Editorially Speaking: Censorship: Tool Or Weapon? Last week a war-long fued between the Churchill Gov- ernment and the British Press reached its greatest crisis as the actual subjugation of the London “Daily Mirror’—for its policies of vigorous governmental criticism—was de- bated in Parliament. While the position of the ‘Mirror’ itself may not be entirely defendable, since many of its at- tacks on the British government and military have been more bitter than well-founded, the issue involved is of vital concern to every publisher and person in England, and in all the other Allied countries as well. For when Parliament debated the outright suppression of a newspaper for its critical writings, it simultaneously put on trial the Freed- om of the Press in democratic nations. Undoubtedly it would be foolish and far-fetched to as- sume that the muzzling of one newspaper in England will bring about the wholesale censorship of the press within all Allied nations, including the United States. But there are unmistakable trends in that direction, and the very fact that a newspaper in democratic England can be sup- pressed for reasons other than sedition means that the in- dividuality—or freedom—of news publications every- where is in a precarious position. In times of war there are certain restrictions which must necessarily be imposed upon the press. Dispatches which might disclose movements of troops, stratagems or other military information of a secret nature must be censored from general publication. Any material which will tend to impede the war effort must also be closely edited or per- haps killed outright. Generally speaking, the discretion of editors and publishers is sufficient to accomplish these ends, even without the aid of censor boards. Newspaper- men and the public alike understand that secrecy has an important function in days such as these. But there are limits beyond which the censorship of the press loses its usefulness and becomes a dangerous weap- on, rather than a bulwark of defense. A public which will- ingly forgoes certain of its privileges in order to aid the war effort is one thing. A public which is kept completely in the dark on all matters which may be either disturbing or provocative is another. Reasonable censorship contrib- utes, in a sense, to the general morale and purpose of the people. Their lack of complete news coverage on the war and defense fronts is a small sacrifice, and one readily made, as insurance for the safety and success of the armed forces abroad. But the substitution of propaganda for news—however hazy and incomplete—breeds distrust and even fear, and the revocation of the right to individual opinions and criticism can accomplish nothing but discon- tent. So long as the people feel they are in the confidence of their government, they will back it to the limit, as a corpo- rate enterprise. But once that government has set itself up as something apart and above the people, keeping its oper- ations beyond their knowledge and control, it has traded stability and common determination for the uncertain and suspicion-riddled structure of a dictatorship. That’s a poor prescription for efficiency and success under any circum- stances, much less those of war. Freedom of the Press is a powerful working force of democracy, particularly in times of war when any device which will tend to keep the people and their government together in common endeavour is an invaluable asset. A free press is a medium for the participation of the public in the management of its welfare, and is the mark of a nation of free men, as against a dictatorship. It has two principal disadvantages: government may be belabored and even hampered with criticism, and disasters and re- verses will become common knowledge. Put 2d news can be met with courage and resourcefulness, where no news at all may be met with growing uneasiness, lessening con- fidence and dangerous rumor. And if open criticism of gov- ernment causes some bitterness and aggravation, it also serves to keep the people a part and parcel of the national administration—and this is perhaps the best defense against the inroads of totalitarian doctrines, which, in the long run, are a far greater menace to democracy than the Axis armies. FROM PILLAR TO POST By Mgrs. T. M. B. Hicks, Jr. There are times when I wonder if all households run along the same Sunday track as mine. It is impossible to pry anybody out of bed until eleven A. M., at which time they assemble in the kitchen in bathrobes and curlers, or bathrobes and a stubble, depending upon the sex. They are starved from their long overnight fast, and they fall upon the hot cin- namon buns and the out-size pot i i . Th of coffee with enthusiasm ey Board One Calls Four Local Men For Service prop their feet on, chairs and make Four men from this section were themselves comfortable while drink- ing the third cup over the latest copy of Time or the Sunday paper. The Mother-of-Four starts the oven going and begins assembling the bony framework of the dinner, stumbling over out-stretched feet as she goes back and forth from the pantry to the sink. She bites back any appropriate remarks that may occur to her, for after all the in- stitution of Sunday-breakfast-in- the-kitchen is her own brain-child. It eliminates setting the table in the dining room, clearing it, and resetting it, all in the short space of two hours, At twelve noon she reminds the family that dinner will be ready in about an hour and a called for military service this week by officials of Local Draft Board No. 1 at Wyoming. They have been or- dered to report to board headquar- ters Thursday morning, /April 16; and will be sent from’ there” to Wilkes-Barre for final physical ex- amination and induction, The men called were John Kud- zinski, R. D. 3, Dallas; Paul Wesley Mahler, R. D. 4, Dallas; Frank Pearce Bennallack of Shavertown and Benjamin Harrison Jones, Mt. Airy Terrace, Shavertown. Tue Darras Post MORE THAN A NEWSPAPER, A COMMUNITY INSTITUTION Vol. 52 Special Registration For Back Mountain Voters Is Held Today Borough Building Is Open To Local Citizens For Primary Registration Until 10 Tonight A special registration of Back Mountain Region voters for participation on the May Primary Elections is being held today (Friday) in the Dallas Borough building on Mill street, and provides the last opportunity for local citizens to register party preference without traveling to the courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. Conducted by official registrars from the courthouse, the FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1942 No. 15 Fleeing From The Terrors 0f War! registration is open to all people of the Dallas area, not just residents of the borough, and is the only special registration which will be held in Luzerne County, The borough building was opened to voters this morning at 10, and the first session of registration closes this afternoon at 3 o'clock. The clerks will sit again for a three hour period, beginning at 7 this eve- ning, in order to give local people who work out of town during the day an opportunity to register, All citizens of this section are urged to take advantage of the special registration, which has been instituted in order to save rural and suburban residents the time, trouble and wear on tires entailed in the trip to the courthouse. Remember that no voter can par- ticipate in the primaries next month unless he has registered his party affiliation. Joseph H. MacVeigh Dallas Bandsmen Honor MacVeigh Tribute To Patron To Precede Concert In appreciation for the warm in- terest and co-operation of their most outstanding patron, members of the Dallas Borough High School Band will initiate Joseph H. Mac- Veigh as an honorary member next Friday night, preceding their annual concert in the school auditorium. Through Mr. MacVeigh’s efforts and financial assistance, together with that of several other local people, the band has been fully uniformed for the first time in its history. The concert itself will be one of the finest ever presented by the borough bandsmen, with its varied program of martial, classical and popular arrangements interspersed with several novelty numbers and solos, and routines by the three talented drum majorettes. Under the direction of its new bandmaster, Robert Henderson, the S51-piece band has been in constant rehearsal all winter and now ranks in ability with the best school bands in the county. The program will include the fol- lowing arrangements: “The Star Spangled Banner’, “Remember Pearl Harbor” by Reid and Kaye, “Silver Threads Among The Gold” by Danks; “Sunbeam” by Oliva- clote; “Anticipation” by Tiscombe; “Skaters Waltz” by Waldteufel; Bennett's “Arline” and ‘Have A Little Fun”; “On The Mall” by Gold- ‘man; “American Patrol” by Mea- cham, and “System” by Bennett. half, and that if they want a bath as a preliminary to getting dressed, they'd better get upstairs. There is a concerted dive, each member intent upon getting the first bath along with the hottest water, and the kitchen clears miraculously. We rise from the table at two P. M., replete with roast beef and baked potatoes. Time was when it was mashed potatoes, but the de- fense leaflets all say sternly, don’t peel your potatoes, so we bake them in the oven and serve them on the half-shell in order to pre- serve the precious vitamins—or is it minerals? Everybody yawns, con- | siders taking a nap, turns finally to the funnies in the Sunday papers. At half past five there is a stir of life. The family emerges from its state of coma and begins looking hopefully toward the kitchen. Noses begin to twitch, a la rabbit, hoping to catch that choicest of all aromas, After battling five large brush and forest fires within 48 hours, the worn and weary score of local men who. make up the Dallas Volunteer Fire Crew came home for a much- needed rest late Tuesday night, Principal conflagration to which the Dallas fire-fighters were called was the huge blaze atop Maltby Mountain, back of Luzerne and Swoyerville, Working at top speed for more than eight hours Monday night and Tuesday morning, Fire Warden Grover Jones’ men succeed- ed in getting the raging flames un- der control, with the aid of the Carverton and West Pittston crews. The Maltby Mountain fire was the third in succession for the local (Continued on Page 8.) | Dallas Crew Battles Five Big Forest Fires Within 48 Hours crew on Monday. First call came early in the afternoon, when an 18- acre blaze broke out in Kunkle— on the Henney, Sweezy and Schwartz farms. Directly after the boys came in from Kunkle, they were sent to White Rock, on the hills south of the Luzerne Pike, to battle a rapidly-spreading brush fire. This was brought under con- trol just before the brush broke in- to flames on Maltby. After 16 hours of continuous fire- fighting, the Dallas crew was given a brief. respite Tuesday morning, only to be called back to White Rock and another fire shortly be- (Continued on Page 8) a FIFTH POST EMPLOYEE TO JOIN ARMY TAKES/ PHYSICAL NEXT-WEEK ng Five former employees of The Post will be serving in the arm- ed forces by next week when Wilbur Helmbold, a printer who has worked here for the past several months, is inducted through his draft board in Ashley. First to go was Alan Kistler, who entered the army more than a year ago. Others now in the service are Norman Ros- nick, Al Davis and Warren Hicks, = — a= Wilson To Face Grand Jury On Liquor Charges Noxen Inn Keeper On Trial Monday At Tunkhannock Allen “Torchy” Wilson, Noxen inn keeper whose establishment was raided week before last by agents of the State Liquor Control Board and the State Motor Police, will face a Wyoming County Grand Jury Monday in the courthouse at Tunkhannock, Wilson will be tried on three charges—sales of liquor on Sunday, sales to minors. and minors fre- quenting premises—with the Liquor Control Board as prosecutor. He was arraigned on these charges last Thursday afternoon before Squire J. P. Allen of Tunkhannock and held on $1000 bail for court. Acting on the complaints of Nox- en residents, a group of ten, liquor board agents and State Troopers raided Wilson’s Noxen Inn on March 25 and found it crowded with youngsters who were being served liquor in violation of state laws re- garding minors. Fifteen of these were questioned by the agents and will be subpoenaed to testify be- fore the jury Monday. Previous evi- dence had been gained proving that Wilson had sold liquor on Sun- days. If convicted by the Wyoming County Grand Jury, Wilson faces penalties ranging from a fine of $300 to a year in prison. He was arrested by the State Police in 1924 for violation of prohibition laws, but his case was discharged without conviction. Salvage Week Is Postponed Collection Of Scrap To Be Held On 25th. The “Salvage for Victory” clean- up week which was to have been conducted here next week has been postponed until April 20th in order to avoid conflict with the air raid wardens’ war bond promotion cam- paign. Under the new arrangement, all scrap metal and other articles which can be converted to useful mater- ials for industry will be collected from house-holders on Saturday, April 25th. Collection will be made from door to door in Dallas Borough and neighboring communities by members” of the American Legion and Boy Scouts. Additional orders from the Bur- eau of Industrial Salvage, a division of the War Production Board, have reconstructed the “Salvage for Vic- tory” drive along more ambitious lines, Though originally scheduled to be a one-week clean-up, the campaign has now been expanded to last the duration of the war. Fol- lowing the first general collection on the 25th, which will be con- fined only to municipalities, centers will be established in each town for the concetnration of additional the concentration of additional According to Hugh Ridall, chair- man of salvage collection in the Dallas Area, ‘everything except ashes and dust” can be utilized by industry and all waste or idle ma- ) terials should be turned in. Fleeing from the bursting shells and the fires that swept their homes, thousands of Chinese gather together what little possesions that they could carry and swarm into Chapei and Hongkew. The upper photo shows a bridge across Soochow Creek crowded with fleeing refugees, and the low- er photo shows boats in Soochow Creek loaded with natives fleeing from the scene of destruction. Noted Big Game Hunter Travels In From West To Visit Kiefers Ernie Miller Buns Famous Mentara Vacation Ranch, Thinks The West Should Be Kept Wild Two tough looking hombres from the Far West swaggered into the of- fices of The Post a few days ago. One of the pair—a stocky baldish char- acter, his hand never straying too far from the heavy six-shooter slung at his hip—plunked himself down across from the editor and swung his booted feet onto the desk top. The other, an unshaven, hard-looking man with a black cigar clamped between his teeth, leaned against the door jam and kept a sharp look-out up and down Lehman avenue. “Yuh ain’t seen a posse around here, have yuh, Brother?” asked the latter. Assured there had been no sign of the vigilantes, he relaxed his guard at the door and took a chair. “Well,” he said, ‘I'm Fred Kiefer—they call me ‘Wild Cat’ Kiefer out west of Dallas—and this here's Ernie Miller, a pal of mine from Montana.” “Howdy, pardner,” said Ernie— and that’s how we came to meet one of the most colorful characters who ever bunked at the Kiefer Ranch up at Shrine View. Ernie—who refuses to be called Mister Miller, even in the effete East—spent most of last week vis- iting here with Fred and his wife, | and, although he missed the lone- some ‘howl of the coyotes late at night, he felt right at home among the wide-open spaces of the Irem Country Club. A high-point of his visit was an impromptu party last Wednesday night, given by the Kiefers to celebrate his 50th birth- day, and, what with the new friends he made here in Dallas and the re- newal of his” companionship with Mr, and Mrs. Kiefer, Ernie was dog- goned perturbed when he had to pack his bags and go on to New York. He had stopped here enroute to a meeting of the Conservation Committee of the Campfire Club of America. Was Kiefer Guide Ernie and the Kiefers have been fast friends ever since they met for the first time last fall in the Olym- pian Hotel out in Seattle, Wash- ington. As reported in The Post sev- eral months ago, in the annals of the Kiefer hunting expedition into the wilderness of Alaska, Ernie was outfitter and guide for the local couple on that excursion. He had been engaged for the job through mutual acquaintances in the Camp- fire Club, of which Fred is also a member, together with all the other big game hunters of any account in the country. And as soon as the Kiefers shook hands with Ernie, they knew their hunting trip was in good hands. And it was, too: they were after Ovis dalli sheep the famed Alaskan White Sheep— and after the expedition was over, Fred had bagged two of the mag- nificent animals, his wife had had (Continued on Page 5) | | close friendship in far-off Australia. Boyhood Pals Meet Bgain In Australia Two soldier boys of Lehman— William Edward Simpson and Alfred F. Lamoreaux—whose life-long com- panionship was broken.eff a year and a half ago when their army ca- reers took them to separate units and stations, have renewed their News of the happy reunion was received here Friday in a telegram to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Simpson of | Hayfield Farm, “Have met Alfred in Australia,” read Edward's wire to his parents. | "Hoth tes’ enlisted in, ithe. Air | Corps simultaneously in August, 1940, and both are now private first class mechanics, stationed with combat units in Australia. Their | doubtless learned when they met | last week, was almogt identical— | just as their boyhood lives in Leh- ] man had been. Join In Prayer Members of the George M. Dallas Lodge, No. 531, F. and A. M., will join Masons all over the nation in prayer Sunday morning, May 31st, to implore Divine guidance in the restoration of peace and order to the world. | progress. in the air corps, as they | More Sweat, Less Blood And Tears! Air Wardens Mobilize For Bond Campaign “Pledge For Victory" Canvass To Be Held Next Thursday Night Joining thousands of civilian de- fense workers all over the nation in the “Pledge for Victory” campaign to promote the sale of war bonds and stamps, local air raid wardens prepared this week for a house-to- house canvass to be conducted throughout the Back Mountain Re- gion. The canvass, which will be un- dertaken next Thursday evening, April 16, in all municipalities and rural sections of this area, is de- signed to gain the co-operation of all local wage-earners in the war bond drive. Each air raid warden will be assigned a small territory to cover, and will carry pledge cards for the signatures of every citizen in his route. Three methods of bond purchase are open to the signers of the “Pledge for Victory”: payroll deduc- tion, direct buying from the Treas- ury Department or an authorized agent, and Post Office purchase, In the case of payroll deduction, ar- rangements are made with the em- ployer of the signer to have a cer- tain amount deducted from his sal- ary each week for bonds. Many concerns already have blank bonds on hand to expedite this method. No high pressure methods will be used by the air raid wardens to make their prospects pledge cards, and people are cau- tioned not to sign unless they will be able to carry out their pledge. The campaign is supposed merely to encourage and make more con- venient the purchase of the war securities and not to force citizens to buy. The signed pledge cards will be turned into the government and tabulated for reference by the Treasury Department. Wardens of Air Raid Sector No. 1, which covers Kingston Town-~ (Continued on Page 8.) Local Fanciers Will Show Dogs Payne Will Judge Best Dog In Show The patriotic motif is behind a sanction match of Luzerne County Kennel Club to be held Sunday, April 19, at Kingston Armory, Pro- ceeds will be used to purchase ath- letic equipment for the 109th Field Artillery, Luzerne County's own regiment now in active service. Regimental officers have approved the benefit show sponsored jointly by the club and veterans groups in- cluding American Legion Post 132, and its auxiliary. Several hundred entries already have been received by Mrs. Joshua Byers, secretary, and Capt. Edward Harkins, club president. A 25-inch high liberty trophy will go to the owner of the best dog in the show, the judge being W. T. Payne of Dallas, widely known breeder. Newton Brown, chairman of the show, has announced the judges as follows: Sporting group, Clyde Heck, Allentown; working group, Irwin Hollenback, Reading; terriers, Robert Foulds, Philadelphia; toy and non-sporting group, Joseph O’Hara. Special children’s classes and ex- hibitions are scheduled as part of the show, planned to be the largest ever held by the Luzerne County Club. Entries can be made starting at 11 a. m. Judging begins at 2. A neat, workman-like street sign went up on the corner of Leh- man avenue and Huntsville road a day or so ago as James Stile, public- spirited carpenter and painter of Dallas, began a campaign for street markers throughout the borough. Impressed with Mr. Stile’s single- handed effort to bring improvement to this community, The Post has joined in his campaign and calls up- on all house-holders of Dallas for co-operation, The Lehman avenue marker, which is similar to those of Kinggs- ton and Forty Fort in appearance, except for a bevelled water shed which has been added to the top of the sign board to keep it clear of rain streaks and bird lime, was constructed, painted and erected at a total cost of little more than a dollar. This sum will be underwrit- Dallas Painter Begins One-Man Campaign For Street Markers ten by residents of Lehman avenue, each householder donating fifteen cents toward the cost of the new sign. A similar arrangement can be made for every street in the bor- ough, and Mr. Stile will build, paint and erect each new marker as soon as the necessary expense money has been raised. The cost of markers will vary from street to street. In some cases two or more signs will be needed, and in others the lack of a corner telephone pole will necessitate the erection of a sign post. Individual donations will be increased where there is additional expense, but the average contribution is not expected to exceed fifteen or twenty cents, It is suggested that one individual on each street make collections for the marker, since no single dona- (Continued on Page 8.) sign the. ship, met Wednesday evening at en
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers