Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-01-04

the Philadelphia schools | suppose
that on an average l issued $4,000 of
those working certificates every year.
That meant that the school days of
all those children were over. The boy
might go to a place and work week,
and then the employer, finding him
useless, would dismiss him, and the
boy would go out in the street.
I'VE had licensed loafers learning
crime. Now an employer as soon as
he dismisses a boy, must mail the
working certificate back to the school
authorities, who must keep track of
the child
" That, however, is not the only
feature that appeals to me. The State
will spend S1,O0O,000 a year in these
continuation schools, which will be
taught by men and women who are
familiar with shop conditions, who
know the problems that the child en-
counters in his work, and will advise
him. He will adapt the school work
to the shop work, and the result will
be boy who is an asset to the State
instead of liability.
"'How I'd like to teach one of
those classes. / think that it is provi
Dental that a great industrial State
like this has had a chance to blaze
the way in this reform that will make
good citizens out of those boys who
have to go to work
For years local option has been a
live question in Pennsylvania. Gov
ernor Brumbaugh lost in his great
fight last winter on this issue, but he
is not yet licked.
Local option has had a setback,
he remarked, grimly. They had the
cards stacked against me. Many
members of the Legislature were
elected on a saloon platform, and OF
course under those conditions | lost.
But there will be other Legislatures.
"'If the people want saloons let
them have them, but let the people
decide the question. The courts and
the Legislature have no right to block
the will of the people. In our State
the county courts grant the liquor Ii
censes, and in the past judges in many
cases were not elected with the idea
in mind whether they would hold the
scales of justice evenly, but whether
they would vote for n saloon license.
That was the scandal of the situation.
The country districts in most cases
are natural dry territory and the cities
wet. What | was lighting for was TO
let the people decide for themselves.
The idea has got to win out in the
end If you believe jim your democ-
racy, you have got to trust the people.
Looking to the Future
Governor Brumbaugh then turned
to his constructive ideas for the 1u-
ture.
This State loses each year. he
said, '$125,000,000 from sickness and
death due to preVentable illness.
Where can the State better employ its
energies than in preventing this awful
waste?'
"I want to get the best sanitary
and civil engineering talent that can
be engaged, put this talent at the DIS
posal of the people of the State, and
/ want to see that we have such hous-
ing conditions that that terrible waste
will be stopped. | want to arrange
matters so that the farmer who is go
ing to build new pig-sty or a
chickencoop can drop postal card to
the Capitol and an engineer will go to
his farm and tell him where to put
his new building so that the refuse
will not drain into the well and give
his family typhoid fever. Not alone
will the farmer benefit for think that
the problem of housing conditions is
one of the great problems of the day
/ would have the houses in our indus
trial centers constructed on sanitary
lines and at the same time have an
eye for the aesthetic, for with proper
advice the householder will construct
along good lines and the farmer VIII
place his outbuilding so that nature
shall not be shocked.
"'At the same time we shall save
the lives of the countless babies who
are now lost because of ignorance.
Leave out of the calculation the senti-
mental side of it. Is it worth while
for the State to save $125,0O0,O 600
year which now is thrown away
through ignorance and neglect?
Let us ignore the anguish of par
ents and the whole sentimental SIDE
of if think il is worth while
"'My whole idea is to make it cas-
ier to live and to live right
Then we are going to stop loose
legislation. I believe that we are over
lawed. Why. at the first session OF
the Legislature we repealed many
measures. and committee is now at
work with the idea that at the next
session we will repeal as many as one
thousand laws now on the books.
Soon after 1 was inaugurated | sent
for the Attorney General and in
structed him to go over every bill in
the Legislature and see that it was in
proper shape. so that If passed it
would be upheld by the courts
We are going to stop that waste
of energy, and we will pass laws that
will stay on the books and remove
that scandal of government by the
courts, for that is what it amounts to
under conditions that have prevailed
Governor Brumbaugh is a Dunkard
In religious belief. He is the first man
of his faith ever to be elected a Gov
ernor of any State of the Union. He
took no oath of office, but, according
to his religion, affirmed simply He
is to-day a devout follower of the re-
ligion of his fathers
4 came to America in 1854 the
Governor continued, with emphasis I
am a Pennsylvania German and am
proud of it. But put the emphasis on
the Pennsylvania. We are the people
who, along with the Quakers and the
Scotch Irish. developed this Common
wealth. We are not hyphenated
Americans
There is only one nation for the
people who live here. If we are not
Americans, we are nothing That is
all there is to it.
Il love this old State as devotedly
as I can, and I want to make it so
clean and sweet and wholesome that
it's children will thank God that they
were born in Pennsylvania
PARTY AT MARYSVTLLE
Sbecial to the Telegr1bh