Leaping Crickets are ripe in the Land of Mears

On Lincoln's birthday we revere the name of Lincoln and the teach- ers put on a program and the school boy tells us how Lincoln freed the slaves . Lincoln believed in the rights of the colored man and we revere the name of Lincoln . Yet if Lincoln had been at the town hall in Mears Monday night he would have been ashamed of the way a lot of the whites were conspiring against the colored folks . I believe in free en- terprise and the ownership of land , and I commend in any man the am- bition to build on the sod that is his own . And when a man after years of toil acquires a piece of the earth I grant him the right to build on it . The home on the range may be a sod shanty or log cabin or a dugout in the side of the hill . If he is remote from his neighbors what have they got to whoop about ? If a man can't build on his own ground what good is it to him ? Does he buy an expensive lot just for a radish bed ? God forbid . It would be far cheaper to buy his radishes at Anderson's store at two bunches for nine cents . The Juniper Beach people have their houses built . They built them as they wished or bought them ready built to suit their fancy . They own little strips of the shore land , maybe 50 , 60 or a 100 feet wide . And yet they seem to think because they own that little that they should regulate the architecture , use and occupancy of all the land up and down the shore on the Golden waterfront and even into the agricultural interior . The self - elected elite organized themselves into a Golden shore protective association . That isn't just the name they chose , perhaps , but it is the general idea . The first inkling I bad of any such organization was on August 27. On that Wednesday evening I had been at Ludington along Lakeshore drive watching the Take Michigan dusk and seeing the carferries loading . It was quarter to ten when I got back to Mears that night and I wondered why all the lights in the town hall and all the cars about . So when I went down town to get a quart of milk for breakfast I stopped at the hall for ten minutes , thinking it might be Farm Bureau meeting . They were choos- ing a name for their august society and also discussing restriction clauses in real estate conveyancing . I did not understand that it was anything about a zoning ordinance until I heard rumors the next morn- Ing from the grocery store . This made all the difference in the world . I could sympathize with the Juniper Beach people in any title restrictions they might choose to put in their convevances . If they wished to ro- strict the passing of their vested title to the Caucasian race that was

their privilege . If they wished to make mutual covenants with each other for option privileges on a neighbor's land in case he decided to sell , that was alright . That was the gist of what I heard in the ten min- utes or so I tarried at the meeting . And with that much I was in agree- ment . I came too late or left too early to hear about the zoning business . I do not believe in regulating the other fellow's land which he acquires unrestricted . I wonder how all those people came to be gathered at that meeting , Did all the Lake Michigan shoreline owners in Golden town- ship get engraved invitations ? I doubt very much if King S. Range re- ceived any invitation and I am sure I didn't . In my case it might have been sheer oversight . Or was it ? But it was not any oversight that King S. Range was not invited . I just stumbled into the meeting , seeing the hall lighted up and figuring that the town hall belonged as much to me as to anyone else . I was at the meeting there this last Monday nigat . There was no doubt that it was a zone meeting pure and simple . An or- dinance was in the offing to regulate all construction in Golden town- ship with special emphasis on the " minimum requirements " in the re- sort zone . There was no doubt as to what sector the procedure was aim- ed at . The ordinance was intended to be a devastating frost on the de- velopment of Lake Michigan National Resort for colored people at Cedar Banks . They were smart enough to buy a tract of land and you folks kick yourselves in the pants because you didn't get it first . So you would set up a system of cast iron restrictions to make their homes almost impossible . The zoning ordinance would have to apply to the whole township . And every farmer who builds an outside toilet or a hencoop or a sap house without a permit could be arrested and thrown into jail if the ordinance is adopted . In other words , you farmers of Golden township would be no longer free men like the farmers in other townships of the county , but the iron heel would be on your head and the oxyoke of repression would be around your neck . And why ? So the Juniper Beachers could maintain their exclusiveness by regulating the other fellow's land . Is the Ethiopian an outcast ? He has just as much a right to build on his own land as you have . Abraham Lincoln would be ashamed of you if you talk otherwise . Was the Civil War fought in vain ? You build on your land , I build on mine , and let the other fellow build whatever kind of home he can afford on his land . And you farm- ers of Golden township , you who are free men now and can build what you wish and when you wish , are you such sheep that you will walk up and let the Juniper Beachers tie your hands behind your back so that even on your own back forty you dare not fasten boards and nails to- gether ? You who built on your land when and what you pleased , will you rise up and say to others , " Thou shalt not build ? " Shall the poor man who cannot afford a bathroom be arrested for building an outside toilet ? Shall the settler be arrested because he builds himself a shelter that does not conform to the " building code ? " Many a man could build himself a $ 200 cabin who could not afford a $ 4,000 home . Must he post- pone his marriage until he can build an approved mansion ? Lars Pear- son lived in a humble little cabin when I first came to Mears but be raised up a fine family of children and was proud of them and they were proud of him . William Henry Beebe came here in the sixties and lived in a shelter where he built bis fire on the ground floor and the smoke went up through a big opening in the roof . Shall pioneering be poisoned and prohibited ? Shall the courage of self - reliance be placed in the discard ? Live and let live . Build and let build . And do not try to regulate the cornice in your neighbor's gables or the diameter of his backhouse seats . The rich man can conform to your building ordinane and laugh at the expense , but the oxyoke would lean heavy on the neck

of the poor man . The poor man would go to jail if his humble home did not conform to the code . Let us keep our freedom to build and let us honor the name of Abraham Lincoln . The humble log cabin where he was born wouldn't pass muster with your high falutin ' building code but in the minds of millions he was the noblest American of them all . Let us stand for the things he fought for . And you who have done your building as you saw fit , free and unrestricted , unhampered by " Thou shalt nots , " would you have the brass to tell your neighbor that he shall not build on his own land as he sees fit ? And you , the town board of Mears , forget not that when you took office you swore to support the Constitution of the United States , the Constitution of this state , and to discharge the duties of your office to the best of your knowledge and ability . In the bottom of your hearts you know very well that all this zoning business is nothing but an undercover attack on King S. Range , the colored man . The Constitution of the United States tells you there shall be no discrimination on account of race , color or previous condi- tion of servitude . What is this if it is not that very thing ? Are you going to defend the Constitution as you swore you would do ? Or would you put us all in bondage so that even a farmer in the remote wilderness dare not build himself a cow shed on his back forty without bowing down before you with blueprint and specifications and an application fee in his hand ? Shall Golden remain the home of the free or shall send a man to jail for building a roof over his family to keep out the wind and the rain ? -Karen Anderson is in the first grade and likes to write on the typewriter . Her brother Bill likes to play ball and sister Marlene likes to read story books . Brother Jim rides a bicycle.- Larry Best likes his marshmallows raw . - Red Miller used to tease the Model Ts but now he has learned the ways of Model As - Gloria Abbott is to get married today . - Edwin Gowell was getting some marl spread in his fields near Rothbury . Ted Eitenier went ahead driving the jeep which pulled the manure spreader on which sat Elmer VanDyke , and Jack Eitenier rode behind on the jackass to bray when the work was done.- Janeybeile Jenkins and Lucille Zwinger entered Taylor University upland , Indiana , last week . - Michael Merrick , ten years old , of Augusta , was hit by a car when he crossed the road at the bridge in Hart where he had been fishing . His leg was broken . This spot is popular for fishing . FAST AND SLOW BATTERY CHARGING AT CARL'S SERVICE

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Anderson's Grocery in Mears sells tablets . sandwich meats , oranges . Fine jewelry . Harold Moore , Hart Fresh baked goods daily . Elmer's Place , Mears

It is adjacent to their present cottage . - Hanson - Osborns at Hart have a peach of a building , new and fancy ; 4000 square feet of floor space inside : double that of land . Ready for some new business to move right NOW IS THE TIME TO SEE HERMAN ABOUT THE BARTLETT PEARS . ALSO BUYING PICKLES and DUCHESS APPLES . HER- MAN SCHUHKNECHT , MEARS . PHONE 23F12 .

Remember the Weeks Lumber Co. sells paints , olls , thinners and all home town . - Holly's Grill at the fair ground corners served many meals and lunches this week . Across the corner Mr. Decker and Max sold bushels of peaches , also watermelons , potatoes and tomatoes . adv.- The Livingston Gift Shop in Shelby sells jewelry , bracelets , ear rings