8 HARRISBDRG TELEGRAPH A NEWSPAPER FOR THE HOME Founded 1881 Published evenings except Sunday by THE TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO. Telegraph Building, Z'cderal Square E. J. STACK POLE President and Editor-in-Chief P. R. OYSTER, Business Manager GUS. M. STEINMETZ, Managing Editor A. R. MICHENER, Circulation Manager ' Executive Board McCULLOUGH, ~ ~ BOYD M. OGLESBY, P. R. OYSTER, GUS. 11. STEINMETZ. Members of the Associated Press—The Associated Press la exclusively en titled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to It or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the local news pub lished herein. All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. A Member American P\ Newspaper Pub- Ilishers' Associa tion. the Audit Bureau of Circu lation and Penn sylvania Associ ated Dailies. Eastern office. Story, Brooks & Fin ley, Fi ft li Avenue Building, Western office', Finley, People's l Chicago, 111. Entered at the Post Office in Harris burg, Fa., as second class matter. By carrier, ten cents a ©SspsS>SsKi> week; by mail, $3.00 a year in advance. MONDAY, MAY 19, 1919 Didat ever think how souls have size And weight and measure in God's eyes, So other than the weight and span ' And measure given them by manf —Joaquin Miller. BILLS TO BE SUPPORTED THE purpose of the Hess bills, providing that the Supreme and Superior Courts of Pennsylvania shall be established at the State Capital, is to bring about the same situation as prevails in other Stales. The city of Albany is the scat of ! the appellate courts of New York, i Jefferson City is where the higher j courts of Missouri sit, Columbus is the headquarters of the similar tri- j bunals of Ohio and Richmond is tlie 1 center of all government in Virginia, j These States have capitals located j midway between their two largest cities. From a geographical stand- . point, the situation is the same as j in Pennsylvania. If the higher courts of Pennsyl- j vania were located here there would | be greater dignity attached to the courts and the eminent men who occupy the benches, because the fact that they are the State Judici ary Is rather lost to sight in the larger cities, which have their own important courts; in time it would bring a distinctive home for the courts and offices for the judges; some are of the opinion that it : would decrease litigation and there j can bo no question but what it would bring that concentration of governmental activities, executive, ' legislative and judicial, which pre- • vails elsewhere. The Hess bills are in a committee j of the House and should be prompt ly reported and passed. WELCOME THEM HOME MORE of Harrisburg's veterans of the Twenty-eighth Division are coming home soon. The men of the old Governor's Troop and others of the old Guard unit are due in Harrisburg within a few days. We always were proud of the Governor's Troop—crack cavalry organization that it was—but we are prouder of the troopers who come back to us as artillerymen in charge of the big guns that made France too hot for the Hun. It is to be regretted that we could not have had one rousing reception for all our men of the Twenty eighth. But with governmental de lays in transport and discharge we have nothing to do. so it remains for as to show the men who are now on their way home how we feel about their accomplishments in France and how glad we are to know that they are coming back to us. The Home Folks Victory Associa tion in charge of the celebration will find, the people of the city solidly behind it in its plans for a repe tition of the home-coming reception of a few weeks ago. "BOYS W ILL BE BOYS" ONCE upon a time, long, lorfg ago. some sage asserted that "boys will be boys," and he i might have added, with equal free- i dom from fear of successful con- J tradiction, that "boys can't be men," j except byway of the prolonged and transitional period which nature has provided. All this byway of recalling to readers who remember back some twenty-two years, that professor of psychology in a well-known New England college who declared be fore the world that he and his wife intended to bring up the son that had been born to them as a model man, mentally, morally and phy sically. Often we had wondered what had become of the experiment and his subject. And then, one day. about six years ago. we read that the model son had been graduated from the university with honors at the age of 15. And it looked as though. a{ter all, the professor and bis wife might be pulling one over on old Mother Nature. A blast of publicity, the child tLftcvel'a picture in the papers, col MONDAY EVENING, * umns about his remarkable men tality—and then silence. A long silence broken this week by tlio sad news from Boston that the model youth, at the age of