Sa
:
Dewan.
—Buck deer can now roam the moun-
tains without fear of the red capped gun-
ner.
—A glass factory can be started in
Bellefonte if some one will take enough
pains to raise the money.
—Many a good woman's daily fear of
being made a widow was minimized when
the deer hunting season closed.
—The war is on. Council has told the
borough engineer to take the strip off the
dam in Spring creek and KEEP IT OFF.
—Thank the Lord! The bunny hug,
the grizzly bear and the turkey trot are
no longer considered fashionable for
dancers.
—How about that Christmas shopping?
Are you doing it now or are you putting
it off until the last minute like you did
last year.
—When tried out at football the sea
legs of the Navy seem to have more
steadiness and speed than the land legs
of the Army.
—Congress is in session; a sort of fall
house cleaning to be ready for the new
tenants in the spring will probably be the
order of things.
——Just the same if Wooprow WiL-
soN hadn't changed his mind he could
easily knock Mr. BRYAN “into a cocked
hat” in the near future.
—Don’t forget that you can send the
WATCHMAN to any friend fdr an entire
year for $1.00. It would make a most
acceptable Christmas gift.
—There is plenty of unhusked corn in
the fields of Centre county and tardy
farmers can’t expect anything else than
cold fingers as the penalty for not having
gotten at it earlier.
—If DEXTER VERY, the wonderful State
end, had been a Yale man he would prob-
ably have been on WALTER CAMP’S first
All-American eleven in big black type,
but having gone to a school where every
man stands on his own legs, both in
scholastic standing and athletic success-
es, he is given a place on the second
eleven.
—Having spent more money and polled
fewer Democratic votes than in any pres
idential election in Pennsylvania for thir-
ty-two years chairman GUTHRIE has call-
ed his State central commitee to meet
in Harrisburg on the 19th to tell the Dem-
ocratic Legislators-elect what the wishes
of the people of Pennsylvania really are
in the matter of legislation. It is to
laugh!
—When the new foundry gets well un-
der way in Bellefonte it might be well
for those in the community who will have
the most cause to rejoice over whatever
business that it has brought to remember
that in the last analysis Mr. J. HOWARD
LINGLE is the man they should take their
hats off to. He was the gentleman who
told the present owners where the oppor-
tunity was to be found and sicked them
on it.
—President-elect WILSON'S suggestion
that he be quietly inaugurated on March
4th and that the ceremonial function be
deferred until the last Thursday in April
might possibly reduce the number of
pneumonia cases that invariably follow a
presidential inauguration celebration, but
it seems a good bit like inviting Santa
Claus down the chimney on Christmas
eve and then not looking to see what he
brought until the Fourth of July.
—Latest gossip has it that Mr. BRYAN
will decline any cabinet office President-
elect WiLsoN might offer him and has
rented a suite of offices in Washington
where he will edit the Commoner and do
other newspaper work. There are those
who “view with alarm” and those who
“point with pride” to the plan, but among
them be the argument. In all probabili-
ty Mr. BRYAN will do exactly as he pleas-
es and the country and the Democratic
party will survive whether his efforts be
constructive of destructive.
—Just before the close of his first ad-
ministration GROVER CLEVELAND issued
an order putting all railroad mail clerks
on the civil service list. Within a month
country without as much as a formal ex-
amination of their fitness President WiL-
SON will have a precedent to fall back on
should he revoke the order and call on
them to be examined like anyone else
who is ambitious to get into the govern-
ment service.
—Governor TENER is a much inter-
viewed man these days. It is interesting
to note that whatever reporter gets his
ear the same “dope” as to the next ses
sion is forthcoming. The Governor in-
sists that he does not intend training
with any faction, that all legislation must
“come clean” to the executive office be-
fore it will secure his approval and that
he wants Pennsylvania's Legislature to
redeem the State in every way possible.
TEMER is young and TENER is ambitious.
He came into the Governor's office with
little but he might go out to greater
things if he proves that he means what
\
LL ILS
ON
a
= 1 STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
of the reassembling of Congress Repre-
sentative UNDERWOOD, of Alabama, chair-
man of the House committee on Ways
and Means, indicates the program of the
Democrats of that body with respect to
the revision of the tariff downward, dur-
ing the special session which is promised
soon after the inauguration of WOODROW
WiLsoN. He says, substantially, that the
work will be executed with “neatness and
dispatch,” to the end that doubts in the
minds of men may be promptly removed
and business interests relieved from anx-
jety. This is precisely what the people
expected, and is, moreover, in strict con-
formity with the pledges of the party
during the campaign.
The Ways and Means committee will
give ample opportunity for such of the
tariff mongers as imagine that they have
a right to instruct Congress on the sub-
ject. to speak their little pieces before
the Committee, but it will be before the
opening of the special session and not
afterward. The personnel of the com-
mittee of the next Congress will be prac-
tically the same as that of the present
House and within a week the hearings
will begin, to continue during the in-
terval between the close of the present
session and the opening of the next. In
other words upon the day the new Con-
gress is organized the work of tariff re-
vision will begin and it will proceed with-
out interruption until finished.
ment lies in the fact that it means the
entire elimination of that most preposter-
Commission. That body of “beef eaters”
was created for the purpose of delaying
tariff reduction and incidentally affording
an asylum for a few political “lame
ducks.” It has cost hundrends of thous-
ands of dollars directly and hundreds of
millions indirectly and has been of no
more service to the public than a com-
mittee of High school boys would render
if sent out to serenade the man in the
moon.
The assurance, therefore, that this ex-
pensive and useless luxury will be dis.
continued immediately is most gratifying
and encouraging.
——President TAFT may be influenced
by the purest motives in putting the
fourth class postmasters in the civil serv-
ice class but there are a good many peo-
ple who will doubt. There are 40.000 of
them, or more, and TAFT wants to be
President again. That many grateful
office holders would make a hopeful nu-
cleus for a campaign force and TAFT has
done so many small things since he be-
came President that suspicions of his
motives are simply natural.
Economy the Keynote,
The various heads of departments of
the government at Washington estimate
that expenses for the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1914, exclusive of the postal ser-
vice, will aggregate $823,415455.14. This
is an increase over the appropriations of
the present fiscal year of $72,078,348. Of
the increase $28,312,220 is for the Navy
Department which contempiates the con-
struction of three battleships instead of
the one provided for during the last ses-
sion of Congress. There will be an in-
crease of $20,000,000 in the pension ap-
propriation, in accordance with the pro-
visions of the SHERWOOD law passed dur-
ing the last session. An increase is also
asked for public buildings.
One of the greatest dangers which the
Democratic administration will encoun-
ter during the early period of its opera-
tions will be the tendency to extravas
gance. Of course the increase in the
pension appropriation is unavoidable and
the people will not grudge the additional
sum that goes to relieve the wants of the
veterans of the several wars through
which the country has passed. But there
is neither rhyme nor reason in the fur-
ther increase of the Naval appropriation.
During the last session the Democratic
majority of the House set its face against
the construction of two battleships and
the recent Democratic landslide was one
of the results. There ought to be no de-
parture from that policy.
President TAFT had an inordinate pen-
chant for commissions. In addition to
his absurd Tariff commission he had an
Economic and Efficiency commission and
the Department estimates provide for the
maintenance of both of these tax-eating
bodies. We sincerely hope that during
the present session both of them will be
eliminated and that the Commerce Court
will be similarly disposed of. The key-
note of the Democrats in the present ses-
sion should be rigid economy in every-
thing and the best way to put such poli-
cies in force is to cut out all the need-
less bodies created from time to time to
provide berths for superannuated party
serfs. And there are other ways to econ-
he is reported as saying now.
AS
omize.
The gratifying feature of this state- |
ous of all legislative humbugs, the Tariff |
Put Flinn to the Test.
We most cordially approve the ex-
pressed purpose of the Democrats in the
| Legislature to put the sincerity of
Boss FLINN's professions of political con-
| trition to the test at the openingof the
Legislature. Mr. FLINN protests with
much unction that he favors the rule of
the people and the elimination of bossism
from the government of the Common-
wealth. His first opportunity to “prove
his faith by works” will come in the se-
lection of the standing committees of the
Senate and House of Representatives.
The Democrats will propose that the
committees be named by the bodies of
which they are organs rather than by
the Speaker of the House and President
pro tem. of the Senate, as heretofore.
We do not concur in the absurd view
expressed by the Harrisburg Patriot, that
the present system of selecting commit-
tees in the General Assembly of Pennsyl-
vania, and until recently in the House of
Representatives in Washington, was a
device of the bosses to serve the inter-
| ests of the bosses. It is the system that
has been in vogue both in Harrisburg
and Washington from the beginning of
legislative organization in those capitals.
But of late years it has been perverted
to the base uses of the bosses and be-
cause of that fact it ought to be abol-
ished in Harrisburg as it has been in
Washington. Considerable good may
come from the proposed change and that
makes it worth trying.
The experience in Washington justifies
the change in Harrisburg, moreover. It
| curtailed the power of the Speaker ma-
terially both in the committee rooms and
:
i
Obviously the “interests” are trying to
“make good” on their pre-election pre-
dictions that in the event of the election
of Wooprow WILSON, industrial paralysis
would follow. In a statement made by
the Secretary of the Treasury, recently,
and commented upon in these columns
last week, it was alleged that the secre-
tary has power to create a panic when-
ever he is so inclined. It is equally cer-
tain that the industrial trusts, by com-
bination and collusion, can similarly crip-
ple the industrial life of the country. The
discharge of 900 employes of the CAR-
NEGIE Steel company at its Pittsburgh
plant the other day is ominous of a pur-
pose to exercise this outrageous power.
Four men in the employ of the CAR-
NEGIE Steel company were discharged,
recently, for circulating petitions asking
the company for improved industrial
conditions. Their fellow workers to the
number mentioned, demanded the res-
toration of these men to their places
and last Saturday held a conference with
the president of the company, A. C. DiN-
KEY, who demanded that they return to
work without a promise of the fulfillment
of their request. They refused to do so
and were immediately discharged, which
drastic action threw 11,000 men out of
employment. Of course times will be
hard in that neighborhood so long as the
lockout continues, and the calamity howls
of the late campaign will be in some
measure justified.
As a matter of fact there has been no
actual change in industrial condition since
the election of Wooprow WILSON and
there will be none unless it is forced by
conspiracies as that which resulted
upon the floor of the House, but did not,
as the congressional bosses predicte
| retard legislation or im)
| of the chair in
| patching business. - We doubt FLINN'S
willingness to make the change, how-
‘ever. It will vastly curtail his control of
| the membership and legislation and that
| is what FLINN wants to avoid. He is in
| the game for the power it promises to
| give him and we are greatly mistaken in
| the man if he willingly relinquishes any
| opportunities to boss the job.
i ——————————-—
i
——Anyway those importunate office
| seekers who are breaking into President
| elect WILSON'S period of rest by deluging
| him with letters ought to pay the postage.
It is said that he has been obliged to pay
a considerable sum on postage due thus
far and no man is entitled to an office
who will put such a burden upon him.
President Taft's Message.
President TAFT'S last annual message
to Congress sounds like a “swan song.”
It treats only of our foreign relations and
diplomatic achievements and from begin-
ning to end it carries a note of fear that
some of the policies may be changed.
The President would regret beyond ex-
pression if the “Dollar Diplomacy” which
he inaugurated, and in the imaginary suc-
cess of which he takes so much pride
should be forced aside in order that a di-
plomacy which recognized human rights
as more important than dollars, should
be substituted. We sincerely hope his
apprehensions upon the subject will not
be disappointed.
The President is careful, moreover, to
dwell upon the non-partisanship of his
diplomatic force. “Three ambassadors
now serving held their present rank at
the beginning of my administration,” he
declares. “Of the ten ambassadors whom
1 have appointed,” he adds, “five were
by promotion from the rank of minister.
Of the thirty ministers whom I have ap-
pointed, eleven were promoted from the
lower grades of the foreign service or
from the Department of State.” But as
anship in it from first td last,
We are not inclined to captious criti
cism either of President TAFT’S adminis.
tration or his message. He has been an
amiable, well-meaning, but sadly disap-
pointing executive. His message reads
well and will no doubt interest the public
considerably. But it palpably reveals a
policies may be true from his point of
view but the country will suffer no evil
if there is a complete reor-
ganization and renovation of the service.
——The complete though not official
election returns show that ROOSEVELT
polled only a trifle more than half a mil-
lion votes more than TAFT and an analysis
of the figures indicate that WILSON would
have been elected if only one of the two
had been in the field.
in the absorption of the Tennessee Coal
ind Iron company in 1907. That such a
conspiracy is now impending is plainly
indigated by this action of the CARNEGIE
Steel company and it ought to be check:
ed if there is any legal process available
to accomplish that result. We have no
sympathy with heedless strikes nor pa-
tience with riotous strikers. But this is so
palpably an infraction of the rights of
citizenship that it can’t be condoned or
should not be permitted.
——When former Speaker CANNON ap-
peared on the floor of the House on |
Monday he was generously applauded by
his associates in the body. But nobody |
indicated, thus far, whether those who |
applauded were glad for his defeat or
that he will never appear at another open-
ing of the session.
——Every evening the passenger train
on the Lewisburg and Tyrone railroad is
from fifteen minutes to three quarters of
an hour late, caused by the time it takes
to load milk cans at various stations
throughout Pennsvalley.for shipment to
the milk condensary at Mill Hall. Dur-
ing the summer a sub-station was built
at Spring Mills and a month or six weeks
ago a special car was put on to be loaded
at Spring Mills and ready for the after
noon train. It was believed that
would solve the problem of late trains
but now so much milk is shipped from
other stations in Pennsvalley that it takes
considerable time to handle it.
——A dispatch from Detroit, Mich,
states that on Sunday, November 24th,
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chauncy F.
York was burglarized and jewelry valued
at three thousand dollars taken. The
thief was arrested and the jewels recov-
ered on Thanksgiving day, but when re-
stead of real gems. The thief declares
he did not make the substitution and Mr.
York claims the jewels were never out of
thie family possession before and how the
substitution was made is inexplicable
Mr. York is a son-in-law of Col. Emanuel
Noll, of this place.
——A recent order from the War De-
partment at Washington detached Capt,
Walter B. McCaskey from the Twelfth
infantry and gave him the assignment of
construction quartermaster, with resi-
dence on Alcatray Island, a government
presidio in the bay of San Francisco. The
captain is thus virtually placed in charge
of the construction of all the buildings to
course of lectures and demonstrations
this year will be equal to those given in
past years.
covered they were found to be paste in- | would
-A Hole in the Tom-Tom.
From the Johnstown Democrat.
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From the Harrisburg Star-Indep.ndent
Compilations of the vote cast at the
Presidential election this year indicate a
falling off of nearly six hundred thousand
in the popular vote as compared with
that of 1908. But, as the returns are not
complete; as the tables include unofficial
as well as official returns, and as the vote
cast in fifty counties and parishes was
not obtainable when that of all the States
was compiled, the loss is much more
apparent than real. The difference be-
tween 1908 and 1912 will be greatly re-
duced when all the returns are in.
In the last sixteen years there has not
been a normal increase in the popular
vote cast in Presidential elections. In
1896 the total was 13,962,000. In 1900 it
increased only 18,000, to 13,880,000. There
must have been a much larger increase
in the number of citizens who had reach-
ed the voting age in that time. Worse
still, there was an actual decrease of more
than 400,000 in 1904, when the total was
only 13,525,000. However, the decrease
can be attributed to the candidacy of
Parker for the Democratic vote was more
than a million less than in 1900. In 1908
this | the popular vote jumped to 14,888,000.
That there should be any slump this
reason-
turns are at hand. All the parties were
fighting hard during the entire campaign.
was more political matter franked
by Congressmen than ever before. The
committees’ bureaus of publicity worked
as never before. There was a greater
effort to reach individual voters with
a wits whom the slence of munici-
a opportu.
Ptyor a passing occupation, but a pro-
von JM mg gl
years, and in to all
in rhere Lhave found the Shy
sessio of what belongs 1o the SE
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
~W. D. Krebs, aged 20, started from his home
in Renovo to ride to Lock Havenon aN. Y. Cen
tral freight. His mangled body was found a
short distance east of Hyner.
~While workmen were cleaning out the fire-
place in a vacant house at Sunbury, they came
on the body of a male child. There is no clue to
the identity but the matter is to be investigated.
Twelve had been seen by the party but only this
one with horns.
~The Progressive Oil and Gas company, com-
_ =—Edward Mansell, of Morrisdale, was chop-
ping kindling when a piece became fast under a
stump. When he tried to pull it out, he fell back-
ward, breaking his leg. He lost a foot ina mine
accident some years ago.
—John A. Carns, aged 69. of DuBois, has been
jeata dil asics Swe-390. amu 39 MEY
—State veterinarians report that “blackleg,’”
which made its appearance in the northern part
.of Cambria county a few weeks ago, is now under
control and there has been no further spread of
hog cholera which broke out near Hastings re"
~—Fred Yueston is under arrest at Greensburg,
charged with having been watchman for yeggs
who dynamited the safe of the Eureka Supply
company store at Herminie, near Greensburg.
The booty was $2,000 cash, $600 checks, jewelry
worth $1,000 and a quantity of clothing.
—Miss Minnie Snook, aged twenty-five years,
—~Three coal miners were seriously injured
near Philipsburg on Monday. Charles and Irvin
Meyers, of Lock Lomond, and William Hughes,
of Hawk Run, each has an injured back, Hughes
having the vertebrae partially dislocated. Charles
Meyers has three ribs broken and an injured
—Passengers on a trolley car coming into Du-
Bois a few evenings ago heard a splash as they
approached Falls Creek and saw two hands
reaching up out of the water. An hour later the
body of Gordon Harris, aged 48, a resident of
Reynoldsville, was recovered. He had fallen
from a foot bridge.
~The uncons:ious form of Archie Morris, an
engineer on the Williamsport and North Branch
railroad, was found beside his engine a few momn-
ings ago. His fireman was ill and Morris was
working alone at the engine. It is thought that
there must have been an explosion, as he was
{rightfully burned. He died later at the Williams-
port hospital.
~—A son of John Stone, of Wheatfield township,
Perry county, recently took a new rifle with him
to the field when he went to bring in the horses
and cows. He fired several shots, just to hurry
them along, and soon after they reached the barn
two of the horses and one cow fell dead, The
boy didn't think the gun would shoot hard
enough to hurt them. ‘
—There are two men named Henry Wenner,
one of whom lives in Williamsport and one at
Bastress. Each has a son and the boys have the
same birthday, although they were not born in
the same year. Recently the boy in the city
fell and broke a collarbone and the boy at Bas-
tress within an hour had hisleg badly mashed in
acorn sheller.
—While hunting rabbits in the woods near Mt,
Union. Huntingdon county, Miles Preston, of
that place, discovered the skeleton of a man last
Friday evening. A gold watch, chain and eye-
glasses were identified by relatives as belonging
to George Banawalt, aged 60, of Mt. Union, who
disappeared from that place last June. Apoplexy
is believed to have been the cause of his death.
—Stephen Barrett, of Franklin, who has work.
ed more than forty-eight years for the Lake
Shore & Michigan Southern railroad without a
vacation and without missing a whole day, went
on the retired list Sunday. His record for fidelity
is so remarkable that D. T. Murray, division
superintendent, and other officials went to Frank-
lin Saturday night on a special train and gave
the retiring employee a banquet.
—Leo Sprout, aged 14, a farmer boy residing
near Chest Springs, met a terrible death the last
of the week by being dragged more than a
quarter of a mile by a frightened cow. The ani-
mal became unmanageable when an automobile
suddenly bore down on her in the narrow high
way. She turned and ran the other way, drags
ging the helpless boy, who had tied the rope to
to his wrist. He was dead when found.
. —A posse of private citizens scoured Bald
Eagle mountain, south of Williamsport, Sunday
in search of a bold highwayman who held up
| Samuel Miller and stole his money and watch at
a lonely spot along the public road Saturday
afternoon. Miller was returning fron Williams-
port where he attended market. Gunshots were
exchanged and the robber was wounded, but at
last reports had not been apprehended.
~The associate judges of Columbia county,
Messrs. Krickbaum and Houck, overruled Presi-
dent Judge Evans and exercised mercy to Mrs.
Martin Probst and Mrs Cora Houck, who had
pleaded guilty to stealing $100 worth of merchan-
dise from seven Bloomsburg stores in less than
two hours. Judge Evans thought they merited
The woman was alone on the farm, her husband
having started for market at Sunbury when the
fire was discovered. The horses were all {that
the plucky woman succeeded in saving... The
barn went up in a $3,000 blaze, and with it five
cows, several hundred dollars worth of new,farm-
ing implements were consumed, :