“hose,
Editorially Speaking: m—— -
State Taxes Must Be Cut
By PauL N. FurMAN
Recently Associate Editor Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger
State and local economy, always the hallmark of good
government, ig made more necessary than ever at this
time by the vastness of the Federal war program. Now
is the time for taxpayers to make inquiry of candidates
seeking nominations for the Pennsylvania Senate and
House of Representatives as to their views on State
finances.
Tax sources and taxpaying ability cannot stand the
strain of State and local “government as usual’ superim-
posed on the cost of the war.
State taxes can and must be cut.
War costs cannot be cut.
Pennsylvania has an
opportunity to reduce taxation on a scale comparable with
the splendid achievement of New York.
Calculations
made by the
Pennsylvania Economy
League furnish basic figures necessary for use of any vot-
ers desiring to quiz candidates for the Legislature.
The
League is a state-wide, non-political, non-partisan organ-
ization of taxpayers.
It simply points out that the relief
situation in Pennsylvania has ceased to be an emergency
while emergency taxes are still being collected at the same
rate as when the State was paying $250,000,000 a year
for various forms of public assistance.
The logical conclusion is that there will be a very large
‘income in the fiscal period 1943-45 in excess of the amount
required to meet State expenses unless there is drastic
change in the tax structure.
cut is a matter for the Legislature to determine.
Just what taxes should be
But
there should be a reduction in the total bill of somewhere
near $50,000,000 a year.
Now is the time to get busy with those seeking nomi-
nations for the Legislature because the men and women
who are chosen by the voters at the primary on May 19
and to be elected next November will have full say about
tax reduction. Prospective
nominees should be visited
by taxpayers and informed that they demand the use of
any excess income in the State’s fiscal years 1943 and
1944 to reduce taxes—not to increase State expenses.
The matter of tax reduction rests squarely upon the
voters.
It is their job to demand reduction in all State
taxes to the lowest point consistent with proper perform-
ance of essential governmental functions.
These are not
the times to add to State spending. It is the time to cut.
It is the duty of the incoming Legislature to cut. It is the
responsibility of the taxpayers to nominate candidates
pledged to meet the demand for heavy reduction in State
taxes.
\
Laval
Rives Matthews, former Dallas Post columnist and now
publisher of the Somerset (Md.) News,
contributes a
terse, biting editorial in his always inimitable style on
the parallel between French and American politics.
Al-
though Rives is a relative by marriage of Laval, you'd
never know it, but you would know that he is a keen ob-
server of politicians whether they are in France; Princess
Anne, his home town, or Dallas.
Pierre Laval, whose name is spelt the same from right
to left as it is from left to right, is a typical product of our
time. He is a symbol of the weakness inherent in the demo-
cratic system when people shrug at political corruption,
vote buying, and dirty deal making.
Pierre Laval was nothing more than a cheap, petty
peanut politician at the start of his career in the south of
France.
character.
He came from a section not unlike Somerset in
Had the little people who first elected him to
his first petty office refused to elect him a second time,
France and the world would have been saved rum the
havoc he created.
It is too easy to shrug our shoulders at little, corrupt,
peanut politicians.
It is too easy to say it would be better
to go after the big fellows in Annapolis or Washington,
first, and then take care of the little swindlers down here
in Somerset.
Political corruption begins, as charity should, at home.
Laval would never be sitting on top of the garbage heap
to which he’s reduced French democracy if the little people
at home in the Auvergne, who knew him best for what he
was, had slapped him down at the start.
FROM.
PILLAR TO POST
By Mgrs. T. M. B. Hicks, Jr.
The rubber situation, present and future, being what it is, the family
met in conclave and decided to buy fifty feet of rubber hose to replace
the mangled remains of the eight-year-old relic.
Th original fifty-foot
length had been a very high-class article to start with, but the years had
taken their toll.
needed winter housing in the base-
ment until after the first hard
freeze-up of the season. These little
bouts with the weather-man result-
ed in long and unsightly slits which
we patched with friction tape. The
friction tape was never very satis-
factory. I can not conscientiously
recommend it except as an emerg-
ency measure. The water had a
way of seeping out above and be-
low, with occasional geyser-like out-
bursts under heavier pressure.
All things considered, with
screens to be washed, porches to
be scrubbed, ‘and lawn to be
sprinkled, B, B. and I decided that
there was no time like the present.
So we went to the hardware store
and asked to look at hose.
The clerk was affable. Yes in-
deed, he had plenty of hose. If
we had come in last week when
stocks had been more complete, he
would. have been able to sell us a
more moderately-priced piece of
hose, with all the trimmings thrown
in for nothing—or practically noth-
ing. Very nominal. This week there
had been a run on that kind of
and all he had left was
some super de-luxe hosiery. Very
nice stuff, and it would cost - us
eleven dollars and fifty cents. Sign
on the dotted line, and would we
carry it or should he deliver the
goods ?
We emitted Bronx cheers and in-
vited him to speak our language.
There wasn't that’ much money in
(Continued on Page 8.)
It has always been impossible to remember that it
>
Petition Council
Three home-owners of Wellington
avenue appeared before Dallas,
Council Friday night to petition for
road repairs.
rutted, they said, and almost im-
passable in wet weather.
Wellington has never been. officially,
accepted in the borough road sys-
tem, a committee was appointed to
investigate.
The street is badly,
Though |
Tue Darras Post
MORE THAN A NEWSPAPER, A COMMUNITY INSTITUTION
Vol. 52
FRIDAY, MAY 8, 11942
, 19
More Sweat,
Less Blood :
And Tears!
REGION SUPPORTS MEMORIAL DAY
Parade And Horse Show To Feature
All Back Mountain Event At Lehman
Dallas American Legion Post Makes Plans For
Flag-Raising Ceremony; Record Crowd Expected
Familiar red, white and blue automobile stickers appeared
this week announcing the All-Back Mountain Memorial Day
Observance at Lehman. The program this year will be ex- |.
panded to include many new features and is being sponsored
by a strong committee composed of outstanding leaders from
every community in the region. For years the I. O. O. F.
Lodge of Lehman sponsored -
a Memorial Day program at
Lehman—and is doing so again this year, but it was not until
last year that all communities of the Back Mountain Region
joined in the effort to make it an All-Back Mountain Observ-
ance—a day set aside for honoring the departed dead—with
patriotic significance—and with the flavor of an old-fashioned
neighborly get-to-gether for renewal of friendships among
those who live in the region called Back-Of-The-Mountain,
The hamlet of Lehman with its4
picturesque setting, quaint homes,
prosperous farms and distant vistas
of the North Mountain range of hills
has again been selected by the com-
mittee because it is far from heavy
holiday traffic, provides a quiet rural
atmosphere and has ample facilities
for the entertainment of a Back
Mountain crowd. Then, too, Leh-
man and the Odd Fellows Lodge
had the foresight to start the pro-
gram several years ago and the gen-
eral committee hopes to continue
the tradition of the All-Back Moun-
tain Memorial Day Observance at
Lehman for many years to come.
Parade
A distinctly patriotic note will be
imparted to the program because of
the nation war-time mobilization.
Ralph Hazeltine of Trucksville, who
heads the parade committee, has
asked all patriotic organizations
Back of the Mountain to have units
in line, all high school bands and
other musical organizations of the
region have been invited, Red Cross
units, air raid wardens, airplane
observers, American Legion, Veter-
ans’ organizations, auxiliary police-
(Continued on Page 8.)
Ted Parks Makes
All-State Band
Is Second Chosen
From Lehman High
+ For the second successive year a
member of the Lehman Township
High School Band has been chosen
to play in the All State concert.
Trombonist Theodore Parks, son
of Mr. and Mrs, William Parks of
Lehman and a senior at the town-
ship school, was notified recently
that he had been selected for the
All State Band, which will play May
14th and 15th at the Millvale
School of Pittsburgh. Theodore was
nominated for the band on the basis
of his performance in the North-
western District Concert at Canton
two months ago, in which he par-
ticipated with seven other players
from Lehman. Last year Betty
Naugle, a clarinetist, represented
Lehman in the All State concert.
Parks and six other Lehman High
bandsmen participated last Satur-
day in the seventh annual All-Mas-
ter High School Band Festival at
Susquehanna University. The other
players from the township school
were Lenora Parks, Betty Jane Nau-
gle, Dorothy Cornell, Fred Schobert,
Doris Naugle and Carol Crosby.
Dallas Housewives Don Coveralls,
Take Over Oliver's For Red Cross
Years ago a flat tire or an engine
failure .meant that a lady would
just have to sit and wait patiently
for some chivalrous gentleman or
mercenary garage mechanic to ren-
der assistance. But them days are
gone forever, if the ladies of Dal-
las are a fair sample of this nation’s
womanhood.
Wednesday afternoon the second
meeting of the Future Garage Me-
chanics of Dallas—or, more cor-
rectly, the Dallas Red Cross Class
in Automotives—was held in Jim
Oliver's garage on Main street, with
Jim Besecker presiding and seven
denim-clad house-wives in attend-
ance. The problem for the day was
changing tires, and one by one the
students wielded lug wrenches and
jack handles in the approved man-
ner and under the critical, discern-'
ing eye of Mr. Besecker. Last week
the ladies learned what makes a car
tick, and next week they will learn
what makes a car stop, and also
what, if anything, can be done about
it. And when the course is conclud-
ed, two weeks from now, they will
probably be able to tell their hus-
bands a thing or two about the
family bus.
The automotives course has two
general objectives. For one thing, it
teaches more intelligent handling
of cars, which will be a very im-
portant factor in keeping present
models extant for the duration of
the war. Secondly, it helps to pre-
pare women for service with the
Red Cross Motor Corps—which will
(Continued on Page 7.)
Four New Streets
Apply For Signs
Markers Are Completed
For First Subscribers
Residents of four additional
streets—Wellington, Claude, Jack-
son and Parrish—subscribed 100 per
cent this week as the Street-Signs-
For-Dallas Campaign continued
apace, and collections for street
markers on Main, Church and Bald-
win are reported nearly complete.
Signs for the first three streets
to be subscribed last week have been
finished off by Jim Stile—local
painter and carpenter who is devot-
ing all his spare time to the project
—and will be erected this week-end
with due pomp and ceremony, First
marker to go up will be that of
Elizabeth street, with the letters
outlined in gold as a tribute to
the industry of Mrs. Brooke Arnold
and Frank Davis, who completed
collections on their si#:et the open-
ing day of the campaign. The Pine-
crest avenue sign, decorated with
silver paint, will be installed sec-
ond and that of Rice street, lined
with blue, is third in line. Mark-5
ers for the other six streets sub-
scribed last week will go up in
order, and as soon as Mr. Stile can
get to it, this week’s applicants
will be cared for.
Wellington
Wellington avenue was the first
(Continued on Page 8.)
Firemen Report
Poor Progress
Shavertown People
Fail To Back Drive
The progress of the Shavertown
Fire Company campaign for a $1000
modernization fund was described
this week as very discouraging by
Frank Saunders, treasurer of the
volunteer organization. Now in its
third week, the drive has succeeded
in bringing in less than $200, and
unless residents of Shavertown and
other patrons of the company show
more interest and cooperation the
campaign will wind up as a dismal
flop,
Although over 300 home-owners
of Shavertown have been contacted
to subscribe to the fund, in the
form of one-dollar memberships and
any possible additional contribu-
tions, only 40 member fees have
been collected so far and outright
contributions have amounted to but
$120.
If and when the $1000 fund is
raised, it will be devoted to the
purchase of much-needed equip-
ment for the fire company. While
the present apparatus—a chemical
truck—is adequate to handle small
fires and other minor emergencies,
it would be ineffectual against any
large blazes and useless in fighting
fires set by incendiary bombs. The
fund will be used to buy a booster
tank, additional hose and new
implements and fire capes for the
Aremen.
A suggestion to expand the annual
Field Day of the fire company to
two days and include the additional
receipts in the modernization fund
may be introduced at the next
meeting of the Shavertown firemen
Monday evening. The Field Day
usually brings in $500, and in the
past this has been applied on the
property mortgage of the company.
(Continued on Page 3)
PROGRAM
General Chairman
H. Austin Snyder
Organizes Parade
Ralph Hazeltine
Draft Boards Prepare To Induct
Men From February Registration
Third Draft Call To Get Under Way In June;
Questionmaires” Sent To 800 In This Region
With the lists of the first and second Selective Service registrations
nearly exhausted, officials of Local Board No. 1 at Wyoming and Board
No. 5 at Shickshinny prepared this week to induct men from the February
16th draft enrollment for military service. Questionnaires, both millitary
and occupational, are being mailed out, and the first men drafted from
the February registration will be
called in the first part of June, ac-
cording to Fred Houghwout, secre-
tary of Board No. 1.
The placing of names from the
third registration on active draft
lists affects nearly 800 men in this
area—>522 residents of Dallas, Dal-
las Township, Kingston Township
and Franklin Township are regis-
tered with the Wyoming Board, and
(Continued on Page 8)
Final Two-Mile Lap
Is Well Under Way
Progressing well ahead of sched-
ule, work on the last half of the
Dallas-Harvey’s Lake highway will
be completed within seven weeks, it
was predicted yesterday by William
M. C. Butler, local superintendent
for the Central Pennsylvania Con-
struction Company.
The final lap of the new pike be-
gan to take shape this week as a
crew of 100 workmen finished off
more than a mile of concrete sur-
facing leading out from the lake
shore road. The lane now under
construction should be joined with
the completed portion of the high-
way at Castle Inn by the end of
next week, according to Mr. Butler,
and the surfacing of the other two
lanes will be finished by the middle
of June. The laying of concrete
was begun on Monday, April 22nd.
Traffic has been temporarily cut
off on the old lake highway at Ide-
town, where the road has been torn
up to make way for a new junction,
but the thoroughfare will be re-
opened within the next two weeks. |=
When completed the new Dallas-
Lake highway will provide nearly
four miles of straight-away driving
between this community and Har-
vey's Lake, with only one appreci-
able grade and two wide, sweeping
curves, one in Dallas at the foot of
Machell avenue and the other at the
junction of the pike with the lake
shore road, just below the bridge
at Sun Set.
Total cost of the new highway,
the road-bed of which has been
blasted through some of the rough-
est terrain in this region, will be
less than $400,000. The official
opening will probably be held on
July 4th.
Receives Rating
Harry C. Sutton, son of Mr. and
Mrs. Bert Sutton, has received his
mechanic’s rating at the Middle-
town Army Air Depot and has been
transferred to Augusta, Georgia.
“ Lake
New Bids Service
(zaine ake
Summer Express Line
To Begin June 15th
Express bus service from Wilkes-
arre and the West Side to Harvey's
throughout the summer
months was guaranteed last week
by officials of the Wilkes-Barre
Railway Corporation when members
of the Harvey's Lake Protective As-
sociation agreed to sell enough
ticket books to make the new line
a paying proposition.
The decision of the traction com-
pany followed a conference last
Thursday night with the Highway
Committee of the Protective Asso-
ciation, which had applied for the
new bus route in order to offset
the effects of tire shortage and gas-
oline rationing on the summer sea-
son at the lake. The line will go
into operation for four months be-
ginning June 15th and will main-
tain express buses daily for morn-
ing and evening commuters.
The Protective Association guar-
anteed to sell 100 passenger books,
priced at $30 and good for 100
trips, by the 15th of this month,
The tickets may be used on either
the summer express buses or the
local buses throughout the year, and
summer and year-round residents
of the Lake are urged to cooper-
ate with the Association in the pur-
chase of the required number of
books. Books may be obtained from
Attorney Thomas M. Lewis, Senator
A. J. Sordoni, Enoch Thomas and
Alan Kistler or by application to
Robert Kruse, in care of the Hotel
Sterling.
Teachers Enroll
8000 People For
Sugar Rationing
Family of 13 Applies
At Lehman; Kingston
Township Lists 3335
Experiencing little trouble or de-
lay, the school teachers of this area
had registered over 8000 individuals
for sugar rationing by Wednesday
night, and had only 2000 to sign
up during yesterday's six-hour ses-
sion.
Largest single registration was
accomplished in Kingston Township,
where 3335 rationing books were is-
sued during the first three days at
Shavertown and Trucksville grade
schools. Dallas Township teachers
registered 2105, Dallas Borough was.
third with 1337 and the Lehman
faculty enrolled 1315. Biggest rush
was on Tuesday, when a total of
2990 were registered in all four
districts. Monday was the easiest
of all, with 2334 applicants, and
2765 were enrolled Wednesday.
Lehman carried off honors for
the largest family, when Mrs. Ed-
ward Kern of Idetown, who applied
Tuesday afternoon, required 13 ra-
tioning books. Prof, J. A. Martin,
supervising principal of Kingston
Township schools, reports that sev-
eral families of 12 members were
registered in his district. The fam-
ily of Marcus Ide of Mill street,
numbering 11, was the biggest in
the borough, although Carl Cundiff
was close with 10. Only one family
with as many as ten members was
registered in Dallas Township.
Best registrar of all was Miss
Dorothy Weaver, music supervisor
of Kingston Township, who gave out
69 books in four hours Tuesday aft-
ernoon. Mrs. Lenora Honeywell of
Dallas township was second with
50 books in three hours, and Miss
Julia Dolton of the borough faculty
managed to register 55 Tuesday aft-
ernoon.
(Continued on Page 5)
War Mothers Urged
To Apply For Gift
More than 100 mothers
mailed their names d addresses,
along with those oftheir sons and
daughters in the sé€ ~The
Post. These mothers will receive
a pound box of Gales candy as a
Mother’s Day remembrance and as
a token of the esteem this commun-
ity holds for the service these boys
and girls are performing for their
homes and country. There are more
than 200 local men and women now
in service on The Post's mailing
lists. Unfortunately we do not
know the names of the mothers of
all of these, and therefore urge that
any war mother who has not al-
ready communicated with The Post
do so at once.
All war mothers who have regis-
tered with us, or who have a post-
card with the necessary information
in our hands by Saturday noon,
may receive their gift of candy by
calling at Sheldon Evans’ drug
store in Shavertown Saturday or
Sunday. The donor of the candy,
a citizen of Trucksville, is anxious
that no war mother of this sec-
tion be overlooked on this Mother's
Day.
have
Non-Com Becomes Ranking Officer.
Serves Shortest Term In History
A couple of weeks ago Corporal
Darwin Husted of Chase was placed
in command of a battalion, which is
a highly unique promotion for an
| enlisted man of no more than three
" months’ service, even in these accel-
eratéd times. His tenure as a com-
manding officer was, however, one
of the shortest on army records,
lasting little more than an hour.
Corp. Husted’s brief elevation to
the rank of Colonel was the direct
result of a battery competition, con-
ducted April 23rd at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, by the 6th Batta-
lion, 2nd Regiment, Field Artillery
Training Center, of which he is a
member in good standing.
As section chief of Battery D.,
which consists of a squad of excel-
lent soldiers and a 155 millimeter
howitzer, Corp. Husted directed his
men to a decisive victory over the
other three batteries of the battalion
in cannonading, close order drill,
chemical warfare and military cour-
tesy. In appreciation they elected
him to lead the battalion in a re-
view held later in the day and con-
ducted without the services of the
regular officers. Corp. Husted was
further honored by having his pic-
ture taken by the side of the colonel,
and then returned to the ranks,
once again only two stripes away
from a buck private.
Though the disparity between a
corporal’s rating and that of a bat-
talion commander might easily be-
fuddle the average non-com, Dar-
win carried off his short-lived as-
(Continued on Page 3)