Spearman Reporter – 90 Years Ago – 10/4/1934

R. D. Chamberlain Attends World Series Ball Games

R. D. Chamberlain of Spearman is attending the World Series at Detroit this week. He will visit the fair and then attend two games of the series at St. Louis before returning home. R. D. and Mr. and Mrs. Bill Russell were not able to get seats for the games before leaving Spearman but expected to get the seats through connections in St. Louis before reaching the city. It is understood that seats in the grandstands cost $32.00 for two games.

R. L. McClellan of the McClellan Grain Company is all elated this month as a result of his September sales in grain drills. Mr. McClellan sold 34 grain drills during the month.

Orville Rippy and Paul Loftin, students from Spearman at Oklahoma Baptist University, are two of the football men who made the trip to Stillwater last Friday when the OBU Bisons played the Oklahoma Aggies. This is the first year the Bisons have played the Aggies. Rippy, an end, is captain and one of the outstanding players on the team. Loftin played most of the game at center the previous week when Fred Wilhote, veteran center, was taken out with an injured leg. The game resulted in a 12-0 victory for the Aggies.

Friday afternoon the Lynx took the field with revenge in their hearts. At the start of the game, the Lynx chose to receive. They took the ball from kick-off down to the six-yard line where they fumbled, and the Elks recovered. The Elks came out of the huddle in punt formation and punted about the 25-yard line, Spearman bringing it back to the 15-yard line where they fumbled again causing them to lose a touchdown in the first ten minutes of the game. They kicked and the Lynx led by A. J. Curtis took the ball over for a touchdown and the score stood 6 to 0. Spearman’s line was certainly doing some nice blocking and tackling.

Spearman’s Richfield had some of the prettiest interference, which led to the score made against the Elks. Quarterback Bugs Robertson called a fine game and by his hard blocking and tackling and head work Spearman won easily. Captain Patterson saw a little service in the game, but on account of illness didn’t get to play much.

All who go to Borger will see him in action against the Bulldogs on Friday night. Spearman has the hardest tackling team in many seasons. Little Dick Vernon played a fine game at halfback and safety man and with his side stepping and pretty running was able to return many punts for gains. The final score was 59 to 0. Captain Buvver says we’ll get Borger. The entire football squad takes this chance to thank the businessmen of Spearman for their backing and closing up for the football game on Friday afternoon. Signed by ENTIRE SQUAD

Judging from the text of a long and detailed article appearing in the Texas Weekly, another special session of the Texas Legislature is on Mr. Ferguson’s program.

The article referred to, goes into detail relative to the inadequate funds as provided by the recent state legislature. Getting down to definite figures the article states that the estimates of Ferguson would provide for an average payment of $18 per month to each of the 250,000 families on the relief rolls. Funds provided in the special session of the state legislature, when matched with an equal number of dollars only allow each of these families an average of $8 per month during the three months, October, November, and December. If, as has been suggested, the number of families on the relief rolls should increase to 300,000 families the pro-rata income to each family would dwindle below the eight-dollar margin. These figures are the basis of the Ferguson statement that another session of the legislature will be included in the program of the retiring chief executive of the state.

In an explanation of the situation, Peter Molyneaux states: “The Legislature’s Attitude, it should be said, is not due to any indifference to the problem of how the indigent unemployed are to be taken care of during the next three months. It is due rather to a widespread distrust among the members of the whole relief set-up in Texas. There is a belief among them that many people are on relief in Texas who have no real need of it, and there is a feeling that this condition will not be cured so long as the present administrative setup is continued. Whether this feeling is justified or not, it is the plain truth that it exists and has been the determining factor in relation to the attitude of many of the members. To put the matter bluntly, there is more than a suspicion among the members that many of the professional relief workers desire to make a permanent thing of relief work in Texas and that they are not going to "work themselves out of their jobs.” Incidentally, some of the “experts" sent to Texas from Washington have not been the most tactful people in the world. In one instance, for example, such an “expert, a lady, who came to Texas to train workers, attended a meeting of the Texas Relief Commission, and when one of the commissioners urged that the rule of denying relief to anyone refusing work at the prevailing rate of wages in the community be strictly enforced, she not only denounced him to the class she was teaching at the University of Texas but reported him by wire to Washington. The circumstance that the State law provides that relief shall not be given to anyone refusing work at prevailing wages was entirely unknown to this “expert," for she had not taken the trouble to read the law under which the workers she was training would have to operate. From her point of view to compel anybody to work at the "prevailing wages" in a community would violate the standards of the “profession" and anybody who advocated such a course was not fit to be a member of a relief com' mission. She made precisely this declaration to her class at the University. This probably is an extreme case of stupidity, but many other similar instances of an attitude of doctrinaire superiority on the part of the professionals from Washington are being cited, not only by members of the Legislature but in all sections of the State.

We must wait until Mr. Allred is inaugurated; we think before there can be any real improvement in the situation. We will be very much surprised, not to say disappointed, if he does not tackle this matter vigorously at the very outset of his administration. And while we do not expect him to pick a quarrel with Washington, we do expect that he will take effective steps to ascertain the precise situation in every respect and then move to correct whatever evils may exist. We think he will speak plainly to Washington, and that Washington will listen to him. Moreover, we do not think he will countenance any more to submit a $50,000,000 bond issue to the people, as some of the glib-tongued professionals are saying to be done. Meantime, we may have to rock along just as we are, getting along the best we can with such funds as the Legislature has authorized. A long squabble at another special session of the Legislature, at the cost of another $125,000, is not going to help matters. Especially it will not help matters if such a special session is brought about by Federal coercion. Texas is not going to permit any of its citizens to starve, either during the next three months, or after the new State administration takes hold. But it is not going to perpetuate a condition that is becoming intolerable in some respects.