Thursday, May 10, 1923
A fine, refreshing snowstorm in Pocahontas Wednesday.
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Local weather observer S. L. Brown reports as follows upon the weather for the month of April: Coldest, 4 degrees on the 1st; hottest, 74 degrees on the 27th. Total rainfall, 4.31 inches. No snow. Killing frosts 18 days of the month. Sleet on the 14th.
HOUSE REFUSES TO PASS MEASURE AGAINST POLICE
Charleston, W. Va. – Proponents of the measure brought in the House of Delegates in the West Virginia legislature to abolish the state police force went down to an overwhelming defeat recently, when, by a vote of 55 to 27, the bill was not only killed, but any future effort to have the proposed legislation reconsidered by the delegates was thwarted effectually. Thus, the life of the Public Safety Department, which has proved its effectiveness in the enforcement of the prohibition laws and policing rural districts, has been prolonged.
Heated and prolonged debate between opposing forces on the floor of the House marked the advent and final disposition of the bill.
Delegate T. S. Scanlon, of Cabell county, who had listened to several other speakers decry the troopers as industrial police, took the floor and dramatically asserted:
“We need the state police to enforce all the laws. They were not created for the mining industry. We need them for road work and for all law enforcement work where fearless police officers are needed.”
Persons from every walk of life appeared before the judiciary committee at its hearings in an effort to have the Sutphin bill defeated and spoke earnestly for the retention of the state police. They came from all over the state. Miners mingled with sheriffs, prosecutors and other county officers and with newspaper men and business men who came to make a plea for the state police before the committee.
RHODODENDRON SHIPPERS
Frank S. LaBar, of LaBar’s Rhododendron Nursery, of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, is here this spring as usual, shipping out carloads of rhododendron. He also takes an occasional car of azalia (honeysuckle) and sometimes dogwood and other ornamental shrubs and plants. He expects to ship 30 or 40 cars from the Greenbrier Valley this year, and when it is considered that it takes a crew of ten men and two teams a week or more to collect a carload, it can be readily seen the amount of money it brings here, and how big an industry it is.
Formerly the LaBar’s got their supplies of rhododendron in the forests of New York and Pennsylvania, but about fifteen years ago, Elmer Burner, of Cass, heard that there was a demand for second growth rhododendron and, having a lot of it, he got in communication with the LaBars. They came, they saw and dug, and they have been coming every year since. In that period, they have shipped about 600 cars of rhododendron from Pocahontas County.
The original growth of rhododendron is no good. They look for thrifty, well formed, young plants that are to be found in fields, burned over woods and cut over land. The taking of these plants is an advantage. When the diggers get through, the land is pretty well grubbed, and can be put in condition for cultivation or, if let alone, the land will soon reproduce a better crop of rhododendron than before.
