8
HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
A NEWSPAPER FOR THE HOME
Founded IS3I
Published evenings except Sunday by
THE TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO.,
Telegraph Building. Federal Square.
K. J. STACK POLE, Pres't and Editor-in-Chief
F. R. OYSTER, Business Manager.
QU3 M. STEINMETZ. Managing Editor.
j Member Americai
Newspaper Pub
—llshers' Assocta-
Bureau of Clrcu
latlon and Penn
jJ? ?*" sylvania Assoclat
Stii ® SS3 I'll Eastern office
jib n knji <ol Story, Brooks A
fSB IP |3B I9f Plnley, Fifth Ave
Jyyyßrtgjyß ' nue Building, Nev
, Brooks & Flnley
s "(p Peoples Gas Build
Entered at the Post Office in Harris
burg, Pa., as ifecond class matter.
By carriers, ten cents n
week; by mall, |5.00 a
year in advance.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1917.
Hope is a prophet sent from heaven,
Fear is a false and croaking raven;
The dawn that buds all gray and cold
'Will blossom, to a sky of gold.
—E. R. SILL.
LICENSE COURT
THE Dauphin County Court ie
about to begin Its yearly wrestle
with tho liquor license problem.
It is not a nice duty nor a light one.
Despite the unquestioned growth o£
prohibition sentiment in the country
at large, the number of men desirous
of dispensing strong drink for profit
appears about as large as ever. Nev
ertheless, stutistlcs prove that tho use
of alcoholics is slowly but surely 011
the wane. Figures arc available to
show that in the three banner distil
ling States—Kentucky, Pennsylvania
and Maryland—there is a marked de
cline in the production of whisky.
Figures for the last live years in Penn
sylvania are as follows: 1912, 10,-
079,126 gallons; 1913, 11,482,359
gallons; 1914, 11,153,227 gallons;
1915, 1,073,808 gallons, and 1916,
918,582 gallons. In Kentucky the
production of whisky dropped from
43,622,098 gallons in 1912 to 1,980,200
gallons in 1915. In Maryland it
dropped from 5,950,827 gallous in
1912 to 506,919 gallons in 1915.
"Whisky has had a stranglehold on
the Pennsylvania Legislature for many
years—regardless of party. Quite as
many Democrats as Republicans—in
proportion of the minority to the ma
jority—have been elected subject to
liquor influence, if not by tho aid of
liquor-ring money. In Democratic
districts the liquor crowd is Demo
cratic. In Republican strongholds it
throws its efforts toward the election
of Republicans with "wet" proclivi
ties An analysis of any local option
vote in the House will show this to
be true.
That Pennsylvania persistently has
chosen liquor Legislatures is largely
due to two reasons the very large
foreign element in the mills and mines
of the Commonwealth and to the im
mense sums invested here in breweries
and distilleries, making possible the
raising of large funds for all man
ner of anti-temperance purposes. As
the production of the distilleries de
clines this financial factor, by the very
nature of things, will become less a
consideration in elections and in legis
laton. *
It has been said that the big cities
of the State wguld turn in large "wet"
majorities if a "popular vote were taken
now in Pennsylvania on either State
wide prohibition or local option, but
even in Philadelphia temperance sen
timent appears to be gaining. Ac
cording to the Public Ledger of that
city, the list of applications for liquor
license, as entered to data for the com
ing year, totals forty-six less than a
year ago. In 19H5 there was a shrink-*
age on the full list for the year of
fifty-nine from the previous year.
Back in 1915 the drop from 1914 was
ninety-one applications. In Philadel
phia last year there were 1915 saloons
operating throughout the entire city,
which was eight less saloons than two
years ago, despite the fact that the
city is gradually growing in popula
tion at a rate estimated at about
25,000 a year.
In Harrisburg some idea may be
gained of the trend in the same direc
tion by the fact that a few years ago
the police spent every Saturday night
—pay-day at the mills—gathering in
from fifteen to thirty "drunks," and
that now the Saturday night harvest
is small by comparison, notwithstand
ing the city is larger and the foreign
and Southern labor element has Deen
augmented greatly.
The time is approaching when "li
cense session" will be stricken from
the local court calendars. •
If this thing keeps up, the restaurant
keepers will be serving a steak with
each dish of potatoes. ' *
MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXTENDED
THE criticism of the County Com
missioners with respect to ex
cessive costs of police hearings
at the Mayor's office is justified—but
it might have been extended.
Like our method of tax collections,
our aldermanic system is expensive
and archaic. If it ever had any real
excuse for existence in its presont
form, it has none now.
Doubtless there Is need for some
thing between the court and tho poo
pie, but the aldermanic office as op
erated in Harrisburg does not fill the
bill. It is excessively costly and is a
constant temptation to doubtful prac-
———
MONDAY EVENING,
I tices. It Is an unnecessary drain upon
! the taxpayers and it should be re
vised.
Dispatches from Austria indicate thnt
■ Vienna hopes for the best, but fears for
r the worst.
DON'T BUY POTATOES
■ pOTATOES $3.60 a bushel In Har
rlsburg!
The figures are preposterous
1 Somebody is clutching greedily foi
the pennies of the poor. That some
body's fingers ought to be pinched.
When food brokers put a tax or
luxuries there Is ground for complaint
When they place exorbitant and pro
hibitive prices on the necessities o:
life it is time for vigorous and effective
protest.
Government relief is slow and un
certain. The deeper the federal probe
goes into the price problem the highei
the prices mount, apparently. Anj
relief must come from the people
themselves. Their weapon is the boy
cott.
DON'T BUY POTATOES.
If everybody In Harrisburg refrains
from purchasing for only three daya
prices will be restored to something
like normal.
Rice is a good potato substitute.
Hominy in a pinch can be made to
answer, too. Both are palatable if
properly prepared. If you must have
vegetables tVy turnips for a change.
At all events three days' abstinence
from potatoes won't hurt anybody, and
it would be sure to bring prices down.
Potatoes are a staple diet in every
household. Particularly are they val
ued as a winter food by persons of
limited means. They are at onceydc-
Ucious and wholesome. Abnormally
high prices for potatoes are almost as
keenly felt by families of small income
as are high prices for bread and flour.
The present price is outrageous, 'it is
justified neither by short crops nor
exports. Somebody wants to get
wealthy too fast.
Will the consumer stand it or will
he use his only weapon of protest—
the boycott?
Thanks, Mr. Weatherman, for the fine
sample.
nOItOUGII BIiITEIIMEXTS
THE gathering of borough officials
in Harrisburg last week indl-
cated an awakened spirit of civic
betterment among the boroughs of
Pennsylvania. In this the State has
had no small part. The Department
of Labor and Industry has been inter
esting itself in a very constructive
manner in the problems of the small
municipalities of the State, especially
since the creation of the bureau of
municipal statistics several years ago.
I The great trouble with many of the
boroughs is that they have grown up
either in haphazard fashion or have
been the prey of petty politicians using
the local government as an instrument
to their ends. Carelessness has played
a much bigger part than deliberate
intent to mismanage, and ignorance
probably has been a greater offender
than either.
The effort of the bureau of muni
cipal statistics has been to discover
what is wrong and to offer corrective
measures subject to the approval of
the borbughs themselves. Those who
have headed the movement have been
too wise to attempt to force their own
views upon the people affected. The
unpopularity of the Clark act and Its
failure to meet expectations afforded
them an example of the folly of such
tactics. Co-operation for improvement
of conditions, supplemented by uni
form legislation of a reasonable char
acter, cannot but be helpful in correct
ing many of the evils that are now
recognized as holding back the prog
ress of many of the small towns of
Pennsylvania.
OBSTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP •
THE New York Tribune com
plains of the selection of Mann
as Republican floorleader In the
House and the Philadelphia Public
Ledger expresses the belief that nei
ther Mann, In the lower branch, nor
Stone, the Democratic leader In the
Senate, is big enough for the job he
holds. Failure to display unpreju
diced patriotism and unadulterated
Americanism is the charge against
each.
Neither Mann mor Stone is progres
sive. Both are prompted more by
politics and partisanism than is good
for the country or the parties they
represent.
"Stand-patism" of the old rank is
unpopular. Tho rank and file of
Americans are progressive. If the
Republican leaders are wise they
gently but firmly will take Mr. Mann
away back and give him a seat by
dear old "Uncle Joe" Cannon, whose
unfailing good humor and broad ex
perience make him at once an orna
ment and a usefuj member of the
lower house of Congress, but who
long since outlived his usefulness as a
leader.
The Democrats may have their
Stones, and welcome. What the Re
publicans need In Washington and in
the party councils is a leadership that
shall be constructive rather than ob
structive. The same applies to the
party in Pennsylvania
HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
The Days of Real Sport By BRIGGS
-POPCORN- T =\
fAw '3 IMINV \ 'T,,, *!//J ///"*
Universal Service in England
"One cannot even begin to esti
mate," says Sydney Brooks, in Na
tional Service Magazine for February,
"the enormous contribution that uni
versal service has made to the cause
of British democracy; how it has blot
ted out-class feeling, has made wealth
and birth of no account, and has un
ified the nation by imposing upon all
its members an equality of obligation.
In that new England which will
emerge from the furnace of this war,
an England physically made over, in
ured to discipline, making character
and achievement the test of honor,
scornful of old distinctions, and insist
ent upon the bonds that link and
not upon the divisions that separate
rich and poor, employer and employ
ed, the palace and the slum in that
vigorous and triumphant democracy
compulsory military service, I hope
and believe, will take a fixed place
in the national fabric.
"But if England has gained much
and stands to gain still more by her
conversion to universal training, what
may it not be expected to produce
in America? For in America, as it
seems to me, the need for just some
such leveling and energizing experi
ment is greater to-day than it has
ever been in any white man's land."
Bound to Survive
The other day we heard two elder
ly men reciting the merits of their au
tomobiles and disparaging the other
fellow's, and we knew at once what
they were doing and what they had
been in days gone by. For their talk
was the talk of the old-time horse
traders, altered to suit the commodity
they were dickering over, revised as
to technicalities, but racy still, unex
cited, shrewd, marlced by that studied
indifference which always misled the
outsider into the notion that the last
thing horse-traders wanted to do was
to trade.
This all went to show how easily a
man can deceive himself. AVe had been
thinking that the tribe of horse swap
pers was passing from the earth, sor
rowfully succumbing to tho new trans
portation. But if we had given it real
thought, we would have known that
that could not be. Horse-traders were
the most resourceful beings living. It
was their business to be. They made it
an art. So, of course, the automobile
could not destroy them. They simply
drew upon their great stock of ready,
hiwhly trained wit and adapted them
selves to the new order. They trade
motor-cars now, and no doubt exult
over victories in cunning, carry secret
hopes about with them of avenging
defeats, just as they used to. —Toledo
Blade/
The Unforgivable Affront
Now she hates one of her oldest
friends. Yesterday she was downtown
with this friend, and just before noon
she said to tho other lady: "Well, I
am going over hero and catch my
car." Then the other said to her:
"Well, I am going home, too: I'll go
over on Main and catch mine: I am
awfully glad I nfn across you, and I
want you to come to see me real
soon." Martha said she would, and
the two parted. A few minutes later
Martha wont Into a place to get a bite
of something to eat, and what do you
think? Yes, there she was—eating
lunch. "I didn't want her to ask me
to go to lunch with her," Martha ex
plained to us after she returned from
town, "but I don't see why she wanted
to slip away. I don't see why she
wanted to pretend that she was going
home. I am sure I am able to buy
my own lunch, but I want her to re
turn those patterns she borrowed, and
I never expect to set foot In her house
again."—Claude Callan, in the Fort
Worth Star-Telegraph.
Bring on Your War!
[New York World]
"We are preparing for anything.
When the necessity arises Chief In
spector Schmittberger will press a
button on his desk. The rest will foll
- like clockwork."
In these words Acting Pqlice Com
missioner Godley yesterday summed
up the international situation.
Some Keep More'n Two
"We have a friend," says Com
merce and Finance, '"who is fond of
telling how his elderly mother took
him aside when he was about to be
married and advised him always to
keep two bears In his home if he
would be happy. When he asked her
what she meant, she explained that
the animals she had In mind were
'bear' and 'forbear.' "
Stops Exports of Sugar
The government of Argentina has
extended the decree prohibiting the
exportation .of sugar and permitting
the Importallon, free of duty, of cer
tain quantities <ft raw and refined
sugar. This is done to .prevent a se
rious sugar shortage In the country
and to stay speculation in this pro
duct
J
| 'Pe.KKCi^CtfaKta
By the Ex-OommltteamMl I
Governor Brumbaugh is being ad
vised by his friends to veto the reso
lution for an investigation of govern
ment in Pennsylvania and the gen
eral belief here is that he will do it
and accompany the veto with a scath
ing denunciation of the proposition
as embodied in the resolution as "un
fair" and to state that he courts an
impartial investigation. The effect of
such a move, argue friends of the
Governor, would be to force the Pen
rose people to make investigations
through committees of the Legisla
ture in the course of inquiries as to
why appropriations or changes in
laws or methods or anything elne
were necessary.
The Governor is not going to lose
any time in acting on the resolution
which should reach him by to-morrow
at noon. He will probably send in
his action on it within two days. liis
friends said to-day that a veto would
be sustained in the Senate.
Newspaper comment upon the situa
tion is rather notable for its absence.
The few newspapers that do discuss
the proposition incline to the belief
that the Governor should sign the res
olution, notably the Philadelphia
Ledger and the Philadelphia Evening
Bulletin.
The opinion seems to prevail gen
erally that there will be little doing
in the Legislature until the middle
of March. The resolution and its
final disposition and the plan of cam
paign to follow it up will occupy much
attention and the proposition to take
a recess until March 12 are having
their effect. Legislators are not
showing any great degree of interest
and are getting ready to stay hero a
long time when they re-assemble in
March.
The chief point of interest just
now, aside from the "probe," Is what
t*e Senate will do with the Gover
nor's appointments and when the Gov
ernor will send in the ad interim nom
inations.
, -—With Senator McNiehol in Florida
and Senator Vare in Virginia, the pros
pects for action on anything in the
Senate are not very bright. Senator
Vare is said to be somewhat disgusted
with the way things have been going
lately.
—The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, in
I an extended story yesterday, shows lip
the operations of the Lake Erie and
Ohio Ship Canal Board in a way which
indicates that it has been one of tlio
most expensive bodies that ever in
vestigated anything in the State. The
records at the Capitol fail to show a
report except in the last six weeks on
any of the work done since 1913, al
though over $167,090 was spent. The
Pittsburgh newspaper says that Wil
liam A. Magee was the dominating
spirit of the boards, both the first and
the second, and that in a letter ex
plaining some questions raised by the
Attorney General, he said that there
was hut one standard of appreciation
in this country and that the American
dollar. The review of the operations
of the boards contains some interes
ting and amusing things and the fail
ure to make a report as well as some
of the salaries paid may be the cause
of some legislative inquiry.
—The Philadelphia Public Ledger
Is engaging In some interesting dis
cussions these days. It insists that
Senator Penrose is getting ready to
"rip" the Public Service Commission
out of office and that he wants to
block the appropriation of funds for
appraisals. This morning it says that
the Penrose people are going to use
the "ripper" as a club over the Gov
ernor and that they will also tie up
the nominations of public service com
missioners. These startling pieces of
news were widely read here some
weeks ago.
—George D. Thorn, chief clerk of
the State Department, has suggested
a bill to amend the laws governing fil
ing of nominating petitions so that
there shall be twenty days added to
the period for certifying, which IsTiow
thirty days. The twentv days would
be taken oft the perioff In which to
file and it would not matter as eighty
per cent, of the papers are held bacfc
until the last forty-eight hours any
way.
—Pittsburgh papers say the pro
posed "pure tree" bill would give the
Secretary of Arriculture powers be-1
vond those of the Commissioner of 1
Health.
—The Philadelphia Press to-.lay
says: "Nominally the has
been In session for nearly two months.
Actually it has sat on thirteen lesis
latlve days and on one no business
HELMET RESISTS RIFLE BULLETS
Allies' Head Protectors Tested With Our Army
Springfield
IN a recent issue of the Scientific
American Bdward C. Crossman tells
how, one day during the first year of
the war, two mysterious strangers ap
peared at the testing station of a big
American manufacturer of explosives
with a steel helmet which they wished'
to have proved with a service rifle. A
marksman obligingly produced a regu
lation United States army Springfield
and at a distance of eighty yards drill
ed a nice little round hole through-the
helmet. The helmet men thanked the
rifleman and left. Five or six times
aftof this they returned and submitted
their helmet to a similar test, and each
time the steel was neatly perforated.
Finally a helmet was produced by the
visitors—they, came, it developed, from
a famous Philadelphia steel company—
of the same lightweight steel submitted
for the initial test, which was dented
by the bullet, but which refused to let
it through even after repeated blows.
The army rifle has a striking energy
of 2,430 foot-pounds and a muzzle ve
locity of 2,700 feet per second. The
rifleman then changed his ammunition
to that of the Palina type, which is of
180 instead of 150 grains, and has a
striking energy of 2,900 foot-pounds.
The results were the same even after
repeated shots. The range was short
ened to forty yards, at which distance
Whatever was attended to. That was
last Monday, Lincoln's Birthday. And
pending the decision on the probe res
olution little was done with the vast
sheaf of bills introduced."
—The Philadelphia North Ameri
can, which has been more or less
friendly to State and city administra-
I tlons, to-day declares that fifty-seven
\ per cent, of the bonding business of
■ the city of Philadelphia is done by
Mayor Smith's firm and that in its
opinion there is reason to believe
Smith means what he says when he
threatens to resign if the Legislature
tries to interfere with the business of
his firm.
—There are thirteen less applicants
for licenses in Berks county than last
year.
Provides For Citizens First
The progressive little republic of
Uruguay has taken a decidedly ad
vanced step to provide for the needs
of its people and has prohibited the
exportation of all wheat or flour until
after the next crop has been harvested.
A law passed by the country's con
gress provides that statistics shall be
prepared after the harest is over,
showing the quantity of wheat on
hand In the country and the amount
required lop home consumption.
With these statistics as a basis, the
exact amount to be exported Is deter
mined and the rest is held for home
consumption. In this way prices are
kept down to a reasonable limit and
a bread famine prevented.
The Uruguayan Congress Is contem
plating applying this same procedure
to other foodstuffs produced In the
country.
Labor Notes
Toronto, (Canada), machinists will
demand 45 cents an hour.
The working force of the li?-it'
navy, afloat and ashore, Include more
than 1,000,000 men.
San Francisco Building Material
Teamsters' Union has received an in
crease of 50 cents a day.
Dundee, (Scotland), town council
has agreed to increase the wages of
constables, sergeants and detective of
ficers, but not those of higher paid of
ficers.
•An exhibition Of the work done by
thp female munition workers, which
has been promoted by the Minister of
Munitions, lias been held In Glasgow,
Scotland.
•
The governors of the North of
Scotland Collelge of Agriculture at
Aberdeen, approved of a scheme for
the training in agriculture and hor
ticulture of discharged soldiers and
Bailors.
The number of British women re
cruited to Industrial occupations be
tweon July, 1914, and July, 1916, was
362,000. Of this number 263,000 di
rectly replaced men. In commercial
occupations the Increase In women
workers was 198,000. The Increase of
women workers In hotels and places
of entertainment Is only 19,000. In
agriculture 66,000 more women are
working steadily to-day than In July,
1014.
FEBRUARY 19, 1917.
I the eighth shot shattered the helmet
after terrifflo pounding.
| In all the tests the helmet had been
placed over a head-sized rock. Previ
ously the writer, using the same am
munition had perforated >4 -inch plates
of boiler steel at five hundred yards.
It is tliis helmet, apparently, which
is now in use by the allied armies. Of
ficials of the Frankfort arsenal laughed
at the reports of the powder man and
when the latter tried repeatedly to get
one of the helmets from Philadelphia
to prove the truth of his statements his
requests were met with a polite refusal.
The helmet weighs about six pounds. It
Is said, and is made of some alloy like
tungsten, heat treated. "The shatter
ing under the linal blow indicated a
glasslike hardness that was still de
void of the brittleness of most very
hard and thin steel plates."
The interest of Mr. Crossman's story
lies in the fact that It has been popu
larly supposed that the famous trench
helmets were for protection only
against shrapnel, which, of course, has
not the force or penetrating effect of a
high speed rilie bullet. Inasmuch as
the average range of rifle fire on the
western front approximates two hun
dred yards and, in the tests, the blows
against the helmet were all delivered
at right angles, the effectiveness of the
new head protection may be imagined.
| DO YOU KNOW
That Hnrrisburg Is one of the big
telegraph centers of the State?
HISTORIC HARRISBUKG
In days gone by the State used to
test the cannon it bought on pounds
near First Mountain.
OUR DAILY LAUGH
HIH VIEW "
i*m " Bver • 8 • a
""3®? gam* of polo?"
JLPT "9aw one onoe
Jwll. n P° n * time, but
It muit have been
tUJSM p fierce one, as I
i Akl ' got the idea Jt
K9 wan against the
TM rules to hit the
KaJL"
SERIOUS. lllHMfflt
Why aren't yon I
eating, old top? m'r'■
I'm on a diet.
What's the -
trouble? Beenill? '
Had an opera- IJy \
tlon on my allow- MjELj \
I bltlH
f SOMETHING
GAINED.
Oh, gardening Is
sport indeed
Beneath the
smiling skies;
Though" you may
only raise a
weed.
You've had the
exercise.
WHAT DID HE
MEAN? \\j^T)l
She: I could die [L'mJL
dancing!
He: Reverse!
SO SUDDEN,
Maude: Do you
f&# get me?
liuHlf Frank: Is that
>Kr ft ' eap year
mm MM posal ?
IV^u
- "■ ■
©rotittg (tthat
Propositions to improve the Susque
hanna, Scliuyllifll and other streams
running from the anthracite region to
the large cities and tidewater so that
cheaper coal may bo obtained, which
have hcqn given attention by Stat*
Commisiaons, the public service boaru
and legislators lately, have been dis
cussed In Harrisburg for the last cen
tury and more Without desiring in
any way to talk about the difficulties
of the plan to make the Ssuquehanna
navigable, which excited the risibili
ties of a Harrisburg editor some ejgh
ty-flve years ago and grave doubt* .
among the first citizens of Harrisburg
100 years since, it-may be stated tha*
William Penn once journeyed as fa/
as Middletown, the confluence of tlx
Susquehanna and the Swatara, to
study possibilities of waterways. On#
of the prime motives that led John
Harris to select this site was tli
chance that it would be a great trans
portation center because of the water
way and the valleys opening here.
The founder's foresight was correct
although the iron horse and not the
river barge furnishes the means of
transportation. Propositions to make
the Susquehanna navigable in a chan
nel are going to be much heard of in
the next few years.' It may be that
something may be started in the way
of tests of"channel possibilities before
the anthracite and JMtuminous coal,
the vegetables and grain and other
products of the Susquehanna, Juniata
and other valleys, now being whizzed
through Harrisburg get down to rea
sonable figures. Just what could be
brought to Harrisburg's front door
from up-river farms or those along
the Conodoguinet or other streams by
motor boats, barges or flats pushed by
the same kind of steamers that propel
the coal fleet can be easily imagined.
• * *
Away back in 1793 and 1794 tlie
citizens of the counties in Pennsylvania
and Maryland abutting on the river
were alive to its possibilities, accord
ing to old records, and were keen to
get the rocks out of the stream. That
old standby of the historian and ances
tor of the Telegraph, tho Oracle of
Dauphin, notes that on August 14,
1795, men from Dauphin, Lancaster,
York, Cumberland, Mifflin and North
umberland counties met with men
from Cecil and Harford counties In
Maryland in our courthouse. This
meeting named committees on sub
scription, including some eminent
men; appointed men to take charge of
the work of blowing up the rocks.
The work proved very expensive and
was dropped. But Harrisburg was
growing and so were the up and down
liver towns and while all were im
pressed with the beauty of the stream'
and its value as water supply, they
wanted to make the river work. It
was in the I-eftislature of 1805, just
112 years ago, that sentiment of the
State crystallized, largely through
Harrirfburg efforts, and it passed the
llrst bill for "removing obstructions
and improving that navigation of
tho river Susquehanna ind its
branches." This bill was signed 112
years ago yc?torday, February 18, by
Thomas McKean, then Governor. Of
course, it chose the lottery as the
means or raising cash. In those days
the Legislature was principally occu
pied in chartering boroughs and au
thorizing lotteries for something or
other, including the first Presbyterian
church, built in Harrisburg, whoso
lottery tickers are dated April 1, JBO3,
by the way. What the State permit
ted agencies for good to do it exer
cised itself. The right to run a lot
tery was a State concern and not to
be voted lightly as was evidenced by
the fact that before the people of
Somerset could build a town hall they
had to send a committee to tho Legis
lature. Not a few of the churches iu
the other places in Pennsylvania owp
their first houses of worship to the lot
tery and when Pennsylvania was
"hard up," as it often was in those
days, it used to resort to the lottery
to do everything from building roads
to buying cannon. It is a little hard
to think of Robert Kennedy Young,
the Treasurer or the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, who disbursed some
thing like $36,000,000 last year, sol
emnly collecting the State's revenue
from a lottery or to imagine Governor
lirumbaush calling Francis Sliunk
Brown into council as to whether a
bill should be signed to allow a Pres
byterian church in Pittsburgh to build
a house of worship by means of money
to be derived from a game of chance.
Tills particular Susquehanna river
Improvement bill carried $20,000.
That much has been asked to straiglit
j on up a crook in Crawford county In
recent years. Now such an ambitious
project as "improvtng the navigation
of the Susquehanna" would call for a
bond issue of at least $1,00,000 or may
be $5,000,000. And moreover Edwin
S. Stuart" and M. Hampton Todd had
nothing on lawmakers of that day in
the way of specific appropriations.
The legislators were not hampered by
any constitutional Inhibition of special
legislation, either. They specified
everything. They named the commis
sioners, which is Interesting in view of
thfc Democratic demand that the pro
posed investigation of government
nowadays be made by n commission of
men outside of the Legislature. In
those days Lieutenant Governor 51c-
Clain would not have had to rule that
the Legislature could not delegate its
powers to "outsiders" because this
old-time commission was to investi
gate and to go ahead. The whole bill
appears to have been with the idea
that the commission should become
active. Howver, the legislators were
specillc as to (he itemization of the ap
propriation, big for those days. • The
way it divided up that '20,000 did
not leave very much for expenses of
the commission. It was apparently
desired that the work should be han
dled expeditiously. The funds were
to be allotted for removal of obstruc
tions and improving the navigation,
both objects, mind you. as follows:
From the borough of Columbia to
the mouth of the Swatara, (which was
between Middletown and Portsmouth,
later Royalton). $5,500.
From the Swatara to the Juniata,
$3,500.
From the Juniata to Northumber
land, $3,000.
From Northumberland to Nantl
coke Rapids, SI,OOO.
For Anderson's creek improvement,
SI,OOO.
For improvement of the Juniata to
Frnnlistown, $4,000./
For improvement of the Raystown
branch of the Juniata, SI,OOO.
For Improvement of llald Eagle
creek, SI,OOO.
f W£LL PEQPLE
Ernest T. Trigg, the new
of the Philadelphia Chamber of Com
merce. has gone on a southern trip.
—Judge W. B. Broomall, of the
Delaware county courts, is in Florida
on a vacation trip.
Mrs. Mary Roberts Rinehart. th
authoress, is at the seashore for a
vacation.
—J. D. Breldinger, prominent
Wilkes-Barre educator, is opposed to
some of the proposed training ideas
and is having quite a time with some
of his people.
—Captain S. M. Evans, well-known
Civil War veteran, has been made cus
todian of the Pittsburgh memorial
hall.
—Colonel J. Howell Cummlngs. one
of the new trustees of the South
: Mountain State Hospital, has a sum.
[mer home near that place.