IER
Demonic ata
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
INK SLINGS.
—Money may talk, but we have never
known it to have time to say more than
“good-bye.”
—With eight millions of the Steel trust’s
stock nothing but water, it is not sur-
prising that so many people have been
soaked with it.
—When Mr. TAFT is not busy writing | =
other vetoes he keeps his hand in by
doing something to complete the veto of
his own re-election.
—The loafer who talks about the
“world owing him a living” is usually
the fellow who is too lazy to go out and
collect what is coming to him.
—With Dr. Cook still living, Mr.
ROOSEVELT seems determined to know
for himself just how a fellow feels when
the business of foolin’ the people is all
over.
——Democrats ought to be active now
getting voters registered and otherwise
qualified for voting. Like Christmas shop-
ping this sort of work is easier if attend-
ed to early.
—A Philadelphia paper [says: The
mayor of Boston believes in boy-cotting
“every kind of food on which the price
is raised.” Does he think we could live
on nothing?
—Some one has just discovered that
the wind don’t blow as much as it did
twenty years ago. But then we didn't
have Bull Mooses to use so much of it,
and there was more left for the rest of us,
—The consolation some people try to
give us in the fact that if we don't have
all we want here, we will get all that is
coming to us in the hereafter, is just
what most of us have reason to worry
about.
—Whenever HARRY THAW gets hold of
a daily paper and reads the promises and
predictions the Bull Moose herd are mak-
ing he wonders why the asylumns are
not fuller or he is not out among the
other lunatics.
—Anyway the Republican party has
prospects of distinguished company in its
break-up and final disappearance. There's
the Turkish Empire and the Republic of
Mexico both about as near the political
grave yard as it is.
—As a squealer catcher the district
attorney of New York seems to be a
bloomin' success. As a discoverer of
criminals he rates as Bellefonte does in
the race for business—has a cinch on the
rear place and is content to hold that.
~It now looks asif the “out-of-employ-
ment class” in Germany would all be able
to get plenty to do for a long time to
come. That country has undertaken to
keep a record of the drunkards in each
and all of the towns and cities under its
control.
—Ebensburg people put in last week
entertaining the fireman's convention
and studying the different methods of ex-
tinguishing fires. And we know of no
place where the matter of extinguishing
fires, both for the present and future,
has greater need for careful study.
—A peculiarly strange and plaintive
cry has been heard, the past few nights
down in the vicinity of Howard and
which has greatly aroused the sympathy
and curiosity of the good people of that
locality. We wouldn't wonder a bit, if
eventually they discover it to be the call
of a lonesome Bull Moose out, trying to
find some company.
—It is said that Col. ROOSEVELT always
gets five duplicates made of one of the
keys on his type writer, and that these
are all smashed before the others show
perceptible wear. Now, we will bet all
the “tainted” money, any subscriber will
pay in to this office, that any reader of
the WATCHMAN can guess on first trial
what letter that key carries.
—The Harrisburg Patriot gives us the
highly important information that “all
envelopes going out from Democratic
headquarters in that city will be printed
in red ink.” This ought to prove beyond
question that the campaign is being push-
ed with the greatest vigor and furnish all
the evidence needed of our readiness for
the fight to begin at once. Let ‘er come.
—Secretary KNOX, with a retinue of
minor officials, and a small army of
political hangers-on, it is announced, will
attend the Mikado’s funeral at Tokyo in
September at the government's expense.
The return to be about November 4th,
How lucky the return! Just in time to
attend a like ceremony over the remains
of his own party and with his “hand in”
and his features set for such occasions.
—Considerable dissatisfaction and
great disappointment in various parts of
the State are reported as manifesting
themselves among Democrats in conse:
quence of the failure of the organization
to have the county committees announced
and ready for the work of the campaign.
But then these dissatisfied and disap-
re-organizers,
who for years have suffered with the
political hook worm, traces of which are
still in the blood of most of them. Be
to be troubled with that
and Representative in the Legislature are
justly indignant because Boss BILL FLINN
has imposed upon them conditions which
may prove embarrassing. Boss FLINN
proposes to require each of them to sign
a pledge that he will not, under any cir-
cumstances, vote for the re-election of
Senator PENROSE. Under a strict con-
struction of the corrupt practices act the
signing of such a pledge would be unlaw-
ful. Naturally Mr. PENROSE's friends
among the candidates object to signing
on that account. They are purists in the
matter of political morals. They don't
mind stuffing ballot boxes or falsifying
returns, but they are unalterably opposed
to signing pledges.
At a conference held in Atlantic City
last Sunday evening, this fact was devel-
oped. City chairman DAVID H. LANE was
particularly outraged by such an immoral
proposition. In the heyday of machine
dominance Mr. LANE may have enter-
tained different views on the subject. We
recall that on one occasion he declared
that every official would “lose his job”
unless he voted five times or produced
five votes for the ticket. But things are
different now and such a proposition,
under an opposition administration,would
give him heart disease. With respect to
the pledge he said “to threaten a man
with defeat because he will not promise
to oppose a particular candidate for the
Senate is no different than to offer him
money or other valuable things if he will
promise to vote in favor of another man.”
Obviously we have here “a DANIEL
come to judgment.” Listen to his subtle
but substantial reasoning. “The promise
to vote against a certain man,” he con-
tinues, "may be just as valuable as the
promise to vote for him, and venal men,
through venal candidates, could just as
easily defeat the public and the voter's
wishes by one method as the other. No
candidate is worthy of support whose
pledge is required on matters of public
policy. He should be judged by his works,
and if he is.not worthy of confidence and
cannot be trusted to act for the best in-
terests of the people, he should not be
elected.” What an admirable political
philosophy is expressed in these burning
words. It is the oozing of the spirit of
reform from a body charged with political
righteousness and civic virtue.
Seriously, however, Mr. LANE is right
with respect to the matter, though he is
both insincere and hypocritical in de-
claring the truth. If the PENROSE fac-
tion were in absolute control and in an
impregnable position, DAVE LANE could
see no harm in requiring candidates to
sign apledge and give a bond that they
would vote for PENROSE for Senator. But
BILL FLINN is the boss and by virtue of
that fact in position to lay down condi-
tions and impose penalties for supporting
PENROSE and DAVE LANE, a bad loser at
best, files a protest. Of course it won't
get him anything but it reveals the fact
that FLINN is the same today that he was
as the office boy of CHRIS MAGEE a dozen
years ago.
-—Colonel ROOSEVELT is proceeding
with absolute confidence in the credulity
of the American people. If he would say
the moon is made out of green cheese his
fool followers would believe him im-
plicitly.
Mr. Foster for the Belletonte Hospital.
Our friend Mr. GEORGE W. GUTHRIE,
will be short one Democratic vote, at
least, when it comes to denying the local
charities of the State the beggarly aid
the State has heretofore been doling
out to them. This he proposed doing by
pledging in advance the Democratic
nominee for Legislature, to vote for “ne
appropriations for charitable purposes
except for institutions purely under state
control.” In this issue of the WATCH-
MAN Mr. FOSTER, who will represent Cen-
tre county in the next Legislature, tells
our people very plainly and very explic-
itly just what he will do in this’ mat-
ter. And that he will help the Bellefonte
hospital to the fullest extent of his ability.
Mr. GUTHRIE can therefore scratch his
name off the list of those members he
hoped to be able to have oppose the lit-
tle and deserving charities throughout
the State in order that the bigger ones
under state control—and mostly located
in the larger cities—could demand a
greater amount from the treasury.
There is not a citizen of the county
who will not endorse Mr. FOSTER'S posi-
tion in this matter and there is not one
who will approve of the effort of Mr.
GUTHRIE, even if heis a re-organizer—
to force these deserving charities to ac-
cept “purely state control,” or be starved
out of business.
——If the negroes fall in for Roose-
easy friends. You don’t know what it is
disease,
VELT’S subterfuge they ought to be dis-
franchised altogether.
The PENROSE candidates for Senator
STATE
Cost of Living Will Come Down.
Several years ago Senator ALDRICH,
then Republican leader in the Senate
declared in a public speech that by the
application of business principles to the
administration of the government $300,-
000,000 could be saved annually. That is
to say the profligacy of Republican ad-
ministration was costing the tax payers
nearly a million dollars a day in excess
of the requirements. ROOSEVELT re-
mained in office two years after that
statement was made but made no attempt
to correct the fault. TAPT has been ap-
plying some small economies and saving
a few thousands here and there while
adding millions elsewhere. In other
words he has been saving at the spigot
and wasting at the bung.
But there is the promise of better
things after the election of WoODROW
WiLsoN. The Governor of New Jersey
has already cut out every wastetul source
of expense in the State government and
is now making careful inquiry into the
profligacy of the National administration
with the view of economizing there. The
other day he had a long conference with
Representative SWAGLEY SHERLEY, of
Kentucky, who has given the subject
much study, with the view of getting the
necessary information for practical work
in the future. If ALDRICH could save
$300,000,000 a year Wooprow WILSON
will find the way to accomplish as much.
Beyond question the tariff is the prin-
cipal cause of the high cost of living. It
is the mother of trusts and the oppor-
tunity for extortion. But profligacy in
public affairs is a good second in the
matter. In the first place the money to
meet the excessive expenses is taken
from the earnings of the people and be-
comes a part of their personal expenses,
Secondly profligacy in public affairs in-
duces extravagance in private life and
extravagance is the excuse for high
prices. With the saving of a million
dollars a day in the expenses of the gov-
ernment there will be a saving in every
other element of living and in a very
short time a normal, and therefore tol-
erable, condition will be reached. ~~
~The TAFT followers are growing
impatient over the silence of PENROSE
but that is no cause for alarm or com-
plaint. The quieter PENROSE keeps the
better for the TAFT interests and the less |
opportunity the FLINN fellows will have
to howl. PENROSE is no idiot whatever
other faults he may have.
Taft’s Tariff Vetoes.
In vetoing the wool tariff bill President
TAFT does his best to keep faith with the
wool trust and “save his face” to the
people. He vetoed the similar bill en-
acted during the special session last year
for the reason that the tariff board had
not made its report. Since that the board
has reported that the duties are vastly
too high and he vetoes the measure the
second time because the provisions are
not in accord with the findings of the
board and because the “rates are so low
in themslves if enacted into law the in-
evitable result would be irretrievable in-
jury to the wool growing industry.” A
more absurd statement has never been
put into an argument before.
It is universally admitted that the tariff
tax on wool and woolens is inexcusably
excessive. President TAPT has himself
so stated and the wool growers and
manufacturers of woolen fabrics admit it.
The bill which has twice been vetoed
doesn't, as Mr. TAPT says, cut
duties to a level that would irretrievably
injure the wool-growing industry or force
“idleness upon the combing and spinning
machinery” and the employees of the
woolen mills. But it cuts down the rates
to a figure which will not afford shelter
to robbers or exact from the people trib-
ute to bestow largesses upon the gen-
erous contributors to the Republican
campaign corruption fund. The passage
of thebill will not impair the interests
of labor or industry in the least.
The truth is that President TAFT is
under obligations to the Wool trust for a
large proportion of the funds with which
his election was bought and he imagines
that by keeping faith with them it will
be an easy matter to “fry the fat” this
year. If the bill had been signed a year
ago more than a hundred millions of dol-
lars would have been saved to the con-
sumers of wool who comprise the whole
people. Besides that thousands of lives
would have been saved, for the lack of
woolen clothing is the principal cause of
tubercular maladies in this country. But
the Republican machine is pledged to the
trust and TAFT has neither the conscience
nor the courage to resist.
———Colonel ROOSEVELT hasn't claimed
credit, thus far, for the decline in the
price of straw hats and low-cut shoes, but
it is only a recentincident, this year, and
he will probably get in under the wire
ahead of all others.
RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., AUGUST 16, 1912.
Roosevelt is Fooling the People.
In his “confession of faith” Mr. ROOSE-
VELT promises everything, possible and
impossible of attainment. He agrees to
do anything anybody wants and at the
time he wants it. He pledges himself to
abate every evil, to correct every fault
and to promotz every virtue. He con-
demns every man who disagrees with
him and denounces every policy not in-
corporated in his code. He inferentially
declares that he is the only man in the
country capable and honest enough to
administer the office of President and
that the election of any other man would
be an abandonment of hope for the fu-
ture. But he forgets. People have short
memories but records do not soon fade.
Among the things Mr. ROOSEVELT
promises is a decrease in the cost of
living. Almost from the moment that
he was inducted into the office of Presi-
dent the increase in the cost of living
shelter for monopoly and his profligacy an
excuse for extravagance. During the
seven years of his incumbency of the
office the aggregate expenses were great-
preceding that national misfortune,
though the period covered the expenses
of the Spanish-American war. These
records of the government, which are
accessible to any citizen who cares to
make the inquiry.
Mr. ROOSEVELT pays scant respect to
the intelligence of the people in thus
promising things now which he failed to
even attempt during his previous occu-
pancy of the office. Men do not change
long established habits without reason
and if ROOSEVELT had changed GEORGE
W. PERKINS, Judge GARY and HENRY C.
FRrICK would not be spending vast sums
to secure his election. They are not sen-
timentalists. They make no investments
unless there is a practical certainty of
‘profit, and in financing ROOSEVELT’S cam-
paign they know that he will not do what
he promises to the public but that he
will do what he has already agreed to
{Sapbem. In other words ROOSEVELT
is fooling the people.
~—0f course there will be a big Demo-
cratic vote this year for the conditions
are all favorable. Our candidate is all
that could be desired, our party is united
and hopeful and our enemy is demoralized
and divided. But Mr. BRYAN polled a
considerable vote in Pennsylvania four
years ago, though GEORGE W. GUTHRIE,
VANCE C. McCorMICK and a few other
present day party leaders were against
him.
Wilson's Speech of Acceptance.
Governor WILSON'S speech of accept
ance reads like a new departure in polit-
ical literature. There has been nothing
like it since the late SAMUEL J. TILDEN
acknowledged the similer honor and ac-
cepted the similar responsibilities from
the same party in 1876. It can hardly be
called a speech because it is more than
that. An esteemed contemporary declares
it is a philosophy in its perfection and
completeness. In any event it was so
entirely in accord with the requirements
and conditions of the occasion that it has
commanded universal approval not only
with respect to its tone but in every other
reputable paper an adverse criticism.
The surprise, if there is such a thing,
in relation to this public utterance, is the
wide information and accurate under-
standing it reveals of public affairs. We
are all accustomed to regard college pro-
fessors as theorists and essayists who
have no practical knowledge of affairs of
men. But Governor WILSON has disa-
bused the public mind of this erroneous
impression. He has proven that he is
familiar not only with the science of gov-
ernment but with the practical applica-
tion of it to affairs. He shows that he
not only knows what the people want but
has a thorough knowledge of the means
and methods of providing it and using
it.
Governor WILSON is a Democrat in the
best meaning of that term but he is
neither a ranter nor agitator. He is for
the rule of the people under the consti-
tutional restraints provided by the fathers
of the Republic. He realizes that the
abuse of the taxing power is the greatest
evil of the present time because itis
unjust and oppressive. No people can be
contented who are being robbed and the
way to make men contented is to treat
them justly. For tlicse reasons Governor
WILSON believes that the tariff question
is the dominant issue of the campaign
and he proposes to direct his energies
to the abatement of that crowning atroc-
ity. Every voter should read the speech,
~The Standard Oil company andithe
tobacco trust have coined money out of
the court order for their dissolution but
that is ascribable to the language of the
court order.
set in. His administration became a and
statements of fact can be proved by the |;
particular. We have not seen in any |p
NO. 32.
!
Having established at Chicago the
edent of refusing to abide by the will of
the majority the Bull Moosers forthwith
bolted the committee, and the result will
be separate tes in
the te. This action will seal
the fate of the Republician party in Ohio
er than during the years immediately | fin.
ous, it looks as if the
has but toe maintain a solid frontin order
to win its easiest and greatest victory.
large tracts are
ed opportunities to in and
re a iD Sumep Sa
Brn ow hey wt Bk a lng
aws as
A tariffs and land er
as
exist so long will they suffer from
evil effects.
Corporation Contributions.
From tke Harrisburg Star-Independent.
from contributing money or anything
value to the nomination or election of
Presidential Electors, tatives in
e Congress or State tors who
elect United States Senators, ought to be
passed at once in order that it may be in
force during the present campaign.
Corporations should never have been
allowed to contribute to campaign funds,
for their motives in so doing could not
have been above
appeared on the beach arrayed in men's
socks, which naturally left about a foot
of bare leg between the sock and bath-
ing suit. And we have it on the word of
a Bellefonte gentleman who was there
and knoweth whereof he spoke that the
ladies looked quite “fetching.” But the
life guards and beach director are evi-
dently of a modest nature and they aver
that while socks are socks and may be
all right for New York and Philadelphia,
they are not stockings, and stockings are
the only leg trimmings that will be al.
lowed on that beach.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—There are more than 30 applications for citi -
zenship to be passed upon at the Cambria natur-
alization court, which convenes this week.
~Thirty-six copperhead snakes, ranging in size
from ten inches to three feet, were killed by two
Huntingdon county lads near Stone mountain a
few days ago.
~Paul Rehn, a Cambria steel inspector was
given a room-mate early in the week at his Johns-
town boarding house. After threedays’ compan”
ionship the room-mate disappeared and with him
$100 worth of Rehn’s personal effects.
—A Slav, who landed in Portage a few evenings
ago looking for work, unhesitatingly went with a
stranger who offered him lodging. Next mom-
ing heturned up at the Miller shaft, his head and
face cut and bruised and all his money gone.
—Bids for the construction of the new tubercu-
losis sanitorium at Hamburg will be opened at
=H. H. Bryan, a well known citizen of Johns-
town, was held up while on a trip through New
Mr. Bryan proved his identity by his Johnstown
the | Y- M.C. A. card and other papers.
~It isthought that it was a tramp who sent
word to the Reading station at Williamsport a
few evenings ago that a big machine had slipped
from a passing freight and was on the passenger
track just bevond the city. A few moments later
a passenger train would have crashed into it.
~While the Smith family reunion dinner was
in progress in Vallamount park, Williamsport,
an old hickory tree snapped off and would have
fallen directly on a table at which forty people
were seated but for branches of another tree
Wicks cmghit The dinner was suddenly halt.
been cleared by State authorities of the charge of
allowing gambling devices on its grounds and
will receive the State bonus. D, AlIrvin, former-
ly of Centre county is secretary of the Ebensburg
association. The Cambria County association,
however, was found guilty.
=A hundred or more of Northumberland’s citi-
zens formed a chopping bee in the gray dawn a
few mornings ago and when their fun was over a
tree that had been in the way of paving opera.
tions was measuring its length onthe street. The
owner had refused to have it cut and the court
had upheld him in his action.
—Not fifteen minutes after his mother told him
—Frank Neese, a Sagamore, Indiana county
miner who found, as he was about to start
-
8
Of
until the lifeless body was lifted from the wagon.
~Mrs. Annie Garth, of Mill Hall, looked out a
few days ago to see her two year old grandson
sitting quietly on the Bald Eagle Valley railroad
track. She also saw a passenger train coming
rapidly down grade toward the child. Mean-
while the engineer had put on brakes and the fire-
man had crawled out on the cowcatcher ready to
kick the baby from the track. But the grand:
mother had won the race with death by a narrow
margin.
~John Treires, a Jersey Shore Greek, was the
ly. He became acquainted with two strangers
who possessed $12,000 and was persuaded to put
his little all—§1,000—into a tin box along with the
larger amount. The box was entrusted to his
care while the strangers went to a drug store to
make a purchase. It was seven hours later that
a friend insisted that he open the box and the po-
lice were notified of its emptiness.
—F. E. Kenyon, late of Bellwood, near Altoona,
have | shot his wife and eighteen months old daughter,
; | the former through the heart and the latter just
above the heart, at 11.20 o'clock Tuesday morn-
Ing, in the Lafayette hotel, Pittstsburgh, then
turned the weapon against his own chest and
the | fired, and then shot himself through the mouth.
Both Mr. Kenyon and his wife died instantly and
the child died several hours later in a hospital.
No cause is assigned for the man’s act.
—Two car Joads of Michigan deer, six bucks
and the rest does, have been delivered to the big
Clearfield county game preserve of the State
game commission and are now being distributed
under the personal direction of Commissioners
John M. Philips and Joseph Kalbfus. This is the
third preserve to be stocked with deer by the
State within the last year, a number having been
placed in the preserve in Perry county near New
Germantown, and in the Ligonier preserve in
Westmoreland county.
—After spending more than eleven years in the
Berks county prison under sentence of death for
the murder of her husband, efforts are about to
be made to obtain a pardon for Mrs. Kate Ed-
wards, on the ground that she has made sufficient
atonement for the crime charged against her.
The case of Mrs. Edwards is a remarkable one.
Four Governors of Pennsylvania have failed to
take final action in fixing a day for the woman's
execution, each Governor having let the case
rest in the files of his office.
—The will of Mrs. Helen Mae Chandler, who
died at Camden, N, J., aged 91 years, was admit-
ted to probate last Thursday. The executor
named was William H. R. Lukens, an attorney of
ranging in sums from $50 to $200, the will provides
that the balance of the estate is to go to Bucknell
University, Lewisburg, for the purpose of prepar-
ing persons for work in foreign missions, and to
the Baptist Missionary union, of Boston, for fur-
thering the work among the Siamese Pequans.