Mays past, roundup.

(This is our roundup column for the month of May. Having five weekends this month allows us to bring these items that we did not have space for in our earlier weeks.)

From The LaGrange Graphic

100 years ago, 1916

Editorial

Back to the Land — Sen. Sheppard of Texas, in discussing the subject of rural credits this week, brought to the attention of the Senate the fact that the United States is fast becoming a nation of tenant farmers.

In the cities, the home owners are disappearing. The great bulk of the people now live in rented houses and apartments.

Congestion of population, with the consequent high prices for land, finds the masses relatively worse off than they were in the days of sparse settlements and cheap land.

The more profitable farming becomes, the more difficult it seems to become for the farmer to own his farm. He either must rent it from a landlord or else pay rent for it in the form of interest on a mortgage.

It is only where land is poor or far removed from markets that the tenant farmer ceases. A tenant and a landlord cannot draw their living from a farm that will only support one family. Where the land is too poor to support a landlord it is cheap enough to be owned by a farmer.

Why do boys leave the farm today? Is it not because the farm has left the boys?

From the LaGrange Daily News

75 years ago, 1941

Editorial

We Must Convoy — From the moment that the United States abandoned a strict neutrality policy for a policy of aid to Britain, it was a foregone conclusion that sooner or later our government would have to face the issue of convoying that aid to Britain’s shores. A hope of not having to convoy, while understandable, was not in accord with realism.

The minority group in the country, which opposes convoys, are most. certainly correct in their assumption that to convoy is to risk war. However, their harping on that particular refrain has little actual meaning, for our choice is not now between war and peace. Every one in this country joins President Roosevelt in “hating war,” and had we a choice we would avoid that terrible contingency, but we have no more choice in the matter than did Norway, or Belgium, or the Netherlands. Hitler is out to conquer the world and we are in the world.

If we do not convoy aid to Britain, the possibility of a victorious Britain is remote, indeed, and it therefore seems perfectly plain that we go to war whether or not we convoy the materials of war. The convoying of materials to the war fronts undoubtedly endangers our peace, but the fall of Britain would not be a matter of endangering our peace, but rather would be a matter of absolute assurance that we must go to war alone against a victorious Germany.

From the LaGrange Daily News

50 years ago, 1966

Editorials

Dividend of a Vacation — Here’s some very old, but still very valid, advice which it seems appropriate to repeat at this season when most people’s fancies turn to thoughts of vacations:

“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work, your judgment will be sure, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose your power of judgment. … Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance. …”

The author: Leonardo da Vinci.

This Trouble we Can Stand — A noted British psychiatrist, none other than Dr. Joshua Bierer, attributes most of our troubles in America to prosperity and women.

Well, if you have to have troubles, and we understand even England has a few now and then, can the doctor think of nicer ways to have them?

Or is he suggesting we switch to poverty and an all-male population?

Local Elks Scholarship Award Winners — Winners in the local division of the annual National Elks Leadership and Scholarship Contest are Robert Keeble Hendricks, winner of $50, and Barbara Jean White, $25. Joseph Edwin Gore and Sandy Hammett each received $25 War bonds.

From the LaGrange Daily News

25 years ago, 1991

LaGrange High School ‘Valedictwins’ — With identical 4.0 grade point averages, twin sisters, Allison Ma’luf and Nell Ma’luf were recognized as co-valedictorians of the LHS class of 1991 at the school’s Honors Day program on Thursday.

They are the younger sisters of Jason Ma’luf, a co-valedictorian of the LHS class of 1989.

Doyle is Top Amateur — LaGrange’s Allen Doyle finished with a 7-over-295 to come in as the top amateur in the Memorial Tournament held in Dublin, Ohio, Sunday.

Doyle shot rounds of 72,71, 77 and 75. He was invited to play in the tournament as a member of the U.S. Amateur Team that competed in the World Championships in New Zealand last fall.