From: Krasna, Bessarabia
11 June 1931

Dear Editor Brendel:

I already mentioned we are building a highway. We had an engineer in town yesterday to look at the bridge across the creek, which was built 55 years ago. He found it still in good repair and recommended just some reinforcement work with concrete. It will take about 100 Pud of cement. The highway is built up with three Werst of soil and the stonework still needs to be done, but we were promised that the project would be completed by fall.

At the community meeting, it was decreed that each farmer must bring 4 prairie dog tails per hectare of land he owns. These must be brought to the chancellery. Noncompliance with the new rule will constitute a fine. Prairie dogs are a real problem. If we don’t react, they will eat us out of house and home.

A horse exhibit was held on June 6 to determine which horses will be sent to the show on June 15. They are workhorses, blooded mares and foals as well as stallions. Horses trained for specific tasks, such as pulling a two-sheared plow with 18 cm depth of penetration without using a whip, will receive a medal and 1,000 Lei in prize money.

We have heard that a Krasna man, Severin Becker wrote an article against me in the Staats-Anzeiger. I ordered a copy of it of May 1, and found the following text, “A man came to me yesterday and told me that correspondent Joseph Braun received a letter from the editor of the Rundschau, offering me 5,000 Lei to work as a reporter. I hardly believe that anyone would pay Joseph anything for the lies he sends to the Americans. The paper has such poor subscription rate that the few readers of it can live with his lies. My friends in America and Brazil read only the Staats-Anzeiger (State Announcer) and they can believe my every word because I don’t write for money.” So writes Becker and I think that the readers can draw their own conclusions. If it were true, I would be proud to draw such a salary, but I don’t. Since I do not talk to people about whether or not I get paid for my work, it is further proof that Becker writes ‘funny’ stories. Becker knows quite well what the status of the readership of both papers is. He sits here in Krasna where no one can exercise control over his writing, and he knows about as much as a cow knows of Sundays; yet, he writes, and obviously well enough for papers like the Staats- Anzeiger.

Becker also writes about the election of our custodian. Edmund Gansky and young Michael Ziebart are candidates for this position. Gansky won. Becker touts the other candidate as better educated as teacher and organist, who now has to content himself with a lesser position in the much smaller community of Oravitza. Gansky, on the other hand, received the position because he asked for a small salary, and because Krasna wants to save money because of hard times. This is a blatant lie. Gansky was elected because he has served the community well over the years and is simply popular.

Becker also wants to do away with the church fathers, a council of two honorable and respected men because “their service has become obsolete and they will not go away on their own.” These men, together with the mayor, were responsible for getting us our new church bell, for which only a small contingent of the community members have not paid as yet. Becker is probably one of them.

When the school review board advisor found out we had an undereducated teacher here, he was expelled because he could do more harm than good to the children etc. Becker wrote about this and gloated in the fact that he and his cronies filed a complaint, which was acted on. Gansky does not have a teaching credential and that was the reason for the expulsion. Whether or not he is capable of teaching religion in the schools as well as any teacher with a sheepskin diploma was not even taken into consideration, and the entire community suffered for it. The custodian cannot teach religion and the pastor is not always available for the task. We have a large number of school children. It is also a well know fact, that there are no religion teachers with a diploma, and that the custodian had always taught the subject. Now people, dumb as oat straw, stand on the steps and howl. Small wonder that one has to complain about the excesses of the young. And such smut is then spread around in the American news. Believe me, Editor Brendel, this is enough to discourage a person.

In closing, I am sending greetings to the readers here and there, and to the editor and staff.

Joseph Braun

(*Editor’s remark: An old inscription on a house reads, “If you are in the right, don’t listen to the badmouthing. It is not up to us what this one or that one has to say…”)