—And this is the first day of spring. —We know if our old friend GOTLIEB HAAG were living he'd have a garden made by this time. —This is Good Friday. Make a reso- lution to be just a little better henceforth than you have ever been before. —A few more days like Wednesday and yesterday and that “all gone” feel ing will be stealing over the multitudes. —You can't come, Write! Is Secretary McADoO's latest message to office seek- ers. He says he hasn'ttime to see them personally and must insist upon their applying by letter. —Jonquils and hyacinths are peeping through the ground already. Being the first flowers of spring let us hope that their beauty and fragrance is not to be arrested by freezing weather. —President WiLsoN has called the extra session of Congress to convene on il 7th. His call does not state that berations shall be confined purely consideration of tariff measures. ¥ —The assassination of King GEORGE of Greece, on Tuesday, was a lamentable ! | | VOL. 58. President Wilson’s Wise Course. President WiLsoN has done nothing, before or since his inauguration, more deserving of popular commendation than his statement upon the Chinese loan. As a matter of fact we recall no state paper of any period in the history of the country which expresses more clearly the true spirit of Americanism. It completely divorces the government at Washington from the unholy alliance with big busi® ness which was established under the ROOSEVELT administration and fostered through the period covered by TAFT’S term in the office of President. It is pre- cisely what was needed to set the man- agers of the Money trust right before the world of finance and politics. In pursuance of the policy of enticing American bankers into schemes for ex. affair. Doubly so because of the brilliant | : : tut ploiting foreign enterprises the TAFT part the victim has played in the Balkan | ,pinistration had invited J. P. MORGAN war for the extermination of the un-|g co the First National and the City speakable Turk. —Probably not one per cent of the people of Pennsylvania knew who their Lieutenant Governor was until it was discovered that Mr. ReyNoLDsS had had a twenty-two thousand dollar state road built through his farm in Bedford county. —Wooprow WiLsoN has been our President for seventeen days and on each one of them some fresh assurance has come out of Washington to the effect that he is going to give us a better country to live in than it has ever been before. —After forty years of public service “Uncle’’ Jog CANNON, kicked the dust of Washington from his heels and started back to Danville, Ill, on Sunday. A quaint public character, a sort of com bination of bad politician and good pri- vate citizen. —Pictures of amateur boxers, shaking hands before their bout, always show the amiable, friendly disposition of the con- testants. We fear that after they have gone several rounds and one has given the other a few good wallops on the jaw good natured physiognomies. ~If all the States in the Union and the federal government were to combine and put every penny they propose spending on celebrations, naval manceuvers, mili tary encampments etc., into a pool for one year we believe that a great national highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific could be built out of the proceeds. —We notice that the Senate has pass- ed a bill prohibiting unnaturalized for- eigners from fishing or killing fish within the State. Now what do you suppose a poor Dago is going to do about it if he should be forced to ford a stream and a vicious eel or sucker attacks him. Such a law won't allow him to defend himself by killing his assailant. —Banker MORSE, who was pardoned from the federal prison at Atlanta be- cause he was supposed to be on his death bed, has recovered so rapidly since his release that he thinks he will live for years yet. Pardons of that sort should have the recall attachment so that when the pardoned fails to make good, as Morse is doing, he could be sent back to serve out his term. —One of the very happiest outcomes of the recent Methodist conference at Altoona was the reassignment of Dr. Ezra H. YocuM to the Bellefonte charge. His profound theology and rare diction are a combination not so often found in ministers of the gospel; while his per- sonality isa daily inspiration of deep spirituality and his manner that of a gentleman, by the grace of God. —Mrs. PHILIP VAN VALKENBURG, of New York, is suing her husband for her keeping during the past two years, dur- ing which they were separated. Her bill of expenses amount to $100,000, and, they say, PHIL is kicking. How much does a man expect a woman to live on? Of course we have our own ideas on the subject, but then we didn’t start Mrs. VAN going at the fifty thousand per year pace, so we feel that the fellow who did should either throttle her down a little or keep paying for the gasoline without a murmur. —Someone stole Chancellor McCoRr- MICK’S automobile on Monday evening. The Chancellor has the job of chancelling the University of Pittsburgh and he was to have been host at a chicken dinner to a lot of preachers that night. The theft almost caused the dinner to be called off, so the papers say, but why the disap- pearance of his auto should interfere with the serving of a chicken dinner few people can understand. The only con- nection we can see is that possibly the Chancellor intended to make a few chance calls at neighborhood hen roosts in the machine in order to be well pre- pared for his preacher guests. But then such a thing isn’t probable. | National banks of New York and KUHN Logs & Co., to participate in a loan of $125,000,000 to the Chinese government upon conditions which practically gave the money lenders a mortgage upon the property and liberties of the people of China; our government substantially guaranteeing the payment of the loan. The other day a committee representing these bankers called upon President WiL- soN and served notice that unless his ad- ministration would renew the invitation upon the same conditions, they would not engage in the enterprise. President WILSON'S answer was good and plenty. “The conditions of the loan,” writes President WILSON, “seem to us to touch very nearly the administrative independ- ence of China itself; and this administra- tion does not feel that it ought, even by implication, to be a party to those con- ditions. The responsibilities on its part which would be implied in requesting the bankers to undertake the loan might con- ceivably go to the length, in some un- happy contingency, of forcible interfer- ence in the financial and even the politic- al affairs of that great Oriental State, . just now awakening to a consciousness of its power and of its obligations to its people. How refreshing this admirable Demo- cratic policy sounds in ears attuned to mercenary expedients of Dollar Diplem- acy. Itinspires hope and faith and con- fidence. Nothing more acceptible to the thoughtful American people could have been done by the President. American bankers have the full right to invest their money in foreign enterprises and make the best of their ventures in ex- ploitation. But the administration at Washington has no right to enter into partnership to share the risk without claim on the proceeds and to bind the American people to pay losses even if the only currency available be human lives. : Therefore President WILSON has filty answered Mr. MORGAN'S emissaries and inferentially dissolved the partnership be- tween the government and Big Business. It was of all things the action that was needed at the outset of the administra- tion. ——We notice that some esteemed Re- publican contemporaries are figuring up probable deficiencies in the treasury at Washington in 1914 and the exercise ap- pears to give them agood deal of satis- faction. But they are welcome to all the enjoyment they get out of it. In recent years we have not had to contemplate probably deficiencies. The real thing has been ever present. —According to the Harrisburg of a first class hotel in that town. It will hardly escape notice, hovrever, that most of the capital for construction and equip- ment will come from the outside. Greece, who wasn’t a bad fellow as Kings too coward- ~The WATCHMAN this week pub- lishes the first installment of that won- derfully interesting serial story, “Shenan- doah,” and we feel sure if you read the opening chapter you will want to con- tinue it to the end. ~—Dr. SIMON FLEXNER has no doubt SELLEFONIE STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. President WILSON has not undertaken to limit the action of Congress in his | proclamation calling an extra session on | April 7, but it is now considered to be certain that nothing other | than tariff revision will be considered, | The leaders of the party are confident that the tariff bills will be ready by that time and in that event there will be no trouble in putting on the necessary re- straints. When the tariff bills are passed a motion to adjourn without delay will be in order, and no doubt it will prevail The Senators and Representatives will not enjoy the midsummer temperature of the capital city and it is practically certain that they will take advantage of the first opportunity to get home. That will be presented when the tariff legisla- tion is completed. No doubt President WiLsoN would have put a restriction upon the legislation to be considered if he had had authority to do so. But as a matter of fact he has no such authority and the best he can do 1s to advise, in his message to the new Con- gress, against any general legislation. This can be appropriately and certainly done when the tariff regulations are made, and the President can point out the facts as to what legislation is requir- ed. The message to Congress will afford a vehicle for the expression of the Presi- dent's views on the subject, if there are any doubts. But it is not likely that there are any for President WILSON has already expressed himself as favoring the limited policy and he generally under- stands himself. The financial laws now in force are faul- ty beyond question but no material harm will result from postponing action upon them until the regular session. In any event it might not be wise to alter the financial laws until the effect of the pro- posed tariff legislation is feit. Possibly much of the evil now attributed to bad currency and banking laws really belongs to the bad tariff laws and when the great- er evil is removed the lesser may disap | pear of its own accord. It is certain that the State Legislatures will be able to | _ correct many of the faults of the bank- ing systems and with the improved fiscal conditions certain to follow the proper revision of the tariff it may be that there will be no necessity for tampering with the currency question. ~ —If we are to have a commission to ' study the question of mothers’ pensions it will not be necessary to go outside of the Legislature to find grandmothers to make up the commission. Constitution Convention Project. The forty Democrats who voted against the constitutional convention bill, in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, last week, expressed the sentiment of a | vast majority of the Democrats of the State on the subject. The thoughtful people of the Commonwealth are of the opinion that the popular mind is not, at this time, in proper frame to direct fundamental legislation. The cranks who have axes to grind and the dema- gogues who have selfish ambitions to serve are too much in control now. Men who opposed Mr. BRYAN for the Presidency in 1896, 1900 and 1908 because of supposed heresies are now supporting the same heresies, not because of a change of heart but on account of personal ambitions. The present constitution may be anti. quated in some respects and inadequate in others but it is a pretty useful and efficient instrument yet. It was prepared by the most distinguished body of men | which has ever assembled in this State since the convention which framed the constitution of the United States. Those gentlemen were honest as well as capable and if a convention were called now it is not certain that those to compose it would be either. The lust for office has the State. We hope the measure will fail in the Senate. The Democratic Representatives in the , Legislature were under no legal or moral obligation to support such legislation at this time. The State platform of last year made no such promise. The real party leaders had no thought of such an enterprise during the campaign. But after the election some gentlemen who imagined they had acquired the right to direct the official action of Democratic performed a valuable service in discover. Senators and Representatives in the Leg- ing the germ of infantile paralysis. But islature saw fit to join with BiLL FLINN what is really needed is something that in the movement. They succeeded in will kill the germ the moment it gets carrying the measure through the House, busy. but happily more than two-thirds of the TT Democrats in the body voted against it —It may have been noticed that the and we hope all the Democrats in the enthusiasm of a legislative appropriation Senate will follow their wholesome ex- committee is largely influenced by the ample. quality of the entertainment givenby the It will make for civic safety and re- local institution. buke false leaders. The declination of RICHARD OLNEY, of | Massachusetts, to accept the office of | Ambassador to the Court of St. James, | will be widely, though not universally | regretted. The ambassadorial office has ' come to be regarded as somewhat of an | ornamental position. So far as the rec- ords indicate the main duties are to at- | tend REID was a model. He was immensely | rich and a good deal of a toady, as we! understand that term. But he was a scholarly gentleman and whenever he | came in contact with British or other | royalty, he acquitted himself with dis- | lionaire could do that. | In the earlier periods of our diplomatic | history the Ambassadorship at the Court | of St. James meant something else. As a matter of fact we had no Ambassadors then, our representatives at the several foreign courts being styled Ministers | Plenipotentiary, with an occasional Min. | ister Extraordinary when there was some question of unusual importance to be considered. But since we have had Ambassadors, instead of ministers, diplo- | matic matters have been considered by | the Secretary of State on one side and the corresponding office in other coun. tries, on the other. Under the circum. | themsel stances the Ambassador became simply a gentleman of social distinction and a good figure and long purse could be upon to shine. Itlooks, from this distance from the | General Burleson will work seat of government, as if there is a change impending in this as in other ad- ministrative affairs. Of course the Ambassador at the Court of St. James, under the present administration must | be be an accomplished gentleman, entirely capable of meeting all social obligations as well as attending to the diplomatic business of the country. For that rea- R. Francis, of Missouri, is the choice of the President proves true, public may rest assured that little been lost. always be interested in politics. Politics has made him a rich man and if he had | given it half a chance it might have made a statesman of him. 4 Penrose Understands the Question. Senator PENROSE, according to a state- ment contained in one of our esteemed | Philadelphia contemporaries of last Sun. | day, is in complete agreement with the views expressed by the WATCHMAN, with respect to Governor TENER'S bad break in censuring the House of Representa- | tives for investigating the charge that public money is being wasted through dual official service and double pay to employees of the State government. In ecutive business and executive maladmin- istration. If the Governor were involved in some delicate administrative work of cerning it might be appropriately refus- ed. But the looting of the treasury in order to provide generous recompense for party “lame ducks” or political favor- ites, is not in that class and refusing the justified in cutting out all appropriations | for the maintenace of the executive de- partment of the so-called government, or | at least of such officers as have at drawing double salaries, until the desired | information had been supplied in the way | i that the legislative committee desired it- | get himself out of the untenable position | into which he has permitted himself to fall. —— | ducts of the labor of workers in mills, | to be as agile as an athlete to get there. Tee cu . | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Farmers of Boyerstown bought a new kind of watering trough when a lot of steel coffins, too heavy for use, were sold at 35 cents apiece. —Gallitzin is getting anxious over its water sup” | ply for next summer. A stream condemned | some time ago is to be inspected with a view to establishing a municipal plant. —Forty-one of his sixty-one years having been | spent behind prison bars, Abe Buzzard, the no- | torious outlaw evangelist, was released from the - =O | Eastern penitentiary on Wednesday. ~The petition of Huntingdon liquor sellers for a writ of mandamus to compel Judge Woods to call in another law judge and hold license court over again has been refused by the Supreme court, —Jonas Fisher has offered to present to the city of Williamsport 100 squirrels and two swans. He also offers to cement the cellar of the Fisher house, to make an artificial lake on the plot which will soon be the Way's garden, the new recreation park recently presented to the city. ~The body of Michael Dayton, an aged resiv dent of Renovo, who disappeared from home on January 18, was found on Wednesday about From the Harrisburg Star-Independent. The motion to exempt farmers from SE es aren Sh She or the Pennsylvania tives on second the other day. | three miles down the river at North Bend. It Needless to say, the was made by | was supposed at the time that he had fallen into who own farms. the river, but careful search failed to discover the An act that does not y to all per- | body. sons would uncon: | Recently Stuck atilda | stitutional. At any rate it should be. doa ey CA Stuck, of Pon: Watiuges "da | There was not one for exempt- the trip to his Snyder county home by rail, stay- ing The spirit of one plea was | ng 5 few days, then disappeared. A few days later, with bleeding feet and sunken sides, he made his appearance at his old home, a distance of more than forty miles, as the crow flies. ~—Albert L. Scholl, J. H. Spencer and Dr. F.L. Mover, former officials of the National Protective association, are in the Lycoming county jail awaiting transportation to the penitentiary. They paid their fines and sent their attorneys to Philadelphia with an appeal to the Supreme court and had money enough left to have their meals sent from a restaurant. An eighteen month's sentence is ahead of them. —Lock Haven has a sensation in the arrest of Paul Harter, a druggist’s clerk, on the charge of he doesn’t do that in a spirit of philan- thropy. Jledoss Romore thi eakhange commodities, as everybody else does. He gives a bushel of wheat in exchange for | what he fixes as its value in some other commodi crops all food supplies. But he is enabled to do this only with the labor of other men. He cannot get al without the pro-| stores and houses and of those | being a hair snipper. For some time young girls on railroads and shi He needs them | have been mysteriously losing their tresses at as bad as they need him. In modern life | theatres and not until this week was anyone able all classes of men to detect the perpetrator. The young man was caught in the act by Miss Amy Diem, and two pairs of scissors were taken from him. Police still believe others are implicated in this peculiar “amusement mania." ~Corry has started a crusade against tramps, who have been making their headquarters near the outskirts of town. Since it has become known that the railroad company is putting all the menit can find to work on track improve ments along the Allegheny Division, the profes- sional hoboes are giving Oil City the goby. Many homeless men have been given lodging during the winter, and many have secured em, ployment at railroad construction. ~—]Joe Shank, a well known character of Sanker - town, near Cresson, disappeared some six months ago and since then nothing had been heard of him until last Thursday, when his dead and de- composed body was found near Cresson in a copse of elderberry bushes. It is supposed that he crawled into the bushes while intoxicated last fall and died of exposure. He was aged 45 years and single. The remains were given over to Undertaker Buck, of Cresson, for interment. ~The Lycoming Foundry and Machine compa- ny, which a little more than a week ago was awarded a contract for $500,000 worth of motors, to be manufactured for the Velie Motor compa- ny, of Moline, Ill, has received a message from Thomas H. Lynn, the company's general sales out contract for a half million dollar's worth of mo- tors. With contracts on hand for $1,000,000 worth of motors, the Lycoming plant will be one of the busiest places in Williamsport during the year of 1913. ~The fifth shooting affray that has occurred in Williamsport during the last few months took place in that city Sunday night about 10 o'clock, when Burguers Ricco, an Italian living at No. 136 State street, was fatally shot by a 20-year-old Italian youth giving his name as Joe Dene, who had been in Williamsport only about three days, and is said to hail from Cross Fork. The shoot- ing has all the elements of a dark Sicilian mys- tery, the fatally wounded man refusing to identi- fy his assailant and declaring that he would die rather than offer any explanation. —A warning that several school buildings are to be dynamited and others destroyed by fire, the re- port being from an unknown party, has caused many desertions from the public schools of Du. such is believed Bois. The alleged catastrophe set for a time be, Use tae Tools at Hand. tween March 23 and 26 has caused alarm among From the Altoona Times. ihe children and theie parent. The peliocls ans There has been introduced in the Gen. | being attended by one-third the regular quota eral Assembly a bill for the creation of a | the enrollmont is dropping rapidly. School offi State Department for the suppression of cials visited the various schools in an effort to al- vice. Isn'tit peculiar that every time lay the fears of the children but without success. tions they ask for new laws and new | dictions. officers and more red tape and more| —The people of Loretto are to have gas at last. salaries? Recently the town was excited over the drilling ries lh eas or gas . were statute books to accomplish it. Why | and tured out dry. The verdict of the drillers not enforce them? was that the whole territory was dry. But the If the leaders of the Legislature do not | town is to have its gas anyhow. The trunk line exert a, shung Liang, the record of the | from Johnstown to Altoona is to be tapped at session will not be an improvement over | Cresson and a branch run into Loretto. There is sessions which were dominated by political | no coal near Loretto, which has some difficulty interests which were to be | in obtaining fuel at times, and the introduction selfish and didhionest ore is an i gf the sas will probally lead to the piping of every more interested in creating sinecures —Shortly before noon Monday, the body of hai they are in effecting any radical James Kyle, familiarly known as “Jerry,” was found ia the weedy back of Iu Lieven = Huntingdon, three sons, Andrew, ames A Sensible Move. and Davia The man had been missing for two weeks an empty threeounce bottle Pugin the New York Sur. ¢ of | contained laudanum told the story of the trage. w Be oe. U5. On February 27, the Kyle family moved to oa tes Presiden of Huntingdon from Warrior Ridge and on the fol* United that it I aot lowing day Kyle left home saying he was going his A el to look for work. He had been in the habit of hi LA going away for two or three days at a time and ee, io. 3 Sosiag was thaw of‘Yigs dbpetice for several proclamation which rings with hy rls the on Feloa), stipnmed Yidhtoe, Willig of de Sdlled a gD a 3 1 the us at on ET a et Tap day. The verdict followed a vigorous contest be- trate who begins by refusing to fritter | tween the attorneys for the Commonwealth and himself away the legal representatives of the accused, the lat- Tuesday but his machine was equip- | ing as peacemaker between Pellagi and his wife, ped with ordinary tires and proved a | Who Wasbeing abused by her husband. poc: climber. The result was it struck | —The system of the Huntingdon & Clearfield Telephone company is to be completely rebuilt, it is announced. At the recent sale of the hold" ings of the American Union company, of which the H. & C. was apart, the former owners of the latter concern purchased back their stock. The confirmation of the sale a short time ago enables the stockholders to go ahead with the improve ment program which they have been contemplat- ing. Thousands of dollars, it is said, will be spent in rebuilding the company’slines and every- thing possible for better service will be done. New exchanges are to be installed and extension of the lines and an expansion of the company’s business in other ways is being planned. the tree head-on and the sheriff is in the market for a nice line of repairs. A friend of the sheriff has kindly sug- gested that when his machine is ready for the road again he equip it with pole climbers, which might prove a good thing President goes to church even if he has ‘agent, to the effect that he. has closed a seconde wees
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers