USA > Pennsylvania > Lackawanna County > History of the activities of the people of Lackawanna County in the world war : under the supervision of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety > Part 8
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again; for the tragic epidemic of inflronza prevented public meetings. Nevertheless, the sub-committee continued its operations diligently, handling every application and investigating every reported or rumored attempt to build without permission.
Thirty casos which had come before the Committee on
Construction and Materials, and details connected with each, are
cited in this report, which then goes on to say:
It is impossible to estimate how many other ro jects were given up and how many people were dissuadel from engaging in building operations by the wide-spread pub- licity given to the regulations of the War Industries Board by the Lackawanna County Committee on Construction and Materials. It is certain, and within the knowledge of the members of the Committee, that many individuals are quoted as saying : "Since it is considered not patrio ic to build just nowy we will gladly wait." The great impetus in building during 1.919 seems to indicate that many people were waiting for the end of the war to build, repair, and to proceed with alterations.
Of the cases before the Committee it was recom ended that sixteen be allowed to engage in construction. Most of these were cases in which the project was begun and was well underway when the Committee was organized. The Com- mittee, after careful consideration, decided that the ces- sation of such operations would result in unnecessary loss and hardship. The operations recommended favorably, and allowed, amounted in money to about $194, 755.
Fourteen operations vere disallowed, recommended ad- versely, halted by persuasion, or given 'p by the projec- tors. These fourtoen opera ions, according to the estim- ates of the projectors, amounted in mone to $328,000. It is believed that all of these operations have since the ban was lifted been completed.
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About three thousand copies of the following bulletin were sent through the mails to en in Lacka- wanna County.
Executive Offices,
Pennsylvania Co neil of National Defense and Committee of Pub ic
Safety, Lackawanna County. Committee on Construction and Materials, October 8, 1918.
Lackawanna County Bulletin Number One.
Contractors, Architects, Builders, those interested in Building Projects already planned or to be planned in the near future, will please note well the contents of this circular.
Organizations of all sorts will please take this matter up at their next heeving, for the purpose of spreading in- formation in regard to the questions under discussion as far afield as possible.
The Department of Construction and Materials of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defense and Committee of Public Safety has issued to the Lackawanna County Committee of Public Safety definite and mandatory in- structions to use every power, including the police power, to investigate every piece of construction now underway and to cause to cease every new piece of construction unless it is plainly essential.
The reason for this is apparent um that in this time of national crisis every ounce of potential labor, either in the construction of buildings or in the manufacture of material of every kind for the construction of buildings, should be conserved; and of course that every pound of material should be saved from devotion to non-essential construction that it may be used for essential construction. It behooves every individual to regard co-operation ith
this order of the Pennsylvania Council of National Defonso, which came to them from the Federal War Industries Board, as & personal patriotic duty; It is not alone the patri- otic duty of each individual to refrain from building operation, but also his duty to discourage bu lding operation on the part of others.
In the following cases the War Industries Board recog- nizes the necessity of building operations, and in these cases the Lackawanna County Committee on Construction and Materials is obliged to take no action.
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(1) After first having been cleared and approved by the War Industries Board, those undertaken directly by or under contract with the War Department or the Navy Department of the United States or the United States Ship- ping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, the Bureau of Industrial Housing and Transportation of the United States Department of Labor, or the United States Housing Corporation.
(2) Repairs of or extensions to existing buildings involving in the aggregate a cost not exceeding $2500. (Amendment) And new construction for farm purposes only involving in the aggregate a cost not exceeding $1000.
(3) Roadways, buildings, and other structures undertaken by or under contract with the United States Railroad Administration or a railroad operated by such Administration.
(4) Those directly connected with mines producing - coal, metals, and forro-alloy minerals; and
(5) Public highway improvements and street pavements when expressly approved in writing by the United States Highway Council.
lio building project not falling within one of the foregoing classes shall be undertaken without a permit in writing either by or under the authority of the Chief of the Non-War Construction Section of the Priorities Division of the War Industries Board.
For those who have projects for buildings which they con- sider essential the mode of proceeding will be as follows:
They should prepare a full statement of the facts, in- cluding the reasons for construction or repairs (when repairs exceed $2500) and the essential cost of the construction or repairs. This statement by the person, corporation, or municipality engaging in construction, not the architect or contractor, must be sworn to before a notary public or a justice of the peace and addressed to Eugene H. Fellows, Secretary of the Committee on Construction and Materials of Lackawanna County, Farr Building, Scranton, Pa. The Secretary will immediately place the matter before the Committee, which upon investigation will make an affirmative or a negative recommendation.
The application will then be forwarded to B. Dawson Coleman, Director of Construction and Materials for Penn- sylvania, who will in turn forward the application to the War Industries Board at Washington for final action.
It may be said that all companies selling materials are prohibited from delivery unless their applications are filed and approved.
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Correspondence with the Secretary will elicit any further information which is at hand.
For the Committee on Construction and Materials for Lackawanna County. ( Signed ) Alexander T. Connell.
Chairman.
(Signed) Eugene H. Fellows,
Secretary.
It must be said that the Lackawanna County Committee on Construction and Materials was highly pleased at the business-like and courteous manner in which State Director B. Dawson Coleman dealt with them.
The Lackawanna County Council of National Defense had no subordinate committee during the war that was more successful in the use of common-sense judgment and in work accomplished than its Committee on Construction and Materials.
On Friday, November 22, 1918, the War Industries Board removed all restrictions on building projects.
On Saturday, November 23, 1918, Secretary Fellows submitted his final report to State Director B. Dawson Coleman; and the Committee dissolved.
All records of this Committee, and all copies of cor- respondence, are in the archives of the Lackawanna County Branch of the Pennsylvania Commission of Public Welfare at Scranton.
Waste
Reclamation.
At the very time of the close of the war another divi- sion of the War Industries Board invoked the aid of the Lackawanna Branch of the Council of National Defense, in a very worthy cause -- that of Waste Reclamation. The Executive Committee took the matter up and expected to handle it for the benefit of the Cause in very much the same manner in which the Department of Construction and Materials had been handled. Mayor Connell was appointed Chairman
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of this Committee, Miss Mullen was to act as corresponding and headquarters secretary, the writer was to conduct its operations as director. Other members of the Committee were Miss Janet Storrs, Sheriff J. R. Schlager, Colonel F. M. Vandling, J. E. Loveland, John J. Fahey, J. F. Langan, Stephen J. McDonald, W. B. Kramer, P. B. Platt, C. R. H. Jackson, Captain William Miller, and M. W. Lowry.
Two meetings of the Committee were held, vory extensive plans and a very far-reaching organization were made, requiring the co-operation of all junk-dealers, to salvage for utilization every scrap of paper, every bit of iron, and every tin can, that might otherwise be thrown away or destroyed. In the spirit aroused by the war and war emergencies much valuable material could have been conserved had the war unfortunately lasted longer. Two weeks after the Armistice was signed, however, it was the sense of this Committee that the trouble of saving material that was practically valueless in time of peace would not be compen- sated for by the amount of waste reclaimed. And therefore the Committee was discharged from its proposed duties ..
Chapter V.
War Finance in Lackawanna County.
Liberty Loans.
"Short are the annals" of Lackawanna County's share in financing the war. The following table shows the results of the four Liberty Loan: Campaigns and the Victory Loan Campaign. Quota Subscriptions
First Loan $6,000,000
$6,265,800 16,200,350 1
Second Loan
12,876,000
Third Loan 11,100,000 12,288,950
Fourth Loan 22,039,980 23,841,150
Fifth Loan 16,376,000 16,600,000
68,391,930
75,196,250
In two years these seventy-five million dollars were loaned to the United States Government to pay the expense caused by a state of war, from a district somewhat larger than Lackawanna County, populated by about three hundred thousand people. The
City of Scranton, with its 137,000 population, bought fifty mil- lion dollars worth of these bonds.
While these figures no doubt tell a complete story in themselves of the attitude of the American people toward their Government in times of stress and crisis, one can not refrain from pointing out how remarkable a service was really performed in ad- vancing this enormous sum; and how vitally this assumption of financial partnership in the Government affected American Demo- cracy. The banks and the capitalists did not huy all of those bånds, by any means. The history of all five drives was in principle the same. Men traveled through the country districts
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and sold bonds to every farmer. The employees in every shop, and the miners -- those who could not speak English just as truly as those of American ancestry -- bought bonds up to the limit of their resources . No one in Lackawanna County was without a bond of one or more of the five loans.
No war, and no governmental venture, has ever before been financed in just the same way. Government Bonds in the past have fallen into the hands of the few. There is nothing insincere in the assertion so often made that this was a war for Democracy. It was not only fought democratically; but it was financed, down to the last cent, with the most intense democracy.
Organized Campaigns .
It was true patriotism that prompted the people to buy Liberty Bonds in such large amounts; but the patriotiem was none the less true in that it was "organized patriotism". As the First Liberty Loan was being laid before the people, the Committee of Public Safety of Lackawanna County had just completed its or- ganization; and this organization was fresh in its fervor of enthusiasm. The Committee of Public Safety did not conduct the Liberty Loan Campaigns and the other campaigns for funds for war work. Instead, its whole organization, from Chairman Wtres down, entered every one of the campaigns and threw into every one of them its whole war enthusiasm and the war organization this enthusiasm had propagated and built. In the campaigns for the sale of Bonds, this immense and effective organization personally and collectively was handed over to Mr. Charles S. Weston, President of the First National Bank of Scranton, member of the Executive Committee of the
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Council, and Director of Loans for the district comprising the counties of Lackawanna, Wayne, Susquehanna, and a portion of Wyoming.
Naturally, the most effective organizers in the County and the men and women best adapted to public work were members of the Committee of Public Safety; and these same men and women were those who were most active in either arousing public opinion for the purchase of bonds or in personally conducting the sales of bonds. Mr. G. Lynn Sumner, Director of Publicity of the Com- mittee of Public Safety, was chairman of publicity of the Liberty Loan Campaigns. Mr. John H. Brooks was Director of Finance of
the Committee; and he was first assistant to Mr. Weston in all the campaigns, and a most able advisor to Judge Edwards in that gantle- man's onerous task of taking charge of meetings and speakers in the Liberty Loan and all war work campaigns. Kr. Sumner, for instance, used the publicity machinery of the Committee of Public Safety in promoting the Loan Campaigns. The Four Minute Speakers' Bureau, under the direction successively of Mr. John M. Harras, Mr. James E. Davis, and Mr. Walter L. Schantz, a part of the Bureau of Speakers of the Committee of Public Safety, which was under the general direction of Major T. Frank Penman, turned its entire attention to speaking on the Loans for weeks before and all during the campaigns, at the churches and at the theatres and at all public gatherings, large and small.
Public Meetings.
The Four Minute Speakers as a body placed themselves
for the time being under the direction of Judge Henry M. Edwards,
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who, with the able assistance of Mr. John H. Brooks, Major H. H. Brady, Mr. Mortimer B. Fuller, and Colonel W. L. Laeder, conducted all public meetings throughout the County. These public meetings, just before the beginning of the compaign and during its con ination were taking place in every town of the County, every day or overy night. Moreover, there were many, many meetings at the industrial plants and at the mines every day. There was nothing exceptional, nor was it an experience of only a few, for the writer to have made eleven speeches in one day in campaigning for the sale of bonds. The management of all these meetings throughout the County, the fil- ling of the requisitions for speakers, the supervision occasionally of the subject matter of the talks, was in the hands, for all these
compaigns, of Judge Edvards and his lieutenants. The effectiveness of this branch of the work is proven by the fact that the district exceeded its total quota by about seven million dollars.
In the Loan Campaigns and in the war work ca pains it was the custom to have bag meetings of the committees and the mana- gers of the sales, and in the war work campaigns of the corps of Solicitors every night during the campaigns. These meetings were
managed, and the details arranged, by Mr. Brooks, Mayor Brady, and
Mr. Fuller. It has been said that there was no meeting of this kind, during the Liberty Loan Campaigns or the large war work com- paigns, that was not presided over by the President Judge of Lacha- wanna County, Henry M. Edwards.
Canvasses.
In the first three campaigns Bonds were sold as iclly as they could be sold and wherever they could be sold, the banks themselves doing more than individuals, perhaps, in the actual sale
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of these securities. when it came tine for the Fourth Loan, which was larger in amount, conducted at a time when more effort had to be put forth to keep enthusiasm alive, it seemed bost to Mr. Weston to add a new feature to the camp;ign. The office of the Executive Secretary of the Committee of Public Safety conducted a census of Scranton and Dun ore, as has been said, and had placed on a separate card the name of every man, woman, and child residing in these torns. A pseudo-military
organization was arranged with Willard M. Bunnell, General-in- Chief, Eugene H. Follows, Adjutant-General, and seven Major Generals, each in command of a geographical division. There were colonels
and captains and a multitude of privates, women and men. The cards
were distributed by handing them down from grade to grade, Mir. Bunnell and Mr. Follows devoting practically all their at ention to visiting meetings through ut the City and Dunmore to explain in detail the methods to be pursued in making the canvass. The organization was so large and so perfect that a private was asked to canvass only half of a city square. All this is set forth to show what a multitude of people were in the war, right here at home. The canvass was successful; and it would have been a more resounding success had not the terrible visitation thrown a pall over this and other activities.
In connection with the Fourth Liberty Loon Campaign, Mr. R. O. Deubler, now Vice-president of the First National Bank, acting then as the Bank's expert on bonds and securities, and during the war as secretary of the Loan Campaigns, made the following comments:
"The largest over-subscription of quo a was made by the Abington National Bank of Clark's Summit, with subscriptions for $148,880, against a quota of 63, 360, or 379 per cent."
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This bank is in the heart of that part of the County
which first showed the advantages of "organized patriotism" during the war, and from which so much wis learned by the rest of the Coun- ty and by the Council of National Defense. The Abingtons, wi h its Committee of Public Safety, ended the war as strongly as they began it
"Other large over-subscriptions were: First National Bank of Avoca, 163 per cent; First National Bank of flallevend. 158 per cent; First National Bank of Moscow, 150 per cent; Archbald Bank, 155 per cent.
"The total number of subscribers reported by the ban's is 108,643, which indicates that 32 per cent of ho sopu- lation subscribed, and the per capita subscription was 71.57 for the district, for Scranton, 130.0), and for Lackawanna County, $80.00."
Victory Loan.
When the time came for the Victory Loan war had been over for some months, and it was feared that a natural apathy Would ronder it more difficult for Lackawanna County to reach its quota. All the people of the County had been so keenly alert, so intense in their partiotism, so strong in their force- ful activity, that a more pronounced reac ion might have been expected here than in some parts of the country where the people had thrown a little less heart into the business of meeting the crisis. For that very reason Mr. weston and his Committee made the greatest preparation for this final Loan. It turned out
that the lack of enthusiasm as not real. Our truly American
citizens -- all of them -- were just as rerolved and just as intent upon seeing the thing through to its very end as thay had been at any stage of the war while it was being fought . They had sent the boys forth -- now they would bring them back.
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Reconstruction in the War Office.
The war offices had ceased to engage in big, vital ques- tions concerning the war of the Nation. The war was over, Its attention was being applied to the beginnings of reconstruction under plans formulated by Colonel Watres, a fow of the Executive Committee, and the writer. Americaniza ion and its allied sub- jects, Housing Improvement and Sanitation, were the subjects of propaganda. Many applications for discharge from the service and for some species of relief on the part of soldiers and their fami- lies kept the office force vory busy.
Americanizalion.
Considering that measures for Americanization were shap- ing themselves for the future, Mr. Weston and Colonel Watres thought that the administrative force of the Committee of Public afety could best devote itself, in the Victory Loan Campaign, to following the Philadelphia plan of Judge Buffington, and organize a Foreign Language Division of the Victory Loan Campaign. This was done.
Foreign Language Division.
Judge Henry M. Edwards was invited to be Chairman of the Foreign Language Division. This was a most appropriate appoint- ment, since, while Judge Ed ards has been for more than half a century an American -- most thoroughly an American -- he was born in Great Britain. Sheriff J. R. Schlager, than whom no one but the Judge himself has a wider acquaintance throughout Lackawanna County, was the very active Vice-chairman. The writer acted as
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manager of this Division, and the var office, under the super- vision of his assistant, transacted the business of the Division. Chairman Watres and the hole Committee of Public Safety, in- dividually and as a body, put forward their whole energy toward the success of the Campaign. The Foreign Language Division, Judge Edwards from his headquarters, Mr. Schlager, the writer, and a large number of speakers in the field all the time, con- ducted what was in reality a wide educational campaign. The
result in the sales of Bonds brought about by this new Division was probably appreciable, although there are no statistics. The
banks that had as customers large numbers of foreign-speaking people reported an increased sale of Bonds; but the writer did not think it necessary to have the salesmen of bonds go to the trouble of making a separate report of the amount sold to the foreign born citizens among us. The real advantage was that of propagating Americanism in a new ry under the auspices of the Loan Committee.
The Victory Loan, like those which had preceded it, was entirely successful, simply because everybody worked.
School Systems.
In all the Loan Campaigns the school systems of the County were exceedingly helpful. They carried home the message, they carried away from the schools and spread broadcast the litera- ture, they marched in Liberty Loan parades, they bought some of the Bonds -- they sold more. As in so many other ways, the fifty thousand school children of the County were very useful indeed. They were fifty thousand, young, of coursey upon whom no energy had to be spent in organization. The superintendents of schools
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were ready; their machinery was ready. Requests or directions were sent to them; and all they had to do was to send them through the same channels through which they sent any educational instruc- tions, to the principals, and from them to the teachers, and then directly to the pupils and out into the community. That Colonel Watres, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee of Publie Safety, and, following his example, Mr. eston as Chairman of the Loan Committee, were sensible in making full use of the educational system, increased Lackawanna County's war strength perceptibly.
Leade: S.
In December, 1918, Chairman George Wharton Pepper asked Colonel Tatres for lists of Lackawanna County's citizens who had been prominent in different lines of activity during the war. It was left to the Executive Secretary to prepare these lists, and in regard to the work of the Loans the following list was sent to Mr. Pepper:
Dudley R. Atherton, 7. K. Bender, David Boies, Michael Bosak, John H. Brooks, Willard M. Bonnell, George ". Clarke, Alexander 2. Connell, R. O. Deubler, Mrs. L. H. Conklin, H. G. Dunham, Honorable Henry M. Edwards, Mortimer B. Fuller, N. H. Hiller, Right Reverend M. J. Hoban, Charles F. Hoban, Frans. Hummler, Rabbi Meyer Lovitch, Edward J. Lynett, 7. A. May, J. S. MeAnulty, George L. Peck, W. H. Peck, Wallace M. Ruth, Reverend W. L. Sawtolle, H. C. Shafer, Valter H. Smith, Worthington Scranton, Mrs. . H. Storrs, G. Lynn Sumner, Honorable Louis A. Watros, R. E. Weeks, F. ". Wollerton, and, of course, Chairman Charles S. ,eston.
Tar Savings Stamps.
The various campaigns for the sale of Far Savings Stamps in Lackawanna County were for some reason unsuccessful. Che quotas that were asked for were no where nearly reached, donpite almost herculean efforts on the part of the three chairmen who
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succes. ively undertook he difficult task of selling them. There was not the slightest fault in any of these choirnen, and the stamps themselves were not unpopular. There was, however, a certain indifference on the part of possible purchasers; partly be- cause some bigger movement was afoot all the time and the sale of stamps never owcupied the center of the stage. I do not think
that any one of the three gentlemen ever had the opportunity to put forth a real drive for the sale of stomps, with the concerted help of all those forces that were drawn together for the big war movements. If any explanation is possible the one that has been put forward, to the effect that people preferred to buy bonds to stamps is perhaps a reasonable one. The Chairmen at different times of the Car Savings Stamps Committee were Mr. J. Edwin fois- senfluh, Mr. Dudley R. Atherton, and Mr. Henry . Kingsbury. The
total sale of ar Savings Stamps was $1, 826,070. Although the
quota was far more, that much at any rate was loaned to the Govern- ment by this means.
War Work Campaigns.
In regard to the War Work Campaigns in Lackawanna County, practically the same story can be told of them all -- and it is one continuous story, running through the entire period of hostilities. The Campaigns to raise money for that branch of the war work that did not come directly under the supervision of the Government, al- though just as important, just as necessary, were conducted in mich the same manner that the Liberty Loan Campaigns were conducted, In cach instance a complete organization, ro ching into overy ward of the City, and into every hamlet in the country, was put into action by a central committee. Meetings, fairs, church gatherings, and church congregations were addressed by the Four Minute Ten and
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