Spiraea and Parsley are ripe in the Land of Mears

-Since a child I have thirsted for the lakes with an inlander's thirst for the breezes from great expanses of water . I can remember how in 1913 I found the hilly slope of the Padecky road down past the spring and the cool cedars to the Lake Michigan shore and I sought the name of the owner of the old Bennett house to ask if I might sleep on the hard floor of the deserted farm house so that I might be near the shore and live by the waves . I have slept many summer nights under trees , I have lain in slumber on the high sand ridges under the August stars or even in November . Quiltless I have slept wrapt up in the seaweed on the banks of Lake Erie , be- cause I loved the water . Every road that runs down to the sea is an enchanted road . It is a sacred highway from the world of dust and heat and turmoil to the healing coolness of the waters . Whoever closes a highway that runs down to the lake and shuts the thirsting multi- tude from the water has committed a crime against humanity . Con- sider the Oceana Beachers in their castles on the bluffs as they looked out on the great waters , at the sunsets , the far sails and the distant steamer's smoke . The breezes from far off isles could flutter the cur- tains of their windows , the portieres of their archways . While inland there were their less fortunate neighbors , who craved only the right to walk circumspectly down the shaded limits of long existing streets and bathe in the latitude of the 66 - foot terminal where the beach ran into Lake Michigan . But the aristocratic Oceana Beachers begrudged the inlanders of even that little pleasure and asked the court to close the streets utterly . The right of the little man seemed to be overlooked . He was written out of the streets . The inlanders were shut back . The wel- come sign on the door mat of Pentwater by the sea seems to be getting its letters erased . Down through the decades its cooling shores had called to the tired , dusty multitudes : " Come unto me , all you that are thirsty and weary - laden and I will give you rest . " Now a new order of exclusiveness had nailed up a warning that was forbidding : " Go back . Thou shalt not go near the water . These streets are closed . " The Pentwater Chamber of Commerce may get out gay lithographed fold- ers and scatter them broadcast by the thousands , showing the bathing girl stretching her limbs to plunge from the springboard . But when your summer visitors come the bathing suits will droop and wilt in their

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hands as they stand looking at the warning notices that forbid them . from going down the street to the water . Pentwater , what are you going to do about it ? Is there no way this matter can be brought up for a new hearing ? And if there ever is I hope you turn out in mass to fight for the very lifeblood of your town's business , the right of your- selves and your summer visitors for access to the cooling waters.- -So Marguerite Christian got married to Bill Cornelius of Detroit and brought him up to look at the cherry trees in Mears and the lilacs and the sand dunes . We congratulate Bill on getting a beautiful woman and Marguerite on landing a tall hand- some man . - Russell Wickerink went north the other day to a far northern port called Northport where his wife was raised . Agriculture has been practiced in Oceana county some eighty years and we yet had to call in a board of managers to enter upon each and every farm and tell us what fields we dare to plow and what fields we dare not sow to alfalfa or in what direction the pigs must run or the turkeys . flap their wings . How would you like to live in a county where a board of directors could come upon your land at any time and order you to do so and so to this field and that field , and if you fail to live up to each and every regulation you could be fined $ 100 or thrown into jail for ninety days ? And more than that . the board of directors could go upon your land with a group of workmen or a small army of WPA shovel leaners or CCC men and do the work they ordered done and charge it up in your taxes . And if you don't pay that tax bill your farm will be taken from you . I am telling you sometihng that is just around the corner if you don't get out and defeat this soil conservation district business that is now trying to settle itself on Oceana county and is already in force in Ottawa county and Muskegon county . In a pale sort of a way you may already be conscious of this soil conserva- tion district business for the control of wind and water erosion , but the chances are 9 out of 10 that you never read the act and don't know the drastic clauses of this liberty usurping regime that wants to settle down on Oceana county like a cloud of locusts . Perhaps today you are a free man and you can plant orchards and timothy where you please and vineyards on the east twenty . You can still keep that liberty to till your soil if you act with speed and diligence and keep a vigilant eye on the horizon and if enough of you fellow patriots go to the Shelby high school auditorium Thurs. evening , June 18 , to voice your objections . It was back in 1937 that this drastic act was adopted in the Michigan legislature . Among the members the friends of liberty fought the bill to defeat it or tame down its eruel provisions . It was even more severe in its early draft . It can be adopted by a county or it can be rejected . This is the way it gets started to worm its way into our midst and spins a web like an army of tent caterpillars . It must start out with a petition signed by 25 property owners in the county . This wasn't so hard because last fall or winter they had a few farm meetings around and after some spiel on the glorious advantages of this soil conservation district business , a petition sheet was passed around . It is doubtful if any farmers who signed it knew that hidden somewhere in the thous- ands of words that comprised the lengthy act were concealed clauses of usurpation and penalty that might mean the confiscation of their farms and bring about their being thrown into jail once they failed to perform each and every regulation that was fastened upon them by these soil directors . After the petitions are gathered in a date is set for a preliminary hearing , due notice has to be published twice in a county paper saying there will be this preliminary meeting at the Shelby high school . All occupiers of land in Oceana county outside of the incor-

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porated villages are entitled to attend and to be heard . If there is a tremendous storm of disapproval the whole blooming business is nip- ped in the bud and ends right there . But if a majority seem to be wild about it then an election will be called and hell may break loose in Oce- ana county in the mobilization of the voters for and against . We who live in the open country , up here in wide stretching spaces of Oceana county , in the liberty of God's out of doors , crave a continuance of that way of living , we don't want to be hampered by a lot of new dinances telling us how far we can spit and if we dare to set a tomato plant on the hillside . Now we can farm as we please and if we want to leave our acres idle for the April rains to fall upon the springing ferns and last November's browning leaves that is our right and privilege . If we want to landscape this field and that , if we want to spruce up our river bottoms it is all ours to regulate and control . But if you wait until this soil conservation district business fastens its tentacles on Oceana county you land owners are no longer free men . The monkey business is upon you and your fences and your forests and your pig pens and pasture lands . I quote to you from Section 10 : " The directors shall have authority to go upon any lands within the district to de- termine whether land - use regulations adopted under the provisions of Section 9 of this act are being observed . Any persons , firm or corpora- tion who shall violate any of such regulations shall be GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR , and upon conviction , shall be punished as provided by the laws of this state . " By consulting another statute in the com- piled laws you will find this means you can be fined $ 100 or thrown into jail for 90 days . Then the act goes on to provide how the directors can enter upon your land and carry out the details of their orders and charge up the expenses in your taxes . There is no limit to the number of shovel leaners they can drag across your sacred acres , no limit as to the number of days they can camp there , no limit to the bill they can run up against you and charge up against you in your December taxes . That bill might be hundreds of dollars and if you can't pay it your farm can be confiscated . Today you farmers of Oceana county have the liberty to farm as you see fit , or according to the wisdom of your fore- fathers or the most scientific light you find shed by your farm journals or extension bulletins . You can plant a thousand pine seedlings and throw your orchard brush on your hillsides , but if you let this soil con- servation district business settle down upon you and fasten its tenta- cles on your county you are no longer free men , but slaves . Get busy and set your alarm clock so you can be in the Shelby high school audi- torium on Thurs. evening , June 18 , to voice your objections . And write a letter to your county agent Lyle Tompkins and tell him you don't like this new - fangled monkey business in any way.To Keith Corliss in Mears for fried cakes , rolls , frankfurts , fly swatters , pop , fresh vege- tables and fruits , adv.-R. B. Zane was up the other day from Kalica- zoo to see his old friend Charles Hefner . Mr. Zane was a close relative of Zane Grey , the novelist . I am not sure but they were cousins . - Carl Dhein was back from Wisconsin the other day with Mrs. Dhein and Lucille . Ten years they have been gone and Lucille has added a hus- band , A. W. Schaper . The Schapers have a three year old . Carl is a guard in Waupun reformatory and the inmates are always glad when Carl Dhein calls out in his big muscular voice : " Come and dine ! " - An eight - room house to rent , 1½ miles from Hart . Lower rooms newly dec- orated . Charles Hefner , Mears.-

Screens , roofing , Hentzen's good paint , brick siding , glass . Free yard sticks , Plenty of material yet . Boats . Weeks Lumber Company , Hart .