| ! : 0 eT a -Sr was not of the kind to excite much ad- miration for the woolly little weather prophet. —It was characteristic of Col. JOHN A. DALEY to bob up serenely and spoil all the nice long obituary we had written in his memory. ‘ —]f the testimony in the BALLINGER inquiry continues along the lines thus far followed that TAFT smile will disappear ‘ to never return. —The President declares he is lonely in the White House. How sad to think that that smile might wear off in the aw- fulness of his solitude. ~—]|t has been judicially decided that neither ROOSEVELT'S brother-in-law nor TAFT's brother is the government of the United States and that is a stride in the direction of safety and sanity. Their present antics seem to indicate that both Jim JErFRIES and JACK JOHN- sON would about as soon have the law settle their differences as to have to do it themselves in the squared ring. —If the public could only do to the price of eggs and meat what the specula- tors did to the price of Hocking Coal and Iron they would soon be so low that all could have them without a bit of a strain on the pocket book. —A trust is being formed to control breakfast foods of the country. It will take in everything of the sort except hay, alfalfa and excelsior. Thank the Lord something is to be left to us without the prohibitive prices of trust greed. ~The Senate committee sat down on Secretary of the Interior BALLINGER with a force, on Wednesday, that was calculat- ed to make that gentleman feel quite as flat as his summary dismissal of PIN. CHOT was supposed to have made the latter feel. —If they arrest Dr. Cook for being a faker, surely he has just as good ground for entering a counter suit against the public for being faked. After all ought we not to accord him a modicum of ad- miration for having pulled the job off so splendidly. —If the State students continue their studies under old Prof. BARLEYCORN in Bellefonte much further council will have to arrange so that the institution out be- hind the water works will be able to con- fer degrees upon those who are most per- sistent in their libations. —That old dinner pail that we heard so much about in a campaign not long ago might be full, as our Republican friends promised us all it would be, but if it is it is full of mush alone, for even taters are too high in price for the most of the men who carry their dinner pails to work with them. —Pittsburg barbers have issued an edict against women who take their chil- dren to the shops to have their hair cut on Saturdays. It is a nuisance to the men on a Saturday rush for a shave but then the view point depends very largely on what man’s child it is that is delaying the barbers. ——The western packing houses have curtailed their shipments east on account of the boycott but their slaughtering operations have not diminished. The packers are simply “stocking up” for the time when the resumption of meat eating will increase the demand and enhance the price of the product. ——President TAFT has ordered the House Committee on Ways and Means to make a bogus investigation and report that the high prices are not in any way related to the tariff. The people know, however, that the high prices are alto- gether ascribable to the tariff and noth- ing the congressional committee can do or say will deceive them. —Cincinnati has solved the problem of her striking girl cigar makers much more handily than have either Philadelphia or New York their troubles with the strik- ing shirt-waist makers. The men of the former city are marrying them so fast that the strike is expected to die shortly for want of strikers. Obviously this should be a very happy solution and it will be if the men are not merely looking for some one to earn a living for them. —This thing of electing a Republican House to support a Republican President has not panned out according to promises at all. Their fighting at Washington has been a national scandal during the two last administrations and it is a question as to whether a Democratic House wouldn't have been able to accomplish more legislation of benefit to the country. In any event it would have done some- thing more than wash dirty party linen for the world’s gaze. —The New Jersey farmer who sold his two hogs to a butcher at wholesale price later decided to buy the hams and shoul- ders back. He bought them at retail, of course, and found that he had to pay the butcher $2.85 more than he had received for the entire hogs. The facts and fig- ures in this case are true and while they throw an interesting side light on the high cost of living they are rather a sad commentary on the shrewdness of the New Jersey farmer. We venture that Centre county hasn't such a gilly as this New Jersey specimen, a VOL. 55. Roosevelt Again Judicially Rebuked. | The quashing of the indictment against | the New York World for libeling the gov- ernment by criticising Mr. ROOSEVELT'S | brother, is not only a vindication of the the liberty of the press. The prosecution | was conceived in the malice of ROOSEVELT and brought forth in the stupidity of BONAPARTE. Its purpose was to invest the administration at Washington with absolute power to censor the press of the | country. Its effect, if it had been sus-' have achieved. The New York World published the de- tails of purchase of the franchise of the French Panama canal company and its subsequent sale to the government of the United States. The purchase price, ac- cording to the evidence, was about $10,- 000,000. The sale price was $40,000,000. Among those said to have been concerned in the transaction were DOUGLAS ROBIN- SON, brother-in-law of ROOSEVELT, and C. P. TAFT, brother of the President. At the time ROOSEVELT was President and TAFT Secretary of War. Before the event Con- gress had created a commission to deter- mine the route of the waterway. The commission had reported in favor of the Nicaragua route, and the President had expressed his approval of the choice. Congress was also favorable to that route When the syndicate, including TAFT and ROBINSON, acquired the Panama prop* erty, howevcr, the President changed his mind and practically compelled Congress to adopt the Panamaroute and purchase the franchise, at anexorbitant price, from the syndicate. The bargain with the syndicate included the right of way through the province of Panama, a con- cession from the government of Colombia, which the French Panama company had acquired. The government of Colombia refused to ratify this part of the contract, however, and ROOSEVELT organized, financed and poliCed a rebellion in Panama to consummate the transaction and sub- sequently paid the bogus government of Panama $10,000,000 for the right of way. The New York World's statement was a plain recital of these facts. In his frenzied resentment of this just exercise of its functions as a newspaper Mr. ROOSEVELT denounced Mr. PULITZER, editor of the New York World, in scur- rilous language, in a message to Congress and ordered the Department of Justice of the government of the United States to discover a way in which he might be punished. The prosecution which ended $0 ignominiously the other day, was the result of that order. BONAPARTE, a ser- vile and stupid sycophant of power, dug up some obsolete law which remained on the statute books through the neglect of Congress and in his blind malignity Roosg- VELT imagined it might be tortured into serving the purpose. That this expecta- tion has been disappointed and the pre- sumption rebuked is a subject of popular congratulation. Reforming the Legislature. The next Legislature of this State will have some very important work to per. form both in the matter of repealing bad laws, improving laws that have meritas as well as faults and enacting new legis- lation that is needed. Under existing political conditions in Philadelphia and Pittsburg there is not much hope of changing the party complexion of the Legislature. But there is substantial ground for the belief that if the voters of the State who desire civic improvement will proceed with proper intelligence and energy, the minority in both branches of the Legislature may be so materially strengthened that good results in all di- rections may be achieved. The time to begin this work is now. The place is in the selection of candi- dates for Senators and Representatives in the Legislature. Our friends, the enemy, have plenty of troubles to distract, if not divide, their forces, in various places. The opposition to the re-clection of GEORGE T. OLIVER, as Senator in Con- gress, is already large and constantly in- creasing. The resentment, on the part of the better element of the party, against the methods of the machine is not di- minishing. These facts will help the op- position in efforts to elect better men to the Legislature. Thousands who may not be willing to vote against the candi- dates of the machine will refrain from voting altogether. The magnificent effort of C. LARUE MUNSON to secure a seat on the Supreme bench last fall shows what the right sort of a candidate who proceeds along right lines toward the fulfillment of his ambi- tions may achieve. His experience proves that dozens of Democratic candidates for Senator and Representatives in the Legis STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA. FEBRUARY 4, 1910. lature may be successful if they are men of the character to command popular re- spect and have the energy to present their claims to the people. Therefore Democrats should begin at once to select brother-in-law and President TAFT'S' _ ii4atec for nomination at the June | primaries. We ought to gain fifty seats majesty of the law but an affirmation of i, ine House and half a dozen in the Senate and can if we will begin now and act wisely. Difficult Whitewashing Job. The packed committee of Congress charged with the investigation of the ac- tained by the court, would have been to Cusations against Secretary BALLINGER on steel rails for the reason that it would revive the sedition laws by executive Will have a hard time in its purpose to curtail the profits of the manufacturers order. That would have been as complete | Whitewash him. Mr. GLAS, the first of rails. Asa consumer of products he a subversion of the constitution as the A Witness, has already presented ample ev- wouldn't reduce the tariff on necessaries cy to despoil the government of vast areas of coal lands in Alaska and is fully corroborated in his assertion that he, GLAvIS, was discharged from the public service because he had interfered with the operations of the conspirators. More- over, he has shown conclusively that dur- ing the recent presidential campaign BALLINGER implored him to check his ac- tivities against the schemes of the con- spirators until after certain persons had been induced to make a generous contri- bution to the TAPT campaign fund. In this fact, probably, lies the reason why President TAFT was so anxious to pack: the committee. It will probably be shown that Mr. TAFT had been informed of the plans of Mr. BALLINGER to induce certain gentlemen engaged in the nefari- ous purpose of looting the country of her public domain to contribute to the cor- ruption fund. The entire transaction was conducted under the supervision of FRANK HITCHCOCK, chairman of the Re- publican National committee and now Postmaster General in the cabinet. HrrcHcock did nothing without the as- sent of the candidate and because of his success in manipulating these underworld affairs he was rewarded by a seat in the cabinet. It is practically certain, also, that it was his influence, supplemented by that of the land pirates, that procured the appointment of BALLINGER. Another interesting fact brought out in the investigation is that the CUNNING- HAMS and the GUGGENHEIMS were associ- ated in the attempt to steal the Alaska coal lands and that BALLINGER was coun- sel for them, both while he occupied the office of Commissioner of the Land Office in the ROOSEVELT administration and aft- erward. Those gznilemen, still pursuing their purpose to seize the lands in ques- tion, were ardent advocates of the appoint- ment of BALLINGER to the office of Sec- retary of the Interior and the moment he got himself settled in the seat he began discharging the subordinates in the de- partment who had been interfering with the schemes of the conspirators. In view of these facts it ought to be a difficult job to get a whitewashing report even from a packed committee. Words and Actions in Conflict, The “House of Governors,” which has been in session in Washington, recently, expressed a good deal of solicitude over the present menace to the gospel of state rights. Governor HUGHES, of New York, shows especial concern on this subject and following his declared opposition to the proposed amendment to the constitu- tion of the United States authorizing Con- gress to tax incomes, on the ground that it might prove a menace to state rights, he addressed the Governors assembled in convention on the importance of preserv- ing inviolate the principles expressed in the Tenth amendment to the Federal We most cordially agree with Governor HucHes and those who coincided with him in the House of Governors, upon that point. The usurpation of power by the President is as much a subversion of the constitution as an overtact of rebellion, and the usurpation by the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the rights of the Representatives in Congress is a crime against civil liberty. A mam who com- mits burglary is prosecuted, if apprehend- ed, and punished by imprisonment but his offense is not half as dangerous and damaging to the people of the country as that of the usurpation of power by the President or Congress. But what is the use of Governor HUGHES or any other Governor talking against this evil when he subsequently acquiesces in and encourages it. HUGHES loses no opportunity to eulogize former President ROOSEVELT and President TAFT and yet during all the period of his Pres- idency ROOSEVELT usurped every power that he could seize and TAFT is following in his footsteps as freely as he possibly can. You can’t arouse public sentiment by speaking against an evil while acting in support of it and more than half the Governors who denounced the encroach- ment of state rights in Washington are encouraging it at home by praise of TAPT. —=Subscribe for the WATCAMAN Mr. Hill's Curious Notion. i We are not surprised to learn that Mr. | | JAMES J. HILL is of the opinion that the | NO. 3S. pA hA—— Outlook Bad for Taft. Withiziasn Sor. PuiiadelotiarRovitd With two months session Sue | women of the country are responsible for | the leaders of Congress seem ! the high prices of food stuffs and other ‘ necessaries of life. Mr. HiLL is one of the public mind, or at least divert it from | ‘the real facts. As a railroad president he wouldn't think of reducing the tariff : reason that it might reduce the ! on the manufacturers of, or deal- | ers in, such products. | The housewives of the country are ex- | travagant, Mr. HiLL says, in their pur- | chases, and that makes high prices to : others. They don't go to market, he adds, | and higgle with the dealers, so as to save ! a penny or two and because they don’t | everybody else is muicted to the full ex- | tent which their carelessness makes pos- | sible. Moreover the housewife buys too | much and wastes a lot, he continues, | and puts the blame for this on the tele- | phone. They are too lazy to go to the mar- | ket house or the store, but order over the | telephone and the dealer “soaks” them, he assures us, mercilessly, and his avarice thus whetted to a keen edge, he proceeds to “soak” all the rest of us, Mr. HILL as- serts. And out of this improvidence of the housewife and cupidity of the dealer flows all the high prices and other troubles, Mr. HILL concludes. Possibly Mr. HiLL. may have married into a profligate family and that what he says on this subject may be true with re- spect to his own domestic affairs. But every intelligent man in this broad land knows that it is not true of the wives in this country, as a rule. On the contrary for scientific economizing the average wife in this country has the average hus- band skinned a mile. It is through her patient and intelligent efforts that the wages paid to the average work- ing man, skilled or otherwise, are able to make ends meet and provide even the most frugal food and scanty apparel for the family. The cause of the high prices is the tariff which fosters trusts and ena- bles the beneficiaries of an iniquitous system to raise or lower prices of every- manipulate the prices of stocks. The Civil Pension Craze. We can imagine nothing stranger in the affairs of life than the growing senti- ment among the employees of the govern- ment that for one reason or another they should be put upon the pension list after the attainment of a certain age. For more than a score of years each Legisla- ture of this State and some of the other States have had under consideration bills to pension judges at a certain age. An act of Congress provides for the pension- ing of judges of the federal courts and those serving on the state benches think similar legislation should be enacted in been inaugurated in Washington looking to the pensioning of all employees when they have grown too old to render effi- cient service. The reason given for this movement is that after a man has served a long time in the public service he is unfitted for any other employment. But that is equal- ly true to laborers, mechanics and pro- fessional men in private life. When they reach the age of inefficiency they must give way to younger and more vigorous men. But it never occurs to them that the government ought to provide them with pensions. They accept the inevitable and rely upon their relatives to maintain them if they have not been provident enough to save out of their earnings dur- ing the period of their closing years. What greater claim have the employees of the government to the beneficence of the people than the industrious mechanics? There are no men in private employ- ment as liberally recompensed for their labor as the employees of the govern- thing just as the Wall street speculators | ; to have awakened to the realization that the i I § : z i : | § : : : £ : : | : i i | : § § g g : § g i Ch i 2% ih i gravitates to centres quired the greatest returns for the mini- mum expenditure of energy. Not only do the farmers disclaim re- Spsusibiliey for the High but they er a very practical of correcting the evil, which is ted in resolutions were of which the followingis the salient feature: the States. Recently a movement has | gets unjustly censured as a result. The ment at Washington or at the capital of the State. Itis true that some excep- the reason that they are able to render exceptionally valuable service and if men | of equal ability in the public service are not equally fortunate, they are at liberty | to quit the public service and take ad- vantage of the opportunities which pri- | vate life affords. No man is married to his job in Washington or Harrisburg and | no judge or other public official is held in | office against his inclination. Therefore if he is not satisfied with his opportunities in public life let him resign. | —If the ground hog didn’t see his shad- ow Wednesday it was certainly because of defective eyesight. ) SR | ment get generous salaries. But it is for | acter, the It does sm ici a or vice has exposed. can- grat or vice has een expose. which glass, oY investigation, thunder at that pb A with the worst disease. sles in DuBois at the present time and the dis- a pledged not to eat meat for a period of “ |'thirty days, starting from a date that las not been announced yet. ~Robert A. Shaw has been nominated for jus- tice of the peace of Avis, Clinton county, by both the Republicans and Democrats. He will have and ~Charleroi is a dirty looking town at presen for the simple reason that the union barbers are on the strike. The journeymen ask that the price of a shave be raised from 10 to 15 cents and that better arrangements be made for holidays and SrSaings of. The owners of the shops remain —Mrs. Mary McQuown Ray, wife of Dr. D.P. Ray, of Johnstown, and daughter of ex-Senator M. L. McQuown, editor of the Clearfield “‘Rafts- man Journal,” died at the Memorial hospital, Johnstown, Friday after a serious operation. Mrs. Ras wan 28 years of age and was married last ~The Cambria county commissioners this year the President tremulously tried to tempore been | ned he work of te Emirs bur of and placed the amount the same as the total as- sessment of last year. The citizens, itJis said, are angry, as the work of the assessors was accept- able to them. —Four hundred farmers of Westmoreland and Fayette counties met at Scottdale and] adopted a resolution that the probe into high prices should be pushed with vigor. They declared that if the prices of eggs, butter and beef are going beyond the reach of city purses, the faruers are not get- ting the benefit. ~The roughed-edge nickels that have been re ported from all over the state as being in circula- the government officials. A defect in the molding is the cause of the rough and thin edges. They bear the date 1908. ~Adam Breth, of New Washington, Clearfield county, next May wiil complete his tenth com- mission as justice of the peace. First he was ap- pointed to the office by Governor Packer on March 15, 1859, His term was to last five years “if ke should so long behave himself well,” the commission reads. —Heavy losses were incurred in the retail milk business done by the Johnstown Sanitary Dairy company last year. Nevertheless the firm was able to declare a dividend of six per cent. ata meeting of the directors held recently. Gains were made in the ice cream business and in the sale of butter and eggs. —Seven county detectives visited the Colonial club at Homestead and gathered in faro layouts, poker chips, beer and fifty prisoners. Then the men of the law locked the door and threw the key into the Monongahela river. In the raid three (UE di A Snir tor wer 8 ~John R: Caldwell, of Indiana, prominently connected with a number of the Berwind-White interests at Windber, from a private office in the Windber hospital directs all the affairs of the company in which he is interested. He was forced some time ago to submit to the amputa- tion of his one remaining leg because of blood poisoning. —From beneath the nail on the toe of her right foot, Mrs. Charles E. Carr, of York, recovered part of a needle that she swallowed fifteen years ago. Eight years ago she got the other part of a needle from a tos on her left foot. When she swallowed the needle it was whole. In spite of the long time it was in her body. it retained its original brightness. —Sixty cents a dozen was offered for strictly fresh eggs in Erie last Wednesday. A West Side grocer in that city makes the prediction that eggs will go to $1 a dozen before spring. He gives as one reason for the scarcity the fact that the state board of health has a standing order for several from his mother in Johnstown in the early 80's, has written to his brother, who lives in the Flood City. Heisin poor health. The lad was taken from home by an aunt and although the family discovered his whereabouts eighteen years is said that he refused to answer letters eral today decided that it constituted a contract which the state was bound to live up to, and he ordered the money paid. —A levy has been made on the personal proper ty of Samuel S. Brown, proprietor of the Duncan house, at Milroy, Mifflin county, under the insti- gation of the commonwealth, to obtain the bal- ance due on the bonds of Samuel D. Coldren, who as register and recorder of in Mifflin county, is alleged to have defaulted to the extent of al- most $10,000. The money was due on inheritance and collateral taxes. It was only some time after Coldren’s successor had assumed office that the alleged shortage was discovered and the State began to sue the bondsmen. Some of them have died and their estates have been divided, but the money will have to be paid out of them. The claim of Mr. Brown is the largest and amounts to $3,200. It will be sued as a test case to decide the merits. It is said that the State settled some of the smaller claims on the basis of 50 cents on the dollar. Coldren is still living in a middle western State, having left Mifilin county before the ale leged shortage was discovered.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers