(From the De Kalb Daily Chronicle, De Kalb, Illinois)
I thought you might be interested in the enclosed pictures for
your publication. The pictures and story are by George Embree, son
of Mr. and Mrs. Waite Embree of De Kalb, Illinois. Waite is
Vice-President of the Northern Illinois Steam Power Club, and has a
tremendous collection of steam locomotive pictures as well as a lot
The Northern Illinois Steam Power Club was organized last
February and now has about 75 members. This spring President Rupert
Jordan provided a slide film program that proved very interesting;
then in August member John Allen put on a threshing show at his
farm at Allen’s Corners, near Hampshire, Illinois. He had two
Minneapolis steam engines operating the separators and his small
Peerless portable running the elevator. Several nice teams were
employed to bring the oats from the field. Over 3,500 spectators
were on hand during the day. In early October the club met at the
farm of N. S. Gould at Elburn where he had his Illinois steam
engine running the sawmill and a tractor hooked on the big cider
press so that provided a very pleasant afternoon which was climaxed
with a pot-luck supper that over 50 members attended. We try and
meet four times a year.
By George Embree OLSZTYN, POLAND Once again farming in Poland is
becoming a hard-headed matter of dollars and cents rather than
Communist ideology. The first year under the liberalized
agricultural policy first introduced last October, thanks to a
favorable summer, produced a good crop.
To find out what conditions are actually like in the country
under the new policy this reporter visited a state farm in former
German East Prussia. Since the arrangements for the visit were made
through Orbis, the official tourist agency, there is every
likelihood that the farm was not typical.
Before the war this land was operated by a German landlord who
had just over 2,000 acres. Shortly after the Poles took over in
1944-45 the German manager was replaced by the present Polish
manager and an additional 500 acres were added to the farm.
When the manager was asked about his experience he replied that
he had been ‘working with agriculture’ for a little over
ten years and hesitantly added that he had a secondary education in
an agricultural school.
However, a qualified Polish Communist quite familiar with local
conditions felt that the manager wasn’t being exactly truthful.
This observer expressed belief that he probably had very little
formal education and speculated that had been a non-commissioned
officer during the war who had received his position as a reward
for his services.
The fact that the manager was not a native of the region and was
a member of the United Worker’s (Communist) party partially
substantiated this theory.
