Christian Temperance Union, and Mrs. Henderson, Vice-President of the New Hampshire Parent-Teachers' Association. "This resolution," writes Dr. Bancroft, Chairman of the State Board of Charities and Corrections, and exPresident of the New Hampshire Medical Association, "stands for the conservation of human life. We have felt the necessity of conservation of natural resources for the past twenty years-forest wealth, mineral wealth, agricultural resources, etc. This bill represents the most important conservation of all, namely, that of human life itself. Let us be consis tent. "If Federal aid is desirable in securing healthy swine, cattle, and trees, of how much more importance is the savage of human life!" Some Other Bills of Interest THE HE last week of March has been a busy one for the House and several bills of importance have been disposed of. Two measures, dear to the hearts of the Democrats, the bill abolishing the women's poll tax and the "Home Rule Bill," providing for the abolishment of the New Hampshire Police Commissioners and calling for election by popular vote, passed the House after a bitter partisan debate and on strictly party lines There was a moment in the career of the poll tax bill when it looked as though, for the first time this year a Democratic bill of importance would be defeated. Ex-Governor Bass opened the debate by defending a compromise measure which provided for a $2.00 poll tax for both men and women, instead of $3.00, and then called for an extra tax of $2.00 to be placed on men for one year, which would be sufficient to complete the payment of the soldiers' bonus. When the Democratic leader, Nathaniel Martin, to every one's surprise rose in support of this compromise, the chances began to look very badly for abolishing the Women's Poll Tax. But after a tie vote, in the roll call which followed the Democrats passed the measure by a majority of 11. Both this bill and the "Home Rule Bill" will undoubtedly meet defeat in the Senate. The Sunday base ball bill, however, which would permit uncommercial sports to be played Sunday and over which there has been considerable controversy, met with a very decisive defeat. To the casual observer the decision of the House concerning the election of one of the Representatives from Concord was most extraordinary. For in spite of the fact that on official recount Mr. Carleton, a Democrat, received seven less votes than Mr. Kelly, a Republican, the House decided by a vote of 159 to 142 to seat Mr. Carleton. The Republicans at least were amused by Mr. Lyford's protest when he declared that he had "found nowhere in the Democratic platform that it is necessary to seat a Democrat who was never elected." Still the 48-Hour Issue THOUGH shire Legislature believes, for a minute, that anything more can be done to settle the unsettled 48-hour issue, yet we hear trom time to time of attempts on the part of Repubicans to carry out their platform pledge of establishing a fact-finding commission to study the 48-nour question. There was. for instance, the fact-finding resolution introduced by Mr. Aiken of Franklin and supported by exGovernor Bass which was killed by a vote of 82 to 156, and then there was the Ripley fact-finding resolution, providing for a commission of five persons to be appointed by the Supreme Court to study this question and report to the 1925 Legislature. It passed the Senate but will certainly be killed in the House. When Harrison was elected President of the United States in 1888, Central Street, Franklin, looked like this. N FRANKLIN: A TOWN, 1828,--A CITY 1896 A Record of Growth EARLY one hundred years ago a group of citizens living toward the outskirts of Andover, Salisbury, Northfield, and Sanbornton, presented to the Legislature a petition that they be allowed to form a new town, to include parts of each of the four villages. They claimed that, whereas it was extremely difficult for them to participate in the affairs of their towns as matters then stood, they could readily do so were the new town center at the junction of the various boundaries. They pointed out, moreover, the development of industry along the river. "There have recently been erected," they said, "on the banks of the Winnipesaukee River; within the limits of the proposed new town, a paper-mill and cotton manufactory, both of which are. now in full and successful operation. From the great falls in this and other streams in that vicinity and the inex haustible supply of water, there is reason to believe that very extensive manufacturing establishments and other works requiring waterpower will, at no distant period, be erected at or near this spot, in addition to those already there." The arguments were logical and the legislature committee reported favorably on the petition; but because of the keen opposition in the various towns the bill was jockied back and forth for four years. Not until December 24, 1828, did the new town receive permission to organize. The general of the fight, Judge G. W. Nesmith, whose name stands out in Franklin's history as one of her most public-spirited citizens, had cannily arranged that the boundaries should be drawn to include the birthplace of Daniel Webster; so that the "godlike" Daniel, having been born in Salisbury, became, by legislative decree, a Frank lin native. The Judge and others would have liked to call the new town by Webster's name, but another village in New Hampshire had already taken that title, and they selected the name of Franklin instead after Benjamin Franklin, whose ca reer of public service was still fresh in the minds of the people. with the newer set- lc. person on foot 10c. horse and shais or other carriage 12c. sheep or swine, and it is said that the thrifty people of the town used to ride to the end of the bridge, tether their horses, and walk across, with a considerable saving of money if not of Daniel Webster: "by legislative decree a Franklin native." Technically speaking, Franklin's history begins at that point; the town sprang into being as a well-developed flourishing village, in which pioneer enterprise had already worked out the beginnings of inindustry and government. Kendall Peabody's paper mill, forerunner of the great mills of the International Paper Company, was already in operation and had enlisted in its management the skill of the young paper maker from Massachusetts, Jeremiah Daniell, father of Warren F. Daniell, whose services to the town make such a splendid chapter in Franklin's history. The paper made in that old mill was largely a hand-made product; the operatives received in the neighborhood of fifty cents a week for their labors; but it was an up-to-date enterprise and one of which the new town was justly proud. There was a postoffice, also, and in the "Instructors School," which succeeded the famous, though short-lived, Noyes Academy, Master Tyler was giving to the young people a scholarly, scientific training at least twenty-five years in advance of the average instruction of those times. A toll bridge across the Pemigewasset connected the "Republican Village" In short Franklin began her independent life in 1828 already grown up. So much so in fact, that nearly twenty years before "Daredevil" John Bowman, who had come with the pioneers of the 1750's, had found the rumble of civilization becoming so loud as to drown out the wood voices he loved and had shouldered his gun and gone on into the wilderness. His departure marks the end of the pioneer period in that region-and Franklin did not exist, even as an idea, at that time. And yet the town may justly claim a share in the pioneer history of the settlements at the "crotch" of the river. Previous to 1828, the threads of Franklin's history are tangled with those of the four towns which contributed, albeit unwillingly, to her foundation. Her history touches honor; and the hardships which they encountered were many and bitter. Nathaniel Maloon's sojourn in the neighborhood was brief. He and his wife and their three children were taken prisoner by the Indians in 1749, carried to Canada, and, the story goes, shipped in a French vessel bound for France. The ship was captured by a British man-ofwar and Maloon and his family once more gained their liberty. Philip Call's experiences were even harder, for in 1754 his wife was killed by the savages while he stood concealed near by, a helpless witness to the tragedy. also the history of Massachusetts, for the wilderness in 1748, belongs that the first heralds of civilization to make their way up the Merrimack to the "crotch" and then three miles beyond were a party of explorers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1639 those explorers laid out thus the northern boundaries of Massachusetts as they understood the terms of their grant, and in so doing they sowed seeds of strife which never came to fruition for the reason that before 1749, when Ebenezer Stevens was given the grant for the founding of Stevenstown, afterwards. rechristened Salisbury, the long quarrel over the Mason grants had been settled, and the boundaries of Massachusetts had receded to the place which they now occupy. Had the group of veterans of the French and Indian Wars, to whom in 1736 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts gave a grant of land at the crotch of the rivers, fulfilled the conditions of the grant and settled on their property, the story would have been different, and Franklin, with other New Hampshire towns, would have been involved in the long controversy. The settlement of Stevenstown, or Salisbury, was the first formal settle The story of the relations between the early settlers and the Indians in Franklin or elsewhere has never been adequately written. The outlines are familiar: first, the Indians in full and undisturbed possession, friendly and hospitable to the occasional explorer or trapper that came their way; second, a period of fierce struggle, of blood-curdling savagery on the part of the red men and of almost equal ruthlessness on the part of the whites; and third, the triumph of white civilization and the disappearance of the red man. It is a tragic story; and to many of us it looks |