RRR
a
14 THE DALLAS POST/Wednesday, August 6, 1986
Open Horseshoe Pitching Tournament,
0: Luzerne County Fair, c-0
PA 18612. Deadline for
Urbane, Joe Shurmaitis, Jean Long and Peanuts Long.
Concert planned
Joseph Suprum and Boxcar Willie discuss arrangements for
his appearance at the Luzerne County Fair planned for
September 3 with shows at 8 and 10 p.m. Suprum is serving
as entertainment chairman for the 1986 fair and recently
met with Boxcar Willie at the Lycoming County Fair during
July. The Luzerne County Fair is scheduled for Wednesday,
Sept. 3 to Sunday, Sept. 7 at the Rte. 118 location in
Dallas. Advance tickets for the Boxcar Willie and the Texas
Trainmen show are available by calling the fair office at 675-
6448. The fair provides five days of entertainment, amuse-
ment rides, commerical and arts and crafts exhibits, 4-H
exhibits and shows, horses and livestock, numerous food
stands and wholesome family fun. Commercial exhibitors are
reminded to make their space reservations as soon as
possible, by calling the fair office at 675-6448. Premium
brochures for arts and crafts, 4-H exhibits, livestock and
horse entries can be obtained also by calling the fair office.
Other entertainment scheduled for the fair is star of ‘‘Hee
Haw'' Shotgun Red and Steve Hall with Southbound 76.
Shotgun Red will appear on Thursday, Sept. 4 with shows at
7 and 9 p.m. and the fabulous Leahy family planned for
Sunday, Sept. 7. Additional entertainment will be provided
on a second stage arranged for the first time during the
1986 fair. Co-sponsor of the Boxcar Willie show is Franklin
First Federal Savings and Loan, Wilkes-Barre.
DALLA
CARRIERS
VARIOUS
AREAS
OF
BACK
MOUNTAIN
Deliver
in your
CLASSIFIEDS
Even your best friend knows
that the classifieds give you the
Minimum Age 10
answers dl F hi
you —— gly pi For more
CALL TODAY Call Jean
CLASSIFIEDS 675-5211
Ladies
invited to
compete
Young ladies between the ages of
16 and 20, are invited to compete for
the title of Luzerne County Fair
Queen. The winner will be chosen
during the fair scheduled for Sep-
tember 3 to 7 at the Route 118
location in Dallas. The crowning
will take place on Saturday, Sept. 6
at 5 p.m.
Numerous prizes will be awarded
and the Queen will go on to compete
for the title of State Queen, spon-
sored by the Pennsylvania State
Association of County Fairs. The
State competition will be held in
January 1987 at the State Fair
Association conference in Pitts:
burgh.
All contestants must be 16 to 20
years of age by June 1.
For further information and an
application, call the Luzerne County
Fair at 675-6448 between the hours
of 10 am. and 4 p.m., Monday
through Friday. Deadline for regis-
tration is August 22, 1986.
Locals take
part in Games
Three girls each from Dallas and
Lake Lehman High Schools will be
taking part in this weekends action
at Penn State University in the
finals of the Keystone Games com-
petition.
The six will be participating in
fast-pitch softball play beginning on
Friday, August 8 at 2 p.m. at State
College.
The group, representing Region 2,
against teams from three other
regions.
Those from Dallas include: Joyce
Tinner, Tracy Cave and Heidi
Scholz. From Lake Lehman the
three are Noel Kuznicki, Lori Pantle
and Beth Finn.
The team is coached by Flossie
Finn, Lake Lehman; Sue Moore,
Dunmore; Marge Kelly, Wyoming
Valley West and Cheryl Travis of
Lake Lehman.
S POST
WANTED
information
at 675-5211
By HOWARD J. GROSSMAN
Special to The Dallas Post
In one of the most fascinating
books on anthractite and the
heritage of Northeastern
Pennsylvania, two Lafyette College
professors have published a 360
page book titled “The Kingdom of
Coal.”
The book written by Donald L.
Miller, an Associate Professor os
History, and Chairman of the
American Civilization Program at
Lafayette College; and Richard E.
Sharpless, formerly of Wilkes-
Barre, PA, and now an Associate
Professor of History at Lafayette
College, is a striking commentary
on the cleavages and clashes and
spirited, yet depressing anthractite
era which has riveted the attention
of many historians, but has rarely
been placed in such an exciting
context as that which the authors
have portrayed. In words and
photos, the entire panorama of
anthracite history is laid out and
expressed in a fashion which strikes
at why the region developed the
way it did and how the problems of
Northeastern Pennsylvania’s
economy have persisted for so
many years.
It is a fascinating analysis of how
Northeastern Pennsylvania grew
around diamonds of anthracite to
control the destiny of tens of
thousands of Northeastern
Pennsylvanians. All of the turmoil
of the anthracite era, the industrial
revolution which anthracite
production literally enabled, the
coalrail monopolies which
dominated the American scenD, the
ethnic migrations which expanded
the population base of Northeastern
Pennsylvania and carved out the
economy for decades, and the
engulfing clashes and conflicts
between labor and management are
spelled out in a dazzling array of
descriptions and interpretations as
the real life drama of anthracite
heritage unfolds in the pages of the
book.
Up and down the Lackawanna
Valley, Wyoming Valley, Lehigh
Valley, and Schuylkill Valley,
march the managers, executives,
labor leaders, and others as the
writers stimulate the mind senses
and paint a portrait of where we
were, where we are, and how we got
there.
In another example of
characterization of the village and
community life of Northeastern
Pennsylvania, comments are made
concerning Mauch Chunk, now Jim
Thorpe (in Carbon County).
“From the 1850's on, the
character of Mauch Chunk changed
appreciably. The griddy little
company town became a prosperous
shipping center. It boasted more
concentrated wealth than any other
town in the Lehigh Field; in 1870 it
probably had the highest mean per
capita income of any city in the
featuring:
Dallas
“Football 86”.
salute to the gridiron?
United States...Money flowed in
from coal transportation and
services. It built impressive new
buildings, including Lehigh Coal’s
massive brick headquarters and a
collection of fine homes along
“millionaires row’’ on a ridge
overlookig the town. Mauch Chunk’s
scenic location added to its
attraction.
The railroad brought affluent
tourists from New York and
Philadelphia to this ‘Switzerland of
America.” They disembarked from
the train at the foot of a new resort
hotel, eager to take the mountain
airs, ride the scenic gravity
railroad, see and be seen in the new
opera house, and bask in the warm
self-congratulatory atmosphere of
capital gains.”
Their characterization of Wilkes-
Barre is an interesting commentary
of those turbulent times.
“Wilkes-Barre’s capitalists
demonstrated an amazing unity and
single mindedness of purpose in
making the field they controlled the
most productive in the anthracite
region and their city one of the two
largest and most prosperous in the
area. They did so because of a
commonility of interest sustained by
a commonality of culture and
family relationships. They invested
in each other’s companies, sat on
each other’s board of directors, and
married into each other’s families.
They created a relatively closed
world of business and society which
outsiders penetrated only with
extreme difficutly...This inbred
group of coal entrepreneurs and
lawyers maintained an iron group
on all important public and private
organizations and institutions. They
controlled both political parties and
groomed their own for local, state,
and national offices. They did not,
like the Packer group (Asa Packer,
a leading industrialist in Carbon
County and nearby communities),
diversify into iron and steel. One
industry dominated Wilkes-Barre,
as it did every other community in
the Wyoming Valley.
A comparison of employees
engaged in coal and manufacturing
in Luzerne County in 1980, for
example, shows that 92.2 per cent
were in coal, while only 7.8 per cent
worked in manufacturing. Through
their control of the 20 coal mining
companies headquartered in the
city, another in Kingston, and five
in Hazleton, Wilkes-Barre’s
capitalists excercised pervasive
control over the principal industry
of virtually every town in the
region.”
The railroads were given strong
paragraphs in the book as a
dominating factor in the growth of
the anthracite industry.
As the authors note, ‘by the 1960’s
the five great anthracite railroads-
the Philadelphia and Reading,
Lehigh Valley, Delaware and
Hudson, Delaware Lackawanna and
Western, and Central of New
Jersey-were in place, along with
several smaller roads. They carried
the fuel that heated the homes of
the northeast and fired the furnaces
of America’s new industries. Their
reach extended beyond that of the
canals, whose monopoly they broke,
and whose final demise they
assured.”
In denoting the great labor
management strife which
dominated the anthracite region for
decades, the authors point to the
Great Strike of 1902 which
permanently established the United
Mine Workers and the Anthracite
Fields.
The powerful lawyer, Clarence
Darrow, pointed to the results of the
five month strike as follows: “The
blunders are theirs, and the
victories have been ours. The
blunders are theirs because, in this
old, old strife, they are fighting for
slavery, while we are fighting for
freedom. They are fighting for the
rule of man over man. We are
working for democracy, for
humanity, for the future, for the day
that will come, and will remember
our struggles, our triumphs, our
defeats, and the words which we
spake.”
The anthracite era is a story
worth telling and one which
deserves the readership of all
Northeastern Pennsylvania.
(Howard Grossman is the
Executive Director of the Economic
Development Council of Northeast
Pennsylvania. His column appears
periodically in The Dallas Post.)
Jackson Township was one of four
Luzerne County Communities to be
recognized recently by State Audi-
tor General Don Baily for invest-
ment practices on its temporarily
idle liquid fuels tax funds.
As a result of the measure, which
usually involves some type of short-
term investment such as -certifi-
cates of deposits, the township will
have an extra $2,537 to spend on
road repairs.
The audit report for the liquid fuel
tax funds convered the period from
West Side Tech
our
“Football 86”
Box 366
Dallas, PA 18612
January 1, 1983 to December 31,
1984. The remaining reports, con-
cerning Hazleton, Kingston and
Wilkes-Barre, represented the cal-
endar year for 1984.
Liquid fuels money is given to
municipalities by the state for the
construction, repair and mainte-
nance of roads and bridges, includ-
ing snow removal and the acquisi-
tion, operation and repair of street
safety devices. The funds cannot be
used for any other projects.
high school players
Je
m