10
HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
FOR THE HOME
Founded 1831
Published eveningu except Sunday by
rilß TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO.
pltgT>h Building, Federal Sqssre
E. J. STACK POLE
President and Editor-in-Chief
RTr. OYSTER, Business Manager
BUS. M. STEINMETZ, Managing Editor
A. R. MICHENER, Circulation Manager
Executive Board
gj|P.~ McCULLOUGH,
M. OGLESBY,
F. R. OYSTER,
GUS. M. STEINMETZ.
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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 101#
9*. Hut little birds sang cast, and
the tittle birds sang west,
End I toiled to think God's great
ness .lotoed around our incom
plentemss.
Bound our restlessness, his rest,
lfrs. Browning.
FORWARD!
FORWARD, Harrisburg!
Again we are on the verge of
another big progressive move
ment In municipal affairs.
We are about to take up our pub
lic improvements where we laid them
iown to fight the war to a finish.
Four Important loans come before
Rie people to-morrow.
The most important items on the
ballot. 80 far as the future of Har
lisburg is concerned, lie in the four
loan items at the bottom of the
feheet.
Forward, Harrisburg!
Over the top to-morrow for all the
loans!
It has developed since Arbor Day
that hundreds of fine trees were
planted throughout the eity and it is
not tmprobablo that the Spring Arbor
Bay will see still more general re
sponse to the movement. Meanwhile
let us hope that the City Council
Will provide for a Shade Tree Com
mission. which will give definite di
rection to the planting and care of
the trees of the city.
YOUR DUTY
NOW, if ever in the history of
the Nation, men should exer
cise their right of franchise.
This country, its institutions, its
laws, its advantages, its progress, |
are Just what a majority of those
Who go to the polls make them.
If you do not vote you have no
fight to criticise.
Make no mistake about it, the
Government of the United States is
precisely what we, the people, will it
to be, and if we neglect our voting
privilege, we not only fail in a duty
to procure which for us our fore
fathers fonght and died, but we are
guilty of countenancing by our in
difference every shortcoming, every
pvH we note in the conduct of pub-
He affairs and their relation to pri
vate life and the well-being of
pociety.
And at this moment, with a vacil
lating and unpopular administration
control at Washington and the
fcorces of anarchy knocking at the
feery doors of the capital Itself, it
behooves every Republican to go to
Bie polls to-morrow and register his
K1 in terms that will stiffen tlie
dership of his party to even
sturdier resistance to policies of the
Bieorists, and worse, which have
driven the country almost to the
brihk of ruin. The great rank and
file of the Republican party wants
B. change in national affairs —real-
izes that a change must come if the
Nation Is to grow and prosper—and
10-morrow is the time to write those
desires into majorities that will spell
Mctory in 1920.
In Harrisburg and Dauphin county
Bie opportunity to register a telling
blow is at hand. The tickets are
ptrong, the party is harmonious and
both districts are normally Repub
lican. But the chance will be lost un
less every Republican does his duty.
Vote to-morrow if you want the
Hid party, with its policies of pros
perity and patriotism, returned to
pawoe In national affairs In 19 20. •
GOING TO IT
r* IS very evident that the school
authorities of Pennsylvania have
taken the advice of Governor
IWllliain C. Sproul and his new head
Of the Department of Public In
struction and have been preparing to
build schools Instead of waiting for
prices to readjust themselves, seek a
new level or go down. Some time
ago the Governor said that he wanted
the school districts of the State to
provide quarters for the children so
that education would go on. Re
cently Dr. Finegan declared that.
MONDAY EVENING,
compared to the withholding of edu
cational advantages from youngsters,
the halting of building until prices
fell was bud business.
Figures compiled by the bureau
of municipalities of the State De
partment of Internal Affuirs, which
is studying just such propositions,
show that in some of the cities of
the third class alone the loans to be
voted upon to-morrow for school
improvements run Into the millions,
while loans to be submitted to voters
in boroughs and smaller districts
pile up millions more.
This is one of the best signs of the
times. Neither the aftermath of a
terrible war, labor unrest nor ultra
conservative school directors have
been able to hold back Pennsylvania
districts from providing education.
It's the good old principle that lias
come down from provincial days that
every youngster is entitled to a share
of knowledge that is being applied.
Many Harrisburg employers have
been cited by the War Department
for conspicuous patriotism in pro
viding employment for returning sol
diers, sailors and marines. What we
need now to cap the climax with
respect to our local war activities
is to quickly provide through cash
and pledges for the splendid Harris
burg memorial, which will be erected
at the eastern approach of the State
street viaduct by the grateful citi
zens of Harrisburg.
THE PUBLIC AWAKENING
PUBLIC opinion is finding expres
sion in many directions as steps
are taken to overcome the Bol
shevik tendencies which have been
developed in the reactionary period
since the war. Bulldozing methods
of employers or employes, in big
corporations or little, have about
reached the limit, so far as the public
is concerned, and the attitude of the
people who are most injured in these
struggles between capita! and labor
is rapidly changing to one of resent
ment. Unfortunately for labor, the
radicals of the United States have
taken advantage of the unsettled
conditions to inject their impossible
theories of government into the here
tofore sane policies of the great
working class. But it is the hope of
all reasonable people that conserva
tive labor leaders will crush out the
menace which has grown up through
the intrusion of the disturbing ele
ments from overseas who have ut
terly failed to appreciate the liberty
and opportunity vouchsafed to them
by this country.
"The public has waked from its
lethargy and is at the moment a
dominant, irresistible power, before
which politics cringes submissively,"
says an analyst of the present-day
conditions. He continues:
It is not an easy thing to arouse
thef American public. Two or
three months ago there wus a fa
vorable feeling toward labor—an
impression that it was not getting
its proportionate share of profits
in the great era of money-making
which is going on, and various
plans of profit-sharing were being
considered.
Then came the Boston police
strike. This rudely jarred the
whole country. It awoke with a
start. It began to be apparent
that back of the labor movement
was the red hand of anarchy and
revolution. The developments of
the steel strike and General
Woods' unearthing of the Red
plot back of it has thoroughly
aroused the whole country. Ihe
public is alert to the danger and
the authorities are ready to cope
with it.
But while there are still uncom
fortable developments here and
there, there are likewise indications
of more sanity and an active Ameri
canism where for some time there
has been an atmosphere of radical
ism foreign to our institutions and
our common heritage.
The I. W. W., the Reds and all
the rest of the undesirable elements
in the United States are going to
find out presently that millions of
American workingmen and women
will not permit the overturning of
an ideal form of government handed
down to us by heroic ancestors and
perpetuated through the blood and
sacrifice of thousands of their sons.
There can be no doubt of the ulti
mate outcome. Industrial peace
will be achieved through a recogni
tion of the inherent weakness of the
theories which have been widely
promulgated by thoughtless and
reckless men having no real interest
in this country or in the preserva
tion of its splendid institutions.
The people are talking now and
they will make themselves heard
through all the tumult of a restless
element of the country's population
largely composed of foreign-born
radicals without sympathy for Ameri
can ideals or interest in our insti
tutions.
FAIR PRICE CONFERENCE
SOME people who do not under
stand the fundamental idea of
the conference of mayors, bur
gesses and district attorneys called
to meet here next Thursday are giv
ing vent to grotesque remarks.
This conference is not to make
any one the goat and neither is it |
to exploit the Attorney General of '
the United States any more than tho
Mayor of Duquesne or Carbondale.
Governor Sproql did not originate
It. *lde simply called it after a con
ference of attorneys general and
deputies from all over the United
States, In session at Washington, had
come to the conclusion that a Minne
sota official who suggested the plan
had a good idea. The State Depart
ment of Agriculture Is not framing
the program and the Food Adminis
tration has nothing to do with It.
This conference is going to be held
to devise some means whereby Fed
eral and State governments can get
what are considered fair prices be
fore the people so that authority
may act where it can under existing
statutes and that Intangible, but ex
tremely potent force known as public,
sentiment can biff somebody when |
it is necessary. There will be sub-.
mltted plans evolved from the con
ference In Massachusetts and various'
other meetings, and the Pennaylva
nla rulers of cities and enforcers of
the law in counties can either tear
them apart or make up their own.
It's going to be a conference to get
officials into step in proceeding after
food croaks, and every man who has
to fill a market basket will wish it
good luck.
All who travel the William Penn
Highway will rejoice over the an
nouncement that the State and the
smaller municipal units will Join in
the construction of a subway in order
to overcome the dangerous railroad
crossing at Dauphin. It is through the
co-operation of the Commonwealth's
various active departments that much
of a constructive nature is being ac
complished.
politico IK
By the Ex-Committecman
Bond issues to the amount of
$8,075,000 will be voted upon in ten
of the thirty-four third-class cities
of Pennsylvania to-morrow, accord
ing to data assembled by the bureau
of municipalities of the State De
partment of Internal Affairs and
there will be numerous other bond
elections in the boroughs and school
districts, with Bradford and other
counties voting on road loans.
The cities where loan elections
are being held include several of the
largest of the class. In Johnstown
a $2,000,000 school loan is to be act
ed upon and in Bethlehem the loan
proposition amounts to $1,700,000
for the purchase of the water com
pany supplying that new city. Head
ing also has a water loan, $1,000,000
being up for approval for extension
of the water system and also for
sewers, motor tire apparatus, high
way and bridge improvements. New
Castle has a bond issue for $1,000,-
000 for new schools.
Cities having less than a million
| dollars to submit include Easton,
with $700,000 for sewers and sewage
disposal; Huzelton. $500,000 for
general, improvements; Harrisburg,
$490,000, which includes a proposi
tion to transfer $300,000 already
voted so that it can be used for the
city's share of the Soldiers' and Sail
ors' Memorial Bridge, this being
the first election of the kind ever to
be held in the State; Pottsville,
$470,000 for street, sewer and other
improvements; Willlamsport, $200,-
000 for schools, and Titusville $15,-
000 for school improvements.
—The strike situation toAlay inter
fered with the usual observance of
election time at the State Capitol
and most of the departments were
open and in touch with the situa
tion. Ordinarily, owing to the fact
that many of the men connected
with the State government live in
other counties, the day before elec
tion finds few people here. This
year, owing to the strike, men in
various departments remained at
desks and left late in the day for
their homes to vote. For the same
reason various offices will be open
to-morrow, although the day is gen
erally a holiday.
—Now that the local campaign of
1919 is about ended in the sixty
seven counties, forty cities, a thou
sand boroughs and 1,700 odd town
ships in Pennsylvania it is said by
Republican leaders that things are
in good shape generally as in spite
of the primary battles the Republi
cans seem to have gotten together,
while the contests at Democratic
primaries only appear to have ac
centuated the 111 feeling between the
men who acknowledge the bosship
of A. Mitchell Palmer and those
who follow the fast fleeting colors
of Judge Eugene C. Bonniwell. The
Palmer machine is being speeded
up since the Attorney General got to
be the sole owner and there will be
more action in getting national
delegate and State Committee can
didates set up after this election is
over than there is among street
sweepers after Hallowe'en.
—Various Philadelphia newspa
pers which have been devoting
much attention to their own cam
paign yesterday devoted consider
able space to the counties and the
signs indicute that the Republicans
enter upon a good clear track for
1920. The 1920 election will be
most important as, in addition to the
re-election of Senator Boies Penrose,
Pennsylvania has to elect a Supreme
Court justice, a Superior Court
judge, auditor general, State treas
urer and thirty-six congressmen,
twenty-five senators and 207 repre
sentatives.
—Congressman J. Hampton
Moore predicts his election by over
100,000, which Joseph MaeEaughlin,
the Charter party man, says will not
happen. Henry D. Wescott, the
Democratic nominee, says he will
poll 75,000 votes and build tip a,
strong minority. The Philadelphia
voter will have six tickets to choose
from. The Inquirer predicts "a
clean sweep" by the Republicans
and the Public Ledger, in an article
by T. F. Healey, says that Moore is
only concerned about council as he
has a cinch himself. He says he
will judge the leaders by what they
produce. The beer drivers' organiza
tion has came out for Wescott.
—The Philadelphia Press in a re
view of the Quaker City situation
brings out this thought: "There is
ample reason for the independent
voter to be watchful and to do his
share. This is because there are all
sorts of rumors afloat about at
tempts to "knife" the ticket, and
secondly, as,a matter of policy on
the part of the independent. This
matter of policy is fundamental. We
may start to consider it with the as
sumption that Congressman Moore
will be elected Mayor and the as-
I sumption that the full Vare organl-
I nation vote will turn up at the pools
and support him for the office. If
the hitherto observed apathy con
tinues to hold sway on election day
and the total vote cast is compara
tively small, it will be the independ
ent voter and not the organization
man who will be found wanting. In
other words, the Vare organization
will have elected Congressman
Moore and not the Independents."
—The Kiess boom for Governor
Sproul for President and the Potts
ville people's demand for Auditor
General Charles A. Snyder for State
treasurer have given plenty to talk
about. The Governor has several
times said he is not bothered by
bees. Mr. Snyder will be a candi
date. As to the auditor general
nomination Col. Joseph H. Thomp
aon is doing missionary work in
western counties, while friends of
Samuel S. I.ewis, of York, are
mounting guard along the Susque
hanna.
—Senator Boies Penrose was 59
on Saturday and got many remtnd
r ers of It from friends. Mayor
I Thomas B. Smith, of Philadelphia,
was 50 yesterday.
I —Chairman Joseph Wyatt, of
Schuylkill, "says the Republican mu
-1 joritles in his county will not be less
than 5,000.
HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH
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1 ' '
Pennsylvania Leads
[From Philadelphia Public Ledger.]
While the fifteenth annual con
vention of the American Civic As
sociation is giving up a good deal of
its time very properly to studying
the Philadelphia district as a sort
of Exhibit A in the matter of up-to
date emergency housing, parks and
parkways, zoning, urban and subur
ban, it is to be feared, in the crush
of the wide range of subjects cov
ered otherwise relating to the coun
try at large, that a tremendous ad
vance step that has been made by
the State of Pennsylvania will be
overlooked. It Is all very well to
discuss the everlasting virtues of
Letchworth, England, a very much
overrated garden city, and to harp
incessantly on the contribution of
Boston and vicinage to municipal
progress; but, after all, the most
significant thing that has yet been
done by any commonwealth in the
interest of municipal planning and
the preservation of historic sites and
localities of great natural beauty
lies at the door of Pennsylvania.
To begin with, the possibilities of
the Pennsylvania act of April 4,
1919, which enlarges the functions
of the Bureau of Municipalities, now
under the jurisdiction of the Depart
ment of Internal Affairs, are only
just being realized by the state itself
and are comparatively little known
outside. And yet this bureau al
ready has a most creditable record
growing out of its activities when it
was a part of the Department of
Labor, since from the start its work
has been marked by a sense of great
practicality and utility without over
looking the esthetic possibilities that
inhere in any planning for munici
palities or for any housing project.
But now the new bureau, which is
the only bureau of its kind in the
country, has been given important
functions, which are already making
it the most valuable agent in the
improvement of municipalities that
the country has ever seen. Its activi
ties and powers not only relate to
what so many think is the dilettante
side of the city-beautiful scheme,
but involve all questions of the
proper commercial and industrial
and civic development of towns, and
the bureau is also in a position to
give advice about municipal meth
ods; and already the group of train
ed men, acting under the direct
stimulus of Secretary Woodward,
have made such an impression on
Pennsylvania communities that they
are being turned to eagerly as true
guidps, advisers and friends.
When it is remembered that but
recently the question of making a
pai'k out of a primeval forest given
by a generous citizen of Itenovo, of
turning an ash dump into a public
park in Lewistown, are but a few
of the details of what might be
called the bureau's routine work,
some idea of its great usefulness is
given. And it also must be remem
bered that when this new bureau gets
down to its real possibilities that a
signal era will dawn for Pennsyl
vania. And, after all, this kind of
actual accomplishment by an actual
bureau of the State is worth tons of
rhetorical hopes and promises that
the people of other commonwealths
have been fed upon in this matter
of municipal Improvements, just as
the law creating the Art Commis
sion for the State is far ahead of
legislation along similar lines hat
has been attempted or suggested
elsewhere. With the Health Depart
ment co-operating from the sanitary
and hygienic point of view and with
the Department of Public Instruction
also playing its part and the Art
Commission acting with and after
the Bureau of Municipalities has
brought city planning into the open,
it can easily lie seen that the next
few years will make a great differ
ence in those civic matters in Penn
sylvania whose improvement twenty
years ago seemed to belong to the
i sphere of mere theory; an indiscreet
| and unattainable dream.
Education May Solve Problem
! [Fourth Estate]
The present strained relations be-1
tween capital and labor, in which ,
the general public is certainly most
vitally interested, may result in
bringing about some action by Con
gress on the Americanization bill,
which provides, in effect, for the
education of illiterate persons in this
country, whether or not of foreign
birth or extraction.
It will be remembered that the
matter came before the last Con
gress In the form of the Smlth-
Tlnnkhead bill, but, owing to the
great pressure of business In the
last few weeks, the bill did not come
up for passage. The idea still lives,
however, and is embodied in a bill
before the present Congress.
This Is not a partisan measure,
of course, and there is no doubt
that it will receive the earnest sup-
I port of leading men of nil factions
1 who have the best Interest of the
country at heart.
"Gibson Girl" May Be First Woman
in Parliament
LADY ASTOR, whose candidacy :
for a seat In Parliament is ]
arousing the interest of British .
politicians, is one of the Ave Lang- ]
horne sisters of Virginia, noted for
their beauty. Charles Dana Gibson,
who married one of them, made this
type famous in the "Gibson girl" a
generation ago.
As Nancy Witcher, daughter of
Chiswell Dabney Langho'rne, of
Miradoh, Greenwood, she married
Robert Gould Shaw. Shortly after
his death, she married Waldorf As
tor, who later was elevated to the
British peerage.
Writing from London, Edwin Hul
linger says;
An American-born woman may
take the tlrst woman's seat in the
House of Commons.
For Lady Astor has decided to
accept candidacy for the Parliament,
and her popularity bids fair to "see
her through."
Here is the telegram which set all
political circles buzzing and prom
ised to lend a heaping dash of
piquancy to forthcoming politics.
To Plymouth Unionist Asso
ciation; F"ully conscious of great
honor and grave responsibility,
I accept your request that I be
a candidate.
NANCY ASTOR.
She will run for the place in Com
mons vacated by her husband. Major
Waldorf Astor, who has just suc
ceeded to the title and seat in the
House of Lords left by his father
i who died the other day. If she wins
the election' — and she is expected to,
because her many philanthropies
[ have brought her much in public
favor she will be the first woman
ever to sit in Parliament.
Adds Piquancy to Politics
It is true that her candidacy is
received with mixed emotions in
political circles. But, whether they
agree or not with the innovation,
politicians are unanimous in the
declaration that the action of Lady
Astor promises "something" piquant
in politics.
It is understood her husband did
not altogether agree with her desire
to run for Parliament and made
every effort to divest himself of the
peerage and remain in Commons.
When he found this was impossible
he reluctantly consented to her can
didacy, it is said.
The real rub among many poli
ticians is that Lady Astor is not
"English born." They admit her
popularity in Plymouth and regard
her chances of election as excellent
because of the large unionist ma
jority there. But, despite the re-
Fix the Responsibility
[From the American Legion Weekly]
Disclosures by The American
Legion Weekly of cruel neglect of
disabled soldiers by the Government
are the basis of a resolution in Con
gress for an investigation of the
Board for Vocational Training. Rep
resentative Rogers, of Massachu
setts, has presented such a resolu
tion and has asked that The Ameri
can Legion Weekly's investigators
testify at the hearing. This they
will do, reiterating the disclosures
made in the magazine, all of which
were prediccted on fact and care
fully considered evidence.
While Chairman Prosser of that
board has resigned and the ma
chinery provided for an effective
operation of Vocational Training for
oisabled soldiers, sailors and
marines, that is not enough. We
v&nt Congress definitely to fix the
responsibility for the blackest case
of neglect in American history, and
we want those responsible dealt
with in such manner as the facts
seem to justify.
Duds
[The American Legion Weekly]
Farmers in France have been
having considerable trouble in
plowing the shell-torn lands. When
a plow strikes an unexploded shell,
all sorts of unpleasant things may
happen. A French scientist. Dr.
Gutton, has come to the rescue with
a shell detector, which is set on the
ground and rings a bell if there is
a loaded projectile buried beneath.
At least the papers fay It does.
At Last!
[The American Legion Weekly]
You know that saying about the
mills of the gods grinding slowly
but surely? It comes to mind when
we read that *5,000,000 of the gold
which Prussia took front France in
*,871 has Just reached New York as
first payment of the sum which
Cermany owes us for food recent
ly shipped to hor.
markable change in women's posi
tion during the war, the idea of a
woman in Parliament is a shock to
the conservative elements, particu
larly a woman of Lady Astor's widely
known disregard for conventionali
ties.
Newspapers Take Sides
The press has devoted itself to
picturing possible scenes in Com
mons with Lady Astor appearing in
a leading role.
The Times Lady Astor is un
conventional and if she gets to Par
liament we may expect some breezy
incidents forthwith. With all her
goodness of heart and charitable
manner, she is extremely outspoken
and would have little use for tra
ditional euphemisms and parliamen
tary procedure.
The Express lt is a melancholy
reflection, that Nancy Astor, an
American by birth andr the first
woman member of Parliament,
should really be Mrs. Grundy. Lady
Astor does her best to keep to the
Grundy tradition. She is a pussy
foot and very, very particular. She
believes in two things, high thought
and high society.
Other papers, however, have
adopted a kindlier attitude.
"It may be safely stated that
Lgdy Astor will get into Parliament,"
declared Lloyd's News. "Brains,
beauty and personal charm make a
strong combination. No candidate
is likely to give her much trouble.
• Silenced the Hecklers
"There will be rejoicing in Ply
mouth if the beautiful 'Gibson girl'
becomes a member of Parliament.
They have had a taste of her racy
political quality and like it. She is
no haughty dame, freezing her in
terrupters with the chilly silence of
aristocratic disapproval. 'Shut up,
you villains,' she cried to a party of
noisy youths during one of her
speeches in interest of her husband's
candidacy recently, and they were
silenced. A Virginian of old lineage,
as these things go in America, she
will bring the grace and vivacity of
her home state into the dullness of
British politics. She has the art of
gaining the confidence of the work
ing class of women because she ap
proaches them on the plane of
human sympathy."
Still other newspapers intimate
that Lady Astor likely will be a
source of constant embarrassment to
her party because of her independ
ence and advanced views.
Lady Astor's opponent will be
W. T. Day. In the last election to
Parliament Lady Astor's husband
carried Plymouth district by a ma
jority of nearly twelve thousand.
The Supreme Duty
[From Editor and Publisher.]
Whatever their political faiths ox
affiliations, the newspapers of Amer
ica hold in common one conviction.
They believe that every ill, political,
economic or social, can be cured
under the law and order treatment.
They believe that a democratic
form of government, perhaps best
exemplified in our own, offers the
surest safeguard ever devised by
men for the protection of peoples. I
They recognize no problem so grave
that it may not bo solved through
the orderly processes established by
our political system.
In a democracy the people rule—
through instrumentalities created ex
pressly to put into force and effect
the will and conviction of the ma
jority.
But impatient minorities, suffering
under temporary injustices or in
equalities, are often eager to substi
tute for the democratic processes
those alien policies of class domina
| tion which bring to wreck nations
t which submit to them.
Here in America we have felt so
secure in the strength and stability
of our institutions that we have been
inclined to look lightly upon out
bursts of so-called radicalism. We
have felt that these afforded the
necessary vents for the discharge of
pent-up anger and resentment
smouldering in the hearts and minds
! of men.
But when we see class antagonisms
growing—when we see great indus
trial leaders clinging to outlived,
autocratic ideas and great groups of
workers resorting to force to compel
a redress of their grievances—it is
time for the newspapers of the coun
try to sound a clear note of Ameri
canism.
Thoughtful of It
[From the Boston Herald]
The Federal administration will
return the railroads with increased
equipment—of problems.
NOVEMBER 3, 1919.
Labor's Responsibility
[From the Railroad Employe, New
ark, N J.]
As unauthorized after unauthor
ized strikes follow each other in
ever-increasing succession, bringing
the paralysis of destructive radical
ism nearer and nearer to the heart
of the business prosperity of the Na
tion, it is high time that the reput
able and responsible element within
the ranks of organizations of labor
denounce the prevailing spirit of
brigandage in no uncertain terms.
In the light of recent events it is
a case of labor run riot. Agreements
are made only to be broken; no
guarantee is good over night; no
promise wbrth the breath used to
make it; no compact of the value of
a grain of sand. Employers are un
able to figure their labor costs from
day to day or know what the raor
ror may bring forth. Confusion
and disorganization reign in the
marts of trade and centers of com
merce where peace and prosperity
should obtain through a fixed and
understandable relationship be
tween the man who works and the
man who pays.
Nearly two decades ago before the
Bolshevism of the present had been
defined and I. "W. W.ism was in its
infancy this publication suggested as
a means of stabilizing the relation
ship between organizations of labor
and the employers a form of con-1
tract containing a stipulation for
collectable damages in the event of
forfeiture. The wisdom of this sug
gestion must be plainly apparent at
this time when disregard of contract
or obligation on the part of the
membership of an increasing num
ber of the organizations is becom
ing the rule rather than the excep
tion, and the constituted authorities
of the unions are apparently power
less to enforce the provisions of
agreements entered into in good
faith and with the full approval of
the membership.
In the situation that at present
confronts us it is not to be expected
that moral suasion or cold logic will
present a solution. Reason and ar
gument are of little avail. The les
son will have to be driven in and the
public which in the final analysis
endures most and suffers most will
have to do the driving.
It should be brought about
through national legislative enact
ment that no organization of what
ever scope or description should be
accorded recognition that cannot or
will not, through its membership
collectively and individually, enter
into a wage agreement which, if un
duly or illegally broken, would in
volve financial as well as moral re
sponsibility, whereby the individual
membgrs would be held equally
liable with the employer, and prop
erty or funds in their possession sub
ject to seizure under due process of
law.
We say it, and say it positively,
that the labor organizations of the
future must so regulate their affairs
as to he enabled to enter into a bind
ing legal agreement with their em
ployers with mutual stipulation for
collectable damages. Both must
stand on an equul footing. The
workingman and his associates
should become contracting parties,
business men in short, with whom
may bo had proper and responsible
business dealings.
WELL KNOWN PEOPLE
—General W. C. Black, chief of
engineers, who retired on Saturday,
is a former resident of Lancaster
county.
—Col. C. A. Hatch, late of the
Marino Corps, has bought an inter
est in an automobile concern at
[ Philadelphia.
I —W. A. McCutcheon, prominent
Pittsburgh man, has been named as
delegate to the mining congress by
the President.
—John G. Milburn, noted lawyer,
presided at the Hill school corner
stone laying at Pottstown.
—Dr. C. R. Erdmnn began his
twenty-sixth year as speaker at
Philadelphia Y. M. C. A. exercises.
—Chaplain P. P. Houghton, of
the Pennsylvania Engineers, is de
livering a scries of addresses in the
State's cities.
—President S. C. Black, of Wash
ington and Jefferson College,
preached yesterday in Philadelphia.
—Mayor W. P. T-ler, late Nation
al Guard officer, will remain in the
army after overseas service.
j DO YOU KNOW
—Thnt Hands Kerry was a
shipping point for supplies for
Fort RtttT \
lEwttfttg (Eljat
Ninety years ago, within a few
months, the father of Eugene
Snyder, the lawyer, sold the lot
whereon the Harris House stands at
Third and Strawberry streets, for
SSOO. The price generally believed
to have been paid for the corner
when the Commonwealth Trust
Company bought the famous hos
telry site from George Rovai recent
ly was $60,000. This Is an interest
j ing sidelight upon the way property
values have developed in the heart
of Harrisburg and possibly an indi
cation of what is to come in the way
of business movements before many
years. The Harris House will pass
from the list of Harrisburg hotels in
a few days and go to join the ghosts
of the Bell, the Swan, the Washing
ton, the Globe, the Bull's Head, the *-
Jones, the Commonwealth and others
whose tables, rooms and bars
have figured considerably in the life
of the State capital in the years 1
gone by. "The Harris for oysters
and eating" has been the word
among those who knew good things
and who liked to go about the tav
erns for a long, long time and the
big bar, the steam table and the low
eeilinged room,- which was Harris
burg's nearest approach to a chop
house, have been frequented by
rapidly moving generations of poli
ticians, bankers and business men,
journalists and newspapermen,
printers and plasterers, officials and
railroaders, in fact, men of every
walk in Harrisburg. It was nothing
unusual in the last twenty or thirty
years to sit at a table and eat a <
steak and onions and have next to
you somo man whose word was law
in affairs in Harrisburg, leaders of
the bar, prominent merchants who
were enjoying a "fry," while next
would be men either right "ofT the
engine" or workers in one of the
iron mills. The Harris House has
had its ups and downs and in the
memories of the bon vivants it will
occupy quite a place. A good many
men in Harrisburg for legislative
sessions, conventions or on business
at the Capitol used to drop in for
beer and oysters and when the "low
ceiling" was filled they would drag
a stool to the bar and eat "salts" as
. fast as opened. The Harris House
had few rows, very few in fact, and
it always closed at a fixed time no
matter who was lined up in front of
its mahogany or sitting at the tables.
* *
Long before the corner occupied
by the Harris House became a hotel
it was a sort of legal headquarters.
Mr. Snyder, father of our fellow
townsman, who is the Nestor of the
Dauphin county bar and one of the
oldest and most active attorneys ia
the central part of the State, sold
the property to a man named Henry
who was connected with the Ingram
family. By one of those coinci
dences that occur in a place like
Harrisburg which has families
whose members follow the same
professions, Eugene Snyder has rep
resented subsequent owners of the
property in their legal affairs. The
late Congressman John C. Kunkel
had his law offices in a building at
this corner and it is said that the
late Jqdge John W. Simonton once
had an office there. It was in the
Civil War that the property became
a hotel. John Gross, who later gave
his name to the Gross House which
stood on the site of part of the Co
lumbus, was the first boniface and
Mr. Snyder got him his license at
the license court in April, 1863.
Gross had Just come out of the army
and was one of the best known of
hotel men in Harrisburg. He ran the
place for quite a while and was fol
lowed by the late James Russ, of
Senate fame. It is generally be
lieved that it was the success which
he had at this site that gave "Jim"
Russ his start. He went from there
to Brant's hall and then to the
Grand, the Commonwealth and the
Senate, known to people all over
Pennsylvania. Then came "Johnny"
Bracken, long a figure in Harris
burg's hotel and restaurant life, who
is said to have introduced the first
steam table. It was when Bracken
was landlord that it became really
famous all over Pennsylvania for
the quality of its oysters, which
people from Philadelphia and York
used to say were equal to those sold
at Baltimore. After Bracken was a
succession of landlords, including
Edward Pclham, "Cooney" Kahler
and others and then Rovai and Gon
nella bought it. And there are a
good many men well known in Har
risburg who will remember the
Italian cookery which they intro
duced. "Pete" Gonnella died a few
years ago and since then Rovai has
conducted the place alone. He is
planning to close the doors for the
last time very soon and to return
to Italy.
It probably would not be polite to
give the names of some of the men
who "tended bar" In the Harris
House in its history of over half a
century any more than it would be
good taste to say who used to be
amont the "regulars" back at the
corner tables when the December
snows had come and the "salts" had
their own delicious flavor. Some
men who are pretty well known in
politics and business have worked
either at the tables or at the liquor
or. oyster bars. The men who used
to gather there after 8:SO and go
home at 10:45 always had "Dutch
treat" and there were more moves
in politics and deals in business,
matters in litigation and plain ordi
nary arguments settled there than T
can write. Suffice it to say that some
of the "regulars" have gone and
those who survive will some times
think of the way those big oysters
used to look and how fine it was to
drop in around 12:10 right after the
Court Hodse bell rung for noon and
eat a steak that was cooked to just
the way that you wanted.
The Har is House had a register.
Tears and >ears ago it used to ha\e
men who stopped there regularly,
but of late the register was more of "
a relic than anything else. Some
pretty prominent names used to ap
pear on Its pages and while they
were apparently recklessly ustd
they make good reading now. For
instance, it is said that on August
23, 1885, there were registered
there M. S. Quay, C. E. Voorheos,
David Martin and Charles A. Porter,
of Philadelphia. That was the time
of the famous "Hog Combine" fight
and there were registered soon after
Daniel Hastings and E. .Household
er. In any event the register while
not accurate, perhaps, reflects light
on contemporary events. ,
• •
Beer has gone and the Harris
House is going, but for the benefit
of the memories of members of
many a congenial group It may be
recalled that the "first of the bock"
used to be had at the "low ceiling."
HISTORIC HARRISBURG
The first well in Harrisburg was
sunk near the foot of Washington
street