12 HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH [A.4KEWSPAPER , FOR THE HOME Founded 1831 Published evenlnga except Sunday by THE. TELEGRAPH PRINTING CO. Telegraph Building, Federal Square E. J. STACKPOLE President and Editor-in-Chief F.~R. OYSTER, Business Manager GVS. M. STEINMETZ, Managing Editor lA. R. MICHENER, Circulation Manager Executive Board 'J.P.' McCULLOUGII, " "BOYD M. OGLESBY, F. . R. OYSTER, GUS. M. STEINMETZ. Members of the Associated Press—The Associated Press is exclusively en titled to the use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in t.liis paper and also the local news pub lished herein. 'All rights of republication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. A Member American PI Newspaper Pub- Entered at the Post Office in Harris burg, Pa., as second class matter. , . By carrier, ten cents a trfcjjv •."AcfMi. week; by mail. $3.00 a year in advance. FRIDAY,. DECEMBER 26, 1919 What thou hast in store This coming Itear, I do not stop to ask; Enough if dag by dag there it,nrns before me Mg appointed task; 1 seek not great things, For I hare learned liow rain sueh seeking is, But let me seek Thy will, O King of Kings, And find, therein my bliss. O. E. FUU.kb. (10 TO IT, ADMIRAL OF ALL the officers in the serv ice who have Buffered from abuses of power and influence under the Wilson administration. Admiral Sims alone lias dared speak his mind in public, liis letter to | Secretary Daniels contains censuro for the head of the Navy in every line. There can be 110 dodging of responsibility, and* thle Secretary's reply is weak and self-convicting. The Admiral clearly proves that fa voritism was shown in the award of service medals and the implication is made that the Secretary's own son-in-law, who was given the high est award, even though he lost his ship, was one of those Mr. Daniels chose for special distinction. As Admiral Sims says, the com mander of the fleet is the oniy man competent to judge the merits of the men under liim and if his recom mendations in tho matter of awards for service and personal valor are to bo set aside, then the whole merit system in the Navy fails, much to the hurt of the high morale that has marked it on every occasion when its services were io demand. Americans generally will admire the straightforward methods of Ad miral Sims. It is a tine thing to know that the ranking officer of the Navy is a man of strong personal convic tion, as willing "to enter the lists of diplomacy against unfair methods of government as lie was to face the Hun on the high seas. UP TO ALL OF US IN THE sending out of a calendar for the new year one of the big corporations at Voungstown makes this comment: It is accompanied by our fervent good wishes aiid the hope that we, who hold service to our customers as our greatest obligation, may be able during the year to render this service unhindered by conditions such as have attended much of the year just ending. The industrial and commercial skies will brighten with the growth of understanding that real peace and prosperity can come only through productive i effort on the part of each indi vidual in his chosen field ofc labor. There is a whole sermon in the! last paragraph of this statement: and the emphasis must lie placed | by every Individual upon the last j clause which places the rosponsibil- ' ity squarely upon the shoulders of, each one of us. We can get hack , to solid ground only through real' effort and by co-operating along till j legitimate lines of endeavor. A WISE CHOICE GOVERNOR SPROUL could noti choose a better qualified man than former Lieutenant Gover nor Frank B. McCloln, of Lancaster, for head of a Fair Price Committee in Pennsylvania. Mr. McCluin was one of the most active representa tives of the State government on the National Defense Commission during the war and he is familiar with every line of food production and sala from its source to the ultimate con sumer. He Is aggressive and cour ageous, but, with all, wisely conser vative, and the public' can ejtpect absolute fairness at his hands, so far as that is humanly possible In price regulation. But let nobody expect too much from the work of Fair Price Com mittees, efther statewide In scope or local. It IS to be suspected that Governor Sproul has his own ideas as to their limitations, as have thou- FRIDAY EVENING, sands of others who watched their vain efforts to keep prices at a rea sonable level during the war. Some benefits to the consumer may have resulted from the publication o'f prices, but as a general thing the dealer whose prices were below those published by the committee went up to meet the "fair" figures, while .those above paid little attention to them. j THE COAL COMMISSION WE HAVE heard a great deal of the evils of legislation by I commission, but never has ! such a body of men held greater control over the welfare of the country than the commission for the investigation of mine wages and coal prices to lie appointed by the President under the terms of his settlement With the strikers. That commission will be clothed not only with power to fin wages at any figure that may be agreed upor. bv the miners and operators, but to pass that increased cost of production along to the consumer of coal in the shape of increased prices. * Of course, the commission directly cannot make those changes. It can merely submit recommendations to the President. But Mr. Wilson has already indicated, in his statement outlining the terms of compromise for the coal strike, that he wilt ac cept whatever arrangement the commission may make. Under the provisions of the I.ever Act the President has full power "to fix the price of coal and coke, wherever and whenever sold, either by producer or dealer." He also can "establish rules for the regulation of and to regulate the method of produc tion" of coal. Under the latter au thority he can fix wages. After those scales of wages and prices have been promulgated by the President, there is 110 recourse for .the public short of repeal of the Lever Act itself, under which his power is derived. It has been the policy of Con gress for many years to favor legis lation prohibiting combinations in restraint of trade. Such combina tions were considered as imposing an unfair burden upon the public in the shape of unnecessarily high prices, and to furnish a means whereby certain classes of our citi zens were able to enrich themselves at the expense of the others. But no business combination has ever been conceived that would 'exercise the complete monopoly to be en joyed by the coal industry from this time on. It will be able to dictate the prices of its product at all times and from that dictation there will lie no appeal. Far from being in terfered with by the courts, it will enjoy the complete protection of the Administration, acting well within the powers granted to it by a Demo cratic Congress. With the knowledge that in creases in coal costs may be passed along 1o the consumer, the operators will readily capitulate to any de mand the miners may make. The miners are well aware of that fact and have as little regard as the operators for the public as a whole. That being the case, how long will it lie before the miners are renewing their demands for a six-hour day, a tlve-day week, and a sixty per cent, raise in wages? There is nothing in the agreement under which the mines have resumed operations that prevents oilier strikes whenever the miners may think such a procedure will further their cause. Even though the award to lie made by the President's commission may give the miners far more than the terms of tlie tentative settlement now in force, there is no ineiins by which they may be made to accept the ar rangement permanently or even temporarily. Immediately the award is made, a strike may be called for still better terms. Although the President's follow ers are hailing his notion in the coal strike as a tremendous stroke of executive genius, in reality it but paves the way and provides the means for an interminable struggle between miners and operators on the one hand and the public on the other Until some other arrange ment is made the public will always be the loser, by reason of its minor ity standing on the all-powerful commission. , SIGNS OF PEACE SIGNS are not lacking that on both sides of the political fence at Washington njembers of the [Senate are growing restive over de ! lay in getting some final action on | the Peace Treaty. It ought to be | possible to .have the Senate adopt the treaty with such reservations as will protect America and at the same time prove acceptable to a majority of the Democrats. j That, we believe, is what the 1 American, people want. They are not (opposed to the treaty in any form What will leave their independence |,'lllll liberties unendangered and tin ' questioned, and they would breathe ! a sigh of relief if the whole tiling | were done with and out of the way. I They are not as much interested, possibly, as lliey ought to be, in the affairs of Europe, but they ure might ily interested in every (mention of a domestic nature,and it is evident that before we ran reach a peace basis at home we must have returned to peaceful relations with the world at large. We are Just now in an impos sible position. The fault mainly lies with Presi dent Wilson's refusal to regard the rights of America lirst and our rela tions with Europd secondly, but there are hhrd beads on both sides and.the American people are becom ing more and more Impatient of un necessary delays. Those who are interested politi cally should take theao thoughts to themselves, if they have any regard for their own purty preferences and personal interests in the coming campaign. r— — 1 T>eacc ftv.HHjUa.tuA By the Ex-Committeeman Probably the matter that is giving most concern just now to folks who follow politics in Pennsylvania is the advance in the tax rate that is being made in almost evqry city and bor ough in the State, while compara tively few counties have put up their millage for 1920. The cost of mu nicipal government has been jump ing in Pennsylvania, along with the cost of pretty nearly everything else, and more than one council has been faced with the alternative of curtail lnS n S .f ,V e or P ut ting up the tax. And in 9S per cent, of the cases the cities appear to be taking the latter course. Increases in rates in both of the big cities have called forth some sharp comments and it is not im probable that eurlv action will be iuken not only in the great munici palities, but in the third-class cities as well, for study of tho govern mental system front a scientific standpoint belore taxpayers' organ izations and similar bodies start to 19"] antl Provide issues for a nn/\°,iV lin! V and Erie wi " present some interesting studies in the next J ear, as they are both going into the , y< ; u ' administrations elect ed under the third-class citv code. tiFkofl 'men being chosen on party !L .? n within another vcar they will automatically go into the V.'<rf Ca , SS . of ritieß i owing to the nan arm both will show more than MO.OOO population, according to con servative estimates. The second class cities are the only ones to re tain the nonpartisan system of elec tion of councilmen and there will be a series of merry little mixups when the transition takes place. —'The boroughs which voted to become third-class cities at the No vember election will not be able to do so for a year or more. The offi cial returns of a couple of these elec tions have come to the Capitol and the next step will he for the Gov ernor io issue a charter and then for new elections. It is probable that several boroughs will move along the same line at the next opportu nity owing to the growth in pop ulation and the desire to take up propositions which cannot be handled under the borough code. " Many complimentary things are being said about the Seranton Times anil its editor and owner, 10. J. Ly nett, in view of the approach of the golden anniversary of the Times and the silver anniversary of the Lynett ownership. They are to be celebrated at Seranton on January 3 and Key stone State journalism will rejoice with Mr. Lynett and his capable staff. The Times is one of those ex ponents of Democracy which knows uo faltering. Bearing the stamp of its owner's personality, which has made R-so successful and so strong, it has been a fearless party organ, respected by Republicans and unhesi tatingly accepted-by thousands and thousands of Democratic readers. It is a party beacon like"-the Philadel phia Keeord and the Pittsburgh Post and may many more years come to it. The Republican and the Pe.mo cratic parties alike need papers like the Seranton Times. —Governor William C. Sproul is very much gratified at the inanner in which mention of his name as a presidential possibility lias been re ,-veivKi, but from what his close friends say lie regards it more as an endorsement of what he has done the last ten months than anything else. The Governor insists that he has plenty of work to do in llarrisburg. However, there is a lot of yeomen effort being put forth in behalf of the Governor, not only in this, hut in other states. The Washington Star says about him in a Pennsyl vania article: "There is no question but what Sproul's speech made much impression upon the businessmen of his State, and this will aid materi ally in the carrying out of the un pledged delegation program. With the businessmen of the party rather ardent in their advocacy of the Gov ernor, there will not be many spots where a boom for any other candi date could take root in Pennsylvania, and thus far the effort to revive the fighting Koosevelt organization of If 12 has been a failure. Most of the men who were active in that cam paign are inclined toward Sproul or for an uninstructed delegation." [ Robert 13. I.atnberton, the sher [ iff-elect of Philadelphia, is Just now [giving an interesting exhibition of lilting with that old war horse of 1 Pennsylvania politics, Senator David i Martin, former Secretary of the Com monwealth and former State Insur ance Commissioner. "Uncle Dave," as lie is known among Capitol Hill people, is one of the redoubtable , lighters of political history of the last quarter century and the outcome, of his collision with the sheriff is awaited with interest here The signs of a cooling of the old friend ship between Mayor-elect J. Hamp ton Moore and the Senator who backed him are also being noted with | attention. —Mayor Thomas B. Smith, of Philadelphia, has harked hack to his legislative days in declaring that he would not stand for appropriations for the personal enjoyment of Phila delphia eouneilmen. He said that he was against eouneilmen taking city money for a farewell banquet to the bicameral system and also intimated that he would veto a bill to give each councilman his desk and chair. —ln connection with the Philadel phia situation, the Evening Ledger said the night before Christmas: "Senator Vare lias lived too long to believe in the Santa Claus myth. He evidently holds that If you want something in your stocking on Christmas morning you must put It there yourself. What he seems to be looking for just now is a big chunk of discord and he is exerting him self to the utmost to get it. If lie can raise ruetlo'ns in the new city council lie will do it. But it remains to be seen whether he gets more than he is counting on." • —ln Pittsburgh some of the school boards have declined to take the ad vice from Capitol Hill to go ahead and build regardless of high prices. In two instances hoards in Western Pennsylvania have refused to build until prices come down and the Pittsburgh Gazette Times says that the Pittsburgh Board of Education declared it would not build under present high lyices. —Another interesting development at Pittsburgh is the move by council to establish a bureau of fire proyen tlon. This is in lirte with the trend of the times in large cities and the State authorities will encourage it. —Mayor-elect J. Hampton Moore writes in a Philadelphia newspaper: "The Civic Club, of which Mrs. Ed ward W. Biddle is president, is re joicing over the new trend in mu nicipal affairs. For more than 26 years this organization of women who like to discuss public questions, and who have bean striving for im proved civic conditions, has been la | horing to further these aims. Street cleaning, hygiene, child welfare and jot her topics which appeal to I thoughtful women are frequent sub- I jects of discussion and debate with the members." HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH —— a —— WHEN A FELLER NEEDS A FRIEND By BRIGGS f" -r y / Take | ] OFF VOUR CAP LIKG A LITTLE GEMTLE- KAM ANID SHAKE fH H Aiv/O SAY/ "DELIGHTeD, I'M vSURE'"- WHERE ARE.' Your. ? /• *—■—= ""SiLT' , Mother s Farewell \ [From the New York Mail.] Two days before George Wash ington's departure for his inaugura-; tion as first President of the United States he went to Fredericksburg to pay what proved to be his last visit j to' his venerable mother. On com-j ing into her presence he said: "The! people, madam, have been pleased, J with the most flattering unanimity,!, to elect me to the chief magistracy i of the United States; but before I can I assume the functions of that oflice I have come to bid you an affection ate farewell. So soon as the public business which must necessarily be encountered in arranging a new government can be disposed of I| shall hasten to Virginia, and " , Here she interrupted hint. "You: will see ni" no more," she said; "my, great age and the disease that is rap-I idly approaching my vitals warn me, that 1 shall not be long in this world. | 1 trust in God I am somewhat pre-| pared for the better. But go, George, j fulfill the high destinies which Heaven appears to assign you—go, my son, and may Heaven's and your mother's blessing be with you al ways." Public Schools best [From the - New York Times.] Public school boys have a higher average of scholarship at Harvard university than those from private Schools and a better disciplinary re cord as well, according to statis tical studies made by Prof. 11. \\. Holmes, 'O3; Philip Levy, 14, and j.. y Gordon of the Harvard divi sion of education. Among more than four thousand men who entered Harvard as fresh men during the years from 1902- p 1912 inclusive, according to the fig-, ures'compiled by Professor Holmes I and his associates, 17.7 per cent, of the public school graduates won, their degrees cum laude, as, against - 10 3 per cent, of the men from pri-I vate schools. Eleven and eight-tenths j per cent, of the men from public* schools won magna cunis. as opposed | to 4.3 per cent, of private school) men; and 2.5 per,cent, of the public school men obtained the highest scholastic honor of all, the degree j sunima cum laude, as against per ; cent, of the men from private j schools. Insures lien For $5,000 | [Front the Portland Oregonian.] It isn't every hen that can carry I around a 35.000 life insurance policy,! but that is the amount of insurance placed on one of the hens at the; poultry show at the Auditorium next, week-. This hen ih a White Leghorn, owned by Dr. Tailored of Kent, Wash. She set a world's record lor production by laying 330 eggs in 305 days, ended September 16. This is: about four times the production of| the average hen, so her value in the I poultry world can easily be seen. Her owner consented to allow her to be placed on exhibition by one of the poultry feed companies, but stipulated that she must be insured fof $5,000. Too Good Natured He loves to listen to himself; 'Twould be a good employment If he were not so generous In sharing the enjoyment. —Boston Transcript. Procession Continues [From the Savannah News.] Yes, the parade of the Democratic presidential possibilities Isn't near over —it takes weeks to pass a given point. At llie Zebra Cage [From Life.] "Mummy, is that a black horse I with stripes or a white horse with l[lack stripes?" J THE SOVIETIZED ROMANCE "1" AND "4". [The sovictltzcd novel, according to Kolest Ware in the New York Evening Post, lias appeared. It is called "1 and 4," instead of "Ivan and Anna," its original title, because of the Bolshevist ruling substitut ing numerals for Christian names. Here are excerpts set out by Mr. Ware.] HE was alone, waiting, waiting | in the shadow of the old fam- I ily eucalyptus tree, where i (hey had spent so many happy hours. ! Would she never come? He had i seen the Stepiianovitski girls, 1 to 3 ] inclusive, leave the house early in , the evening for a ride in the motor, i What could be keeping 4? A thous- i and sovietized thoughts tormented j him. Bhe had always been so punc- j tual. God, how the minutes drag- ; god! ] Presently the old clock in the: kitchen siruck the half-hour. A tig- j ure glided swiftly down the path. It ; was 4. "One," she murmured. "Nay, 'tis but 7.30, though it seems! like one," he replied—for even in j moments like this 1 would have his j little joke. "My one and only 1," she breathed ; as lie drew her to him. "No one | shall ever take 4 from 1." No words of hers had ever so smitten his mathematically sensl-j tlsed soul. "You are right," he concurred. "It! can't he done, but"—und a look of! pain o'erspread his strong, handsome t face—"would to heaven that one i might say so much for 1 from 4!" ! She glanced up at him question- j ingly. "You mean?" "That <he laws of simple arithme-1 tic are against us, dear. To-morrow TI leave for Brest-IJtovsk and points! east. It is so ordered." | "Oh, 1, 1," she sobbed, "what shall | | I do once 1 is lost?" "Once 1 is won, dear," consoled | our hero, lor he was ever ready witli I iquip and jest. I She missed it, however. "Eisten," he soothed. "Think not' I that I go for naught, 4. Eoyulty to ithe cause compels 1 to try anything I once. But I sliull return. Be calm, ibe true, be patient. Await me here j I and i shall come after you, 4, a little j alter 4." i So suying he bounded lightly over! jthe garden wall, tossing a kiss to the | lonely figure beside the eueulyptus ! Iree. Little did he realize ' that very moment he was 1 minus 4 | —or three down—while the girl he | was leaving behind was only 4 minus j 1 and therefore in a much better po ' sition, arlthmeticlally to figure o.ut ' j the future. The telephone conversation be j I ween the hero and heroine when j the former after niuny years, returns to take his 4 in hand: j Nervously he whipped out a Rus sia n ciga ret und lit the foolish end. How he longed for Hie music of her j voice, sweetest mugie in the world to I him! "Hel-10, dear-rle!"' Oh, ecstasy, her voice at lust! "Ah. there you are. light of my life," ho cried, feigning an air of easy noncluiluuce that ill became him. . "And who are you?" she inquired. "That you must tell me. Cries*." "I can't guess." "Try," he pleaded. . "Seven?" she ventured. "No, come again." "Eleven ?" "Wrong. Try again." "Three?" "No," "Fifteen?" "No.' "Twenty-one?" "Heavens, no!" "Well, then, 6?" "Say. 4," shouted our hero, v "are you kidding me? This is 1, your 1, your one and only 1. Don't you re member?" "One?" she repeated mechanically. "One? I'm afraid there's some mistake. Let me see. No. I don't know of a single I on the list." "Come, now, 4," he persisted, "let's ! cut out the fooling. You remember 11, of course you do. You can't have 1 forgotten your teeney-weeny, ummy, yummy 1 so soon." "I'm sorry, but there certainly has • ' DECEMBER 26, 1919. been some mistake." she replied coldly. And with a deft left arm jal) she hung up the receiver. "Four, four, four," he wailed, but only the operator heard. "444 is bus>. sir," she said. Sitting alone at home one evening, 1 her lingers wandering idly over the j noisy keys of the family adding ma- j chine—for the Stephanov'itski girls, | like all others in their set, simply j had to have an adding machine to I keep track of their social acquaint ances under the new system—the | •fair 4's fair forefinger alighted l'orj the ltrst time and by the merest i chance upon the fatal 1 key. Imme diately the instrument registered— and there dropped into her lap a re cord slip with this strange device: 1. She gazed at it in .amazement. Then slowly the memory of those dear dead days beneath the old euca lyptus tree stole in upon her and she saw it all. She had got his number. , rushing out into the night she dis- I patched this telegram to the man she ! loved: "Come l, come all. (Signed) 4." i It was a 4 to 1 shot—but tijen life, for 1 had ever been but a game of chance, and what, after all, had 1 to ! live for but for 4'.' So he canceled all other Social en- 1 gagements and reached her side that 1 very evening. "You know, dear," he told her ten derly, "there's only one 4 in this world for 1." Breaking A wag [From the New York Tribune.] The Cleveland Plain Dealer, a rep resentative Democratic njwspapc-r of Ohio, lias been a strong and con sistent supporter or the Administra tion with reference to the league and peace project. But the Plain Dealer, in vlj/v of the facts, is not willing to stultify itself by lodging responsibility for the I treaty hold-up elsewhere than whne it belongs, it finds that particuU r responsibility rests with the Presl- I dent. It says: "The treaty can be | laid before the Senate again only ! upon his volition. The treaty is in I the President's hands. Kesponsi ,for initiating its ratification is | upon him." | in New York Administration or igans, in an endeavor to serve parti-' | sail ends, continue their efforts to i place the blame on (he Senate. They . juggle the facts. The combination i of the Borah-Johnson irreconcilubles , and ttie Administration Senators dc -1 feuted ratification, and now the |. treaty is not under parliamentary I consideration because the President i wills it so. | The situation is too plain to permit I misrepresentation to be long success i ful. Other Democratic, newspapers/ i will testify to (he truth, as The Plain i Dealer does. i " Not Meant For Him [From the Spectator, Condon] j Judges on the bench have some times been assaulted. A litigant I once threw an egg at the late Vice - j Chancellor Mali lis In nn 'English court. The judge had the presence of mind to duck his heud, and at the same time he established a repu tation as a humorist by remarking that the present must have been in tended for his brother. Bacon, the vice-chancellor who was sitting in an adjoining court. Kidding the Help [From the Punch Bowl] Chambermaid —I found 16 cents in your bed this morning, sir. Professional —Ah; my sleeping quarters, no doubt. | Lure. of Spicy Zanzibar | [William Ashley Anderson in Harper's MuguzineJ j Aden, from which I had but re j eently departed, is a man grown I gaunt and rugged in honest strife; | but Zanzibar is a courtezan, whlm- I steal, gay, sullen, presenting many aspects. I Warm, rich, beautiful, concealing | with dissembling art its sinister j spots, it lavishes its charms, intoxi cates with its beauty, smothers with : its opulence; or suddenly, after a , smoldering silence, it rends itself ' with rage. The screaming tornado • rips its garments of verdure to tat ters, bony lingered pestilence goes leering down its dark alley ways, | fever shakes the life out of its vlc ! Urns. And afterward, the bright ; sun sparkles upon the ruin washed I foliage, and the island smiles again • witli the innocent radiance of a j maiden. ; Zanzibar Town is the great me jtropolis of the east coast. It is Rome ito the dusky pilgrim; it is Paris to jtlie reckless wanderers from tlie. 'Bantu folk of Cape Delgudo to the j sons of the corsairs of Oman. Its clubs, its coffee shops, its cinemas, i its durk. arched rooms where dusky belles from India, Arabia, the Somali coast and Zanzibar, giggle and shrill and dance monotonous dances; its spreading mango trees under whose shelter tlie torches burn, and the torn toms beat the measure of night long ngomai; its shops tumbling with riches of roughly curved ivory and ebony, or ! hammered Cingalese silver and gems; its bazars, gaudy with cheap cloth—kikoys, hodrunks, kanzus— bright with prints of flags and ships and emblems of royalty; the great ships lying in its rouds, pouring into Hie lap of black Africa the increas ing luxuries of Europe; the dhows bearing commerce from the Persian Gulf, the Seychelles and Madagas car—all, all and more, contribute to th<j renown and lure of Zanzibar. My huge old Arab house had the reputation of being haunted. I'n fortfjnately 1 cannot prove this; hut every night at 2 in the morning 1 awakened and lay for many minutes listening to the few faint sounds that tapped musically upon the bell of silence—the everlasting whispers and laughter of the waves upon the beach, the tap-lap-tap of death's head beetles in tlie berities of the ceiling, the rustling movement of rats, the clear silver tinkle of ships' hells in the harbor, tlie unexpected rattle of a chain, far off, the plain tive shriek of a lemur, the stirring of palm fronds outside my window. Turning nvy head, I could look out through tlie porticos across the water, silvery under tlie moon, with red and white and green lights glowing front tlie gray shadows of ships. A pale brooding moon some times gazed at me from behind a Inn of palms; anil then ghosts would truly steal about me, tender, minls i taring ghosts memories of other days and dim dreams that -may yet come true. In their arms I'd sink again to sleep. Why America Is Slow [From Kansas City Times] Mr. Lloyd George's speech in the j house of commons shows a natural. |if concealed, impatience over America's slowness with the peace | treaty, it is difficult for a British I premier to realize just the conditions I that have produced ttiis situation, i Before Mr. Lloyd George went to I the .peace conference he asked the 1] country for a vote of confidence and ' , i#|!t it- Had lie failed lie would not ! have gone to Paris. Before Mr. Wil t ' son went to the conference he asked 1 the eountry for a vote of confidence j and was turned down. Nevertheless |he went to Paris anil insisted on • t I negotiating a covenant for a League B j of Nations which was a radical de _ ' parture from the Nation's foreign , policy. He did this not only in the y | face of the country's adverse vote, 0 but without'consulting the leaders . of the opposition whose consent he p j hud to have to ratify the work done r in Paris. ( j Such a situation would be almost I inconceivable to a British statesman, where no public man can remain in : i ofn cc after he has lost the support " |or the.people as represented in the I House of Commons. But since Mr. i Lloyd George recognizes that it • j actually exists he will see that the e | treaty has precipitated in America a " I contest between democratic govern e j ment and executive autocracy which '• ] must be settled in favor of democ - | racy before the treaty can be rati e : fled. The treaty of peace could be rati fied to-day provided it could be separated from the League Covenant which the President has sought to force through the Senate against its will by making it a rider on the peace settlement. Offers Reward in Vain [From Kansas City Times] When an editor uses canned edi torials, he knows he is laying him self open to_ the scorn of his ex changes, whi'e[j see through the de ception, but a good many think that is offset by the flattering prestige they win in their home towns by the knowledge and wit unknowing read ers give them credit for. But some thing always happens, soon or late, to expose their hypocrisy, and just now Mitchell White adds to the Christmas joy of this department by i writing that 'a certain Missouri [country editor has been cured, j Pressed for time, he measured off a I yard of the syndicated copy and let it go to tlie printer without reading it carefully. Not till the paper was in the mails did he learn that one of the canned editorials warmly criticized a certain public matter which his wife the previous day had praised in a club paper. To make matters worse, the editorial said all I who held opinions similar to those his wife had expressed were lacking in the normtfl amount of gray mat ter. At last accounts the editor still was alive, but was offering a ton of newsprint to anyone who could show hint a way to save both his skin and his face. Moral: No edi-' tor should print anything he won't take time to read himself. Sure, New York Is Dry This is the way to order wine with a dinner nowadays in New York, ac cording to Herbert Corey, war cor respondent and feature writer: First you establish relations with the head waiter. Then you wait for the proper moment. Then you sum mon him and ask in a loud, clear tone, so that every one within hear ing distance can catch the words: "Charley, did a boy leave a pack age here for me?" "I don't know, sir," says Charley, "I will inquire, sir." By and ]>y he comes back. "Yes. sir," says he. "There is a package in the hat-cheek room for you." "Bring it in," says you. So the package comes in, all nicely wrapped up in plenty of white paper. It is handed over the table to you with as much ostentation as the waiter can contrive. And you open it, and there is a bottle or sev eral bottles of wine. "Frappe it," says you. "And •erre." lEontttigGffat i' 1 This is a tribute to those who I*l a. d o Harrlsburg's most lavish < hrlstinus possible. It seems to be generally agreed that never was so much money put into preparations I ° r the Kreat holiday in the history aia c ;ln<l f ertainly stores never did such u business in everything from furs to flowers. And the dis tribution of the enormous amount of material that went into the State capitals Christmas probably kept more men and women hustling than recorded heretofore. Harrisburg bought early and it bought late and when the time came to close the stoics on Wednesday there were still buyers, just as when the cars made their owl" runs around midnight there were rolks with bundles going homeward. So here's to the people who made'it possible. The men and women in the stores say that they accumulated a rare experience in human nature and all kinds of money. One of the features was the number of checks. More people ap peared to have bank accounts 'and there was any quantity of gold passed over the counters and into the drawers and registers. It must be confessed that many store people 'pund that folks bought expensive ' things. Prices were high for every thing, hut height was not much of i deterrent even when candy cost ♦ 1.00 a pound and plain sweaters sl2 to $1 i .50. The delivery forces were kepi on tlie jump. The ordinary •qiiipmcnt of several establishments was inadequate and trucks and auto mobiles were secured to lielp otit. I rucks for hire that were not com mindeered, to all intents and pur poses, by the postal authorities to handle an unprecedented quantity of mail and parcel post matter were in lemuiul and got ulniost their own rates. Delivery entered mightily into the cost of things this Christmas. Tlie post office force was pressed against the walls and even with extra help struggled far into Christmas lay to get its work out of the way. eating meals on tlie fly and catching' , sleep when tlie chance came. The Christmas rush gave the Har risburg Railways Company the hard est tost it lias ever lifid to meet and th e Valley Railways Company poured thousands of buyers into Har risburg and took them out again. It was a hectic week for the trolley people and conductors and motor men thanked heaven that custom lias so firmly established in Harrisburg that folks pay as they enter. Old fashioned fare taking in the crowds that jammed the cars would have been a trial to tlie spirit and a menace to clothes. Cars were crowded and the people insisted on crowding them. Crowds paralyzed schedules every now and then and many people got home late, but it was because public demands were pressed upon the public utility. Every car that could be sent out was in service for the "day before" and the, "night before" was of a kind that caused one veteran conductor to re mank: "Say, what would it have been like with this crowd and there had been no proliibitioni" Just one shivering bellsnickle, tlie embodiment of loneliness and melan choly, was to be seen in the shop ping district Wednesday night. Gone were the old-time exponents of hi larity and mummery who used to make Third and Market streets joy ous jams and twit the soda foun tain-clerks and Josh the bartenders. Absence of tlie old-time celebrators was one of tlie striking things and winds that swept around corners were asking why the change to Hal lowe'en and New Year's night. Prob ably it came because Christmas eve is always a time of rush to get pres ents delivered and to buy those last ones, all of which keeps many peo ple employed and out of the fun. • • But Market street still had Its orange salesmen. Descendants of those cur.bstonc merchants who lined the street between Third and the railroads in the eighties were all out Saturday night. They were not .lin eal, perhaps, but they were in the same old places and tbey sold the same "Florida russets" and other types that they did when somo of us were much younger with the same old cries, although the prices they asked, and got, were of a variety that would have, caused a near riot in 1592. Perhaps there were lacking the flaring torenes that ornamented wagons and made buyers choke, but the wagons looked like those of the nineties and there were some backed . into Dewberry alley just the way they 1 used to be placed when the Patriot i was printed on Market street and lowering of a pair of shears on a cord as a fishing experiment not unknown among printers and budding journalists. These Christ mas eve orange merchants are a curious lot. They do not seem to appear except on the "night before." • • • From what the postmen say, and they certainly appeared to be ex perts in ways of giving from the packs that they carried and the loads that they bore, there were more Harrisburg people who turned to that delightful custom of sending Christmas cards than ever before. The mails for three days have been filled with cards and when one comes to think of it few ways of greeting are more appealing And it may bo added that no matter liow busy the man or woman or how surrounded with the facilities of modern corre spondence, making up of the list and addressing of the envelopes is not very often passed on to some one else. • • Returning to our opening thought, did you remember the postman and 1 the milkman with a plate of cakes? ' They .contributed considerably to the ' | making of the day. ] WELL KNOWN PEOPLE I \ 1 Provost 10. F. Smith, of the Uni versity of Pennsylvania, entertained the students who could not go home for Christmas yesterday. Rembrandt Peale, operators' rep resentative in the coal dispute, is a Pennsylvania!! with half a dozen i Pennsylvania generations behind • him. _ _ Ex-Congressman S. W . McCall, well known here, has declined a i judgeship in Massachusetts. p r . William Draper Ixvria, see • retary of the Constitutional Revision ' Commission, has written a book ou ■ Roosevelt. —A. C. Gumbert, Allegheny county • Coihmissioner, has been elected president of the Republican Tariff , Club, of Pittsburgh. • \ 00 YOU 1 —That Harrisburg bank de- IKiKtts have climbed considerably ' ' I in tlie last si* months? i i HISTORIC HARRISBURG —John Harris established the Ural [ grain warehouse for this section Ja yrhat is now Harris Park.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers