their patients. Dr. Condon could come by train to Norfolk to catch the evening train to Battle Creek, but the return trip meant an overnight stay in Norfolk to reach Humphrey sometime the following forenoon on the combination freight-passenger train. To drive over with a team of horses, meant thirty miles each way over trail roads.

In 1908, a young dentist, Dr. Warren R. Hall came to establish his dental office in a room over the Battle Creek Valley Bank. He stayed until 1918 when Norfolk beckoned him. Dr. Frank Lund came after the ware in 1919 to be followed by Dr. M. W. Hunt in 1932, our present dentist who has built a large practice by his proficient work and loyalty to his patients and to the community.

As so often happens during and following great wars, late 1918 and 1919, brought a period of unprecedented inflation to America, including the midwest agricultural area. After America entered the World War in Europe on April 6, 1917, the slogan was : "Food Will Win the War." The American farmer was asked to grow more food stuffs not only for American needs but to help feed the millions of hungry people in Europe. In Europe the fields had been ravaged by warring armies and food supplies destroyed. The able bodied men were engaged in war, leaving the care of fields to old men, women and children. In America, farm boys were often exempted from armed service to help grow food.

In the middle west (and around Battle Creek) land prices skyrocketed as credit from the Federal Land Bank system began to flow. The Federal Land Bank Law had been passed by an Act of Congress as one of President Wilson's reforms. Credit for farmers to buy land was thereby eased and private lending agencies reluctantly had to follow as lower interest rate and higher appraisals were offered. This eventually proved ruinous to the farmer who borrowed on his land to expand his holdings, or used his hard earned savings to invest and borrow additional funds needed to buy land at inflated values.

The war ended on November 11, 1918. By the fall of 1920, a period of deflation had set in to depress grain and livestock prices for a time. the depression was, however, of short duration as our government extended aid for European Countries who so sorely needed food stuff from us. The American Relief Administration was organized February, 1919, with a revolving fund of $100,000,000.00 appropriated by Congress, with Herbert Hoover as Director General. At close of 1923 aid had gone to feed 200,000,000 people. Land prices also fell but did not spring back as did commodity prices. The general economy in America (false as it may have been) was again booming.

Then that fateful day, October 29, 1929, when the stock market in New York crashed, millionaires became paupers as in-

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