1921 WB Record Almanac, Luzerne Co in 1920

 During the year 1920 Luzerne County was greatly concerned over the outcome of 
the negotiations between the negotiations miners and operators for a new agreement
 over the suspension of mining prior to the signing of a new contract, presidential 
campaign and over various other affairs out of the ordinary.  These incidents are noted
 below and in other parts of this issue of the Almanac. 
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The new census gave the county a population of 391,001, compared with 348,186 in 1910.  
The county remained the third in the State population, being exceeded only by Philadelphia 
and Allegheny County.
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Beginning with the new year most f the court house offices were turned over from Democratic 
to Republican administration.  Peter A. Meixell and Ambrose West became the majority count 
commissioners, with Cornelius J. Gallagher as the Democratic minority commissioner.  One 
of the first acts of the new commissioners was to rescind the contracts with engineers and 
architects for proposed new river bridges in Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and Wapwallopen that had 
been entered into by their predecessors on the ground that the high cost of material and labor 
made a consummation of the project inadvisable at this time.  For the same reason the commissioner
 decided to engage in no new road construction during the year and to attend only to necessary 
maintenance.  But the Pittston people did not take kindly to the suspension of their bridge project
 and appealed to the court to compel the commissioners to go on with the work. 
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The high cost of living was the subject of almost constant agitation.  In many instances there was 
enormous profiteering somewhere along the line of manufacturing and selling, sustained by the s
pendthrift mania that had taken hold of the people, but the government did little or nothing to afford 
relief from this form of extortion.  For instance, sugar sold as high as twenty-nine cents a pound during 
the early part of the year and during part of the canning and preserving season as high as twenty-five 
cents, as against eleven cents under government war regulation and five and six cents before the war.  
While it was undoubtedly true that increase in consumption and European imports were partially the 
cause of the heavy increase in cost it also appeared that profiteering was a contributing cause. 
 Later in the year sugar went down to as low as eleven cents in October.  A number of local wholesalers
 who had bought large quantities at high prices suffered serious losses.
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As a protest against the high cost of clothing, an overall campaign was started in the South and it spread
to many parts of the country.  Many men appeared on the streets and in offices wearing plain overalls.  In 
Wilkes-Barre a number of high school pupils and some office clerks wore overalls, but innovation was not general.  

The spending mania continued unabated for part of the year.  People who had profited by the increase in 
wages and income crowded the stores for the purchase of luxuries as well as necessaries and there was 
no difficulty in maintaining prices.  However, the Federal Reserve Board induced the banking institutions 
to curtail loans for unnecessary industries, and later I the year the spending habit subsided.  Throughout the 
country there were marked reduction in prices, though wages were maintained at the high levels achieved 
during the war and afterwards.  There was a prospect of relief in the cost of living, and it was welcomed 
especially by the large number of people who had not profited very much by increase of income.  A number 
of local industries shut down for brief periods because of lack of orders, and the number of employees was 
fully equal to the demand---quite different from the previous experience with labor scarcity.

W. O. Washburn, who had served as food director for Luzerne County during the war, was again appointed
 as the head of a county committee to check profiteering in food, wearing apparel and shoes.  One “fair price list” 
was published but not much along that line was done.  All effort on the part of the government to check 
profiteering through State and district committees was abandoned November 1.

During the year Rev. R.  V. Lancaster, pastor of Memorial Presbyterian Church, undertook the sale in 
Wilkes-Barre of government food that was left on hand when the war ended.  Carloads of canned goods, 
flour, bacon and other things were brought to Wilkes-Barre under his responsibility and were sold from a 
store room he had rented.  At times crowds of people patronized the sales.  Prices were somewhat lower
 than prices for similar goods in the retail stores.  Rev. Mr.  Lancaster announced that the total sales amounted 
to about $250,000.

During the early part of the year considerable interest was taken in the suppression of Bolshevism in Luzerne
 County.  It was known that there were many sympathizers with the strange Russian system in the county, 
among the foreign element.  Circulars from mysterious sources were at times circulated, advocating industrial
 revolution and the overthrow of government by force.  A number of meetings were broken up by the police. 
 In January officers of the federal government made simultaneous raids in many cities in an effort to capture
 the most radical alien plotters and agitators.  Forty arrests were made in Wilkes-Barre, Nanticoke and a few 
other places in the upper part of the county.  Several of the arrested persons were released by Judge Garman 
under bail.  The federal authorities were so incensed over the Judge’s action that the rest of the suspects were
 taken to Philadelphia to be imprisoned until the federal immigration officials could pass upon the cases.  Several
 thousand arrests were made throughout the country.  However, no wholesale deportations were ordered during
 the year.  Most of the suspects were ultimately released, owing largely to conflict of opinion in official circles as 
to whether persons should be deported who had not actually been caught in the commission of force against the
 government.  During the remainder of the year no extraordinary incident occurred.  Reports from Russia of the 
difficulties experienced by the Bolshevist regime, and the reverses sustained by the Bolshevist military forces in 
the war with Poland, probably lessened the ardor of the local agitators of extreme type.

Publication of Wilkes-Barre’s oldest newspaper, the Semi-Weekly Record, was discontinued in December, 
1919.  Under various names it had been published continuously since 1832.  A brief review of the newspaper
 is given in the summary of event in another part of this Almanac under date of December 30.

During the early part of the year, there was considerable agitation for and against continuing “daylight saving.” 
 Congress had repealed the law which provided for turning the hands of the clock ahead an hour during the 
spring an summer months, which gave an hour more for garden work, recreation and amusement in daylight 
and which also resulted in the reduction of light bills.  Action was taken by Congress owing to pressure from 
the farmers, who contended that they could not regulate the habits of their dairy stock to the new time, and 
who also argued that workmen objected to different hours than those observed by workmen in the cities and
 town.  But the change was so popular among the host of industrial workers and others that there was much 
agitation in favor of having it made effective by independent action of the various communities.  An ordinance
 to that effect was adopted by Wilkes-Barre Council but most of the suburban communities refused to cooperate,
 and without cooperation over a wide area there would have been much confusion with the tow time system.  So
 the project for Wilkes-Barre was abandoned.  Another reason for its abandonment in other parts of the State was
 the discovery of a State law which legalized standard Eastern time.  However, New York City and cities in other 
States adopted the change and carried it through.  Considerable confusion was caused in such places by the fact 
that through trains departed on the old time and local trains on the new time. 

The first experience with prohibition in Luzerne County was full of interest.  War-time prohibition had proved to 
be a failure in the way of enforcement, but at 12:01 a. m. on January 17 the Eighteenth Amendment of the federal 
Constitution went into effect, prohibiting the manufacture, sale or importation of intoxicating liquor.  In the previous 
October, Congress had passed an enforcement act for both war-time and constitutional prohibition.  Since the 
amendment did not define an intoxicant, the enforcement act covered that ground by prohibiting an alcoholic 
content of one-half of one per cent. and greater. 

However, practically all of the saloon and hotelkeepers in the county applied for licenses during the session of 
License court in the early part of 1920, hoping that something would turn up in their favor in the federal courts in 
a legal test of the amendment and the enforcement act.  The saloons continued to do business, ostensibly with 
beverages containing less than on-half of one percent., but actually in most instances, by the surreptitious sale 
of stronger beverages.  In the meantime the Luzerne County court, together with courts in other parts of the State, 
decided that under the Brooks license law for Pennsylvania license was necessary for the sale of spirituous, 
brewed or malted beverages containing less than one-half of one per cent. alcohol.  The framer of the Brooks 
law had not contemplated the advent of prohibition and included the words in the act; therefore, the court held 
that the sale of even beer containing malt but less than one-half of one per cent. of alcohol required a license.

June 7 the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision sustaining the Eighteenth Amendment and 
the Volsltead enforcement act in all essential particulars.  The “wets” were left without hope.  All of their contentions
 were defeated, including the contention that under the amendment the States, as joint factors in enforcement, 
could regulate the alcoholic content of beverages to be sold in their jurisdiction as long as it was not an intoxicating
 content.  The court decided that the one-half of one per cent act of Congress was the law for the whole country, 
superseding Stat4e legislation.

Then came the problem of enforcement.  Congress had made an appropriation for enforcement and sent a number
 of agents into the fields, but the illicit sale of liquor went on through the year.  Violations grew in number and extent. 
 By the end of the year any person who was known could obtain liquor in saloons, thought the price had jumped to 
from 40 cents to $.150 for a drink of whiskey.  At thriving business was done in smuggling over the Canadian border,
 and hard liquors were manufactured in many homes and in out-of-the-way places.  Great quantities of liquor that had 
remained in bonded government warehouses were withdrawn ostensibly for medicinal use but were sold as beverages.  
During the latter part of the year the government tightened the restrictions against withdrawal and ordered more rigid 
regulations for giving liquor prescriptions, but there was apparently hardly any reduction in the amount illicitly sold.  
The government agents made a number of raids in Luzerne County, but there were many arrests for drunkenness
and it was common report that liquor could be had by persons who were known to the dealers.  

It was thought that prohibition would figure extensively in the political campaign of 1920, particularly for the election of 
members of Congress who would favor a modification of the Volstead act. so that a larger alcoholic content that less
 than one-half of one per cent. would be permitted, but there was little mention of the subject in the campaign.  

Of course, there was not as much consumption of the hard liquors as formerly, but enforcement was a good deal of 
a farce.  One effect was that much of the stuff sold was made up of vicious chemical compounds in the name of 
whiskey  In some cases truck loads of whiskey in transit in and out of the county was seized and confiscated by 
the revenue officers but many other loads went through to their destination, and it was reported that those who 
took the risk made enormous sums of money.  Luzerne County’s experience with constitutional prohibition during 
the first year was the experience in many other parts of the country.

The winter of the early part of 1920 was one of the coldest winter in many years.  On New Year Day the temperature
 varied from 25 to 30 degrees in Wilkes-Barre with a cold wave at night.  On January 4 zero weather prevailed.  
January 19 the river froze over for the first time and on January 31 a six below zero temperature was recorded in 
Wilkes-Barre and as low as 14 below in the mountain sections.  There were several unusually heavy falls of snow,
 seriously crippling the railroads and street cars.  For several days at a time the Wyoming Valley Traction Co. could 
not reach some of its terminal points.  Roads in the country districts were so badly drifted that they were practically 
impassable for several weeks.  Snow shoes were sold in the Wilkes-Barre stores for the first time in many years.  
Ice of unusual thickness was formed and a good crop was harvested. 

As spring approached there was great anxiety over a possible flood.  The great accumulation of snow on the 
Susquehana watershed and the thickness of the ice in the river greatly alarmed the residents of the lowlands;. 
 If there had been a sudden thawing with warm rain, flood conditions would undoubtedly have been as serious 
as at ant time in the previous record of floods, but fortunately the periods of thawing and freezing alternated so
 nicely that there was nothing extraordinary.  The ice broke March 12 and the river rose rapidly, with a free movement
 of the ice.  The highest stage reached was 26.75 feet on March 13.  The lowlands were flooded but no serious 
damage was done.  The spring was cold, with freezing and snow squalls in April.

March 22 there was a particularly fine display of the aurora borealis, the finest in many years.  The whole of the 
sky was agitated and trembled with the clouds of light.  July 24 occurred one of the heaviest rainfalls in years.  
Roads in some country places were almost completely wiped out, and the river rose 14 feet.  The summer was 
marked by frequent rains and there were no protracted spells of heat.  The fall was particularly pleasant, the 
temperature during most of October being almost like that of June.

Figures compiled during 1920 showed that the local courts had granted citizenship to 1,378 aliens during 1919,
 including 533 honorably discharged soldiers, sailors and marines, who were not required to undergo an examination.  
In 1920 for the first time since the war the local court naturalized German and Austrian aliens.

During the year an extraordinary contest took place between gas consumers in West Side towns and the Luzerne
 County Gas & Electric Co. over the company’s increase in the cost of gas from $2 to $2.15 a thousand feet and
 the substitution of a service charge of 75 cents a month to be added to all bills in place of a minimum charge of 
50 cents a month.  A number of spirited meetings of protest were held and it was decided to refuse payment of
 the increase.  Consumers went to the company’s office and tendered payment on the basis of the old rates, but
 the company refused to accept.  The matter was finally place in the hands of the State Public Service Commission.

In September the Public Service commission handed down a decision in the long pending complaint against the
 Wyoming Valley Traction Co. for an increase of the single fare to eight cents.  The commission decided that eight 
cents was not unreasonable on the basis of the earnings for the year ending with September, 1919, and unless a 
substantial surplus for the next year is shown, the complaint against the company will be dismissed.  In most 
Pennsylvania cities traction fares were increased, in some instances as high as in the Wyoming Valley and in 
some instances not as much.  The commission judged each case separately.

The burdens of the people were further added to by the increase in steam railroad freight and passenger rates, 
40 per cent. for the former and 20 per cent in the latter.  The railroads had been operated at a deficit by the
 government and when they were turned over to private ownership during the early part of the years more revenue
 was needed.  The rail roads had suffered from depreciation of property during the hard service of the war and the
 transfer back to private ownership necessitated extensive repair work and new equipment.  
The transfer was followed by improvement in the service.  Gradually congestion of traffic was overcome and
 extensive orders for new equipment were place.  The federal commission appointed to take up the demands
 for increased wages by the men reported an increase which was quite generally accepted as satisfactory, 
and the fear of a tieup of the railroads of the country vanished.

The first hydroplane to visit Wilkes-Barre and the county was wrecked with fatal results---the first fatal accident
 of the kind in the county.  The plane ascended from the river and took passengers for flights over the city and 
vicinity at the charge of ten dollars for five minutes.  On one of the trips something went wrong with the machine
 and it crashed into a field on the flats off the North street road.  The pilot was killed and also the passenger.

The most serious disaster of the year was that on the Laurel Line near the South Pittston station on July 2, when
 a northbound car crashed into a car that had been disabled and was standing on the track.  Eighteen people 
were fatally injured and thirty less seriously.  The coroner’s jury rendered a scathing verdict of gress neglect on 
the part of the company and employees.  Many damage suits were filed.

Ever since the completion of the new court house a claim of contractor William J. Smith had been pending.  It 
was finally adjusted to $130,000 by the contractor, and during the year the county commissioners settled with
 him on the basis of $75,000.

The Lehigh Valley Coal Co. donated during the year the plot of ground at West Pittston that had been used as
 a campground by Rickett’s Battery, which performed valiant service during the Civil War, and also as a campground
 for the 109th Regiment Field Artillery before the regiments’ departure fro the South preparatory to going to France
 for service in the world war.  The donation was made for the purpose of transforming the plot into a park and
 preserving it as a memorial.  An association was formed byt plans had not gully matured at the end of the year.

Crops in the county were unusually good in 1920, particularly the fruit crop.  The apple crop was the largest within
 recollection.  The trees were laden to the limit of bearing capacity.  Thousands of bushels were left on the ground 
to rot, but prices in the city markets were maintained at about $1.60 a bushel.  Vegetables also went to waste.  
During the year a cooperative association between farmers and persons interested in the distribution of crops 
was formed in the county but plans had not fully developed by the end of the harvest.

The problem of securing a better distribution of the farm yield, with profit to the farmers and at a minimum of 
cost to the consumers, was a big subject of discussion throughout the country during the year.  For the past 
few years the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce had gathered together a number of workers and business 
and professional men to into the country districts and help gather the crops, but this year the farmers managed
 to get along without the extra help.  During the early part of the year there was much alarm all over the country 
because of a threatened shortage of farm labor, augmented by the fact that a great many of the farmers and their 
sons had drifted to the cities to engage in industrial work at high wages.  However, by harvest time the industrial
 tension had been somewhat relieved, labor was more plentiful and the threatened calamity did not come to pass,
 though many of the farmers complained of inability to secure the help they needed and of high wages.  

During the early part of the year there was again considerable alarm over the appearance of influenza with 
complications of pneumonia in some of the cities.  The fearful ravages of the disease in 1918 and 1919 are 
noted in previous issues of the Almanac.  A Great many cases of grip appeared in the county during the late 
winter and early spring, though they seemed to be of somewhat lighter form than in previous visitations, but
 the complications of pneumonia were full as severe.  An unusually large number of deaths from pneumonia 
occurred.  There was again a great scarcity of nurses.  No quarantine restrictions were imposed, though at 
times it seemed as if they would be again necessary.

During 1920 women served on juries for the first time in Luzerne County.

Transcribe by Cheryl Moore January 19, 2009