© of his pocket.
_PAGE TWO
BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET
Handsome Is, Handsome Does:
Case of Mind Over Mattress
By BILLY ROSE
At a spaghetti salon, I got to talking with a reformed boot-
legger who is currently the Mister Big of a big whiskey company.
“What do you hear from the mob?” I asked.
fill up three sheets of copy paper?”
“Anything that woyld
The former Man of Extinction thought a minute. ‘“There’s one story
I don’t remember seeing in print,” he said.
“It’s about an old man
named Ronowitz who ran a candy store on the East Side around the time
Dutch Schultz was buying his first delivery trucks. .. .”
|
One night as the storekeeper was
about to lock up, a hoodlum stepped
into the shop
and pressed a
gun against the
old man’s mid-
dle. ‘‘Hide me
somewhere,’ he
said.
The old man
knew better than
to argue with a
revolver. “Who's
chasing you?”
he asked, as he
opened the trap door which led to
the - cellar.
“Some fellas from Jersey.”
When they got to the basement,
Ronowitz pointed to a couple of
old mattresses near the coal bin.
‘Lay down,” he said, ‘and I'll
make a sandwich.”
A minute later the storekeeper
had rolled man and mattresses into
a bundle and tied it up with a piece
of old clothesline.
* * »
AS HE STARTED back, up to the
store, a couple of men, guns in
hand, came down the stairs. ‘“What-
cha doin’ in the cellar?’’ asked one.
‘“Bankin’ the furnace,” said the
old man.
The gents from Jersey poked
around in the trash barrels, ex-
amined the coal bin and then came
to the rolled-up mattresses.
“Pll throw a bullet into them
tor luck,’ said one of them.
“You been seein’ too many
movies,” said the other. ‘Let's
try the roof.”
The mobsters
Ronowitz heard the door bang. He
banked the fire, and waited in his
‘store until he saw the men climb
into a car and drive off. Then he
went back down and untied the
mattresses.
“You done fine, Pop,’”’ said the
fugitive, taking a wad of bills out
“Tell me when to
Billy Rose
stop countin’.
“Such money 1
said the old man.
“Ya kin have anything ya
con't take”
instructions
went upstairs and
want,” said the gangster. “Make
a wish. Better yet, make three
wishes like in them fairy stor-
ioc.
ies
“Well,” said the storekeeper, “I
hear in a couple weeks some guy
from the West Side is opening a
candy store on the next block.”
‘““He ain't gonna open,” said the
hoodlum. . “Keep talkin’.”
‘The man who sells me my
chocolate syrup, all of a sudden he
wants a 15 per cent mark-up.”
“I'll discuss it with him. Chances
are you'll get a reduction. One
more wish to go—this time make it
good.”
“That’s all I can think of,” said
Ronowitz, ‘excepting maybe you'd
like to tell me how it felt when you
was in the mattress.”
* * *
THE GANGSTER’S lips tight-
ened. ' “You're makin’ fun of me,
Pop,” he said, ‘“‘and I don’t like it.
I wanted to pay ya off nice and
proper, but since ya don’t want it
that way, maybe I better try some-
thin’ else.”
Ten minutes later, as per phone
from the hoodlum, a
black car drove up and Ronowitz
was pushed into the back seat. The
car headed north and kept going
until it parked near a wooden
bridge somewhere in Westchester.
The driver took some chains
from the luggage compartment, put
a heavy piece of scrap iron on the
old man’s middle, and then lashed
his legs to his chest so the metal
was wedged in between.
“Throw bim over when I
count three,” said the hoodlum.
“One— 4
*“Two—"
The old man braced himself
and wondered who would mind
the store ibe next day.
Suddenly the gangster grinned.
He walked over and began to undo
the chains.
“Now you got your answer, Pop,”
he said. ‘‘That’s how I felt when
I was in the mattress.”
| STRICTLY BUSINESS
by McFeatters
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Dials Mcallen)
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N
SAFETY VALVE
Dallas, Feb. 21, 1950
Dear Editor:
We have suffered with the tele-
phone service for many years. We
did not care to express our dissatis-
faction because we felt that some
day they would give us a break—
TODAY WE GOT IT—our new In-
crease in rates.
I never wrote a letter like this
in my life but to have this dern
thing jammed down my throat is
beyond human endurance. Half the
time I cannot use my phone and
the other half I cannot hear what |
is being said to me.
SLIGHT INCREASE in this and
that. Sit down and figure out just
what you did pay and then figure
out what you are now paying be-
cause of a few cents an hour
granted ‘to its employees. © MY
GUESS IS $22,111.00 NET per year
for the Commonwealth Telephone
Co. and 16¢ an hour for the girls.
Telephone Subscriber
(disgruntled)
Newspaper Subscriber
(satisfied)
SOME TIPS FOR AL
Gobbler’s Knob, Pa.,
Feb. 20, 1950.
Ye Ole Dallas Post
Gentlemen:
In answer to Al in his column
portraying his troubles with the
modern car (Hism and the
DalBank’s) and his plea for an easy
way to raise ‘er up when flat-
ter’nell. i
Out Gobbler’s Knob way we has
lots of ways, such as a few:
A block and tackle is always a
good bet. Throw a line over a tree
limb. Hook pully end on bumper
and heave. Tie line to opposite
wheel of car after raising. This al-
ways works after you find the tree.
To lower car cut rope.
Sometimes we just build a big
hole under that durn old flat and
take her off thataway.
We used ter use fence rails, but
with the mines working as they
are, them rails is a disappearing
mighty fast.
Back her up over a big fat sow.
Once the bumper is over her back,
give her a bucket of swill and she'll
stay quiet until you've changed that
‘er tire. To lower. car, remove swill
bucket, swing over your head and
hit sow where she sits. Be sure the
brake is on that ’er ole car.
Some of our friends carry an ole
skirt and cone of dem Picture Hats.
When they gets a flat, they just
puts on, the femmy rig and looks
coy. Pretty soon some City Slicker
falls for the bait and your (her)
troubles are over. Be sure you have
shaved before trying this.
With this new house-raising in
this back region, steal a few con-
crete blocks and a plank. Run that
ol car up plank on block, twist
plank out, car falls on block and
you change tire. To get a goin’
agin just ask one of them bulldozer
guys crowdin’ our fair countryside
to please give you a teeny little
doze.
Hopin’ this helps that Al Guy,
Ambrose Kitunkel.
AUSTIN HAS AL'S IDEA
Dear Editor:
To Al and all others who are
looking for the same things in a
car.
The Austin has a jack that op-
erates from inside the car to lift
either right or left side of the car.
It is so easy to use that women and
children can operate in with ease.
But not because it is a light car
for the Austin weighs approx. 2250
lbs., less spare wheel, tools, etc.
If you want economy: The Aus-
tin 2 Door Sedan sells for $1295
completely equipped and the 4 Door
Sedan for $1345. The Austin can
cut your operating costs in half.
You get up to 35 miles per gallon
of gasoline!
Handling ease: You can park an
Austin where other cars can’t quite
make it. You can circle ‘on a dime’.
Power: The power of its 40 h.p.
motor is amazing. The Austin has
a cruising speed of 60 to 65 miles
per hour.
Comfort: In the Austin you re-
lax. For here's a ride that is level
‘round the sharpest curve . .. low-
to-the-road for safety . . . smooth
because of low pressure tires . . .
and roomy as high priced cars.
A demonstration puts you under
no obligation so why not come in
and see the New Austin?
Mrs. Dan Meeker
@® You're all right, Mrs. Meeker,
—and a darn good ad writer. So
good that when your husband
offered to pay for this letter as an
ad, we made the suggestion that
we'd like to run it in the Safety
Valve. —Editor.
GETS $468,000 GRANT
February 23, 1950
Dear Editor: -
Have noticed by the Post that
you are working on a joint school
district in Dallas Borough and
Township.
Our four boards just voted Fri-
day evening last to accept State
Public School Building Authority
for addition to our high school for
$468,000.
Our grant has been approved.
We are one of the first thirty-four
to be approved and were number
forty-one on the docket.
- T. A. Williammee,
Millville Joint School Dist.
THE DALLAS POST
“More than a mewspaper,
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 38, 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, 100
Single copies, at a rate ot 6c each,
can be obtained every Friday morn-
ing at the following newsstands:
Dallas— Tally-Ho Grille, Bowman's
Restaurant; Shavertown, Evans’
rug Store; Trucksville—Gregory's
tore; Shaver's Store; ldetown—
Caves Store; Huntsville— Barnes
Store; Alderson—Deater’'s Store;
Fernbrook-—Reese’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
63¢ per column inch.
Local display advertising rates 50c
per column inch; specified position 60c
per inch.
Classified rates 8¢ per
Minimum charge 50c.
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
word.
will appear in a specific issue. In no
case will such items be taken on
Thursdavs.
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
Sports Editor
WILLIAM HART
ONLY
YESTERDAY
From The Post of ten and
twenty years ago this week.
i
February 28, 1930
After months of deliberation,
plans have been started to estab-
lish a clay products plant at Noxen.
Ex-County Surveyor Charles
Cooke is compiling a map of lands
of Albert Lewis Estate at Bear
Creek, a tract including more than
12,000 acres.
John Yaple was up at the Coun-
try Club Saturday trying out his
eye on the clay pigeons.
“Bud” a dog owned by H. S.
VanCampen, suffered injuries which
necessitated amputation of his foot
this week when a truck Lloyd
Cease was driving collided with a
Dallas street car.
February 23, 1940
Mrs. Bernice’ Lundy and Mrs.
Eva Ray are the end women in
the Kiwanis Minstrel which will
be given at Kingston Township
High School next Thursday and
and Friday nights.
More than 500 properties in Dal-
las and vicinity which were : to
have sold at the Court House next
1929 and 1930 taxes were saved
when the owners paid the delin-
quent taxes.
Mr. and Mrs. William Powell re-
turned to their home at Shrine
View after spending some weeks
in Florida.
Misses Margaret and Ruth Hull
of Washington, D. C., were week-
end guests of Mrs. Laura Patterson.
The girls came to Dallas to attend
the Templin-Eck wedding.
A troupe of “Broadway Ladies”
who will appear in the dancing
chorus in the second act of “West
of the Rio” written for Dr. Henry
M. Laing Fire Company by Howell
Rees and Fred Kiefer, is composed
of Mrs. Charles Jones, Mrs. Gerald
Dettmore, Mrs. J. C. Fleming, Mrs.
Peynton Lee, Mrs. Charles Max-
well, Mrs, William Brickel, Mrs.
Kenneth Oliver, Mrs. Ord Trum-
bower, Mrs. Leonard Harvey and
Jean Bogert. Arlene Rood is the
director.
YETTER’S CHICKS
NEW HAMPSHIRES, SEX-LINK,
BARRED CROSSES
A strain for Eggs and Broiler raisers.
Pa. & U.S. Approved, Pullorum Clean.
Pikes Creek (near Ruggles Store)
Phone 461-R-3
Postoffice Hunlock’s Creek R.F.D. 1
LEIDINGER’S
117 S. Washington St.
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.—Phone 3-9459
Don’t sell your antiques be-
fore calling LEIDINGER'S.
Rifles, Revolvers; Guns, Fur-
niture, Glass, Silver, and
Coins. Entire Estates Bought.
THE POST, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1950
Babson Discusses
Insurance Stocks
Many letters have come to me
asking that I suggest an investment
which combines: (1) proper diver-
sification; (2) an inflation hedge
based upon low cost compared with
liquidating value; (3) a fair inter-
est yield, and (4) freedom from
labor troubles. This last is very
important. After considerable
thought, I recommend stocks of
good long established fire insur-
ance companies, and herewith are
my reasons. Any of these stocks
can be purchased through your lo-
cal bank.
Inflation Hedges
1. Insurance companies are actu-
ally well diversified and balanced
“investment trusts” with a secona
source of earnings from the insur-
ance business. This second source
will often produce as much in-
come as the stocks and bonds which
the company owns. Furthermore,
the purchasers of this form of in-
vestment trust should receive more
income—and certainly more secur-
ity—than by the direct purchase
of most securities. For instance, the
Home Insurance Company, the
stock of which sells at $35 a share,
has invested assets of $60 a share.
2. Fire insurance stecks are sell-
ing at a low ratio to liquidating val-
ue. To take the case of the Home
Insurance Company again as an ex-
ample, it is selling at about 85%
of its current liquidating value.
Since 1935 the average annual
range for all fire insurance com-
panies has been less than the lig-
uidating value. As most fire insur-
ance companies have a portfolio of
good common stocks, they should
be a fair inflation hedge.
Dividend Outlook
3. Generally ‘dividends on fire
insurance stocks gradually increase
The ratio of dividends paid to in-
vestment income received is below
the normal average for other class-
es of stocks. This shows conserva-
tive management. The leveling off
of premiums will stop the drain on
surplus and permit greater divi-
dends. Increasing dividends should
cause increasing market prices.
4, There are cycles in the insur-
ance business. The cycle now is that
of a period of good earnings, which
give a yield between 4% and 5%
although a large part of the assets
are in Government Bonds. Perhaps
never before in history has prop-
erty been so nearly insured to full
value. The rates are not ordinarily
reduced until five-year-average re-
sults demonstrate them to be too
high. When rates again begin to be
reduced and or fire losses increase,
dividends and prices of fire’ insur-
ance stocks may again decline for
a period.
Small Labor Expense
5. A period of labor troubles—
such as we are witnessing today
(Continued on Page Seven)
Do You Want To Cut
Your Federal Taxes?
Efficiency At Less Cost
Efficiency is necessary to reduce
the cost of government. It is also
imperative for our national pros-
perity. The Commission on the
Organization of the Executive
Branch of the Government in its
minute survey of the 1812 Federal
agencies, boards, and departments,
found a sad lack of effective house-
keeping. This Commission, created
by Congress with the approval of
President Truman, was headed by
former President Hoover. It has
provided a vivid picture of the
weaknesses in our present set-up,
and suggested ways of increasing
efficiency so that your taxes may
be reduced.
Today thousands of tons of obso-
lete, useless records are stored in
steel cabinets in expensive offices at
maintenance charges of $29 per
year each, when they could be kept
in warehouses at a cost of only
$2.15 per year each.
In 1928 the Department of Agri-
culture had about 22,000 employees
and spent less than $26 million. In
1948 it had 82,000 employees and
spent $834 millions of your hard-
earned tax dollars. In a single
Georgia cotton county, 47 employ-
ees of 7 separate USDA field ser-
vices were handing out advice. A
Washington State county had 184
Department agents and a Maryland
county had 88 agents advising the
heavily taxed farmers. A Missouri
dairyman was “confused and irri-
tated” when he recently received
contradictory advice from five gov-
ernment agencies on how to ferti-
lize his fields.
These are a few instances of the
thousands discovered by the Com-
mission where elimination of dupli-
cation would give increased effi
ciency and better service at less
cost. If all of the recommen-
dations of the Commission ars
adopted, the workers of this
country would save between three
and four billion dollars in taxes
annually.
If you are Interested in seeing
these changes made in your gov-
ernment, tell your Congressman.
Write the Citizens Committee for
Reorganization of the Executive
Branch of the Government, 1421
Chestnut Street, Philadelphia .2,
Pennsylvania, for more informa-
tion. Talk to your friends about
it. These much-needed reforms
cannot be made into law without
your support!
¢
THE IDES OF MARCH
western newspapers, author unknown:
proposition that all men are fair game.
money.
pure waste.
yourself.
ships.
also named.
and other sources.
Alexander J. Dallas.
seem to recount.
position at the bar.
named in his honor.
~~ B nad Notes
Garfield Jackson has called our attention to a sort of paraphrase
of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address that has been going the rounds of
“One score and 16 years ago our fathers brought forth upon this
nation a new tax, conceived in desperation and dedicated to the
“Now we are engaged in a great mass of calculations testing
whether that taxpayer or any taxpayer so confused and so impover-
ished can long endure. We are met on Form 1040. We have come to
dedicate a large portion of our income to a final resting place with
those men who here spend their lives that they may spend our
“It is altogether anguish and torture that we should do this.
But in the legal sense we cannot evade, we cannot cheat, we cannot
underestimate this tax. The collectors, glever and sly, who com-
puted here, have gone far beyond our power to add and subtract.
: “Our creditors will little note nor long remember what we pay
here, but the Bureau of Internal Revenue can never forget what we
report here. It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task re-
maining before us—that from these vanished dollars we take in-
creased devotion to the few remaining, that we here highly resolve
that next year will not find us in a higher income tax bracket.”
When you pay your income tax, make a special note of how
much 10% of your payment will be. Then remember that your Gov-
ernment is spending about $40 billion. Recall that the Hoover Com-
mission reported $4 billion could be saved simply by orderly govern-
ment housekeeping. So 10% of your tax is your contribution for
The Hoover Commission did not attempt to suggest the Gov-
ernment quit doing anything—only that orderly methods be applied
to what it now does. If useless and harmful activities were ended,
you might have another sizable percentage of earnings to use for
THE MAN FOR WHOM DALLAS WAS NAMED
From time to time many persons have asked how Dallas got
its name. While it is not clear why this area was named in honor of
Alexander Dallas it is interesting to know something more about
the man and the circumstances which brought about the formation
of a new township out of old certified Kingston and Bedford Town-
The name Dallas was applied to the new Township, twenty-
five years before Dallas, Texas, was named in honor of Alexander
Dallas’s son, George M. Dallas, for whom Dallas Lodge F. & A.M. was
The following material is gathered in part from Brewster's His-
tory of Certified Kingston Township, the Encyclopedia Britannica
At the April Sessions of the court of 1816, Nehemiah Ide, a res-
ident of the old certified township of Bedford presented his petition
praying the court to erect a new township. The viewers reported,
at the August Sessions, in favor of a’ new township.
In this territory was about one sixth of old certified Bedford.
The remainder of this new township was taken from Plymouth. This
report was confirmed at the April Sessions of the Court in 1817, and
the new township was given the name of Dallas in honor of Hon.
What connection Dallas had with the area, history does not
~ He was born on the island of Jamaica, West Indies on June 21,
1759, the son of Dr. Robert C. Dallas, a Scottish physician practicing
there. Dr. Dallas soon returned to England with his family and Alex-
ander was educated at Edinburgh and Westminster. He studied
law at the Inner Temple and returned to Jamaica in 1780.
In 1783 he settled in Philadelphia and immediately took the oath
of allegiance to the United States and rapidly attained a prominent
He was interested in theatrical projects and wrote several
dramatic compositions. From 1791 to 1801 he was secretary of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and acquired a position of much in-
fluence in the Democratic-Republican Party of the State.
In October, 1814 President Madison appointed him secretary of
the treasury, to succeed George W. Campbell whose brief and disas-
trous term had been marked by wholesale bank suspensions, and an
enormous depreciation of state and national bank notes. The ap-'
pointment itself inspired confidence, and Dallas’s prompt measures
still further relieved the situation. Dallas, who belonged to the
financial school of Albert Gallatin, deserves to rank among Ameri-
ca’s greatest financiers. He found the government bankrupt and after
two years at the head of the treasury left it with a surplus of $20,-
000,000; moreover as Henry Adams pointed out, his measures had
“fixed the financial system in a firm groove for twenty years.”
He retired from office to resume his law practice, but the bur-
den of his official duties had undermined his health and he died sud-
denly at Philadelphia on June 16th, 1817, at the age of 58, just two
months after a new township in Northeastern Pennsylvania was
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