it is very certain that none of them will receive the 

 croix de guerre, but many a one of those emblems has 

 been conferred for less. 



It is the people of Northern Minnesota who owe 

 them the most and it is to be hoped that they will duly 

 acknowledge the debt. The state would do well to 

 honor them. But whether these others do anything or 

 not the North Woods wants to extend to these men our 

 deepest appreciation of the glorious work they have 

 done, and to congratulate them most heartily on their 

 modest, efficient and unselfish manner of doing it. 



THE DITCH AND THE FIRE 



IN past years the digging of ditches seems to have 

 been a rather incontinent pastime in Northern Min- 

 nesota, both for private individuals and political en- 

 tities. When a settler had a little time on his hands, 

 when a land company wanted to do a little advertising, 

 or when a politician desired to irrigate the fading 

 affections of his constituents, he dug a ditch. Just 

 what the ditch would accomplish or where the water 

 would go does not seem to have been at all important. 

 In fact a careful survey of the completed ditches would 

 show that quite a number of them have been dug up 

 hill. This is not said in a spirit of criticism; far from 

 it. Indeed those very uphill ditches have done the 

 least damage of any of them. There are some others 

 which have a quite regular downward trend. It is the 

 ditches of this latter type, out in the neighborhood of 



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