INK SLINGS. ~ |
—1Is that Christmas shopping done or
are you doing just what you last year
vowed you would never do again: Put-|
ting it off until the eleventh hour. i
—And we keep right on building Dread-
naughts to make ANDREW CARNEGIE look
foolish each time he gives a wad to that
Peace pet of his over at The Hague.
—It was the new Chief Justice WHITE
who rendered the minority report of the
highest court of the land when the in-
come tax was declared unconstitutional.
—Bellefonte has been literally infested
with tramps during the week. We still
have that anti tramp ordinance, a bur-
gess and a police force, so why the
hobos?
—Above all things make your Christ-
mas giving practical and don’t spoil a
recipient's pleasure and respect for you
by sending something he or she knows
you can't afford.
—Aviation caps have made their ap-
on the streets ofiBellefonte, but,
thank the Lord, the women wearing them
have shown no signs of starting the
high flying game.
—Pittsburg is only one hundred and
fitty-two years old. She hasn't begun to
keep pace with many of her residents
who must be near a thousand, judging
from the rate at which they have lived.
—Two waiters have purchased a con-
trolling interest in a four million dollar
Chicago hotel property. Those who have
dined much in first class hotels or cafes
will not be puzzled to know how they did
it.
—Col. ABE SLUPSKY, of St. Louis, re-
cently won a $250 wager by drinking
twenty bottles of beer a day for thirty
days. We know several fellows in Belle-
fonte who would give big odds to get such
a cinch bet.
—Just why the government should main-
tain those eighteen pension agencies at
such an enormous cost no one but the
pension agents seem to be able to give
answer. Would it not be better to aban-
don them and use that money in increas-
ing the allowances to the old soldiers.
—The number of gentlemen who are
already throwing themselves in its way
makes it look as though the political
lightning in Centre county is going to
have to do some pretty fancy zigzagging
next summer in order to hit the proper
ones to give to the Democracy 2 well
balanced ticket.
—-Cables from Paris indicate that ANNA
GOULD-CASTELLANE-DE SAGAN is showing
signs of wanting to “come back” in the
matrimonial ring. Goodness, if this
thing keeps up ANNA will soon have the
reputation of being able to take all com-
ers in that decadent French nobility in
which she fights.
—The State Grange in session at But-
ler this week has been having about as
lively a time as the National Grange had
at Atlantic City last month. Whenever
any organization gets big enough to
amount to anything there are always a
lot of warring leaders who want to use
it for self exploitation.
—The President has named Justice
EDWARD DOUGLASS WHITE, of Louisiana,
to be chief justice of the Supreme court
of the United States. He is a Catholic
and a Democrat and a far abler man than
CuarLes F. HucHes, of New York, who
had been picked out for the place by
most of the political dopesters.
—1In the naming of three Democrats in
five appointments he had to make to the
Supreme court bench President TAFT has
more than cleared his skirts of possible
charges of partisanship or injecting politics
into the highest judicial tribunal of the
Nation. Then, too, he might have been
guided a little by the preference for
Democrats so unmistakably expressed by
the masses at the polls in November.
—The burning of Tammany hali was a
conflagration that most of the country
will be interested in. While the great
Democratic organization of New York
city has a more or less doubtful reputa-
tion as a matter of fact its membership
includes most of the ablest and most rep-
utable men of the party in that city. It
has been historic in the politics of the
country and the destruction of the rec-
ords of the club is a loss of mare than
passing importance.
—The ability to “come back” has been
talked about so much recently with ref-
erence to the doinge of one JiM JEFFRIES
and one THEODORE ROOSEVELT that we
reckon JACK FROST is just doing the fun-
ny stunts with the mercury that we have
been experiencing for the past two weeks
to show that he really can “come back.”
You know the rather impotent winters of
the past five or six years had created a
doubt as to whether he could get back
en the job in the old fashioned way.
—The WATCHMAN has heard, unau-
thoritatively, that sheriff HURLEY intends
permitting no more persons to the DELIGE
hanging than the necessary number of
witnesses required by the law. If this be
his intention the WATCHMAN wishes to
congratulate the sheriff and assure him
that such an action will meet with the
heartiest approval of all the citizens of
the county who are not consumed with
morbid curiosity or a desire to make a
VOL. 55.
Proposed Changes in
Laws.
Those highly (?) respectable Philadel-
phians, who consider it beneath their
dignity to take part in the ordinary work
of a political party, as common mortals
do, but consider themselves eminently
qualified to furnish unstinted and unend-
ing advice to all, are again to the front
insisting that the time for making our
nominations be changed from June to
September, and that the Australian bal-
lot be substituted for the cumbersome and
fraud-protecting one we now have.
The first proposition, to make the nom-
inations in September in place of June,
might suit the larger cities that have per-
sonal registration, and when the voters
can register up to within thirty days of
the election, but in country districts it
would be closing the registry before the
candidates, who are always expected to
see that the registration is full and com-
plete, are chosen. It would leave this
most important work of having all our
people properly qualified to vote, uncared
for and unattended to. We all know
what this would mean—simply a greatly
reduced vote and a better opportunity
for politicians to run things just as they
want them to run.
Centre county will have, next year, the
largest number of names on its local
ticket that has ever been voted for at one
election, since the county was organized.
Every office from sherifi down to county
surveyor will have to be filled —making
in all twelve candidates for each ticket to
be selected at the June primaries. How
many parties may name tickets is un-
known at present, but the probabilities
are there will not be less than four tick-
ets in the field. In all the other counties
it will be the same, only where there may
be more offices to fill and more tickets
placed in the field.
In addition to the county offices, town-
ship, borough and ward officials will have
to be elected, thus adding from twelve to
eighteen names to the county ticket in
each of the districts—making in all, for
euch ticket named, not less than twenty-
four and in some instances as high as |
forty names to be voted for, at the No-
vember election, and these to be picked
out of the probable one hundred and fifty
or two hundred names that have been
chosen for the different tickets placed in
the field.
Now suppose the other crazy sugges.
tion, to adopt what is known as the Aus- |
tralian ballot, should be accepted and the
names of all the candidates be printed on
our ticket without any other designation
than that they are placed under the
office for which they are striving,
how in the name of common sense can
one cast his vote correctly or satisfactorily?
There would not be one man in ten who
could remember the names of the three
or four score candidates to be voted for,
or who would take the time to hunt out |
of the mass of names printed those who
would best fill the minor or less import-
ant offices.
The consequence would be that either
assistance in making up his ballot would
have to be allowed or four-fifths of those
attending the elections would mark only
for two or three of the candidates, in
whom they were most interested, and
leave the rest go. This would leave the !
choice of the greater part of every ticket
to the few—mostly politicians—who could
pick out their friends from the many can.
didates on the list, and insure the election
of the persons the big and little bosses
in the different counties and districts de-
sired.
As a scheme to give the few absolute
control of our elections we could imagine
nothing better.
This might suit the visionaries who are
urging the adoption of the Australian
ballot because its “English you know” but
certainly it would not meet the views or
accomplish the purpose of those working
for simple and honest election laws.
Twas Ever Thus.
Reports from Butler, where the State
Grange is now in session, indicate that
that order will put itself on record.
Lam in favor of parcels, post. cote of the
: The conservation inaugui
ROOSEVELT; a graduated in-
come tax; relieving real estate of taxation by
i the State appropriation
and : alaw to pay to school districts
the minimum salary of teachers
mum school term: uniform taxation; and as
vigorously the centralized bank; ship
: and the sale American-made
goods cheaper abroad than at home.
Then, we presume its members will
passa resolution, that the “Grange is not
a political organization and will take no
part in politics,” and its members will go
home and as many of them vote and
work for the party and the candidate in
opposition to those proposed reforms as
for those that favor them. This, at least,
has been their way of doing things ever
since that order was organized. Resolv-
ing one way and voting the other. Pos-
sibly some of these agricultural patriots
for the mini-
jambouree out of a very solemn legal
ceremony.
may live long enough to discover that
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
the Election | until they muster up courage and in-
dependence enough to get into politics to
work and fight for those who would help |
them get such legislation as they declare |
for they might as well put their opinion
in cold storage and save the time they
waste in resolving what is best for the
general public. .
Organizations, like individuals, lacking
the courage to stand up for what they
want, never get much from any source.
With the Money or More.
| If the contest of the seat of Represen-
tative J. HAMPTON MOORE, of Philadel-
phia, will reveal the corrupt methods of |
politics in that city, it will be worth while. |
There is scarcely a chance of unseating |
Mr. MOORE, for the reason that there was |
returned for him a majority of many |
thousands more than the combined vote |
of both the opposing candidates. It may i
easily be proved, however, thata large |
part of this majority was made up of
fraudulent votes and ultimately some of
those responsible for the frauds may be
punished. That "is a consummation de-
voutly to be wished.” It might exercise
a restraining influence in the future.
There are a good many fair-minded
and thoughtful men in Pennsylvania who
firmly believe that there were more fraud-
ulent votes cast for JOHN K. TENER, in
Philadelphia, at the recent election, than
his majority. The Third Congress dis-
trict is composed of the Second, Third,
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth,
Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth and
Nineteenth wards of Philadelphia. These
are what are known as “down-town
wards,” and contain few residences other
than such as are occupied by laborers,
small merchants and the foreign element
in the electorate. It is the fallow field
for electoral frauds. But the discovery
of eight or ten thousand fraudulent votes
in the district would entirely justify the
suspicion with respect to TENER'S ma-
jority.
The contest of Mr. MOORE'S seat will
cost a couple of thousand dollars and will
be a charge upon the public treasury.
With the practical certainty that it will
i fail to place his contesting competitor in
| the seat, in view of this fact, it looks like
| a waste of public funds. Butif it willserve
| the purpose of restraining the methods of
i the political crooks of that city and evenin
| some considerable measure put a stop to
| the frauds, it will be a wise use of the
| money of the people.
|
i
| The greatest of all crimes is the de-
| bauching of the ballot and no matter
| what the cost of preventing it, the result
will be worth the money and more.
a———————
| —————
i
——If you send the WATCHMAN to a
i
friend at the Christmas time, it will not
only carry a message then but every
| week of theyear. Try it and see how
much it is appreciated.
=e eeme———
{ Roosevelt a Fugitive from Justice.
| “Coinel” ROOSEVELT has been suffering
' a good dea! of mental anguish, lately, on
account of one of his campaign indis-
cretions. He has been invited to deliver
an address before the principal commercial
organization of Hartford, Connecticut. The
“Coinel” likes above all things, to deliver
addresses before such bodies. Itgives an
opportunity to scold grown men without
any risk of resentment, and that is his
long suit. He is a professional fault-
finder, a sort of perennial grouch, and he
has been exceedingly anxious for some
time to fill this engagement. But he has
been afraid. He stands to go to jail if
caught in the Nutmeg State and that
would be hard on an ex-President.
During the recent campaign he attack-
ed Judge BALDWIN, the Democratic nomi-
nee for Governor, with characteristic
recklessness and malevolence. Judge
BALDWIN at once entered suit in the
Hartford courts against the “Coinel” for
criminal libel. The penalty for that crime
in that State is a jail sentence but the
offender must be caught within the juris-
diction before he can be tried. In other
words there is no extradition for such
crimes. But vigilant public officials are
practically certain to catch the culprit if
| he happens to get into the State and there
are some very earnest public officials in
Connecticut lnoking for “Coinel” ROOSE-
| veLT. He is a very conspicuous fugitive
' from justice.
| Judge BALDWIN has ample reason to
cherish a resentment against his traducer.
| The libel was a particularly atrocious and
malignant one and the conviction and
punishment of the distinguished falsifier
would be a particularly happy triumph of
justice. But the Judge has no quarrel
with those of his neighbors who want to
. He was elected not-
puvoss of addressing ho Hariri Chast,
ex- who has been a liar
BELLEFONTE, PA. DECEMBER 16, 19
Judge Baldwin's Idea.
Judge BALDWIN, Democratic Governor-
elect of Connecticut, has a tolerably ciear
understanding of the tariff question. In
an interview published the other day he
said "here in Connecticut we want free
raw materials for our manufacturers and
free food for workingmen.” If he had | est
added free, or greatly reduced tariff
schedules on clothing materials, he would
have expressed about what the people of |
all sections of the country need and must
have. Free raw materials would make it
possible for our manufacturers to control |
world, without de-
the markets of the
creasing the rates of wages at all, and
free food and greatly reduced tariff rates ;
on clothing materials would make us the |
most prosperous industrial country in
the world.
In the same issue of the paper in which
Judge BALDWINS interview was publish-
ed an expensive exporter of Austral-
ja is quoted as saying that "if Con-
gress will let down the bars a bit so
that we can come in we can give beef,
delivered in the carcass at the wharf, for
six cents a pound, mutton for six, lamb
for eight cents and butter for twenty-
three to twenty- four cents. And better
butter, by the way, than you can get here
by paying the very highest price.” He
was in New York when he was talking,
where the price of good butter was at the
time fifty cents a pound and upward.
Imagine the advantage to the community
of the prices he quoted as compared with | wi
those current in the market. In that city
alone it would make a difference of $2,
000,000 a day in the cost of living.
With free raw materials for manufac-
turers this country would become the sup-
ply station of the world for manufactur-
ed products of all kinds. There would
be no overproduction because the mark-
ets of all countries and climes would be
our sales centres and consumers every-
where our willing and anxious purchas-
ers. There would be no reduction in the
rates of wages for the reason that the
cheapened raw materials would make
ample profit for the producer and the
demand for labor would be in excess of
the supply all the time. Therefore the
difference between the present prices for
food and clothing and those which would
prevail under the changed conditions
would remain in the pockets of the earn-
ers for their own uses or investments or
comforts.
————————————
——An inexpensive gift, yet a gift that
has become extremely popular, is a
periodical, and the WATCHMAN for one
dollar to a friend or relative who hves
in Centre county, has ever lived here or
ever visited here would be most accept-
able.
The President’s Annual Message.
President TAFT’S annual message to
Congress will add neither to his own
popularity nor to the prosperity of
party. It is a business message,
friends say, and probably that is true, for
| it goes into ecstacies over a comparatively
trifling business operation involving the
purchase of several war ships by some
foreign government from a builder in this
country. But it makes no suggestion for
the amelioration of the sufferings of the
people of this country on account of in-
dustrial prostration and the high cost of
livifig and proposes no remedy for any of
the ills which are at present afflicting the
people. The President would defer to a
more convenient season application of a
cure.
In a speech delivered at the home of
Congressman TAWNEY, of Minnesota,
some months ago. the President, while’
praising the PAYNE tariff law as the best
ever enacted, admitted that the woolen
schedule is indefensible. In his message |
to Congress he acknowledges that some
of the criticisms of the measure are just.
Presumably he knows that the high cost | it i
of living whichis impoverishing the coun-
try is ascribable, in the main, to the tariff
Jaw. If he knows anything at all he knows
that the tariff is responsible for the high
prices of meat and that nobody except
the Beef trust is benefitted by that tax on
a necessary food product. Yet he not
only doesn't recommend its repeal but
asks that nothing. be done with it until
the tariff commission reports, some years
in the future.
President TAFT’S message reveals the
fact that he is entirely and absolutely
under the control of the trusts and that
the prosperity or the adversity of the
people is a matter of indifference to him.
If he had had even the ordinary “bowels
of compassion,” he would have suggested
the repeal of the wool schedule and the
abrogation of the tax on food stuffs. But
he does nothing of the kind. Between
this time and the spring of 1912, thous-
their graves because the tariff tax on
woolens and proper food Ceprived them
of the essentials to health. But he com-
placently waves the subject away and
leaves the remedy for the next Congress.
his |
his
'&
\
5
10.
| How to Make
NO. 49.
Living Cheaper.
scheme to make living
deserves to be hailed as a public
Therefore, set aside one of the proud-
in the hall of fame for
millionaires.
And if lobsters, why not shrimps, and
crabs, and diamond backed ap Go
to i professor! The unfed millions are
you.
From the Omaha World Herald.
Of what avail is condemnation of the
individuals who head the great predatory
and piratical financial interests of the
times? There was Vanderbilt and Jay
Gould and after them Harriman. Now it
is Morgan. All but the latter have cross-
ed the t divide, and he will soon fol-
low. en we will have some one :
Each new man is more formidable than
the one who preceded him, just as the
‘ » under which they all work be-
comes more nearly perfect. In the per
fecting of that “system” the brightest
minds in the legal professi
for the last 40 years. It was not
y Vanderbilt's or Harriman’s ‘minds
that created the “system” but the legal
talent that they employed.
| Financial magnates come and go, but
the “system” remains, and as long as it
remains, we shall have the exploiting of
the common people. Let the attacks be
made on the “system” and not alone on
the men who are at the head of it. When
lation of the law they should be sent to
jail where they belong, the same as other
criminals. But meanwhile the attack
should be pressed against the “gystem”
as an institution and against the laws and
| lawmakers that are largely responsible
| for it.
t Mills that Grind Slowly.
| From the Chicago Journal.
Suit by the government to com 1 dis-
| solution of the Sugar Trust recalls
| fact that this was one of the “good trusts”
against which President Taft's predeces-
sor refused to move.
|" Information and proof of gross viola-
tion of the law by this monopoly was laid
| before ident Roosevelt early in Sep-
| tember, 1910, by George H. Earle, acting
receiver of the Pennsylvania Sugar Re-
fining company.
Mr. Roosevelt refused to consider the
charges which subsequently served as a
‘basis for the ings under
the trust restored more than $2,000,000
which it had stolen from the government
through fraudulent weighing.
More than four years now have elapsed
since the government came into posses-
against the sugar
From the
t
;
:
1
i
gg2
:
10
ga
22
f
the latter can be convicted of wiltull vio- !
the |
—An alderman in Wilkes-Barre has established
a new and novel precedent by fining a wife-beater
| $10 and costs and turning the money over to the
|
abused woman.
—Perry county has fifty-one persons in the in-
| sane asylum at Harrisburg. The cost to the
* | the Legislature,
: | body from the waist to the
county for maintenance for the quarter ending
December 1st, was $1,000.
—Because of work being slack, over 300 foreign-
ers have left Reading within the past few months
for their old homes in Europe, and many have
also departed for Pottstown and other Schuylkill
: valley towns.
—Members of the Johnstown chamber of com-
merce are elated over the prospects which they
have of securing a big branch cigar factory as
one of that city’s industries. It is an offshoot
from the firm of Bondy & Lederer, New York.
~The Armstrong county court has decided that
Nick and Peter Lambros, confectioners of Leech-
pur, shall pay Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Clafter and
their little daughter the sum of $144 damages be.
cause the ice cream sold by the defendants was
tainted, producing ptomaine poisoning in the
plaintiffs.
~The Gould brothers, of Brisbin, have pros
pected a fine ridge of fire clay, containing fifty
acres on the old Henderson farm two miles from
that place. The clay has been pronounced ideal
and steps have been taken looking towards the
erection of a plant for the manufacture of build-
- | ing brick.
~The village of Janesville, Clearfleld county
was visited by a big fire Saturday morning. The
fire started from a defective flue in the D. Spencer
estate building, which was soon destroyed and
the flames spread to the property of H. E. Fulker
son, which was destroyed. The total loss is
placed at $4,000.
—New York Central officials at Avis report that
“| the traffic of the road is being retarded owing to
the scarcity of trainmen to operate the trains.
Holiday trade has increased the volume of busi-
ness, and railroaders at Avis and Jersey Shore are
be now making better time than at any other period
during the year.
--A philanthropical employee of the American
Locomotive works, of Pittsburg, has been arrest-
ed on the charge of acting as a physician and sur-
geon to his fellow employees, utilizing knowledge
gained while orderly in the Alleghenyd General
hospital. Thus, as will be perceived, it is some-
times perilous to do good.
—Statistics compiled by the state railroad com”
mission from October reports that in that month
seventy-two persons were killed on the steam
railroads of the State and seventeen on the elec.
tric lines. Of those killed on the railroads thirty-
one were trespassers. In the injured list 223
brakemen are enumerated.
~The large dam which was built by the Roches’
ter and Pittsburg Coal and Iron company at
North Homer, Indiana county, has been filled
with water. The dam is one of the largest in the
county. The breast is twenty-one feet high and
the water is dammed for about one-half mile up
the creek. The dam is built of concrete.
—Charles Patton, of Ford City, an employee of
the Pittsburg Plate Glass company, of Kittaning,
was probably fatally injured when a falling stone
from a dynamite blast struck him on the head,
fracturing his skull, In the work of reconstruct-
ing this plant, which was burned down last sum-
mer, sixteen men have been hurt, of whom thir-
teen died.
—A big flow of gas was struck last Friday night
at the well in South Hyner, where drilling has
| been in pragress for some weeks. Itis a regular
gusher and the prospectors are jubilant and de-
clare that the well gives every indication of being
a great success. The lands on which the gas has
been found is controlled by a company of Renovo
capitalists.
~Although they have been married for ten
years. Mr. and Mrs. John Wilkins, of McKees
Rocks, have not yet settled a controversy con-
cerning the actual cost of getting married. The
argument waxed so animated on Monday after-
noon that Wilkins drove the madame to the roof
of the house at the muzzle of a revolver and is
now locked up.
—A bad accident occurred recently at Mill Hall,
Clinton county. A valuable horse, owned and
driven by Irvin Lichty, of Mackeyville, when near
| a crossing the animal frightened at a freight train
| which was passing and ran into the moving train.
Mr. Lichty was thrown out of the buggy ard es.
caped with little or no injury, but the horse was
so badly injured that it had to be shot.
| * —In July, 1909, H. G. Stover, of Penn township®
offered to sell to one of Frank Kreamer's daugh-
ters a little pig for one cent, and the girl prompt-
ly agreed to take it and carried the pig home in a
coal bucket. The pig was, of course. considered
to be a “runt”, but the girl took good care of it
and this fall fattened it. Last week the porker
was killed and dressed, and tipped the scales at
359 pounds,
—Helen Boyle, who is serving a twenty-year
term in the western penitentiary in Pittsbutg for
her connection with the kidnapping of Willie
Whitla, will ask the Bennsylvania pardon board to
release her from further confinement, through her
attorneys. Mrs. Boyle was convicted for a crime
committed in Ohio. she having taken care of the
stolen boy at her apartment in Cleveland while
the search was on. The claim for pardon is based
on this fact.
—**“The state game commission is perfectly satis.
fied with the laws that are now on the statute
books,” said Secretary Kalbfus, of the state game
commission, recently, ‘and will ask for no legis-
lation when the Legislature meets. At least that
is the situation at present. There may be some’
thing turn up betwecn now and the meeting of
and if it does it will be consid-
ered at a special meeting to be held before the
regular meeting in January.
—Frightened by a dog, a big turkey gobbler
circled the drug store of Ezra Snyder at Green-
him. He was given medical attention at once
but cannot recover, having sustained broken ribs
a broken arm and internal injuries as well as hav
ng been badly crushed about the Lody.
—Mrs. Laura Welch, a resident of Burnt Cab
ins, Fulton county, was severely burned one
recently while engaged in the rear of her home,
rendering lard. Her clothing
burned as were also her hands.
ing caught fire she ran into the
an effectual effort to extinguish
use of rugs and also endeavor to wrap a
about her. Her efforts were unavailing and
cries brought to her assistance several men
g
i
g
§
‘were Passing.