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Show CACHE AMERICAN, LOGAN, UTAH T The Riflemen of the Revolution THE PENNSYLVANIA COMPANIES Tugwell Handed Big Rural Job To Administer Part of Works Program; Taxation Plan Hits Immense Fortunes By EARL GODWIN By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T WAS the summer of 1775. On the benches outside a tavern in the little Pennsjlvanla town of Sunbury a group of villagers lounged In the warm sun shine and gossiped Idly about the news from the north. At Concord and Lex ington in Massachusetts some farmers had fit the reg'lars and there had been blood letting Away np in New York a leader of the Green Mountain Boys, named Ethan Allen had thundered at the gates of Old Ti on the shores of Lake Champlain and demanded the surrender of the fort in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress. The king and his ministers had sent three more gen erals. Burgojne and Clinton and Howe, to Bos ton to help General Gage hang as rebels and traitors all who continued to resist Ilis Majestys Government. Stirling events, these! But in this sleepy lit tic village the possibility of war still seemed far away and unlikely. Then suddenly its calm wa broken, a horseman, galloping in haste and shouting; Express, ho! Dispatches from Phila delpliia! as he rode, drew up in a swirl of dust before the inn. And this was the news he brought : On June 14 the Second Continental congress had passed a resolution that six companies of expert riflemen be immediately raised in the Colony of Pennsylvania, two in the Colony of Maryland and two in the Colony of Virginia and that each company as soon as completed shall march to Join the army neai Boston, to be there employed as light Infantry under the com mand of the chief officer of that army. This chief officer had just been appointed. He was a Virginian named George Washington the same Washington who had distinguished himself at that "bloody business of Braddock on the Mon ongahela twenty years before and who was even now riding north to "throw Tommy Gage out of Boston. So it was to be war I Farmers Jogging along the country roads on, their way to the grist mill, stopped to talk of It over stake-anrivet fences with their neighbors Packborse men, setting out on trading expedi tlons to the west, carried word of it to every backwoods settlement through which they passed. And at once in many a cabin in the clearing, a lanky frontiersman reached up to the pegs above the fireplace and took down his long rifle. In his swift, sure hands it had barked defiance at Pontiac's warriors; it had brought many a squirrel tumbling down from the highest branch of a tree; and it had stopped short the bounding flight of more than one buck deer. But there was bigger game afield now, game which offered a target that no rifleman, be he expert" or not, was likely to miss the British Redcoats ' So from their cubins In Buffalo Valley and the other settlements aloug the west branch of the Susquehanna these backwoodsmen hastened to Sunbury to enroll In the company which their neighbor, John Low don, was forming. Lowdon had been born of Quaker parents but apparently he was apostate to the doctrines of the Society of Friends for he had fought as an ensign in the French and Indian war. He was an Inn keeper at Lancaster for a time, then moved to Buffalo Valiev where he was a leading member of the committee of correspondence. On June 25 Low dons commission as captain of a rifle company was signed by President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson of the Continental congress. Four days later he was leading his company across the river to Nor tbumberiand to be sworn Into the Continental service. There they remained nntil one day early In July when young Dick Grosvenor, the com pany drummer, beat the long roil to summon d WASHINGTON. of agriculnumber one brain been put in charge of a wide section of the works-relie- f program known as Rural resettlement, He is the President's right-hanman on changing the rural relief payments to employment; and Is instructed to carry on with one thing in mind; namely, to get employables off the dole and on the job. One day last winter one of the high lights of the po.ver trust lobby here took me aside and whispered confidentially : . Roosevelt is going to get rid of the entire brain trust Tugwell ture, and trustee, has d first Placing him charge of tills big work doesnt bear out the whisper, which was a part of the drive to discredit not only Tugwell but the entire group of intelligent and unselfish trained men who are here to help plan recovery any reform and who are doing so. We should have more unselfish, nonpartisan Intelligent men in government; but there is a constant warfare on such men by the politicians, who look on them as intruders. Know ing how to reach the public, the politicians have spread ridisciencule against the tists in high government position. One of the most effective tricks against the brain trust Is the school boy cartoon, making fun of the professor. Instead of discarding bis strong men of Intelligence and training, Roosevelt is going to depend on them more than ever, now that the program is getting under way for the second phase of the New Deal. Administration of reform functions, like the federal power commission the Investigation into the Bell system, the control of the stock exchanges, with its daily hunt for crooked securities; and all similar activities require brainy men who have no political partisanship and to whom mental Integrity is every thing This country should be proud to have men of that sort in office; and I think most people feel that way. The extensive program of rural resettlement, which will put men and women employables to work in the rural areas, is based on work these people can do. Most of them live on the land ; have been brought up In farming areas, and should work at the sort of jobs naturally arising in their own lives and experience. Tugwell will soon announce the broad outlines of his program; they will be based largely on actual farm work, on the patching up of areas eroded by wind storms, eaten away by floods, spoiled by forest fifes. There will be road work, flood control work, and work connected with rural electrification. in rural resettlement and for repelling any hostile invasion thereof would consist of nine companies. They were to be commanded by CoL William Thomp son of Carlisle with Edward Hand of Lancaster as lieutenant colonel and Robert Magaw as major, all men whose courage we have the highest opinion of. Each company consisted of one captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and 68 privates. The cap tain received $20 a month, the lieutenants $13, the sergeants $8, the corporals and the drummer or trumpeter and the privates $G. These riflemen were a miscellaneous lot. The majority of them were Irish, German or Welsh, the second generation of some of the thousands of Immigrants who. In the early years of the Eighteenth century had settled in William Penn's colony. Then, too, there were many descendants of the Scots who had been driven by religious persecution from their native highlands in the Seventeenth century. They had sought temporary refuge in the province of Ulster, Ireland, whence between the years 1720 and 1740, thousands of them migrated to America and peopled the hills of Pennsylvania's fron tier with a sturdy, rugged race that was destined to play an Important part in the formation of our national character. Besides these, there were others of pure English stock and, to make the cosmopolitan nature of the battalion more complete, the rolls of Captain Low dons com pany carried the name of John Shawnee, a Shawanese Indian warrior. On these same rolls were three other names which should have made Lowdons company for ever famous. One of them was a German, Peter Bentz. Pennsylvania would later hall him, under the name of Peter Pence, as one of her greatest Indian fighters. Another was a seventeen-year-olboy, a red headed Irish lad named Samuel Brady. The future would see him making the name of Capt Sam Brady, Chief of Rangers' a household word along the Pennsylvanla-OhlCorder. It would know him as the hero of Bradys Leap across the chasm of the Cuyahoga river in northern Ohio. But this would be only one of many of his hairbreadth escapes from the red men. The third was another Irishman, a rollicking, dark eyed Celt named Timothy Murphy. Two yeurs later the sharp crack of his long rifle would sound the doom of a British army as his bullet punctuated the death sentence of Gen Simon Fraser at Saratoga. Another year would add to his fame as the most redoubtedly notorl ous marksman in North America and, as the Scout of the Schoharie, he would become the terror of his Iroquois and Tory enemies in New though there Is no record of the date of arrival of the companies commanded by Captains Smith, Cluggage and Miller, it was evidently prior to August 18. An army return from Washingtons headquarters of that date shows that the Pennsylvania riflemen had three field officers, nine captains, 27 lieutenants, the adjutant, quartermaster, surgeon and mate, 29 sergeants, 13 drummers and lifers and 713 privates present and fit for duty. Besides these regularly enlisted men there were several gentlemen volunteers who had accompanied the riflemen on their march. Among them were Edward Burd, Jesse Lukens, Matthew Duncan, and John Joseph Henry, who later rose to prominence in the history of their state. But more important than these was a young doctor named James Wilkinson. A native of Tidewater, Md., he had studied medicine in Philadelphia and there made the acquaintance of officers of a British regiment, the Royal Irish. His association with them, as he later wrote, inspired in me that love of things military ever after the guiding star of So he accompanied Colonel Thompmy life. sons riflemen to Cambridge where began that amazing career which carried him eventually to the high position of commander In chief of the Army of the United States despite the fact that he was, in the words of one historian, venal, cowardous, treacherous, a bribetaker from Spain, a traitor to the United States, and faithless in all relations, public and private. Soon after the arrival of the Pennsylvania companies at Cambridge, the battalion became the "Second Regiment of the Army of the United Colonies," thus losing their identity as riflemen erty $7, o York. No less notable than the eagerness of such men as these to enlist in the fight for liberty CAPT. SAM BRADY was their speed in reaching the theater of war them to take np the march to Reading and Between the 28th. of July and the 2d. Instant, Easton and from there start on the long Journey the rifle men under the command of Captains to Boston. Smith, Lowdon, Doudel, Chambers, Nagel, Miller In the meantime congress had passed anothei and Hendricks passed throngb New Windsor (a the of Colony resolution, directing Pennsylvania few miles north of West Point) in the New to raise two more companies, which, with the York government on their way to Boston," said six already authorized, were to be formed into a New York Item In the Philadelphia Evening a battalion and to be commanded by such of Post of August 17, 1775. But it was evidently fleers as the colonial assembly or convention incorrect, so far as two of the companies Should recommend. Even before this word came Nagels and Doudel's were concerned. A letter, out of Philadelphia the rifle companies were be dated from Cambridge July 24. 1775, says: "The lng filled to the overflowing. At Samuel Gettys Reading company of rifles got into camp last tavern (later the historic town of Gettysburg) the York county men were rallying to the lead ership of Capt. Michael Doudel. In Berks county they were swarming Into Rending to enroll under Capt. George Nagel. In Northampton county recruiting for Capt. Abraham Millers company was going forward swiftly and from Bedford county in the west cume word that Capt Robert Cluggages men were almost ready to march Cumberland county was providing two compa Dies, commanded by Capt James Chambers and Capt William Hendricks. In fact, so prompt had been the response of the Pennsylvania backwoodsmen to the call, that on July II congress was notified that two companies Instead of one had been enlisted In Lancaster county by Capt James Ross and Capt Matthew Smith and that the Battalion of Rifle men, raised for the defense of American lib Rexford going Tuesday (18th); the rest are hourly expected and much wanted." Thus the men from Berks county had the honor of being the first Pennsylvania company to appear on the scene of action. By July 25 they had been joined by their sharpshooting brethren from York county under Captain Doudel Captain Chambers company arrived on August 7 and Captain Hendricks on August 8. On the same day Tim Murphy, Sum Brady, Peter Bentz and their mates in Captaiu Lowry's company shuffled their well worn moc casins through the grass on the campus of liar vurd college and shook the dust of the weary miles from their green thrummed hunting shirts Ten days Inter Captain Ross and his company swung into camp, to be met with much good natured banter at his tardy arrival, because his "Lancaster county Dutchmen were so slow." A1 I in the light Infantry authorized by congress. But they lost none of their characteristic fighting qualities, for, as one of their captains wrote home, the riflemen go where they please and keep the regulars In continual hot water. Early In September Captain Hendricks and Captain Smith's companies accompanied Arnold and Montgomery on their expedition against Quebec where Hendricks was killed and most of the riflemen taken prisoners. In the meantime the other companies were giving their officers and the commander-in-chie- f plenty of trouble by rebelling against attempts to enforce discipline. But their disobedient and mutinous behavior" was somewhat forgiven by their conduct In a skirmish at Lechmeres Point in November which won for Colonel Thompson and his regiment the public thanks of Washington. On January 1, 1776, the army was reoiganized and these riflemen became members of the First Regiment of the Continental Army. In March and Hand Thompson became a brigadier-genera- l succeeded him as colonel. Under his leadership the regiment distinguished itself at the Battles of Long Island, Brandywine, Geimnntown, Paoli and Monmouth and its members, frequently referred to in terms of their commander, made the name a Hand Rifleman a badge of special s distinction for a fighting man in the struggle for American liberty. "first-clas- Western Newspaper Union. HITS GREAT FORTUNES the country at large missed the implications in the Presidents message to congress outlining a program of taxation on the larger concentrations of personal It was and corporate wealth. neither a "soak the rich nor a "share the burden plan; but a social program for leveling off the of fortunes top pyramiding through the clouds, creating the danger present in too great a concentration of wealth and economic power. Mr. Roosevelt has been talking about this process of shaving off the tops of the financial mountains for a long time; I know that he discussed the thing at a birthday dinner in January, 1929, at Albany; then he made a brief reference to It at Chicago when be flew there to accept the nomination. Certainly Roosevelt Is not the first man to advocate such a thing; he happens to be the first President to put It right np to congress to get about the business of revising the taxes now. There is more social value than financial value to such a revision; the figures prove that r As large as our American fortunes are, the government would get a relatively small amount of money from Inheritances, gift taxes and even super taxes on the incomes in contrast to the billions needed to run the government for the past dozen years. But we have reached the point where many people are tired of talking about these large aggregations of inherited, nnearned and lightly taxed wealth and there Is a disposition to do something about 1L Roosevelts paragraphs on this matter were cheered several times when the message was read in the bouse; he certainly has the lawmakers with him and I imagine that efforts to cry down a tax on incomes ranging from a million to more than fire million dollars a year, will not be successful The argument that such a tax is a tax on thrift was Immediately started; I think but the truly thrifty know better than that Roosevelt points out there is no social danger in thrifty inheritances of moderate size; but the vast "swollen fortune has been attacked by defenders of social Justice for a long tune. This Roosevelt is not half so insistent on leveling of these mounds of gold as Theodore Roosevelt was; but this Roosevelt has a congress that will do something about iL Theodore used to be content, it seems. In calling names, such as "malefactors of great wealth. Franklins claim that the country is in danger from these centralized pools of wealth In personal hands means he sees that the old American spirit is being diluted by too much luxury. What we need is less pie and more pioneering.' So also with corporations. The Presidents suggestion that large corporations pay a higher tax rate than small ones Is a move toward breaking business into smaller units; Roosevelt frankly realizes that size Is a danger after it reaches a certain point That Is not personal flair or jealousy, or anything of that sort. Rather it Is an intelligent understanding of the truth that nature wants to express Itself through the Individual as far as possible; it is a return from rugged Individualism to Individual ruggedness; to the place where the storekeeper will not be run out by the chains or the oversized merchant prince. It seems to me to indicate a return to workmanship as contrasted to mass production, which might be something to develop, after all. I dont think we could ever return to th old village cobbler rather than the shoe factory; but we will, I believe, have less of the slave driving mass organization and more personal and Individualized effort when the Roosevelt ideals prevaiL SYSTEM NOT CHANCE The administration plans for a Job for every employable and a cushion against hard luck and old age begins to have practical aspects. f The program is start lng; the social security bill is now through both houses. We are on the threshold of the era when we will be operating a nation wide, ail time plan to take care of hard luck by system and not by chance. The social security popular name but theres Is old age pension; more to It than that There are five broad activities; namely, federal aid to dependent children; to public programs; to the Indigent blind; built up pensions to aged dependents; and a system of compensation to provide a fund against periods of unemployment There is nothing startling about the federal governments aid In public health, child welfare and similar beneficial activities. Nor should there be any disposition to look on social Insurance against old age and for povunemployment as a cure-aerty; It will not usher in a new world nor will it destroy the old. It Is by no means a dreamy-eyeperfectionist program. Details of the plan are Intricate and endless; but In a word social Insurance against old age, poverty and unemployment is merely a systematic savings fund. Workers contribute a mite out of each pay envelope ; employers contribute a mite week after week; the states suiter-visthe federal government takes the funds and puts them In the United States treasury. The federal government contributes up to $15 a month for old age pensions, to states that will contribute as much for their dependent aged. Eventually the plan pays for Itself. These benefits will not be felt In the agricultural districts as soon as in the Industrial centers; and the best reason I can find for this Is that farm leaders here have not yet been able to agree among themselves on methods for collecting small the weekly or monthly amounts from the workers ; nor for a way to levy the tax on the employing farmers. I talked about this to Miss Frances Perkins, secretary of labor and a social Insurance expert This Is what she told me : The treasury officials cant find a way to handle the enormous number of small amounts necessary In a social Insurance plan for farm workers; but after we have had a little more experience with this thing, I think the treasury will know how to proceed. Aubrey Williams, second In command at the Federal Emergency Relief administration, and one of the world's experts on social Insurance matters, also discussed this Mr. Williams matter with me. points out that pending a method for collecting and accounting for farm workers Insurance payments, the government Is making agriculture more and more secure through the AAA, through the various credit aids to agriculture, farm loans, etc. e States which go In for a policy of old age pensions will get $15 apiece per month for Indigent aged, and the states must pay at least $15; they may pay more, but $15 Is the minimum, which means at least $30 monthly for the old people who cant support themselves. Eventually, whenever old age pension plans of a high order have been put Into effect, the old time county poor house has closed its doors. A Western Nwspa.Dr Unlo. THREE LONG HAS NO IT CHEERS PEERS work-relie- OnCE you taste Grape-Nut- s Flakes, youll cheer, too! 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