I
Sy BP. GRAY MEEK.
Ink Slhags.
-=That Russian girl who was caught
with a bomb in her hair must have been
setting a death trap for her rat.
—1t was pot a surprise that the Sbamo-
kin man who tried to commit suicide by
drinking a bottle of mucilage should get
stuck oun bis job.
—Jouy OLEWINE has been suffering for
the past week with what be is pleased to
call lumbago. It is probably gout super
induced by the automobile rate of living.
—1If the reformers are going to put the
“Pink pillx for paie people’ out of busi-
ness we suppose all there will be left for
the pale people to do will be to use rouge.
—~PLUMBERS doubtless now can under-
stand that their proeperity does not de-
pend upon the Republioan party. The
past winter seems to have settled that
question for them.
—JIen’t it soon time to hear something
about the Delaware peach crop? And,
co me to think of it, Prof. SURFACE hasn’s
b een doiug his duty on the ‘‘San-Josie’
scale publicity propaganda lately.
—Both Mr. QUIGLEY aud Mr. WOMELS-
DORF having announced themselves for the
Sen ate leaves matters look as if we might
bave a little fun out of politics in [this
county during the summer after all.
—MircHELL CUNNINGHAM baving
withdrawn from the contest for water su-
perintendent and there being no other ap-
plicant to cause him farther alarm Supt.
SAM RINE is no longer on the anxious
bench.
—The glory of that extra, quarter mill-
ion dollar session seems to have goue into
decline very early. Its only about three
weeks since it quit business, and the peo-
ple are already wondering what good it was
any way.
—We sincerely hope the court does nog
intend dailying with the licenses this year.
There could bave been only one reason for
holding them all over until the 17th and
that for the purpose of disposing of them
all finally at one time.
—The Czar of Russia took a nap after
reading the biography of the Hon. THOM-
AS BRACKET KEED then decided thata
national legislative body need not necessa-
rily be as Democratic in its functions as
the name would imply.
—The new council has been organized
and surface indications are to the effect
that every member is satisfied and bappy.
Let us hope for harmony io the work of
the body aud if they have that they will
have efficiency and economy.
— Now Doctor, pus the streets in better
condition than they have ever been, keep
the crossings olean, build what sewers are
necessary and spend less money than {your
predecessors have done for the same work
and you will be making good some.
—Unblushbingly the Philadelphia Record
on Wednesday sent to the world the fol
lowing head line over a column of news
matter : Cow Peas in the Spring.’’ If she
k eeps ber health she will probably do the
same thing in the fall and in the summer,
maybe.
—OQur up town contemporaries who
worked so bard to give Bellefontea Repub-
lican conucil have doubts already if the
new is going to be any better than the old.
The victory that they boasted so loudly
about, don’t seem to have been what they
thought is was as all.
—1In Spain they have sent an editor to
prison for eight years for saying barsh
things about the King. In this country
when we are forced by conviction to say
harsh things about the President one hall
the people say : “Give 'im—h—"" and
the other half call us *‘liar.”
—Say Judge, what are we going to do
when the fishing season opens, if we can’t
buy a balf-pins to take along? If you are
going to cut that oat the ouly way you can
make good is to tarn yourself into a mod-
ern St. Patrick and drive all the snakes
away from the fishing streams.
—And the President has bad to call
another Democrat to his aid. Firat it was
that anarchist (?) TiLiMaN. Now it is
BAILEY the brilliant Texan to whom the
President has turned for additional sup-
port in bis fight to make the corporation
owned Senators of his own party pass the
railroad rate bill.
—A mao from Liberty, Oregon, who
says he was “nipped” in a mining scheme
a year ago and has felt like a burned dog
ever since, bas written to New York to
find out whether it is true that “‘RocKy-
PELLOW" has skipped and Standard oil is
all to the bad. And, to think, Oregon is
in the United States.
—With characteristic lack of back bone
the Governor will probably aliow the Phil-
adelphia “Ripper” repealer to become a
law without his sigoatere. This will be
indisputable proof that the Governor's
heart and conscience was not in the work
of the extia session in so faras is attempt.
ed to undo any of the pernicious measures
of the lass regular session.
—The old council needs no defence in
ths eyes of the majority of people in Belle-
fonte. Its works are its defence and no
such public improvements have been made
in Bellefonte since the borough water ser.
vice was inaugurated. Of course the whip-
per-snappers will continue their clatter,
but no one pays any attention to them and
the town moves on as if their yelp had nev.
er been heard.
Contrary to popular expectation Gover-
nor PENNYPACKER has officially approved
the “‘Corrupt Practices Act,’’ passed dur-
ing the session of the Legislature. As late
as Saturday of last week a man closely re-
lated to his official household and known
to be in his confidence, predicted that he
would either veto it or allow it to become
a law without his approval. Bat on Mon-
day evening he gave it his approval and it
is now a law. In this he was a trifle
tardy. That is to say, if be bad signed the
measure before the Spring election there
would have been less corruption in the mu-
nicipal contest in Pittsburg. But on the
principle of ‘‘better late than never,’”’ his
delayed action will give general popular
satisfaction.
Electoral corraption had become eo fre-
quent and enormous that restraining legis-
lation wae a necessity. In all the cities
and in some of the country districts this
evil bad become so common that all other
than rich men were practically excluded
from public life. Nominations in some lo-
calities cost more thao the salary of the
office and successfal candidates were com-
pelled to graft to reimburse themselves or
maintain themselves while in office from
other sources of revenue. Such a condition
of affairs is necessarily demoralizing and
must have resulted ultimately in malleas-
ance in office. It is to be hoped that the
passage and approval of the ‘‘Corrupt Prac-
tices Aot,’’ will remove that davger.
The measure as it passed finally permits
a liberal use of money for campaign pur-
poses and might bave been improved by a
closer pruning. That is, it is still lawfal
to expend money without limit for print-
ing, traveling and personal expevses inci-
dent thereto ; for stationery, advertising,
postage, expressage, freight, telegraph,
telephone and messenger servise ; political
meetings and conventions and for the pay
and transportation of speakers. The rent,
maintenance and furnishing of offices, the
payment of clerks, typewriters, stenogra-
phers and jauitors are allowed and the em-
pleyments of watchers and the cost of trans-
portation of voters are provided for. There
is certainly latitude enough in that to sat-
isfy anyone.
The merit vf the mieasare lies, however,
in the provision for publicity. Within fi
teen days after the nomination or election
each candidate and the chairman of his
committee if his campaign was conducted
by a committee, an account of all his re-
ceipts and expenditures must be filed.
‘This account muss be in detail and sworn
to and if there is any reason to doubt the
accuracy or completeness of it five oitizens
may appeal to the court for anaundit and
it it is found that his account is inaccurate
or money was spent for other than legiti-
mate purposes, the Attorney, General shall
proceed against the candidate by quo war-
ranto aod if he has been nominated the
nomination is deolared invalid and if
elected the office is vacant.
fifty Mn More Wanted.
The President ked for $50,000,000
for coast defences. In addition to vast im-
provements in and inoreases of the fortifi-
cations on our own coast lines he eays thas
“in the insular possessious the great naval
bases at Guantanamo, Subig Bayaod Pearl
Harbor, the coaling stations at Guam and
San Joan, require protection, and, in addi-
ended for Ma-
a, because of the
of these localities.”
needs to be defend-
ed, the President adds, and all for the rea-
son that ‘‘the increased wealth of the
country offers more tempting inducements
to attack.’
Like Dox Quixote the President imag-
‘ines that everything before him is an ene-
my. Upon his curious mind all the les-
sons of civilization are lost. The fact that
the trend of the times is against war and
toward the peaceful settlement of disputes
“never touches’’ him. What he wants al-
ways are battleships and big guns. Our in-
sular possessions have already cost vastly
more than they are worth. The wisest
statesmen of the country are patiently con-
sidering plans to get rid of them as soon as
possible. Bat the President bas vo such
thoughts in his mind. He desires to mal-
tiply the cost so as to increase in equal ra-
0 the difficulties of unloading.
The curious passion of the President 1s
not altogether vanity, however. There is
something more davgetous than that be-
bind it all. The enterprises which the
President recommends are enormously ex-
pensive. They bave not brought poverty
to the people as yet because conditions
have been exceptiovally favorable. Bat
they have prevented the realization of the
full benefits of prosperity and when adver-
sity comes they will make poverty certain.
That is the result which is desired by the
imperialists and paternalists. They waut
to make the people helpless and depend.
ent, and that achieved, any form of usurp-
ation ie safe. Starving men bave little
heart to resist wrong.
———
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
The Chinese Boxers are quite as certain
allies of the supporters of militarism in
this country now as the celebrated Cobden
club of London was of the advocates of
tariff robbery a few years ago. It will be
remembered that up until withiv a dozen
years there used to be immediately preced-
ing every presidential election, the great-
est concern about the influence of the Cob-
den clubon the politics of this country.
Articles prepared here, and asserting that
the Cobden club had sent vast sums into
the United States for the use of the Demo-
cratio party, would appear in some merce-
pary and obscure London paper, and sabse-
quensly be reproduced in the tarifi-mon-
gering journals of the United States. The
result was that the tariff-grafters would dig
down into their pockets and give millions
to the Republican corraption fund, to pay
the expenses of electoral frande.
Asa matter of fact, the Cobden club
never contributed a penny to any campaign
fund in this countiy. The Cobden club
was an organization maintained for the
purpose of disseminating economic facts,
and, to use a homely phrase, was ‘‘as poor
as a church mouse.” ‘‘It was founded by
RicHARD COBDEN and his friends and ad-
mirers and composed of men of meagre re-
sources, for there like here, the wealthy
men were all, or nearly all, protectionists,
But the story was ‘‘a good enough Morgan
until after the election,” quadrennially,
and it was worked to the limit. There
was more or less surprise that people could
be fooled so frequently and some doubt as
to whether or not anybody was fooled at
all. In any event, however, the story
bebbad up in every presidential campaign
for more than a quarter of a century and it
brought the desired results every time.
The tarifi-mongers became liberal at once.
The Chinese Boxers bob up a little more
frequently, but they are becoming just as
transparent a fraud. About the time Con-
gress assembles annually the gravest re-
ports come from China of the davgers of
American missionaries and other American
residents in China as a result of an upris-
ing of Boxers. Nothing will save their
lives, it is regularly asserted, except av in.
crease of the army and finally public sen-
timens is so excited that Congress feels
obliged to vote whatever additional
amounts for the support of the service that
the most profligate militarists imagine nec-
essary. As soon as the appropriation bill
is passed the excitement abates and the
atrocione Boxers turn their attention to
their own business until the same time of
the following year. As Pack puts it,
*‘What fools we mortals be,”’ or it might
better be said, what rogues the politicians
are.
Tillman Disappoints Them.
As we predicted last week the selection
of Senator TILLMAN, of South Carolina, as
floor manager of the ‘‘rate bill” in the
United States Senate has proved a disap-
pointment to those who brought it about.
Being regarded as the President's *‘pet”
measure such superficial politicians as
Senators ALDRICH and ELKIN imagined
that the selection of TILLMAN as its cham-
pion would be fatal. TILLMAN is an io-
veterate and inflexible opponent of some of
the absurd and unconstitutional policies
and methods of the President. Therefore,
measuring the South Carolinian by their
own standard, be mast be an enemy of the
President, they responded, aud as an ene-
my he will kill the President's ‘‘pet”
piece of legislation.
Senator TILLMAN, of South Carolina,
may have his faults and no doubt has his
weaknesses. Bat he is not narrow, like
the agents and trust emissaries
in the body of which be is 8 member. In
other words, it doesn’t follow that because
be is diametrically opposed to certain poli-
cies and notions of the President he will
antagonize a measure that he believes to
be right for no othe: reason than that the
Presi dent favors it. On the contrary TILL-
MAN is likely to welcome the President as
an ally and while opposing him with un-
diminished energy in the things that are
wrong support him with cordial enthusi-
asm in masters in which he is right.
We are not entirely in accord with the
pending rate bill. We thoroughly uader-
stand thas the railroads have been abusing
their privileges and ought to be put under
proper restraint. But the right remedy is
not in a viclation of the federal conmstitu-
tion and the subversion of the fundamental
principles of the government. Ao applica-
tion of the penal provisions of the existing
laws would bring the corporations to terms
without the dangerous expedients embod-
ied in the pending measure. Nevertheless
we own a measure of satisfaction at the
miscarriage of the plans of ALDRICH and
his associates in the Senate,
With all his faults TILLMAN is worth
more than the entire outfit,
——March hasn't been doing bad for va-
riable weather so far. Coming in like a
lamb it rained a perfect deluge last Sator-
day with Sunday and Monday cold, mild
on Tuesday and a little snow Wednesday.
Truth and Its Effect.
Justice GAYNOR, of the Supreme court of
New York, touched asaliens point in an ad-
dress the other evening. His theme was
“‘Incorporate Abuses,” and while he nam-
ed no names he made himeelf thoroughly
understood. ‘‘What would a decent man
here in this community do’’’ he said, *‘it
he beard an officer was looking for him to
subpoena him to court to testify ? Would
be hide in tis house and bave his wife and
children and servants lie and say they did
not know where be was? Woald be hurry
into some other State or go aboard his
yacht, if he had one, and put to sea to es-
cape service ? Or would he come forward
like a decent man and say : ‘I am here.’ ”’
Unquestionably he bad Joux D. ROCKER
FELLER, the Standard Oil magnate and
process dodger, in mind.
It is a wholesome sign when men in the
position of Judge GAYNoR thus exeorate
one of the greatest evils of the times. For
months Mr. ROCKERFELLER has avoided
process servers by one expedient or anoth-
er, for the reason that be kmows that if he
testifies be muss either oriminate himself
or swear to lies, which is perjury. In
other words, the richest man in the world
understands that he bas acquired his wealth
by illegal methods and that if the facts are
judicially proved he must go to jail. Yet
he is precisely in the same position as most
of the railroad presidente aid other trust
magnates who have gained immense for.
tunes by devious methods. One may have
been more successful than others but it is
only a question of degree.
There cav be no misinterp: etatioh of the
language of Justice GAyNon. It simply
means that JOHN D. ROCKERFELLER, presi-
dent of the Standard Oil company and re-
puted to be the richest man in the world,
isa criminal and a fogitive from justice.
Possibly that woul in’t amount to much if
hie were treated like other criminals. Bat
unfortunately he isn’t, and for the reason,
not that he is less culpable, but that he is
more successful. As a matter of fact if
Mr. ROCKERFELLER were to come to this
town this evening, notwithstanding he is a
criminal and fogitive, everybody would be
anxious to pay him deference. In this
fact lies the danger. If we were all ready
$0 86% the truth as Justice GAYNOR spoke
it,there would be no ROCKERFELLERS and |
little danger.
Reform Defeated by Republicans.
At the close of business on the last day
of February there were nearly $12,000,000
of the general fund in the State treasury
and aboat $3,000,000 of the sinking fund.
As there are no extraordinary payments tc
be made between this time and the first of
May it may be assumed that the balances
when the recently elected State Treasurer
enters upon his duties, May 1, will be sub-
stantially the same. In other words, when
the new State Treasurer is inducted into
office there will be in the neighborhood of
$15,000,000 subject to transfer from the
present depositories to others, or to remain
in the present depositories, subject to the
pleasure of the board of revenue com-
missioners, composed of the State Treasur-
er, the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
the Auditor General and the Commission-
er of Banking.
The rate of interest on this money under
the law enacted during the special cession
is two per cent. Money may be worth four
per cent. or even more and it is said that
plenty of safe and sound banks are entirely
willing to give three per cent. But the
State will never get more shao the two per
cent. provided by law and the money will
go to the banks favored by a majority of
the revenue commissioners, Messrs, Mc-
AFEE, SNYDER and BERKEY, machine pol-
iticians and adherents of the QUAY con-
epiracy. The difference between two per
cent. and three or four will be used here.
alter as it has heen heretofore, as a corrup-
tion fund for debauching elections. By the
law enacted during the special session,
therefore, the reform victory achieved last
November has been converted into a defeat.
taxing the people in excess of the needs of | PO™®"
the government. There is no greater dan- | poi
ger to political morality than a treasury
surplus. Yet every effort to reduce the |
present enormous surplus during the epe-
cial session was defeated. Representative
CREASY introduced a bill providing that
personai and license taxes now paid into
the State treasury be hereafter paid into
the county treasuries. Such a diversion of | ara
taxes would not only have lightened the
burdens of local taxes but reduced the sur-
plus in the State treasury. But it was de-
feated by the practically unanimous vote
of the Republicans in both hranches of the
Legislature in order that the surplus in the
State treasury might be continued for the
evil purpose it bas heretofore served. ;
Be ted
we Prof. H. A. Surface, of State Zollege,
state economic geologist, is out with a bul-
Jetin in which he makes the announce-
ment that this is the year for the appear-
ance of the seventeen year locusts.
—Subseribe or the WATCHM AN.
Mr. Belmont Right For Once.
From the Harrisburg Star Independent.
Every Democrat will agree with Perry
ow ort easing $0 Paosktens
a ew to ent
Roosevelt as “‘a horn Democrat.” In a
letter to a member of the club Mr. Bel-
ay anys in H da 1 odevels
oes a .
erent which te andes oho Dime
©
and is a trae and a tL ak
Alexander Hamilton. * * * He has
can partisan, unwavering in his criticism
sal Demosstie Shen Jesgaty fives Thomas Jef -
erson present A
Mr. Belmont’s indignati is justly
aroused, but it should not be directed to-
ward the president. If Mr. Roosevelt is at
all sensitive he suffers quite as much
reason of overmuch adulation as Mr. Bel-
fons Wingo audet mis ation
party. To write president down
*‘a born Democrat’ is more than untrue.
It is an insult and a reproach to every real
Democrat who bas fought the 's bat-
tles. How any man can read letter ac-
cepting the nomination for the presidency
and then assert in the presence of men of
sense that the president is ‘‘a born Demo-
orat’’ passes understanding.
Betraying the Filipinos.
From the New York World.
The beet-sugar and tobacco Senators
alone could not have killed the Philippine
Tariff bill in commitiee-room. There was
an obvious desire to make trouble for the
Administration. Malice and factional pol-
itics stand ont all over the committee's
vote. i
For three Jeans Secretary Taft bas advo-
cated the bill as a mere matter of ji to
the Filipinos. President Roosevelt has
lent him every assistance. The Filipinos
orb 5 doy
ts were to be res at A
Year after year they have been put off
with false promices. This last setback,
after the pledges made to them by benevo-
lent imperialists, must a; ownright
treachery. It is bound to have a barmful
effect not only on Filipino trade, but, more
important, on Filipino sentiment toward
Americans.
No less will it shake confidence at home
in the success of our experiment in forei
sovereignty when the petty politics of the
Sontte produces such a miscarriage of slain
ustice.
Where the Barden Falls
From the Philadelphia Record. ~
Aheg d S
; trusé are at odds about a
division of the profits derived from the
mining of coal. The labor trust refuses to
delve unless its share of the profits is in-
creased. When the dispute reaches a crisis
likely to result in stoppage, the steel trust
takes a band. Having a 25-year contract
with the coal trust the steel trust threat-
ens to abrogate it unless the coal trust shall
reach an amicable arrangement with the
Iabor trust.
Upon this compulsion, as the matter now
siaide, it : believed bat the 26d] trust
agree to pay the labor trust a
cent. advance in first of April
bituminous strike will have been averted.
Thereupon burrah, and hallelujah ! Ca-
lamity is sidetracked. Glory to ore |
The steel trust secures its soft coal ap.
The coal trust gets its percentage.
tage to the cost
price of fael. The
of production and t
rest of us foot the bill.
With It All the Poor are Growing
Poorer,
From the Chicago Public.
na pus, ap. mike
su © pros e u e
Disa of ap sviom bank satiate Alo
every now n some! to
Tk Pe Tics pre ov . The
event of the latter kind was the dis-
covery upon the body of a dead miser in
res pa ata
sa
showing a credit to him in half a dozen
oe! "br Lanka of an of
, among a score of poor
men that would have ze ed a tolera
comfortable average. tit wasn’t divid-
ed among a score of poor men ; it was own-
ed by one rich man. Statistically, howev-
er, it has done noble duty in the computa-
tion of prosperity averages.
S———————
Should be Made Criminal.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.
ciroles of cessation of
Tt
e
‘ments under which the coal mining of this
country—bituminous as well as anthracite
~—is now being conducted.
Under all circumstances, that a gen-
strike should be a possibility is a lit
tle lesa than criminal.
How Eastly Regenerated.
From the Johnstown Democrat.
It is really refreshing to find how great a
man Senator Tillman become in the es-
——1It is once again Burgess Richard
Beaston, of Tyrone. :
proclamation naming April 6th and April
20th as Arbor days.
—James H. Allport, of Barneshoro, is men
tioned as a probable candidate for the As-
sembly from Cambria county on the Republi.
can ticket,
—Frank Farrell, the slayer of Sammy
Taylor, the Barnesboro policeman, and for
whom a reward of $750 is offered, is still at
large
—It is reported that Charles M. Schwab,
the steel magnate, will build a handsome
church and rectory for the Catholic congre-
gation, at Williamsburg.
—Ellwood City doctors have organized a
trust and hereafter it will cost $20 instead of
$10 to be born in that town. This is enough
to cause race suicide there.
—A plant for pulverizing paint rock, to
cost between $15,000 and $20,000, will likely
be erected in Williamsport. The raw ma-
terial will be obtained within the limits of
Lycoming county.
—Johnsonburg business men have organiz-
ed a company to start a new factory in that
town for the manufacture of shirt waists.
The company will have a capital of thirty
thousand dollars. Application has been
made for a charter.
—Caught driving through the smallpox in-
fested town of Tuscarora, several miles east
of Pottsville, two insurance agents were stop-
ped on Sunday by the health authorities and
compelled to submit to vaccination. Both
of | men were innocent of knowledge concerning
the spread of the disease in the town.
—A. J. Black, a well-known coal operator
of Broad Top, has bought a tract of land near
that place, underlaid with good veins of
coal, The price paid was $40,000. Mining is
to be carried on extensively. Fifty new
houses are to be built in the spring and an
electric plant will be erected to haul the coal
and for other necessary uses.
—Rev. Charles W. Wasson, formerly a
United Brethren preacher but who some
years ago entered the Central Pennsylvania
M. E. conference, serving the High street
M. E. church in Williamsport during the
past five years, has been transferred to Grace
M. E. church in Oakland, Cal., the Rev. A.
B. Blades coming from Oakland to the High
street church.
~Thomas O'Brien, of Gallitzin, the man
who was [rightfully injured in getting from
a train at Spruce Creek Sunday, Feb. 25th,
died in the hospital at 4:45 o'clock Saturday
afternoon. It will be remembered that
O'Brien after having been hurt, crawled
away from the railroad to a copse of brush
where he was found several hours after the
accident was discovered.
—F. GG. Merrill, aged 24 years, a New York
Central brakeman, fell from his train and
under the wheels on the road between
Mabaffey aud Patton at 11:20 o'clock Satur
day morning and had one of his legs so badly
crushed that it was necessary to amputate it
below the knee. The young man resided in
Painesville, Ohio, and had only been io the
company’s employ a short time.
attention to the provisions of the nes
law, which made it the duty of the commis-
sioners to furnish the supervisors of each
township, on the first Monday of March, with
the latest valuation of the township property
taxable for road purposes. It is on this
valuation that the supervisors are authorized
to levy the road tax for the ensuing year.
—At a meeting of the board of trustees of
the Indiana State Normal school last week
plans for a new boys’ dormintory were
adopted and arrangements were made to pro-
ceed with the work at once. The new build-
ing will be located on the same site as the
old domitory but it is the intention of the
board that the new building will face the
campus, instead of the south, as the old one
did. It will be 150 feet long. 453 feet wide,
three stories high and will contain sixty
TOMS.
—Undertaker E. J. Bearer, of Barnesboro,
had a peculiar experience the other day with
the funeral of » foreigner. The grave pre-
pared for the reception of the body contained
the usual rough box. When the funeral
party arrived at the North Barnesboro ceme-
tery Mr. Bearer discovered to his surprise
that the rough box had been stolen from the
grave. In consequence the funeral party
was obliged to wait until Mr. Bearer could
return to his establishment and secure an-
other.
—Wm. H. Woolverion, of New York, and
William Thompson, of Philadelphia, who
built the Memorial Library at Alexandria u
fow years ago, of which town they are na-
tives, are keeping up their good work as
philanthropic citizens by bearing the ex-
pense of enlarging, repairing and beautifying
the Presbyterian chutch in the village, which
was erected many years ago, but sccording
to the high ideals of the gentleman referred
to, is not in keeping with the Alexandria of
the present day.
—A combination of independent fire brick
manufacturers will be formed witha capi-
talization of $12,000,000. A meeting was
held in Pittsburg Monday and the plans were
| approved. The new combine will include 60
independent companies, with a daily capacity
of 10,000,000 bricks, and will take in about 50
per cent. of the fire brick plants in the coun-
try, including the Harbison-Walker Re-
fractories company, which has a daily
capacity of 1,000,000. Options were taken
on each plant and extend overa period of
six months. The concern will be known as
the American Refractories company.
~The Pennsylvania railroad bridge over
the Juniata river at Ninth street, Tyrone,
being now completed and in use, there is a
probability that in the near future a new
freight route will be adopted, having for its
terminals Altoona and Williamsport, using
the Pennsylvania, Bald Eagle Valley and
the Philadelphia and Erie railroads, making
a through run without change of about
ninety-four miles. The freight traffic over
this route from and to the west,north-eastern
Pennsylvanta, New York, Canada and the
New England states, is very heavy at pres.
ent and is increasing rapidly which re.
quires
work at the Tyrone and Lock Haven yards,
all of which can be avoided in making the
through 1um new under contemplation,
SS