—]f the adage “when rouges fall out honest men come by their own,” is true, the honest folk in Philadelphia ought to draw a lot of comfort out of the Republi- can machine scrimmage now in progress in that city. ——Anybody can see at a glance that Senator PENROSE looks well in the garb of a reformer but it would be wise for those concerned to take a squint under the mask in order to see whether or not he looks happy. —Those Persian natives who relish the young asafoedita plant as a diet must be the evolution of the suckers we used to fish for as a kid when we thought that asatoedita in the bait can always make them bite better. —Many of the highest buildings in Chicago have recently been discovered to be seriousiy out of plumb. It has not yet been revealed whether they got crooked in the last campaign for United States Senator in Illinois. —OtT10 HELL, a New Yorker, applied to the courts in that city to have his name changed. He thought O. HELL, in big electric lights in front of a confectionery he had just bought, wouldn't look good and the court agreed with him. * ~The women have just touched off the first big gun of their campaign for school directors. Read it in another column of this paper. They say “We cannot vote, but we are influential." So then it is to be a campaign of “inflooence" is it? —We presume that the Hon. GEORGE W. GUTHRIE was among the first to get registered in Pittsburg on Tuesday. Of course this is only presumption because history tells us that the Hon. GEORGE has frequently failed in this little duty of citizenship. ~——MTr. JAMES I. BLAKESLIE is having a “halcyon and vociferous” time traveling over the State and giving expensive din- ners to political adventurers but it is not easy to discover how those who are pay- ing the “checks” get the worth of their money out of it. —France and Germany are strutting about on their respective frontiers just now with the proverbial chip on the shoulder. Iternational peace advocates are respectfully invited to keep hands off until the bluster is over and arbitration can be suggested. —One of the men candidates for school director in Bellefonte was interrogated by a member of the Civic club, the other day about as follows: ‘“‘Are you running for school director?” He: “I don’t know whether I am running or walking.” She: “Well, you'd better sit down, then.” —Authorities seem to be hunting hard to find a location in Centre county for the new penitentiary. While there might be some temporary advantage in having such an institution built in this commu- nity we are of the opinion it is nota thing to be very enthusiastically sought after. —Think the matter over carefully now. The time is growing short. Attend the primaries and vote for the man whom you honestly think would make the most acceptable incumbent in the office he aspires to fill. But if more people vote for some one else, remember the old adage about two heads being better than one. —The inspectors who examined the Canonsburg opera house have reported that the stairway was “wide enough for all demands of the law.” This announce- sient has prompted the Philadelphia Inquirer to suggest that the law ought to be changed. All the laws that could be enacted wouldn't have thrown a single safe guard around that illfated audience that was not there. The show might have been in the open and a panic started with fatal results. What we have to learn is the lesson of self control and that all of us will never succeed in learning. The Canonsburg horror was only a little more horrible than the average of incidents that occur almost daily and in every one of which the element of self control is found to be lacking in a greater or less The State Highway Department has issued an order for the construction of a State road covering the distance between Mifflintown and Lewistown, known as the “Lewistown Narrows.” It is an import- ant bit of public highway and the depart- ment was wise in deciding upon an early improvement. But we regret to say that ' the work is not progressing as rapidly as | it might. Beyond the decision to con- struct the road, which was made some | weeks ago, nothing, we understand, has | yet been done. Even the surveys have sions, against any person holding office not been made or ordered, though in "in this Commonwealth, of any immoral | order to complete the work before incle- | or dizionest conduct, or who has in any | ment weather sets in, it ought to be in | way violated his oath of office.” It is progress now. also empowered to summon witnesses, The reasons given by current rumors administer oaths and compel witnesses to | moreover, are worse than the delay itself, testify. |if such a thing is possible. Thereis a The original purpose of the commission | very hot contest on, the gossip has it, for was to blaze a way by which the Republi- | the Republican judicial nomination in the can machine might harrass judges who | Forty-first district, composed of Juniata refused to obey its mandates. One of the | and Perry counties. The Republican ma- Philadelphia courts had given offence to | chine has always taken a deep interest in Mayor REYBURN by rendering decisions the judicial succession in that district, according to law instead of in the inter- though for what reason we are not in- est of the municipal administration and formed. Judge Shull, of Perry county, is the machine devised this method of “get- the present incumbent, and is known as ting even.” Subsequently, however, a the “migratory judge,” for the reason that difference among the machine leaders led ‘having little to do at home he is available up to an irreconcilable factional quarrel for service wherever and whenever an and the offices of the commission have “obliging” judge is needed elsewhere, and been invoked by one faction to destroy possibly that is why the machine is inter- the other. That there is abundant rea- | ested in the succession. In any event ATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. NTE, PA. SEPTEMBER 8, 1911. son for the intervention is beyond ques- tion. The REYBURN administration has given the most flagrant example of rot- ten municipal government of which there is any record in any country. The investigation which has thus been inaugurated is capapie of rendering most --aluable service, not only to the people of Philadelphia, but for the entire State and possibly for the whole country. So far as Mr. LoGAN M. BULLITT and the attorney for his committee, Mr. THOMAS RABURN WHITE, are concerned, we have no doubt rumor alleges that work on this danger- ous piece of road is retarded on account of this judicial contest. There are several candidates for the nomination, and singularly enough the one favored by the Republican machine is not very popular with the people. In the process of road construction under the new highway law, a good many offi- cials are necessary. Surveyors are re- quired in considerable number, inspectors in great force, overseers and laborers and teams and implements are used freely, of an honest purpose to abate a great |and this army of dependents make a po- evil and correct a serious fault. But we | tent force for electioneering purposes. In have not the same faith in the integrity | the selection of the men, teams and ma- of purpose of the Philadelphia factionists | terials, in this particular instance, it is who have procured the activity of the said that the judicial interests of one of commission or the majority of the mem- . the candidates are always kept in mind, bers of that body. It is impossible to Thus public interests are subverted to imagine that either Senator PENROSE or | political exigencies and the people, justly Senator McNICHOL has turned in for real ' or unjustly, complain. reform, or that they contemplate such a TT Tr Te aot 3 : 5 ——1It is noticeable that the leaders of political renovation as justice requires. | : | the Keystone party are more concerned If these gentlemen are in earnest, how- : i ever, this investigation will result in such : Hout genre Siemgtliee is once tan an upheaval in politics and such an ex-| | posure of corruption as has not occurred | It may also be noticed that most of the in this country since the late SAMUEL J. | Keystone aspirants for office are men who TILDEN ran down and brought to punish- | have failed, at one time or another, to get ment the members of the TWEED ring in | office in one or the other of the old parties. New York. But we apprehend that such Danger for Reformers to Consider. is not the purpose of the pending investi: en gation. We greatly fear that the only Our esteemed friends, the reformers of intent of those behind itis to force the | Philadelphia and Pittsburg, are greatly REYBURN administration to abrogate its | encouraged by the first two registration “working agreement” with the machine | days in those cities. They are absolutely of the VARE brothers and thus make cer- |, certain that the large registration in the tain the defeat of a candidate for chief reform wards and the comparatively magistrate of the city whose fondest as small registration in the “gang” districts, well as first ambition would be to put | indicate a splendid reform victory. Prob- both PENRoSE and McNICHOL in the pillory | ably they are right and we certainly hope and inflict upon them all the tortures of | their expectations with respect to the the damned. | matter may be fulfilled. Butin a friend. Te — (ly spirit we would caution them against ——Of course the candidacy of Senator | over confidence. There is always danger LAFOLLETTE for the Presidency is a joke | in that for those who make politics a di- which gives little or no concern to Presi- version rather than a profession, and it dent TAFT and his campaign managers. is just possible that the registration rec- Yet viewed from this distance it looks as ords may be deceiving. if President TAFT and his campaign A falling off in the machine districts managers are mainly responsible for it: would be encouraging to those who favor They have seemingly enticed LAFOLLETTE | political regeneration, if it were nota and his friends into the Republican con- matter of design. In other words if the vention and when TAFT carries that body | voters in the machine districts have not by an overwhelming majority, there will been held back in order to give the other be nothing for LAFOLLETTE and his fol. side a fictitious basis of confidence that lowers to do but turnin for the ticket. , Will beguile them into negligence on the Otherwise they might claim that they | last registration day, it may be all right. were not bound by the convention and But itis asafe prediction that on the support a Progressive like Wooprow | last day avery machine voter in every WiLsoN. The Republican machine is a district in the cities will be registered, shrewd organization and not too con. and itis not nearly so certain that the scientious. voters opposed to the machine will be , equally well prepared for the battle of ' the ballots in November next. There are he will abide by the result of the Key- stone primary in Philadelphia “unless the primaries should resultin the nomination ———Mr. GIBEONEY has announced that tricks in all trades. The machine managers who are pro- fessional politicians are "on the job” alls the time. If the voters upon whom they of agangster.” As there are only two can depend are not registered on the first avowed candidates for the Keystone ..o..ond day it is for the reason that it nomination for mayor, GIBBONEY and | : BLANKENBURG, it will be impossible to) 28 deemed wise ja clay Sie operation nominate a “gangster.” Still the an-| .oigiration on the evening of the last nouncement gives GIBBONEY a wide lati- | 4o0 however, every machine voter in tude. Like Mr. BERRY last fall, he may | every election district in every city in decide in his own mind that anybody ex- po Grate will be registered. We are not cept himself is a “gangster.” | 80 certain of a full registration of those _———_ | who are not controlled by the machine. ——It is charged that Dr. HLL was | They are likely to imagine that success forced out of the German Embassy by |is possible without such troublesome Secretary of State KNOX in order to make | operations and the result is that the ma- an attractive place for the Secretary's chine will have its usual vote and ma- friend, Ambassador LEISCHMAN. KNOX | jority. and LEISCHMAN are Pittsburgers and this | =. little piece of juggling is simply charac. —If you want high class job work teristic. | come to the WATCHMAN office. New Rule Sadly Needed. At the next Democratic State conven- tion the party rules ought to be amended so as to forbid candidates for office from occupying the position of chairman of the county committee. In Philadelphia the Keystone party has such a rule and it seems to work admirably. When the chairman of the county committee is “geized" with an ambition to hold office, he must resign the chairmanship before announcing his candidacy. The purpose of the rule is, no doubt, to prevent the chairman using the organization to pro- mote his own selfish interests. Such a misuse of power would be subversive of justice. It deprives other aspirants for office of the equal opportunities to which all citizens are entitled. In this State, among Democrats, re- cently, this abuse of power has become conspicuous. Nearly one-third of the county chairmen who compose the State Central committee are candidates for county or municipal offices. When the attempt was recently made to reorganize the party by absurd revolutionary meth- ods, this aspiring third of the State com- mittee was persuaded to vote for the “reorganizers’’ by the promise that they would guarantee to themselves the sup- port of the Keystone electors both for nomination and election. It was a cor- rupt proposition such as only ambitious political adventurers would make. But it served the nefarious purpose in more than a dozen instances and but for the fact that the laws of the State stood in the way the conspiracy might have been successful. There is quite as much moral turpitude in packing a party committee as there is the in stuffing a ballot box. Bribing com- mitteemen to vote for or against a meas- ure is as obnoxious to political morality as buying votes atthepolls. Yet GEorcE | before W. GUTHRIE. VANCE C. MCCORMICK, A. M. PALMER and their co-conspirators in the treacherous attempt to disorganize the Democratic party, committed both of the offences. The so-called reorganization committee was packed for a purpose and members of the Democratic State Central committee were bribed, by the promise of support for office, to support the con- spiracy by their votes. SAMUEL SALTER, of Philadelphia, is no morea criminal than these respectable millionaires. ——The esteemed New York World imagines that the record of the govern- ment’s relations with the Beef trust is scandalous. Of course it is, but in the language of the late Boss TWEED, what is our contemporary "going to do about it?” The Republican machine is a huge and premeditated scandal. Senator Catlin’s Broad Field. Now that the CATLIN Commission has begun business it would be a great pity for it to discontinue operations before its work is completed. Of course the Com- mission has a large field to cover and it may be doubted if it will be able to thoroughly clean up Philadelphia before the expiration of the present year. Ac- cording tothe best evidence attainable every department of that municipal government is reeking with corruption. The announced plan is to take these de- partments up in turn and expose and renovate them in order. The Depart- ment of Safety is scheduled for first attention and afier that the others will be taken up in regular sequence and treated as they deserve. . But when the last of these "sinks of | The iniquity” has been probed, the last of the evils in that city abated and the last of the official criminals justly punished, the CATLIN Commission will still have plenty of work to perform. There lies Pittsburg, for example, putrid in vice and "stinking | to high heaven” with corruption. Why should that vile spot be permitted to con- tinue its offences against decency and order? Scranton was nearly as bad until the form of government was changed by the Legislature, and those responsible for the evils there ought to be brought to justice. Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg | are little better. Why doesn’t the Com- mission take cognizance of these facts? | According to newspaper accounts and ! gossip in the capital and hotel corridors, | Harrisburg is even in worse condition than Philadelphia. The present Mayor is a candidate for the office of City Treasurer and openly declares that the policemen and other municipal employees must not only support his ambitions but invoke every available expedient, legal or otherwise, to compass the results he desires. Immorality has become ram- pant in that little city under the shelter of a vicious official protectorate and all these agencies of evil are being used to NO. 35. Fighting Without Ammunition. | From the Altoona Times. President Taft has set out to wage war on the Democrats and Reputli- during the extra session. He - izes these ater a dealing with the public interest “in lighthearted way and with absolute ignorance of the effect of the | and with a willingness to business interests to political exigencies. But it is like fighting a battle without ammunition. President Taft's criticism may create sound, but it will have no E Jogic of the situation is with the Demo- The President says the tariff must be Democrats and insurgents. On that both ts i t sides are agreed. But when put to the test of deed, how out for each? The allies laws and Taft vetoes that the hard such it work = Hi ith i : : + i g J f FRE HE & i + ks §F fle g elit 4 55,5548 4 High! | feeabial : : g 3% cans for their efforts at tariff revision character: effect. The cold, penetrating So say his opponents, the | Ug - oe 4 | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. . =—The peach orchards of the Schuylkill valley : will yield large quantities of luscious peaches | thisyear. One man alone expects to send 6,000 . baskets to market. —The bondholders of the Clearfield Steel and ‘Iron company purchased the Hyde City steel : plant a few days ago, and the plant will likely | soon be leased. Stock holders are losers. i =—Thomas W. Patterson, of DuBois, for along | time despondent, was successful, despite the | vigilance of his children, in taking his life oneday ; last week. He used carbolic acid and died in | great agony. | =W.R. Foster, of Wells valley, recently had | two cows bitten by mad dogs. When the second | due showed signs of hydrophobia, al neighbor | climbed atree and shot the animal from that | vantage point. —Jeff Stone, of Irvona, recently completed his | twenty-fifth year’s work as a brickmaker. In that time he moulded 34,875,000 bricks, or enough to lay thirty-five miles of brick street. His average is 4,500 daily. —Several counterfiet §1 bills, excellent imita- | tions of real money, have turned up in Altoona. | By a strange coincidence, both specimens of the | spurious money were discovered at the Mountain ; City Trust company on Saturday. | —Building coal barges is still an important in- | dustry in Forest county, thirty of these, 26 feet in width and 170 feet in length, having floated . past Oil City on their way to Pittsburgh on the | present rise in the Allegheny river. t i =—Richard Meddlycott, a ladiwhose home isin | Shamokin, placed a revolver cartridge on the | tr ley track to see what would happen. When | the shell exploded the bullet struck the boy in the face, inflicting a terrible wound. is | —The Lock Haven school board yielded to pub- ! lic sentiment and leased the school building | for so many years occupied by the Bethel African Methodist church to that congregation, at arental of §1 per month. But they must not build a parsonage on the plot. —Farmers in northern Pennsylvania“and south- ern New York are becoming famous for their blooded cattle. Arling Cobb, who lives out from Ulysses, has just sold his herd of thirty-five Hol- stein calves for $7,500. All were re~istered and among the very best in that section. The aver- age price was $214.18, —Miss Ferona McEwen, of Irvona, is receiving sympathy of a host of friends in a great sorrow, She was preparing to go to Los Amgeles, where she was to have been united in marriage to John Rykmans, foreman of a leather plant, when news of hisdeath reached her. He died in an effort to save some of his workmen from a horrible —As the result of a quarrel over a game of cards at the home of William Pierce, near Wash- ington, Mre. Pierce was shot and instantly killed, her mother, Mrs. Irene Hicks, and her husband, William Pierce were fatally wounded, and Robert Brown was beaten into unconsciousness. Stew- art Palmer,who is charged with the bloody deeds, is a fugitive. Ne able to yustvah en ; over Dona sity of Kaooh is Hil Sted oer thie vestigation o municipal anonymous letter trial. Among those affairs in Philadel the | who were favored with specimens of these scur- event. ‘['o become enthusiastic now rilous letters was the Rev. Paul S. Leinbach, pas- be much li about the catch | tor of the First Reformed church, formerly pas- the tor of Grace Reformed church, Altoona. He re- y reporled that the in- | ceived in all from forty to fifty letters, none of be which he made public. of Jepariments of the government —A silver cased watch, the property of Peter from w the Vare brothers prof- | Plough, near Davidsville, Cambria county, was got itable contracts. The public would like to knew something about other depart- ments and McNichol's contracts. It would be interes too, to learn why Phila- delphia mem! of the House ted, in the 1909 session, a bill that would have ven contracts to the lowest ! dders instead of to the contractors’ combine. The thrilling speech of Mr. olds, of Philadelphia, against the villainous scheme of awarding contracts to the lowest ible bidders still ri in the ears of some Pennsylvanians, and they would like to learn the secret of that eloquence. Senator Penrose is behind the probe, and will direct it. He declars that: “Under no circumstances will the scandalous per- sonal obligations and financial operations of certain city officials be carried into another Mayoralty term.” That sounds quite as good as Senator Quay’s platform of State-wide reform which he erected when the antis were after his scalp six- teen years ago. It is not to be pessimis- tically reckoned that the promises as to revealing Philadelphia scandals will not be carvied out. Ie Io be hoped that ev. epartment of the government will be investigated. In the meanwhile let us be calm. La Follette and the Presidency. From the Springfield Republican. It is an idea firmly and tenaciously en- tertained by many people who are not children in political experience and knowl- edge that Mr. La Follette will some time actually run for the , not mere- ly for a nomination, even if he has to break away from all party restraints in facing his candidacy before the people. his “destiny.” He never will be content still an open question whether this will happen next year, or some other year. present with a futile campaign for a nomination: but, in that case, he will make his contest against President Taft a mere ut of his strength in prepara- tion for 1916. In Substance a Bribe. From the Springfield A suitable law in Pennsylvania would t Senator Pen- t is in the man’s blood. He believes in | until he has made the great race. It is! Senator may be satisfied for the! lost last September, while Mr. Blough was dig- ging potatoes. In the spring he kept a sharp lookout for it, but in vain. A few days ago the plow turned it up, little the worse for its long in- terment. When wound it began ‘running. same as ever, The field had been plowed three times ‘and harrowed ten tin.cs vefore it was unearthed. —William A. Reams, one of the best known men in Clearfield county, died last Sunday at his home at Osceola. He was a member of one of i the pioneer families of that section, having been { born 75 years ago in a log cabin on the site of the present town of Philipsburg. He was one of the most noted hunters in that region, and probably ! killed more dear and bear than any other man in | this part of the State. | =The terms of imprisonment of Ex-Auditor, | General William P. Snyder and Ex-Superinten. | dent of Public Grounds and Buildings James M. | Shumaker, sentenced to-two years’ imprison- i ment for participation in the capitol conspiracy, | will expire in a little over a month. The men have been model prisoners, and the recommenda- tion for five months’ commutation for good be- ! havior, the usual amount on a two-year sentence, : has been approved. —The new silica brick plant tobe erected at Mount Union, in which the principal parties in” terested are Wilson Kistler, P. P. Griffin, R. P. M* Davis, of Lock Haven, and Rembrandt Peale, of New York, will be called the Mount Union Re- | fractories company. Other parties interested are | F. D. Halstead, formerly with the Queens Run | Fire Brick company, of Lock Haven, and C. V. ! Hackman, of Mount Union. The latter will te . the superintendent of the new brick works. . —The big Bear valley colliery, near Shamokin, | will be closed down fora period of three months | in order to flood the workings to extinguish the i fire which has been raging there for many months | past. During the past several! weeks a large force of men has been at work erecting a mam” 1 moth brick and cement dam. In the eventof a | prolonged suspension of Bear valley almost 1000 men and boys will be thrown out of employment, as the colliery is one of the largest and best opera- tions in the region. i =—The Reading system is to have a round house ' that will be 2 world beater. Its engineers have completed plans for the biggest round house in this or any other country. It will be located in the new yards at St. Clair, Schuylkill county. and will be erected at an approximate cost of $300,000. Within its limits thirty-six engines of the latest design can repose and puff away under ful stearn. The most remarkable feature about -he new round house is that it is to be built entirely of cement, roof and all. ~The case of the Commonwealth against former lose Congressman Joseph C. Sibley, of Franklin, who was charged with conspiracy to debauch the vot- ers of Warren county in the congressional elec- tion of 1910, will never be brought tu trial and it has been stricken from the records by a nolle It Fails to Surprise. From the Kansas City Star, ' effect that Senator Penrose had decided : $0.oppose La Follette as the Republican Another Canal to Fortify. From the Boston Globe. August Belmont says the United States | government gught to take over the Cape | canal. Sure—and fortify it, and es- | tablish a neutral zone, and abolish the . =—jJames G. Kauffman, a former letter carrier of Johnstown, who was indicted by the United States grand jury at Erie on a charge of opening i day. Kauffman's attorney, John W. Dunkle, | plead for leniency for the prisoner, as he had al- ways had a good reputation and also because he promote the political expectations of the mosquitoes, and have the President’s pic- sortie tise Tuage Ore ep emg SREBSY She Hi to aye Mayor. Senator CATLIN ought to level his guns on that seat of vice before he shuts up his shop. Subscribe for the WATCHMAN. ture taken, standing on the steam shovel. ‘ Hunting parties throughout the , county are beginning to make their plans | for the annual hunt this fall. risoner asked that he be sent to the Somerset | county jail if sentenced to imprisonment. Kauff- | man was arrested in June by Postoffice Inspector : Pearce, and shortly after his arrest he confessed to taking two letters. =
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers