So
. gates to the state convention should be
Water
Ink Slings.
—McKINLEY got his tariff bill before
the full committee on the 1st inst. The
character of some of its provisions made
it a clear case of April foolery.
—Adjutant General HASTINGS is sure
of the delegates from Centre county to
the Republican state convention.—Al-
toona Tribune.—Yes, and they are
about all that he can be sure of.
—Philadelphia is scared by the ap-
pearance of a Chinese leper in one of her
hospitals but does not seem to be in the
least frightened by the political lepers
who throng her city government.
—That is a sly game which it is said
Boss QuAY wants to play on General
HasTiNGs by switching him off the
gubernatorial track and running him on
to a side-track in the War Department,
—The farmer who has the hide of an
old steer to sell may find its value in-
creased about ten cents by the new tar-
iff, but he will fail to see how that will
balance an increase of ten dollars in his
yearly shoe bill.
—1It is sad to seetwo such good Re-
publicans and Presbyterians as Jon
WaNaMAKER and JAMES MILLIKEN
fall out on a question of administrative
policy. Holy Jorn should make Broth-
er MILLIKEN the subject of prayer,
—No Democratic politician should
oppose ballot reform upon the suppo-
sition that it will hurt his party.
Even should he view it from so low
a ground as this, he may be sure that
it will hurt the other party a good
deal more. !
—What with the cyclones that are
blowing things to piezes and the floods
that are washing things off the
surface of the earth in the West,
the young man who didn’t take
‘HoRACE GREELEY’S advice may consid-
er himself lucky.
—The repeated announcements we sce
in the Williamsport papers that Judges
MAYER, BucHER and ROCKEFELLER
met to continue the consideration of the
Metzger-Bentley judgeship case, conflict |
with the generally entertained belief !
that all earthly things have an end.
—It is foolish to think that the
Presidential question is involved in
the Democratic nomination for Gov-
ernor. Give the Democrats a good
gubernatorial nominee and question of
who shall be the Democratic Presidential
-nomineein 1892 will take care of itself.
—TIt is claimed that the inorcased du-
ties on wool provided by the new tariff
bill will decrease the surplus in the
treasury by about $10,000,000. But the
consequent increased cost of their cloth-
ing will decrease the surplus in the
pockets of the people a good deal moze
than that.
—Kemler, over whese execution by
electrical appliances the New York
courts have been so long hesitating,
has been finally sentenced and the day
for his execution fixed. If electricity
should dillydally as long in doing its
work as the courts have, it will lose
its reputation for celerity.
—The rush of Pennsylvania Republi
can politicians to Washington to secure
the favor and learn the behest of a lead-
er whose published and undenied record
stamps him.as the most disreputable
public character of the age, is a sight
that should suffuse with the blush of
shame the face of every honorable
Penrsylvanian.
—A petition to the czar of Russia ask-
ing that he should exercise greater
clemency in the treatment of exiles, is
being circulated in Bellefonte. If in
its presentation it should be accompan-
ied by a dynamite bomb, such an inti-
mation that the Bellefonte petitioners
meant business might have an effect up-
on the obduracy of the Russia tyrant.
—It seems to us that Mr. CULBERT-
son of Texas is going to unnecessary
trouble in introducing a bill to establish
a uniform system of bankruptcy. Es-
pecially so far as the farmers are con-
cerned the war tariff i® doing that
thing quite effectually. Under a sys-
tem that taxes the necessaries of life it is
only a question of time for them to be-
come uniformly bankrupt.
—The Scranton Republican and other
newspapers of the same persuasion, in-
“Ti avod that
: a fiir
We
N=
(6
NR
STATE RIGHTS AN
Yor.
Disagreement of Two Eminent Repub-
licans.
The Keystone Gazette, managed by
the postmaster of this place, very nat-
urally assumes the championship of
Postmaster General WANAMAKER as
against the attacks of Mr. James Mir
LIKEN in the Republican, stoutly de-
fending his project of bringing the
telegraph business of the country under
the control of the post office department.
