The Hershey Press 1916-09-07

              TOUR IST POINT
ON BIG H IGHWAY
Secretary of William Penh Highway
Association Appr eciates Import-ance
of Hers hey. Observation
Party on Trip Across State
Stop Here. Movement
During the week several parties taking
in the new William Penn Highway route
have stopped at Hershey and have said
that this town will be one of the star
points along, the way of the finest trip
through Pennsylvania. In a letter M.
H. James, secretary of the William Penn
Highway Association, wrote: "The Wil-liam
Penn Highway which connects
Pittsburg and Philadelphia through the
central tier of Pennsylvania counties,
passes through Hershey, as you know.
Hershey, of course, will be a point of
great interest to tourists; and we would
like to include in the forthcoming booklets
and pamphlets photographs of the prin-cipal
buildings, the Park and the other
main attractions."
The travelers this week all suggested
that Hershey would be the ideal dinner
point for the motorists. They dined at
the Hershey Cafe and at the Park restau-rant
and they were much pleased. The
Hershey Cafe is right on the line of travel,
for the Highway passes along Chocolate
Avenue. These visitors predict that Her-shey
will have more automobile parties
this fall and winter than ever before. There
is great interest in the new highway and
there will be many cars from both ends of
the state. There were more Pittsburg
cars in Hershey. last Sunday and Monday
than in any other two days.
The big party that passed through
Hershey consisted of officials of the ^as-sociation,
newspaper men and map makers^
They found the roads in Hershey's vicinity
all right. On their way here from Philar-delphia
they were impressd by the great
amount of new work which they encount-ered.
In Germantown, Reading and a half
dozen smaller places, gangs of men
were at work laying new highway. At
Robesonia an improved street has just
been completed and in the majority of
boroughs between Reading and Lebanon,
the streets have recently been oiled-.
It was on the Berks-Dauphin turnpike
that the tourists found their inconvenience
in the heavy clouds of dust. Over 100
cars were encountered on the toll road
during the time the party was covering
it. The bad stretch of road between Nor-ristown
and Philadelphia is avoided by the
William Penn highway, which traverses
Sproul . route 15, instead of the straight
road. The mileage is a mile or so greater,
but the condition of the road is such that
much better time is made.
One result of the present trip will
be the appearance in the 1917 Blue Book
of the complete "William Penn Highway,
by miles and tenth-miles, charted in
minute detail.
RAILROAD MEN WIN OUT
Force Congress to Give Them tho
Eight Hour Day
Under the pressure of the strike threat
and of' the active work of President Wilson
Congress passed the act giving the rail-road
freigh t men an eight hour day with
their present pay for ten hours, the new
law to be effective January 1, This hasty
legislation has raised a big issue in the
presidential campaign. It is President
Wilson 's achievement and he is proud of
it. On the other hand Mr. Hughes, the
Republican candidate , and other lending
Republicans denounce it roundly as un-wise
and dangerous work, The bitterness
over it will increase as the campaign goes
on,
What the Law Doob
The loaders sent a circular to the 400,-
000 members of the brotherhoods lolling
them just what they won, In plain
langungo the circular points out that the
passage of the Adamson bill did just
this: ¦
"Beginning January 1, 1917, eight
hours shall constitute a working day
for the purpose of reckoning the compen-sation
of all employes engaged In the
operation of trains in interstate commerce,
The pay is to remain at the present. 10-
hour l'ute. All necessary overtime is
to bo paid for pro rata, Electric street
railways and electric inlerurban lines
independently owned are excepted.
"The President is directed to appoint
n commission of three men, at. snlmles
he is to decide upon , to investigate the
effect upon railroad , operation of (hu
eight-hour day, the investigation to bu
completed In six or nine months, With-in
30 days after the completion of the
inquiry report is to be made to the Pres-ident
and to Congress, Twenty-ll vo
thousand dollars is appropriated for lliu
expenses of the commission.
"Violation of the net. is punishable
by « lino of not less than .f>l()0 or more
than !fi]L000, or one year in prison , or
bot.li."
What the brotherhood pts applies lo
workers in the same cIhbhoh of labor who
do not. belong to the brotherhoods,
GOOD WORK OF
FIRE COMPANY
Check and Thanks for the Assistance
Rendered at the Moyer Fire.. Com -
' pany Always Willing. Annual
•Meeting Next Month. The'
Nominations. Details
At its stated meeting on Tuesday
evening, the Hershey Volunteer Fire
Company received a message of thanks
and appreciation from Israel Moyer-and
Isaac Basehore' for their labors at the fire
on August 27. In addition to his thanks Mr.
Moyer sent -a check for a handsome sum
to be added to the Company's new appa-ratus
fund.. ..Such expressions as these
encourage the men to turn out in
all kinds of weather, at-the great incon-venience
and sometimes danger to them-selves,
to do what they can with the means
at their command to save the property
of their neighbors. Most of the work of
the Hershey Volunteer Fire , Company
has been for the neighbors. •
The following nominations were made
at Tuesday's meeting to be voted .on at
annual meeting on the first Tuesday
evening in October: President, William
C. Brinker; vice-president, Aldus . Wirth ;
treasurer, John R. Kreider ; secretary,
H. A. Newton; chief, John P. Coraad ;
assistant chief, John F. Snavely; trustees)
(three to be elected,) J. E. Hills, J. B.
McKissick, H. M. Moyer, D. M. .Hershey,
J. F. Murray, W. G. Ashenfelter. *
The proceeds of the late fair amounted
to about $650. This with other funds in
the treasury makes a total of upwards of
$800 available for the improvement of
the apparatus. At the last meeting a com-rniitee
consisting of Chief Conrad, As-sistant
Chief Snavely and W. G. Ashen-felter
was appointed to investigate the
matter and see what can be done with
the funds on. hand. This committee will
report at the October meeting.
MUCH PLEASED
WITH THE PARK
Thousands Came . During the Season
and Some of Them Sent Back
Praise and Appreciation. A
Summer Without An Ac-cident.
- Fine Record
Hershey Park enjoyed the finest season
of its history. The number who visited
it is not easy to estimate because this
year the people came mainly in auto-mobiles
and small parties, and they were
coming and going all the time. So the esti-mates
vary, feut it might be a fair com-promise,
to say that since the Park was
opened on Memorial Day more than 200,-
000 have visited it.
Both Memorial Day and the Fourth of
July went far ahead of previous years
and both had splendid crowds with com-plete
success. The Hafrtsburg Grocers
had . a wonderful- day and brought out
their record crowd. There were excellent
excursions from Lancaster, Reading and
other points. The season was remarkable
not only for its automobile features but
for the number of new people who came.
The following letter gives an idea of the
kind of appreciation that has come to the
Park during this season: .
"All who made the trip to your beautiful
Park were well pleased. The weather -was
ideal and we are happy to say there Avas
no accident to any of our people. There
were 1175 of us. Every person that made
the trip was delighted with the Park and
amusements. If another excursion is
ever promoted to your Park I feel sure oPa
much larger ,crowd. The bathing pool
and the shoot-the-chute alone would bring
them. Your entire arrangement and amuse-ments
with your beautiful homes and flow-er
beds were the talk of all. Your factory
is a grand building. You certainly have a
place to be proud of."
Labor Day usually, ends the season, but
this.season is not like any other because
it does not depend upon regular excursions
over the railroads and trolleys but con-sists
largely in the automobile travel. So,
although last Monday has gone, the people
still keep coming and they dine at the
cafes and see the town and enjoy them-selves
generally. Owing to the scare over
infantile paralysis the Labor Day crowd
was not up to last year, this being due
to the .fact that efforts were made to ex-clude
children under 16 of age to comply
with the requests of the State Health
Department. But the attendance was
much larger than was expected . All ,day
long the big cafe was crowded. .
VAUDEVILLE ALL THE WEEK
Monday night there was not a vacant
seat in the Hershey Park Theater and the
crowd hugely enjoyed and enthusiastically
applauded every number on the bill. It
is the most expensive bill of the whole
season and contrary to former custom the
performances.did not end with Labor Day.
The whole show will be continued all this
week and it represents the largest value
in entertainment for the admission charged
that was ever given in this valley. The
acts are excellenUand there are first-class
moving pictures alio.
Visitors always say tlioy cannot realize that. Hershey Is only 13 years old. Most people
now living In Hershey never saw U in its first days, So. the group of pictures above Is
printed to b1io-\v what lleishoy looked like just nhout J. 3 years ago, The photographs show
opemtlons In the bulldiii H of the present factory. ' ¦
CHOC OLA TE COST
HAS INCREASE D
But the Business Will Take Care of
The Products. The Situatio n
As "Viewed from Boston. Sep-tember
Opens the Christ-mas
Busy Season
After Labor Day the activity in the
chocolate and cocoa • business becomes
acute. It is .that way in Hershey and
the same way elsewhere. A Boston
correspondent writes in the Philadelphia
Ledger : .
In Boston, which is recognized as the
center of many branches in the country's
candy industry, perhaps not surpassed by
any metropolis hr the world in the
manufacture of sweets, September 1 is
the opening of the Christmas season.
Especially in the chocolate candy division
of the industry there is increased activity
this week, because the fall season opens
and the employes go from the 47 1-2
hours to 54 hours basis of employment.
Few. industries are touched like the choc-olate
candy industry by a wide range of
commodities which reflect the' general ad-vance
in prices and the war's disturbance
of normal trade conditions, and few in-dustries
have digested this disturbance as
gracefully. The consuming public knows
practically nothing about it. Chocolates
are sold in the same size "boxes and at
the same prices as before the war.
Equally remarkable, perhaps, is the
ever-increasing demand on. the market,
which . sustains ' the contention of the
manufacturers that candies are no longer
luxuries of which the people find it con-venient
to deprive themselves when rising
living expenses force retrenchment: Cho-colate
has become a food necessity, a
concentrated food for armies and civil-ians
alike.
Pennsylvanians and Philadelphians
know this business fact very well, as
Pennsylvania is the recognized leader in
the manufacture of some forms of choco-late,
and the exports of sweet chocolate
and cocoa by firms in Philadelphia and
elsewhere in Pennsylvania have given
American chocolate manufacturers a high
rating among soldiers fighting in Europe.
Sharp Figuring Cuts Costs
By careful calculations the chocolate
manufacturer have been able to overcome
the high cost of material and pocket what
on the surface would seem like a big loss.
Almost without exception everything
that enters into the mixtures for choco-late
candies has increased in price, and
there is much that is no longer obtainable.
Some commodities, such as pistachio
nuts and Russian albumen, are out of the
market. Such elements of flavoring ex-tracts
it is- practically impossible to
obtain. There is a shortage of figs from
Syria, and no currants are coming from
Crete. California currants are used in-stead,
but they have hot quite the same
flavor. Raw sugar has gone up from $3.-
85 per 100 pounds in June, 1914, to $7.65
at the present time. Cocoa powder is
kept in Europe. South American cocoa
has gone up. Venezuelan cocoa is up
4 to 5 cents per pound of the bean and
the African cocoa is hot coming.
News boards,, which are used for candy
boxes, have advanced from $22 to $55
a ton, and this advance is fully reflected
in finished boxes.' Fancy, pictures for
the tops of candy boxes, which former-ly
came from Germany, are out of the
market. The cost of ink has gone up
more than double. Gold leaves, so much
¦used in lettering, are so scarce that prices
cannot be quoted. All the ' silk ribbons
have gone up 30 per cent since last Jan-uary.
Baskets for the Christmas orders,
which used to. range in prices from $1
to $10 at wholesale, are out of the market,
They came from Germany and England.
Japan is making an extra effort to supply
the loss of these baskets. Twine, espec-ially
the colored, has advanced owing
to the higher cost of dyes. Celluloid
paper, made largely on the Rhine and
always much in demand for the higher
priced packages of candies, cannot . be
imported and cannot be made in this
country because-of certain properties in
the water.
Standard of Goods Maintained
This may be sufficient to show that the
manufacturers have encountered many
difficulties in their efforts to keep up the
standard .of their products, and have as7
sumed heavy additional expenses which
they have not distributed among the con-sumers.
They are sharing with other
manufacturers the increased cost of ¦ labor,
though, unlike some other industries,
they are not losing their skilled help to
ammunition" manufacturers. During the
first eight months of the year they are
apportioning their overhead expenses
on.a basis of only 60 per cent, of efficiency
in the factories, as they employ their
help only 47 1-2 hours; but on September
1 the factories are placed on a 54-hour
basis, but with pay on a seven-day basis.
When these extra expenses were bal-anced
against other conditions, it was
found impossible, however, to keep down
the price for the finished product. As
against the articles that have gone up in
price there are numerous items of cost that
have not changed, Overhead charges,
for instance, are no higher than they were.
The rental charges are about the same,
Cream has not' gone up materially,
Freight rates are not much higher. The
injection of a little more efficiency will
offset some of the items of expense,
and the reduced margin of profit.
Manu facturers are seeking new mar-kets,
especially in foreign countries. Un-like
the manufacturers of textile machin-ery,
or boots and shoes, they have no
real competition in the foreign lands,
and they do not need to go to the expense
of studying the customs and require-ments
of the foreign populations before
placing the Ameri can goods before them,
as candies are distinct curiosities in some
countries and as such sell on their merits.
Taking all these conditions into consider-ation
, the chocolate candy manufacturers
find that the actual increased cost of the
finished product is no longer greater
than the business will take care of on
the basis of unchanged prices.
Frederick Geffken was the son of llob-crl
Geffken , of York , and u native of
thiil, city. Ho in survived by five brothers
and four Hlslors. Hu returned homo
last Tuesday, lifter an absence of one
year , which lie spent in the West, .
Frederick Geffken is Au^>, Truck
Victim Near Chickios} Penna
•> ' i
In the presence of twenty passengers
who were on the truck Monday Freder-ick
Geffken , 24 years old , of York , com-mitted
suicide by deliberately jumpin g
from the running board upon which he
was standing, in front of the rear wheel ,
with the result that his head was crushed
and death was instantaneous, It occurred
j ust licyoncl Cliickio 's tollgate, near
Marietta. According to his sister, who
was with him, lie has been in trouble
lately. James L, Martin , of York, the
driver and owner of the truck , was wrest-ed
and taken lo Squire Graham 's olllco.
The truck left York curly Monday
morning with a purly composed of twenty
residents of that city, bound for Hemlioy
where they intended to hold their Labor
Day picnic , Gtiffken wan standing on
the runnin g hoard of the ^ruck most of
the Lime, and refused to lake a Heat,
The truck hncl just passed the Chickio
loll Kiilu , neiir Marietta, when Geffken
jumped from the board in front of the
left rear wheel. Although the t ruck
was brought to n stop without delay,
his head whs crushed beyond feeognl.
lion ,
KILLED ON WAY TO HERSHEY
SCHOOLS OPEN
SEPTEMBER 29
Latest Order of Dr. Dixon, State Com-missioner
of Health , on the In-fa
ntile Paralysis Situation. No
Cases in or Near Hershey
The Particulars
There has not been a case of infantile
paralysis in Hershey or within ten miles
of it The nearest case reported in the
past week vias that of a soldier at Mount
Gretfia, more than twelve miles distant.
At the 'same time Hershey is"cooperating
in every detail with the officers of the State.
There is no requirement of sanitation or
of policing tnat.Hershey does not promptly
meet. For example, for Labor Day Her-shey
representatives took the trouble to
go to Harrisburg and get from the health
officials at the State House suggestions
whereby the observance of the regula-tions
might be better done in Hershey
than elsewhere.
The health officials expressed the deepest
appreciation of this spirit. They cite
Hershey as an example for other com-munities.
-
Just after the Press was printed last
week Dr. Dixon issued a new order post-poning
the opening of the schools from the
18th to the 29th, the order being as
follows:
PR, DIXON'S ORDERS
"The Department of Health's decision
on the closing of the schools was to pre-vent
the spreading of infantile paralysis
in our State and spare the lives of our
little children. Before deciding this ques-tion
numerous experienced educators of
our .State were consulted and it was
made clear that our school " system in
Pennsylvania—both public and private
—represents a beautiful piece of educa-tional
machinery, each upper grade or
each wheel dependent upon another.
"With this in view the State Depart-ment
of Health decided not to close the
kindergarten and elementary grades alone
but instead to move the . entire. pie.ee of
machinery out of range of the enemy
(Infantile Paralysis] so as to extend its
action over into June or well away from
danger. Otherwise we would break up
the classes and grades until the beautiful
system would have been like a smashed
automobile on the wayside.
"No sooner was the decision made by
the Department than ministers and
Sunday School teachers became abusive.
The object of the Department of Health
being, primarily, to save the lives and
to prevent the life-long crippling of our
children, it listened to and considered
the protest despite the fact that it was
put in a way that it was not suited to
make angels of those who had been
"sleeping in their boots' for three weeks
to make the new emergency rule work
smoothly.
"The Board after carefully considering
the protest against the decision to, close
the schools including all grades, which
was intended to preserve the organization ,
has rendered a decision that all classes,
schools and college may decide whether
or not they open as usual, providing that
none admit children under sixteen years
before September 29th , 1916. This new
ruling puts the State up to the diff-icult
task of policing each school.
"The period of exclusion for children
under sixteen years of age from moving
picture shows and public entertainments
is extended to September 29th, 1916.
"Samuel G. Dixon,
"Commissioner of Health. "
LANCASTER COUNTY FAIR
Sixty Acres Will Be Occupied By
Something to Amuse, Instruct
Or Entertniti
Jacob F. Seldomridge, Secretary of
the Lancaster County Fair Association,
said that nearly sixty acres of the com-pany
's' holdings west of the city will
this year show hundreds more attract^
tlons than over before,
He ndded : "It was really astonishing
to see In the Secretary 's office the way the
applications for entry blanks came pour-ing
in, Being in Pen Mar Circuit has
given Lancaster u big advantage in so-curing
exhibits, race entries, free at-tractions
and Midway shows, and the
Fair of IS)Hi will be the largest by long
odds over held in Lancaster county. "
The fulr starts September 26, and con-tinues
throughout the week, with special
features every day,
KILLED AT SWATARA
By llio breaking of a cable at the qvnrry
at Swiitnrn two men were killed yesterday,
One of them was Alvln Emeriek of Sand
Hill and the other was n man from Pal-myra,
HARVEST HOME SERVICES
Rey , Robert A, Dnusch will conduct
Harvest Home Services in the Reformed
Church . Union Deposit, on Sunday morn-ing,
September 10, at 10,00 o'clock,