twenty-one, had been sentenced to eighteen months In the penitentiary for assaulting an officer and leading a Bolshevist pa rade. And so endeth the experiment that was to demonstrate the ability of fond parents to make men of boys without waiting for the years to do thei!'' part. "Boys will be boys," and anybody who butts into this dictum of the ancient sage may expect to reap the dire consequences. A VOLUNTEER WHEN the world went to war the Salvation Army volun- I tecred on the side of God and humanity. It did as the rich young man in ! tho Bible was told to do. It sold its goods—or mortgaged them to the roof—and, taking the proceeds, went ! out to succor those who wers fight j ing the battle of civilization against the frightfulness of the Hun. All through the long, bitter years of the struggle its men and women were ministering angels to the Eng lish, the French and the Amer icans. Wherever the fighting was hardest, wherever men were most in i need of nourishment and encourage ment, there was the Salvation Army. Every soldier returning from tho front sings the praises of the organization. And now the war is over, and the Salvation Army comes back to take up its old job. No. not precisely its old job, for its vision of service has been widened and its opportunities have increased a thousandfold. It asks for financial assistance—not for itself—but for the promotion of the good work it hopes to do, which is to carry into ordinary, everyday life the kindly ministrations and the saving graces that made it such a power back of the battle line. It remains for us—each one of us —to measure the success of thisj effort. It will be successful to pre cisely the degree that we permit. One contribution withheld will limit to that extent the campaign the Army plans. A thousand gifts ungiven would seriously hamper the work. Will you be as generous with the Salvation Army as the Salvation Army was in its war service? Will you help or hinder? W ORK WELL DONE MAJOR WILLIAM G. MUR DOCH, who closed his office Saturday as chief of the ad ministration of the draft in Penn sylvania. cun take up the writing of the history of the selective ser vice in the second State of the Union, which he lias announced he intends to engage upon, with the knowledge that he has not only car ried out what the act of Congress required effectively and impartially, but that the people of the State ap preciate what he has done. To be frank about it. the draft was unpopular in the State when it began. When the war closed the draft had at least public sentiment behind it. When the first men were called, there were a thousand prob lems, come of them ominous. The last month of the saw people parading as escorts to men going to war on call, evidencing their pride and rather bragging about the way their districts were standing up. The draft system made an army and the fact that under Major Mur doch over 2.000,000 men registered and 225,000 entered the armed ser vices tells its own story. His record is of work well done. UNREPENTANT HUN NO VOICE that has come out of Germany has had more effect in awakening the ultra pacif ists of the United States than that of Maximilian Harden, who declares that hi 3 countrymen have not changed one iota in their attitude since 1914. "The peace conditions." he says, "are no harder than I expected. They were unpleasant to the greater part of the people, but could one really have expected them other wise?" He advises Germans that the only way to rescue the country is by onenness and honesty, and comment ing on this suggestion the Bache Re view says: "That is a way that the German will not take voluntarily. It has to be forced upon him. He has no remote sense of his own wrong doing. no admission of crime, no appreciation of the vileness of his brutality and the wickedness of the destruction he has wrought against a peaceful world. Least of all —in his puffed-up, insolent conceit—llo repentance. Instead, he is angry, bitter, disappointed." As a matter of fact, there hasi been no repentance, no regret mani fested anywhere among those re sponsible for the Hun invasion of the peace of the world. It is pointed out by writers on the ground that until the terms of the treaty were published, the Germans had no real appreciation of the nation's crimes, which fact is emphasized as further! evidence of the mistake in stopping | the war before the Allies had marched through Berlin. While Qerman militarism has been crushed, the people are still obsessed with the Idea of their su periority over all the other peoples. On this point a writer says: "If she can find some way in the future by bluff, by intrigue, by underhand in sistent endeavor to again ride over her conquerors, she will do it." Under the circumstances, there is no Justification for the weak atti tude of those who profess to believe that "poor Germany" has been pun ished enough and that her plight should' not be made more serious. Unless the Hun is securely shackled and until he realizes the enormity of his offending, the world will not be safe from another brutal out break In one form or another. j u *ptH.hOu(a)ua By the Kx-Committee man While Philadelphia newspapers seem to agree lha; the charter re vision bills, which are folding up the progress of the Legislature session of 1919 and making conditions that will be much heard of in Pennsyl vania politics the next few years, will be much amended no one seems to know just how far the amendments will go. The Philadelphia Press says that Governor William C. Sproul will assume the burden of "remould- ing" the bills and that it will take a couple of weeks to put them into shape. The Philadelphia Inquirer and North American look for action soon after tho hearing to-morrow which is expected public appearance of the measures before committee, etc. Tho Public Ledger says the charter's "legal phases" will be aired on Tuesday. The ledger also makes this inter esting statement about a feature of State wide importance: "The chart er-revision committee will not press the proposed amendment to the Woodward bill providing for non partisan elections of the Mayor, couneilmen and the city treasurer. It is believed by leading members of the committee that insistence up on such an amendment would ham per the bill and jeopardize its chances of passage in the House. It was said yesterday by members of the committee that but few and minor amendments to the charter bill would be offered by the charter revision committee. Except for the information which Attorney General Schaffer desires upon the legal phases of the charter bill Republi can leaders of the House said yes terday that they could see no reason whatever for the hearing on the Woodward bill." —According to tho Philadelphia Press the Senate Committee in charge of the woman suffrage amendment will report out the re solution very soon. Prominent Re publican leaders say that the resolu tion will pass the Senate, although there is still considerable opposi tion to it. The resolution would provide for a vote in November. 1921. —Governor Sproul is expected to act on the Willson bill repealing the non-partisan election feature of the third class city code late this week and predictions of approval are freely made. The Philadelphia In quirer plays up an Aitoona dispatch saying return to party election of city officials will be hailed with joy in the mountain city und that it will be appreciated by a majority of the people. in this connection it is interesting to note what was said at Easton on Saturday by Ex-Justice Edward J. Fox. of the Supreme Court. Speak ing before the Rotary club the jus tice said: that he hoped the Gov ernor and the Legislature would sec that this was carried out. He ex pressed the opinion that a return to the old method would be most beneficial both to the county courts and to the higher courts. President Judge Stewart, of the Northampton County Court, said he was in hearty accord with this view, as under the old system the political parties put forward the best men us candidates, with the result that efficiency on the bench was maintained. —Everyone of the six judges ap pointed by Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh in his last year as Governor will be a candidate lor re-election and at least three of them will have to fight. Governor Sproul has named throe judges of whom two, the Allegheny appointees, will be candidates for re-election. Men who follow politics in Pennsylvania are watching with in terest the effect of the first move to boom a returned soldier for office. Lieutenant Colonel E. V. Kestner. of Reading is being boomed for mayor by soldiers and their friends. Mayor Filbert. Ex-Mayor Stratton and Rep resentative James T. Morton arc also mentioned. Tt Is possible that Read ing may see the first' attempt of union labor to put Its own municipal ticket into the field. There Is con siderable feeling there over strikes. Although Berks is a Democratic stronghold. Republican county chair man Thomas D. Seidel is steadily re organizing the party in every dis trict. —The employes of the Department , of Public Works of Scranton struck I Saturday. There were strikes by i other city employes earlier in the | year. —Mayor Babcock of Pittsburgh, is said to be apprehensive of trouble over the street car strike and to be urging a settlement. "Structural Weakness" The Rev. Dr. George B. Stewart, president of the Auburn Theological Seminary, and a former pastor of the Market Square Presbyterian |Church in this city, whose long ser vice as a trustee of Princton College gave h'ni opportunity to learn Pres ident Wilson's characteristics, has written the fol'owing letter to Colonel George Harvey's Weekly: "Sir, —Permit me to express my great satisfaction with both of your publications. Your attitude toward the President, who is so conspicu ously misrepresenting the American people, and toward his various schemes is quite in harmony with mv views. Mv long personal ac jquaintanee with him has made me fully aware of the structural weak ness In his character and lends me to the confident opinion that he is a most dangerous man. T am pleased that yot'r two publications are ren dering such noble service to the country. George B. Stewart. _ Auburn, N. Y." WHEN A FELLER NEEDS A FRIEND The Honeymoon Trout Incidentally, with the instinctive feminine desire for an anchor to windward, I stealthily baited a worm on a droplino and let it noiselessly • down over the side of the boat. 1 | committed the atrocity during a low i visibility, so that it was executed j without detection. And then we' had pushed gently up toward thei inlet of the river, with nothing more! stirring than intonating frogs, j Finally, when the stars were unite: out. My Fisherman reluctantly reeled in his line and gave the good ! word for homo. It was almost at 1 the precise moment that the guide's j oars caught the water that I felt the! indescribable tug at my line. 1 had ! almost forgotten that I had a line.! I had absently held my hand over; tile gunwale, letting my fingers trail! in the cool water. My first thought was that 1 had caught bottom. I, had a mental flash of the guide's] face when he learned how I had been deceiving him, and he was forced to maneuver around with an oar to free my hook. A second' flash made me abandon hook, bait j and sinker, and thus avoid all eom-j plications of an unpleasant nature. But a third flash was an unmistak able triple tug on the line. After that I screamed, and began to pull in, band over hand. * * * There were shrill, barbaric cries of "Bet him run! Bet him run! Give him line! Give him line! Don't pull him in like an anchor! Play him! Play him!" And then that last superb climax of a gentle honey moon: "1 command you to give me that line!" With the memory of marriage vows in my ears, I realized in stantly that 1 was undone. Even in that ear-splitting confusion, I knew that I should have to obey. Bet modern brides smile as they will over the absurdities of the marriage ceremony. When primitive man calls in no uncertain voice to un hand. it is best to unhand. But first I intended to have one more wild fling of freedom. 1 s'id hot It hands deep in the water and took a lirnt twist on the line. Then I braced my shoulders for a mighty heave. With a quick thrust of my knees I reared suddenly to my feet, threw my arms high and wide and -! Well, that night back at the cab in, after we had supper and the guide had built us a huge wood lire, I could still feel myself sprawl ing mud IV in the bottom of that leaky boat, scrambling and slipping, clawing madly with everything ex cept my teeth to keep that dace from skittering back io the deep.— From "The Making of an Angler's Wife." by Itujh Danenhower Wilson, in the Slay Scribner. TRIUMPHANT FRANCE [New York Times. 1 Our entire war finance was a tri umph. and the Victory I.oan crowns \ the achievement. It will be a week or two before all the duplications are corrected and the precise figures are known, but it is sure that the Fifth 1 Ooan, like all before it. was oven- ! subscribed. The Treasury asked the ( people altogether for $18,500,000,000, I and there was offered "above and j beyond the line of duty" something j more than the largest single loan in | addition to the requisitions. As a j result, the United Spates alone among the belligerents has all its war loans funded before the war is ended. | Moreover, our currency is the only j currency in leading commercial na- i tions which is In normal condition, j That is a recital of fact, not a boast, ; and it is put on the record in re- . membrance of how much easier It ! was for us than for others, whose practice hitherto has been better than ours, and whose difficulties in this war have been incomparably greater than ours. We ucted at our , leisure, with the errors of others as ; a warning. They acted almost over night. with the sound of hostile ' bombs and cannon in their ears, and did what they could, not what they j would. The facts are to our credit, \ but show only our discharge of our j duty to ourselves. The cleaning of our slate only puts us In condition to return In the way of finance the service our cobeMlgerents did to our common civilization in arms, by; I holding In check and wearing down ! | our enerpy until we eould give the . final blow. 1 tfSGck TELEtiRXPH The Spirit of The American Legion [William Slavens SlcNutt in Collier's Weekly.] THE American soldier in the Great War dedicated his life to the establishment of justice, I freedom and democracy in the | world. Analytical wise guys have i been busy ever since America gotj into tlie war furnishing cynical ex- ] planations of the American lighting | man's impelling motive. in spite of the complex arguments! of the analytical psychologists who can understand anything but the simple sincerity of an honest man,] the American soldier did light in war for the establishment of those prin- I ciples, and he lias every intention; of working in peace for the preser- i vation of that for which lie fought. \ I talked of the purposes of the! American Begion with Colonel ; Roosevelt. In his conversation, as J lie explained them to me, the word ] "crystallization" occurred again and I again. "We want," he said, "to crystal-' lize the spirit that made it possible, for us to get into this war and to light it as we did." Do you realize, you who read this, , what that spirit is that this organ ization wants to crystallize and pre- ; serve? I'll give you an example of it that I saw. A shattered church in the Marne ] salient during the latter part of! July: It was filled with freshly ] wounded on stretchers. The shells ! were whinning over and bursting! about it. A slim, big-eyed, very j boyish boy was brought in ail shot to piefts. He was a very ordinary; American boy, certainly not more] than 18. A medical major was] passing. I Spending and Taxing Under the Sixty-sixth Congress [From the New York Sun.] SENATOR PENROSE'S financial program is so sound, so wise and so necessary that it scarcely needs discussion. As put forth by the Senator, it explains and com mends itself: "J. Repeal of the luxury taxes. "2. Installation of a budget sys tem. "3. Simplification ot the tax laws. "4. Reduction of taxation of indi viduals. "5. Investigation of war expendi tures. "6. Repeal of all powers hereto fore granted for price fixing and other forms of interference with le gitimate business." Yet in respect of an early realiza tion of these sound aims, Senator Penrose and all of us may be doomed to disappointment. The new Con gress can cut prodigal and foolish appropriations. The new Congress can practice simple and safe tax methods. The new Congress can perfect the budget system. The new Congress can erect a stone wall in front of the financial waste and ex travagance, the economic lunacies, which have threatened and harassed the American people under the Con gress which they rejected last No vember. But the new Congress may not be able for some time to take the tax pressure off the American people. We can't estimate, we can't guess, what unpaid bills—heritage of the Incompetent management, the wild spending, the reckless waste of the last two years—must be provided for by the new Congress, These are not counted merely by hundreds of mil lions; they are counted by billions of dollars. The new taxes, which will not all he In until the end of this year, were all spent long ago. The whole amount of the Victory Uoan just now closed was spent long ago. Neither the proceeds of the tax levy nor the proceeds of the Victory I.oan will all he in for many monthss but if every penny of both were In to-morrow it would not make a very deep dent what the United States Government owea. If there were another Victory Loan cashed into the Treasury next month It wouldn't BYBRIGGS "Hey, doc," the young fellow | called weakly. "What is it, son " the major asked, bending above him. "Tell me, doc," the boy begged ; huskily. "Am I—am I —bad hit?" [ The major looked at the doscrip ! tive slip with which the wounded ! boy was tagged and hesitated. He I knew the young fellow had less j than half an hour of life left in him. "Well, I'll tell you, son," he said slowly. "You're in a pretty bad way, but we're going to do all we i can for you." The hoy—who was a very ordi ] nary young fellow, as I have said— j saw the truth under the thin camou ] tlage of kindness. He knew he was dead. He caught ] ills breath quickly, closed his eyes, ] and reaching up, caught hold of the i major's hand and held it tightly for j a little time. ! Then he sighed, opened his eyes,' | and folded his arms contentedly on ' liis breast. He looked up at the | major, and there was the calm light of a glad resignation on his face. ; "Well, hnyhow," he whispered, triumphantly, "I guess I made good, ] didn't I?" "You sure did, son," the major , assured him. The hoy smiled again and died, j happy in the knowledge that he had ! made good in his personal obliga ; tion to establish the principles of ] justice, freedom and democracy, j That's the spirit that the Anieri i can Begion wants to crystallize, to perpetuate, to preserve and trans j late into terms of constructive civil ] that will insure the con tinuation in force of the principles I that the soldier fought to save. clean up the Government's bills. ' Probably it wouldn't half clean them ! up. The new Congress, which had nothing to do with the appropriat ing of the last two years, has got to provide for the paying. It is an imperative duty which the new Con gress has to perform. It is a colossal work which the new Congress has to do—paying, on top of the current costs of the Government, for a dead war horse to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. We may be thankful that it is not a wildeyed Kitchin Congress, but a Congress of economic sense, training and experience that is on the Job. Appreciate the Telegraph Colonel L. V. Rausch, who has been in the service since the begin ning of the war and who is located at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, for some months, but who is now on special duty at Washington, writing to the circulation department of the Telegraph, directing a change of address says: "The Telegraph has been the source of a great deal of informa tion about the homefolks and doings, the receipt of which lightens the burdens of camp life very much. I have found correspondence during busy weeks laborious and entirely unsatisfactory on account of delays, but to have the home paper arrive ; dally was a satisfaction, the extent lof which cannot be described. If j any one has any complaints to make I about the Harrtsburg Telegraph, I ; should say that an absence from home for a month or more during ! which time they receive the paper i by mail would change their opinion ' entirely." SPRING RAIN j The raindrops dancing on the pools and hiding in the grass, And cutting capers like a gang of fairies as they pass; Oh, let them dance) A goodly rain, and when the summer's through, And liumpsr crops delight our eyes, by golly, we'll danct, too) —Tennyson }, Daft, MAY 19, 1919 PROGRESS IS RUSSIA [From the Kansas City Star] While the Bolshevist government in Kussia makes the most noise—as is natural, seeing that it does most of the shooting—it ought not to be for gotten that there are other govern ments in Russia, that by processes less spectacular and riotous are making steady progress. The Omsk government, of which Admiral Kol ohak is the head, controls a vast area in Slbera and has been recognized by the Russian Liberals as the center of their hopes. Bolshevist sympathizers in this country have represented Kolchalc as a reactionary, and leader of the forces that would restore the czar. This view of the man Is controverted by his own words and by the course of events. The admiral is the young naval officer who was in charge of the Black Sea fleet in the revolution of 1917. He immediately recognized the sailors* committees and was able to handle the situation without se rious disorder. When he became head of the Omsk government last autumn ho announced that he would not "enter upon the disastrous path of reaction," but would await the ac tion of a national assembly to be summoned as soon as practicable. His cabinet is a coalition, with half of the members Socialists. Recently at Ekaterinburg Admiral Kolchak attended a joint meeting of the municipal council and zemstvo! assembly at which he outlined the purposes of his government and pledged it to the support of a con stituent assembly whenever the Rus sian people are free to choose one. The aims he then expressed were far from reactionary. He said, as re ported in Struggling Russia, the weekly magazine published by the Russian information bureau: "The program of the government, is to re-establish the economic and political life of the country in close co-operation with the organs of local self-government—municipalities and zemstvos. The first task of the government is to re-establish the rule of law and order, the rule de stroyed by Bolshevism from the Left and the Right. The government will fight, without and possibility of compromise, tbe Ro'sheviki of the Left and of tbe Right, with the pur pose of establishing a great, free, democratic Russia. The future Rus sia will he a democratic Russia. Tbe government, of which I have the honor to he the head, believes in universal suffrage, in the autono mous development of the nationali ties comprising Russia, in a demo cratic, solution of the main Russian problems: the land problem and the labor problem." According to the report of this meeting in Rtruggling Russia, the president of romstvo assembly an nounced that the peasants of the re gion had collected more than a million rubles for the army of which Admiral Kolchak is commander-in chief: thai the representatives of the Social ists-Re vol utionists announced that the party had excluded all those of its members wbo had held ne gotiations with the Bolsheviki, and that the People's Socialist party de clared its entire adhesion- to the Omsk government and its program of 110 compromise with Bolshevism. We should say that a leader ex pressing the views of Admiral Kol chak three years ago would have been regarded as a dangerous agi tator and harebrained radical. FACTORS IX BUILDING [From New York Kvening Post.] With regard to the building situ ation and its _prosf>ects, S. W. Straus, of S. W. Straus and Company, said yesterday that much of the stagna tion is due to- a feeling 011 the part of many that construction costs will be cheaper later on. The funda mental conditions, which will pre vent recession from present general price levels Mr. Straus believes, are: (1.) Constantly increasing scale of wages and universal tendency toward shorter working hours. (2.) Shortage of unskilled labor. (3.) Inflated credit conditions depreciate tlio purchasing: power of the dollar. (4.) Present abnormal shortage of buildings in the United States and in all Allied countries. (5.) Tremendous amount of nec essary public construction work of all kinds. (fi.) Tendency toward better standards of living among the masses of the people. Building costs have not gone up as much as food, clothing and com modities in general. The Govern men index number of all building materials, exclusive of steel, had risen fil per cent at the end of the war as compared with the index number of 1913.. During the same period the index number for com modities. exclusive of building ma terials. had risen 113 per cent. The average wages in the construction industry in the leading cities of the jUnited States increased less than 30 per cent, during the four-year period prior to the ending of the war, while wages in all commodities increased 94 per cent, during the same time. Artificial efforts to. stimulate building will not be as productive of results as a general acceptance of the fact that building costs are not coming down. The individual who has in contemplation owning his own home will find no better time to bul'd than now. for everv funda mental condition indicates that costs will not be lower. No Protest Left [Kansas City Star.l '"I am unable to believe," said Chancelor Scheidemann ."that this earth could bear such a document without a cry issuing from millions of throats in all lands, without dis tinction of party: 'Away with this murderous scheme.' " The chancelor forgets that the millions of throats became too hoarse protesting against Germany's mur derous schemes to have any strength left to protest against a steam but just peace imposed upon the author of those schemes. 1~ WELL KNOWN PEOPLE 1 .—Harrison S. Blount, well known resident of Palmerton, has taken charge of tho work of the Carbon County Historical Society connected with the war. —Bishop J. H. Darlington spoke last evening at Holy Trinity Church In Philadelphia. .—S, M. Vauclaln, the locomotive builder. Is being .congratulated upon his birthday. DO YOU KNOW —That Harrlshnrg is again making engines for electric plants? HISTORIC HARRISRURG -—A series of conferences here about 1790 brought about the for mation of the real opposition to the Federalists In early Statehood days, Ebentttg CMfat Hardacrabble Is having its lasi day in court this week. The appeal taken in the condemnation proceed ings growing out of the effort of the city of Harrisburg to obtain for con tinuation of the public parks, the strip of river front from Herr tc /' Calder streets. Is before the Supreme ft Court and when the highest tribunal of Pennsylvania renders its decision, the city will be in shape to tase possession. There is no question of city right, only a matter of reim bursement, when the situation is analyzed. Yet, the action has be come one of State-wide Importance. It will establish a precedent in cer tain legal matters and one the re sult may hang the proposed im provements of river fronts in a dozen other cities. Harrisburg's treatment of its river side has at tracted wide attention. There is scarcely a delegation that comes here from any city of the Slate which does not, if the weather be good, visit the river front, stroll along the wall and remark upon the good fortune of Harrisburg in pre serving its river front for the public. And then they strike Hardscrabble. The reason why Harrisburg does not tako that section has been asked more times by visitors to the State Capital than any other regarding city improvements in the last twen ty years, the conspicuous success attending various other municipal enterprises making it all the more remarkable that it delayed so long in strnightcning out the park sys tem. Whether it be politics, or law, or disinclination, or short sighted ness that is to blame, the fact is that it has been fifty years since movements to make a park of three blocks of rather indifferent appear ing houses was launched. Hardscrabble was an outgrowth of river traffic. One hundred years ago the Susquehanna was the big highway and everything from coal to wheat and lumber was floated down. Two sections of the river front were used for handling lum ber brought by water. One was down town below the site of John Harris' ferry and the other where Hardscrabble stands. The Puck and the Fox taverns were located in this latter section and it became a place where rivermen stopped. It was settled early and while a part was never much in Harrisburg. the city went out and beyond it. For years people said that eventually the city would take the houses from the river bank and get rid of a bad break in a beautiful park miles in length. After the act of 18(10. which made Tfarrisburg a city, there was a special act of the RegislaYure which brought forth ihe first city planning commission for Harrisburg. Not many people know of the work of this commission. It laid out the city for miles and miles around and named streets where burdocks grew and bullfrogs sang. Rome of its ideas of momenclature were good and others were not. But the com mission did its work well and one of the efforts which the public spir ited men who comprised it made was to get rid of Hardscrabble. Back in Civil War days the folks were talking about the time when the city would add that section to the river front parks and there was not so much of Harrisburg then in what we know as the Fifth and Sixth wards. One of the men, who was a member of that commission, told mo that he had data io show that the city could have bought the whole tract known as Hardscrabble. including some of the lots on the east side of Front street, for less than $40,000 and that there would have been very little ligitation over the proposition. He said that he had been thoroughly abused for his efforts by some and called progres sive by others. So on the eve of the presentation of the final papers in the half cen tury discussion of Hardscrabble, this little incident of failing to real ize a bargain when at hand will take rank -with that other incomprehens ible blunder in the earlier history of Harrisburg—the refusal to pur chase for Capitol Park the land be tween North and Walnut streets and the river and Third streets for some thing less than it would have cost to buy out Hardscrabble in 1569. Our friend, Jacob R. Miller, in the course of a letter ho sends re garding the fences which enclosed Capitol Park, and of which it is the intention to treat at length soon, offers a new translation of the Latin epitaph on the gravestone of John Harris, the settler. This grave is in Harris Park and is surrounded by a section of the old iron fence which used to enclose Capitol Park. It is not a very imposing resting place for the man who was the first white settler on the Susquehanna and whose presence here Just 200 years ago had a marked effect upon Penn sylvania history. Mr. Miller calls him the "Great Pioneer of the Western forest at that time," and says that it is easy to work out the meaning of that Latin Inscription. His version is: "Here Lies John Harris Neglected." "Well, the old Susquehanna is through that raise and I hope that it ends it for this spring," said a river bargeman Saturday night. "You know this old river goes on a rampage once every May. There have been April floods, June floods and some at other times due to the weather, but ihr-re is always a per iod in May when the Susquehanna runs truo to form. That high water came as a result of hard rains and last week I can tell 'you was a busy time for us. You see the river came up Saturday and we had to go out on Sunday and protect our craft and get things shipshape. Then the river fell and twenty-four hosirs later started coming up again. We are always glad when the Me? fr'Kiii is over, because it mean* worfc ix"* and nights sad Saahl ■* times." • • • Harrlsbutg Is not mortals. For a place wijfc tory of 200 years and a town has participated In many events, a State capital and a trans portation center with a rare record, It takes no pnins to tell It. Not a tablet marks any of Its historic sites. The grave of the man who saw Its advantages In the dim distance of 1718 is, as Mr. Miller says, practical ly forgotten. The home of a real statesman, who was conspicuous In making this the capital and who dominated much of the Susquehan na valley, Is not known to one In each of the hundreds who pass It in dally walks along the river front which ho preserved for the public. There Is nothing to show where the first Legislature sat tn Harrlsburc. The p'ace of Harrlshnrg In early railroad history, as in State polities! history, is neither written nor com memorated.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers