Cottonwood Chronicle Newspaper, September 17, 1920, Page 1

STATE OFFICIALS GATHER DATA REPRESENTATIVES U TILE TIES COMMISSION HERE WEDNESDAY EVENING Three representatives of the publie utilities commission, Leonard Way, rate expert, At- torney Raymond Givens and En- gineer Gordon, arrived in the city Wednesday evening from Lewiston to have a conference with farmers and business men of Cottonwood and surrounding country to obtain information that will be used at a hearing be- fore a representative of the U.S. Interstate Commerce Commis- sion, which will be held in Boise, November 16th, asking the in- terstate commerce commission to order the Northern Pacific, Camas Prairie, and Oregon- Washington Navigation Co. to extend the Camas Prairie rail- road from Fenn, Idaho to con- nect with the Pacific & Idaho Northern Railroad at New Mea- dows, Idaho. The representatives of the utilities commission met with a number of business men in Cot- tonwood Wednesday evening and Mr. Givens stated the purpose of their visit. He said that in or- der to force the building of the road the state had to prove three things: First, that the public convenience demanded the exten- sion; Second, that sufficient ton- nage was available to support the road and third that the ex- pense of building the extension will not in any way impair the railroads ability to perform its duty on other lines. Mr. Givens also said that there were three routes to select from and that the route from New Meadows to Fenn was selected because it was the shortest and most feasible one and also be- cause it opens up a vast terri- tory, which at this time has in- adequate transportation facili- ties. That distance was one of the main features in railroad construction and that the pre- sent route selected would place the entire proposed road in the state of Idaho and therefore be under the jurisdiction of the state. Mr. Way, the rate expert, ex- plained how the rates would be materially reduced, should the line be built from all points in the southwest. The information sought by the representatives of the commis- sion is for the exact tonnage from this section and the pro- able tonnage that might be ex- pected shotild the line be extend- ed. The above information will he given the commission as soon as it can be obtained. The action taken by the state utilities commission in asking for the building of the north and south railroad is in accordance with an amendment to the inter- state commerce act, known as the transportation act of 1920, effective March 1, 1920, which provides that the commission may “after hearing, in a proceed ing upon complaint, or upon its own initiative, without com- plaint, authorize or require by order any carrier by railroad subject to this act, party to such proceeding, to provide itself with safe and adequate facilities for performing as a comman carrier its car service as that term is used in this act, and to extend its line or lines; provided that no such authorization or order shall be made unless the commission finds, as to such extension, that it is reasonably required in the interest of public convenience and necessity, or as to such ex- tension or facilities that the ex- pense involved will not impair the ability of the carrier to per- form its duty to the public.” Country Surprises Him Mr. Way was greatly surpris- ed at the fertility of the land on Camas Prairie and that such a, prairie existed. He stated that this was his first visit to this section and that if the same im- pression can be made upon the! minds of the Interstate Com- merce commission as he had ob-| tained on his trip here he was| quite sure that the road woe) COTTONWOOD, IDAHO, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1920 be built without any arguments. Meeting Short lTELLS ABOUT M INES IN ELK 2ND LETTER FROM KELSEY The meeting held in Wednes- Transportation Has Been the Visist Relatives of Many Cotton- day was cut short, due to the fact that the members of the| party wished to reach Grange-| ville the same evening where they expected to hold another meeting. The party departed from Cottonwood in an automo- bile at 8:30. From Grangeville they will make a trip down the Clearwater river where they will hold meetings of a similar char- acter. WREN SELLS. 1200 ACRES LARGEST LAND DEAL EVER MADE IN IDAHO COUNTY What is considered to be the largest land deal ever made in Idaho county was closed this week when Thomas Wren dis- posed of 1200 acres of his land holdings in the Denver section to Geo. Chase and A. E. Rode for the sum of $175,000, the land selline for approximately $136 an acre. The land purchased by the Grangeville people is known as the “Home Ranch” and _ ad- joins the town of Denver, and is considered to he some of the best land on Camas Prairie. Mr. Wren still owns several thousands acres of land in this section of the prairie. Towa Man Buys Joe Tombleson last Saturday closed a deal with Josep Remacle of Iowa, whereby he disposed of his farm consisting of 160 acres * four miles north of Cottonwood for $17,000. The Tombleson place is well improved and is a very choice piece of farming land. Mr. Tombleson is one of our oldest and well known farmers, having homesteaded here in 1897 and since then has made his home here. Mr. Tombleson still retains some land here. He expects to remove with his fam- ily to Oregon some time this fall. Mr. Remacle, the new owner returned to his home in Iowa the first of the week where he will harvest a 100 acre crop of corn and after this is completed will remove his family to the west. The Remacles are rela- tives of the J. P. Jentges family. The above real estate deal was made through Felix Martzen. Altman Buys Joe Altman purchased from Fenn Batty the first of the week the Big Barn Davis ranch three miles north of Denver. The price paid for the land was not made public. YOUNG MOTHER DIEs. Mrs. Thomas Gentry, died at her home near Cottonwood Thursday morning after having given birth to a baby daughter, death being caused by puerperal eclampsia. Mrs. Gentry, was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Klapprich, and was born in Hazelton, N. D., Nov., 26, 1890, removing with her parents here in 1903. She was united in marriage to Thomas Gentry, November 26, 1914. The deceased mother leaves four small children, Louis, the oldest being 4 years old, Marlys, 3 years, Ellen 18 months and the infant baby to which she gave birth this week. Her husband, and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Klapprich, three brothers, Harry, Joe and Louie, of Cotton- wood and three sisters, Mrs. Ed Terhaar, Mrs. John Schnider, of Cottonwood and Mrs. Frank Jaszkowiak, of Bismark, N. D. Funeral services were conduct- ed by Rev. Fr. Willibrord, from the Catholic church this morn- ing and the remains were laid to rest in the Catholic Cemetery. A. H. Nau was in charge of the funeral arrangements. The Chronicle joins with the friends of the family in extend- ing to them sincere sympathy in their bereavement. More than $800 will be distri- buted in- prizes at the Lewis Covnty Farm Bureau Fair to be — at Nezperce October 8 and Drawback in this Section The history of every town and community hinges around its principal resource or industry to the inattention of almost every- thing else. But there are some things in which certain districts | or towns excell others and which are indissolubly linked with their renown. Thus Milwaukee was noted for its beer Reno for div- orces and Mississippi for tad- poles and niggers. The Elk re- gion has, because of its rich gold | production, never been consider- ed anything but a mining region, at least so by people who have never visited this district and whose only acquaintance or knowledge thereof is such as they have gleaned from reports emenating from there. You can imagine our surprise then as we looked over this val- ley and saw nice farm homes, meadow and stubble fields and even a few straw piles. Who would have thought that grain would grow here at this altitude and surrounded on all sides by mountains several thousand feet higher than the valley itself which has an altitude of 4500 feet. One might expect some attempts to be made at grain hay but to find that grain act- ually matured here and that they even had threshing machines here was a real and pleasant re- velation to us. Naturally the acerage sown to grain is very limited and neither does it e cape injury from frost every year, but that they do some- times raise fine wheat and oats and that of a very good quality we saw with our own eyes. The n is grown only on the slopes ar the bottom lands, at such places where the snow disap- pears in the spring several weeks earlier than on the lower mead- ows which are entirely given over to timothy and natural grasses of which these lands yield abundantly. The seeding of grain has to be done just as soon as the snow is off the land and the snow may be several feet deep yet in places on the low lands while seeding is being done on the slopes. The total area in meadow and grain is of course very limited, the valley having an average width of only about a mile and in some places less. These mead- ows produce a luxuriant growth of grass which is every year cut for hay and which it is said is superior feed for stock to that of timothy or grain hay. The yield is not so heavy however as that of a good crop of timothy. As several days latter we drove from Elk City to Finley Station, a point about midway between Elk and Dixie, we noticed many meadows and hay stacks as also farm homes. This route the greater part of the way follows Red River, which at some places is hemmed in by timbered slopes from the mountain ranges, ter- minating in rocky bluffs extend- ing right down to the waters edge, then again flowing peace- fully through meadows from one half toa mile wide as for in- stance at Finley’s. At Mr. Fin- leys we saw some excellent wheat and oats raised this year. The heavy frost we had here the latter part of August was much heavier up there of course but in spite of this the grain was well filled and apparently had not been seriously injured. Mr. Finley said that he could grow grain on the slopes only above the meadows and had to do his seeding before snow was off the low lands. There is no thresh- er in this valley except the one Mr. Finley jestingly jointed out to us hanging in the barn, con- sisting of a small pole about six feet long with a heavy club about two feet long tied to one end of it. Yet with this primitive machine, if an old fash- ioned flail can be called a mach- ine, he threshed last year sever- al hundred sacks of wheat and oats. With everywhere along the creeks an abundance of grass cattle looked sleek and fat. This is essentially a stock coun- try no attempt being made to grow grain anymore than just enough for seed. But we have digressed from our subject, vet a description of the many interesting things (Continued on page 7) learned about this region would. wood People in East. On Dee. 28th I departed from South Dakota for Sioux City, lowa only stayed there for a day. It is a big cattle market, and has a good many factories. From there I went ot Dan-, bury, a pretty little town. Here I was delightfully entertained at the Crilly home, for two days. They are relatives of Jacob) Welte of Cottonwood. I had the! pleasure of visiting the High- land Durock farm, owned by Joseph Welts, he has 125 pure bred Durock Jersey hogs, some of the finest specimens I have ever seen. With their bristles glistening in the sunlight of a winter’s day, they presented a beautiful appearance. | Land in this section is fertile, | and sells from $200 to $500 per acre. New Years day found me at Breda, visiting Tony Tacke who! also owns a farm near Ferdin-| and, Idaho. The mercury hovered around | 25 below zero, and riding in open .sleighs about the country with a stinging wind was not all fun. | I spent a day at the modern farm home of Lou Wesling, a brother in-law of Jacob Welte, and enjoyed seeing the many things of interest on the farm. Most of the farm homes about | here have electric lights, run- ning water, and furnaces. While the grain they raise is nothing to boast of, they do grow some of the finest corn, and raise many cattle. My nexi stop brought me to Carrol, a beautiful city of about 7,000 inhabitants. I met some relatives of Mrs. John Funke and Aloys Holthaus, and Nell Coun- ter a friend of the Lange’s and had a pleasant time with all of them. In most sections of Iowa, the highway commissioners keep the roads plowed out, so the deep snows, do not have any terror for the automobilist, aid cars are used all winter. Des Moines the capital city, is just ordinary, in appearance, but is a great Insurance centre, and is called the Hartford of the West. In an interview with one of the editors, of a leading daily paper, I was surprised to learn, the population of Iowa, showed no increase in the last ten years. This was said to be due to the reat exodus of people, from ve to Texas, California and the Great North West. Now they wont even publish a letter gratis, as they formally did from old residents, that have found it convenient to live else- where. I was rather amused at this. In this vicinity land sell from $400 to $700 per acre, and much of it was changing hands. An hour's ride landed me at Newton, where one-third of the washing machines of the U. S. are made. Here I spent a day at the big factory of the Maytag Washer Co., getting much in- struction there-from. Waterloo, with a population of about 35,000, is about 106 miles from Des Moines. It has many factories. I spent a few days, on the farm of Henry McLaughlin, brother of Charles McLaughlin of Cottonwood. Dairying is car- ried on extensively, corn yields 45-50 bu per acre. This prairie state of Iowa has less waste land than any state in the Union, 97 per cent being tillable and 86 per cent actually improved it al- so leads in number of banks. I next headed for Winona, Minnesota, stopping a few hours at Dodge Centre, a small farming town. Winona is one of the! large cities of Minnesota and beautifully situatel on the Mis- sissippi river. I took the opportunity of see- ing how the Winona wagons were made, and spent the day in a very interesting manner. Minneapolis was my next goal. Arriving there at midnight I found every hotei fiiied, but fin- ally managed to secure a room, which was many times too large. | I spent a week there, with part of the time at St. Paul. Minneapolis has a population of 380,498 and is 1,470 miles from Cottonwood. In this land of Hiawatha, nature offers many charms,| (Continued on page 2) | amendments are as follows: | setractive off | MISS LEGGETT TO RECITE. A recital will be given at the Orpheum theatre by Miss Doro- thy Anne Leggett, Friday, Oct- ober 1st, under the auspices of the Ladies Aid. Miss Leggett is a graduate of the Greely School of Elocution or Dramatic Art of New York ity. TO VOTE ON AMENDMENTS FIVE NEW AMENDMENTS UP TO THE VOTERS OF THE STATE OF IDAHO Certification to the county auditors of the lists of republi- can, democratic and independent nominees for congress and state office and of the proposed con- stitutional amendments to be placed upon the ballot at the coming general election was made by Secretary of State Ro- bert O. Jones Tuesday. The “Shall the bond issue of $2,- 000,000 be authorized for the laying out, survey and construc- tion of state highways?” “Shall the state constitution be amended so as to increase the membership of the supreme court from three to five just- ices?” “Shall the constitution of the state of Idaho be amended so as to provide the supreme court shall have jurisdiction of appeals from orders of the utilities com- mission ?” “Shall the constitution of Ida- ho be amended so as to permit the sale annually of 200 sections of shool land instead of 160 sec- tions ?” “Shall. the constitution of the state of Idaho be amended to read as follows: “The credit of the state shall not, in any manner, he given or loaned to, or in aid of any indiv- idual, zssociation, municipality or corporation; nor shall the state directly or indirectly be- come a stockholder in any as- sociation or corporation. Provid- ed, that the state itself may con- trol and promise the develop- ment of the unused water power within this state.” SELL ORCHARD LAND. | An event that will mean much to Lewiston and the surrounding country will occur October 9, when the final holdings of the Lewiston Orchards Bondholders will pass into private hands. There are 93 tracts from 114 to! 30 acres in size, which will mean an addition of 93 families to this already well-settled Orch- ard district. The Lewiston Orchards is one of the oldest irrigated orchard districts in the northwest and its products are known from coast to coast. One of the orchardists of the district has 16 acres in head lettuce, yielding two crops per year, from which he expects $23,000 return this year. His} lettuce goes as far east as De- troit and he cannot keep up with the demand. The same man re- ported a $3500 crop of cherries from three acres this year. The sale of these tracts is be- ing handled by the well-known real estate firm of Fred B. Grin-| nell Company of Spokane and is! being conducted in a unique way. Not an acre will be sold before) the date of sale, October 9. 1920, | but applications are being taken | with a small deposit and with the purchaser’s first, second and | third choice indicated. On the day of the sale, the ap- plications will be drawn from a} box by a disinterested party and a line of purchasers formed in| the order in-which their applica- tions afe drawn and the indivi- dual tracts sold to each one in turn in accordance with his ap- plication. The purpose of this arrange- ment is to give every person an equal chance, whether he lives near at hand or at a distance. The prices asked for this land range from $250 to $450 per acre and are much below the current values in that section. The fact that similar lands in other irrigated districts of the north- west are bringing $1200 to $1500 per acre should make this a very ering. NEWS AROUND THE STATE Items of Interest From Various Sections Reproduced for Ben- efit of Our Readers. Kamiah elected two women as members of its school board last Monday. According to the Progress, the election was quite exciting and the vote the heav- lest in years. Sixty-six motorists were ar- rested in Boise in a single day for violations of the traffic law. Even the police judge was among the offenders and had to appear in his own court. The Nezpercé Sheep Co., filed articles of corporation at Lewis- ton last Friday. The company is organized at $150,000 divided into 1500 shares at $1000 each. The organizers are Boise men. Governor D. W. Davis will op- en his election campaign Septem- ber 18, at Bonners Ferry, with an address upon the merits of the cabinet system of state gov- ernment. “Idaho's crop production will be the largest in the history of the state, according to present in dications,” says Julius H. Jaecb- son of the Idaho crop reporting service, in his September report. Miss Ethel M. Hilliard of St. Louis, is the first woman to head a state institution in Idaho. She has recently been engaged as superintendent of the State School for the Deaf and Blind at Gooding. Wm. Crambe, the insane man who escaped last Thursday from the state insane asylum after wounding Wm. Dollar, an atten- dant, in the arm with a revolver shot, is now on his way back to the asylum, having been captur- ed at Lenore. Boise’s freight rates will ke re- duced approximately 40 per cent of the recent increase, or 15 per cent of the present total rate. If the examiner’s report to the interstate commerce commission is acted favorably upon, accord- jing to Geogre Graff, secretary of the Boise Chamber of Com- merce traffic bureau. Little interest was taken in |the land sale conducted by the Indian agency at Lapwai Satur- day when they offered for sale ten pieces of Indian land. Dur- ing the later part of November the Indian agency will conduct one of the largest sales ever at- tempted. More than 100 tracts = he offered for sale at this ime. A special train Sunday carried 300 students from southern Ida- ho to Moscow where they will at- tend the University. The stu- dents were all cared for, the com- mittees from the university and the chamber of commerce having secured rooms for them. It is estimated that fully 40 per cent from southern Idaho are new students. The county commissioners of Lewis county met Monday and accepted County Auditor E. L. Schnell’s resignation to take ef- fect immediately. This vacancy will be filled by W. R. Emerson present county treasurer. A pe- tition was filed for appointing Max Scofield, of Craigmont, county treasurer to succeed Mr. Emerson. There was no change made in the deputies. FILE EXPENSE ACCOUNTS. Campaign expenses of Gover- nor D. W. Davis amounted to $1232.25, according to his state- ment filed Friday with the sec- retary of state. The amount permitted by law $1250. The items included $645.90 for print- ing and stationery; $113.50 for clerical help, and $78.98 for trav- eling and hotel expenses. Col. E. G. Davis, candidate for the Republican nomination for United States senator, $184.75. Other statements were filed by N. B. Pettibone, Democratic candidate for lieutenant-gover- nor, $1; E. M. Holden, mo- cratic nominee for justice of the supreme court, $272; F. S. Ran- dall, candidate for the Republi- can nomination for justice the supreme court, $171.63,