September’s rainy disposition will continue through the coming week. Having been away at the State Fair, I returned to find the weather signs pointing toward rain on five of the next seven days. Sunday and Monday should provide a welcome break, with clearing skies before the clouds gather again. Temperatures will remain near the seasonal average for several more days, but colder air should arrive next Tuesday and remain with us through the end of the month. Before September is finished, I expect the village will see its first temperature below freezing.
Rain continues to trouble our neighbors farther south. Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri have received as much as another six inches in places, adding to the flooding already suffered there. After the wet September we have endured ourselves, I find little comfort in knowing someone else has received more.
In local affairs, State Auditor Ray P. Chase spoke in Grand Marais on the subject of taxation. Among the economies he favors are reductions in expenditures for education and road building. Whatever becomes of those proposals, Grand Marais continues moving ahead. Another diesel engine is scheduled to be installed Monday at the Grand Marais Light & Power Company, providing additional power for a village that appears increasingly determined to require it.
I had hoped to use this column to tell you something of my first Minnesota State Fair, but the world has been inconsiderate enough to continue producing news in my absence. The Sesqui-centennial International Exposition is underway in Philadelphia, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Reports describe buildings and displays from nations around the world, and the News Herald expects to carry photographs from the exposition in the weeks ahead. After visiting the State Fair, I am perhaps better prepared than before to appreciate how much food, machinery, music, and humanity can be gathered into one place.
I also owe the community an apology for the interruptions to WGMW while I was away. When I left Mr. Nels Erickson in charge, I believed I had given him proper instruction and left the station in condition to carry on without me. On returning, it became apparent that I had taught him how to operate the equipment better than I had taught him what to do when the equipment refused to cooperate. That distinction belongs to the teacher, not the pupil.
Mr. Erickson and I have since worked through the station from one end to the other, checking connections, equipment, and procedures, and I believe we have corrected the troubles that interrupted several broadcasts. More importantly, we both understand the station better for having done the work together.
Booker T. Washington wrote that people “lift themselves up in proportion as they help to lift others.” I had thought teaching Mr. Erickson the workings of WGMW was chiefly a convenience for those occasions when I could not be at the tower. I see now that I had matters backward. A station intended to serve a community ought not depend upon one man knowing how to keep it alive. It should belong, in knowledge as well as purpose, to more than one pair of hands.
Editor's note: The photo is of a 80-foot tall Liberty Bell. It was illuminated with lights. The Sesquicentennial Exposition was a world's fair.