RN BY P. GRAY MEEK. INK SLINGS. } —If there had been any pumpkins the | frost would have been on them too on | Monday morning. —The Legislature has finally agreed upon a day to adjourn. That is some- thing to be thankful for, at least. ‘—Commencements are about over and beginnings have just begun for thous- ands of our young college graduates. —Johnstown has smallpox now and is blaming it on a circus that visited that city recently. After all, all is not joy that the circus brings to town. —Those Chinese University students from Hawaii showed State College, on Tuesday, and the Academy next day that all the Chinks are not laundry men. —When Paraguay ratified an extradi- tion treaty with the United States the last haven, whence the fugitive from justice couldn't be bought back, went out of business. “The Bellefonte Six" is to be designed to meet every requirement of the man or woman who wants the most of com- fort and satisfaction in an automobile at the lowest cost. ——The failure to support the charges against JUDGE BRUMM, of Schuykill coun- ty,ought to discourage impeachment pro- ceedings already begun or contemplated against other judges. —Former President TAFT is reported as being somewhat thinner than he was when he left the White House Possibly he is undertaking to live on his salary as a law professor at Yale. —Canada hasn't much on Bellefonte in the way of a cold June 9th. There was snow over the border but we had a frost heavy enough to fool the near sighted early bird into thinking it was “the beau- tiful.” —In view of the unseasonable weath- er which has prevailed during the past week we are unable to feel genuine sym- pathy for the weather bureau officials who have been dismissed or removed re- cently. —Nobody is ever satisfied. After years of work and worrying to get the good roads movement to bearing fruit there are those who are already complaining that the public highways are being made too smooth. —It would be well for the State High- way Department to make a study of the effects of solid tire motor trucks on its TA E RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 58. BELLEFONTE, PA. JUNE 13, 19 There is more reason than rhyme in the statement of Senator PENROSE that his rival in the leadership of the Repub- lican forces, Mr. WiLLIAM FLINN, doesn’t wants campaign material from the pres- ent Legislature. It is equally true that the electoral reform legislation has been mutilated in the Senate and impaired by amendments suggested by the old Repub- lican machine. But even at that the pending bills would afford some relief from the iniquities which both PENROSE and FLINN have used to their personal ad- vantage whenever opportunity presented itself. If they are defeated nobody will rejoice more than Mr. FLINN. It will give him an excuse, though a lame one, for squandering money in the next cam- lic clamor was most outspoken during the last campaign, was expressed in steal- ing the nominations of the minority par- ty by a fragment of the majority party. By that trick Senator MCNICHOL, of Phil- adelphia, was able to get the Democratic nomination in his last campaign for re- election and Senator VARE, of the same city, did the same thing. Agents of the liquor interests have been able in the same way to steal the nominations of the Prohibition party. The pending State-wide primary bill will put a stop to this crowning evil. A couple of years ago the Republican machine of Philadel phia secretly created a new labor party a few days before the election and de- feated two reform candidates for Magis- trate. The pending measure would pre- vent the recurrence of such an outrage. There are substantial reasons for and against easy facilities for putting inde- pendent candidates in the field. Men or factions with abundance of money be- hind them can work vast harm by launch. ing eleventh hour candidates against fit tions and sometimes such movements ac- | complish good results. But the matter newly constructed roads. To our mind | hardly go important that an otherwise nothing will resist the wearing strain of meritorious Gill should be defeated be- such vehicles but brick. —Japan used thirty million dollars worth of American wheat and flour in 1912 and yet there are a few dealers in armor plate who would like to get this country into war with Japan so that they can sell the government a little armor plate. ~There wes a man in our town Who shook with wondrous ease His good warm woolen underwear And donned his BV Ds But Monday's cold and wintry blasts Brought him rheumatic pain So Tuesday morn, sure as your born He donned his wools again. —Old potatoes went down to sixteen and one half cents per bushel in Chicago on Tuesday. It was the lowest price ever recorded there. The usual thing happened to the growers who would not | When Senator TOWNSEND, of Michigan, let them go when they were scarce last fall and selling at $1.15. ——That third class cities of the State will pass under commission government in the near future is reasonably certain, the legislation having passed both branch- es of the General Assembly. Itis not equally certain, however, that the new system will be an improvement upon the old though there is consolation in the thought that it can’t be worse. —We notice that they have named JoserH L. MONTGOMERY, of the Pennsyl- vania Match Co., as one of the gentle- men who helped swell the “obnoxious lobby” at Washington and consequently, his business down there must be investi- gated. We have so much confidence in the integrity of Mr. MONTGOMERY that we are constrained to remark that if before the Senators the much talked of “lobby” investigation would far better never have been started. —The efforts of the editor of the Republican to become the. journalistic comedian of Centre county are indeed amusing and while we hesitate to divert the vein of humor that is being pounded out of his type-writer it would add to the joyousness of the situation if he were to become serious enough to explain the coolness that exists between himself and Republican county chairman QUIGLEY. Well founded rumor has it that these two Republican worthies nearly came to blows over the question as to which one was entitled to the most credit, from PALMER and MCCORMICK'S boss of Cen- tre county, for their efforts in dealing with the PENROSE machine at Harris. burg for him. And, incidentally, it doesn’t make a noise like reform and purification in our own party when the new “Reorganizer” boss deals, with the PENROSE lieutenant and the editor of a Republican paper here, to get advertising from the PENROSE machine at Harris burg, does it? | | | | | cause it promoted or prevented such a { result. The vital objection to the pend- |ing bill is that it permits assistance to | voters who are amply able to mark their The Electoral Reform Bill. | i want electoral reform half as much as he | | i i The partisan abuse against which pub- nominees of theregular party organiza. | own ballots. If that fault could be cor-. | rected in conference the people could | overlook other defects and rejoice that a | considerable —— TAFT is having a delightful time improvement has been made. | during a brief visit to Washington in the | capacity of private citizen. But TAFT en- | joyed himself fairly well when he used | to visit Washington at intervals as Presi- | | dent of the United States. As a matter of fact he has a splendid cap acity for pleasure. Futile Kick of the Inerests. | inferentially charged President WILSON | with lobbying, he revealed a misunder- | standing of the word and a misinter- pretation of public sentiment. The rea- | son which President WILSON gave for his | statement concerning the lobby was that | while the interests are abundantly repre- | sented, the people have no one to speak | for them. Senators and Representatives | in Congress are alert enough in local matters, and the iron districts, the coal | districts and the sugar districts have spokesmen upon the floors of the legisla- | tive chambers. But the farmers, me-! chanics and laborers have no tongue in | the matter unless the President comes | forward to represent them. Senator TOWNSEND imagined, no doubt, | that he would create a great sensation | by his veiled imputation against the | President. He expresssed his under- | standing of a lobbyist as one who unduly | and improperly influenced Senators and | ! i { Representatives to vote for or against | pending measures of legislation, contrary | to their judgment and against their con- | sciences. In view of that definition to | charge the President with being a lobby- | ist is a grave matter. But in this partic: ular instance it was “a flash in the pan,” | to use a time-worn figure of speech. It failed to even arouse wide-spread public | interest. | President WILSON is too firmly en- | trenched in the confidence of the people to be discredited by a sinister innuendo. | He is not a lobbyist in any sense and has | always shown an abhorrence of such’ things. Ever since his inauguration he | has felt the evil influence of the lobby | whenever his duties led to a scrutiny | of special privilege. If Senator TOWN: | SEND could have diverted the public mind | from the work in which the Democratic majority in Congress is engaged, he would have accomplished great results for the predatory interests. But he fail | ed signally. The charges against the President fell flat and the investigation of the lobby proceeded as if nothing had happened. The Dirty Insinuations of a Dirty Defamer of Centre County Democrats Last week the WATCHMAN gave you the namss of the Damocrats of Cen- tre county whom the Centre Democrat has charged “were selected as delegates to represent the party at State conventions” because, as it said, “they were men invariably without convictions—simply chosen to take orders.” After reading their names many of you doubtless came to the conclusion that the Centre Democrat must have made such a charge either from malice, irrespon- sibility or with a desire to further wreck the party in Centre county. We confess that one or other of the first two reasons would be less aston- ishing, as the motive that inspired the scurrilous article that was published in that paper of May 22nd, than the last. But the more the article in ques- tion is read the clearer it becomes that certain statements were made with deliberation and design. Veiled hints at what the writer knew would be in- imizal to the interests of certain Democrats in the county. For instance take the following paragraph: “County chairmen too often were the WILLING TOOLS to those higher up, and frequently di only part of the grease extracted from big corporations, the whi distillers and beer brewers, out to their select ‘privates’ in the ranks.” Last week we showed you who the delegates were that the Centre Demo- crat charged with being TOOLS in the hands of the Democratic organization in Centre county. Read the above clipping again so that you fully understand what it is saying about the men who have been your county chairmen. Accus- ing them of appropriating to their personal use funds intended for the use of the party in Centre county and insinuating that such funds were improperly secured and used to over ride the better judgment of the members of our par- ty in the county. Such charges, such insinuations can scarcely be regarded in any other light than a deliberate attempt to wreck the party by making those who have faith in it believe that it has been reeking with corruption. The following are the gentlemen who have acted as chairmen of the Dem- ocratic county committee since 1892 and who can properly be held responsi- ble for the acts and condition of the party during the period which the Dem- ocrat alleges it became so corrupt, boss-ridden and unworthy that ‘‘re-organi- zation” alone would save it. COUNTY CHAIRMEN—1892 to 1914. It is for the Democrats of the county, after considering the character of the men who have represented them in State conventions for the last twenty years as published In the WATCHMAN of last week and the above list of gen- tlemen who have acted as chairmen of the Democratic county committee since 1892—the period during which the Democrat alleges the party went into de- cay, deteriorated in management, was debauched with money and disgraced by bossism,—to judge of the truthfulness. of this dirty defamer of the Demo- crats of Centre county, and their county organization. Just here a bit of history might not be amiss. Mr. KURTZ, the editor of the Cenfre Democrat, came to Bellefonte in 1888 to take charge of the paper which was then published by tbe Democrat Publishing Co., and owned by the very gentlemen who have had charge of the “Organization” that he charges with being so corrupt almost without interruption from that date to this. It is only a natural conclusion to believe that when these gentlemen were inter- ested encugh in Mr. KURTZ to give him charge of their property that they ex- ploited him in every way possible. Just so is it natural to conclude that Mr. KURTZ has been very much in their confidence. Therefor we think the ra- tional reader will see that if the “Organization” brought Mr. KURTZ to Belle- fonte to run a Democratic newspaper that it owned Mr. KURTZ was undoubt- edly identified with that “Organization.” We know it to be the fact that of all the publishers of Democratic newspapers in Centre county the editor of the Centre Democrat has been the most intimately connected with the “Organi- zation” since he has been here. With this incontrovertible fact before you we insist that his attack upon the “Organization” of which he has been a part, is either a “squeal” because he didn’t get his share of the grease extract of the “big corporations and beer brewers” or an attempt to wreck the party. As a matter of fact the WATCHMAN does not believe there is truth in any of his charges. But unfortunately a lot of people do, merely because he has been in the habit of abusing everything that happens not to suit his particu- lar whim and no one has taken the trouble to refute the statements. When it comes, however, to this brazen attempt at belittling the character of many of the best men in our party and charging the party itself with having used funds extracted from beer brewers, etc., for improper purposes it is time to call a halt and we think the most effective way to call the halt is to tell you that THE VERY MAN WHO IS MAKING THESE CHARGES OF CORRUP- TION NOW WAS THE MAN WHO WENT TO ELK COUNTY ALONE AND CARRIED THE BOODLE BACK TO BELLEFONTE. And so far as our knowledge is concerned that was the only time in the history of our party that any considerable sum of money was secured from an outside source to be used in a campaign for local candidates. : After this astounding revelation are you still unconvinced that the editor of the Centre Democrat was not part and parcel of the “Organization” that he charges with betraying the Democracy of Centre county. If it wag, betraying the Democracy of Centre county why was he contrib- uting to that betrayal and why does he now try to exalt himself by veiled hints of corruption on the part of those whom he was working with. Every political organization requires funds to conduct a campaign and the WATCHMAN is not ready to admit that the Democratie “Organization” in Cen- *tre county has acted differently with its funds than those of the other politic- al parties. If the Centre Democrat thinks otherwise, and it evidently does, let it explain the consistency of using part of the fund referred to above to elect ARTHUR KIMPORT Prothonotary while holding him up now as the saviour of the political liberty of the Democracy of Centre county. If it was wrong to use the money why did Mr. KURTZ go for it and carry it back here himself? If it was used wrongfully then ARTHUR KIMPORT was profiting by the cor- ruption. We have no patience with such inconsistency. We would not have devoted the time or space to these matters if it were not for the fact that the Cenire Democrat has been continually throwing dust in the eyes of the Democrats of Centre county and now that it has many of them blinded to its own part in the “Organization” of their party it is trying to exaltitself on a pedestal of purity and getting ready to sink the knife deep into the ong who has exalted it most. 13. NO. The Right Idea. From the Harrisburg Star-Independent. Professor John Price Jackson, the head of the new State Department of Labor and Industry, begins his administration of the new office with a laudable desire ' to make it something more than a mere ' medium for the enforcement of the law. | He wants to make the office helpful both ' to employers and employees and to the | industries in which they are engaged. | He would have them get together for the | good of their common cause. He would | Promote asbitration ahd media ot among m. | The Star-Independent wishes him suc- | cess in this admirable undertaking. It is | the best and most rational way of pro- | moting the industrial welfare of Pennsyl- |vania and we endorse Commissioner Jackson's the more program be- cause it is exactly what the Star-Inde- pendent has been advoca for years TE airy ver employers awake to the fact that the industrial in- terest of one is the interest of the other. The day will come—as Commissioner Jackson hopes it will—when the employ- er and the employees will confer togeth- er, not for the composing of labor - ences but for the consideration of oy and means of promoting the business in which both are engaged. This idea is not Utopian but rational and therefore practical. Moreover, such conferences would mark the first step toward the elimination of strikes. At present em- ployers and jnyployies in certain indus- tries—notably the bituminous coal indus- try—meet in joint conference for the pur- pose of making wage and work agree: men ts. It would be easy to go a step farther in all industries, but especially and par- tcujarly i the several and various in- Ee eninjestaces on prom: ty or quan- tity of the Where the idea of mutual helpfulness is thus developed there will be least likelihood of strikes, but if there be strikes nevertheless, where the conference plan has been in success- ful operation the natural thing would be to employ mediation and arbitration, if necessary, to end the difference or dis- pute. Commissioner Jackson begins his new task hopefully and enthusiastically, and he will have the su, and encourage- ment of right-thinking citizens. Is Investigation Greatly Needed. From the Clearfield Republican. ; Our si on in last week's "s¥ue that the Hon. Vance C. McCormick should demand an investigation of the cha made by Senator Beidleman, of Dauphin county, on the floor of the Senate has ! caused some frothing at the mouth on the part of some of the political curs in this neighborhood who are posite just now as McCormick lieutenants. Neither Mr. McCormick nor his friends should fear an investigation of the Beidleman charges. Really, they ought to be the first to demand an investigation—if there is nothing to the charges except “hatred.” Mr. McCormick himself has given col- umn after column of his valuable news- paper space detailing simple rumors af- fecting the political character and political records of Pennsylvania Demo- crats who never aspired to State Jeaderstip, but at the time hap- pened to be in opposition to Mr. McCor- mick’s plan of salvation. If there is ng in the Beidleman allegations no Mr. McCormick ought to welcome the PpportuRity to have all the facts placed ore the public without cost to him- self and at the cost of the Com thing with some people in Dau; $Y of lis would riot row be in was elected last November when carried that county hands he was not for Roosevelt, | beneficen & gd 1 g ji g g SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Somerset county poor funds are short over $3,000. H. F. Barron, a former treasurer. has been arrested. _ —Vaccination or an eighteen day quarantine is the alternative before all contacts with small- pox at Johnstown just now. —Williamsport has set September 8th for the opening of an Old Home Week, A “Made in Williamsport” display will be a feature. —Clearfield is worrying about where all the men needed for the various new plants the town is to have are going to find houses to live in. =Guilty of murder in the first degree, is the verdict rendered in the case of john Erble, tried in the Lycoming county court for killi Stidfol or killing Grace The knitting mill in West Huntingdon may be compelled to shut down because of the difficulty in getting operatives. High wages do not seem to be any inducement. =The Lock Haven school board is considering the proposition of a new High school building and also of introducing manual training and do mestic science courses. ~Leon Maczynski was shot and died in the Latrobe hospital of wounds received at the hands of an uncle with whom he had quarreled on Sat- urday night at the Polish club. - =A DuBois pool room proprietor who shipped $46 to a shark to get in on a big deal has asked the aid of the police to find the man who, himself slipped away as soon as he got the $46. —The Barnesboro public park committee has issued emphatic announcements that the turkey trot, bunny hug, grizzly bear, one step and other dances of similar nature will not be allowed at the park. —To be shorn of his luxuriant growth of hair once a month for twelve months was the sen- tence imposed on Harry Lawson Drew, a mem- ber of a prominent family of Clearfield. by Judge Smith, in criminal court last week. —Ellery Spotts, of Mt. Union, has had triple misfortune. Within three months his barn burn- ed, he lost a valuable horse by death and recent- ly, while roofing a shed, he fell and gave his hip such a wrench that he cannot walk. ="] took the bird and flew away,” declared Bishop Harry M. Lengel, of the Followers of Christ church, of Reading, who returned home Thursday from Lebanon with his bride. The pair were privately married several days ago. —E. E. Clasby, of Lewistown, was working at a typewriter in his home when a bullet whizzed through the window and imbedded itself in the frame near the stand at which Mr. Clasby was working. The Sentinel says there is entirely too much shooting at night in that region. =Guilty of murder in the second degree was the plea entered in Lycoming county criminal court on Thursday by Michael Kalbach charged with the murder of James Kilgallan, a Wilkes- Barre tramp, during a drunken orgie of hoboes at the Bum's Hole on the night of April 5th last. ~The recent forest fire in the Clearfield region burned over 4000 acres of young timber land, en- tailing abig loss, as the land was well covered with prop timber and a considerable amount of saw timber. John M. Chase says there were 1000 acres burned on his lands in the Sanborn region. =A Fomer city foreigner found a “funny box" out in the woods and took it to his chum. He was told that an animal lived in the box and blew smoke into it to find out. The snapping turtle came out, bit him on the lip and it was a pathetic Story he told to the doctor who dressed his in- ury. ~Three cases of the genuine, old fashioned kind of small-pox are under treatment at the Municipal hospital, Johnstown. The contagion is traced to the Hagenback-Wallace circus crowd in Johnstown and eight cases are reported in different parts of the city. Vaccinations have been numerous. * —The State on Tuesday entered suit against the borough of Farrell, Mercer county, claiming $99,500 for failure to obey a decree requiring sewage improvements. The claim is for $500 fine and $50 per day. This is the third suit of the kind to be brought in a year against a borough for failure to obey decrees. —A frightened horse ran into a north bound passenger train near Philipsburg a few days ago. Thetwo boys on the cart jumped and saved themselves. The cart was demolished, but by some strange streak of fate the horse escaped serious injury. The car steps were torn off and a dent made in the side of the coach. ~A big doe came cut of the woods along Moose creek a few days ago, crossed the river to Clear- field, passed along the east end cemetery and left for the woods whence it came. In its journey it narrowly escaped being run down by a Pennsy passenger train and went some distance through the New York Central yards. =The connecting of an electric fan with a gasoline tank which employees of a Williams- port garage were cleaning caused an explosion of the fumes in the tank, killed a boy and seri- ously burned the foreman. The boy was Robert Bennett, aged 13, of an investigating turn of mind, who had been warned to stay away from the tank, but disregarded the warning. —A girl who was cleaning windows on the third-story of a Johnstown hotel had a thrilling experience at noon on Thursday. She says that a drummer came into the room while she was at work on the outside, grew angry at her and set fire to the curtains. Hundreds of persons watch- to back out but a twig caught his coat and him fast. Then he grasped the neck and threw it from him, fortunately before it had struck its fangs into his face. the people and the men in question loaned him $40, $60 and $200 respectively. Then he left. —Sheriff Judd H. Bruff, of Pittsburgh, was ac- only three days to complete. That the official had guilty intent was denied.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers