Bemorvatic Watdpman BY P. GRAY MEEK. Ink Slings. —Prosperity is coming on a gold basis. Only the few know anything of it. Pros- perity and gold are things that the masses have naught to do with. —The butchering season being in full blast the LEUTGERT trial, in Chicago, is right in line with the other sausage mak- ing events in the country. —The report of Capt RAY, of the Eighth United States infantry, on the condition of the pioneers in the Klondyke region is anything but encouraging to those who have friends among the gold hunters in the Arctic regions. —Paternalism is dragging our govern- ment down fast enough without trying to add to the danger by hanging on a pension for civil employees. If such things are to continue we would like to see some one who can tell where the end will be. —A Mill Hall urchin left a mouse loose in a school room in that place, on Tuesday, and it almost created a panic among the scholars. It is only speculation on our part but we’ll bet dollars to fat cakes that the pupils are nearly all girls. —Well, ARNOLD is the dandy. If his civil service repealer carries in Congress what is to hecome of all his old soldier friends who have been kept in office under repeated presidential rulings extending the civil service classification ? —It is the concensus of opinion of scientific men that ANDREE, the Arctic balloonist, is alive and will turn up in the spring. For our part we would rather bank on his turning up when the spring thaws come than on his being alive. —SAM JONES’ story of people who ‘‘want help’ never had a more appropriate field for its telling than right here in Bellefonte, where fully one-seventh of the population is fast becoming a parasitic growth on the industry and thrift of the others. —General LEW WALLACE is of the opin- ion that during the course of the next few years ‘‘the Japanese will need somebody to thrash them and we are the people to do it.”” The Japs will hardly agree with the distinguished writer that they need a licking. —Actor RATCLIFFE, whose wife accuses him of pelting her with hard-boiled eggs every morning, went her several better than was probably his fate when he began his career as an actor. The kind he was most probably accustomed to being pelted with were not hard-boiled but in the an- tique condition. —It looks very much as though Con- gressman Hicks will lose his fight for the postmaster at Ebensburg. The ‘‘old man” has declined to take a hand in the fight, but it is understood that he favors the BARKER faction and - that his pull will go | their way. If Hicks loses this fight he is a dead duck in his district puddle. —It has been very noticeable the im- provement in the order at institute this | week and the general attention given to their work by the teachers. This augurs well for the public schools of the county and redounds to the credit of the directors who have gradually been weeding out that class of young men and women whose giddy, flippant manner was a con- stant reminder of shallow characters who had no right to be putin charge of chil- dren any where. —Every scheme under the sun seems to be worked to deprecate the cause of the Cuban patriots. The Spanish are circu- lating the report that Gen. SANGUILLY has deserted and that Gen. GARCIA has committed suicide. Either one of such misfortunes would be a serioas blow to the belligerent Cubans, but where the tenacious little bud of freedom once takes root the loss of two of its cultivators, no matter how expert they may be, will not stop its growth. —SAM JONES hit most everyone in sight, on Tuesday night, and the fellows who were hit hardest Jaughed longest and loud- est because they knew the shoe was fitting. SAM has a rather inelegant way of putting things, but it is just that inelegance that has made SAM JONES the noted preacher that he is. Had he never been slangy, just a bit off color and decidedly irreverent he would never have been heard of and the very people who censure him are the ones who go to hear him, hecause they expect the very things they get. —General WEYLER, in far off Spain, shakes his fist at uncle SAM and says his country will avenge the insults in Presi- dent McKINLEY’S message. Nobody -is going to get frightened at such a bogy- man and it might be well for the butcher to remember that an American newspaper reporter. single handed, stole his most precious prisoner right out from under his very nose. If one man could do that what could the armed force of the United States do to a petered out old monarchy like his is. —Notwithstanding the efforts of certain Philadelphia contemporaries to make it appear that prosperity has come the true condition of things will out. In that city the department of charities and correction met, on Wednesday, and the very papers "that give columns of space to exploiting _the beneficent results of a gold victory tried to hide the report of this committee in a two inch article on an inside page, be- cause it shows that in Philadelphia there were 155 more people dependent on charity in November ’97 than during November 96. that is | Cor Ai emacratic \ I(¢ STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. DEC. 17. 1897. A Hot Time in Prospect. There is going to be a hot time in the old town of Washington if speaker REED shall persist in his reported determina- tion to head off the raids on the treasury that are intended to be made from every department of the government. Although there is a pending deficit, all hands are pre- paring to scoop the government funds to the fullest extent of their opportunity. The appropriation committees are ar- ranging to continue business on the billion dollar plan. There will be no diminution in the millions demanded for the river and harbor jobs. Almost every Congress- man is scheming for an amount ranging from $200,000 to half a million for the erection of a government building some- where in his district. A bill is being drafted for more comprehensive pension ar- rangements that will include almost every- body that has survived the time of the re- bellion, with a liberal allowance of back vay ; private pension bills are being pre- pared to be run through in batches of a hun- dred at a time, and various other schemes for tapping the public till are on the con- gressional program. Republican statesmanship was never known to be averse to free and easy meth- ods of getting away with the public funds, but a difficulty at this time is discovered in the fact that the DINGLEY tariff is not bringing in the revenue that is needed for the usual schemes of plunder, and that even with the gold remaining over from CLEVELAND’S bond sales there will be an inconvenient shortage. It is a situation of this kind that is said to have inspired speaker REED with the determination to put the brakes down on these schemes of congressional spoliation. . It isn’t difficult to imagine the row it will create, and the backbone it will require in the speaker to play the Czar in check- ing the intended profligacy. If this is his intention he will be sure to have a rupture with the Senate whose plutocratic mem- bers make small account of spending mil- lions of the public money in extravagant outlays. There is never an appropriation bill sent to the Senate from the House that is not returned loaded down with riders which the House must accept or there wili be no appropriation. It is to be seen how the speaker will | make out in bucking up against the arro- gant extravagance of the senatorial pluto- crats, but in any event the collision will result in a hot time. The Mistaken Cuban Policy. Notwithstanding the pacific tone of Pres- ident McKINLEY’s message in regard to Cuba, and his evident desire to avoid trouble with Spain, it bas not had the ef- fect of placating the Spaniards. It is no doubt a great relief to them to find that our President is so friendly and to be assured that the United States is not going to in- terfere with their method of putting down a rebellion, but instead of being grateful for their relief the removal of the danger of American interference has made them saucy and defiant. Such conduct is in keeping with the Spanish character, which will construe the attitude of the McKINLEY administration as resulting from fear of the Spanish pow- er. That such is their impression may be inferred from their insolent language in which they declare that they will allow no meddling on the part of the United States with the situation in Cuba which they consider entirely their own affair. It may not be long before the President will discover the mistake he has made in ignoring the claim which the cause of the Cuban patriots has on the American govern- ment and people. There is indeed less ex- cuse for President McKINLEY to turn his back on the struggling Cubans than there was for President CLEVELAND to display such indifference, for by the continuance of their resistance, and the continued fail- ure of the Spaniards to put them down, they have presented to this administration a stronger reason why their belligerency, at least, should be recognized than was pre- sented at any time when CLEVELAND was at the head of this government. ‘While the chance of Cuban success was improving with each passing season, and the Spanish strength was proportionately weak- ening President McKINLEY allowed him- self to be deluded by promises that Spain will inaugurate great reforms in Cuba and will desist from the barbarous methods that rendered her operations against the insurgents a disgrace to civilization. We believe that ex-minister TAYLOR, who knows the Spaniards thoroughly, is cor- rect in his assumption that not one of the promises upon which the President advises a waiting policy will be kept, and it is too probable that the supineness of the Mec- KINLEY administration in this matter will prolong the reign of rapine and slaughter in the fairest island of the West Indies, which could be stopped by this govern- ment taking a decided stand in support of the rights of the Cuban people which have been outraged in every conceivable man- ner. Vindication of the Greembackers. It begins to look as if the old Greenback- ers, who have been under a cloud since away back in the ‘70s, will come to the front and have their innings. With what unction the monetary monopolists of the goldbug variety have denounced them as wildcat financiers and fiat repudiationists, but it may-not be far off when their plan of making the greenbacks the only paper money of the country will be realized. That this may soon happen is not im- probable, judging from the turn in public opinion on this subject as indicated by such a change on the money question as has oc- curred in the views of the New York Sun. That paper, which in the last presidential election took an extreme Wall street posi- tion on the money question, now advocates the retirement of the national bank cur- rency, instead of the goldbug scheme of relegating the greenbacks to financial ob- livion. On this subject the Sun has this to say : “The currency issued by the national banks should be retired as fast as possible consistent with the vested rights of the banks, and its place supplied with govern- ment notes. Fortunately the charters of a majority of the banks will expire in the course of the next ten years, and those of nearly all of them in five years thereafter. These charters should not be renewed, and the banks should not be required to 'rein- corporate themselves under the laws of their respective States, relinquishing, com- pletely, the privilege of issuing currency, which ought never to have been granted them. With bank currency out of the way, that of the government would have the field to itself, and might be augmented without risk to meet every requirement of busi- ness.’’ So far as this scheme would require the government to furnish the country with its entire supply of paper money it agrees exactly with the policy advocated by the Greenbackers, some twenty years ago, to which we revert with no small degree of pride as having been one of its supporters. But at that time the goldbng conspirators were maturing their plan to bring the mon- etary system down to the narrow basis of gold monometallism that would enable them more effectively to control the finan- cial situation, and they managed to howl down the supporters of a government cur- rency as wild schemers and dishonest repu- diationists. The hard experience of a gradual tight- ening in financial affairs since then and a depression particularly injurious to agri- cultural interests, with all others but the money changers suffering from its constrict- ing effects, has done much to convince the popular mind that our monetary and busi- ness conditions would to-day be much better if the greenback policy had not been forced to give way to the interest of the bankers, bond manipulators and gold deal- ers. A Slimn Chance for Gage’s Scheme, There is no probability, scarcely a possi- bility, of secretary (AGE’s plan of so-called currency reform meeting with the favorable consideration of Congress. The House is 80 constituted that as a party measure it could he jammed through that body if speaker REED were favorable to it, but the indications are that he is not so in love with the scheme as to secure its passage by the exertion of his autocratic power. In the Senate the GAGE scheme has hardly the ghost of a chance. There is a clear majority in that body against ex- changing a non-interest bearing debt for an interest bearing debt by retiring the green- backs and treasury notes and substituting them by a form of currency, such as na- tional bank notes, based on bonds on which interest must be paid. There might be a reason for such an expensive policy if it would furnish a safer and more convenient kind of money, but it is idle to assert that there can be any safer or more convenient money than the greenbacks. In addition to the Democrats, Free Silver . Republicans and Populists in the Senate: there are Republicans in that body who are opposed to what may properly be called GAGE’s scheme of currency contraction. Even so thorough-paced a Republican par- tisan as Senator HALE, of Maine, says: ‘I cannot approve of the scheme to retire the greenbacks and treasury notes. There is no necessity for it, as our currency is good and we are on a gold basis.” The Senator, speaking from his party stand-point, may be excused for indulging in the fiction that our currency is good be- cause it is based on gold, but it would be equally good if silver were used, alike with gold, in liquidating the obligation which the government assumes when it issues de- mand notes. That is what the law requires, and it is to be expected that there will be areturn to that practice, as legally required, judging from the expression of Senator HALE who further said that if secretary GAGE’s scheme should be pressed in the Senate ‘‘the inevitable result would be that a free silver proposition, 16 to 1, would pass by anywhere from 8 to 12 majority. This is certainly encouraging to those who expect to see the currency restored to its constitutional basis. NO. 49. Mob Violence as a Corrective Force. A new method of heading off council- manic rascality has been introduced in the West and it closely resembles the lynching process. It appears that Cleveland, Ohio, like most American cities, is afflicted with dis- honest councilmen who sell valuable city franchises to corporations, pocketing the proceeds as official spoils and personal per- quisites. They all do it, and nowhere is it more systematically practiced than in the staunch Republican city of Philadelphia. But it happened that the constituents of one of the Cleveland councilmen objected to his suspected intention of voting for such a steal of a valuable city franchise, for which hie would receive his price. With the object of preventing it they formed themselves into a mob of about two hun- dred and called at his residence just about the time he was retiring for the night. He was forced to make his appearance in com- pliance with their angry demand that he should come forth and let them know difi- nitely whether he was going to vote for or against the intended steal. Upon his showing a disposition to evade so pointed a question, they convinced him by their en- ergetic demonstrations that the only way he could avoid a coat of tar and feathers was to give them his pledge that he would vote against the stealing of city franchises. Such violent means may be effective in restraining the dishonest intentions of un- faithful representatives of the people, but how great must be the official demoraliza- tion that requires a resort to processes sim- ilar to that of lynch law to prevent repre- sentative officers from betraying their dele- gated trust. But there is scarcely a municipality in the whole country, nor a legislative body, in which such a betrayal of public trust, for pecuniary considerations, has not be- come an established practice. Will there be any reason for surprise if this shall be- come so provocative of public wrath that violent means, for which the Cleveland mob has furnished the example, will be resorted to as a preventive? The people of Philadelphia have tamely submitted to many municipal steals, but is it possible { that they will go on heing subjected to gas work grabs and the stealing of street rail- way and other franchises without their pinds being eventually turned in the di- rection of tar and feathers as a remedy ? May they not, in sheer desperation, he driven o the application of such a tarry and feath- ery coating to the building commissioners who do not propose to let up in squander- ing millions on the city hall? And it may come to such a pass that the people of the State may be provoked to tarring and feathering Legislators and Governors who sacrifice the public interest in deals with Standard oil companies and other corpora- tions to the disadvantage of the people. Such proceedings on the part of the pop- ulace would have much the appearance of mob violence, and would bear a close re- semblance to lynching, but it should be born in mind that bad government, the unfaithful performance of public trusts and the inadequate execution of the law, are the prolific sources of mob violence, and are strong inducements for the populace to take the law in their own hands. This form of lawlessness is an evil that develops a rapid and fearful growth, as shown by the increasing frequency of lynchings, and the indifference with which familiarity has led the public mind to re- gard such lawless occurrences. A Cleveland mob has set the example of employing vio- lence as a remedy for municipal rascality. It is likely to be imitated in other cities, and it is thus that inefficient execution of the law, dishonesty and unfaithfulness in representative government, and corrupt administration of public affairs, excite mob violence and will eventually produce a condition of anarchy. Monopolistic Activity. Such is the activity that prevails among the monopolies that it is a cold day that doesn’t witness the formation of a trust. The other day a single morning’s news in- formed us that no less than three of these monopolistic combinations had simultane- ously started to plunder the public. One of them was the old steel trust that had been’ reorganized on a basis designed to harmonize its predatory operations. Another was the wire and nail pool, which has combined enough capital to break down weak competitors and to run small operators out of the market. and the third was a combination of bottle manufacturers who propose to so completely bottle that business that those presuming to compete with them will find themselves corked up. When it is considered that these com- binations are in violation of existing laws it would seem surprising that they should venture into such unlawful operations, but it isn’t at all risky in view of the fact that courts, legislative bodies, and executive functionaries favor the trusts and tariffs are made for their benefit. The people may not like them, but with the backing which the monopolists have in high quar- ters they can say, as VANDERBILT once said, ‘“The people be d da!” cs What Need for a Tariff When Such Conditions Obtain From the Philadelphia Times. All the talk about a European Commer- mercial Union to resist the encroachments of the American export trade has been as yet mere talk so far as any effect upon the foreign demand for American products is concerned. The domestic exports from American ports for the month of November reached a total of $82,323,699, as increase over October of $5,000,000, an increase of $6,000,000 over November, 1896 ; of $22 - 000,000 over November, 1895, and of $24, - 000,000 over November, 1894. Whether compared with the previous months of the current year or with the same month of the three preceeding years November’s exports have beaten the record. An examination of the principal articles of export shows however, that the increase was chiefly in the food products, corn, oats, oatmeal, rye and wheat. The short Euro- pean crops have made American breadstufls a necessity, and necessity knows and res- pects no law or combination of govern- ments to discourage exports from a coun- try that has the bread to sell that is want- ed for hungry mouths. There wasa de- crease in our exports of manufactured goods, including mineral oils, and in the value of the cotton exported, but the increased ex- port of food products more than made good all deficienies in other lines. Gratifying as these figures are in the ag- gregate they furnish food for thought to those who desire that the existing volume of American exports shall be maintained. European crops may be better next year, and the demand for our food products may be lessened in consequence. There should be no relaxation of effort, therefore, to ex- tend our trade in lines of production that do not depend upon crop conditions. We should increase our exports in the products of our mines, mills and forges, and espe- cially should we seek to increase our trade with our American neighbors. It may be taken for granted that Ameri- can food products will not be excluded from European markets when there is a real scarcity abroad. The hungry will have to be fed, and the food must be sought in the countries that producs it. But the threat of a European combination against Ameri- can manufactures has already been follow- ed by legislation in Germany unfriendly to American petroleum, and similar action may be taken elsewhere. It will be the wise thing, therefore, for our manufactur- ing interests while pushing their wares in Europe and Asia to entrench themselves on American soil in order to be prepared for future possible contingencies. We Have no Objection to Growing, But Not on Hawaiian Diet. From the New York Sun. It is Mr. CooNEY, of Missouri, who arises in the House of Representatives to offer a joint resolution to cut off Hawaii forever from this Union by means of an amend- ment of the constitution : ARTICLE XVI. “No new State, the territory ot which, ora part thereof, is not contiguous to the United States, shall be admitted by the Congress into this Union.” Article XVI. of the constitution of the United States will be a long time coming ; and when it comes it will not be in the shape of Congressman COONEY’S proviso as to territorial contiguity. There is Southern Alaska, for example; sure some day to be a populous and pros- perous member of the sisterhood of States. MR. CooNEY’S amendment, were it con- ceivable that it could ever pass Congress by a two-thirds vote in each House and then be ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of all the States, would com- pel us to keep out Southern Alaska until we should have captured and annexed British Columbia, if that interesting part of the Dominion, along with the rest of Canada, had not meanwhile come volun- tarily into our Union. One of the wisest provisions of that in- comparably wise and far-seeing instrument, the constitution of the United States, is that which makes itso exceedingly difficult for any fool or fools to change the text of the fundamental law. Are We Exporting More Wheat than We Can Spare? From the Philadelphia Record. The special wheat investigation institu- ted by the Federal Department of Agricul- ture indicates a crop yield of 539,000,000 bushels. These figures are subject to mod- ification in the final report; but as they stand they give official recognition to the fact that the production of wheat in 1897 was larger than that of any year since 1891. The government estimate, however, is still below that of several trade experts. As- suming a population of 73,000,000, and assuming also that under improved busi- ness conditions the domestic wheat con- sumption for the crop year will be normal, the official figures suggest that the export. able surplus from the 1897 crop will not he much over 135,000,000 bushels, of which considerably more than 100,000, 000 bush- els has already gone out of the country, The uncertain factor in the calculation is the quantity that was atailable from pre- vious crops when the 1897 crop was har- vested. Nobody expects that the wheat exports for the cereal year will fall so low as 135,000,000 bushels; on the contrary, experts believe that the exportation will reach a total of 200,000,000 bushels. If the latter expectation. should be realized the event would prove, as in several recent years, that the government estimate of the yield was too small. The Government Should be as It Re- quires Its Honest Citizens to Be. From the Lebanon Star. If a private corporation ran behind $46,- 000,000 in five months everybody would consider its affairs to be in a very bad way, wouldn’t they ? Well, that is just what the government has done since the first of last July. Yet ; the Republicans ask us to believe that the Dingley tariff isa good thing. — Subscribe for the WATCHMAN. Spawls from the Keystone. —The Lycoming county teachers’ institute began its thirty-fifth annual session at Jersey Shore Monday. —The farmers’ alliance and industrial alli- ance are in session in Williamsport, 40° coun- ties being represented. —~Caught under a pilot of a locomotive and shoved 25 feet, Lewis Parish, of Tamaqua, escaped with a broken leg. —George Wengle, proprietor of the Arion Garden, Reading, has been held in bail for selling liquor without a license. —Preparations are under way for a re- sumption of the Sheridan furnaces, in the Lebanon valley, after long idleness. —State school superintendent Schaffer de- clares that manual training should be. made a part of the public school system. —The Patriotic Sons of America camps, of Pottsville observed the golden jubilee of the order Monday by attending church. —Mrs. Garrett Slemple and her son, of Shannonville, who were bitten by a mad dog, have lived without water for 18 days. —Rev. W. R. Harshaw, pastor of the First Union Presbyterian church, of New York, has accepted a call to the East Pittston church. —Frank Sells, aged 8, of Farmers’ hotel, near Pottsville, disappeared over a week ago, and is supposed to have been stolen by wan- dering minstrels. —A wounded deer, which had taken ref- uge in an abandoned hut in Luzerne county, nearly killed two girls and a man, who at- tempted to capture it. —Philip Hill, whose execution was post- poned at Pittsburg just as he was about to step on the gallows, says that he expects to be hanged eventually. —A tumor weighing 153 pounds was re- moved from the body of Mrs. Jeremiah Swartz, who died Sunday at Centre valley, Lehigh county, aged 56. —~Caught between cars as they bumped together, John Shorer, a Western Maryland railroad brakeman, was instantly killed Sunday at Shippensburg. —Walking on the Lehigh valley railroad at Beaver Meadow, Monday, Ilk Pall was in- stantly killed by a train, his head being crushed into a shapeless mass, —-About 500 car loads of freight now pass over the middle division of the Pennsylva- nia railroad daily. If this keeps up it will break all previous December records. —A car wheel manufacturing plant with a capacity of 85 tons a day is to be established at Pittsburg. The company has been organ- ized by J. D. Rhedes, of Allegheny. —Benjamin J. Jarrett, son of John Jarrett, of the American iron and steel association, wants to be a United States district attorney for the western distriet of this State. —A motion of quash the indictment charg- ing controller Severn, of Pottsville. with misdemeanor in office was argued in the Schuylkille county courts on Monday. —Two children of Edward Bowley, of Ly- coming county, have been awarded $2000 for injuries received by being dragged over a precipice by a team of horses. The township must pay. —An exploding steam pipe at Richards colliery, at Shamokin, Monday scalded John R. Williams, master mechanic of the Union coal company, and it is feared that he will not recover. —The family of Gus Linn, near Houtz- dale, which not long ago comprised the father, mother and five children, has, with- in a few weeks rast, been entirely wiped out; by diphtheria, the mother and two children being buried last week. —Frank Pecker, W. E. Meyers and James Anderson, three Montgomery men, intend leaving for the Klondyke gold fields about March 1. The men will take a large dog along to haul their provisions when they reach that country. —An end of one of the logs that were taken out of the farm house of S. M. McCormick, near Salona recently, was sawed off'a few days ago, when the pine stick was found to be in a sound state of preservation. The log had been in the house for over 100 years. The dwelling was erected by Samuel Wilson. —Monday was the day set by the Franklin county commissioners for the 70 tramps in the county jail to begin work on the big stone pile in the jail yard. When the over- seer went to notify them to go to work, he was informed they were not prepared to labor until better lodging and food were ee nished. —A novel wedding occurred at Glen Camp- bell last week. The groom is 38 years old and weighs 280 pounds and the bride a blush- ing maiden of 16 summers tips the beam at 90 pounds. They are cousins and both from Montgomery township, Indiana county. Two of the groom’s brothers are married to two of the bride’s sisters and the oldest brother is married to the youngest sister. —Mary Jones, a 14-year-old Johnstown girl, was shot through the head, Saturday evening, and instantly killed by George Barringer, a Salvation Army leader of that town. The girl was at the Barringer home, when Barringer, who was fooling with a target gun, accidentally discharged the weapon ; the bullet passing through the child’s head. ' A coroner’s jury exonerated Barringer. : —The receipts of the Tyrone postoftice for the year ending November 30th, 1897, were $27,247.96 for stamps and stamped goods. dl claim is made that no other second class office in the United States handles as many ‘money orders and registered letters as the Tyrone office, and that no other office ina town or city four times the size of Tyrone sell as many stamps or handles as much mail as it does. In consequence of its growing business, the office now employs five carriers and six clerks. —The Pennsylvania rail-road has now over 90,000 freight cars equipped with the automatic coupler, and 60,000 with air brakes and automatic couplers. All the locomotives of the company, which number about 3,700, are supplied with the automatic air brakes, and all the passenger cars, numbering about 4,000, have both the automatic coupler and air brake. All the new cars which the com- pany has constructed for some time past have been equipped with both the automatic coupler and the air brake. sy
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers