PAGE TWO THE POST, FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1948 ~ "The Totem Pole” A ES sass, Harrisburg, January 29—Politics are having a hey-day bustling im- portantly hither and yon over the land, cigars firmly clenched and hat in hand—and some in the ring. For a time there was considerable hoop-de-la and rumpus over the question of State Treasurer and Auditor General. In fact in the Dem- ecratic ranks, the question is still® among the moot items, in view of the fact that the State Committee plans no action on the matter, maintaining instead a “hands off” policy. In Republican ranks the picture is entirely different. In fact, the GOP picture has been very well framed. “It must be remembered,” quoth Grampaw Pettibone assuming his Napoleanic stance with hand tucked in his ash-covered vest, “that these are two juicy political plums, the plucking of which cannot and must not be overlooked.” He recalled as he brushed from his vest the heavy load of cigar ashes that the two gents who now occupy these pews here on Capitol Hill - State Treasurer Ramsey S. Black and Auditor General G. Har- old Wagner - are staunch Demo- crats. : “If the Republicans are success- ful in having their candidates elec- ted to these offices, the GOP ma- chine in Pennsylvania. will have complete domination of our State Government,” he warned with a bent and quaking finger. We asked him what was wrong with that, whereupon he clamped his false teeth firmly together, and then peering over his bifocals at us in abject pity, said: “Son, we've got a two-party sys- tem in this State. We .ought to use it. The elephant-riders now in control of the administration also control the legislative branch, which means there isn’t much left for the donkey-backers. “It’s high time. young whipper- snappers like yourself take an in- terest in what's happening. The State Treasurer and Auditor General act as a ‘check’ on operations of the State's fiscal affairs, and no Democrat is going to let a Repub- lican get away with red cent if he can help it - just as no Republican is going to let a Democrat spend anything he can stop. It’s just a good check and balance system.” After that speech the irate gent sat down long enough to catch his breath, Then, drawing his red muf- fler a little tighter around his adams apple, said with teeth a-chatter: “Why son, if the GOP wins these! two offices this year, there will be so many Republicans on Capitol Hill that the poor squirrels will have to migrate to Washington to get-a decent hand-out.” Grampaw Pettibone recalled the recent meeting in Philadelphia -of GOP stalwarts when they endorsed State Senator Weldon B. Heyburn, of Delaware County as the candi- date for Auditor General, and Char- lie R. Barber, of Erie, Secretary of Welfare, for State Treasurer, say- ing: “Harve Taylor, Republican State Chairman, was beaming like a cat that had just caught a mouse, in- sisting that everything had been harmonious, no opposition and all that sort of thing. But son, behind the scenes the story was different.! At any rate, the leaders have now spoken. The voters are next.” a STATE POLICE SAY: It is both dangerous and un- lawful to overtake or pass an- other vehicle traveling in the same direction when approach- ing the crest of a grade or traveling on a curve where there may be oncoming traffic approaching. The law requires that you have a clear and un- obstructed view of the highway ahead and free of oncoming traffic for a distance of 500 feet before passing. is PNS The hemlock tree is the official tree of Pennsylvania. ~ Your Health _ When a young person graduates from high school and college, he is on his own in more ways than one. At this time of his life he as- sumes the responsibility not only for his choice of work and method of living, but also for his continued good health. By “continued good health”, it is denoted that during school years it has been possible to eliminate by education, vaccination and periodic examination such diseases as tuberculosis, typhoid, smallpox and diphtheria. : After leaving school or college, a large majority of people fail to apply the available method of pre- venting disease and prolonging life. The adult group should be educa- ted to voluntarily carry out meas- ures which prolong life and main- tain good health. Many diseases are recognizable in their early stages at a time when their progress may be cur- tailed, proper treatment instituted, and deaths prevented. Ovid, the Roman poet, more than 1900 years ago said, “Too late is the medicine prepared when the disease has gained strength by long delay.” A periodic physical examination by the family doctor is good pre- ventive medicine. Such examination may reveal the presence of an irritable ap- pendix, stones in the gall bladder or an ulcer in the stomach. Once these conditions are evident, treatment should be started im- mediately in order to avoid serious consequences due to delay. A periodic physical examination good insurance for prolonging is life. More persons who know how to swim are drowned each year than non-swimmers, due to the fact that the nonswimmer doesn’t go near the water, while the swimmer in- dulges and is exposed to drowning. The agriculture of the state of Oklahoma is varied, combining the | production of both the north and Li . Corn, cotton and wheat are | the largest among the many prod- ucts of the farms of the state. THE DALLAS POST “More than a newspaper, a community institution” ESTABLISHED 1889 Member Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers’ Association A non-partisan liberal progressive newspaper pub- lished every Friday morning at the Dallas Post plant Lehman Avenue, Dallas Pennsylvania. Entered as second-class matter at the post office at Dallas, Pa., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Subscrip- tion rates: $2.50 a year; $1.50 six months.., No subscriptions accepted for less than six months, Out-of state subscriptions: $3.00 a year; $2.00 six months or less. Back issues, more than one week old, 10¢c Single copies, at a rate of 6¢ each, can be obtained every Friday morn- ing at the following newsstands: Dallas— Tally-Ho Grille, LeGrand’s Restaurant; Shavertown, Evans’ Drug Store; Trucksville—Leonard’s Store; ldetown—Caves Store; Hunts- ville—Barnes Store; Alderson— Deater’s Store When requesting a change of ad- dress subscribers are asked to give their old as well as new address. Allow two weeks for changes of ad- dress or new subscription to be placed on mailing list. We will not be responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and editorial matter un- less self-addressed, stamped envelope is enclosed, and in no case will we be responsible for this material for more than 30 days. National display advertising rates 60¢ per column. inch, Local display advertising rates b50c per column inch; specified positien 60c per inch. Classified rates Minimum charge 80c. Unless paid for at advertising rates, we can give no assurance that an- nouncements of plays, parties, rummage sales or any affairs for raising money will appear in a specific issue. In no case will such items be taken on Thursdays. Preference will in all instances be given to editorial matter which has not previously appeared in publication. Editor and Publisher HOWARD W. RISLEY Associate Editor MYRA ZEISER RISLEY Contributing Editor MRS. T. M. B. HICKS 8¢ per word. i. \ ! 0) 7 \ ee - a 4 al L. "eM ik 4 3 Unions Block Labor Peace—Refuse Wage Boost ‘Already Accepted by 19 Other Railroad Unions! The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi- neers, Brotherhood’ of Locomotive Fire- men and Enginemen and the Switchmen’s Union of North America, representin 125,000 railroad employes, have refuse the President. What Now? The Unions having refused to arbitrate, the Railway Labor Act provides for the appointment of a fact-finding board by eniployes, and those among the highest paid, can successfully maintain the threat of a par- alyzing strike against the interest of the en- tire country—and against 90 per cent of their fellow employes. to accept the offer of the Railroads of a wage increase of 15% cents an hour. his. is the same increase awarded 1,000,000 non-operating employes by an arbitration board in September, 1947. This is the same increase accepted by 175,000 conductors, trainmen and switch- men by agreement on November 14, 1947. Agreements have been made with 1,175,000 employes, represented by nine- teen unions.” But these three unions, rep- resenting only 125,000 men, are trying to get more. They are demanding also many new working rules not embraced in the settlement with the conductors and train- men. Incidentally, the Switchmen’s Union of North America represents only about 7% of all railroad switchmen, the other 93% being represented by the Brotherhood of . Railroad Trainmen and covered by the settlement with that union. Strike Threat The leaders of these three unions spread a strike ballot while negotiations were still in progress. This is not a secret vote but is taken by union leaders and votes are signed by the employes in the presence of union representatives. When direct negotiations failed, the leaders’ of these three unions refused to join the railroads in asking the National lediation Board to attempt to settle the dispute, but the Board took jurisdiction at the request of the carriers and has been earnéstly attempting since November 24, 1947, to bring about a settlement. The Board on January 15, 1948, announced its inability to reach a mediation settle- ment. The leaders of the unions rejected the request of the Mediation Board to arbitrate. The railroads accepted. The railroads feel it is due shippers, passengers, employes, stockholders, and the general public to know that through- out these negotiations and in mediation, they have not only exerted every effort to reach a fair and reasonable settlement, but they have also met every requirement of the Railway Labor Act respecting the negotiation, mediation, and arbitration of labor disputes. Itseems unthinkable that these three unions, i The threat of a strike cannot justify grant ing more favorable conditions to 125,000 em- ployes than have already been put in effect for 1,175,000, nor will it alter the opposition of the railroads to unwarranted wage in- creases or to changes in working rules which are not justified. ; A glance at the box shows what employes represented by the Engineers and Firemen make. They are among the highest paid in the ranks of labor in the United States, if not representing less than 10 per cent of railroad the highest. Compare these wages with what you make! 1939 Average 1947 A 7 varags ua) Here is a comparison of Type of Employe Annual Poors Annual is — — dod Zyorass annual earn- ENGINEERS ings o : Doe on Road Freight. ......... $3,966 $6,126 $6,757 war) and 1947. Also (Local and Way) shown is what 1947 Road Passenger........ 3,632 © 5,399 6,025 earnings would have Road Freight (Through). 3,147 4,684 5,169 been if the 15% cents Yard 4 4,081 4,539 er hour increase, of- FIREMEN ered by the railroads Road Freight. .... ans 2708 4,683 5,268 and rejected by the (Local and Way) union leaders, had been Road Passenger. ....... 2,732 4,544 5,165 in effect throughout the Road Freight (Through). 2,069 3,460 3,891 entire year 1947. Yard: vec. santo, 1,962 3,136 3,653 Railroad wages computed from Interstate Commerce Commission Statement M-300. Full year 1947 estimated on basis of actual figures for first eight months. ROOM 214 eo 143 LIBERTY STREET NEW YORK, NEW YORK We are Rublishing this and other advertisements to talk with you * at first hand about matters which are important to everybody. Re State Wide News Gathered through the facilities of Pennsylvania News Service Philadelphia, (PNS)—46-year-old Michael Papaneri, former profes- sional boxer, has been convicted by a jury of second-degree murder in connection with the slaying of his 87-year-old mother, Anna Papaneri. Chester, (PNS)—An investigation is under way into the cause of a spectacular $750,000 fire which swept through a bus company gar- age, destroying 33 buses each valued at around $18,000. Pittsburgh, (PNS)— William Moore, 17, and Mario Del Masto, 28, were seriously injured in a gasoline explosion in a three-story garage last week caused by an acetylene torch being lighted too near a gasoline tank. Chester, . (PNS)—City Council here dropped a plan to levy a tax on newspapers and radio stations within the city limits, which would have cost these public services two per cent tax on gross receipts. The city has only one newspaper. Lewisburg, (PNS)—Peter Jano= wicz, 18-year-old prisoner who es- caped from the Federal Penitentiary “to go home for the Christmas hol- idays” has been sentenced to serve an additional two-and one-half years for his action by the United States District Court. Scranton, (PNS)—A new one per cent income tax for Scranton has been voted into effect by City Coun- cil on a three-to-one vote. The tax becomes law after February 20. Pittsburgh, (PNS)—Thanks to the alertness of two Pennsylvania Rail- road employes, nine-year-old Mat- thew Cavanaugh is still walking around like any other normal lad these days. Last week he and his brothers were sledding along thin ice along a stream when suddenly little Matthew disappeared. = The railroad workers, hearing the screams of the brothers, rushed downstream about 100 feet, waded through the thin ice and grabbed the tot as he emereged from his under-ice trip. Erie, (PNS)—While playing the ordinarily innocent and harmless game of ‘cops and robbers” near her home last week, seven-year-old Betty E. Miles was accidently shot in the eye by a small bore rifle held by her brother.: She died shortly after being taken to a hos- pital. Middleburg, (PNS)— «Firemen from Middleburg and two nearby communities fought desperately a fire for four-and-a-half hours in an effort to save the building housing a large chain store. Only the brick walls remained standing as officials estimated damage to be in the neighborhood of $40,000. Philadelphia, (PNS)—George W. Rookstool, 32-year-old butcher be- lieves in helping his customers beat the high price of living. By selling membership in a “club” at $1.25 per person he is able to sell meat wholesale. He now has 360 mem- bers. Home Economics Class Home economics meeting will be held at the Mountain Grange Hall, Carverton, Wednesday night, Feb- ruary 4, for the East Dallas, Carver- ton, Orange, and other rural com- munities of this section. A home economics representative from the State will be present. Whether Your Home Is Large or Small It should be kept in condi- . . . it is your home. tion. We make F.H.A. Loans to repair and modernize homes . . . and for insui- ation. The cost is $5.00 a year for each $100 bor- rowed. Your application will be given immediate at- tention. THE KINGSTON NATIONAL BANK Kingston Corners ' 3 Barnyard Notes We're looking for the fellow who says, “We don’t have winters like we did when I was a boy. Of course science has proved the fallacy of that remark; but there are still plenty of old-timers who persist that winters are not so cold, and drifts are never so deep, as they were thirty, forty, or fifty odd years Cu ago . . . and they might be right, too. There were no motorized snow- plows in those blustery ‘days; few central heating plants, no stokers and no oil burners. Few farm homes had modern plumbing or running water. Transportation for most folks was confined to trains, horses and Shank’s Mare. no heaters; and those who were fortunate enough to own awtomobiles i jacked them up in the garage for the winter. But snow wasn’t any 4 deeper then and the mercury dropped no lower than it does today. : + It’s the point of ‘view that makes the difference. But on the sur- face we can see that fellow’s point. Girls today wear sheer nylons in- 1 stead of heavy cotton stockings, and kids wear none. Men have dis- Ei carded long woolens in favor of year-round shorts and shirts. ton and lace shoes have given way to oxfords. buffalo robe are as dead as the dodo. can stand more cold. Could be. Ear-flap caps and the Maybe we're getting tougher and Our memories of real winters — and a glance at the calendar con- vinces us that we are not so young — center around our grandfather’s where our greatgrandfather, wearing a tall beaver hat, migrated from P Connecticut to become one of the first settlers on the Meshoppen Creek. The approach of a winter storm was the signal for me and my cousin to fill the woodbox on the back stoop of that farm home from the neatly i corded woodpile outnear the henhouse. Then the water pails were filled | in preparation for the night and day ahead, and lined in a row on the bench where the washbasins always stood. : After my uncle had fed and bedded the stock, we’d close the hen- house windows and pull for the house where over a hot wood fire in the kitchen range my grandmother and aunt would have the evening meal prepared. j Dusting the snow from damp clothing, we’d line our rubber boots and two smaller pairs of felt tops in the long dark closet off the kitchen — a closet that always smelled of boots, stable, guns and men. It was there that the bootjack that now holds the door open at the Barnyard : once reposed. Cast in the iron form of a naked colored mammy it brought a, I protests from a demure grandmother whenever two small boys were ® : allowed by an indulgent uncle to use the “vuglar thing”. Clothing changed, : i we were ready for supper. There was always crumbled maple sugar in the blue milk glass dish on my grandmother’s table, sugar cookies from the iron stone jar in the cellarway, and thick cream skimmed from the flat milk pans that rested on high racks in the damp earth-bottomed cellar; spare-ribs from home-killed pork and maybe pancakes of the kind that required butter- milk and a night to rise, in the batter crock, before they eould be poured on the sizzling griddle. Eta WE —— . and all the while the snow piled deeper out in the yard, down | in the orchard, and out toward the barn, while the snarling wind swept drifts over pasture and meadow. Sometimes the oil lamp on the supper table (the same kind Myra collects—circa 1900) would flicker and gasp from a sudden draft and almost die. : After the meal, while the women folk cleared the table and washed the dishes (men folk didn’t wash dishes in those days) the men would retire to the living room to talk about the weather and other big storms — storms that really were something when they were boys — and my cousin and I would listen in awe to tales of the winter when black diph- theria killed a neighbor down the road; Ben Johnson's boy over the hill; the miller’s daughter and a score of others about the countryside. There was hardly a home without its dead, and the snow piled the roads so high that Dr. Lathrop couldn’t get through and seyeral*days elapsed before thoseswho rémairted could bury the dead® = « - = ! Then my grandmother would come in — none too soon for the wide- eyed pair of us —and the conversation would change to more pleasant things. From her rocker beside the paisley covered living room table, her book aglow from the rays of an Alladin lamp, she'd read history and tales of the north woods aloud to all of us until her voiee became i hoarse or her eyes tired, even though she wore reading glasses over her | regular spectacles. Wy 0 GE ry After an hour or two, my uncle would coal up the hopper-type room heater, resplendent with its glowing isinglass sides and ornate nickel trimming. Then swinging the lantern that rested, always lighted, on the back porch, he'd start out to take another look at the stock; to see how deep the snow had fallen and to predict the weather for tomorrow. There were no radioed weather forecasts — only the fallen snow, the hidden stars, the howl of the wind and a man’s intuition to foretell what the morrow would bring. } Frye z Of course snows were deeper then, drifts higher and weather colder. Then we’d pile up to bed in the unheated second floor; ehange into flannel nightgowns and burrow into the straw tick on the cord bed while the snow made little drifts inside the windowsill. That straw tick — was there ever a bed like it—crisp, cold and picky; but it soon warmed up under the heat of two small bodies and a hot soapstone wrapped in flannel at the foot. aie Heads covered with blankets we sank into the cold pillows with a final prayer, “Gee, it would be awful if we ‘had to go’ tonight.” And all the while the snow piled ‘higher against the frosted windowpsne. It | was a great storm for youngsters but it had its drawbacks. Fh mead Maybe in the middle of the night one of us would awaken with a fearful pain, akin to Cholera Morbus. Stoically, the awakened one would bear it for ten, fifteen, perhaps twenty minutes. But the persistent pain would seldom. be suppressed. Then one or the other would nudge his sleeping companion. A grunt from the dark and the two of us would jump gingerly out of bed. Sleepily we'd loosely button on ‘our gar- ments. “You fraid?” “Nope”, both of us remembering unburied dead from black diphtheria and that ghosts recognize no weather. .Tiptoeing down the creaking stairs, we’d make our way past the room heater, through the darkened kitchen onto the back stoop. Sometimes we could persuade the hound to leave his warm berth from behind the stove and come with us for protection. Then from the back stoop where the wel- come lantern threw its warm beams over the invading snow, we’d plunge 4 waist deep, where the path should have been. Out past the pump which § was bedecked like a white scarecrow, down the hill beyond the grape arbor and my grandmother's flower garden where in summer goldenglow concealed the little white building that at all hours welcomed the rugged, the sedate and the frivolous — and on this cold winter night, two young cousins and an unwilling dog. Yes, we're looking for the fellow who said winters were eolder then, | — and how about seats, brother, do you remember them ? 7 { ® RES. U.5. PAT. OFF. Fl 4 “GIVE YOUR CHICKS A BREAK | START THEM ON THE IMPROVED ~~ ) CHICATINE CHICK STARTER PERFORMANCE IS PROOF! TIOGA FEED SERVICE I - K. C. Devens, Owner TEE KUNKLE, PA. ‘ - DALLAS, PA. Phone 337-R-49 Phone 200 There were no smooth highways; few closed cars; | ;: 3 High but- I farm on the banks of State’s Pond in Susquehanna County, not far from 3 { i ARE dimes SAAS DEVENS MILLING COMPANY | |