As such a policy of governmental
control would put an end to the oceu-
pation of the Western Union Telegraph
Company, Mr. MiLLIKEN being a heavy
Western Union stockholder the cause
of his hostility to WANAMAKER and his
project is readily seen. On the other
hand the editor of the Aeystone Gazette
being a subordinate of the Postmaster
General, dependent upon him for his
tenure of office, it is equally obvious
why he is so zealous in his defense.
But as the case stands, it is really a
sad circumstance that at so early a
period in the career of this administra.
tion these two distinguished Republi-
cans should have drifted so wideapartin
their opinions concerning one ofits most
prominent members. It seems but the
other day that they rejoiced together
over the election of HARRISON and the
elevation of good JorN WANAMAKER
to a position in the cabinet, and mutu-
ally indulged the belief that every-
thing was lovely ard the country safe.
Now one of them has to defend that
member of the cabinet against the as-
saults of the other.
Oursympathies go out to Mr. MILLIKEN
whose feelings are lacerated by the
prospect of having the value of his
Western Union shares impaired by the
scheme of the Postmaster General, and
we can join him in denouncing the pro-
ject of making telegraphing one of the
functions of the government; but our
denunciation springs from a motive
quite different from his. He opposes
the Wanamaker scheme because lie be-
personal interest.” We object to it be-
cause it would be another advance
toward the centralization of govern-
mental power and would increase the
appliances that political parties eould
use for the perpetuation of their power.
Putting the telegraph lines under the
control of the government would add
many thousands to the number of feder-
al office holders, of which we have
now more than is good for the country,
They are dangerous things in the
hands of unscrupulous party managers
and their number should be diminished
ratherthan increased. With theinnumer
able officials required by the proposed
Federal Election law, and the thous-
ands of telegraph operators turned into
appointees of the post office depart-
ment, in addition to the host of govern-
ment dependents already existing, the
monopoly party would have reason to
be confident of continuing its power in-
definitely. We doubt,however, wheth-
er our friend MILLIKEN would object to
such a condition of affairs if his West-
ern Union interests would not be af:
fected by the government's absorption of
the telegraph lines.
A Fruitless Scheme.
There is going to be an international
exhibition in Jamaica next January at
which the people of that island will ex-
bibit their productions, and they invite
other counties to send their products
and participate in the show. The Gov-
ernor of Pennsylvania has issued a pro-
clamation calling the attention of the
people of the State to the advantage it
would be to them to take part in this
exhibition, as it would lead to the open-
ing of a field of trade for the manufac
cluding the Press, agree that “the par- |
ty rales regarding the election of dele-
"fully adhered to.” But then, if to suit |
»
QUAY’s designs they are not adhered to, !
and delegates are chosen without regard |
to the popular will, these papers, adopt- |
ing the philosophy of Mr. Toors, will |
consider it of no consequence,
Wen a————
——If HasriNes can be placed in
the War Department as assistant See-
tery of War, it will ¥et him ont of the
way of DerLaMATER as a candidate for
Governor. That may be the object of
the parties at Washington who are
said to be pushing the General for that
position. This makes it look as if
Hastinas isthe only opponent that the
gupporters of the corporation candidate
are afraid of.
turers and other producers of Pennsyl-
vania. It may be well enough for
our people to be there and show what
they have tosell, but so long as the
raw products of Jamaica are heavily
taxed when they are brought into our
ports it can’t be expected that many o
our products will be wanted in Jamai-
ca. The inhabitants of that island very
naturally prefer to trade with those
who don’t subject them to heavy tariffs.
I ————————————
Thedelegates from Centre coun-
ty upon reaching the State Convention
may have occasion for surprise in find-
ing that the Boss stole a march on
them by stowing their candidate
snugly away in the War Deprrtment,
where he won't interfere with Dgra-
MATER.
with His.
BELLEFON TE, PA., APRIL 4, 1890.
The Hide Tax.
There has been much tribulation in
the Ways and Means committee of the
tlouse over the tariff tax on raw hides.
Some years ago the duty on this raw
material, so essential to the feather in-
dustry, was taken off, hides being plac-
ed or the free list. The effect on the
shoe trade and all forms of leather
manufacture was magical, that braach
of production receiving a boom which
placed it among the most flourishing
and profitable industries of the coun-
try. Not only was the price of shoes
and other leather goods cheapened in the
home market, but the ‘mportations of
foreign goods of that kind was reduced
to a minimum and the American pro-
duction found a considerable market in
foreign countries.
The effect produced by the liberation
of hides from the burden of tariff taxa-
tion furnished the strongest proof of
the industrial benefit of free raw ma-
terials. It was a standing argument
against the barbarous folly of increas-
ing the cost of the materials which in-
dustry needs in its operations, and
consequently was a stumbling block to
the advocates and supporters ofjthe war
tariff. That they should entertain a
dislike for a measure which proved the
fallacy of their policy of taxing raw
materials and vindicated the wisdom of
placing them on the free list, is not sur-
prising, and hence it came about as a
matter of course that the Ways and
Means committee determined to re-
store hides to the list of tariffed articles.
But this movement produced such a
storm of indignant protest from the
flourishing leather interest that the
committee hesitated in their reactionary
design and then concluded to let the
raw material in question remain on
the free list. But the latest news con-
cerning this matter is that Armour
and others ot the Chicago cattle ring,
who are Interested in having imported
| hides tariffed, have influenced the com- |
‘mittee to restore the hide tax. This
final action was to be expected in view
of the fact that the millionaires who
control the beef market have a stronger
claim on the Republican party than
the thousands to whom a reduc
tion of the cost of leather goods is a
desirable object.
SS —————————————
A False Position.
The effect of taking a false position
is shown in Gov. HiLL's attitude on the
question of a reform ballot law in New
York State: He has already vetoed
bills designed to furnish the State with
a ballot system that would protect the
voters against force, bribery and fraud,
and is now confronted by another bill
having the same object. While the
Governor has assumed this position,
the public desire for ballot reform has
grown to be a clamorous demand.
Democrats are taking the lead in the
movement for improved election laws,
and wherever the party has had the
opportunity of expression it has given
no uncertain sound in expressing its
determination that the boodler and the
bull-dozer most go. The Maryland
legislature has just passed a bill to
adopt the Australian system in that
State,and in every quarter where demo-
cratic sentiment is not stifled or mis:
represented the same determination
prevails. :
It is unfortunate that Governor HiLr
hesitates in this movement. It does
not become him as the Democratic
governor of a great state to attempt to
shift the decision of the ballot reform
question on the courts. If he has taken
a wroug stand inthis matter let him
back out of it like a man, and by such
action prove that there is something
more than words in his declaration that
he “is a Democrat.” Democratic prin-
ciples are synonymous with fairness
and honesty, and the Democracy are
neverat a disadvantage when elections
are fairly and honestly conducted.
—As resort to a judicial decision
promised no relief from the dilemma of
his position, the Governor vetoed the
ballot bill last Monday. It was consist-
ent with his previous course, but there
is reason to believe that he will find
that it was the mistake of his political
life.
In passing a bill toadmit Wyom.-
ing into the Union as a state without
the legal qualifications, the present
Iouse of Representatives has made
another display of its recklessness in
doing acts of partisan indecency.
NO. 14.
State Treasury Defalcations.
Incited by the recent defalcation of
the State Treasurer of Maryland the
Philadelphia Press parades a list of
‘Democratic State Treasurers who have
stolen and mismanaged the funds en-
trusied to their care during the past
few years.” The list is made to consist
of ten, all of them being in Southern
states “which have been in the undis-
puted control of the Democratic party
for years.”
But why should the Philadelphia
organ go all the way down South to
hunt up cases of state funds “stoler and
mismanaged 2’ If it had been dispos-
ed to be fair with its readers in giving
them the whole truth about state treas-
ury defaleations, it would have given
them a pretty picture of $260,000 stolen
rom the treasury of Pennsylvania and
lost in stock speculation by parties who
were not Democrats. It could have
heightened the coloring of the picture
by telling how the head rascal in this
treasury raid was on the desperate verge
of ending his dishonest career by sui-
cide when his desperation was relieved
by assistance which shielded him from
the consequences of his misconduct.
The organ might have further enlight-
ened its readers on the subject of “stol-
en and mismanaged” state funds by
an account of the misapplication of
$400,000 of the state funds of Pennsyl-
vania in Chicago railroad speculation,
which was prevented from having a
suicidal termination only by a lucky
turn of fortune.
Admitting the correctness of the
Press's list of defaulting Democratic
State Treasurers,those unfaithful officers
will go into obscurity, condemned and
disowned by their party; but the dis-
honest character who conceived and
directed the raids on the Pennsylvania
state treasury is to-day the leader of
the party, and the state ticket that will
be made at his dictation this year will
recei
r———
Arbor Day.
Governor BEAVER is going to give us
a double-barrelled Arbor Day this year
that wiil be pretty sure not to miss fire.
In order to provide for different condi-
tions of weather that may prevail in
different localities in a siretch of coun-
try as large as Pennsylvania, the Gov-
ernor has designated April 11 and
May 2 as the days on which the cere-
monial of tree planting may be obsery-
ed. Ifthe weather is bad in any par-
ticular locality on the April day, it
may be more favorable in May, and
the elements which may interfere in
one section of the State may be all
right in other quarters. Arbor Day is
a good institution, and for arranging it
so that the opportunity for observing
it is enlarged, the Governor deserves
credit.
ATT,
An Unworthy Custodian.
It has been discovered that State
Treasurer Arcurr of Maryland has
been guilty of a defalcation amounting
to hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and consequently there is great excite-
ment in the official and financial circles
of that State. The discovery of his
shortage has prostrated the defaulting
Treasurer, throwing him into a mental
condition that suggests suicide as the
most effectual way of getting out of the
trouble. Tt is the old story of irregu-
lar and unlawful use of public mon-
ey for private speculation. He used the
State funds in a deal in gas stocks and
lost it, and hence his distressful pre-
dicament. Unfortunately for him there
was no Dox CAMERON to come to his
relief, as there was in the case of that
eminent Pennsylvania statesman,
Marraew SraNLey Quay, who, when
harrassed by a similar embarrassment,
was kept from slitting his throttle by
the timely assistance of the Pennsylva-
nia Senator which prevented a party
scandal by interfering with the peni-
tentiary’s getting what justly belonged
to it.
ARrcHER is a Democratic official, and
it is to be regretted that he disgraced
himself and his party. What his
punishment will be is something that
are for such cases. But one thing is
certain. His raid on the treasury will
not be followed, as in Quay’s case, by
his becoming the political * leader of
the State. Democrats are not in the
habit of rewarding the plunderers of
State treasuries in that way.
the zealous support of the
is yet to be deermined, it being
dependent upon what the provi- |
sions of the laws of Maryland
Injustice to Henry Clay.
On the 11th inst. the Central Repub-
the one hundred and thirteenth an-
niversary of the birth of HeNry Cray
by what the local papers say will be
“a banquet of more than ordinary
brilliancy” in commemoration of his
tariff record. The club in making this
demonstration will no doubt do it un-
der the impression that they are hon-
oring HENRY Cray as the representa-
tive of the principle of tariff protection.
Ifthe great Kentuckian were living we
are sure that he would not favor the
kind of tarift which tke Republican
party has fastened upou the country.
The rate of duties which he considered
sufficient to protect American industry
from foreign competition was the next
thing to “free trade” compared with the
war-tatiff which is now interposed as a
barrier'to commercial intercourse with
foreign countries. The Henry Clay
tariff in its average of duties was much
lower than the average proposed by the
Mills bill, yet the latter was denounced
as a free trade measure by Republican
organs and stump-speakers.
The Pottsville club will do Hexry
Cray an injustice by representing him
as a tariff statesman of the monopolis-
tic order. He favored a reasonable pro-
tection to the infant industries, but
were he living to-day he would scout
the idea that those industries are still
in their infancy and in need of tariff
coddling. He was above all things a
patriot, and would have denounced any
system of industrial partiality designed
to build up a class of millionaire mo-
nopolists at the expense of the general
mass of citizens, and thereby inflict an
injury upon the country.
EE STRESSES.
Free Lumber.
When the Williamsport Republican
says that “neither the Democrats nor
the Republicans in this partof the State
include in the part it speaks/of? * It is
altogether likely that in filliamsport,
where local interests are illentified with
the lumber trade, and in the limited
sections which still produce timber,
tariff regulations that keep up the price
of those commodities are desirable; but
outside of such interests there is not a
locality in this section of the State that
would not be benefited by the cheaper
lumber which the removal of the tariff
duty would afford, and whose people
would not be well satisfied with such a
reduction of price.
“Free lumber” would materially re-
duce the cost of every house and barn
built in town or country, and to believe
that this would be objectionable to
builders is to suppose that the average
citizen objects to having his expenses
curtailed. The greatfmajority of the
people of this part of the State, as well
as all parts of the country, would be
gainers by lumber being placed on
the free list, and if the McKinley bill
should give them that boon it would
be carrying out a beneficence which
GROVER CLEVELAND recommended, and
which was among the provisions of the
Mills bill, although when offered from
that source it was denounced as free
trade by those who, it is said, now in"
tend to reduce the tariff on lumber.
HES A,
‘What Else Was to Be Expected?
That excellent Republican journal,
the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, is
in a plight that deserves the sympathy
of its contemporaries. It considers itself
in duty bound to support “the grand
old party,” yet it has a perfect con-
tampt for some of its measures. For
example, it regards the tariff tinkering
of McKinley’s committee as a piece of
political folly, and says so in the fol
lowing words :
Common sense should suggest to Mr. McKin-
ley and his committee that they would be wise
to stop this folly, in view of the present tem-
per of the country on the subject of trusts
which are sustained by special duties. By do-
ing what they are doing in the McKinley bill,
they are cutting the throat of the Republican
party. They are surrendering all the advan-
tages secured by the last national election to
the country ; and unless they turn about face
and make an honestly protective tariff instead
of a monopolistic tariff, they will not only lose
| the Republican majority in the next Congress,
but they will elect Grover Cleveland or another
Democrat president in 1892.
We agree with the Telegraph that
the McKinley bill is chiefly intended
to promote the interests of the monopo-
lies, but wasn’t it for that purpose that
the monopolists put their money into
' the election ot Harrison and a Repub-
"lican congress?
lican Club of Pottsville will celebrate |
waa free lumber,” what area does «|
Spawls from the Keystone,
—Frank Brinkman, of Lancaster, fell out of
| bed and broke his leg.
—A monument will be erected to Johns-
town’s unknown dead.
—Out of 300 applicants for license at Pittsburg
| only one is an American born.
—The artificial ice machine of Norristown
| will produce ice at §1 per ton.
—Many persons in York, particularly the
| young, are afilicted with pink-eye,
—Ata vendue near Wannersville a cow sold
for $1.55 and shoats at 5 cents each.
—During a remarkably short time sixteen
farmers in Berks county have failed.
—The Elk County Republican Conveution
{ ndorsed the Australian ballot system.
—The ice manufactory at Norristown will
have a capacity of forty tons per day.
—The Sheriff of Chester county is said to
have appraised a mule and halter at 1 cent.
—Over 300 persons at Lancaster have al-
ready signed a petition in behalf of murderer
Rudy.
—Thirty lawsuits for the recovery of wages
have been brought before the Lackawanna
Courts.
—At a wedding at Lancaster on Sunday the
groom was presented with a cemetery lot by
his father.
—At Scottdale recently one woman gave birth
to triplets, and four others were responsible
for twins.
—Some Pittsburg men will begin suit for li-
bel against tailors who caused their names. to
be black-listed.
—Fred Parker, of Williamsport, had. two
thumbs on one hand until last Thursday when
he had one cut oft.
—Mrs Anderson, a boarding-house keeper at
Easton, would like the distinction of hanging
murderer Bartholomew.
—The Easton Express says that Chief Justice
Paxon’s friends are moving quietly to secure
his nomination for Governor.
—In a four days rat slaughter on tbe premi-
ses of Jacob Miller, at North Coventry, Ches-
ter county, 504 rats were killed.
—Mrs. Negley, of Pittsburg, recently found
$4000 in a trunk which belonged to. her brother
now in one of the soldiers’ homes.
—James Philips, who says he was once a
Baptist minister, sought shelter for the night
recently at a Pittsburg police station.
—Hon. William L. Scott has senta check for
$5000 to aid his suffering employes at Mount
Carmel, and has promised more if needed.
—Sheriff Becker, of Reading, has levied on
the farm and stock of Abraham Oberholtzer, of
Spring township, on an execution for $1017.
—Governor Beaver has respited murderers
John W. Rudy, of Lancaster, and William H.
Smith, of Allegheny, from Afril9 to June 26.
—A father and son, of Williamsport, have
walked 81,000 miles together. They are um-
brella menders, and have traveled all over the
State.
—Three men at a Chambersburg sale for a
joke stole a cradle purchased by another
man, who carried the joke out by having them
arrested:
—DMoses Wasser, of Schiwenksville, ate forty
two oranges and half a pound of sugar, drank
two tumblers of water and smoked three cigars
in about two hours.
-—The four sons of Micheal Helfrich, of Iron-
ville, Lancaster county, who have not seen
each other for sixteen years, are all on a visit
to theirold home.
—Henry F. Adams has assigned his farm of
fifty-five acres in Upper Bern township, Berks
county, to Orlando Berger, for the benefit
of his creditors.
—The tobacco growers of Berks county eom-
plain that there is no money in the business.
The past season has been particularly bad ow-
ing to the wet weather.
—The employes of Laurel Ridge Colliery,
near Ashland, have seized the live stock of the
company for money due them several weeks
ago for labor done at the colliery.
—Two Chester fishermen quarreled ' about
the ownership of a boat and neither would sur-
render his claim. The boat was finally sawed
in two, and each took a part.
—Temp. Morvine, of Bedford, arrested for
murderous assault, broke jail recently, and up-
on being recaptured had his sentence doubled
and was sent to the Penitentiary.
—Jacob Winshower, a German 38 years old
attempted suicide at Reading on Wednesday
night because a pretty little widow refused to
marry him. He will be sent to an asylum.
—An effort will be made to revive in the
next Legislature the scheme to make a new
county out of parts of Luzerne, Schuylkill and
Carbon counties, with Haaleton as the county
seat.
—George M. Reeser, merchant of Lancaster
county, has failed, with liabilities of $5000.
Three farmers made assignments for the bene
fit of creditors, and a fourth had his property
seized by the sheriff.
—Professor J.D. Holt, of Lancaster, made a
narrow escape from death at the Berks County
House, Reading, on Tuesday night. He was
nearly overcome from coal gas in his room, but
he succeeded in escaping from the apartment.
—All the unknown dead of Johnstown have
been buried in Grandview Cemetery, and a
contract has been made for a headstone to
each grave. A monument will be erected as
soon as practicable,as a fitting memorial to this
unparalleled disaster. 2
—Wellington M. Wenrich, a well-known far-
mer, of Lower Heidleburg, Berks county, *has
assigned for the benefit of creditors his farm
ot 204 acres, one of the finest in Berks county.
This makes the sixteenth farmer who has fail-
ed within a brief period in Berks county.
—Mrs. Rebecca Cameron, widow of Colonel
James Cameron, who was a brother of the late
Simon Cameron, died yesterday at Lancaster,
aged 88 years. Her husband was Colonel of
the celebrated Seventy-ninth New York Regi-
ment. and was killed at the first battle of
Ball Run.
—Harrison B. Smith, proprietor of a pool-
room at Reading, was sentenced Monday to
sixty days imprisonmen for permitting small
hoys to congregate in his place, and William
Eckert, a saloon-keeper,was given ninety days
on the charge of keeping a disorderly house.
—Two large barns have recently been de-
stroyed by fire near West Chester, and there
are good reasons for believing that the fires
were started by tramps. On Tuesday evening
the large barn on the farm of the late Caleb
Baldwin, in East Clan'township, was destroy-
ed, entailing a loss of $6000.
—The Sheriff of Chester county levied upon
the property of four people last Monday, three
are farmers, as follows: The farm of Samuel
D. Smiley, West Fallowfield ; farm of E. Price
McClellan, Londonderry ; farm of Margaret
Robinson, Salisbury, and the property of John
Emery, Spring City,