Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-12
CONGRESSMAN MoORE'S
LETTER
The Manufaeturers' Club and the
TarIH-Good Work OF Mrs. Dolan's
Visiting Nurses--A Proposed
ElsenIohr. Bremen Debate
on Tobacco
Washington. ID. c., April ~.

THE Manufacturers Club under the new
president Alfred f.. Burk, will have a
fine chance to express itself on the tariff and
kindred subjects if it wishes to do so. The
new Congress will want the views of bust
ness men and as rule will seek to keep
close to public sentiment on economic ques-
tions. In days gone by the manufacturers
of Philadelphia were leaders in matters of
this kind. Even before the old Manufac-
turers Club was organized, with Thomas
Dolan as president, men like William H.
Grundy, father of Joseph Joseph p. Truitt,
James Doak, Jr., Charles II. Salmon, James
Pollock, the Dobsons and the Bromeys were
active in keeping Congress posted They
were very effective under the Harrison and
Mckinley administrations. and at one time
a group of them were known in Washington
as "The Tariff Troupe" When the Manu-
facturers' Club moved into its new and at
tractive headquarters at Broad and Walnut
streets and began to reach out for larger
membership many of the old tariff barons'
had passed away. The spirit of the club
seemed to broaden as the personnel in
creased. The founders of the new club,
headed by Nathan r. Folwell, Joseph X.
Grundy, John Fisler, Alfred Il. Burk and
Richard Campion, were recognized as pro-
tectionists. They influenced the passage Of
resolutions. but the club as n club has not
taken so direct an interest in public Ques
tions that come to Washington as did the
Dolan Dobson Grundy group of the Nc
Kinley era. 1t is not altogether clear that
the older worthless would quite approve the
free port idea as it has recently been in
dorsed by some of the prominent club mem
bers, or that they would fall for the in
dorsement Of A. Mitchell Palmer as "a non
PARTISAN as did certain of the dyestufs
people at recent clubhouse luncheon. In
respect to the new attorney general, they
would likely have recalled his part in franz
ing the Underwood tariff law when even the
liberal Democracy of Samuel J. Randall was
distasteful to him. But this is what some
people call "a progressive age and as
''the old order Changeth' it may be that
the Manufacturers Club as now constituted,
under the live wire leadership of Fred
Burk, will produce some ideas of which Con-
gress may take cognizance.
TAMES FRANCIS BURKE, of Pitts
- burgh, has never quite got it out of his
head that Senator Knox should be n Re
publican candidate for President. James
has been advancing this thought for a num-
ber of years, and there are many Pennsyl
vanians who agree with him. At one time
there was reason to believe the former sec
retary of state would have been pleased to
enter the contest. He has the qualifications
and is highly respected in the Senate, but
during recent years has not appeared to care
to discuss the subject. For that matter,
the senator does not talk politics much,
anyhow. He prefers the work of the Senate
and is content to let his colleague, the senior
senator, Penrose, attend to the political
drudscry. In some respects, however, the
revival of Knox talk is not displeasing. A
oplil OF rf tv,,n of i,,nin o4nr
is what the Republican leaders are looking
for, and Pennsylvania, the strongest Re
publican state in the Union, has had no
President since James Buchanan; in fact,
has had no other.
COMETHING in the bulletin sent out by
~ the Visiting Nurse Society of Phiadel-
phia appeals to our civic pride. The infu
enza epidemic which introduced itself to the
American public at Boston-and that while
the Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association
was in convention there-soon reached Phil
adephia and Washington in due course be-
fore spreading west to San Francisco and
Los Angeles. 1t created a demand for doc
tors and nurses far beyond the available
supply. The poor at the capital suffered
along with those in Philadelphia. 1t was
time when the dead houses remained filled
the remains. During this period, when the
army and navy were seeking help, the Phla-
delphia society had sixty or more faithful
nurses going into afflicted homes, doing yeo-
man service. 1t is the kind of work for
which the good women in charge of it-Mrs.
| Thomas J. Dolan is president of the society
are to be congratulated. And as to the
nurses-apart from the satisfaction that
| comes to those who know they are engaged
| in noble calling-they are able to earn
more on the average than schoolteachers or
| stenographers. Is it any wonder that many
| high class young women. rather than be
| useless, helpless butterflies in society, are
| connecting up at some of the hospitals for
a pittance to prepare for a work that not
only pays we'll but enables those who qualify
to be of genuine service to the community
and to themselves?
| CUBJECT for discussion at the next meet
- ing of the Wishbone Club: "The rati
| fication of the prohibition amendment having
| put the liquor dealers on the sliding board
and cost the government 81 ,00O, 900, 900 in
taxes, shall a prohibtory amendment against
the manufacture and sale of tobacco cigars
| cigarettes and snuff be now in order?" II
the Eisenlohr brothers, Charley and Lou
the commodore, could be induced to take
| the affirmative and the Bremen brothers, Lew
and Harris, would take the negative, and A
Swoyer should be set up as referee, the de
bate would be worth going miles to hear
In such a discussion Charley Eisenlohr, BY
reason of his contact with Penrose, Kitchin
Simmons and other statesmen who adjusted
the tobacco taxes, would have a slight ad
vantage over his opponents, but the Bre
| mers could offset this by bringing in Glib