- Fall River 1920 (Part 1 of 2) -
In 1920, 70 percent of the enrollment at Fall River High School was from the country or rural area. This was more evident when some of the young men were having to be absent from school on account of farm work.
A notice appeared in the Fall River Star notifying the citizens of the city that a team and wagon would go through the streets to gather up all tin cans. All persons were requested to put their cans in barrels or boxes and put them on the alley so the driver could get them. By order of the Mayor.
In one of the April editions of the Fall River Star this letter to the editor appeared: “May I write a letter for publication in your paper? It is a thing I have never done and may be should not now since I have had so little experience and so much dislike publications of articles in which the personal element and the first-person pronouns are very evident.
I attended the meeting of the Epworth League at the Methodist Church Sunday evening and was much interested in the discussion of the subject of Sabbath observation. Under the direction of the leader, a rather quiet young man, several persons spoke upon various aspects of the Sabbath. To me the most striking feature of the discussion was in the suggestion of the value of laws compelling the observance of Sunday. Two opinions seemed to be expressed. All were agreed that there should be a better observance of the Sabbath than is the custom in our community, but they were not agreed as to the extent to which it should be compelled by law. On of the speakers, a gentleman, whose age, experience, and sincerity of purpose should add weight to his words, recounted the history of the Israelites, calling attention the importance that was attached by God’s commands to them concerning the Sabbath. He pointed out the instance of calamity and failure that came to the Jews as a direct result of neglecting to “ remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This speaker left the impression that statute laws should compel Sabbath observance and should be enforced the same as any other law for the public good. Another speaker seemed to feel that such laws would be lacking the liberal quality that characterize the American people, especially those of the middle west.
I felt that I wanted to make some remarks also but that being out of my line and the lack of time being evident, I remained silent.
With these suggestions revolving in my mind, what I saw in Tuesday mornings Kansas City papers struck me with more than ordinary force. The quotation is from the speech of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He said “Religion must guide us. Christianity is our only hope. We are living at a critical hour. America and a good part of the world are in turmoil. All kinds of cross currents are at work in society. Men are distrusting each other and there is strife and unwholesome competition. If the principles of brotherhood taught by Christ are not to be looked to for solution of this condition, I ask you what can be found?”
Proper respect for the Sabbath is one of the evidences of Christianity and the way in which it is observed is certainly an index of the religious attitude of the community. That “history repeats itself” is a trite saying, but true never less. The “continental Sabbath” and the turmoil in Europe today are closely related. Compare conditions now with conditions of Europe at the time of the French Revolution and see the meaning of no Christianity and the resulting low standard of morality. Note Mexico, where Sunday is given over to amusement, and sensual pleasures and compare it with a community-if we know of one- in which Sunday is kept as it should be and think which one, we would like for a home in which we could feel safe. The communities in our own country today which are most violently disturbed are the ones in which Christianity and its principles and institutions are being most carelessly neglected.
So, with some of these suggestions working in my mind I have concluded that if for no other reason, our Sabbath should be observed for the sake of national safety and that if such proper observance cannot be had voluntarily it should be obtained by enactment and enforcement of suitable laws. Signed, W.R. Iter.”
The Kellogg restaurant in Fall River was broken into about 4 a.m. one Saturday in May of 1920 and about $12 in small change was taken. Mr. C. Ater saw the robbers working and called the city marshal, Jas. Hamilton, but by the time he got up town they had left and could not be found. Early Saturday morning, hearing that three men were seen walking up the track west, Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Ater got into a car and caught them near the Sharp crossing about five miles west of town. The money was found on them when searched and they were brought to town and taken before M. Robinson, Justice of the Peace, and admitted to robbery. They were taken to Eureka Saturday evening, where they waived preliminary and were placed in jail to await trial. The robbers were three young men, an Indian and two white men. They gave their names as John Rogers, Leater Bailey and Frank Williams, and their home was at Vian, Okla.
In June another shortage had hit Kansas farms. Along with the car shortage the railroad had come a shortage of bale ties or to use the Kansas vernacular, “bailing wire.” Complaints from county agricultural agents reaching the office of Charles Weeks, Secretary of the Kansas State Farm Bureau, stated that not more than 10 or 20 per cent of the wire needed can be obtained. Mr. Weeks made an investigation to see if enough wire could be secured to handle theyear’s crop.
The west bound trains in June were full of men going to the harvest fields. The conductor on the west bound passenger train Monday morning refused to take on passengers at Fall River as he said there were already over 1,500 on the train.
In July it was reported that a well-organized gang working on the Frisco railroad east of Severy was holding up harvest hands. Four men on the Frisco freight held up about 17 harvest hands a few miles east of Severy as the train was going up the steep grade and after taking what money and watches in the crowd ordered them to jump off the train, which most of them did. About $120 and a number of watches were taken. From all reports this made about the third time this gang had worked the harvest hold up on this same grade. The previous year the same game was worked and one man was knocked down on the head and nearly killed because he did not act quick enough to suit the men who were “doing the job.” The robbed men came to Severy where some of them caught the “blind” west and some left here for their homes, having seen enough of the wheat fields to suit them for some time. This article first appeared in the
