Laurel Advocate celebrates 50 years of service — a little too soon

On March 3, 1943, Editor Allison announced that the Advocate was celebrating its 50th birthday. “We are entering our 51st year of service to the people of Laurel and surrounding community, more than a third of which has been under the present management.”

“The Advocate has weathered the rough years with you and has prospered in the years you have prospered,“ he said. “We face the future with confidence because of the friendship and cooperation of folks who believe in the policies of this newspaper and who help make it an asset at all times.“ Allison actually celebrated three months too soon. Although the March 3rd issue was labeled “Vol. 51, No. 1,” the first issue of the Advocate (Vol. 1, No. 1) was published on June 3, 1893. What seems to have happened is that three months of numbers were accidentally skipped in the early 1900s and the errors were not corrected.

The Advocate has now served the community for 130 years and hopefully will continue to serve for many more. Nothing kills a community faster than losing its newspaper. Please continue to subscribe to the Advocate and patronize its advertisers.

A few days of unseasonably warm weather in late February prompted a number of farmers to start preparing their fields. But, as usual for that time of the year, the warm weather proved fleeting. “March is here and we are shivering and shaking,“ said Editor Allison. “We can’t help but chuckle at those guys who got all hot and bothered a few days ago and started farming. Curses on the weatherman, whoever he may be.“ The remark about the weatherman “whoever he may be” was in reference to the Office of Censorship’s ban on all radio weather forecasts. It was feared the enemy spies might intercept the broadcasts and use the weather reports to plan attacks. That’s what the public was told anyway.

The new points system for food rationing was not well received particularly among mathematically- challenged shoppers. “Madame is busy these days figuring out points. If you hear her muttering about how many points are needed for one can of such and such you know she’s still in a daze from her recent shopping trip. This point rationing plan has a lot of ladies up in the air at this moment.”

The ladies would be complaining even more when meat was added to the list of rationed products later in the month. “We may have to do without a lot of the things we like but we will get along,“ said the editor. Easier said than done when women did most of the grocery shopping.

The government-recommended solution: “A Victory Garden on every vacant lot. They tell us we can win the war if we get into this Victory Garden business,“ said the Advocate. City folks were about to find out that farming wasn’t as much fun as they thought.

With the approach of the spring planting season, Editor Allison interviewed

several farmers to get their opinions on the farm problem. This is what he learned: The biggest problem was a shortage of help during the planting and harvesting seasons. Many farm boys either had enlisted or had been drafted into the armed forces. Untrained city boys were of little use working in the fields under the hot summer sun or in handling machinery. Furloughed soldiers might be a solution but with all the red tape connected with the military, the planting and harvesting would be over before any of them arrived.

Many of the young men who were not in the service had left for the cities to take higher-paying jobs in defense plants.

Another problem was the shortage of farm machinery. Many factories that had been building farm machinery were now building equipment for the military. New farm machinery was practically unobtainable and parts to repair worn out equipment was equally hard to find.

Still another factor was the number of farmers who were forced out of business, because farms were not available. Many small farmers rented land but the small rental farms were being purchased by the big operators and neighbors who needed more land to remain profitable. “The little farmer is being crowded out. In most cases, he is disgusted and instead of remaining on the farm as a laborer, he heads for a defense plant. Some kind of relief is going to have to be worked out soon if the increase in food production is to be accomplished.”

Former President Herbert Hoover wrote an article on the world’s food problem that appeared in the Advocate. This is a condensed version of what he wrote: Millions of people in Europe and Asia were either short of food or were actually starving. The reason was that even during peacetime Europe had to import large amounts of food. But food shipments were being cut off by the blockade. (Hoover did not mention that it was an Allied blockade not a Nazi blockade that was responsible.)

And, like in the U.S., manpower was being drained by the war, farm implements could not be replaced, fertilizer plants were manufacturing explosives, and livestock was being slaughtered because of the inability to secure feed.

“The Nazi food supply is sufficient for their evils of today,“ he said, “because they are stealing food from subjected people and working hordes of prisoners on German farms.“ The U.S. seems to have been working prisoners, too. In his Advocate column of February 24, 1943, Nebraska Congressman, Karl Stefan noted: “The Department of Justice may eventually have exclusive control of all U.S. concentration camps for civilian aliens. The army has charge of the camps where prisoners of war are interned.”

There were several concentration camps for prisoners of war in Nebraska. The three largest were at Scottsbluff, Fort Robinson, and Holdredge. There also were a number of smaller camps scattered across the state. German prisoners began arriving in 1943. Some were put to work on Nebraska farms to help relieve the labor shortage. Many were held for more than a year after the war ended.

Was there a double standard here? Forced labor was evil when the Germans did it but fine and dandy when we did it.