THE DALLAS POST, DALLAS, PA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1936.
Editorials - Letters To The Editor
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~~ TheDallasPost
ESTABLISHED 1889 : TELEPHONE DALLAS 300
A LIBERAL, INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING
AT THE DALLAS PosT PLANT
LEHMAN AVENUE, DALLAS, Pa.
By THE D#iras Post, INC.
Howarp RISLEY General Manages
Howzeri Rees Managing Editor
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Entered as second-class matter at the Dallas Post Office.
Shy
: THE DALLAS POST is a youthfu! weekly rural-suburban news-
paper, owned, edited and operated by young men interested in the de-
~ Velopment ofthe great rural-suburban region of Luzerne County and in
Phe 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 ofcspeeeh, or
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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
Amprovements:
3 1. Construction of more sidewalks for the protection of pedestrians in
Kingston township and Dallas. : | x
2. A free library located in the Dallas region. :
i 8. Better and adequate street lighting in Trucksville, Shavertown,
- Fernbrook and Dallas.
i 4. Sanitary sewage disposal system for Dallas.
5. Closer co-operation between Dallas borough and surrounding
townships. ; f
: 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. :
ar 9. A modern concrete highway leading from Dallas and connecting
with the Sullivan Trail at Tunkhannock. :
A THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK
All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
— John Arbuthnot, M. D.
~~
Mr. Citizen Casts His Vote.
For six months Mr. Citizen has been listening to speeches, reading editor-
jals, hearing grguments, perusing pamphlets, attending rallies, and con-
sulting his conscience in preparation for next Tuesday.
By this time he is a little tired of the conflicting claims and the fierce
ithets. He has probably decided how he will vote. Now all he wants to
» is to exercise his sacred privilege and forget about politics until next
Spring. - -. .
This will be an historic election. We cannot believe that the nation is
in as great a danger from either Presidential candidate as some of the
rival orators passionately insist. - Both candidates have tried to invade the
other's field but to the mass of voters this contest is basically between the
conservatives, as symbolized by Governor Landon, and the liberals, as led
by President Roosevelt.
the political complexion of this country. Either we want the nation to be
~ fundamentally as it was in the post-war era, or we want to experiment
with new ideas which may strengthen democracy against the onslaught of
fascism or communism.
If we select Landon, we testify that we want only minor improvements
in our governmental machinery. If we pick Roosevelt, we must be pre-
pared to gamble on experimental ideas. The choice is the individual voter's.
Ae overwhelming force of the ballot next Tuesday will steer us toward the
right or the left as the electorate dictates.
A Challenger For The Demon Rum.
There is a very good possibility that this country is headed again for
national prohibition.
Next Tuesday the voters in Dallas Borough, Lake Township, Dallas Town-
ship and Kingston Township will decide whether the sale of licenses to sell
~ bard liquor is to be permitted in their communities.
At the same time California and Massachusetts will be conducting state-
wide polls on local option.
Last year the number of dry towns in the United States increased 149
per cent; the number of dry counties 94 per cent.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which has been the spear-
~ head of the movement to bring about local option here, has a new program
for raising $1,000,000 within the next five years to re-establish national
prohibition. Such campaigns as the one which will be decided here next
Juesday are merely the beginning of a drive which will make the pre-pro-
hibition crusade look like a mere warm-up.
No voter in these four towns has any excuse for being uninformed on the
issue. If there have been any arguments that have not been brought up in
the letters which have been published in this newspaper we cannot imagine
what they might be. :
Not only the voters here, but dry crusaders and breweries in
other sections will wait anxiously for the returns on next Tuesday’s election.
The returns may indicate whether America intends ‘to try prohibition again.
In order that those returns be a fair basis for judgment it is imperative
that every citizen register his opinion by voting.
The Community Welfare Federation.
Among the more encouraging signs of this world’s gradual improvement
~ are such organizations as the Community Welfare Federation, society’s mech-
anism for bolstering the weak and strengthening the social structure.
The Federation, which will conduct its annual campaign for funds next
month, has proved to be a very satisfactory improvement upon the old sys-
tem of catch-as-catch-can charity, which encouraged every scattered
social and civic agency to do the best it could alone to carry on its work.
: True, no organization is perfect and even the affiliated agencies of the
CWF make little errors occasionally, but in general the good they do is
geater than can be measured. No petty criticism or vague misunderstand-
ing is sufficient reason for anyone to pass up the opportunity to contribute
generously once a year to the Welfare drive.
One of the most “stirring things about these campaigns is the way men
and women give of their own time, without any pay except the satisfaction
of a job well done, to solicit funds for the Federation. Our hats have
always been off to them. We salute them again as they prepare to launch
2 Dew campaign.
So the election will, beside naming a President, reflect very accurately
WASHINGTON
LETTER “w
Fouucs holds just about all the
heaaiunes now. ‘ine great day, Noy-
Cuber J, 1s Just aneau, anu ue Can~
digaies are maklug Wiel DI arives,
the editorial wnters are wearing out
typewnter nbbons, the poll makers are
busy £4 hours a day, and the political
analysts are growing haggard seeking
to forecast the winner.
_ It has been many a year since poli-
tical analysis was so aifhcult—or so
hazardous. Reason for that is that
this year a great number of what are
termed “poutical incalculables” have
arisen. lhose incalcuables may make
past precedents worthless. 0
For example, the old party lines
may not have been broken, but they
certainly have been badly bent. Out-
side of the South which is still over-
whelmingly Democratic, and New Eng-
land which is strongly Republican,
matters are chaotic in the extreme. It
used to be that the Republican candi-
date, even -in close elections, could
count on the far western states, win
almost absolute certainty, Today the
Pacific Coast states, along with several
bordering states, are generally conced-
ed to Mr. Roosevelt by unprejudiced
observers.
It also used to be that Democratic
candidates — dismissing campaigns,
such as those of 1920 and 1924, in
which the Republicans had the elec-
tion cinched even before the nomina-
tions—could count on carrying some
of the big seaboard industrial states.
Today most polls show Roosevelt trail-
ing in such states, and some think that
he has a better chance to carry Penn-
sylvania, which has not cast its elec-
toral vote for a Democrat in genera-
tions, than New York or new Jersey.-
Both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Landon
are seeking to. appeal to voters in all
camps are trying to make their cam-
paigns as non-partisan as possible so
far as old-time party divisions are con-
cerned. That is also true of the plat-
forms—the old Democratic plea for
states’ rights, etc., has been pretty
well dropped, and the Republicans,
who once stood for more centralized
government, are now standing for less
centralized government.
One of the biggest “incalcuables”
5, how many voters have shifted their
party allegiance in the last few vears?
In 1932, a number of leading Repub-
licans deserted Hoover and came out
for Roosevelt—and Hoover took one
of the worst beatings in history. In
1936, a number of leading Democrats
have deserted Roosevelt and come out
for Landon—and everyone is specula-
ting as to how many followers they
can turn against the New Deal.
Most aggressive’ Democratic anti-
New Dealer is Al Smith—it is felt in
some quarters that his speeches de-
nouncing the Administration may shift
a vast number of votes. Ex-Senator
Reed is another Democrat whost
speeches opposing Roosevelt are more
bitter even than those of the Repub-
licans. A considerable list of other
Jeffersonian Democrats who are fol-
lowing suit could be made.
On the other hand, not all of the
conservative Democrats have left the
New Deal. Senator Glass, who is as
big a figure as we have in national
politics, today, has announced that he
will support Roosevelt, even though he
1s opposed: to most Administration
policies. Reasons: He feels that if
Roosevelt is reelected, Democratic
Senators will reassert their independ-
ence, will not have to uncritically obey
ite House orders, because the
President cannot run again. Another
Jeffersonian Democrat who will speak
for the President is Secretary of State
Hull, a cabinet member who constant-
ly has grown in prestige ever since his
appointment.
However, it is beyond argument
that the defection of old-time Demo-
crats from New Deal ranks is worry-
ing the heads of the party. So is the
defection of old-time Democratic news-
papers, such as the Baltimore Sun and
the St. Louis Post Dispatch. And so
is the defection of prominent publicists
who were for Mr. Roosevelt in "#932
and are for Mr. Landon now, of whom
Walter Lippman is the most promin
ent.
All the polls, though most of them
show Roosevelt still leading, show that
many voters who were for him in 1932
are against him now. That is natural
—in that year, the Republican ranks
were the thinnest in recent history.
But the polls show also that there are
some voters who voted for Hoover in
1932 who will vote for Roosevelt this
year.
So this vastly important “incalcul-
able” is the biggest topic of thought
now. It is so important that Frank
Kent has written that it is all there is
to the campaign—that if there are
enough anti-New Deal Democrats who
will switch to Landon he will win; if
there are not, Mr. Roosevelt’s re-elec-
tion is a certainty.
/
/
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LAUGHS FROM THE DAY'S NEWS!
Sag
oN Les
0 2 5 a
1936.
mncoln Newspaper Features
Rives
Those andsize fare-collecting
gadgets Fifth Avenue busmen thrust at
your dimes, the ones that so rudely
grab your politely offered coin right
out of your hand, were invented, and
are now manufactured in Chicago and
Providence, by a man named Rooke.
Recently lightning struck the power
lines of a large utility and forced an
industrial customer to shut down his
plant for several hours. As this cus-
tomer’s plant was a big one, and his
payroll large, he figured out how much
the shutdown cost him, and deducted
the amount from his bill at the end of
the month. Whereupon the utility
sent him a haughty note, citing its
“Act of God” clause. The industrial
ist, who knew his Scriptures, retorted
with passage after passage from the
Good Book proving that lightning was
no act of God, but had been held
throughout the ages to be an act of
the devil. So now that utility’s new
contracts read: ““ . .. not responsible
. . . in case of an act of God and | or
the devil.” :
Another utility yarn ‘concerns two
men who struck up an acquaintance
in a manhattan bar. One of them
confessed to being an official .of the
Edison Company, that vast utility
which has no rivals in the Empire
State. The other man said: “It’s a
pleasure to meet a competitor.” Be-
fore the Edison man could raise an
eye-brow, the other man explained:
“I run a candle factory out on Long
Island.”
The McNeill Milling Company of
Fayetteville, N. C., doesn’t seem to be
worrying much about what will hap-
pen if Roosevelt is re-elected, or if
Mr. Landon is permitted to plant sun-
flowers on the White House lawn. Its
ad reads: “Mill was here before the
town was: 1764—Mill will be here
when the town ain't.”
Paris has again voted Mrs. Harrison
Williams. a blue-grass irl, the title of
World's Best Dressed Woman. Atlantic
City would like to look her over in a
bathing suit.” Meanwhile, Gypsy Rose
Lee remains my choice for the title of
World’s Best Undressed Woman. Can't
you girls meet each other half way?
® 0%
That Forgotten Man President Ro-
osevelt used to talk about doesn’t even
live in the country any more. 1 give
you Mr. Ernest Aldrich Simpson of
the Guards’ Club, London.
CS
Dear to the hearts of scenario wri-
ters are such lines as “From a Balt-
imore boarding house to Buckingham
Palace.” Hollywood certainly owes a
debt of gratitude to Mrs. Simpson and
King Edward for giving this variation
of the old Cinderella plot a little
modern reality. Why, only a few
months go I saw a movie that wasn’t
based on “Poor little dishwasher
makes good in Big City.” It looked
as though the celluloid maestros were
7
| Matthews
Mr.
Music
actually going to give us a few films
based on real life. Now, of course,
the film industry will abandon all that
and give us such Graustark realities
as “From Spencer to Simpson to
Windsor.” :
If made Queen Wallis of England,
the former wife of Lt. Spencer, U.
S. N. and of Ernest Simpson, ship
broker, will not be expected to attend
performances of H. M. S. Pinafore be-
cause of that ballad which concludes
with that derisive line: “...now I
am the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee.”
Victoria Regina never liked it, either.
My favorite story about pre-Roose-
velt' depression days is the one about
my father and Uncle Andy. My fa
ther is a traveling salesman. On on:
of his trips, he stopped off at Piits:
burg, where my sister has friends she
wanted him to look up. They asked
him to dinner.
%» 3»
At dinner, the chief topic of con-
versation was the Depression. All of
its phases were discussed at length,
and each one was finally settled by
the hostess who prefaced all her re-
marks with: “Now Uncle Andy says
3
* * *
My father had his own ideas about
how to cure the depression, and this
“Uncle Andy” stuff got under his
skin. “Huh,” he thought, “This Uncle
Andy is a wise guy, a know-it-all.”
But he said: “If your Uncle Andy
would get himself a printing press,
mitable Style,
Grandfather, And King Ed-
~ ward’s Mrs. Simpson.
Matthews, In His In-
Discusses
On The Farm, His
-
and run off a lot of nice new dollar
bills, he wouldn’t have to worry at
all.” My father thought he'd get a
laugh on that. He always had be-
fore.
® a tw
To his surprise, no one was amus-
ed. Some of the guests were actually
shocked. The hostess’ salad fork
clattered on her plate. She gagged:
“Why, that’s inflation. We can’t have
that.” Fortunately someone saved the
situation by bringing up the weather,
a subject which carried them peace-
ably away from the dining room into
a large living room at one end of
which was a fire-place. And there,
above the fire-place, hung the portrait
of a man who had been Secretary of
the Treasury under Coolidge and
Hoover. The next time my father
saw my sister, he said: “Why in the
name of heaven didn’t you tell me
your friend was a niece of Andrew
Mellon?”
* % *
It is all very well for senators and
congressmen to talk about the dang-
ers of the next war, and the scienti-
fic engines of destructions which have
been prepared against that fatal con-
er have to fight. To my mind, Sen-
flict. These rostrum ranters will nev~
ator Vandenberg’s recent attempt to
use phonograph records of Roose~
velt’s 1932 campaign speeches will do
more to bring home to our politicians
the dangers of the scientific age in
the munition makers’ laboratories.
which we live than any inspection N
TE
EROSION WE
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