1946-12-12; Saline Observer

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VOLUME 64
SALINE. WASHTENAW COUNTY, MICHIGAN,
THURSDAY, DEC. 12, 1946
NUMBER    10
Community Service Party Dec. 20
SdCfonial
Annual Fat Steer
Event Last Year
Benefited Crippled
Children
A committee of Rotarians
gathered at the City council
rooms Monday night and perfected plans for their annual
"* Fat Steer event, proceeds of
which will be devoted to community service. Last year about
$600 was raised for a crippled
children's fund.
This undertaking has become one of the major events
on the Saline Rotary Club's
annual program, and because of
the purely local nature of its
benefits, it touches a high spot
in the estimation of everyone.
Beneficiaries of the party will
be such organizations as the
high school drum and bugle
corps, girl and boy scouts, etc.,
and any local project which
y — may need a boost during the
coming year.
It became the lot of Stanley
Goodfellow of Ypsilanti to fall
heir to the fat steer at last
year's party and he passed up
the animal for a cheek for
$100. Turkeys, hams, and other
liberal prizes will be offered to
those skillful in choosing the
right numbers.
Tickets for the Community
Service Party will be on sale
this week and are priced at 50$
each. It will be held in the
American Legion hall on South
, Ann Arbor street on the evening of cFriday, December 20thv
Of course the public is invited.
It's a Community party.,
Michigan Mirror
By Gene Alleman
Two "ifs" are being linked to
the ascending career of Kim
Sigler in public service. Here
they are: If a Republican is
elected president in November,
1948, and if the president-elect
appoints Michigan's senior sena-
, tor Arthur H. Vandenberg to be
secretary of state, Sigler could
be appointed by the Michigan
governor in 1949 to fill Vanden-
berg's unexpired term.
Political speculation has always thrived at the state capital.
Rumors during the four-year
administration of Governor
Harry E. Kelly had him elevated
to the U. S. Senate and to the
Michigan State Supreme Court.
The same will be true about
Governor Sigler.
. But   politics   is   notoriously
fickle, and much.COULD happen between 1947 and 1949. In
1944 Kelly polled 1,208,000
votes for governor. In July,
1945, he chose not to run for
re-election.      Sigler's  vote   on
* November 5 was 1,003,878 with
a majority of 359,336, the biggest margin of victory since
1928.
Currently, Sigler and the Republicans are riding the crest
of popularity.
But the hazards ahead are
numerous. Nearly 50 per cent
t ol" the state representatives
and state senators will be new
and, hence, inexperienced" in
knowledge of state government.
Sigler's so-called "cabinet" will
have a new secretary of state,
attorney general and auditor
general. Hale Brake, state
treasurer, becomes the veteran
in the political ring—with the
exception of Dr. Eugene B.
Elliot, state superintendent of
nublic instruction, whose office
has always been disassociated
from party politics.
In another two years the
Sigler administration will be before the bar of public opinion
for an accounting. In the meanwhile, the state faces a prospective deficit in state taxes
estimated by the acting budget
* director to be $70,000,000—the
highest amount we have heard
yet in recent weeks. If new
taxes are imposed as a solution
for the constitutional ear-marking of 76 per cent of the sales
tax for local governments, what
"will the voters say about it in
stration enacted the state sales
tax. Inside of a few -months the
taxpayers had tagged the pennies as the 'Comstock tax."
Comstock was defeated for reelection.
Because of the new leadership at Lansing arid the almost
unprecedented financial crisis
just ahead, < the 1947 general
session of the state legislature
promises to be one of the most
interesting in years.
The big question is this:
How is the State of Michigan
going to avert the prospective
$70,000,000 deficit?
Here are some of the solutions proposed:
A flat payroll tax, a flat tax
on business gross receipts, revival of taxes on real estate
and personal property and
imposition .of new taxes on
cigarets, beer, and amusements.
If the legislature were to enact a three-mill property tax,
such a levy would take priority
within the 15-mill tax limitation. In other words, so proponents argue, property owners
in areas covered by a 15-mill
limitation would pay the same
property tax as they do now.
The constitutional limitation
would prevent the adding of a
state three-mill levy to the present 15-mill tax.
Lieut. Governor Vernon J.
Brown advocates a three-rpill
tax which would finance the
state's educational obligations,
such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State College
and all the others.
Dr. Eugene B. Elliott, state
superintendent of public instruction, opposes a property
tax because he believes it would
ercffe a hardship in .many communities.
The state's educational building program is a good illustration of what legislators are up
against. The 1946 legislature
authorized a $24,000,000 for
needed construction. A sum of
$17,608,000 was appropriated,
leaving the remainder to be
provided in future  sessions.
However,, costs are higher.
For example: Michigan State
College estimates that $10,000,-
000 will be needed to complete
construction which the legislature has authorized in the
amount of $7,000,000 and for
which the" legislature made an
initial appropriation of $3,806,-
000. The same picture is true
for the University of Michigan.
To speed the work, M. S. C.
has authorized a 54-hour week
with 14 hours overtime wages;
U. of M. has a 48-hour week
with  eight hours overtime.
John A. Perkins, acting budget director, has been holding
Continued on Page 6
Community
ChristmasTree
* 7: -#; i-   ■
There is in Saline one of the
very finest locations for the
setting up of a community
Christmas tree. A nice, tall
green one, in fact a friendly
one—one that could tell to the
world of passersby that here
lived folks of good cheer who
wished to share their Yuletide
joy with the visitor within their
gates—as an expression of their
goodwill to all men. It could
also be an expression of community appreciation for the
country folk who make Saline
their year round shopping center. It might even add a little
more warmth to the exchange
of greetings among ourselves
and impress us anew with the
deeper meaning of Christmas.
Yes, there is a perfect spot
in Saline for the planting of
such a tree. And it' should be
bright with many lights and
should be planted right away.
We don't care who plants it,
we only care that it "be done,
that we may see those twinkling lights on a tall, tapering
balsam or fir and know for sure
that Santa Claus is real and
that he lives in this town. Yep,
there's a very nice location in
Saline.
Your correspondent enjoyed
his two day trip and considered
it very instructive and worthwhile. Was kept busy throughout the conference representing local post, county and serving on the Department Distinguished Guests committee.
Lawrence R. Deede
. District   Committeeman
Santa Coming
To Town
THREE FIRE DEPARTMENTS
WORK ON A BARN
State Hospital, Milan and
Saline fire departments fought
a blaze which treatened to consume a barn full of baled hay,
Sunday. The structure, located
at the corner of Judd and Piatt
roads, owned by Jack Willough-
by, proprietor of a Ypsilanti
shoe store, still stands although
firemen battled the blaze from
2:15 in the afternoon until 9
o'clock that night.
BRUCE PHILLIPS AGAIN
WINS HUSKING CONTEST
A pre-Christmas visit to
Saline by Santa Claus has been
arranged by the Howard Electric for Saturday evening, December 14th. The old boy will
make his appearance on the
street at 7 o'clock and will leave
for Detroit about two hours
later.
This fabulously jolly old fellow will be visiting several
other communities this weekend, among them our neighboring city of Milan, and it so happened that a visit to Saline fitted well into his itinerary and
thus—well, it's a treat for the
kiddies. Remember boys and
girls! Saturday night at 7!
SALINE VALLEY'S
CHRISTMAS PARTY
MEN ENTERTAIN
THE WOMEN
Rotarians and Rotary Anns
gathered in the dining room at
the Masonic hall, Thursday evening, and enjoyed a banquet
served by the ladies of the
Eastern Star, and heard
a discourse on psychotherapy
by Dr. Robert Dieterly of Ann
Arbor, who was introduced by
C. D. Finkbeiner, program
.chairman for December. Dr.
Harold Miller, Club president,
presided and introduced the several guests and Merritt Martin
sang two much appreciated
solos and led in group singing.
.Tonight, Rotarians will be
hosts to the members of the
high school football squad and
a week from today will hold
their annual Christmas party.
LADIES INTERESTED
IN EXTENSION COURSE
A group of ladies interested
in the extension course given
by the Michigan Stated college,
met at the home of Mis'. Lloyd
Steiner, December 5th.
Mrs. Frederick and Mrs, Harrison of another extension
group gave a -talk on "Improving Our Cupboards." The group
includes Mrs. Oliver Steiner,
Mrs. Dan Hall, Mrs. Ray Parker, Mrs. Howard Burr, * Mrs.
Lloyd Steiner, Mrs. Raymond
Niethammer, Mrs. Robert
Lindemann, Mrs. Robert Schultz
and Mrs. Ferman Clements,
The next meeting will be
held at the home of Mrs.
Oliver Steiner on January 2 at
AMERICAN LEGION HOLDS
MID-WINTER CONFERENCE
Legionaires from all parts of
Michigan assembled in Lansing
this feist weekend, December 7-8,
for their annual mid-winter conference. The conference called
by Department Comm. Earl
F. Ganschow served as a school
of instruction for the Legion's
officer personnel. Delegates included commanders, adjutants,
and service officers of 530
American Legion posts in Michigan; together with presidents,
secretaries, and welfare chairwomen of 370 auxiliary units,
representing 100,000 Legionaires and 40,000' auxiliary members.
Conference sessions were devoted mainly to committee reports and discussions. The
Legion's membership drive liad
been progressing slowly but in
the last week had gained momentum steadily. The local
post, Wm. B. Lutz, No. 322, was
informed that it had qualified
for a citation by exceeding its
four year membership average
by November 30. Membership
chairman Heinie Ormsby should
be highly commended for his
excellent job with the hope that
he will carry the post on to its
goal of 193 members or 20%
more than the 1946 membership.
More funds are needed for
the Otter Lake Billet as new
laundry equipment is arriving
and has to b4 installed. The
auxiliary donated $7,500 toward the laundry and the
Legion matched this sum with
last minute help from the Ann
Arbor Post No. 46's $500.00 donation. This Billet is operated
by the American Legion to care
_for homeless or orphaned children of veterans, or children of
veterans unable to furnish them
the necessary support. Also
needed at any time is clothing
which your children have outgrown. Children at the Billet
range from five months of age
upward, and there are now 91
children staying there. Candy
and small gifts would be especially welcome during the
Christmas season.
Social highlight of the conference was the banquet held at
the Masonic Temple, Saturday,
evening with John Thomas
Taylor of Washington, D. C,
Director of the Legion's national legislative committee, as the
principal speaker.
Master of ceremonies was
Wilham S. Carpenter of Lansing. Other speakers were Governor Harry S. Kelley; Ralph
W. Crego, Lansing's mayor;
Earl F. Granschow, Department Commander; and Mrs.
Florence Mastenbrook, .Department President American Legion Auxiliary. Dinner music for
Husking 112 ears of corn for
a total of 125 pounds in a five
minute period, Bruce Phillips
easily retained his championship in the annual F. F. A. corn
husking contest held last Friday bn Douglas Hoeft's father's
farm.
Charles Kohler, who also was
second last year, placed second
with a total of 97 ears weighing 104 pounds; Luther Schaible, husking 89. ears weighing
100 pounds was third; while
William Wallo with 85 ears
and 94 pounds was fourth;
Merlyn Graf, 70 ears weighing
90 pounds was fifth; Clarence
Kohler, 73 ears weighing 87
pounds was sixth with Donald
Mueller, 69 "ears weighing S7
pounds was seventh.
The other boys entering were
David Levleit, Paul Woods,
Glenn Stollsteimer and Thomas
Love.
Bruce Arend, Walter Sally
and C. H. Osgood supervised
the contest, while the remaining members assisted with the
details of .the contest. Cash
prizes were offered the winners
by the Chapter.
Plans are now being made
to -enter the county contest
next week. Saline now holds
the .trophy cup from last year.
The Sahne Valley Community
Club's Christmas party Monday night, attended by about
150 people, was one of their
most enjoyable affairs with a
cantata" given by the Senior
Music Club of Milan, under the
direction of Mrs. Nelba Drev-
dahl and accompanied by Mrs.
Clyde Lawson, and a group of
piano solos by Clara Bruckner,
also of Milan. The evening being rounded out with dancing
to the music of Joe Cook's
orchestra, and the singing of
Christmas carols by the assembly under the direction of Mrs.
Drevdahl.
ANN. ARBOR RESIDENT
WELL KNOWN HERE
Ernest Muehlig, Ann Arbor
funeral director, died Sunday at
St. Joseph's hospital, following
a heart attack. A lifelong resident of Ann Arbor, he was well
known here, having married the
former Sarah Gross of Saline,
July 20, 1905, who died October
27, 1943.
STONY CREEK SAILOR
WITH ADMIRAL BYRD
SALINE RESIDENTS
ACCIDENT VICTIMS
Paul GuinnJ 36, of Ann Arbor, suffered cuts about one eye
■early Sunday morning when the
car in which he was riding,
driven by William J. Sieloff,
21, of Whitmore lake, hit another automobile on E. Huron
street at Fifth avenue.
Ann Arbor police said Sieloff was driving east and that
the collision took place when
the other car, being driven
west on E. Huron St. by Viola
Sanders, 36, of 206 W. Michigan Ave., Saline, turned onto
Fifth Ave. The injured man
was taken to St. Joseph's
Mercy hospital, where he was
treated and released.
Miss Evelyn Hazlett, 35,
Saline, received cuts and bruises
when the car in which she was
a passenger was hit by another automobile on US-112 at S.
Lewis St., here early Sunday
morning...
State police reported that
the car in which Miss Hazlett
was riding north on S. Lewis
St., driven by Rudolph E.
Johnson, 31, Saline, stopped at
US-112 and then drove in front
of an eastbound car driven by
l.orman" J.. Stierle, SO, of 3391
S.-Parker Rd., Ann Arbor. The
injured woman was treated by
a local physician.
S 1-C Clement Baish, Jr., son
of Mivand Mrs. Clement Baish,
Judd road, is a member of the
Admiral Byrd expedition which
is en route to Little America at
the South Pole for a four-
month* expedition.
The Stony Creek youth, a
veteran of Navy service in
New Guinea, Australia and the
Philippine' Islands, left Stony
Creek, where he had been visiting friends and relatives November 25 to join the Byrd
expedition.
He first enlisted in the Navy
in June of 1943, received his
boot training at Great Lakes
and was stationed at San Francisco, Calif., for a month before
being sent to New Guinea and
later to Australia and the Philippines. He was on a ship in the
Panama Canal zone en route to
the United States when the war
ended.
Mustered out of service on
September 8. 1945, he re-enlisted the following November
and had been stationed' at
Great Lakes since that time. A
former Lincoln Consolidated
high school student, Seaman
Baisch was a Willow Run bomber plant employee before entering service.
A volunteer army of thirty
divisions of men, women and
children, armed with a conglomerate assortment of knives,
hatchets, pistols, bows and arrows and modern and obsolete
makes of rifles and shotguns,
and clad in an odd assortment
of red jackets and pants and
other hunting gear headed for
the North last November 15th,
or thereabouts, deer hunting.
Michigan highways were
jammed with the traffic, and
the hunting lodges and overnight cabins and hotels in the
Northlands were filled to capacity. Beer gardens and liquor
spots were scenes of hilarity
and in many instances "joy was
unrefined." Many a pent-up
spirit broke loose on the eve
of the 15th arid continued loose
until an early hour in the
morning.
Stumbling out in the dark of
the morning, the "army" took
to the woods and in some spots
there were more hunters than
brush, stumps or trees to hide
behind.
Here, then, was the perfect
setting foi* considerable slaughter, not only of wildlife, but of
humans. Liquor, guns and automobiles is a combination
which the experts agree is an
unholy triumvirate. The casualties should have been high by
all the calculations in the books.
Few people were shot. More
died from over-exertion than
gunshot wounds. An occasional
novice got lost in the woods,
and found. There were comparatively few accidents. One
per cent of fatalities would
have totaled well over 300 persons. It totaled less than one-
-fifteenth of that number, and a
lot of that, was heart" failure."
It is indeed, a remarkable
record. It establishes one un:
deniable fact. Americans have a
considerable capacity for mixing all of the elements of destruction in one big explosive
batch and then snuffing out the
fuse. We would hate to be in
any other country in the world
where 300,000 people armed to
the teeth, were turned loose for
15 days, and where they 'rolled
out the barrel." Americans are
a strange people. We've lived
among them all of our life, and
don't know them yet. Do you?
CHRISTMAS BAZAAR
SPONSORED BY THE TAGS'
Saline .TAGS Club will hold
a Christmas Bazaar on Wednesday, December 18, at 7 p,m.
consisting "of needlecraft and a
bake sale, The nepdlecraft will
make nice Christmas gifts, the
Tags declare, as the work is all
hand made.
The Bazaar will be held at
the Burkhart store.
Next Sunday evening the
Club members and their leader.
Mrs. Elvin Armbruster are
planning to go to Detroit and
Note—A report from aboard
the USS Mt. Olympus off Balboa, Panama Canal Zone announces the flagship and the
flotilla of the Byrd Antarctic
expedition sailed today, Tuesday, from the torrid Panama
Canal Zone on their non-stop
voyage to the frozen wastes of
Little America, not sighting a
civilized port again until sometime next March or Aprill
Six ships, including the submarine Sennet, and the oil carrier Canisteo, are in the group
which will rendezvous with the
other vessels in the expedition near Scott Island, late in
December. Thev will then regroup into two. flotillas, with
the Sennet accompanying the
Olymw  i-vf-o the i^o^t frigid
Anyway, we can thank John
L. for giving us back our lights
and the chances for a warm and
Merry Christmas. The old boy
and his following could have
stuck it out and caused us no
end, of suffering. No doubt
many thousands have converted
their coal burners to oil and
are praying that the refineries
don't go on strike. The best
solution would be a combination coal, wood, and oil burner,
or better yet a solution to our
economic problems.
Congress and the president
are all het up to do something
drastic, and something drastic
will not work. The- "noble'"
experiment" was tried in this
country once and proved a dis-
m a 1 failure. Righteousness,
morality, fairplay are human
traits of character and are not
products of legislation, in the-
main, and men will still fight
for what they consider their
rights. The greatest advance in
human relations. will be made
when men will not bargain collectively, but'share collectively.
Bargaining will not do it, because the shrewdest will always
get the best of the bargain, and
the loser will always be sore.
As we spend more money on
education and increase the in->
telligence of people, that much,
more will their intelligence smd
refined tastes demand. That
much more of the world's goods
will have to be shared, and
whether that is a desirable end
it will have to be reckoned with.
More can have more if more
have less, but more will continue to be dissatisfied. And
the dissatisfied are the trouble
makers. Probably the best way
out is to not think too deeply;
consider the evil sufficient unto
the day, and if behind the beetle brows of John -L. there
works a force for good, or evil,
we won't be too long in finding
out.
The guy that locked his Tvife