Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, April 26, 1895, Image 1

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    BY RP. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slings.
— There are nearly five hundred towns
in Pennsylvania that are not afflicted
with newspapers.
—The Prince of Wales coming visit
to America will doubtless have the re-
sult of making the fool killer’s course
more easily pursued.
—American apples are finding new
markets under the WrLsox bill. Last
winter 1,274,886 more barrels were ship-
ped to England, Germany and France
than ever before.
—.It is said now that General HAR-
r1soN will be the Republican nominee
tor President and that he will run on a
conservative platform. Does this mean
that Grand-pa’s hat is to be the issue
again ? z
—It is strange that trains running
through New Jersey go faster than they
do in any part of the country. Not so,
perhaps, when one knows what a deso-
late looking urea of swamp and sand
that State is.
—The Easton Sentinelcalls Mr. KERR
a back-woods politician.” We are in
doubt as to the correctness of such an
assertion, but it appears to us that he
must have taken to the woods after the
meeting at Harrisburg last week.
—The Philadelphia papers that are
trying to drum up trade by giving
paper doll clothes away with each Sun-
day edition, would find their end much
easier reached if they would substitute
reliable news for the highly colored paper
figures as a bid for public preferment.
—Bedford county had no cases for its
regular term of quarter sessions, and
none was convened, while Centre coun-
ty is having one of the lightest terms in
her history, yet Legislators think the
people need an ‘‘appellate court” to
convert a lot of good lawyers into lazy
judges.
—Spain seems to have forgotten all
about apologizing for the Alianca af-
fair. The State Department is possibly
trying to make itself believe there never
was any affaic at all. Atall events it
does’nt appear to jog Spain’s memory
on the question of the apology that has
already been asked for.
—RIcHARD CRORER’S horses are win-
ning races in England in a way that is
creating great admiration among the
sporty English for the Tammany chief-
tan. If the Prince of Wales should
happen to smile on RICHARD the New
York reformers would have to end tke
reform or be considered woefully out of
style.
—The McQuowx bill should be kill-
ed at once. The idea of giving the
book concerns any more of a monopoly
than they have now with public schools
should be promptly squelched, and the
Senator from this district should be
given to understand that his people
want legislation for themselves and not
for book trusts.
—Sunday was about the first real
preity spring day and the regular pro-
gram of summer drownings began.
Three boys lost their lives, while boating
on the Delaware, and a young man and
woman upset their boat on the Potomac,
in Washington, and went to find Mc-
GinTy. Similar fatalities can be looked
for every pretty day from this on. It
would seem that so dangerous a pastime
would be indulged far more carefully
than it is.
—The formation of an excelsior trust
is the latest monopoly in embryonic
form in Chicago. Mr. GREENHUT, the
whiskey trust wrecker, ought to get in
on the ground floor, then if palaver
won’t do he could use the product of
the new concern to stuff the jurors in
his libel case in which he has sued each
of his partners for $50,000. As a stuf-
fing excelsior is unexcelled, but it can’t
make things any fuller than GREEN-
HUT'S whiskey did.
—All that is needed now is a military
education law, then we can build a high
protection wall around the country,
elect Tom ReEp Emperor and change the
name of the 54th Congress to the Reich-
stag. For with compulsory education
and military discipline a part of it we
will be on an exact footing with Ger-
many, whose army is the bane of that
country’s existence. Americans were
never intended for a military people and
the party that tries to turn the public
schools into barracks will surely meet
with popular disapproval.
—The DuBoise Sunday Dispatch ad-
vertises a st ory for men in its next issue,
under the caption ‘‘AZELLEE’s anklet
or the harem of the Sierras.” Can it be
that a paper that has made such a cred-
itable bow to the world as the Dispatch
has made, intends bringing shame on
itself by publishing stories that will
create a demand for it among depraved
manhood? We trust not, but if the
Dispatch wants to make a story out of the
ornament AZELLEE wears on her ankle,
it ought Lo tell it in a clean, pure mind-
ed way that will neither do harm to old
or young readers. And then not ad-
vertise it especially for men.
VOL. 40
Democal
RO
STATE RIGHTS AN
D FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., APRIL 26, 1895.
~/ 7)
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\ 20
NO. 17.
The Most Necessary Expenses.
If a citizen of Pennsylvania had
been told, previous to the incoming of
the present state administration, that
the grand old Commonwealth wasn’t
able to pay its way, on account of fi-
nancial deficiency, he would have
looked upon the man who said so a8
being wrong in his upper story. But
it is admitted by the heads of the
departments at Harrisburg that the
old State has the shorts. This admis-
sion has been made by the Governor
and his subordinates, who got together
in conference to determine what was to
be done when the amount of money
coming into the treasury was not equal
to the amount which Republican mis.
management and extravagance were
putting out.
This was certainly a puzzling prob-
lem that could only be relieved by de-
termining to keep necessary expenses
as close to the treasury receipts as pos-
sible. This is the only way to get
over a financial embarrassment.
But in solving this problem the
Governor and his assistants had to de-
termine what were necessary expenses,
and the conclusion they appear to
have come to was that the expense in-
curred in the creation of new officers
for the party henchmen and hangers
on, and the increase of salaries, was of
the utmost necessity.
This was evidently their conclusion,
for while it occurred to them that the
strain on the treasury could be relieved
by knocking a million a year off the
appropriation for the common schools,
and the withholding of the usual sub-
sidies to charitable institutions, it
didn’t appear to strike them that the
multiplication of offices aud increase of
official salaries involved unnecessary
expense. :
What were the claims of the school
children in comparison to the demands
of party workers, whose service entitled
them to increased emoluments, and for
whom there were not enough offices
unless vew ones were made? Why
should the necessities of hospital pa-
tients and asylum inmates be con-
gidered when money was needed to
meet the more urgent necessities of of-
fice-seekers who had worked for the
success of “the grand old party 2
These, no doubt, were the questions
they put to themselves.
What the Governor and his advisers
consider the most necessary expense to
which the money in the treasury can
be applied, is shown by their favoring
the multiplication of offices and in-
crease of salaries, while the funds are
so short that there will not be enough
for the usual appropriations for the
public schools and charitable institu:
tions.
—_—. i —————
He is Not the Party.
Secretary MorTON has evidently for-
gotten the professions of the party
platform upon which was won the vic.
tory that secured him the position he
now holds. It reads as follows :
“We hold to the use of both gold and
silver as the standard money of the
country, and to the coinage of both
gold and silver without discriminating
against either metal.”
This was the Democratic doctrine in
1892. It is the Democratic doctrine to-
day and will be the Democratic doctrine
until a different belief takes hold of the
masses, or a convention of the Demo-
cratic people changesits position on this
question, Mr. MorToN has a perfect
right to his opinion. He has a right
to believe in a gold standard alone
if he thinks proper. His mistake is
in imagining himself the party and
that he is specially delegated to speak
tor it on this subject.
——The Senate committee screwed
up courage enough on Wednesday to
tavorably report the religious garb bill,
that had passed the House. It re
mains to be seen whether that body
owes more to the spirit of religious in-
tolerance and bigotry that is behind
the garb hill than it does to the esenti-
ment of every liberty loving person in
the State.
SR
——The jumps that wheat has been
taking in Chicago within the past few
days will be glad news to the farmers.
The failure of foreign crops promiges
to put the price of our product away
above the figure it has been gelling at
for some time.
Premature Delight.
The Philadelphia Pressis cackling
over what it considers the failure of
the income tax. It derives pleasure
from the curtailment of the tax and
the apparent difficulty in collecting
what is left of it, circumstances which
encourage it to believe that it will be
abandoned and will stand upon the
record of national! legislation as a
Democratic fiasco.
Its delight in such a prospect is pre-
mature. It is true that the income tax
law is far from being what the friends
of so fair and equitable a system of
taxation could wish it to be, but when
account is taken of the fact that it had
to encounter the opposition of all the
millionaires in the country, both in
Congress and the courts, it is surpris-
ing that anything is left of it. But
enough is left to enforce the collection
of considerable revenue from people
whose affluence has contributed but
little to the support of the government.
The tariff bill, as passed, wae far
from being as complete as was intend-
ed, but who can doubt that it is the be-
ginning of a thoroughly reformed tariff
gvstem ? So with the income tax law,
which although imperfect in some of
its features, is susceptible to amend-
ment that will make it a far more
equitable method of raising revenue
than by means of tariffs that bear more
heavily upon the poorer class of peo-
ple than upon the rich,
.The income tax that was adopted
during the war was gotten rid of as
soon as possible by the dominant par-
ty which preferred a method of raising
revenue that favored a special class
through tariff discrimination. If the
tax on incomes, whose constitutionali-
ty was at that time conceded, had been
retained, millions of dollars that have
been wrung from the general mass of
citizens by tariff exactions, would have
had to be drawn from the superfluity
of a class whose stupendous wealth
has grown to be a danger to the coun-
try, and much of which is wasted in
extravagant display among the nobili-
ty of Europe.
adopted as a means of revenue, al-
though far from being perfectly de-
veloped, is capable of improvement
that will make it a method of taxa- |
tion by which the government will be
enabled to largely dispense with tariffs |
which by their discrimination place |
most of the burden of taxation on the
generality of people least able to bear
it. Asan equalizer of the burden it
will stand as one of the best products
of Democratic legislation.
On the Diamond.
Base ball is a distinctively American
sport. One that holds its tenure of
life year after year while others that
have taken the people as fads prove
popular for a season or two only to be
succeeded by another. The great
national game, as base ball has often
been called, has grown in public favor
from its very inception as an amuse-
ment and notwithstanding the always
objectionable feature of trafficking in
men’s services, that has characterized
the management of clubs under the
national agreement, the game has
grown in popularity and gives every
promise of holding a lasting place in
the hearts of our sport loving people.
It is possible that there are more
ball players in the country to-day than
any other class of amusement makers
and the fact that they are, as a whole,
a very well paid lot is evidence that
from a financial stand point, the gamer
is a business venture that vets large
profit.
In the three cities in the east where
the opening games of the League sea-
son were played, a few days ago, the
receipts for the single day aggregated
$40,000. While this was something
abnormal, there has always been large
attendances throughout the entire sea-
gon. j
Lase ball is certainly one ot the
most harmless sports in itself, but like
everything else the game is traduced
by rowdy players and epeculative
hangers-on. There is no reason why
it should be condemned on this ac
count, however, and the very fact that
it affords a recreative diversion tor all
classes will assure its continued play-
ing.
—— “Speech is but silver, silence is
gold’ is an old proverb that CLEVE
LAND might have called secretary Mor-
ToN'S attention to.
The income tax, as now |
The Republican Split on Silver.
When it comes to despoiling the city
treasury a unity of purpose prevents
anything like a split among the Re-
publican leaders of Philadeiphia.
They aresolid on that issue, but the
same solidity does not exist among
them on the silver question. A divis-
ion on that issue is making its appear-
ance, one set of leaders being in favor
of bimetalism, in its broadest sense, and
the other advocating a gold basis.
The former has its disciples in the
Manufacturers’ club, where CHARLES
Heser CLarg and JouN DoLax are
putting forward the idea that free sil-
ver and protection would be suitable
yoke-fellows in a presidential cam-
paign. On the other hand the gold
interest has its advocate in the Press,
whose editor, Caarnes ExMory SMITH,
is sailing as close to a ‘sound curren-
cy” as a Republican organ can be ex-
pected to go.
Both sides have appeared on the
stump, speeches having already been
made for and against silver. The sen-
timent of the Manufacturers’ club evi-
dently reflects the political interest of
CAMERON, who aspires to get a free sil-
ver endorsement from Pennsylvania for
the Presidency. The gold advocacy of
the Press is the logical outgrowth of
its antagonism to Cameron. This mie-
understanding, which bas already
started, will be carried to the Republi-
can state convention where there will be
a nice fight over it, with nine chances to
one that CameroN will get his endorse-
ment, This is the party whose organs
are commenting upon the split which
the silver question is going to cause in
the Democratic party.
——1It is amusing to see the remarks
of Republican organs about the disrup.
tion of the Democratic party on the sil-
ver question. They say that the ob-
ject of the President's Chicago letter
| was to stiffen the party and prevent its
| going to pieces on that rock. They
| don’t appear to see that there are the
| same kind of breakers ahead for the
| G, O. P. The Senators of that party
! from all the States west of the Mississ-
ippi are avowed free silver men. TEL-
| LER may possibly be a free gilver candi-
date for President. Inall the West:
ern States the majority of the Republi-
| cans favor an unlimited coinage of sil-
ver. Here in Penvsylvania the wires
are being laid for CaMERON a8 a Re:
publican presidential candidate repre-
senfing the free silver sentiment.
This phase of the currency question is
certainly a disturbing factor in the
politics of the present period, but the
disturbance is likely to be as great, if
not greater, in the Republican than in
the Democratic party.
——The sons of all Americans,
whether mechanics, farmers, office-
holders, or millionaires, should have
an equal chance for the favors of the
government. There should be no
special favoritism. Congressman
Kurp, of the Northumberland district,
doesn’t think so, and has excited dis-
satisfaction among his constituents by
appointing OSBORNE HACKENBERG, 80n
of W. H. HackenNserg, of Milton, a
cadet to West Point, without having
given any public intimation that he
had such an appointment to make.
If it had been known, and he had giv-
en them a chance by competitive ex-
amination, it might have appeared
that there were other boys in the dis-
trict who were as well qualified for the
appointment, and perhaps better, than
the son of a State Senator. Congress-
man Kure, however, thought other-
wise, and confined the choice to the
Republican official aristocracy.
——Those who profess to have in-
side information claim that the judge's
retirement bill, that passed the lower
house of Legislature last week, is to be
killed in the Senate. Let us hope that
such assertions are true; for it is ex-
tremely unpleasant to try to bring our-
self to believe that legislative balls
could be disgraced by the enactment
of such a pernicious measure. The
idea of creating a civil pension
list is objectionable in the extreme,
and why it should have even been ea-
tertained by the Legislators at all is a
question that has aroused indignation
in all parts of the State.
Be — —————————————————
—=Read the WATCHMAN.
Between the Devil and the Deep Sea.
From the Lancaster Intelligencer.
We are somewhat interested in the
test of courage imposed upon our State
Senate by the Religious Garb bill, as it
is called. Our upper house of states-
men see that they are between the
horns of a dilemma. If they pass the
bill they will offend the good sense of
the State; if they defeat it they will in-
cense certain secret societies and those
who have “a certain lodged hate” for
the dress ofa Catholic sister. But
this last church is not the only one af-
fected. Our own Mennonites, Amish
and sweet-faced Quaker girls ot Eastern.
Pennsylvania must doff their eustom-
ary garb and dress as the legislation of
a so-called free State dictates. This
garb bill is a matter of Church and
State, indirectly, if not exclusively, and
has no proper place in legislative con-
sideration. It is as uncalled for as an
anti-tight bill, or any other measure in-
terfering with men’s right to opinion,
dress or action so long as they do not
interfere with the like liberty of their
fellowman. Compulsory education,
garb bills and free books are all gross
interferences with personal liberty and
local home rule which shor'i be con-
demned by free Americans.
An Imposition on the People.
From the Greensburg Westm’r’land Democrat
A civil pension list is another of
the extravagant and outrageous
schemes which the present legislature
intends to impose on the long-suffering
tax-payers of Pennsylvania. It is pro-
posed to begin with judges who have
served 20 years on the bench and have
reached the age of 70 years. If one
class ot citizens, in civil life in this
state, are entitled to pensions, then all
are. The laws are supposed to know
no class distinctions. As the judges
in the different districts of Pennsylva-
nia receive in salaries in 20 years
from $80,000.00 to $170,000.00
it looks as if the Legislators, be-
gan at the wrong end of the line.
Instead of commencing with one of
the best paid or richest classes of citi-
zens they should have started with one
of the lowest paid or poorest. Com-
mon laborers and washer-women, who
only receive a couple of hundred dol-
lars a year, are much more in need of
pensions than are judges who are paid
from $4,000 to $8,500 per annum,* *
The Way the Wilson Bill Kills the
Farmer.
From the Philadelphia Times.
The market for American apples is
something the high protection advo-
cates declared would be ruined by the
new tariff bill, but Consul General De
Kay, at Berlin, sends word that
American shippers have found a fine
demand in January that augurs well
for the future. Since last September
1,443,592 barrels of apples have been
sent to Europe, as against 168,706 bar-
rels in the winter of 1893-94. This
means a permanent market in the fu-
ture, with handsome profits. The de-
mand in France aud England for
American apples is growing, and Ger-
many presents an opportunity that
traders find of the most attractive
character under the new tariff schedule.
Of course, the harvest will be just
what the growers make it.
Give Credit Where it is Due.
From the Pittsburg Post.
The “Dispatch,” speaking of the iron
and steel industries of Pittsburg, says
tthe recovery from the extraordinary
depression of 1893 has been very rapid
go far as Pittsburg is concerned.” True.
But pray, what tariff was the country
under during that ‘extraordinary de-
pression?” Of course the McKinley
tariff was then in the high tide of its
successful operation And pray, what
tariff is the country under now, when
we are witnessing the ‘rapid recovery ?”
Of course the Wilson tariff. Will the
«Dispatch’’ please turn to its files and
reprint its doleful calamity howls—pros-
trate industries and starving workmen
as the assured result of the Wilson law ?
In the meantime don’t prophesy unless
you know.
What the Monroe Doctrine Is.
From the Altoona Tribune.
The Monroe doctrine does not mean
that the United States will defend and
uphold any of its sister republics in
wrong-deing. The Monroe doctrine
does not supersede international law ;
no American statesman ever made any
such an absurd claim. Nor is this doc-
trineany such insolent and braggart
thing as some ranting ignoramuses
would have their countrymen believe.
It is simply the assertion that the
United States would not look with
complaisance upon wanton encroach-
ments upon this continent by a foreign
power.
ABA EEE
Liliputians Made to Order.
From New York Sun. ”
At Prague a man, called Proschaska,
was arrested some time ago for selling
to a Hamburg firm a number of child-
ren whose growth has been checked
by a peculiar diet, that they might be
exhibited as liliputians ; for every child
300 florins were paid. The inventors
of the system, and the parents of the
children as well, have been punished
by the courts.
Spawls from the Keystone,
—Pittsburg’s sweat shops are being in-
vestigated.
—At a cost of $70,000, Reading has built
a sewage pumping plant.
—Fees of Reading doctors are regulated
by rules adopted 23 years ago.
—Farmers at Hamburg are trying tokill
Canada thistle with coarse salt.
—Work is about beginning upon the
Reading & Womelsdorf trolley.
—James Kelly fell into the canal at
Harrisburg and was found dead.
—The raising of squabs for market isa
profitable Berks County industry.
—John Vanderslice has won a badge as
the champion rifie shot of Pottsville.
—Additional puddle furnaces are
about to start at the Pottstown Iron
Works.
—Joseph Blotter, a Wrightsville hotel
hostler, committed suicide on Thursday
last.
—Reading police nabbed 10-year-old
George Heine as the leader of a band of
boy thieves.
—Ashland’s high school graduating
class is so large that two commenements
will be held.
—A little son of James McDermott, at
Lancaster, drank a fatal dose of strych-
nine solution.
—Collector Shearer says he will gather
#100,000 income tax in the Ninth Penn¢
sylvania district.
—Soft coal operators in Western Penne
sylvania are mow trying to get new men
at the 60-eent rate.
—As the result of a coasting accident
last winter, Benjgmin Fisher, of Shamo-
kin, has just lost a leg.
—A branch of the Commercial Trav-
elers’ Home Association has been organ-
ized at Williamsport.
—Schuylkill County Monday sent a
strong delegation to Harrisburg to oppose
the Quay County bill.
—In a sermon in Allegheny City, Rev.
John Whitehead said it was wrong for
women to wear bloomers.
—Divorces are on the increase in Lan-
caster County, 25 applieants having ap-
peared at Court in a week.
—For practicing medicine without a li-
cense, H. M. Trout, of York, goes to jaila
year and pays a $100 fine.
—Bighty new members were admitted
to the State Editorial Assoeiation, which
met at Harrisburg Monday.
—The window glass factories of Pitts-
burgh have orders on hand' to run them
on full time all of this year.
—Up to date 105 fire companies have
promised to attend the firemen’s conven-
tion at Reading next October.
—An unknown man leaped from a
bridge at Wilkesbarre into the Susque,
hanna River and was drowned.
—The Merchants’ Protective Assecia-
tion, at Wilkesbarre, protested in Court
against the licensing of peddlers.
—Professor Haynes attached the furni-
ture of a. Kittanning business college for
unpaid salary and closed the school.
—In a runaway at Reading, Robert
Holmes, member of the Board of Trades
was kieked in the face and seriously hurt.
—A new Lutheran Orphans’ Home will
be established in Berks County by the
ministerium now in session at Kutztown.
—Two sisters at Greensburg; Nana aad
Sadie Williard, are supposed to have
eloped with members of a cheap dramatic
company.
—Valley Forge is a meeca to whieh
many tourists are now wending their
way by the hundreds, among whom are
many fereigners,
—The Christian Endeavor Society of
Northampton connty will hold a conven-
tionin the Moravian church, Nazareth,
on May 24 and 25.
—The employes of the Bethlehem Iren
company are in the best possible satisfac-
tion with the wages paid and the hours of
work established.
—Six hundred Schuylkill County Odd
Fellows will parade in one divisien in
Philadelphia on May 21, when ths: new
temple is dedicated.
—Bonds of local officers are not 30 easi-
ly had as they were formerly, . for the req.
son that the risks of such favors for oth~
ersare too great for ordinary citizens.
—Pennsylvania farmers of experience
say that the fruit crop of this year will
be large, but it is best to wait for further
information on the subject: until the
trees have produced their produets.
—Xictor Coble, of Sunbury, went to his
chicken house a few mornings. sinca to
find a dozen of his fine hens gene, and a
written notice on the coop suggested that
he eollect his loss from the borough.
—williamsport possesses seme of the
mest adroit burglars.in the state, two. of
them having lately participated. in xob-
beries at Jersey Shore, and the gang of
four are now in the Lycoming couaty
Jail.
—An overhead crossing, Packer street,
Sunbury, has been erected by the Nerth-
ern Central Railroad company. Like im-
provements will be made in. other towns
along its route sy the same nailroad eom-
pany.
—The American Flag Manufaeturing
company, of Kaston, has shipped to
Texas two caxloads. of newly-made flags
of the late southern confederacy, to be
used in that state during the reunion of
the Confederate armies on May th next.
The flags cost nearly $7,020.
—In looking for a house to renta lady
in Norristown, Mrs. Comfort, found a
gambling den whieh the neighbors did
not know was located near them and the
revelation of which caused & sensation.
The police are now making & thorough.
investigation of the find.
—The salary matter having been fixed
all right, the governor yesterday ap.
pointed Thomas Robinson, of Butler, as
superintendent of public printing. We
believe the salary has been advanced
from $1,600 to $2,500. It is a very nice
plum, with nothing to do of any acoount
and a very good salary tor doing it.
—The North Branch steel company,
whose works are at Danville, Montour
county, willsoon start up their Bessemer
steel plant, which has been idle since its
construction in 1893. The rail mill now in
operation in Danville gives employment
to about 250 men, and the starting of the
Bessemer plant will require 500 addition.
al hands.