POST, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1942 THE LISTENING POST By THE VETERAN : Recent tabulations reported a high percentage of withdrawals from the newspaper field in the United States, the war years from 1939 to the present having accounted for mergers and abandonments that re- duced the Press count by more than three hundred in the daily editions and something less than five hundred in the weekly publications. But, if there had been inclusion of new weeklies, semi-weeklies and bi- weeklies in the Labor field, and is- sues out of governmental bureaus, it is practically certain that the ac- tual presentation of news that in- cludes propaganda would have shown a decided gain in prints of all kinds. Labor news has only official cov- erage in the privately owned daily and weekly editions. Even with censorship there is so much output of war-related wordage that the union leaders have found it neces- sary to organize editions of their own as a matter of self-protection, not alone for themselves but for their millions of members and the causes they represent. It would be no surprise if with the naming of Joseph Walsh as CIO chief in Lu- zerne County there might come into being the kind of Labor newspaper he is capable of editing. Elsewhere the national] and inter- national unions have been printing their own organs of publication, and according to reports from the print- ing trades there are new editions being readied up and down and * over and across the entire nation. Add to these the hundreds of pub- lications from the bureaus at Wash- ington, together with scores of peri- odicals that have been brought out for the farmers, and the result is on the side of tremendous new gains for the output of linotype and press. The tendency is expected to have a marked effect upon conditions re- lating to what America will be af- ter the war. X PEE It is no secret that men in the services, when they are normally supplied and free of enemy inter- ference, are eating about twenty percent more than the food total to * which they were accustomed in civil life. Copies of menus from scores of camps showed a plethora of meats, fish, soups, vegetables and desserts dished out for Thanksgiving in conformity with a plan prepared more than a month in advance. But the regular diet too is more than what is considered richly average. A contract eagerly sought in numer- ous camp localities is that covering acquisition of the left-overs. Exceptions occur to almost all rules. In thé case of holiday feast- ing there were many thousands of ‘exceptions. They were the men who were caught a-field on training work when the holiday dawned. A letter from a First Lieutenant has reached this column with the following in- formation: “We were on active training over Thanksgiving. Our! feast, if you would call it that, con- sisted of iron rations and an added delicacy composed of buns and bo- logny. It was fortunate for us that at the end of the day we were within reach of a town with ade- quate restaurants. As many of us as could be spared took advantage of the fact by buying our own meals at night.” The same officer strongly seconds the motion of President Roosevelt to have all men over thirty-eight years freed from the draft, with ~ those already in service allowed to file reasons why they would be of more use back at their old jobs. Says the lieutenant: “On these training expeditions my heart goes out to the men who have reached their fortieth year of life or are within a year or two of that mile- stone. They just can’t take it. The best possible army will be one that | will omit all these oldsters. A * Ed * Vor relief of a school situation that is very serious right now and seems destined to become worse, study is being given proposals that have reached departments of edu- cation in the national capitol and in a majority of the States of the Union. More than three hundred public schools have closed their Radio dervice 0 de DRIVE UP HERE! Come to specialists for Radio Service. Have your Radio put in tip-top shape—while ordinary “‘ex- perts” still would be tinkering it! We have the instruments, replace- ment parts and experience for quick, satisfactory service. Our business is to save money, and time, for you! " RUDOLPHS’ Electric Service 83-35 E. Jackson Street doors, while in scores of other in- stances there have been so many mergers of classes that teachers are over-worked. In war-plant centers the lack of new buildings amounts to total deprivation for children of migrated workers. The proposition to leaders of edu- cation under the law is that teach- ers be recruited from men and wo- men past fifty years of age, with only temporary certification of their abilities. Excepting in a few back- ward population centers there are no idle teachers, no applicants for jobs among persons who have made education their vocation and who hold certified qualifications. But, there are thousands of men and women who have practical educa- tion and experience. Their availa- bility would be for the lower school grades where the greastest shortag- es and deprivations occur. The strongest argument is that any person of normal intelligence and tact could handle the several grades of fundamental education. It is also stressed that those who have come out of long experience with family-rearing and earning of liveli- hoods might even be of greater eco- nomic advantage to the children than the young men and women they would displace. There is no present indication of relaxation of school laws, but if the war goes on the change may become necessary. #* * 8 County leaders of the Democratic Party fount scant consolation for decisive defeat in conferences called at Hotel Sterling on Sunday night. Where such gatherings had brought out hundreds in the hey-day of the New Deal in Pennsylvania, the at- tendance this week could be count- ed in units. Enthusiasm was plainly at the lowest ebb in a dozen years. For the many who stayed away there was the explanation that only re-organization can bring any chance of future success to the par- ty in Luzerne County. Present lead- ership has been from the top down, they say, meaning that the Law- Mundy plan of campaign is to fight for high office instead of building from the bottom in the manner adopted by the Republicans. GOP success starts with the election of constables, councilmen, commission- ers, school directors. With that nucleus for each test of balloting the Republicans gradually have ov- ercome the Roosevelt influence. Other complaints of the once en- thusiastic New Dealers include the direct charge that only a selected few of the Democrats have ever been given real consideration. Bad choices for county chairman and worse choices for district chairmen have been permitted to stand with- out correction and there even have been instances where jobs and par- ty commands actually were handed | to individuals sympathetic with the GOP. The OPA organization in the district, with Tom Leahy as chief, has repeatedly given its nod to known Republicans. What is needed, the complainants say, is to go back to the methods adopted in 1932 and 1934. Those two years marked the organization of the Independent Republicans. They based their confidence in the necessity of social and economic re- form and threw in with the Demo- crats to achieve their goals. Weary of the bungling of party management, most of those decisive voters have gone back to Republi- can strength or have refused to vote in county and municipal elections. A majority of them assign them- selves as lost, without chance to guide policies in the direction they would like to seek. They consider Luzerne County as strong as ever in majority sentiment for the New Deal, but they are bitterly opposed to the greed and mismanagement at the party's top. The Mundy-Law leadership an- nounced that it wanted to find the weak spots. What was wrong need- ed no exploration whatever. When a party backed as strongly as the Democrats were in Luzerne County goes gradually and inexorably down, to minority consideration, despite rich office-holdings, despite actual depression long-continued under Re- publican successes, then the only weak spots must be among the in- dividuals who have usurped the power of command. Unless there is a complete change of personnel among chairmen the great liklihood is that the Demo- cratic Party in Luzerne County will find it very hard to bring out can- didates for the next county elec- tions. Republicans right now are counting on sharp reluctance of popular Democrats to be sacrificed to the bunglers. The one hope, a slim one, is that the Independent Republicans can be brought back to the activities that won here for Phone 25868 ® Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Roosevelt and his followers. NAPPY J "HE GANGSTERS HAVE BEEN CAPTURED AND EVERYTHING (S UNDER CONTROL BUT THERE 1S STILL ONE DOUBT- FUL ISSUE IN * THE MINDS OF | THE POLICE. ¢ WHAT HIT THE GANGSTER, SLIMY, IN THE EYE? WE NOW FIND NAPPY AND GOOBER EN- LIGHTENING THE POLICE ON THAT HA-THA! YoU MEAN THAT BIG BAD GANGSTER DROPPED HIS GUN WHEN YOU HIM THROUGH ) oL' MAN THAT PEA SHOOTER? HO! Ho! 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers