5 B kB & i : : i BY P. GRAY MEEK. nme su rmsamm— Ink Slings. No more he'll go the pace that kills In this social, sporting strife A panacea for such ills He’s found in ihe simple life. —Mis. CAssIE CHADWICK ought to be an expert pianist, she has such an artistic touch. ~The President says ‘‘disarmament is i mpracticable.”’ Of course it is as long as he keeps brandishing the ‘big stick.’’ —The bad little boy of a month ago is no more. Christmas time approaches and there are no bad little boys. © —Up in the air went the fond hopes of a number of Bellefonters when Amalga- mated copper took thas big drop the other day. —With copper back to fifty-nine it looks very much as if the fellows who failed to sell at eighty-two were leading the simple life. —If PuiLLik KNOX isnt a good little boy in the Senate Santa Claus PENNY will put a bunch of switches in his stocking on Christmas eve. —Uncle SorLLY DRESSER could make a "ten stroke by introduelng a bill in Congress appropriating a hundred thousand or more fora public building in Bellefonte. —The janitor of the CARNEGIE library in Pittsbarg is certainly doing all he can to help ANDY die poor. He is drawing a salary of four thousand dollars a year. ' —What a blessing it would be if Belle- fonte could only deliver the water that is daily flowing away from her bounteous spring to the districts in she country tbat are actually suffering from drouth. —The President’s message says *‘Philip- phive independence is hoped for.” The puzzle of course is to be found in which side hopes: The Filipino or the Presi- dent. .—CassiE CHADWICK, Mr. THoMAS L'AwsoN and J. EDWARD O’SULLIVAN ADDICKS constitute a trio that has done much towards helping other people to lead the simple life. —Governor ODELL, of New York, says “PLATT talks too much.’ However that may be the public generally believes that it takes a great deal more talk from the ‘‘eagy boss’’ to tell what he knows than it would from ODELL. —The President on Tuesday sent the na me of JOHN GOWLAND to the Senate for confir mation as postmaster of Philipsburg. It is up to ANDY BOLGER and HARRY WARFEL to *‘take and tell’’ the people how it happened. ~Mr. ‘THomas Lawsox says he will play his'strongest card against Copper to- day. Judging from the panic his letters have already caused in copper trading, he must have held a hand that was stronger than most speculators supposed. —PENNYPACKER'S injunction to KNOX to be good doesn’t mean much. If the doting old Governor thought QUAY was good enough to be left alone there is little danger of his seeing anything wrong in any of Philander’s actions in the Senate. —We endorse ‘our friend Tod COOPER'S suggestion that Pennsylvania return to the old, ‘* vest pocket’’ ballot. An effective personal registration law with a ballot that will prevent a man from delivering the goods hehind a red curtain will do more to purify the elections than any other prop- osition advauced thus far. —The fact that Dr. GEo. W. CURRIER, the wealthy president of the Nashua Trust Co., of Nashua, N. H., has sued for an ab- solute divorce from his wife because she talks in her sleep is a reminder to other women addicted to this babit, though we presume tbat most of them would be per- fectly willing to have a man to talk back. The simple life idea seems to be spread- ing. Everyday we are becoming more and more convinced that the SIMON who once met a pieman whilegoing to the fair was not such an idiot after all; he was simply ahead of his time. At the present day there would have been more in his class and that fabled stunt of his going to see if plums grew on thistles wouldn’t have aroused m ore than passing comment. —The death of CHARLES NELAN, the cartoonist, at the age of forty-five years, brings deep regret to those who are famil- iar with his work. Of recent years the power of the cartoon has become a wonder- ful factor in the monlding of public senti- ment and Mr. NELAN’S work was of the strong est. While deathis sad aud life is sweet probably it were better that the career of Mr. NELAN should come to a close in the height of its success than that he should live to have it dimmed hy the signs of weakness that have lately shown themselves in HOMER DAVENPORT'S efforts. —A College song has been substituted for the doxology in the chapel of Chicago University. This is right in line with the sensational lot of Professors they have at- tached to that institution. Iirst they come along trying to make the public be- lieve that a person can live on fifteen cents a week, then they call all us fellows, who have to part what Iitsle bit of hair we do haye in the middlein order to make the best showing possible, degenerates. How- ever we will stand for this tom foolery but when it comes to distorting the good old ‘doxology into asong of praise—probably for ROCKEFELLER—we think it about time for the dog catcher to appoint a new faculty for Chicago: VOL. 49 es STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA., DEC. 9, 1904. What Roosevelt Wants, President ROOSEVELT'S message, read in Congress on Tuesday, is characteristic. It expresses two thoughts, centralization and paternalism. The President would bave the National government paramount in everything. He wants Congress to legis- late so as to give him authority to regulate the terms of agreement between capital and labor, the freight rates on railroads, the size and architecture of the houses in which the people live and the domestic affairs of every family. He wants to deter- mine the age at which children may be employed and prohibit women from work- ing in factories altogether. Since the foundation of the government no President has written as ROOSEVELT has written in his annual message this year. He touches every question of per- sonal or domestic interest and except a long rigmarole about the absurd Agri- cultural Department has nothing to say about the affairs of the government. He wants a big army, of course, and a vast navy, for the reason, as he states it, that it is unwise and contemptible for ‘‘a nation to use high sonnding language to pro- claim its purposes, unless supported by potential force.”’ In other words he is of the opinion that a bully should have a big stick, which is probably true. A bully needs physical strength. But what’s the use of being a bully, ex- cept for the fact that posing feeds the vanity of RoosevELT. This country got alcng well and made vast progress without bullying or bantering anybody. During a ceutury of achievement we bad obly a nominal army and a meagre navy, but within that time we vanquished the world in the arts of peace and made all nations of the earth look to us for food. Bust thas sort of victories don’t suit ROOSEVELT. He wants to hear the rattle of the spurs and the jingle of the scabbard. He wants to kill, and burn, and devastate. He wants the conquest of arms. Mr. Cochran’s Mistake. Hon. BURKE CoCcHRAN, of New York, in- troduced a bill in Congress. on Monday, making it a misdemeanor to contribute money for political Bimpaigns, except on certain conditions. That is to say if the contribution exceeds $50 the contributor must file an account of it in the office of Clerk of the United States court, stating the amount and to, whom it was paid, Two weeks after the ‘contribution has been made the account of it must be published in two newspapers of ‘opposite politics, and failure to comply with any or all of these conditions is punishable by imprisonment for not less than one year or more than three years. Obviously Mr. COCHRAN has misinter- preted the evil which he aims to cure. The subject of his complaint and that of others like him is that by large contribu- tious to the campaign fund of a party the corporations of the countrys control the elections and regulate the politics of the government to the prejudice of the inter- ests of the people. "The remedy for that evil is not in making it either difficult or embarrassing for an individual to contrib- ute to the legitimate! expenses of the cam- paign. What is wanted is a law forbidding the officers of corporations from contribut- ing any amount for Political purposes. The funds of a corporation belong to the stockholders and the officers have no right to contribute them %o any purpose other than the legitimated expenses of the cos poration. Some corporations have what is called ‘‘contingent ffinds’’ which are used for sundry unlawfol purposes, but all such uses are illegal and @riminal, and the best Mr. COCHRAN could¥do would be to intro- duce and urge the passage of a law defin- ing the just punishment for such offenses. Such a measure as hg has proposed would be clearly unconsfitusional, moreover; for every man has § right to do with his own money what likes without being subject to inguisato@al meddling. Eight dollars per éapita, or that amount collected each year for governmental expen- diture for every man, woman and child within the United States. is not a very ex- pensive kind of government, as our Repub- lican friends would have the people be- lieve. Possibly to it is not, but to th fellow with a ten- stomached family apd a dollar a day in- come it may appeardifferent. If taxes in this country were levied on the income or wealth of its citizeps instead of upon the necessities that must be had to feed and clothe the people, an average of eight dol- lars per capita bi not be extravagant. But unfortunately tr those with the least to protect or enjoy, they are compelled to pay just as much tox meet the general ex- penditure of the government as the man who has millions gnd who can pay the eight dollars for each of his family without feeling it. It is ong: system of tariff taxa- tion that makes i And the fellow with the big famil¥ and small wages is usually the one wha votes blindly to con- tinue this system. ny, in a general way, Shame of the Salter Case. The Philadelphia Ledger of last Sunday publishes a history of the infamous SAMUEL SALTER trial in that city, a few years ago, which reveals conditions there that should make every Philadelphian blush with shame. It shows that Insurance Com- missioner DURHAM not only controls the courts but that under his direction juries are made up of crooks and criminals and public officials are forced to perjure them- selves at his command. At the time of the trial, according to the narrativein ques- tion, present Mayor JOHN WEAVER was District Attorney and DURHAM told him that he had packed a certain jury and that the SALTER case must be called to tiial before that jury. WZAVER said it was awful but he submitted. . When Insurance Commissioner DUR- HAM made that proposition to the District Attorney any other than a confirmed criminal would have promptly sent him to jail. But WEAVER didu’t do that. Any other than a perjured villain would have held the case for another jury. But WEA- VER didn’t do that. What he did do was call the case before the court selected by DURHAM, for trial by the jury fixed by DURHAM, and after a false pretense of zeal in the prosecution and much bluster and braggadocio, permit perjured witnesses to prove an alibi even in the face of the testi- mony of SALTER himself that the alibi was false and that the witness who testified to his criminality had told ‘‘the truth, the whole trush and nothing but the trath.”’ « Another strange feature of the narrative in question is the statement that every man connected with the crime and trial of SAL- TER except one has since heen generously rewarded for his perfidy. WEAVER was almost immediately promoted tothe office of Mayor. Assistant District Attorney VoN MosCHZISKER has since been- placed on the bench. MALONEY, the star witness in the carnival of perjury, has been made Harbor ‘Master, a lucrative state office, and SALTER hasbeen appointed assistant chief clerk in the office of the City Commission- ers. Each member of the bogus jury has been provided for in some suhstantial way and the man of the lot who was allowed to suffer is the one who plead guilty and was sentenced to punishment. : ——=So far we have not heard that the ROOSEVELT administration is to be credited with the financial prosperity that seems to have followed Mrs. CASSIE CHADWICK through all his first term of office. He has claimed credit for about every other kind of prosperity that has been going and if there is any particular reason why this one should be left off the list some one should come to the front and explain the why of it. Groundless Fear, No Hope. We won’t believe there is any reason for the fear expressed by Representative JOBN SHARP WILLIAMS, of Mississippi, in a speech delivered in Spartanburg, South Carolina, a few days ago. Mr. WiL- LIAMS apprehends the outting down of the representation of that section in Congress and the electoral colleges as one of the consequences of the election of ROOSEVELT and recommends as a remedy for that evil what he calls a ‘‘passive resistance.’’ That is, he suggests that in the event that such a law is passed the Southern people pay no attention tc it, elect the same number of Congressmen as they do at present and appeal to the courts for jus- tice. : One could hardly imagine a greater measure of injustice than depriving the the South of equal representation in Con- gress because ignorant negroes are not permitted to control the elections. When the menace of that condition was present most of the Southern States amended their conatitution by inserting an educational qualification for the elective franchise. No concealment of the reason for the ac- tion was attempted. It was within the con stitutional province of the people and the dread of negro domination compelled them to avail themselves of the expedient. But it isn’t a violation of the Fifteenth amendment to the Federal constitution for it treats all illiterates alike, substan- tially. But suppose a Congress made drunk by success should undertake to punish the South in that way, retaliation would be an easy matter. In Pennsylvania, for ex- ample, the payment of a poll tax is as much a discrimination against a certain element in the voting population as the education- al qualification’ is in the South. Of course by frauduient processes the total vote of this State is kept up to about what it would be on a fair vote with the restric- tions removed. But fraudulent voting is a crime of the gravest character and mus be stopped sooner or latzr, so in the end the cutting down in the South wonld work the same result in the North, for the right of a State to regulate the franchise is inalienable. For Credulons Contemporaries. We have been somewhat amused recent- ly at the credulity of some of our esteemed Pennsylvania contemporaries as revealed in their comments upon the reply of Gov- ernor PENNYPACKER to the Philadelphia preachers who solicited bim to co-operate with them in an effort to get ballot re- form legislation from the coming Legis- lature. The Harrisburg Star-Independent and the Wilkesbarre Record, for example, interpret the rather disconrteons reply of the Governor so as to make him mean that heis cordially in favor of bonest elections, They might as well declare that the energy of a burglar is the best sign in the world that he isa worthy and thrifty citizen. Governor PENNYPACKER is not in favor of honest elections and he will never willingly do anything to promote ballot reform legislation. He knows as well as he knows when his salary is due that honest elections would put men of his character and kind out of public life as completely as if they were dead. PENNY- PACKER and PENNYPACKERism is the product of ballot frauds. PENNYPACKER- ism is different from QUAYism and iu- finitely more detestible. It embraces all the evils and vices of QUAYism and adds that most despicable of all reprehensible characteristics, hypocrisy. QUAY openly confessed his iniquities. PENNYPACKER practiced them under a cloak of virtue. No, PENNYPACKER won’t help the clergymen of the State to get ballot re- form legislation during the coming session of the Legislature or at any other sime. He won’t help anybody to get any kind of reform. He wants bad government be- cause bad government helps him to get office and office feeds his inordinate and absurd vanity. Our ‘credulous contem- poraries may mean well in thus deceiving the public as to the iutention of PENNY- PACKER, but they are accomplishing no good by their course. Ob the contrary, they are helping the Governor to practice his hypocrisy or at least making it easier for him to fool the “public with his false pretenses. ‘I'hat is a poor way to conduct a newspaper. By © oy a —~1f the W. C. T. U. Star course of entertainments in Petriken hall keeps up to the standard of the opening attraction there will be crowded houses at all of the four remaining ones of the season ; that is if Bellefonte people appreciate strictly high class, artistic entertainment. The Katharine Ridgeway Concert Co. was one of the finest ever seen in Bellefonte; in fact it was de- cidedly an all-star aggregation and how the management can present such high class people at the ridiculously low prices prevailing for the Star course is a matter of wonderment. Meagre But Able. * There will not be many Democrats in the next Legislature of this State. Accord- ing to the official ‘‘Directory’’ of the body there will be ten Democratic Senators out of fifty and fifteen Democratic Represen- tatives out of two hundred and four. On the face of the returns, therefore, little is to be expected of the minority. In the Senate, if the committees are made up of the usual number it will be possible to put ‘two Democrats on each committee. But in the House of Representatives if the common custom prevails there will probably be only one Democrat on each committee of fifteen or twenty members and each Democrat will be obliged to serve on every committee if there is tobe minority representation on all. In the history of the Legislature such a disparity has never occurred before. In the committees there will hardly be enough to move a measure ont for it requires the motion and a second and when the meas- ure gets out the minority will not have strength enough in the House to move the previous question, if exigencies should recommend such a motion. Moreover with a third of the majority members absent there would still be enough left to carry any proposition by a two-thirds vote in the Honse and nearly enough to achieve the same result in the Senate. Under such circumstances the minority can’t be held responsible in any respect for any part of the proceedings. Bus the meagre Democratic force in the Legislature can and will make itself heard and felt. The handful of Senators won’t be able to stop any vicious measure which the machine has determined to pass. The small contingent in the Honse of Repre- sentatives won’t be able to even retard the progress of bad legislation in that body. But the Democoratic Senators and Representatives will be alike able to point ont the inignities of the machine legis- lation and they willdo that on every occasion. There are not many of them, but what there are have the ability and courage to perform their duties on all occasions and they will do that ‘‘though the heavens fall.” —The first snow of the season in this section, fell Monday afternoon, and the rabbit hunters were out in force on Tues- day. Where the Difference Is. From the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune: Some Republican papers are predicting that the Demooratic party will be swallow- ed by the Socialist party. Others are say- ing that Mr. Bryan and other radical Democrats wish to invade the Socialist party for campaign issues; an assertion based on the delusion that public owner- ship of natural monopolies is socialistic, and that one who advocates public owner- ship of city lighting plants, waterworks, street and steam railroads, ete., is a Social- ist. The trouble is more than half of the editors who bawl ‘‘socialiem?’ at what they do not like or donot understand, don’t know what socialism means. The whole philosophy of socialism rests upon this demand; Public ownership of all the means and in- struments of production. No such idea isto be found in the Democratic philosophy. The Democrat believes in individual freedom; he would leave the individual a free field, without favors or speoial privilege. He has no thought of organizing society on military lines. He would leave society free to organize itself, knowing that government is a natural growth. ; The Socialist would take away in- dividual freedom and initiative. He would organize society on a sort of military basis. He would make all the means and instruments of production public property. The laborer would be compelled to work under captains of industry chosen by ‘‘the government’’—as they are now chosen indirectly by the government when it guacts tariff and other special privilege aws. The system of the Socialist contemplates nothing but a despotism, democratic in form and as absolute in substance as that of Russia. The Socialist would destroy the ‘‘wage system’’ and would substitute —merely another wage system, because nothing else could he established. He is ferociously opposed to ‘‘interest,”’ hecause he does not understand that interest is part of the natural law. While there is nothing common between socialism and democracy, there is a great deal in common between the Socialist and the Republican who follows Hamilton, however little there may be in common between Socialists and Lincoln Repub- licans—or Jefferson Republicans like Lincoln. i Hamilton Republicans and Socialists have a grudge against the natural law of competition. The first would wipe out such competition as interferes with privi- Jeged classes. The second would utterly estroy competition {Becaise he believes | competition is & failure w en, in “fact, Hamilton Republicans have chained it. Socialists and Hamilton Republicans are alike in olassing monopolies and capi- talists together. Hamilton Republicans and Socialists believe together in a strong centralized government. They would put a ball and chain on individoal effort. They demand a strong head to direct the affairs of citizens. They would divert industry from its natural channels. The Hamilton Republican says the government should take care of the few, and let the few take care of the many. The Socialist says the government should take care of all. So there is not so much difference between Socialists and Hamilton Republicans. That is Just What it Shonld Be. From the Scranton ‘Republican. These Philadelphia clergymen are nog the only persons, however, who favor the passage of a personal registration law. Quite on the contrary, there is a consid- erable sentiment in favor of the enactment of sucha measure prevailing all over the State. The belief is that it would prevent frand at the elections, especially in the large cities. If, therefore, a personal reg- istration act will insare honest voting it ought to be passed. But if such a law is to be placed on the statute books it shonld be no half-way measure, but to be ef- fective must be carefully prepared, and above all, be backed by saitable provisions insuring its enforcement and the adequate punishment of those who violate it by voting fraudulently or doing anything else contrary to the law. A Correct Understanding of the Ballot. From the New York World. What the ballot is for, primarily, sec- ondarily and ultimately, is to express the will of the voter. And the only object in drafting a ballot law should be to enable the voter to express his will easily, hon- estly and secretly. In Massachusetts the ballot law makes it difficult to vote a straight ticket. In New York the ballot law makes it difficult to vote a split ticket. Neither law is as it should be. There should be no attempt in the ballot law to try to force the voter to do anything. If a voter is willing to vote blindly, re-