Editorially Speaking: A DARK HORSE PRESSES THE LEADERS The speech of Governor Arthur H. James at Grand Rapids, Mich., Monday night—his first sally into national politics in a good many months—may be taken as a clear indication that our neighbor, the Governor, has heard the voices which, in mounting volume, are appealing to him to be a candidate for the Republican Presidential nomination. If there was anything more needed to qualify Governor James as a candidate it’ came promptly in the critical edi- torials which appeared in leading Democratic newspapers on the morning after his speech. If his own party is slow to recognize his strength, the opposition is determined not to be caught napping. That wordy assault, alone, was a fair measure of Governor James’ political arena. new stature in the national As neighbors of the Governor, we are apt to be guilty of wishful thinking with regard to his chances for the nomi- nation. We are reluctant to admit that among the voters of the nation our favorite son actually is behind Dewey, Taft and Vandenberg in the G. O. P. race. The idea of having a summer White House at Harvey's Lake is exciting, naturally. But it is also true that our admiration has a base more solid than community pride. Although he still ranks high in public opinion polls, Mr. Vandenberg, we believe, will have as little chance as Mr. Hoover when the delegates begin to ballot. The real race will be between Dewey and Taft, and it will be beside them that Governor James will have to stand for comparison. All three are men of moderate views. Governor James is probably the most conservative of the three, and that may work to his disadvantage, for there is a feeling among Re- publican voters that their party needs more liberal policies if it is to regain its hold on the electorate. Dewey is better known nationally, but that is an advantage which either James or Taft can overcome easily. All three stand for es- sentially the same things, so far as national policies are concerned. Governor James has had far more experience in public life than either Dewey or Taft. It is interesting to note that since Lincoln the most effective Presidents have been men who had experience as a chief executive, usually as Governor of a State, before they became President. Cleveland, Theo- dore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt all had that advantage. The value of Governor James’ experience as chief executive of the na- tion’s second biggest state cannot be dismissed. Able and willing the Messrs. Dewey and Taft may be, but they are untested. More than either of the other two, Governor James has, too, a native political shrewdness, a quality possessed in abundance by Mr. Roosevelt and extremely valuable to a President. James has been trained in a hard political school. His steady political rise since he was District Attorney of Luzerne County marks him as a leader of men, a sensitive, - sympathetic, understanding politician whose talents are not unlike those of Al Smith, LaGuardia or Lloyd George. Above everything else, though, Governor James is the kind of an American that Americans like, and vote for. Of humble, middle-class parents, the majority of Americans, he founded his career upon his own efforts and character. He numbers among his friends many of the nation’s most impressive figures, yet he has a Lincolnesque preference for old friends at home. He carries bur- dens heavy enough to destroy the ordinary man, yet he has time to stop at some rural crossroads for a friendly exchange of homely opinion with some new-found friend. He does more than make speeches about democracy, he lives it. Governor James is no exception to the rule that no man is without fault. He carries his enjoyment in a good scrap almost to extremes, and has a tendency to lose sight of the main objective in the excite- ment of the fight. He has permitted himself, wrongly we believe, to be- come associated in the public mind with industry and capital, a bond which, in this country today, amounts almost to political suicide. Like most men who have a strong political intuition, he listens too much to his boosters, too little to his critics. But by any system of debit and credit qualifications, he has the right to stand at least shoulder to shoulder with Dewey and Taft in the Republican choice for a Presi- dential nominee, if on no other ¢laim than that he is the man who, against staggering odds, led Penn- sylvania back into the Republican column after it had swung with the rest of the country over to the New Deal. No good Democrat or Re- publican can ignore that accomplish- ment. ¥ Mother Denies Faith Said FDR To Run Again A dispatch from New York City yesterday crediting Faith Hope Charity Harding, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Harding of Trucks- ville, with a prediction that Frank- lin D. Roosevelt will run for a third term was denied yesterday by Mrs. Harding. According to the mother, the four- year-old child, whose predictions have aroused great interest, said only that Mr. Roosevelt will run likeg again if he is drafted. POST SCRIPTS In one of the columns Rives Matthews sent to The Post while he was vacationing in La Jolla, Cal., in July, 1938, he wrote about a young friend he'd just met. The column was an especially good one, SO you may remember it. Rives had been walking along the sea-gnawed cliffs when he saw a boy and a dog climb to a ledge 12 feet above a pool. “The dog sank, panting, to his paws, while the boy stood against the sun, took off his sweat shirt and became a lithe line of gold before he disappeared be- low me.” Alarmed, Rives scrambled down, and saw the boy, safe and whole, standing in water up to his chest. “That took nerve,” Rives remark- ed, with admiration dawning. “It’s all in knowing how,” the boy flash- ed back, as he plummeted again in- to the bright blue water. There was a lot more. Rives and the boy’s friend, Bill, found bicycles and pedalled up La Jolla canyon and to a ranch called Boramar. Bill and the boy, whose name turned out to be Emmons, were Rives’ guests once, dining grandly on ham and egg sandwiches. They were to- gether quite a bit until Rives came back East. That was all we knew of the story until this week. Last week, in a letter, Rives spoke to us about the promising young man who is working for him on the Somerset News down at Princess Anne, Md. No connection yet. We read the piece Rives men- tioned and we agreed with him heartily. It was called “Footnotes” and we wanted it immediately for The Post. We got it, and with it we got a letter from its author. He—so help us—is the same boy who was in (Continued on Page 8) BALLOT CUMBERSOME DESPITE ABSENCE OF LOCAL CONTESTS Only two parties—Republican and Democratic—have been certified to have places on the voting machines here at the primary election next April 23. None of the minor parties which have appeared on the ma- chines in recent years have qualified for positions. Voters in this section will have no campaigns for municipal offices this year. The only local contests will be the district battles for positions on the Republican and Democratic county committees and the nomi- ¥* nation of Republican and Dem- ocratic candidates for Representa- tive to the State Legislature from the Sixth Legislative District, of | which Dallas and Luzerne are a part. Other candidates which will be on local ballots will include: U. S. Sen- ator, Attorney-General, State Treas- urer, Representative in Congress, State Committeemen, four; delegates and alternates to the National Con- ventions. Although the 21st District (Wilkes- Barre) will elect a State Senator this year, Dallas voters will not vote on any candidates for that office. Tur DALLAS MORE THAN A NEWSPAPER, A COMMUNITY INSTITUTION CIVIC PROGRAM FOR 1940 spirit in the Dallas area. 2. 8. protection. A concrete highway from Dallas to Tunkhannock. 4. Better fire protection and lower insurance rates. Vol. 50 THE POST, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY, 16, 1940 1. More community Centralization of police and fire 5. More sidewalks. No. 7 Want Two Towns To Share Expense Ot Fire Company Supervisors To Confer With Council Tonight AtFiremen's Request The supervisors of Dallas Township and the councilmen of Dallas Borough will meet tonight at 8 in the borough building to discuss the poss- ibility of assuming some finan- cial responsibility for fire pro- tection in the two communi- ties. Dr. Henry M. Laing Fire Company, which has provided protection for homes in the borough and township for the last 13 years, is financed now by public subscription. The borough provides the old build- |ing in which the fire engine is {kept and pays the premium on insurance on the firemen while they are on duty but neither the town- ship nor the borough have ever shared the cost of maintaining the company. A committee from the fire com- pany, headed by Harry T. Ohlman, asked councilman recently to con- sider. the possibility of appropria- ting enough each year to pay a share of the maintenance, and to ask Dallas Township to contribute a like share. Mr. Ohlman’s request will be discussed at the conference tonight. The firemen point out that fire protection is as assential as police protection, which is already financed by tax money. They argue that the present method of depending upon the generosity of civic-minded peo- ple is unfair, since it places a bur- \ give and fixes no responsibility upon those who refuse to donate. Since the company was organized in 1927, the firemen have raised between = $15,000 and $20,000 through solicitation and thé spon- soring of entertainments, carnivals, etc. The equipment itself cost about $12,000, and the remainder has been spent in developing and maintaining the company. In that time property valued at many times the amount raised by the firemen has been saved. The firemen have been paid for their services and are not asking such payment now. They feel that $600 or $700 a year from the town- ship and the borough, divided among all the taxpayers who bene- fit by the protection, would not be a hardship to anyone. In many communities the taxpayers not only pay for the equipment and main- tain it but also pay volunteer fire- men an hourly wage when they are fighting a blaze. Dr. Henry M. Laing Fire Co. which is showing new spirit these days, is anxious to acquire a better building, with club rooms, and if the burden of maintenance were lessened, the | volunteer company could, through such affairs as the play it will spon- sor next month, raise funds to build a hall which would be a credit to the community. A conference of Dallas Borough council and Robert Hall Craig, gen- eral manager of Dallas-Shavertown Water Co., scheduled to have been held yesterday afternoon to dis- cuss fire protection as it depends upon the supply of Dallas Water Co., was postponed. Dratts Doctors For School Work Shaw Appoints Local Physicians Inspectors Four local physicians were named as school medical inspectors this week in the Health Department's plan to change its system of safe- guarding pupils’ health. Heretofore Luzerne County has been divided into seven districts. Beginning this week, the work of | examining pupils will be turned over to 21 physicians, each of whom will be responsible for one district. Dr. F. Budd Schooley was appoint- ed by the Dallas Borough and Dal- las Township districts by Dr. John J. Shaw, secretary of Health. Dr. Sherman Schooley will examine pu- pils in Jackson and Kingston Town- ship, Dr. H. A. Brown will have Lake and Lehman Townships and Dr. H. B. Sunday will have Franklin Town- ship. DIRECTOR END END MAN IN KIWANIS MINSTREL SLEEPLESS CREWS BATTLE 10-FOOT DRIFTS Blizzard Rides 40-Mile Wind 14/2 -Inch Snowfall Halts Traffic, Stalls Plows, Downs Kunkle Phone Lines And Closes Schools Under sunny-blue skies which were in sharp contrast to the snow-laden clouds of the day before, Dallas and its vicinity labored tirelessly yesterday to dig its way out of the drifted 14%%-inch snowfall which rode into Northeastern Pennsylvania on the wings of a 40-mile-an-hour wind Wednesday. By last night traffic was able to move carefully along the lanes which had been cut between five-foot drifts bordering main highways, but it was apparent that it will be several days before normal motor traffic will be possible on side roads. A warm sun yesterday and a prediction of clear weather held hope for farmers who were still isolated on back roads last den upon those who are willing to: | bushels per acre, David Joseph, Director John Miles, End Man David Joseph, veteran minstrel man, is assured another hit when Mt. Greenwood Kiwanis Club stages its minstrel show in Kingston Town- ship High School on Thursday and Friday nights, John Miles, who is an end man, is well known for his rib- The Kiwanis Club is producing the March 1. splitting humorous portrayals. February 29 and minstrel to raise money for its work among underprivileged children. Frank Buliord Is Last Of 52 Leaders Who Signed Dallas Father's Farmhouse Was Borough's Charter On Site Of Present Railroad Station; Recalls Scenes 70 Years Ago By MARY KOEHLER (Mr. Bulford, the subject of Miss Koehler’s interview, has been ill for about a week. The Post joins his many friends in wishing him a speedy recovery.) He knew Dallas when people still Township. > referred to it occasionally as Bedford He drove a waron along Main Street when the mud was axle-deep in the spring, and when a return trip to Wilkes-Barre took the best part of a day. ’ As a boy of 12, he admired the local reserves drilling after Abe Lincoln had called for volunteers, and he watched men march off to the Civil War. Farm Bureau Has Annual Meeting Bittenbender Retained As Association Chief The constantly-expanding activity of Luzerne County Agricultural Extension Associ- ation is reflected in the annual reports which were given at. the 25th yearly meeting of | farmers from all sections of | Luzerne County in Wilkes-| Barre Y. M. C. A. on Wednes- | day. Nineteen thirty nine, one of | the busiest years in the farm i bureau’s quarter century, saw | the staff of the Agricultural, Extension Association estab- | lish a new mark for coopera- | tion with farm families in the | county, and the spirit evidenced at Wednesday's meeting promised an] even more progressive year ahead. Fred E. Bittenbender of Hunting- ton Township was reelected presi- dent. Other officers named are: Nelson Y. Lewis, Exeter, vice-pres- ident, and Arthur Gay, Orange, sec- retary-treasurer. In his annual report, Mr. Bitten- bender reviewed the year’s activi- ties. Among the most important ac- complishments was the co-operation of the farm bureau in reducing the surplus of apples which followed 1939's bumper crop. Assisted by Harold Brace, secretary-treasurer of the Horticultural! Association, the Association arranged for the sale of 83 car loads, averaging about 528 to the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation. The association also was instru- mental in securing improvements at the Wilkes-Barre farmers’ market, including the paving of that market and plans for providing sheds. Other activities of the association | were in the field of agricultural eco- | nomics, rural sociology, farm man- agement, agricultural engineering | agronomy, animal husbandry, dairy husbandry, horticulture, poultry, apiculture and forestry. Local Herds Rank High Farms in Dallas and its vicinity received a good bit of attention inj the report, but no local aspect was more notable than the record made by dairymen in this section. Four He is B. Frank Bulford of Hunts- ville, one of the oldest residents of this section and the last survivor among the 52 men who, sixty years ago, signed the charter which found- ed Dallas Borough. In October he will be 85 years old. Father Was A Busy Man His father, John J. Bulford, own- ed a farm in what is now central Dallas. The older Bulford was pro- prietor of a general store which was a center for village gossip and was besides the town’s wheelwright. The family home was on the present site of the Lehigh Valley Railroad station. A memorable and tragic day in Mr. Bulford’s life was September 12, 1887, when Dallas turned out to welcome the first locomotive to reach Dallas. Up the valley chug- ged Engine No. 236, pulling its lone passenger car. As it approached the village, one of the Bulford’s calves strayed onto the track and Mr. Bulford’s mother rushed to the scene and attempted to save the an- imal. The locomotive struck her and she died 15 minutes later. During Mr. Bulford’s youth Dallas Township and Dallas Borough were one. Then, as now, Dallas folks loved a fight, and a big one de- veloped over the fact that Kunkle, which had a preponderance of the population, was able to dictate most town policies. As a result, the men of the lower end of the old township (Continued on Page 8) Driver Arrested After Crash Here Brown Swears Warrant For Pittston Motorist Warren Brown, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Brown of Parrish Street, and his aunt, Mrs. F. D. Roese, Lu- zerne, who was a passenger in his car, narrowly escaped serious in- jury on Tuesday night when their car tipped over following a collision at Center Hill Road and Kunkle highway. Yesterday Brown swore out a warrant for the arrest of Albert McCaige of Pittston, the driver of the other car. A hearing will be held on Saturday night at 7 before | Juctice of the Peace John Q. Yaple of Dallas. Brown was driving toward Dal- smithy and | night. Although the lashing gale sections, the snowfall was set On Wednesday night the wind attained a velocity of 29 plus miles an hour, according to measurements at Wilkes- Barre-Wyoming Valley Air- port, but gusts reached a peak of 40 miles an hour. Communities from Luzerne west were virtually isolated from Wednesday night until after dawn yesterday. Bus ser- vice, the last link with Wyo- ming Valley, was suspended about 10 p. m., after several futile efforts to reach Dallas. Buses came as far as Fernbrook early Thursday morning but it was noon before a bus reached Dallas and a semblance of service was re- stored. Hundreds of persons were Wilkes-Barre and Wyoming Val- ley until mid-afte®ioca Worst Storm In 20 Years E. A. Hoffman, general manager of Wilkes-Barre Railway Corp., which operates the local bus line, said conditions were the worst his company had faced in 20 years. A check-up of hospitals and po- lice stations yesterday uncovered no injuries or exposures cases caused by the storm, a situation re- sulting probably from the fact that the blizzard was not accompanied by severe cold. The temperature did not drop lower than 18 degrees, whereas this winter temperatures as low as 10 below were recorded in this section, Yesterday the mercury hovered close to the 40’s in mid-day, and the snow was already beginning to melt. The fury of the storm was in the and built great drifts. Some idea of the ferocity of the wind was given at the barn of R. W. Brickel on Mill Street, Dallas, where strips of metal roofing were torn up by the whistling blasts and rolled back in a circular tube. Reports of serious damage were few. A silo owned by Charles Mar- tin at Kunkle fell on a telephone line and disrupted service in the Kunkle section during the most of yesterday. Since the road to Kun- kle from Dallas was impassable, a crew from Commonwealth Telephone Co., which left in the morning had to make the trip on foot. Service had been restored last evening. Schools were dismissed early on Tuesday when it became apparent that the blizzard was blocking high- ways. All suspended classes yester- day. Some schools in the built-up areas will have sessions today, but in the outlying communities there will be no school until Monday. Ended Record-Making Drought The only redeeming factor of the storm was the fact that it broke the history-making drought which has drained wells and allowed the frost to penetrate the bare ground to a depth of three feet. The in- farmers, many of whom have had piled drifts 10 feet high in some officially at 141% inches at the Huntsville filter plant of Scranton-Spring Brook Water Co., where accurate records are kept. equalled a precipitation of 1.58 inches. Attaches there said the fall unable to report for their jobs imssepc; to carry water long distances for their stock. The blizzard was born as a mild, moist flurry of snow at dusk on Tuesday. For several hours the snow melted as quickly as it fell, but by midnight the great flakes were be- ginning to cover the earth and make the driving treacherous. At dawn Dallas looked out on a world cov- ered by the deepest snowfall of the winter, under grey skies which were still filled with a promise of stormy weather. About noon a stiff wind began blowing out of the northwest, whip- ping the flakes viciously and send- ing dense clouds of snow scudding before it. As the gale increased, snow crews who were laboring val- iantly to keep main thoroughfares found | themselves losing ground, for as SOU eAenik va a road the capricious wing blast more snow across it. In spots the gale scooped the snow up-and left the pavement bared, then piled up a steep drift just beyond, mak- ing passage impossible without strenuous shoveling. Most side streets were deserted after ‘dark on Wednesday night as the community began ic rerlize the fury of the blizzard. Authorities warned those who had to be out to exercise extreme care, and not to wander too far from lighted win- dows. Since automobile traffic was at a standstill, those who had to go anywhere walked, breaking trails | through drifts which were “Wwaist= | high in some places. Bus schedules were disrupted early in the evening. In an effort | to maintain schedules, buses trans- ferred passengers at Luzerne. About ; }9 a north-bound bus stalled on the howling gale which rocked trees) main road, above Fernbrook, and an hour later a second bus stalled nearby. A snowplow which was operating in the vicinity brought the passengers to Dallas. George Carter and Fred Bartell, drivers of the buses, sought shelter in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Leas. Plows Fought Losing Battle The State Highway Department's ow plow fought a valiant battle ut before midnight scores of them were stuck on highways in the vi- cinity of Dallas. On the Lehman- held by drifts. At midnight Walter Schmink, district engineer of the highway department, reported 20 plows were stuck and many more had not been heard from. All night the ripping wind piled up drifts. Houses actually trem- bled under the impact of the gale and the wind-flung snow filled the air so that it was impossible to see from one end of Main Street to the other. A number of reports of near-collisions were reported as peo- ple attempted to reach their homes, braving the cold drifts and the stinging snow. Every garage in this section was filled to capacity by early evening and cars which were towed in were {packed in gasoline stations and be- evitable thaw will be welcomed by |fore garages. Hundreds of cars were ; (Continued on Page 5) The opportunity for subscribers to secure a five-volume ‘History of the | World” for 98c will expire next Monday night. At the urgent request of a num- [ber of persons who want the set las when the other car came onto but have lost the coupons they the main highway from Center Hill. | clipped in the five weeks since the The youth, who is a member of the offer was first made. The Post is of the Columbia-Luzerne County | Dallas Borough high school team, printing today a Special Good Will | played in the game several hours af- | Coupon, equivalent in value to three | ter the collision. of the previous coupons. dairy herds in the Dallas area were among the 12 highest in the report (Continued on Page 8) — GOOD WILL OFFER ON BOOKS WILL EXPIRE MONDAY NIGHT In the three days remaining those who have not clipped three coupons can obtain a set by bringing in or mailing the Special Good Will Cou- pon and 98c. The supply is limited and those who are late may have to wait until additional sets arrive. You pay nothing except the 98c, you are not required to sell a sub- scription or write a slogan or en- ter any contest. Many subscribers already hdve their histories and all have expressed delight with them, Outlet road alone four plows were— ——
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers