The Dallasost
ESTABLISHED 1889 TELEPHONE T'ALLAS 300
A LIBERAL, INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
PuBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING
AT THE DALLAS PosT PLANT
LEHMAN AVENUE, DALLAS, PA.
By THE DaLrLas Post, INC.
General Manages
HOWELL REES .........coeocveivnrneinrissbiiessssimmistsrssis rs tasssns on Managing Editor
The Dallas Post is on sale at the local news stands. Subscription
price ‘by mail $2.00 pavable in advance. Single copies five cents each.
' Entered as second-class matter at the Dallas Post Office.
Howarp RISLEY
THE DALLAS POST is a youthful weekly rural-suburban news-
paper, owned, edited and operated by young men interested in the de-
velopment of the great rural-suburbap region of Luzerne County and in
the attainment of the highest ideals of journalism. THE POST is truly
“more than a newspaper, it is a community institution.”
Congress shall make no law * * abridging the freedom of<gpeech, or
3 DLess From the first amendment to the Constitution of the United
es,
Subscription, $2.00 Per Year (Payable in Advance).
Subscribers who send us changes of address are requested to include
both new and old addresses when they submit their notice of change.
THE DALLAS POST PROGRAM
~ THE DALLAS POST will lend its support and offers the use of its
columns to all projects which will help this community and the great
rural suburban territory which it serves to attain the following major
improvements:
1. Construction of more sidewalks for the protection of pedestrians in
Kingston township and Dallas.
2. A free library located in the Dallas region.
3. Better and adequate street lighting in Trucksville, Shavertown,
Fernbrook and Dallas.
4, Sanitary sewage disposal system for Dallas.
5. Closer co-operation between Dallas borough and surrounding
townships.
6. Consolidated high schools and better co-operation between those
that now exist.
: 7. Adequate water supply for fire protection.
! 8. The formation of a Back Mountain Club made up of business men
and home owners interested in the development of a community con-
sciousness in Dallas, Trucksville, Shavertown and Fernbrook. ;
9. A modern concrete highway leading from Dallas and connecting
with the Sullivan Trail at Tunkhannock.
A THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK
‘My creed is this: .
Happiness is the only good.
The place to be happy is here.
The time to be happy is now.
The way to be happy is to help make others so.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
To Them—Our Hearty Well-Wishes
~ Belatedly, but with no less sincerity, The Post joins in congratulations to
two local persons and the aunt of another local resident who last week cele-
brated advanced birthdays.
"Mos. Barbara Kiefer, 91, Mrs. Emma Rozelle, 90, and John C. Wilson, 84,
all have blessings far greater than any wishes we could extend to them. Never-
theless, we do extend such wishes, and assure these three grand persons that to-
day their friends include many people whom they have never known.
wv * *
Afriad Of Their Own Opinions
A discouraging thing about American politics is the timidity most poltici-
ans show about expressing their own opinions, lest they become involved in -a
controversy which might lose them some votes.
This is true locally now of officials who are alarmed at the loss of revenue
which would result to four local towns if local option succeeds. Yet, despite
their willingness to argue their points among friends and in confidence, those
officials refuse to express their opinion publicly for fear of alienating the
~ church vote.
: Obviously, the politician is not as much concerned with advancing the
causes he believes right as he is in holding the vote. The average official is
perfectly willing to argue with the editor, but seldom courageous enough to put
‘his opinions over his own name.
® 0% *
The Straw Votes
Although pre-election polls, such as that now being conducted by The
Post in conjunction with 3,000 other weekly newspapers, hold great interest, it
does not pay to accept them blindly without careful analysis.
The Post-Autocaster Poll, it must be remembered, is being taken in small
towns. Landon has a decided lead, indicating that in the rural territories the
Republican Party will have strong support. What must be remembered is that
~ Roosevelt's strong support comes from metropolitan areas.
Similarly, in The Digest poll, the names are gathered largely from telephone
directories. The amateur prognosticator weakens his predictions if he fails to
consider that much of Roosevelt's support will come from WPA workers, many
of whom have no telephones.
On the other hand there can be no argument against the fact that to date
most straw votes have shown amazing strength for Mr. Landon.
*« ow *
“It Can’t Happen Here”—Oh, No?
“Jt can’t happen here”—but apparently it can out in Indiana.
All through this election campaign there have been startled cries of “dic-
tatorship” from conservatives who are alarmed by the spread of communism
and fascism abroad. It is significant that the most dictatorial action of the year
- comes from those conservatives, and is directed against the feared and hated
Reds they attack.
The arrest of Earl Browder, Communst candidate for President at Terre
Haute, Ind., last week is a nasty splotch on the national escutcheon. In Ger-
many, in Italy, in Russia such a tyrannical act might have been excused. In a
Jand presumably of liberty and free speech it is disgraceful.
The Post has no great sympathy for communism nor for its candidates but
until we scrap the principles on which this country was founded a man must
have the right to have his say. Once petty officials are granted the right to 1g-
nore the constitutional guarantees of political liberty we open the doors to un-
American doctrines—and invite such terror as exists in Europe. .
There should be a nation-wide protest over the Terra Haute incident. Any
other course would indicate that we are interested only in upholding liberty and
freedom for persons whose ideas we happen to approve.
; ® k
The Nation’s Leading Fascists
The few scattered votes being cast for Lemke in The Post’s Pre-election
Poll are encouraging for they indicate that in this section the fascist tendencies
of Father Coughlin and Dr. Townsend are not registering .
We believe both gentlemen are downright angry and somewhat sincere in
what they preach, but we cannot indorse the methods they use to force their
ideas upon an allegedly free people.
and naziism than those sponsored by Father Coughlin and Dr. Townsend.
There is no movement in this country today closer to European fascism
WASHINGTON
LETTER
At the time this is written, the elec-
tion is just five weeks in the future.
The issues—such as they are—are
drawn. The rattle of political machine-
gun fire grows constantly louder.
The average citizens has neither the
time nor the inclination to keep up with
a presidential campaign in its hectic
closing period. To do that, he would
have to read a dozen speeches each
week; peruse a score of columns au-
thored by observers ranging all the way
from GOP-stalwart Mark Sullivan to
New Dealer Jay Franklin, and keep up
with hundreds of thousands ot words of
news-matter sent out by the big press
associations.
In the week ending September 27, a
number of highly dramatic and poten-
tially important incidents occurred.
Both the President and Governor Lan-
don took to the radio to expound their
views on various issues. And, on a
lower political level, scores of party
followers carried on for their chiefs.
Most dramatic event was William
Randolph Hearst's attack on the Presi-
dent, in which he said that Mr. Roose-
velt had the support of “enemies of the
American system of government’ —
that is, the Communists. This was
prohptly denied by Earl Browder, of-
ficial Communist presidentidl nominee.
Of more practical importance in the
vital matter of vote-getting was the at-
tention paid to the long-debated sub-
ject of farm crop insurance by both
contenders. Mr. Roosevelt announced
in a press conference that he had ap-
pointed a committee to formulate plans,
said that “crop insurance and a system
of storage reserves should operate so
that surpluses of fat years could be
carried over for use in lean years.” A
day or two later Governor Landon
made public part of a yet-unspoken
speech, in which he too endorsed in-
surance. Inasmuch as crop insurance is
mentioned in neither party platform,
unprejudiced commentators think that
both candidates were out to get the
jump on the other with something new
and compelling—that a stalemate re-
sulted.
Unusually aggressive was Governor
Landon’s speech on social security, in
which he assailed administration meth-
ods, though he approves of such a plan
in principle. He said the New Deal
law was a “cruel hoax”, that it en-
dangered “the whole cause of social se-
curity,” and pledged his party to the
enactment of a ‘pay-as-you-go’ old
age pension system which would “pro-
vide for every American citizen over 65
the supplementary payment necessary
to give a minimum income sufficient
to protect him or her from want.”
On the radio, the President continu-
ed his policy of making well-phrased,
calm speeches, in which he criticizes
his opponents only by inference. His
big drive is yet to come—he apparent-
ly feels it is more or less a waste of mo-
tion to make major speeches as early
as this, and will wait until mid-Oct-
ober.
In the meantime, the endless specula-
tion as to who will win continues. The
Literary Digest poll, on the basis of
early returns, gives Landon a big lead
—most other polls give Roosevelt a
small but seemingly safe margin. State
primaries so far have shown little. Anti-
New Deal Democrats have been badly
beaten for the most part, as have the
Townsendites. The Maine election is
said by Republicans to make a GOP
victory certain, while Democrats pooh-
pooh it. As a matter of fact, in the past
when Democrats have carried election
in Maine a Democratic president has
always been elected. When Republicans
have won by tremendous majorities, a
Republican president has always been
elected. But when the election was re-
latively close, as it was this year, the
following national election has always
been close as well. In that, the Maine
results echo the views of most political
experts—the next President will win his
office by a very slim margin.
FIBBER McGEE
Uncle Sam is an awful poor
trainer fer fat John Bull,
Molly. He sbeen trying toget
afew poundsoffhim for years.
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DO YOU DROP ALL
YOUR *H'S IN THE
ALPHABET SOUP?
bese Rives
Matthews
While Broun Moans, Mat-
thews Analyzes The Psycho-
logy Of Wailing And The
Comfort Of Addressing
Stones That Do Not Hear.
Dear Sick Friend:
I suppose a time always comes when
the human body is beyond doctoring,
or at least beyond renovating, but I be-
lieve there must be plenty of time for
doctoring what no scientist has ever
managed to glimpse through a micro-
scope.
For want of a better word, let’s call
it soul. And to avoid pulpit allegory,
let’s call the doctoring rationalizing or
adjusting the inner feeling to the outer
goads and pricks.
—0—
I am, myself, too much a creature of
the senses, and still too young and
healthy, to have too much faith in this
particular panacea, but they tell me it
works for people who are as deeply
religious as you are, and so you will
find in me an advocate of faith healing
for those to whom faith is a reality.
No less a saviour of the flesh than
Dr. Alexis Carrel professes a belief in
some of the cures made at Lourdes,
where he saw a cancerous growth dis-
appear like a card in the hand of the
late Howard Thurston.
We know, of course, that the card
goes up Thurston's sleeve, or into his
pocket. In any event, chemistry teaches
us that nothing really vanishes, al-
though it may change its substance. It
may change from a solid to a gas or
vice versa.
—_——
Yet the cancerous growth Dr. Carrel
saw literally vanished beneath the as-
tonished eyes of this scientist who
grew up with modern chemistry and
surgery. So once again, despite the
scepticism of the senses, and that more
acrid scepticism which is so often bred
in laboratories, we must return to that
old axiom which assures us, in our
most desperate moments, that while
there is life there is hope.
The only serious illness I ever had
was when I was fourteen. I went to
the school infirmary and reported what
I thought a slight cold in the head. Late
that night a distinguished surgeon ar-
rived from Boston and went to work on
the back of my head with a hammer
and chisel. Of course I knew nothing
about it, and it was only when I was
convalescing that I learned the details
of that marvelous mastoid operation
which was first performed by a barber
on King Louis of France.
——)—
The only suffering I can recall was
when the dressings had to be changed.
At first I tried to be what my nurse
called “a little soldier”. I gritted my
teeth. I concentrated with all my de-
pleted boyhood force on not letting out
an agonized yelp. The pain was terri-
fic, and it seemed to me that while
there was life there was only pain.
Then, for some reason, a new and
younger doctor was given the gruesome
task of torturing my raw and still ex-
posed brains (at least, that’s what it
seemed like to me.) He saw me gritting
my teeth, my hands trying to hide the
tears in my frightened eyes.
“Go ahead!” he advised, “Cry, yell,
Health Khyme
Masticate each mouthful well,
Never overeat;
Always wear your rubbers in
Snow or rain or sleet
Guard your health from morn
to night—
O’er your diet fuss;
And you'll probably expire
Underneath a bus!
scream, kick. But try to keep your head
reasonably still. The pain will be less
if you stop gritting your teeth. This
“little soldier” business is all the bunk.
Of course it hurts, and it'll hurt a
whole lot less if you give some of your
body free rein and thus a little distrac-
tion from what I’m doing to your in-
cision.”
—C—
Maybe those weren't his exact words,
but that was the gist of what he said.
And I believe that doctor had the right
psychological slant, if not the correct
psychophysical one.
Have you ever mistaken your thumb
for a nail head, and given it a good
whack with a hammer? What do you
do instinctively providing your wife
isn’t around or someone else before
whom you wish to appear a civilized
great big he-man? Don’t you sputter a
few lusty oaths and go into a wild fan-
WHAT OF
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dango Fred Astaire would take years
to master?
Sure you do. And the reason seems
to me to be very simple indeed. The
oaths and terpsichorean frenzy pro-
vide a distraction from the throbbing
agony in your thumb.
——
And so it must be with Wailing Walls
and sick people who seem to delight in
talking about their operations, symp-
toms and doctors. There are all potent
and often efficacious distractions, and
while to an Arab the Wailing Wall may
appear only a public nuisance where
Jews have caterwauled for centuries
and to healthy people and young peo-
ple the constant conversational preoc-
cupation of sick or elderly people with
matters medical may seem only a tire-
some and. fruitless expenditure of
breath, we who are members of less op-
pressed races or who have suffered
nothing more than a periodic submis-~
sion to a dentist’s drill should be will-
ing to give these unfortunates the only
medication that is within our power to
administer. That is a tolerant sympathy
and a readiness to be as patient as
those poor stones in Palestine against
which have been hurled the lamenta~
tions of the afflicted for centuries.
—_——
The stones, of themselves, can do
nothing. They can only stand. They
can’t even listen, but those who go to
the Wailing Wall don’t know that, and
those who come to us likewise don’t
know that we are not doctors, either of
body or soul, but only fellow sufferers,
each with our own inner and our own
very particular kinds of Wailing Walls.
LIBERTY?
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