The Somerset County star. (Salisbury [i.e. Elk Lick], Pa.) 1891-1929, February 20, 1908, Image 1

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© Saturday, April 11, 1908.
‘the Republican Ticket,
VOL. XIV.
+ — SALISBURY. ELK LICK POSTOFFICE. PA
. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20. 1908.
So POT Ammotncements
(andidaies, Take Notice
Announcements under this head will be
run until the date of the Spring primary
for $5.00. Additional matter will be insert-
ed for 5 cents per line, each insertion, ex-
cept for candidates who carry no standing
announcement in this paper, who will be
charged 10 cents per line, each insertion.
Portrait cuts will be inserted at the rate of
25 cents per inch, each insertion.
For AssemBLY,
P. L. LIVENGOOD,
OF SaL1sBURY BOROUGH.
I solicit the votes and influence of the Re-
publican voters at the Primary Election to
be held April 11th, 1908. 1 am for local op-
tion legislation and against the licensing of
saloons, and I don’t care who knows it.
P. L. LIVENGOOD.
FOR THE ASSEMBLY.
To the Republican voters:
Iam a candidate for the Legislature, and
solicit your support and influence at the
primary election on April H. If nominated
and elected I will act aud vote conscien-
tiously for what I believe is for the best in=
terests of Somerset cou ty. Iwill be grate-
ful for your support. I have been a work-
ing Republican ever since I became of age,
and have never held a remunerative office.
# F1:ANK M. FORNEY,
1t . Somerset, Pa,
To THE VOTERS oF SoMersET County.
At the request of a large number of pa-
trons of the Prothonotary’s Office. I have
consented to be a candidate for re-election
to said office. anking my many friends
throughout the county for their kindness
in the past, I again, most respectfully so-
lieit your support and influence at the Re-
publican Primary Election to be held
April 11,1908. Very respectrully, ;
49 CHARLES C. SHAFER.
ro
To THE REPUBLICAN Vorers or
SomERrsET COUNTY.
I hereby announce myself as a Republi-
can candidate for the nomination of Coun-
ty Commissioner at the primary election
to be held Saturday, April 11th, 1908, Your
support is respectfully solicited.
4-9 . RUSH 8, MCMILLEN.
For CoMMIssTONER,
P. K. MOORE,
Or MIDDLECREEK TowNsHIP.
Subject to the decision of the Republican
Primary Election to be held April 11, 1908.
1 kindly selicit the support of the Republi-
can voters.
For County COMMISSIONER,
C. C. HECKIE,
Or Summir TowNsHIP.
The support and influence of the Republi-
cans of Somerset county is respectfully so-
licited at the Primary Election to be held
For County COMMISSIONER,
JOSIAH SPECHT.
Or QueMaHONING TowNsHIP.
To the voters of Somerset county:
At the request of a large number of pa-
trons of the Commissioners’ office, I have
consented to be a candidate for re-election
to said office. Thanking my many friends
throughout the county for their kindness
in the past, I again most respectfully so-
licit their support and influence at the
coming Republican Primary Election to be
held April 11, 1908. Very Respectfully,
- JOSIAH SPECHT.
For SHERIFF,
J. W. HANNA,
Or New CENTERVILLE,
I solicit your support for nomination on
at the Primary
Election to be held on Saturday, April 11,
1908. -
. For SuErrrr,
C. A, HUMBERT,
Or MEYERSDALE Boro,
I respectfully solicit your support, at the
Primary Election to be held on Saturday,
April 11th, 1908, for nominatien on the Re-
publican ticket.
For County TREASURER,
U.F. RAYMAN,
OF BROTHERSVALLEY TowNsHIP.
Subject to the decision of the Republican
Primary Election, to be held Saturday,
April 11,1908. YOUR VOTE AND INFLU-
ENCE SOLICITED.
FOR RECORDER OF DEEDS.
I hereby announce myself as a candidate
for Recorder of Deeds, and solicit the sup-
port of Republicans at the Primary Elec.
tion to be held on Saturday, April 11, 1908.
» D. W. WELLER,
Somerset, Pa.
ee Res iris SRS
For County TREASURER,
JACOB KREGER,
Or Kixewoop, Pa.
Iam a candidate for nomination on the
Republican ticket for County Treasurer,
and solicit sapport at the Primary Elec-
tion on April 11th, 1908. I am an old soldier
and lost a leg in the service.
JACOB KREGER.
——
¥or CLERK or Courns,
F. A. HARAH,
PrixoiraL or THE Rockwoop ScHoows,
8olleits your support at the Primary elec
tion on Saturday; April 11, B, for nomis
&ation on the Republican 4 icket,
For SHERIFF,
N. B. McGRIFF,
OF SoMERSET BoRrouGgH.
I hereby announce my candidacy for the
office of Sheriff of Somerset county, and
respectfully ask (he support of the Repub-
licans at the coming Republican Primary
Election to be held on Saturday, April 11s
1908.
FOR ASSEMBLY.
To the Republican voters of Somerset
county, Pa.: >
I hereby announce nly candidacy for re-
election to the Pennsylvania legislature.
It has been a time honored custom that
Somerset county members should be given
a second term. I always yielded to this
point in regard to my predecessors in that
body, and feel that I am deserving of the
same honor that was accorded them.
support at the primary election to be held
Saturday, April 11, 1908.
AMOS W. KNEPPER.
F. A. HARAH.
A Prominent Candidate for Clerk
of the Courts.
The subject of this sketeh.is a man of
far more than ordinary ability,and those
who know him best are his staunchest
friends and supporters. Mr. Harah
was born in Ursina. about 80 years ago,
and is a son of the late Dr. W. S. Harah.
a prominent and intelligent physician
who resided in that town some years
ago, but now deceased.
F. A. Harah is a graduate of the
Lock Haven State Normal School, and
at present is the efficient principal of
the Rockwood schools, which stand
well up in fhe front ranks of (he
schools of Somerset county. The high
standing of the Rockwood schools ix
largely due to the excellent work: of
Mr. Harah, who has been principal
|| thereof during the last five years, His
long retention in his present position
speaks volumes for his ability, whieh
will be none the less in the office he
seeks, if elected. Besides, Mr. Harah
is a most affable and courteous gentle-
man, always in a good humor, and on
the right side of all questions that con-
cern morality and good government.
During the past few years Mr. Harah
has been assisting County Superintend-
ent Seibert in holding the teachers’
examinations, and in that capacity
has won golden opinions. His many
friends claim that he is an ideal candi-
date for the office he seeks, znd (heir
reasons for thinking so cannot well be
disputed. 1t.
— ep
For County COMMISSIONER,
WM. M. SCHROCK,
OF SOMERSET. 1t
® t 3 fi
0 Nn {r (ll fi It
Baltimore & Ohio 18, 1,
LOW RATE—ONE WAY
COLONIST FARES
TO PRINCIPAT POINTS IN
CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, InAmO, BRITISH
CoLUMBIA, MEXICO, NEW MEXx100, NE-
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VADA, OREGON, WASHINGTON.
ON SALE DAILY
FROM FEBRUARY 29 TO APRIL, 20,1908,
For tickets and full information call
on or address ticket agents, Baltimore &
Ohio R. R. 2-27
m———
I respectfully solicit your influence and [
| effects of the legalized liquor traffic in
OPEN LETTER
To the People of Somerset County.
FerLow Orrizens:—As a candidate
seeking election to the General Assem-
bly of Pennsylvania, address to you
this open letter, defining my position
on such issues as I have reason to be-
lieve the people of Somerset county
are vitally interested in, as well as to
state my position on other matters
which you may have never given any
thought.
THE LocAn Opriox QUESTION,
Iam glad to note that the people
are especially aroused on the blighting
Somerset county. The evils of this
traffic are becoming so enormous, and
the license privileges so shamefully
abused, that the offense to common de-
cency smells to high heaven, and the
traffic has gotten to be a festering, rot-
ten sore on the body politic and upon so-
ciety. It is but natural, therefore, that
decent and observing people are de-
manding to know where the several
candidates for legislative honors stand
on the Local Option question or other
measures that may be looked to for
relief from the debasing conditions.
I, for one, shall in this letter dispel all
doubt as to where I stand on this vital
question, (if there ever was any doubt
about it) and I would have done so
earlier, bad I not been stricken down
by a severe spell of sickness, some
weeks ago, from which I am just now
recovering.
‘When a man stands fora certain
issue, I think he should give his rea-
sons for the same, and I shall proceed
to give my reasons for being in favor
of loeal option, an issue I have always
believed in.
‘A local option law would give the
sovereign people a right to say by their
votes whether or not they want liquor
sold or manufactured in their respect-
ive counties or districts; according as to
how the Inw would be framed. That
is a right which the people should have,
and the people who are clamoring for
that right are not the narrow-minded,
igncrant, besotted and rum-soaked
minions of the saloon-keepers, but the
best and most intelligent people of the
commonwealth—the bone and sinew.
as well as the brains and law-abiding
element thereof. I favor a local option
law on a county unit, believing it to be
the first step toward State and Nation.
al prohibiton of the liquor traffic,
which is coming at a rappid pace, fol-
lowing closely in the footsteps of local
option’in a number of the states, where
prohibition has already become a re-
ality.
I am in favor of any legislation that
will tend’ to the ultimate overthrow of
the liquor traffic, for that traffic is a
public nuisance, and not one single
good argument can be advanced in its
favor. Statistics show that the revenue
derived therefrom does not begin to
support the paupers it makes or main-
tain the jails and other prisons made
necessary by the crime growing direct-
ly out of the sale and use of liquors.
I do not wish to pose as a moral saint
or one who has always been a total ab-
stainer. Saints do not inhabit this
earth, and total abstainers are compar-
itively rare. Iamnot a sot or an
habitual tippler, but I have sampled
just enough booze in my time, and have
been around the places where it is sold
just enough to know by experience
what an infernal nuisance it is. I have
even signed some few license petitions
|
o
general the more. tLis plain
enough for you?
I am opposed to gigantic trusts and
| combines whose sole object is to en-
| rich themselves at the expense and im-
| poverishment of the general publie, and
no other combination on earth is so
greedy, so grasping and so grinding as
the liquor combine. What other com-
bine gives its patrons so little of real
value for their money? What other
Say, is
combine has financial = profits so
great? And the great bulk of
the ill-gotten gain, too, comes
from the pockets of the poor, robbing
innocent children of bread, of clothes
and of education, and supplying them
with stripes, kicks and curses instead.
And must all this be tolerated in the
name of personal liberty, and to sustain
the flimsy plea that liquor license is
necessary in order that the stranger
within our gates and the way-faring
man may be cared for? Not as I view
it.
I have traveled in prohibition states
quite extensively in my time, and I
have found hotels in those states just as
numerous, and their accommodations
just as good, yea, better than in states
where booze is sold in connection with
the public hostelries. Too many hotels
in this state are conducted merely for
the sake of selling booze. The booze
department of them is the only depart-
ment that is given much attention.
Such places are merely saloons, nothing
more, and usually very tough ones at
that. The average citizen who reads
this can readily recall a number of such
disreputable joints without letting his
mind wander over much territory, and
where such joints exist, speak-easies al-
so usually flourish better than in pro-
hibition territory, because the licensed
law-breaker and the unlicensed law-
breaker fear each other, hence nurse
their hatred in silence and wisely keep
out of the courts.
Let us look for a moment at the greed
and impudence of the booze sellers’
combine right here in Somerset county.
Not content with profits that make the
Some time ago I had a confidential
conversation with a member of (lie a-
loon-keepers’ organization of this couti-
ty. Iwas very arrogantly informed by
| the said member that unless I lined up
up on the saloon side in my candidacy
for office, that I might just as well drop
all hope of being nominated. I was as-
sured, however, that if I would seek and
secure the endorsement of the saloon-
keepers’ organization, that I would be a
sure winner,and that T would have a
large campaign fund at my command
with which to secure votes. I informed
him that the use of money in politics
was reduced to actual legitimate ex-
penses of candidates, by the Corrupt
Practices Act, whereupon I was assured
that a way would be found to get around
the law. This, no doubt, sounded very
good to the man alluded fo, but it did
not sound good to me. I could not
make myself believe that I should first
become a law-breaker in orderto be-
come a law-tiaker.
I was flatteringly told by the man re-
ferred to that 1 would make a good
member of the Legislature, if elected
on the right side, which, in his judg-
ment, is the saloon-keepers’ side. I
was then invited tocome to Somerset at
the time of the next meeting of the sa-
loon-keepers, and was promised I would
be given fine treatment and ample
proof that it would be to my interest
to line up against local option. But I
did not go, and neither did I seek the
confidential conversation referred to.
However, I have thought over it a great
deal since, and the more I think over it
the more I regard the whole thing as an
insult to my manhood. That conversa-
tion, more than anything else, has
aroused me to take the vigorous stand
against saloonsfthat I have decided to
maintain from this time forward.
But there are enough other reasons
why I should take this firm stand,
chief among which I may name the
following: I have witnessed the sa-
boycotting game too fur “.meddle into
polities too deep. There is grea.
danger of the court punishing them for
pernicious polities] vetivity, and be-
sides, the dager qf remonstrances
and wholesale prosecution for viola-
tions of the Brooks law will be very
great hereafter, if the ‘saloon-keepers
get too vindictive against those who are
exercising their rights by advocating an
issue which the best people in the coun-
ty arein full sympathy with.
The candidate who decides to be a
dodger of vital issues is never to be
trusted. He isa coward and a craven,
and/usually very susceptible to bribes
or anything for his personal gain. The
mollycoddle has no business in the
legislative halls of a great common-
wealth. We must have men not afraid
to raise a fog, but men strong and sun-
crowned—men who can rise above the
fog and dust and speak their sentiments
in no uncertain sound. =e
I want to go to the Legislature if I
can get there on a respectable platform
and by fair means, But I would rather
be defeated on righteous issues than to
be elected on a platform of error, de-
ception and infamy. I would rather
have this open letter stored away in the
hearts of my posterity and my country-
men, than to bave it engraved on gran-
ite or bronze that I was eleeted to the
Legislature as a saloon candidate.
Some months ago a well known saloon-
keeper requested me to talk to his son
and try to dissuade him from the drink
habit. He said: “I can’t do anything
with him, and he’s drinking himself to
death.” In other words the business
conducted by the father was evidently
the ruination of the son, and not only
his own son ,but the sons and fathers of
many others. T talked to the saloon-
keeper’s son as requested, but it oceur-
ed to me that the father needed a talk-
ingto more than his son, Then, too,
this question arose in my mind: Why
does he not ask me to talk to the sons
loons ruin and debase the intellect of
gome of the brightest and most gener-
ous-hearted men I have ever known. I
Standard Oil Company’s profits look
insignificant in comparison, the ‘retail
liquor dispensers of Somerset county
formed a combine, a year or more ago,
to establish a list of trust prices for
their goods. i
Not content with raking in a large
part of-the earnings of poor men whose
families need all their income, the
booze combine next turns its attention
to politics. An organization is accord-
ingly formed to devise means and raise
funds with which to down any candi-
date for office not in sympathy with the
damnable and dirty liquor traffic. Are
solid and substantial people, the decent
and law-abiding, the frugal and indus-
trious, and those professing Christian-
ity, or even nothing more than ordi-
nary morals and goed horse sense—are
ali such ready to allow the saloon-
‘keepers of Somerset county to be the
masters of the polities thereof? I think
not. However, there is but one of two
things to do—either take to the woods
and cry “God save the commonwealth,”
or line up like men and fight tathe
last ditch against such a proposition.
"The saloon-keepers’ organization
formed many months ago in this coun-
ty can only be construed as a challenge
for combat with the anti-saloon forces,
It ought not take a good citizen long to
decide on which side to line up, and if
all church members will vote and work
as they pray, all teachers vote and
work as they teach, and all others vote
and work as their consciences would
suggest, the saloon-keepers’ organiza-
tion of Somerset county will be given
such a drubbing on the 11th of April as
to make it look as insignificant after
the votes are counted as it is now boast-
ful and arrogant. “Up, guards, and at
them !” and remember that this is no
time to give quarter or support to dodg-
ers, mollycoddles, nature-fakirs and
candidates who are afraid to tell where
they stand on this issue.
Any business requiring a petition
praying for its continuance, and cannot
get at least a majority of the people of
is district on its petition, isa business
that has no moral right to exist, and
the power to licence a business of that
kind should not be vested in any one
man. Our present license system af-
fords too much opportunity for graft
and the wreaking of personal spite by
Not, however, that TI was
in my time. N
ever in sympathy with the traffic for a
| single moment, but merely because 1
hated to refuse men who had always |
been friendly and sociable with me.
| petition, published my last booze ad- |
vertisement, and from henceforth I de- |
| sire to be counted as an uncompromis-
| ing and unrelenting foe of the saloon, |
| no matter whether IT am elec
| But I have signed my last liquor license
|
|
the license-granting power. Besides,
it looks very absurd for a court to grant
liquor licenses ou the strength of peti-
tions remarkable only for the scarcity
of the signatures of reputable citizens
thereon. It alsolooks absurd and un-
just for the courts to place pitfalls in
the way of poor, weak, erring humanity,
and then punish the victims who fall
intothem and are thus led to commit
crime. It would be just as reasonable
i and right to breed dogs, permit licensed
have seen men driven to despondency,
desperation and suicidal death by the
traffic. I have seen it destroy happy
homes, cause good wives and mothers
to die of broken hearts, drive innocent
children to early graves for want of
proper clothing and nourishment, ete,
etc. Thave even seen it ruin men and
their families who were engaged in the
traffic, wrecking what might otherwise
have been useful and happy lives.
Liquor is a curse from the time'it leaves
the still until the time it reaches the
stomachs of men, and it is a blight and
a curse to all who come in contact with
it, whether sellers or those who drink it
asa beverage.
The most careful of saloon-keepers in
this county have more than once told
me that they violate the Brooks law
every day, and more than once have I
been told by them, “This is a hell of a
business.” The very saloon-keeper
who tried to induce me to run for office
as a saloon candidate, declared to me
the same evening that he would not
tend bar for $200 per month, owing to
his aversien to having a lot of drunken
men around him so much of the time.
No wonder the saloon-keepers are glad
to spew their crops of “drunks” out
upon the public and be rid of them un-
til they get sober and get more money
tospend. But say, isn’t it tough on the
public, the people who have to ride in
the same cars with them, etec., and be
subjected to their vile talk, their vomit,
stinking breath and disgusting appear-
ance?
A saloon-keeper in another state has
repeatedly told me that he never allows
his young sons to enter his place of
business, and that he could not think
of doing so, but wants to stick to it long
enough to make a fortune, then quit.
That kind of a business he should quit
at once, and knowing how he loves his
own boys and desires them to become
useful men, he should spend some time
in thinking of the little boys in the
families of his patrons, and the mothers
of them, whose rightful support is find-
ing its way into the saloon-keeper’s till.
“Somebody else would sell booze to
their dads if I wouldn’t,” is a poor plea,
and one that no rizht-thinking man
will ever put up.
Iknow that I will be ridiculed by
of other men who are going to ruin
through the traffic he is engaged in? It
makes a big lot of difference whose boy
is going to the bad through booze, does
it not?
Now then, my fellow citizens, I think
I have made it thoroughly clear to you
where I stand on the Local Option
question, and to conclude therewith I
have thisto say: If you think a ma-
jority of menin the Legislature holding
my opinion on this question would be
apt to pass laws that would take bread
away from hungry wives and children,
rob them of clothes, wring money from
the pockets of poor men who need their
earnings worse than the saloon-keepers
need them, then don’t vote for me. But
if you think anti-saloon legislation has a
tendency to lessen crime, poverty and
want, lesson the number of broken
hearts and tear-stained cheeks, then I
beg of you to give me your votes and
influence.
Of course you can pick flaws with me,
for I have my faults, and no man is per-
fect. In this instance and on this is-
sue I ask your support and co-operation
not so much in the interest of the can-
didate as for the good of our county,
state and nation. If you cannot quite
make up your mind ‘that the issue I
represent is a righteous one, talk the
matter over with your wives, sweet-
hearts, children, fathers mothers, spir-
itual advisers, if you fave any, and
above all, talk it over with that still,
small voice that appeals to ‘you through
your conscience. If you do so, you
ought have no trouble in arriving at a
proper decision. To vote for righteous
issues will help you to “so live, that
when they summons comes to join the
innumerable caravan, that moves to
that mysterious realm where gach shall
take his chamber in the silent halls of
death, thou go not like the quarry slave
at night, scourged to his dungeon, but,
sustained and soothed by an unfalter-
ing trust, approach thy grave like one
who wraps the drapery of his couch
about him, and lies down to pleasant
dreams.”
Tae U.S. SENATOR QUESTION.
Some of the voters are demanding to
know where the legislative candidates
stand on the matter of choosing a Unit-
ed States Senator—whether they are for
Senator Penrose for re-election, or
against him. As I view it,a man of
good judgment cannot feel justified in
committing himself positively on this
issue, at this time. I am neither a
championnor a traducer of Senator
Penrose. T will not pledge myself to
support him for re-election, and neither
will IT pledge myself not to support him,
There are better men for the office with.
out a doubt, but itis extremely doubtful
some of the patrons of the saloons for
| writing this article, and some of the
saloon-keepers will doubtless withdraw
their patronage from my paper. They
and their employes will also ridicule
| my arguments, but thoughtful people
| al readily understand that self in-
| terest, the money they are making out
| of the traffic, and not conscience is back
| , :
| of their far-fetched and flimsy argu- |
|
| ments. Iknow thatthe saloon-keepers
{ organization of Somerset county has at
| least declared political
whether any better ones will offer for
the place at the next Legislature, es-
| pecially if they are to be set up by cor-
(rupt and discredited political bosses
and spoilsmen like Bill Flynn, of Pitts-
burg, who is seeking to trot one of his
| vest-pocket henchmen into the Senator-
{ ial fight. Ireserve the right to vote fo
| such candidate for U. S. Senator as I
| shall honestly consider the fittest man
| offering for the place, regardless of
what the political “wire-pullers” may
think.
¥
are other iss
lecl
ttm ts
=.
—_,————