Ink Slings.
—The Bosses will continue to boss the
Pennsylvania Legislature to the last
hour of the session.
--An Indiana baseball player recently
fell dead in the midst of the game.
Death geught him on the fly, as it
were.
—-JoHN L. never did a neater thing
in his line than the Republican Legis-
lature will do in knocking out the
granger’s tax bill.
—The legislative managers at Harris-
burg don’t seem to be bothering them-
selves much about the interest of the
agricultural taxpayers.
—For all the useful legislation that
will be enacted by this Republican leg-
islature in this month of May it might
as well have adjourned on the 1st as on
the 28th.
—Those who are beginning to predict
that we are going to have a “year-with-
out-a-summer’’ are likely to revise their
opinion when July and August get in
their work.
—If the Charleston and Esmeralda
should begin to fire their big guns at
each other the ocean upon which the en-
gagement would take place wouldn’t be
as Pacific as its name would indicate.
—The New Jersey mosquitoes will
not be denied Presidential nourishment
this summer, as it is definitely announc-
ed that the Cape May Point cottage will
be occupied during the coming season.
—Twenty-five states have adopted
the Australian ballot system, but such
commendable examples can’t lure the
Republican managers of Pennsylvania
into giving the people an honest election
law.
—PARNELL’S followers, with a few
inconsequential exceptions, have desert-
ed him, thus affording an impressive
example of the fate of a public man who
deliberately defies the public sense of
morality. :
--There is nothing mean about Sena-
tor PEFFER of Kansas. He wants a
thousand millions added to the circula-
tion. The Billion Dollar Congress has
familiarized even the granger mind
with big figures.
—The Governor's veto of the Road
Bill seems to meet with general ap-
proval, particularly with the farmers
who want good, roads but don’t believe
that they could be secured by means of
a defective law.
—It has been figured out by Senator
ALLISON that there will again be a sur-
plus by the 1st of July. Even the ex-
travagance of a Billion Dollar Congress
can’t exhaust the revenue wrung from
an overtaxed people.
--If the President didn’t get back to
‘Washington with improved Presiden-
tial prospects, he was at least well loaded
with presents that were given him as he
swung around. Mr. HARRISON isn’t
the man to refuse anything in the way
of a gift.
—The Italian government is taking
steps to prevent the wholesale immigra-
tion of its people to this country, and if
it should succeed in this, the Americans
would be willing to forget the Mafia
outrage and their long suffering from
the hand organ and monkey nuisance.
—The present administration is not
fortunate in the youths who are conspic™
uously connected with it. They are
HARRISON'S son, BLAINE’s son and
Raum’s son. If this trio could be en-
larged into a quartette by the addition
of QuAY’s son Dick, it would furnish an
interesting sample of youthful Republi-
canism,
—Secretary Rusk says that Texas
put on more paint for the Presidential
party than any other State, and yet if
Mr. HARRISON should be a candidate
again Texas would give its usual big
Democratic majority, an evidence that
the attention paid the Presidential pil-
grim had no political significance
whatever.
— While Mr. HARRISCN was on his
extensive tour he should have improved
his time by looking for some one who
might be put at the head of the pension
bureau without the risk of disgracing
himself and the government. Among
the sixty million Americans it should
be possible to find a man who would
makea more creditable Pension Com-
missioner than Raum.
--The great Niedringhaus tin factory
“at St. Louis, which represents the bene-
fit conferred upon the country by Mec-
Kinley’s heavy duty on tin, has been
photographed by the St. Louis Republic
and consists of “a lean-to shanty of
rough boards,” the whole force employ-
ed being a Welshman and three boys.
Itis intended that this establishment
shall furnish the tin helmets that will
be paraded in the Republican proces-
gions in 1892 to represent the wonderful
effect of the McKinley tariff in devlop-
ing an important industry. For this
ridiculous result the people will have
to pay millions a year in the increased
price of tin. .
\
VOL. 36.
Pension Rottenness.
It is an important and significant
tact that the two Pension Commis-
sioners under the Harrison administra-
tion have brought scandal and disgrace
upon that department,requiring the re-
moval of one of them and occasion-
ing an urgent demand for the removal
of the other, while the gallant soldier
who managed
CreveLanp performed his duty in an
honest and honorable manner and
went out of office “with clean hands
to the thanks of the soldiers and the
approval of his fellow countrymen.
The pension burean has been under
a cloud of suspicion ever since the be-
ginning of the Harrison ad ministra-
tion. One of the factors in the election
of HyRrISON was the promise that
every class and variety of soldiers, re-
gardless of the character of service,
should have pensions. It was the
bribe by which thousands of votes
were secured. Therefcre it was entire-
ly natural that when TANNER took
hold of the pension department he
loudly proclaimed that the money
would be shoveled out to pension claimn-
ants, He was removed, not on
account of his extravagant disburse-
meat of the pension money, but be-
cause he was so loud-mouthed in brag-
ging about the raid he was making on
the treasury. His successor, Rauy, it
more reticent was more rascally in the
management of his office. Hie con-
duct compelled a congressional investi-
gation, which, notwithstanding a coat
of white wash, exposed enough to have
turned him out in disgrace. Now his
son and chief clerk has been invited
“to resign with 30 days leave of ab-
sence on pay,” there being incontesti-
ble proof of his traffic in offices and ap-
propriation of public moneys. He is
allowed to go out with apparent honor,
while a few weeks ago an efficient
clerk who had unwittingly told a news-
paper man of certain facts regarding
the conduct of pension business, was
kicked out without a day’s delay.
Under the corrupt management that
prevails the pension office is rotten
to the core and the claim agents are
running it to suit their interest. Raum
is allowed to remain, but if he is there
when the next congress meets he will
be subjected to an investigation that
won’t whitewash him.
————
Got Back Just In Time.
The President did well to hurry
home as soon as the train could bring
him, for his boys in Washington had
gotten into trouble. The fight between
Secretary NosLe and Pension Commis-
sioner Raum has been renewed, and
NoaLE has “moved upon the enemy’s
works.” His first move was by at-
tacking Commissioner Raum's son,
who was forced to resign and step
down and out for “irregular” practices;
among other things being charged
with retaining $72 that belonged to
the Government. It said that the
President will shortly have the alter
native presented to him of accepting
NoBLE'S resignation or demanding that
of Raum. The Pension Bureau, from
the best evidence the public can get is
rotten from top to bottom, and unless
some steps be taken to correct its
abuses, and that right soon,they will be
laid bare by the next Congress. The
pension system is rapidly becoming a
stench in the public nostrils. Profuse
waste and proflizacy alway lead to ex-
travagance.
——Representative STEWART means
that those who buy coffee shall get cof-
fee, if a legislative enactment can help
them. He has introduced in the
House an act to prevent fraud in the
sale of coffee, and provide punishment
for the same. Under the proposed act
the fraud consists in exposing for sale
any counterfeit or imitation of the cof-
tee bean, or mixing any other ingredi-
| dient 10 ground coffee, and the punish.
ment is a fine of not less than $3500 or
imprisonment for not less than one
year, or either, or both, at the discre-
tion of the court, This bill grew out
! of the recent exposure of the manufac-
ture and sale in this State of
a spurions coffee bean. There is
enough real coffee grown to supply pre-
sent demands, and those who buy real
coffee are entitled to what they de-
mand.
Be
Tene
the pensions under |
and a clear conscience, fully entitled |
%
%
<r
Contrasted Speeches.
| The President hasreturned to Wash-
fington from his long electidneering
| trip in which he made a number of
speeches to the people. We have his
word for it that he made 139. In this
multiplicity of addresses he had not
( one word to say in favor of economical
administration of the government and
in condemnation of the extravagance
displayed by the Million Dollar Con-
| gress.
everywhere was in favor of tariff meas-
ures that would produce more revenue
for extravagant expenditure and sub-
sidies for the benefit of favored inter-
ests. With the evidence before the
people that the great surplus received
from the Cleveland administration had
been squandered and a treasuary defi-
it threatened, the President had no-
thing to say against the extravagant
and reckless measures that had
brought about this state of aftairs, bat
at all the receptions and festivities the
subsidy bait was held out and the pol-
icy of taxationadvocated, Tax—tax—
tax; spend—spend—spend, was the
burden of the Presidential song. Sub-
sidies, pensions, internal improvements
and external jobs were the subjects he
dwelt upon, and he was prolific in io
venting excuses and arguments for
other raids, tempting the ambitious
people of the new Sates and holding
out to them the hope that they would
get a full share of the public plunder,
A speech quite different from any
that was made by Mr. Harrison on
his trip, was made by Grover CLEVE
LAND in Baffalo last week. It presents
a wide contrast with the President's
gospel of reckless extravagance end
paternalism: In concluding hisspeech
Mr. CLevELAND aid :
“Let us as we push on our campaign
of education, especially impress upon
our countrymen the lesson which
teaches that public extravagance is a
deadly, dangerous thing; that frugal-
ity and economy are honorable ; that
the virtue and watchfulnes of the
people are the surest safeguards
against abuses in their government,
and that those who profess to serve
their fellow-citizens in public place
must be faithful to their trust.”
Delusive Foreign Fortunes.
Experience has not dispelled the de-
lusion of those Americans who believe
that there are large fortunes awaiting
them in Europe and that all that is
necessary is to send over duly accredit-
ed agents to collect them. The Amer-
ican Legation in London is particular-
ly annoyed by letters inquiring about
supposed fortunes lying in the Bank of
England for lost American heirs, and
it gives notice to everybody that there
are no greater sums than $5,000 or
$6,000in the Bank of England await
ing unknown claimants anywhere ;
that such claims against property left
intestate are not valid after twenty
years, as it then lapses to the Crown;
that not a single one of the many claims
investigated has ever been found valua-
ble, and that the advertisements for
lost heirs to English fortunes are sim-
ply parts of an extensive and profita-
ble blackmailing scheme, carried on
by a party of unscrupulous English-
men. Persons who pay money for in-
formation and legal services in these
cases are victims of a swindle.
Mr. Harrison Talks Free Trade.
If President Harrison understands
the meaning of the words he uses—if
he means what he says—he must be a
free trader and not a protectionist. In
addressing the people of Omaha he
said: “The theory ot our government
“is largely individual liberty. It is
‘“ that we shall take out of the way all
“ legislative obstructions to the free,
‘“ honest pursuit of all human indus-
‘ tries; that each individual shall in
‘“ his own place have the best chance
“ possible to develope the highest pros-
“ perity for himself and his family.”
A free trader could not use words that
would express his doctrine more perti-
nently and strongly than these.
To the people of Nebraska he said:
“ The government should take out of
“the way legislative restrictions to the
“ free, honest pursuit of all human in-
dustries.”
Was it to be expected that so soou
after signing the McKinley bill Mr,
Harrison would use language that
would so pointedly condemn it?
The burden of his remarks
e, :
i 1
A AWAY
2
| tariff.
.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 22, 1891.
The Costly Tin Infant.
Who would have thought that there
could be such an amount of humbug
in 80 simple and useful an article as
tin? But it has really been made one
of the greatest delusions that is con-
nected with the tariff deception. The
McKinley bill is represented to have
given a tremendous impetus to the
manufacture of American tin, but the
St. Louis Republican gives the facts
when it says that at present the entire
output of the great Niedridghaus tin-
plate factory is handled by a single
Welshman, who, with three boys and
two other gentlemen, represent the
American labor engaged in this great
industry west of the Alleghenies. Mr.
NIEDRINGHAUS is understood to be
making arrangements to furnish sam-
ple American tin-cups to Republican
clubs for 1892, The Democrats ought
to show their willingness to encourage
American industry by ordering twice
as many as the Republicans take,
stamping on each of them the cost of
manufacture, the tariff tax, the selling
profit, the amount of wages paid, and
the names, nationalities, ages and sex
of the ‘“‘American labor” employed,
If the Democrats show a proper appre-
riation of their opportunitiesMr, N1Ep-
RINGHAUS will have to hire at least five
Welshmen and as many as fifteen boys
before his infant industry cuts its eye
teeth.
To nourish this infant the tariff tax
is heavily laid on all the kitchens, tin-
shops and fruit canneries of the coun-
try, the profits going to a few monopo-
ies that employ Welsh labor,
—— The carpenters of Harrisburg
have a labor union which has petition-
ed the council of that city to pass an
ordinance requiring carpenters residing
o utside of the city and working 1n it to
pay a license. This is asked for the
reason that workmen living in small
towns pear Harrisburg come in-
to the city and work for less wages
than resident carpenters.
Sach a de- |
mand as this is intended to give the
principle of protection a local applica-
tion. The Harrisburg carpenters want
to prevent competition by means of a
If the council should comply
with their request it is altogether like-
{ly that the courts would decide that
councilmen are not invested with the
McKinley power.
The grip has taken a fiercer
hold on the British people than on the
Americans. All classes are affected,
from the palace to the hovel, including
a number of the leading statesmen, be-
sides thousands of more ordinary peo-
ple. Ithas visited all parts of the
world and its visitation appears to be
permanent. A disease of such world-
wide power is becoming a subject that
commands the earnest attention of
those who make a study of the ills
that flesh is heir to.
The Old Story.
The history of the ruined Keystone
National Bank, of Philadelphia, is an-
other instance of financial crookedness
in the officers and misplaced confidence
on the part of the public. One of the
directors, CHARLES McFADDEN, when
questioned about the ruin of the bank,
said: “The books were all a pack of
lies,” and the committee appointed to
attest the statements twice a year did
not find them out. This is the old
story of the mismanagement of funds
placed in the hands of bank offi:
cers, and of the carelessness or incom-
petency of directors who did not di-
rect. When officers of financial insii-
tutions take the crooked paths whieh
lead to ruin and disgrace, they first be-
gin to doctor the books, thinking that
they can thereby conceal their dishoun-
esty; but when investigation comes,
which, in the end, is inevitable, the
doctored books, in the hands ot an ex-
pert, are the witness which convict
them. The shortage of the Keystone
bank is about a million which the
stock-holders will have to make up.
——The constitution convention bill
that passed the Senate last Friday was
clearly partisan in its apportionment of
delagates, as it gives the Republicans
18 delegates at large and the Demo-
crats 9. This is two to one, although
in a vote of nearly a million the Re-
publican majority in the State is but a
trifling fraction.
NO. 20.
Will Wheat Production Decline?
There has recently been a decline in
the wheat expert of this country, the
amount sent to other countries having
declined from 186,000,000 in 1880-81
to 88,000,000 bushels in 1888-89, and
this gives some agricultural writers
reason to assert that in a few years the
United States will cease to export
wheat at all. This is predicated upon
the assumption that this country has
reached the limit of its capacity for
the production of wheat and that the
population is increasing so rapidly that
importation of that cereal will soon be
necessary.
An authority upon this subject says
that the limit of wheat area has not
been reached by a long way in this
country ; neither has the highest limit
of productiveness, The largest crop of
wheat ever grown—520,000,000 bush-
els—could be doubled in a few years if
the price of wheat should average one
dollar a bushel to the farmer under
the stimulus of a foreign demand. The
country has been raising all the wheat
its own population could use and all
that the foreign market would absorb
at a very moderate price. To quote
the large exports of 1880, when the
foreign wheat crop was light, against
the Jight exports of 1889, when the
foreign wheat crop was good, as an
evidence that wheat growing in the
United States is declining, indicates a
very imperfect knowledge of the laws
which control the wheat industry in
this and other countries.
When wheat commards a good price
the wheat product of this country can
be increased almost indefinitely, That
it has not increased within the past five
years is due solely to the fact that oth-
er crops were in better demand and
more profitable to the farmers. The
law of supply and demand and not the
exhaustion of our wheat area is respon-
sible for the falling oft of our wheat ex-
ports.
What Will His Reward Be ?
Senator Amos H. Myuiv, of Lancas-
ter county, is slated by the bosses for
one of the Republican State nomina-
tions at next fall's election, but if he
thinks that he has improved his
chance of election by the part he took
as one of the Senate committee in the
fraudulent amendment of the ballet
bill, he has certainly fooled himself.
On this point even so straight-laced a
Republican organ as the Smethport
Miner, Luciex; Rogers's newspaper, is
forced to say : :
He is one of five Republican members of the
elections committes of the State Senate who
recently reported to that body the monstrosi-
ty of an election bill. Such suicidal action on
his part can hardly be accounted for. He is
an intelligent gentleman of long legislative
experience, and he must know that his course
on this bill is fearfully repugnant to the great
mass of Republican voters, however satisfac.
tory it may be to the bosses, He has cast a
good many votes during his legislative career,
and some quite recently, which have estrang-
ed many of his political friends in this sec-
tion of the State, but this latest action will se-
riously affect his strength in every part of the
State should he seek the votes of the people
the coming Fall.
There are plenty of Republicans
who will hardly believe that Mr. My-
LIN should be rewarded with a State
nomination for his treachery to the
party’s platform pledge ot ballot. re-
| form.
The House of Representatives
having determined last week to adjourn
on the 28th inst., it was believed that
the Senate would not concur, as an. ad-
journment at that time would leave a
great deal of important business unfin-
ished; but on Monday evening a Sen-
ate caucus was held at which it was
determined to accept the time fixed up-
on by the House. An adjournment at
that date means the killing off of every
reform measure that has been intro-
daced at this session. Tax equaliza-
tion, ballot reform and every other
good thing that has been promised the
people by the Republican State leaders
will be cast aside.
——This week some 1000 employes
of Dobson's carpet works in Philadel-
phia struck, the cause of their dissatis-
faction being the introduction of a num-
ber of hands brought over from Eng-
land. Carpets are among the articles
upon which the McKinley tariff puts
extra duty, and the Dobson workmen
couldn't see why English work people
should be brought over to enjoy the
benefit of this “protection.”
Spawls from» the Keystone,
Allentown has an.assessed valuation of $14,
000,000.
—An Easton man: has just married. for the
fourth time.
—Honesdale milkmen will make inviting
concessions to cash patrons. ,
—A Reading coffin factory keeps a stoek of
700 caskets constantly on hand.
—The Lehigh Valley Railroad: will have a
monster new freight depot at Easton.
—Black measles killed three children of
Morris High at Lebanon within a week.
—William Miller, of Catasaqua, died from
poison absorbed by a scratch in the hand.
—Twins born at Scranton have been named
Grover Cleyelaud and Robert E. Pattison.
—George W. Lentz, millionaire lumberman
of Williamsport, died Sunday, aged 73 years.
—The loss by forest fires in Cumberland
county alone has been pearly halft a million
dollars.
—John Schneider; aged 50, of Tower City,
was found dead in the woods mear his home
Monday.
—A newly-married Susquehanna couple
have separated and reunited threejtime in
four weeks.
—Peter Hattle, of Upper faucon, Lehigh
county, is deathly sick, the result of a minute
nail serateh.
—The forty-third annual session of'the Medi--
cal Society of Pennsylvania will open. at Read-
ing on June 2.
—A four-year old son of George: Strayer,. of
York, fell out of a toy Jexpress wagon and
broke his arm.
—Over 200 theatrical companies traveled
over the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad
during the past season.
—The position of the Minnesota. regiments
will be marked on the Gettysburg battle-field
by a $20,000 monument.
—At Pen Argyl, Amandus Ackerman’s hand
was caught in the cogs of a brick machine and
every bone was broken.
—Ernest Krause, an Allentown: butcher, be-
came so scared when his horse ran: away that
his life is despaired of,
—Charles Shumacher has sued! Dr. W. P.
Kistler, of Allentown, for $1000: damages for
callinghim a thief and forger:
—Benjamin Eyrich, of Thurlow, Del., was
killed near Union Station, on the Reading
Railroad, last Saturday night. :
—Four new engines just put on. the Wyorr.-
ing division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad are
said to be the heaviest in the country.
—Mrs. Frank McDermott, who left her hus’
band last fall, returned to Wilkesbarre, and
stole her three children. She escaped.
—The trunks of an opera company were:
seized recently at Bethlehem, but when they
were sold and opened they were found to be
empty:
—Burglars won't visit Electrician T.. P. Muts
hart’s residence, in Reading, very soon again.
His loud-ringing alarm bell has made them
-bashful.
—The widow of the late Conductor Ddbsen,
of York, who was killed on the Maryland Cen.
tral Railroad recentiy, has sued for $100,000
damages.
—Joseph Moncke shot and dangerously
wounded Frank Rafferty, Harry Griffiths and
Anthony Brovasiski near Pittstson last Satur-
day night.
—John Foster dropped. dead: in a: Pittsburg
cemetery: while working on a. monument and
within hearing of the two funerals which ware
in progress.
—A carload of lumber was being tinloaded: at
West Grove, when two maltese kittens were
found. They had made the journey from
Michigan.
—Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg: Brake=
man Adam Bower, of Dubois, was run. over by
a coal train and had his legs, one arm and his
life cut off.
—Wallace Bingham, a horseman of. Water-
town, N. Y,, was assaulted in Allentown, Le-
high county, the other night, ard: had. his
skull fractured.
—After twenty-five years. service: Jesse
Klemmer, an engineer running between. Al-
lentown and Harrisburg, has resigned. He
never had an aceident.
—The morals-of the married men. of Blairs-
town are said to be very loose, and: the wives
of the place have organized te. discourage
gambling and late heurs..
—T'he Tussy Mountain forest fire, ini Hunt.
ingdon county, burned a large part of Stewart
& Cos lumbering eamp in Diamondi Valley
last Friday, and is still ragiug..
—Gasser & Johnson, of Reading, have con-
tracted to furnisn all the planing-mill work
for buildings to. he erected: by Gaangers in
that district for the next five-years..
—Rev. Dr. C. BE. McCauley’s.son, Harry Wi,
of Reading, who was studying for the Reform-
ed Church ministry, has been. converted and
will be an Episcopal rector-insteade
—John M, Strunk asks.a.change of venue
because he is convinced that Reading jurors
won’t award him. $15,000: for his coal yard,
which the city took. for public parposes.
—At the Lebanon. railroad station a man
who had dropped a nickel in the slot was hold-
ing his handifor a. cake-of chacolate, but in-.
stead a live mouse was deposited in kis hand.
—At a meeting of dairymen at Pottstown .
measures were taken to prosecute violators.of
the oleomargarine law. and money was raised.
by creamesy men and farmers to protect their
interests.
—Henry F.. McNerney is suing the city of’
Reading; for having an area open. for him, to
fall into at night, while he visited. the city with
other Philadelphia. Democrats at the State.
Clubs” Convention last fail.
—Mighael Patterson, a notorious burglar, was:
released from the: Western penitentiery, and:
immediately afterward was handcuffed, and
taken, to Wilkesbarre, where he will have to,
stand; trial for breaking jail and rohbing Le
high Valley ears.
—A$ Lockport, Westmoreland eoupty, the
little child of Samuel St. Clair was.sleepiag in
its:cradle in the kitchen when tha staye wpset
and threw a kettle of boiling water, upen the
babe, fatally scalding it; The mother lest her
reason from grief.
~-Although Andrew Shurnug. fel}, dead after
running a mile as a fugitive from, the Ashland
Miner's Hospital, a Coroner’s. jury has found
his cousin, Peter Shurnus, guilty of Andrew's
death, as the delirium and, escapa were due to
a gunshot wound inflicted, by Peter.
—Bradford, Penna., has. lost its prestige as
the greatest oil town, in the world, but it pro-
poses to be the greatest toothpick town on the
globe in a few months. Fellows & Co. have
moved their toothpick mill from Maine and
have commenced to rebuild it at Bradford. It
is the largest plant of the kind in the world,