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THE DALLAS POST, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1938
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“Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of Mere, Than A Reushaper—A Community Jsstiution THE POST'S CIVIC PROGRAM
fpeeck 7 of Press” — The Constliution. of the Doited Sraies. 1. A modern concrete highway leading from Dallas and con-
The Dallas Post is a youthful, liberal, aggressive weekly, dedica- The Da lla ] Post necting with the Sullivan Trail at Tunkhannock.
ted to the highest ideals of the journalistic tradition and concerned Established 1889 2. A greater development of community consciousness among
primarily with the development of the rich rural-suburban area about residents of Dallas, Trucksville, Shavertown, and Fernbrook.
Dallas. It strives constantly to be more than a newspaper, a com- 3. Centralization of local fire protection.
munity institution. A Liberal, Independent Newspaper Published Every Friday 4. Sanitary sewage systems for local towns.
Morning At The Dallas Post Plant, Lehman Avenue, 5. A centralized police force. F
Subscription, $2.00 per Year, payable in advance. Subscrib- Dallas, Penna., By The Dallas Post, Inc. 6. A consolidated high school eventually, and better co-oper-
ers who send us changes of address are requested to include both ation between those that now exist.
J I Hise wh We Toe Son. Abe LimoWADDWIRSEY. ol General Manager Tonle sini: Oro tele she alls
HOWELL E. REES Managing Editor : : : g
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EDITORIALS
A War Is Finally WON!
There was a war last week and, for the first time in
history, there was victory— for the people.
Wars have flared from sparks less feeble than the
Sudeten crisis. Never before in history have nations gone
o far as they did last week, and then backed down. Never
before in the history of the world could the millions of
soldiers who were waiting been held back after coming so
close to battle.
What, then, stopped this war?
g ‘Since 1918 the people of the world have been subjected
to a consistent barrage of anti-war propaganda. Courag-
eous and intelligent leaders have blazed a shining trail
hrough the primitive jungle of militarism, opening the
way to a saner international outlook. it was a terrific, up-
hill battle, and there were discouraging defeats, but the ac-
cumulated strength showed in the greatest crisis.
Chancellors and dictators and kings and premiers pre-
pared for war last week, exactly as they have in the past,
but when they were ready to give the final order they
found the way blocked by millions of people of every na-
tionality, shouting “Peace” and the armies retreated before
the overwhelming weight of public opinion.
Fearful of their own positions if they continued on
their headlong course, the leaders reversed their field and
~ consented meekly to arbitrate their differences peaceably.
~ Thus ended the war without battles.
It was a thrilling victory for the advocates of peace.
More than that, it was a vindication for the principles of
democratic government, for it illustrated clearly that even
dictators, who admit to no opinion but their own, cannot
afford to disregard the voice of the people when the show-
down comes.
Are We Seeing Things Again?
We wonder if we're seeing things again, or if there
really is some new, vigorous spirit abroad in these parts.
It may be that, by a series of coincidents, we are en-
countering only optimistic signs, and being spared the dark-
er side of things, but we know that in the last few weeks
we've had a feeling that a change is taking place here.
; We can’t recall a time when there was more activity
along Main Street than there has been lately. There are
new stores and finer stores. Real estate is changing hands.
~ Merchants are a little more alert, it seems to us. Some of
them are even starting to advertise.
Scarcely a day passes but what some stranger walks
in The Post seeking information about vacant houses in our
‘neighborhood and if all of them actually find homes and
move here the next census figures are going to look good.
There is no illusion about the building boom. A
dozen homes are under construction and at least twenty-
five more are planned for building this winter. Some of
these sunny fields are finally being filled.
But the finest indication of progress is the news that
school districts about Dallas are contemplating about $300,-
"000 worth of new construction, including two high schools
which will permit expansion of educational programs in
districts which now have a limited curriculum. These are
real additions to the assets of the Back Mountain Region.
There is a new spirit abroad, and it may amount to
more if all of us help to give it a warm welcome and a little
nourishment.
Last Day To Register
Any prospective voter who has not registered by to-
morrow night will have no opportunity to cast his vote in
"the November election. Saturday will be the last day cit-
izens can go to the court house and register.
The entire nation will watch the gubernatorial cam-
paign which will approach its climax this month. The issue
now is clearly a choice between the Little New Deal of Gov-
ernor Earle and the more conservative program offered by
Judge James, the Republican candidate. As a preview of
the 1940 Presidential election, when the same issues will be
argued, Pennsylvania's campaign will have national signifi-
cance, and the outcome will have a decided effect on broad
~ political trends.
; In view of these circumstances, and considering the
fact that Luzerne County men are represented on the slates
of both parties, failure to register can scarcely be excused
by any person who cherishes his rights as a citizen.
RIVES
MATTHEWS
The kindest thing that can be said
about the Social Register is that it’s
a fairly good sucker list for a ring of
small shops whose business is so small
it does not warrant the use of display
advertising in newspapers. When
you've exhausted the possibilities of
the Social Register as a sucker list,
you've just about covered its possi-
bilities as a social agency of any
value.
—Q—
In my opinion it does far more
harm than good, whatever its advan-
tages to the owners of the so-called
exclusive shops. It is, in import, un-
American, anti-social in the larger
sense, snobbish and largely respon-
sible for the creation of unjustified
class boundaries in the minds of
newspaper readers. Even some of
those whose names you will find in
it have been misled into believing
that because of this they are a special
breed of humanity. Registered cat-
tle, horses and dogs have better man-
ners and are more useful to society
than many of the so-called humans
whom the newspapers love to call
“social registerites.”
——
The Social Register flourishes in
New York, Washington, Philadel
phia, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis,
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Bayton, San Francisco, Baltimore and
Buffalo. For some reason, Detrozs,
which is also a city of considerable
size and pretensions, has no Social
Register of its own, but supports
something similar in the snob line
called the Social Secretary. Social
registeritism is thus an urban mani-
festation, a lining up of the few
against the many into haughty, cit
fied groups which are meant to pass
jfor aristocracy in this country whose
founders clearly and flatly stated
that there should be no such pesti-
ferous thing on this free continent.
No one knows just what it takes
to get into the Social Register. If
your grandfather hit it rich, you are
quite likely to find your name in it,
but if you happen to marry an out-
standing musician or a prizefighter
with a gift for words and a love of
Shakespeare, then you are liable to be
dropped. If, on the other hand, you
rise from comparative obscurity, fi-
nancial and otherwise, to be President
of the United States, then you'll be
in, whether Democrat or Republican.
The same applies to Senators, but the
line seems to be drawn there, and
you will find few Congressmen in the
snob bible. Bishops of the Episco-
pal Church, Cardinals, Archbishops,
and some of the monsignori of the
Roman Catholic Church, but not rab-
bis, are in. This does not mean there
are no Jews in the Social Register, it
means only that it’s easier for a Jew
‘to become a registered Republican
than a “social registerite.” In short,
the reasons for admission to the reg-
ister, and ejection therefrom, are
screwy.
3 e——
These days you will hear a deal of
pother about class hatred, largely
from Republican’ lips, but you'll find,
on average, more Roosevelt haters in
the Social Register than without it,
which is ironic, and should make
some of the more violent haters wel
come the opportunity I am about to
offer them. There are, also, plenty of
good Democrats, old style and new,
listed in all the various Social Reg-
ister tomes. They, too, should want
to join my club. :
ye
At first, of course, my club is go-
ing to start out as a very exclusive
one, which is bad, but as time goes
on, I hope that feature will disappear
as more and more members are ad-
mitted. The name of the club shall
be The Anti Social Register Club of
America. I am sending special invi-
tations to a number of past and pres
ent “social registerites”, including the
President and Mrs. Roosevelt, Col
onel and Mrs. Charles A. Lindbergh
and the Duke and Duchess of Wind-
sor.
——
There will be no dues or duties and
anyone is eligible for membership in
the club who has been dropped by
the Social Register or who can show
proof of having asked to be dropped.
ing to ask that Mary Roberts Rhine-
ing to ask that Mary Roberts Rhine-
hart be made an honorary member in
recognition of the effective barbs she
directed against this form of snob-
bery in her latest thriller, “The
Wall.” Other authors, doing the
club a similar service, will also be
eligible for this type of membership.
The chief aim and purpose of the
club shall be to liquidate the use of
the phrase “social registerite,” in
American newspapers, and the club’s
watchword shall be: “When you call
me that, smile!”
oe Qe
In addition to the Roosevelts, Lind-
berghs and Windsors, without consid-
eration of party or creed, I am send-
ing special invitations to Secretary
Morgenthau, Bishop Manning of
New York, Archbishop John J. Glen-
non of St. Louis, Stewart McDonald,
Housing Administrator, Mrs. Irving
Berlin, Senator Millard Tydings,
Marquise de Jouvenel (Martha Gell-
horn), Cornelius Vanderbilt, ]Jr.,
Mrs. Gene Tunney, Senator Arthur
H. Vanderburg, Ambassador and
Mrs. Joseph E. Davies, Major Gen
eral Douglas MacArthur, Jouett
Shouse, Governor Earle of Pennsyl-
vania and Congressman Bruce Bar-
ton of New York.
The
MAIL BAG
Dear Editor:
I noticed an article in a recent
Susquehanna County publication
which went on to say that a worker
had been dropped from the WPA
rolls shortly after he had proclaimed
himself, in no uncertain terms, an
Dear Editor:
“annointment against the day's
work” as you so aptly put it?
Perhaps you are the pioneer type
that would be glad to do away with
our more recent cultures, but I, for
one, am only glad to be an “annoint-
er”, and miss the rare thrill of
breaking the ice in the rain barrel for
a hurried scrub, and then taking a
brisk, early morning jaunt to a drafty
Chic Sale away back thar.
And what choice of descriptives!
“Sensual”, “Voluptuous”! Are we
red-blooded, albeit civilized, males of
the day going to stand for such com-
ment? Workers, Arise!
West Dallas ;
—O. N. P.
Why the satire on modern man’s |
out-and-out Republican.
Strictly speaking, dropping a man
from the WPA because of his polit-
ical affiliations is unfair. But when
a man is reaping the benefits of a
particular regime, and yet openly de-
clares himself opposed to it and its
policies, he brands himself as an im-
becile and an ingrate, it seems to me.
{ And that last rating might be ap-
plied to those councilmen of Repub-
lican boroughs who discuss accepting
federal grants for municipal improve-
ments, and then walk out of meeting
and damn the administration.
—An Impartial Observer
Dallas.
——
Dear Editor:
It seems to me that Mr. Eipper is
a bit too impatient with Mrs. Cham-
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CITY
SYMPHONY
By Edna Blez
The new young lady in our house
has been having dates and if you have
been through the torture of this
stage of the game you can sympa-
thize with us, who are just in the
first stages. Our household, up until
now, has been a fairly quiet one but
now everything we do seems to be
interspersed with telephone calls. We
try not to look too amazed when
some young hopeful asks the new
member of our household to go to the
movies on Friday night!
—
We can’t refuse permission because
we once made the very bold state-
ment that we thought young girls
should go out with the boys now and
then. We said, I think — that a
natural companionship with the oppo-
site sex was normal and healthy or
something like that. So now, of
course, when some fourteen-year-old
with a voice which refuses to stay in
one register asks the new young lady
in our house to go to the movies
what can we do?
own words!
pn
We really wouldn't mind so much
because the movies are only a square
away and our fair daughter does
come home when she is told to, but
we do object to entertaining a four-
teen-year-old who doesn’t know what
to do with his hat and who is at a
total loss for words. We try to be
friendly—because we have been told
we were not friendly enough when
the boys come. So now we try very
hard to entertain an awkward crea-
ture whose father looked about the
same when we were the same age.
——
We keep thinking how scrubbed
he looks and we find ourselves want-
ing to ask him if this is his very first
pair of long trousers. We manage
to get him through the door and into
the living room but he sits so un-
comfortably on the edge of the dav-
enport we begin to worry for him.
berlain, who, I believe, showed rare
judgment in registering her com-
plaints where she thought they would
do the most good, with the Harris
burg authorities.
But then, even Mr. Eipper him-
self admits to being an’ impatient sort
of man, as witness, “I must admit
that I, many times, . . . have found
|it necessary to violate this portion of
the school code (the portion stipu-
lating that the Goss School House
toilets are to be used only by the
students).”
: —B. I. C.
Dallas Township
We can’t eat our!
All this time our fair daughter 1s
upstairs pretending she isn't quite
ready when five minutes ago we did
her hair. We often wonder if she
has read somewhere that one must
always keep the boys waiting. We
can’t see any reason for her delay!
She certainly can find a lot to do
after the door bell rings. Her timely
entrance is almost too much for us.
We feel sure it is carefully prepared.
At least it looks prepared from where
we view the play!
——
“She trips down the stairs ever so
lightly—in fact, one could scarcely
hear her and any other time she
comes down like a team of horses.
She steals a last glance in the hall
mirror and walks into the room as if
she has been rushing to get ready and
‘says in her very best voice, “Oh,
hello, did I keep you waiting long?
I didn’t realize what time it was.
Shall we go?”
——
She smiles her very sweetest in our
direction and ushers the young man
out the door. We watch them walk
down the street and begin wondering
which is worse, the nights we strug-
gle through Latin and Algebra or
Friday nights when we go to the
movies!
THE LOW DOWN
from
HICKORY GROVE
Once in a full'moon I get out
the encyclopedia to look up
something and when I do, I al
ways run into other things, and
sometimes it will keep me up
‘till maybe around midnight.
And the other day I was looking
up Europe, and I run across this
Alexander the Great.
And the way he was throw-
ing out his chest and pouncing
* onto other countries, it was just
like we have in the papers to-
day.
And the encyclopedia, it says
that in 330 B. C., Alexander, he
got clear down there into Peoria
before he died at 33. And then
his soldiers, they found they had
been suckers—and had to mosey
back home, on foot.
But on his way east, this
Alexander he had built the city
of Alexandria in Egypt. And
the great buildings there, they
were big and grand, and some of
em as unnecessary and as full
of Congressmen’s cousins, as
some that we have here on our
own Potomac.
If I was to say what the world
needed most—aside from a sane
dance band or maybe a good
columnist—I would say it is few-
er Alexanders.
Yours, with the low down,
JO SERRA
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