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— ——