state where rain means not only water to drink but land to live on, it is natural that Kansas history should be full of stories of rain-making and rain-makers. For reasons known perhaps to Kansans, most of that activity centered in the little town of Goodland in the northwest corner of the state. Mayor O'Dwyer might drop in there and see if any of the Goodland rainmakers are still around.
There were plenty of them back in the Nineties when Goodland was the home office of the only rain-making company ever incorporated. Some of its common stock is probably still at the bottom of Kansas bureau drawers.
Two citizens, a chemist and a railroad agent, started the company after working for years at a secret process. When they tried it out a light drizzle fell at once, and there was a rush to buy common stock.
The Mexican government heard of the company and hired it to end a Mexican drought. It took a while to get from Goodland to Mexico. When the rain-makers arrived it was pouring torrents and what the Mexican government needed was flood control. The corporation dried at the roots.
Other Goodland men tried rain-making. A druggist, Dr. Morse, working in his backyard with some tanks of acid, made a final test at 10 o'clock on a bright morning. By 2 in the afternoon the town was afloat and kids were using sidewalk planks for rafts.
Dr. Morse continued at it, with intermittent luck, for the next fifteen years. Even the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad helped with this Goodland hobby and fitted out three cars for rain-making experiments.
But the most spectacular rain-maker in Goodland was one Melbourne, billed as "The Australian Rain-Maker." Some of the officials of the Goodland District Fair found him when they were looking for an attraction that would line up paying guests at the gate and at the same time bring benefit to the parched community.
They announced far and wide that "The Australian Rain-Maker" would positively appear on the fairgrounds as the big attraction. He would be paid $1500 in clinking coin if he could bring forth and down one inch of rain in twenty-four hours.
In any case, he brought forth the customers who poured in at all the gates. They watched Melbourne load up with carboys of acid and zinc and stagger out to the middle of a field under hot sun and cloudless sky.
The crowds saw him pour acid on the zinc. It bubbled and fizzed in the wind. The idea was that the hydrogen thus released would go skyward, unite with oxygen, and return as a gentle shower to the earth beneath.
All day Melbourne poured on the acid. He was still pouring it at twilight as the sun set in a cloudless sky and the stars shone drought-sharp. No rain, no $1500.
Not that the fair officials cared. They weren't even watching him. They were busy answering telephone calls and messages from towns and districts to the northeast and even up in Nebraska.
They had showers in two hours after Melbourne dripped his first acid. All of them said the same thing "Shut off that rainmaker! Up here we're drowning!"—The New York Times.
YE OLDE COBBLESTONES:
Vanishing Americana
by Janice Auer
Now that Lawrence is ironing out its streets to get rid of Ye Olde Cobblestone effect, there is more danger than ever of speeding. Of course, the danger of swerving into another car because you tried to miss a reasonable facsimile of the Grand Canyon is lessened. And your car may have a longer life expectancy.
But those new, beautifully smooth streets can cause trouble too. They are inviting, comfortable, and innocent-looking. You can cruise along so easily at 50 miles an hour that you forget where you are.
They give you the feeling that you are in the wide open spaces without another. . . oww. . . someone else was in the wide open spaces too. Unfortunately, your paths crossed; and where are you? In Watkins, if you're lucky, not in critical condition.
Remember Lawrence has speed limits. Obey them, and look for stop signs. Also give the other fellow the benefit of the doubt. Doubt that he will stop in time—if you see him speeding toward you like Hot Rod Happy.
A rocket developed by an eastern aircraft manufacturer is designed to attain a maximum speed of 5,800 miles per hour. (The moon could be reached in $41\frac{1}{2}$ hours at that speed.)
National Deficit To Climb Higher
Washington—(U.P.)-The government's deficit for this fiscal year is about to take off on a jet-propelled climb.
Right now it amounts to just over two billion dollars. During the next two months, it is expected to soar to five billion, 400 million dollars.
Such a climb in spending over income would be at the rate of about 360 million dollars a week—and it may be even more than that.
The five billion, 400 million dollar deficit estimate for the fiscal year ending June 30 was made by the budget bureau. The bureau has missed deficit figures so far and so often that some persons here would about as soon accept the estimates of the joint congressional committee on internal revenue.
The committee on April 18 estimated U't spending voted by congress la.year and smaller-than-expected tax collections would leave the treasury with a six billion seven hundred million dollar deficit. If that figure, proves to be correct, the weekly average rate will be about 475 million dollars.
Either way it is a lot of money, especially when the treasury doesn't have it.
The bureau and the committee also are far apart on what next year's deficit will be. The bureau estimates 5 billion, 133 million dollars. The committee says it will be seven billion, 300 million dollars. Much will depend on the final spending figure congress approves this year.
These various deficit figures all agree that the government is spending far beyond its income and will continue for some time to do so. They are the center of political dispute and will be major issues in this year's congressional elections.
The congressional committee stands pat on its dismal estimate of a combined fiscal 1950 and 1951 deficit of around 14 billion dollars.
Proud Appointed Department Head
Dr. Gunnar O. Proud has recently been appointed chairman of the department of otorhinolaryngology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Otorhinolaryngology is that branch of medicine dealing with diseases of the ear, nose, and throat
Dr. Proud, a 36-year-old physician, will succeed Dr. Sam E. Roberts, chairman of the department since 1928. Dr. Proud's appointment was announced recently by Dr. Franklin D. Murphy, dean of the school.
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Asst. Man. Editors Norma Hunsinger
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Asst. City Editors Olive John
Mart琳 Marks Elaine Elvig
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William Graves
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By Bibler
Little Man On Campus
"They're ready but I think they're wise to our early-morning- duck-hunt——They wanna know if we're takin' guns."
CRIME IS THE MENTAL
Grime On Society
Crime is a nasty business. It always has been. It always will be.
Crime is a big business today. The thugs and penny-ante swindlers are still around to be sure, but they are organized now.
Ye ED
Crime is an organized, orderly business now. True, once in a while it becomes necessary to "eliminate" competition. But that is expected in a business.
What does crime offer that people can't do without? It offers many things . . . the thrill of doing something you shouldn't, a chance of getting something for nothing, escape from the humdrum round of life, the excitement of intrigue, physical glorification. These are the things people shell out their hard-earned dough for.
Crime is one of the most carefully compounded hoaxes. Laws are passed saying that there shall be no crime. And law enforcement officials are elected who never heard of the laws. Citizens are told in vague, generalized terms that crime is not a good thing. But they are never shown what happens when a young adolescent becomes a drug addict. They hear but their eyes are not opened.
Crime serves a nationwide market now. It has plenty of customers . . . the grocer's clerk who has two dollars to bet on a nag, the jaded waitress whose sole daily pleasure is wagering four-bits on a policy ticket.
Crime is like any other business. It must have customers to survive. It must have something those customers want so badly that they can't do without it.
Why does crime exist? It exists because the crime sellers know it pays off. It exists because the crime buyers have never been taught it is a hoax.
Crime will continue until people stop spending 341/2 million dollars a year on hairbrained schemes for making a fast buck and spend the money on educating their children about what makes a good life. A good life is not found in a smoky, foul-smelling back room where feverish-eyed people bend over a rigged roulette wheel, hoping against hope for a little number to bring them fortune.
Washington—(U.P.)-The administration reports it has cut government spending $1 billion this fiscal year but said the savings have been practically wiped out by tax losses. The revised report of the govermor
Government Tax Losses Wipe Out One Billion Dollar Spending Cuts
The revised report of the government's red-ink fiscal picture from the budget bureau as the Red publician-led house economy block lost its first important attempt to cut future government outlays.
In its first revised figures since January, the budget bureau said the 1950 deficit will run $5 and a half billion. This was down $100 million from the January report.
However, it added, savings of some $1 and a half billion in expenditures have been practically all
offset by an anticipated fall of a billion dollars in income tax collections. The bureau said total spending for fiscal 1950 will be approximately $42 billion.
The budget bureau also estimated that the deficit for the 1951 fiscal year starting July 1 will be $2,200 million, despite a billion dollar spending reduction written into the omnibus appropriation bill now before the house.
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