12 HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH A. HEWSrEPER FOR THE HOME Founded 18S1 Published evenings except Sunday by THE TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO. Telegraph Building, Fed-ml Square E. J. STACKPOLE President and Editor-in-Chief F. R. OYSTER, Business Manager OUS. M. STF.INMETZ, Managing Editor j A. R. MICHENER, Circulation Manager Executive Board /. P. McCULLOUGH, BOYD M. OGLESBY, F. R. OYSTER. . GUS. M. STEINMETZ. j Members of the Associated Press—The Associated Press is exclusively en- j titled to the use for republication j of all news dispatches credited to j It or not otherwise credited in this Fiaper and also the local news pub ished herein. All rights of republication of special ; dispatches herein are also reserved. ' A Member American 1 PI Newspaper Pub- ' Ilishers' Associa tion. the Audit j Bureau of Circu lation and Penn sylvania Associa ated Dallies. Eastern office Story. Brooks & Avenue Building, j New York City: Western office. . Story, Brooks & Flnley, People's Gas Building : I Chicago, 111. Entered at the Post Office in Harris- | burg. Pa., as second class matter. j By carrier, ten cents a week: by mail. >3.00 a year in advance. WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 3. 1919 I am responsible before God for the tcork I might have done and did not do. —R. A. TOIIREY. ABOL'T ANNEXATION WHAT is being .lone to pro mote the annexation of adja cent boroughs in the move ment started some time ago by the Chamber of Commerce? We must have action soon or it will be too late to do anything at the November elections. One borough, at least, is ready to fall into the arms of Har risburg. Paxtang is willing at any time to become a part of the city. What is being done byway of ex tending a welcome. L At the outset of his taking over the Lrallroads Mr. McAdoo declared war on private pass evil among families of'railroad officials. Yet in a report from Director General Hines to the Senate on the number of railroad and Pullman passes issued to officials of, the railroads and their families and j outstanding as cf July 1. 1919. Mr. Mc- i Adoo, his wife, who is a daughter of President Wilson: his son, Robert H. McAdoo. and a daughter. Miss S. Mc- Adoo. are listed in the report as Pull man pass holders. Mr. McAdoo is de scribed in the listing as "special coun sel for the State of New York." Thou sands of passes are declared to have been issued during the McAdoo regime. Seems to be a question of; "Me and my son. John." etc. THIS IS NOT RUSSIA JAMES MAL'RER convinces no body that he is the victim of a State Department "frame-up" by "absolving himself of all blame" for whatever may be found in his baggage. In the first place, the State Department never has attempted to "frame-up" anybody and, secondly, Maurer is not so important as to become the subject of international intrigue. What is in his baggage remains to be seen, but nobody be lieves that the United States Gov ernment has had any hand in adding to or taking from the trunks as packed by their owner. This is not Russia. MENACE OF DISEASE THERE seems practically no dif ference of opinion among city and county officials regarding the importance of a joint contagious disease hospital, but no definite plan has yet been adopted for the erec tion and maintenance of the pro posed institution. Through the co operation of Colonel Martin, head of the State Department of Health, and his associates a design for a proper building of the sort needed here lias been submitted to the city and county officials and been discussed at one or two conferences. 1J is the hope of the State health officials that Harrisburg may become /•J model city with respect to sani tation and all safeguards for con serving the health of the people. To this end the city and county authori ties will undoubtedly co-operate with the Commonwealth and we may con fidently expect that within a short time some definite agreement will be leached for the erection of the hos pital so much needed artd as a proper precaution against a recur rence of any such epidemic as the influenza of last year. Harrisburg and the county cannot afford to weigh the cost as against the health and safety of the com munity. While due consideration must be given the expenditures of the public funds, the greater respon sibility of the care and welfare of the people must have first place in the decision of the problem now waiting solution. Such an institution as Is under consideration should no longer be discussed as a "pest" house. Wo have gone far along the road beyond that point. The hospital which must be provided for the treatment of contagious diseases should he one with modern equipment, so that the very best care may be given those suddenly overtaken by a communi cable disease. Every citizen has an interest in this matter as every citi zen is in danger of contact with cou I WEDNESDAY EVENING, HARRESBTTRG TELEGRXPEC SEPTEMBER 3, 1919. tagrion of one sort or another. Of course, such a building would involve a considerable expenditure, but we do not always put in cold figures the monetary loss to a community through the invasion of death or ill ness of the people. We believe that the citizens of Harrisburg and the county will ap prove any proper action on the part of the authorized officials, and, as epidemics and disease have no schedule, the importance of a prompt decision is obvicus. Harrisburg is delighted to have as j jits guests this week the postmasters; !of Pennsylvania. They will find here; ' at the seat of government of an im- j j peria! Commonwealth no mean city, j 1 and here's hoping that every moment ' I of their leisure during the sessions of j the organization may be a further op- j | portunity on the part of these men of j letters to inspect Harrisburg and I learn more of what we are all happy j ! to believe is a modern and progressive > | community. GET YOUR PETITIONS j ET your Daylight Saving peti- j tions! They are ready for you at the Telegraph office, and may be had by anybody who cares to circulate them. If inconvenient for you to call, send your name and address and a blank petition will be mailed Ito you. Fill it with the signatures 'of your friends and return to the Telegraph as soon as possible. The Third Class City League, adopting the resolution offered by Mayor Daniel L. Keister. has taken a big step forward in Daylight Sav ing. All of the cities of Harrisburg's class throughout the State are now pledged to work out a plan whereby the extra hour of daylight we now enjoy may be saved to us next year. Back up the delegates to the Thirtl Class City convention by going on record as favoring a continuance of the evening hour of light, without which the twilight baseball leagues will go out of existence, countless home-gardens will be blotted out and a great measure of pleasure and recreation taken from the working people of the country- Get your blank petition at once. Fill it with signers and send it back to the Telegraph. There is no time to lose. HANSON GOES FISHING /{T AM tired out and am going I fishing." said the fighting mayor of Seattle, in explana tion of his resignation. Mayor Hanson became famous a year ago when anarchists set out to take over the city. When matters reached a critical stage, Mayor Hanson sup pressed the revolution by the prompt exercise of common sense and cour age. With one thousand extra police armed with rifles and shotguns and with instructions to shoot on sight anyone causing disorder, Seattle | rapidly became an extremely peace- j ful and orderly city. "It was an attempt at revolution i which the Bolshevik element ex- j pected to spread all over the United ; States." said the retiring mayor. "It • never got to first base and it never will if the men in control of affairs will tell all traitors and anarchists that death will be their portion if l they start anything." • It is the opinion of Mayor Hanson that the labor unions must cleanse themselves of the anarchistic ele ment or suffer in public esteem. He takes the position that the first duty of the citizen is to maintain law and order, and that union men and busi ness men and churchmen must first of all be citizens. Concluding his comment on the Seattle episode, as printed at the same time, he said: | Let the National Government stop pandering to and conciliating the men who talk against it. Let us clean up the United States of America. Let all men stand up and be counted, if the majority of the people of this country are disloyal and owe superior allegi ance to some other country, or some other cause, now is the time to find it out. We refuse to treat with those revolution ists. Unconditional surrender are our only terms. In dealing with the Bolsheviki during the hectic period of the out break at Seattle, Mayor Hanson de clared that with this element there should be fewer conferences and more cemeteries. The most favorable indication of returning sanity throughout the country is the unmistakable trend of intelligent protest among working men themselves against anarchistic and unreasonable demonstrations growing out of wage disputes. There is also a disposition to enforce labor agreements and to discourage recent tendencies toward disregard of com pacts between employers and em ployes. The light is breaking in many places and peace may not be so far away as it has seemed re cently. Let's get back to common sense and fair play in our dealing with each other and the old world will not look nearly so blue. But we can't all go fishing. There has recently been introduced in Congress a bill to authorize the Secretary of War to produce for sale duplicate negatives and prints of mo tion pictures, lantern slides and . en largement of still pictures in the pos session and control of the department. This would seem to be a most 'Com mendable move, inasmuch as the peo ple of the United States ought to be able to see for themselves what trans pired In Europe from the time the Yanks arrived In France until they re turned home, and they are the owners of the films. Ik By the Ex-Commlttccman Attention of men who follow poli tics in Pennsylvania is being turned somewhat toward Harrisburg to-day because of the gathering in tl.e State Capital of the postmasters of Pennsylvania. In fact, what de velops here the next few days will divide interest with the registration in various cities. The postmasters assembled'here are the most repre sentative gathering of Democrats of the Keystone State to meet here since the session of the Democratic State committee. Just us in 1915 their convention is regarded as the occasion for high party councils. This year the scouts of the Demo cratic State committee bosses have been out sounding the sentiment of the leaders of county and lesser size to see whether the party machine in Pennsylvania was seriously dam aged by the Bonniweil insurrection of last year. The truth is that it was and it will now be ascertained what the postmasters and the vari ous leaders who will gather here with them think about it Another important matter will be what the Democrats at large think of the possibility of the president running again as some folks appear to believe he plans to do as a re sult of his recent suggestions on living, labor and laws. But still more important will be to discover whether the Democrats of the State are for A. Mitchell Palmer, Attor ney General of the United States, in sufficient number to warrant liim making a fight for the delegation from the Keystone State to the next National Democratic Conven tion. Some of the best known Demo crats of the State are here to-day and the gathering reminds one of a Democratic State committee meet ing day. —Two weeks from to-day the pri mary election for the nomination of I candidates for nine county offices and a Judgeship will take place. For these designations there are no fewer than forty-five aspirants, most of whose faces are now adorning telegraph telephone and all other poles that mark the arteries of travel throughout the county," says the Wilkes-Barre Record. —The return of Paul J. Sherwood's name to the ballot after a brief ab sence has renewed interest in the judicial situation. —The Altoona Tribune gives ex pression to this relief: "Thus far in the campaign for the Republican nomination for city and county of fices there has been a decided ab sence of bitterness. The mud-sling ing tactics of the past have been widely discarded and each aspirant is running on his own merits. The ex ceptions to this rule have been com paratively trivial. We are pleased to observe the situation and trust the present amicable rivalry may continue for all the future." —Jesse W. Bower, Williamsport, assistant city assessor, has been ap pointed an inspector of the State Department of Inspection by Clifford B. Connelley, acting commissioner of the department of labor and In dustry. He reported for duty yes terday. —One Scranton Republican says'. "Referee George V. Beemer, of the third State Workmen's Compensa tion Board district has entered the field at the solicitation of his many friends for nomination as council man of the borough of Clark's Sum mit. There are five councilmen to be chosen by the people at the fall elections and with the entrance of Mr. Beemer in the race twelve candi dates have now filed notice of in tentions to make a play for votes at the primaries that will determine whether or not their names will ap pear on the regular tickets in Nov ember. Mr. Beemer has been a resident of Clark's Summit for about twenty-five years. He is one of the heaviest property owners In the bor ough. and previous to appointment as referee for t)ie compensation board, becoming effective January 1. 1916, he was for years superinten dent of the Hillside Home. In poli tics Mr. Beemer is a Republican. —Congressman B. K. Focht, of the Seventeenth district, has at tracted much attention by san e re marks on the wood pulp situation regarding newsprint and the. likeli hood of greatly increased prices, with the curtailment of supply; "I was a member of Congress," said Mr. Focht. "when the reciprocity treaty was up for consideration, and to which I observed a 'snaky' look ing rider respecting the tariff on wood pulp and sulphide under a cost price of four cents per pound. This repealer was evidently over looked by President Taft who urged the passage of the reciprocity meas ure against the wish of a majority of tin. Republicans then in the House. The treaty, it will be real ized, was rejected by Canada, but the wood pulp repealer became oper ative. The market in this country was supplied by an abundance of newsprint material from the Domin ion, but it was not long until the newsprint plants of this country moved to Canada and then the prices ot' the article commenced to climb. We now have the same result with news paper Just as it will be with all other commodities which are allow ed to come into this country with out duty tariff standing against them." —The Pittsburgh Gazette-Times has coined a new name for the fol lowers of the Leslte-Babcock com bination calling them Maxmen. The contest for the county nominations in Allegheny is waxing very strong and the registration next week will be a big one. —Some of the Democratic lead ers throughout the State are said to have told Palmer's pathfinders that it is not going to be an easy thing to line up the Democrats for him and that the disaffection in the rank and file is strong, while there is little doubt of the strength of the Bonniweil faction. —The Democratic State machine lis now being overhauled in the windmill preparatory to going out on a collection tour which will start here during the coming week. —Several efforts to cut down the number of councilmen in boroughs under new laws have been started In various counties. In Columbia county the effort to reduce coun cilmen from three to a ward to two was thrown out of court because candidates had filed petitions. —The North American says that Governor Sproul is interested in the re-election of Mayor W. S. Mc- Dowell, of Chester, who was a marshal of part of the Inaugural parade, and against Representa tive William T. Ramsey, who is fighting McDowell. The Day of the Lord The great day of the Lord is near, it is flear, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the Lord: the mighty man shall crv then bitterly. Zephanlah 1, 14. x, MOVIE OF A MAN "HOLDING THE WIRE" By BRIGGS Yes- Yes- HELLO .. 'C?,I i I " WOMDER VGHO IT "MEL-LO' YES ■ I tier; * * CAM Be - iaus" A - w__ YES HEL-<-0 MM -HM M LONG DLST/SMCE CALL' H, "F ,S _ " AU.-I.~V- R.GHTY £\T *1? HOAO.NiI THE wißi" AroiSis IT MOST ee A - OaJ- i WISH " WELL WHAT LF J c F RGtc e V CALL FROM THEY'D StoP S\&£Rl* OR THAT CLUCKWG - FY) 60M£THir46~ e * RS ( JUDGING FROM -<PT OR THe Tim\C it I *— ~ \ I Takes - .1/ —. 1 No Wonder Germany Qait By MAJOR FRANK C. MAHXN ! Of the Army Recruiting Station "When Stephen Montgolfler and ; his brother Joseph, in November, 1782 sent a sheep, a rooster, and a duck into the sky, lifted by a paper I bag inflated with hot air, these i Columbuses of ballooning could ! scarcely forsee the importance that their invention was to have in the great war 135 years later. "To the humble observation balloon in France rather than to his dashing hero of a cousin, the airplane, must go the chief credit for that marvel ous accuracy which long-range ar tillery attained during the great : struggle. The balloon itself was | spectacular enough once its true character was known. The fact that the American production of obser vation balloons during our nineteen months as a belligerent was a com plete and unqualified success makes the story of ballooning in France of I particular interest to the American | reader. After the animals of the j Montgolfler barnyard had made as- I cent, two friends of the brothers, M. Pilatre de Rozier and Girond de ! Villette, essayed to be the first hu man beings to take an aerial flight, ascendiqg to a height of 300 feet and returning to earth sound of limb and body. Thereafter and until the great war in Europe the balloon remained the awe of the circus and country fair grounds and the delight of the handful of sportsmen who took up the adventurous pursuit; but, except for a litited use of cap tive balloons in our Civil War and in the siege of Paris, in 1870 and 1871, the baloon had no important military use. The hot-air balloon never could have become of great value to armies. In the first place, it would descend when the balloon cooled off. This defect was over come by the use of lighter-than-air gas. Moreover, the free balloon was subject to the whims of the breezes. To overcome this characteristic the balloon must be fastened by a cable or propelled by a portable engine. It was obvious, however, to military experts that a stationary observation post anchored thousands of feet in the air would be ideal in war opera tions; yet for all of this obvious need, until the great war military science had perfected nothing bet ter than the spherical balloon. The spherical, anchored to a cable, bob- ! bed aloft in the gales and zephyrs as a cork does on the ocean waves. Although there had been some ex perimentation with kite balloons be fore 1914, it was not until the great war had been in progress for some months that the principles of stream—line shape were applied to the captive balloon; and the kite balloon, the well-known "sausage." made its appearance, to be the tar get for enemy aerial operations and the chief dependence of its own ar tillery. The term "kite balloon" ef fectively describes the captive ob servation balloon as we knew it in the war. It rides the air on the end of its cable much in the manner of an ordinary kite, and some of the early "sausages" even flaunted steadying tails such as kites carry. These principles applied to the cap tive balloon gave to its observation basket a stability unknown by the pioneer aeronaut under their spher ical bags. In the first stages of the war the artillery relied principally could locate the targets fairly well, upon airplanes for firing directions. But, while the airplane observers they frequently lost touch with their batteries because of the difficulty of sending and receiving wirelesss or visual signals upon their swiftly moving craft. This disadvantage brought the captive balloon into use, gradually at first, but before the end of the war on a scale which had practically displaced the air plane as a director of gun fire. The balloon came to be the very eye of the artillery, which, thanks to the development of this apparatus, re ciprocated with an efficiency beyond anything known before in the his tory of warfare. The balloon pro duction was one of the most import ant and successful of all our war projects. Although we had a limit ed knowledge of the subject in the beginning, our balloons stood the hard test of actual service and could bear comparison in every way with the best balloons of Europe, where the art of balloon building had been in existence for many years. Once our production actually started, we never had any shortage of balloons for our own army: and soon we j would have been in a position to I produce the observation balloons for I all of the armies fighting Germany, , if called upon to do so. FEW MEN CONSIDER DEATH Only a Surprisingly Small Proportion of Persons Leave Wills. [Bruce Barton in Collier's Weekly.] : —■—:: — 1 ONE who is at all curious in such| matters cannot fail to be j amazed at the inconsequential \ fashion in which men transmit the money that has represented the j work and savings of their lives. Death, like birth, is an inevitable fact in human experience; yet the average man lives as though he weie to be the one exception to the com mon rule and might conHdently ex- J pect to live forever. In nine cases | out of ten he does not take even the rudimentary precaution of making a will. One of the larger trust companies in New York recently made an ex amination of the records of the sur rogate's court in New York County j and discovered that the average number of wills offered there for probate hardly exceeds 2.50U a year. Assuming that the population of the county is two million, and that the death rate is 5 per cent, this would mean that less than 3 per cent, of the men and women who die in the community where wealth is popu | larly supposed to be the subject of ! universal concern make any provi ! sion whatever for the distribution of their property, or its safeguarding after their death. That this repre sents a general situation throughout the country is indicated by the es timate of a recent investigator, who states that "more than 9 7 per cent, of Americans die without making a will." There are two reasons for this, of course. In the first place, as Cicero long ago pointed out, "no one is so old as to think that he may not live a year." If it be winter, the average man, of any age, is sure that he will carry on to see the robins return and to breathe fresh life with the spring; and in summer he knows full well that he is not destined to pass out until he has harvested this year's garden crop. | It was so in Cicero's time; it is to j day. Death is never imminent: wo j take a day off to attend the funeral Governor Sproul [From the Salt Lake Tribune.] Governor Sproul of Pennsylvania j is of presidental size, in the opinion J of all who came in contact with the j chief executive of the Keystone ! State during his visit to Salt Lake ! I and the intermountain country. The Governor is a Republican j | from the ground up and a practical j man of much more than ordinary j ability. He has the good will and j respect of the citizens of his home ! State without regard to politics and would make- an invincible candidate if put forward by the Republican party for the office of President. Many men have been mentioned in connection with the Republican nomination next year but so far there does not appear to be any pronounced favorite. A poll taken by the Portland Oregonian showed former President Taft In the lead in the Webfoot State, while Gov ernor Lowden will be the favorite son of' Illinois In the next conven tion. The names of other good and strong men have been suggested, but we feel sure that none of them is more worthy of the high honor than Governor Sproul of Pennsylvania. Pleasing to Republicans [From the Philadelphia Press.] The Democratic demand for the removal of Burleson for the good j of the party, which has been rolling i into Washington for months, got so \ big and noisy that even the Presi- j I dent heard about it, and now it is j announced that he will stand by . Burleson. We expect this will be a popular decision with Republt- i cans, who cannot much object to having Burleson carried Into the next Presidential campaign. Won't Help Germany [From the Philadelphia Record.] Some Senators are unduly excit ed over the probability that von Ludendorff's book will be published in this country. They profess to see in It German propaganda that might Infect the American mind and corrode our morality. What we have seen of extracts from the re collections and romances of von Ludendorff, von Jagow and von Bethmann-Holiweg would not help the reputation of Germany much. I of the man whose desk was next tc i ours in the office, and returning from I ' the cemetery we say to ourselves: j j "1 ought to put my affairs in shape: |so that my wife will be all right j ;in case anything should happen to! : me." But we do not do it. "I'm I I right in the midst of things now," | we say. "In another ten years I'll have something worth writing down | in a will. Then'l'll want to think! the matter over carefully and ar- I range a fair division between my I j wife and the children and the rela ; tives; but it's hardly worth while : troubling about now." The mau in • the Scriptures is typical of most ofj ! us. "Things are going well with j me," he said, in effect; "I will pull | l down my barns and build greater." ] j And that night his soul was re ! quired of him. 1 And the second reason why will i making is not popular is because there is a general impression that a will is a luxury for the rich. It is expected that Mr. Million, when he dies, will leave his estate carefully guarded by a long legal document; but the man who has nothing but! j a house and lot and five hundred I dollars in the bank assumes that it! isn't enough to bother the court j ; about. So he dies, and his wife, who might, under a proper will, ! have entered into the enjoyment of • his estate at once, with very little illegal formality, finds herself com . ! pelled to give bond, and go through i'an immense amount of red tape; and is fortunate If she is not involved f; in a family feud before the nego tiations are completed. Even if she i comes through safely, she has paid L more than she can afford in feesi II and charges all of which would i ; 1 have been largely obviated by a : | proper will. i j The rich man's estate will stand it. :; There will be enough left for his t heirs even after the courts and law - yers are through. A will for him . is more or less of a luxury; but it -lis a necessity to the man of small j I means; and the smaller the estate 1 i the more essential. The Cottonwood "Sleep on, all's well,' the Cotton wood says, i As it flutters in the breeze. Towering a silent monitor Above the neighbor trees. ilt gets scant praise from nursery - j man, , j Though 'tis a friendly tree; [ It sighs and murmurs all day long, It sings to you and me. Each gentle zephyr starts Us leaves To trembling on the tree, While a breeze will set them spin ning "Like fairies mad with glee." A gale brings wild commotion. The cottonwood bows its head. The leaves whirl like "green butter flies," A few short years, 'tis dead. But its life, while short, is joyous, So 'tis a happv friend; Welcome the kindly cottonwood. And love it to the end. Annie L. Daen The Fighting Christian [From the New York World.] When American soldiers went to France each was provided with a copy of the New Testament, and i as a result France now wants 20,000 j French New Testaments. Cromwell's ! pikemen may not each have had a i Testament but they believed in It, j and the Roundheads "hummed a I surly hymn" as they went Into ac | tion and gave such an account of i themselves that their fame spread through Europe. Sergeant York is ; another famous example of what a Christian can do when he is fighting mad. Just a Little Problem [Kansas City Times.] Congress now hopes to remedy the excess profits tax so the dealer, and not the consumer, will have to pay it. If Congress can succeed in doing that, all other little problems like perpetual motion and making water run up hill and keeping wo men from talking too much will be taken up and solved and progress will have no further direction In which to progress. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR j A Road Protest To the Editor of the Telegraph: The people of Mifflin county and the traveling public generally will be pleased to have the Telegraph publicly voice a crying grievance occasioned by the neglect of the State Highway Department to make a road fit for travel of that section of the William Penn Highway be tween Lewistown and McVeytown, so it can be dignified by the title "State Road," instead of disgraced by it as is the fact in its present deplorable condition. The season for road making is fast waning, and up to this time a very limited and insufficient amount of work has been projected or accomplished, notwithstanding reiterated promises by the depart ment to put it in good travel con dition this summer. On a recent Sunday, over a hun dred automobiles bumped over the holes, ruts, and washouts of this section of State road, which if it were still under township super vision would have been reported to court long ago. The condemnation of it by tour ists is general, and accompanied by considerable force of expression. The W. P. Highway is acknowledged to be the only direct route from the east to Mt. Union, Huntingdon, and the west, and between its connec tions with permanent State roads, construction deserves more con sideration than it has yet received, at least so far as the link In it re ferred to is concerned, which is i only an excuse for a road, a dis | comfort and added expense to all who travel this way. JUSTICE. Post Office Pay [From the New York Sun.] i Civil service employes of the post offices presented an argument to the President which may deserve public attention, although Mr. Wilson by his response to the employes' rep resentatives seemed to give it no weight. He classed postal clerks and carriers with railway shopmen, saying that they, too, should wait for relief by a lowered cost of living. This, those who appealed to the President assert, ignores the fact that postal employes have not been benefited by pay increases a s have the shopmen; that the clerks and carriers, receiving but a trifle more now than they did during many pre war years, are still paid from 30 per cent, to 40 per cent, less than shopmen and therefore have that much less with which to buy food and clothing for their families. If the President's decision is adopted by Congress, which is en gaged in an investigation of the pay of postal civil service employes, it is probable that many large post offices already handicapped in ef ficiency by the retirement of old and skilled employes and by inability to obtain competent men to replace them will be badly crippled by still more numerous losses of experienced clerks and carriers who will seek jobs in better paid service. Correctly Stated [From the New York Sun.] To call General Pershing's refusal to testify on Saturday in Paris be fore the Sub-Committee on Expendi tures in the War Department an exhibition of "indifference and con tempt for the wishes of the people," as Representative Bland of the com mittee does, seems, under the cir cumstances, to characterize it with undue harshness. The committee called General Pershing on the eve of his departure for home. Its sum mons reached him after his records and files were packed for shipment. He was busy winding up the affairs, military business and social, of an army of 2,000.000 men in a foreign country. He could not have exact ness and certitude the committee would naturally desire and expect and there was not sufficient time for him to satisfy the committee men even with generalities on the subjects concerning which they sought enlightenment. | DO YOU KNOW —That Harrisburg distributes mail supplies to more than a score of towns? HISTORIC HARRISBURG —The first branch post office was opened in the Capitol in the thir ties. lEwntng (Efjat The city of Harrisburg which has again as its guests, the State Post masters' Association, has been a center of postal activity for moro than 150 years, although it was not until 1791, six years after the town of Harrisburg was laid out on the settlement made by John Harris, some fifty years before, that the j United States formally established | a post office here. There have been j eighteen postmasters, some of them ' men of unusual capacity, farseeina. securing for Harrisburg the facili- I tics which make it to-day the dis j tribution point for mail and sup | plies for many towns around. 1> | the number there has been one I postmistress, who was a woman of | marked ability and who held office | for eight years. There have been at least ten places definitely located for post office uses in Harrisburg and the present Federal building, Jointly used by other Federal d* partments, dates back some forty years. Away back in French and Italian war days, Harrisburg was a post station where horses were to be had for the coaches which canto by occasionally with official letters and such letters as were intended for the hardy colonists in the Cum berland valley. The post road, if it could be called such, was the Lancaster pike which was extended to Harrisburg about 1740. John Harris' ferry, the first enterprise of Harrisburg, furnished the means for these early coaches to cross the Susquehanna and continued down through the Revolution to be a link in the cross-county transportation system with ever increasing im portance. There are frequent ref erences in old letters to the arrival of a post coach from Philadelphia and of wondering when the next would leave the Ferry for the me tropolis on the Delaware. Acco ing to well authenticated records Garlisle and Lancaster were the points from which Harrisburg got its postal service supervision for a few years after the Post Office De partment was established under Franklin. This first Harrisburg post office was secured in 1791 and John Mont gomery. a member of a prominent family, was named as postmaster. A few years later John W. Allen, one of the owners of the "Oracle of Dauphin," the first newspaper to be printed here, was named as post master, but only held the place a few months when John Wyetli, the first Harrisburg newswriter pub lisher of the "Oracle" and book seller, very much of .a prominent citizen judging from the old news papers and records, was appointed. Mr. Wyeth had the office at his printing office in South Second street in the vicinity of Mulberry, then a very busy part of Harris burg. Once owing to some rush of work he moved the office to his residence at Second and Mulberry. John Wyeth was an appointee of George Washington and gave wav in 179 8 to John Wright, the school master. It is interesting to note that the office was moved around from house to house, but always was in South Second street or in Mulberry or Chestnut for ten years after it was established. Most of the time it was in the residence of the postmaster. Mr. Wright was the first postmaster to move it "up town" and he is said to have locat ed it at Front and Walnut streets because the "upper ferry" which was also known as "Maclay's." was used for the coaches to cross the river. This "upper" ferry is not much heard of, but was quite an enterprise for some years being lo cated above State street. Mr. W right was succeeded by his wife, who was given the handsome sal ary of >sou a year, the increase be ing granted her because the State government having come here in 1814, there was a business jump. Mrs. Wright is announced in news papers of 1822 as having moved the post office to South Market Square. She died a year or so later and is given respectful mention in the early newspapers. • • James Peacock, one of the found ers of the Harrisburg Public Li brary and whose portrait is in the present Library, was the third newspaper man to become post master of Harrisburg. He publish ed the Republican, and was ap pointed by the promulgator of the Monroe Doctrine. He held office for over twenty years and moved the post office around considerably, the locations having been in Front street near Market, in Second street near Walnut, Third and Loc ust, where it was to be located years after and finally he bought k'o. 7 North Market Square and located the office there. From all accounts Isaac McKinley continued ! that location, but A. J. Jones mov ed it to the site of the Market Square Presbyterian Church, which was then a banking and business building. John H. Brandt, remem bered by o'der citizens, held the of fice for a time and Dr. George W. Porter, who was appointed by James Buchanan moved the office to the Porter residence in Market street near Fourth. The post office was moved twice under George Bergner, the publisher of the Har risburg Telegraph, who took office under Lincoln, but remained in Market street. He finally located it at 314 where it remained many years; in fact, until it was located in the present building. This was authorized in 1875. construction be gun in 1877 and completed in 1882, being enlarged in the last ten years. The office was temporarily located in the old P. K, Boyd residence at Third and Locust, northwest cor ner, during the remodeling. Mr. Bergner was out of office a year during which General J. F. t Knipe held the place. Mr. Bergner died after his reappointment and Henry Gilbert filled the office until an agreement could be made upon a postmaster which fell upon M. W. McAlarney, publisher of the Harrisburg Telegraph, who held of fice for eleven years and among whose successors have been no less than three men connected with newspapers, including the late Hon. B. F. Meyers, the noted Democratic chieftain. William Rodearmel and E. J. Stackpole. immediate prede cessor of the present P. M. | WELL KNOWN PEOPLE ~ —Postmaster John A. Thornton, of Philadelphia, prominent in this week's convention here, has been an activ? factor in Philadelphia politics for years. —Ex-Mayor Jacob E. Weaver, of York, has been elected head of 'the York county firemen. —Judge Isaac Johnson, of Dela ware county, was speaker at the opening of the Darby celebration. —William Findlay Brown, assist ant district attorney of Philadel phia, has returned from a visit ta the seashore. '
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers