1932 WB Record Almanac LUZERNE COUNTY IN 1931 Banking affairs in Luzerne County during the last year were marked by unusual activity. In September three banks in Wilkes-Barre were taken over by State banking departments. Five bank mergers took place in the county. Until late in the summer banks were unaffected by the depression which has caused the collapse of thousands of banks throughout the country beginning in 1930. In September a Lackawanna county private bank, the owner of which was interested in Pennsylvania-Liberty Bank and Trust Co. of this city, closed it’s doors. Many depositors drew their savings from the local bank with the results that to protect depositors the State Secretary of Banking, Dr. William D. Gordon, closed it in September 21. The next day Dime Bank Title and Trust Co. Was closed. News of the closing of the two institutions caused hundreds of persons to rush to banks to withdraw the accounts. To stop this Wilkes-Barre Clearing House agreed to invoke the sixth-day clause on time deposits in member banks. On September 11, Heights Deposit and Savings bank was closed. Plans were immediately started to expedite the payment of dividends to depositors of the three institutions. Receivers were appointed for each of the three banks. Dr. Gordon announced that Gilbert S. McClintock, local attorney and banker would be licensed as a private banker to expedite the payment of dividends and also announced the creation of the Fourth Depositors Realization Corp., made up of lending bankers and business men, for the same purpose. Late in November the sixty-day period on withdrawals ended and very few depositors who had served notice of intention to withdraw took advantage of that privilege. The excitement was abated and confidence was restored. The most important bank merger in the county was of Wyoming Valley Trust Co. With Miners Bank of Wilkes-Barre. Other mergers were American Bank and Trust Co.of Hazleton with City Bank and Trust Co. of Hazleton; Farmers State Bank of Shickshinny with First National Bank of Shickshinny; Lincoln Bank and Trust Co. Of Wilkes-Barre with Hanover Bank & Trust Co. Of Wilkes-Barre; Peoples State Bank of Newtown with First National Bank of Ashley. -------------------- Proponents of the fight against the increase in water rates in Wyoming Valley continued their battle for reduction in rates. In December, 1930, the Public Services commission handed down a decision ordering Scranton-Spring Brook Water Service Co. To file a new tariff to produce a gross annual revenue of not more than $4,213,000. This was said to reduce the rates about 11 per cent from the rate demanded by the company on July 1, 1928, and 6 per cent from the temporary rates filed about two years previous. The decision was termed a disappointment by some of the organizations fighting for lower rates and a movement was instituted to attack the ruling. The water company refilled its present rate with the commission, whereupon the commission ordered the company to file a new schedule of rates, canceling the tariff filed in December, and also ordered the new tariff’s domestic rates shall not exceed certain amounts fixed by the commission for a yearly charge. State Senator Laning Harvey put two bills through the 1931 Legislature bearing on the water rate fight. One bill authorized the State Superior court to determine whether increased rates of the water company in Luzerne and Lackwanna county are reasonable. In November, the Superior Court held a three day hearing on the case under the terms of the bill but had not handed down a decision when the Almanac went to press. The other bill authorized the creation and incorporation of Wyoming Valley Water Supply district and the eventual municipal ownership of the water supply system. Under the terms of the act the Luzerne county court was authorized to create such a district. Opponents of the plan joined in an attack on it and thirty-one petitions, bearing more than 2,000 names were presented to the court in objection to the establishment of such a district. Objections to the proposed supply district covered thirty-four typewritten pages and the chief objection set forth was that the bill was unconstitutional. The court had not handed down the decision on the matter at press time. An outstanding event to the fight during the year was the pilgrimage of more than 2,000 residents of Wyoming and Lackawanna valleys to Harrisburg where they called on the house committee investigating the Public Services Commission. The municipalities suffered a loss during the year when death claimed John R. Geyer, chief counsel for the complainants in the fight. -------------------- In December 1930, State Superior Court upheld the action of Luzerne county court in sentencing former County Commissioners David M. Rosser, Leslie J. Harrison and P. J. Conway to one year in jail, ouster from office and to pay a fine of $100 each on their being found guilty in September on a misdemeanor charge growing out of the 1928 county audit case. The ex-commissioners, with ex-controller Harry T. Butts, who was found guilty with the commissioners on another charge, and W. W. Davis, member of a Kingston contracting firm, who was found guilty of larceny and receiving in connection with work done on the Luzerne-Truckville highway, were taken before the court for sentence. The three commissioners were ordered committed to Luzerne County jail to serve the first sentence and were then sentence, with Harry T. Butts, to serve one to two years in Eastern penitentiary on the conspiracy conviction growing out of the Dorrance-Hollenback road case. W. W. Davis was sentenced to serve six months in the county jail. In February the former commissioners, former county controller Butts, and former county engineer Merle Breese, who were serving a sentence in the penitentiary on a charge of conspiracy, were placed on trial charged with conspiracy to fraud in connection with the construction of the Luzerne-Trucksville highway. Following the trial all defendants were acquitted. In the fall the former commissioners petitioned the court for a parole from the county jail, and also petitioned that they might serve their penitentiary sentence in the county jail. The petitions were refused by judge W. A. Valentine, sitting for the court in bane. -------------------- During the year a number of clergymen in the county started a movement for a federal grand jury to probe vice and liquor conditions in Luzerne County. The movement gained headway and petitions containing several thousand names were presented to Judge Albert W. Watson and Albert W. Johnson at federal court in Harrisburg. The petition was presented by Rev. Dr. Paul S. Heath, pastor of First Presbyterian church, Rev. Dr. F. L. Flinchbaugh, rector of St. Stephen’s church, and Rev. Leon K. Willman, pastor of First Methodist Episcopal church, all of Wilkes-Barre.. After deliberating twenty-five days, the federal court handed down a decision refusing to grant the petition. While the judges expressed themselves in sympathy with the movement and conceded the legality of a federal grand jury made up of Luzerne county citizens, the judges felt that the facts were insufficient to warrant the extraordinary procedure urged. The movement for a special federal grand jury got under way after federal prohibition agents made a surprise raid in Wilkes-Barre in which sixty-eight places were raided. As a sequel to the raids padlocks were places on fifty-seven places. -------------------- Weather for the year, from December1, 1930 to November 30, 1931 - It is surprising to learn that though the numbers of days on which it rained during the period mentioned above exceeded by twenty the number of rainy days covered the same period the previous year, the total rainfall of the last year was only 2.85 inches greater. It rained on more days last year than on any previous year since 1918, but the amount of rain that fell was less than in any year since that date, except 1917 and 1930. The average rainfall since 1892 has been around 36.05 inches annually, while last year it was only 29.89 inches, 6.16 inches below the average. The drought spread over a large section of the county, and in many wells in the country sections the water supply failed, and the streams were in many places dry, or had but little water in them. The river, too, has been low practically the entire summer. The dry weather was the cause of many fires in the mountains, some of them menacing nearby communities. The close of November brought a sprinkling of rain and a light snowfall, but the total precipitation for the month was less than an inch. The highest temperature during the year was 99, which was in September, and the lowest was 8 degrees above zero, which was in February. The average of the maximum temperature for the year, was a fraction less than 77 degrees, and the average of the minimum about 321/2 degree. Since 1891 there have been only eleven years when the mercury did not drop to zero or below, and the average for the these eleven years was 3 above zero. ------------------ The unemployment situation in Luzerne county, though not so serious as it was in many other sections of the State, caused considerable hardship here. Due to the slow working conditions in the mines and the tendency of factories and shops to cut down their staffs many men and women found themselves without employment. Early in the year the State opened an employment bureau in the city which provided service without charge. It was successful in placing many persons in positions. In November unemployment relief shows were held in three theaters in the city and in theaters in several other towns in the county.. In Wilkes-Barre a sum of about $3,000 was realized. The committee made up of local newspaper publishers, with B. F. Williams, treasure, voted to use the money to employ men to improve the municipal swimming pool in Plains township, leased by the city from Scranton-Spring Brook Water Service Co. A benefit football game was played at Kingston between the teams of Hanover and Nanticoke high schools in which several thousand dollars was realized. A No-Hungry children campaign was conducted during the fall months in which churchwomen from all parts of the valley gathered and canned thousands of jars of fruits and vegetables to be distributed to the needy during the winter. -------------------- The new Wilkes-Barre-Scranton highway running from the East End boulevard to Dupont was completed and opened to traffic. The road cuts the driving time to Scranton and is expected to greatly relieve congestion on the other roads running between the two cities. -------------------- The most disastrous fire in the county during the year occurred in Hazleton when Hazle hall was destroyed with a loss of $175,000. Fires in several other towns of the county during the year destroyed a number of homes. Seven homes were burned in Miners Mills, at a cost of $35,000. In Wilkes-Barre township three homes were burned, the loss being $20,000. The business district of Durea was seriously menaced by a fire which damaged three buildings at a loss of $25,000. Late in the year fire caused $35,000 damage to the warehouse of David Miller, Kingston merchant. ------------------ Only one school board was ousted in the county during the year. Five members of the Swoyerville borough board, Eugene Miller, George Matthews, Stephen Podskoc, William Miles and John McDonald , were ousted for violating the school code. ------------------ The pipe lines for the transportation of gasoline and oil, which have been spreading over the country, entered Luzerne County in several places. One line runs from McAdoo, near Hazleton to Ransom, and is part of the Sun Oil Co’s line running from Marcus Hook, near Philadelphia, to Syracuse. A huge storage tank was erected at Exeter. Another line entered the county near Nescopeck and is part of Atlantic Refining Co’s line for piping oil and gasoline from Point Breeze, PA., near Philadelphia, to this city. A terminal was erected at Edwardsville and it was believed that this would be made the distribution centre for Northeastern Pennsylvania Transcribed by Lew Zwiebel, 20 Jan 2009