ib
BY P. GRAY MEEK.
INK SLINGS.
—Today is groundhog day. Did you
have sausage for breakfast?
— Are you reading “K.” It is really
worth while, if you enjoy good fiction.
— Barney Baruch may not have
known of the “leak” but he managed
to get a lot of lamb fleece.
—A thunderstorm the last night in
January is very unusual. It meant
colder weather and we have it.
—Here’s hoping that he won’t see
his shadow. We like cold weather,
but we simply can’t stand the coal
bills.
— The leak investigators will have
given very general satisfaction if they
succeed in landing Tom Lawson in
prison.
— Roosevelt started at Armageddon
and has now arrived at or near Meroz.
Roosevelt — Armageddon — Meroz—
all are matters of ancient history.
—1It appears as though the fact
that there was a “leak” has been es-
tablished, but it will be a more diffi-
cult matter to find out who leaked.
—The hens have started in toward
doing their share of reducing the high
cost of living. They are beginning to
visit their nests with greater regu-
larity.
—We have just discovered that
there is a town named Jambouree in
Kentucky. Spirit of moonshine and
bourbon, how appropriate the name of
Jambouree.
— Talking about the freedom of the
seas. We note that a local agitation
has already started that doesn’t augur
well for the freedom of Spring creek
from the falls to the High St. bridge.
—Public sales have started in the
county and the fellows who are look-
ing for someone to accompany them
on the tail of a slow note are getting
as polite as a candidate around elec-
tion time.
—A larger percentage of people of
the United States are going to school
than of any other country on the
globe. Does this prove that we are
the smartest lot or that we need edu-
cation more than the others do?
—Germany’s notice to the United
States that she intends to resume
ruthless submarine warfare knocked
the bottom out of the stock market
yesterday. Stocks fell from ten to
twenty points and everything was
panicky.
—The organization of a Farm Bu-
reau for Centre county has been ef-
fected. Surely the richest agricultur-
al county, naturally, in the State,
should be most progressive in devel-
oping the resources nature has en-
dowed it with.
—The new Legislature is consider-
ing a plan to meet for two weeks and
then rest one. That would be fine,
only it ought to be turned the other
way round. They ought to meet one
week and rest two. There would be
less harm done.
—Brumbaugh has taken the bull by
the horns and demands the fullest
kind of an investigation. Surely he
would have nothing to fear for we
couldn’t conceive of anything more
discreditable being discovered than
has already been revealed con-
cerning him.
— Of course the Mexicans will re-
fuse to bathe before being permitted
to cross the international bridge into
El Paso. Do our health officers
imagine for a moment that the Greas-
ers will do something they have
never done before just because we tell
them they must?
— That Johns Hopkins bacteriolo-
gist who examined hundreds of books
that had been handled by hundreds of
diphtheretic children,without finding a
single bug, might be all right in Bal-
timore, but we wouldn’t like to guess
at what Dr. Dixon would do to him
should he come exploding culture
theories in Pennsylvania.
—My, what a holler a lot of people
are making because the government
threatens to build its own ships and
manufacture its own armor plate and
ammunition. The printers of the land
look on with unfeigned glee. They
would think the millennium had dawn-
ed if the government were to an-
nounce that hereafter it intends to
supply and print only its own envel-
opes. In principle what difference is
there between a battle ship and a box
of envelopes?
—The President has done well to
again veto the immigration bill be-
cause of the literacy test in it. A
test of the “character, of quality or
personal fitness” of an alien applicant
for admission to our shores would be
quite proper but to exclude those who
cannot read nor write, especially when
they may not have had an opportun-
ity to learn either, seems contrary to
our ideals of a Democracy. In fact
some of the most brilliant men of our
country would not be here today if
such a literacy test had been applied
to their forbears.
4
VOL. 62.
BELLEFO
NO. 5.
An Armistice Has Been Called.
When the shower of billingsgate
was most furious we predicted that
neither Penrose nor Brumbaugh
would permit it to go so far as to get
beyond control. These machine chief-
tains were really vexed with each oth-
er and in the heat of passion might
have done some personal harm. But
they understood that an injury to one
is harmful to both and that a quarrel
carried to conclusion might interfere
with the personal liberty of a lot of
them. For these reasons we conjec-
tured that after both had suffered
some and before either had suffered
much, they would get together and
join in whatever looting operations
could be found worth while. As the
poet says, “it was ever thus.”
On Monday Governor Brumbaugh
protested with a fine exhibition of
outraged dignity that the proposed
investigation was an expression of
factional frenzy. In the evening of
the same day Senator Vare worked
himself up into a passionate defense
of the Governor and a vitriolic denun-
ciation of Penrose. But on Tuesday
the affair assumed a new aspect and
swearing he’d never yield Senator
Sproul, author of the resolution to in-
vestigate practically “called it off”
by asking that “it go over, in its or-
der,” not for a day but for a week.
Possibly that was an expedient to
avert defeat and that it will be reviv-
ed again when the session is resum-
ed. But to the uninitiated it looks
like an abandonment of the investiga-
tion of the Governor.
We shall not be surprised at the
turn of affairs in either event. Neither
Penrose nor Vare can afford to carry
a war very far into the lines of the
other. Both live on the spoils of pol-
itics and a real quarrel would stop
the supplies. That would be awful
and they are wise enough to avert it.
Brumbaugh has been taught a lesson.
He understands that his ambitions in
future are sukject to review and must
be held until released. And Penrose
may also draw a valuable lesson from
the incident. He must put a curb up-
on his tongue and though he thinks
Shunk Brown is a shyster he musn’t
say so. Meantime the Vares and Mc-
Nichol can stuff the same ballot box-
es in the future.
Brumbaugh’s Absurd Message.
Governor Brumbaugh’s official no-
tice to the Senate that any resolution
to investigate his administration will
be vetoed, will hardly divert Senator
Penrose from his purpose to force the
Sproul resolution to passage. No
doubt it is a factional enterprise but
the dismissal of capable and faithful
public officers because they failed to
support the Governor's ambitious
projects was also factional and dan-
gerously subversive of public morals.
The Penrose faction has the same
right as the others to use the instru-
ments in hand to accomplish results
and the Governor reveals a lack of
sporting blood in squealing when
“hoist upon his own petard.”
The adoption of the Sarig resolu-
tion would have been the better way of
proceeding. Having been prepared
by impartial observers of a rotten
factional row it would have treated
all offenders against law and decency
alike and Penrose as well as Brum-
baugh would have been summoned to
the bar of justice to answer malfea-
sances and misfeasances in office and
out of office. But Penrose felt that
he had sufficient force in the General
Assembly to carry through any pro-
ject he might undertake and he adopt-
ed the course expressed in the Sproul
resolution. He pretends to think that
it is broad enough to cover or incul-
pate himself and if that be true, the
Governor has no cause of complaint.
Of course the Governor's statement
that he invites the widest and fullest
investigation is a bluff. Without of-
ficial or even organized inquiry
enough has been revealed to stamp
Brumbaugh in a most unenviable
light. No man of decent impuls-
es would have used the public
funds as he used them and investiga-
tion cannot fail to mark him a corrup-
tionist. He doesn’t court an investi-
gation under such circumstances any
more than a murderer taken red-
handed would court indictment and
trial in court. His message to the
Senate, therefore, is not only a bluff
but an impertinence. He can veto
the resolution but if the Legislature
is self-respecting a veto will not stop
the inquiry.
— If you find it in the “Watch-
man” it’s true.
to Work of Present Im-
Attend
portance.
ed by the efforts of Senator Cummins,
of Iowa, to discuss the President’s re-
cent address on peace. The more or
! less foxy Iowan pretends to be in
| sympathy with the purposes of the
| President and alleges that his inten-
| tions are to divert public sentiment
along the lines laid by the President.
| But the effect of his manoeuvre will be
! the opposite. He will simply con-
| sume time that ought to be given to
| the promotion of the President’s
| plans through legislation. Every
| hour spent in debate at this time is
waste and too many hours so em-
: ployed will defeat some of the most
| beneficent legislation contemplated by
| the President for the present session
; of Congress.
| Senator Cummins- is a good deal
| like Roosevelt. His ambitions have
| been disappointed so frequently with-
| in recent years that he has become a
political misanthrope. Because he
cannot get what he wants for himself
he would prevent achievement of
others however desirable. That is the
real reason for his resolution to de-
bate the President’s peace proposi-
tion. There is nothing to be gained
by prolonged discussion of the ques-
tion. It is not a subject for present
legislation and there is no time for
irrelevant discussion of any subject.
The supply bills must be enacted and
a considerable number of other bills
ought to be enacted and there are only
The Senate which is part of the
treaty-making power of the govern-
ment ought to express its sympathy
with the purposes of the President
and its confidence in the integrity of
his professions. But it ought not to
about the matter. Such an expression
is not essential to the prosperity of
the plan anyway and if legislation
that is essential to the administration
of the government has to be sacri-
ficed in order that Senators may rev-
el in the melody of their own throats,
it would be better to defer even the
expression of confidence to another
time. Attend now to the business
that must be dispatched and let the
future take care of itself.
__After all Deborah didn’t cut
much of a figure in history and Roose-
velt has not added to her reputation
for amiability.
Roosevelt’s Impotent Rage.
Colonel Roosevelt has proved equal
to the occasion. He has dug out of
ancient history the “curse of Meroz,”
and poured it upon the head of the
President. It appears that wherever
there is evil the Colonel digs it up. As
usual he perverts the facts to justify
his application of the incident. He
says that fear of the Germans influ-
enced the President to certain actions
and declares that the President utter-
ed the shameful untruth “that each
side is fighting for the same thing.”
Both these assertions are deliberate
falsehoods. President Wilson has
been influenced by fear of nobody
and what he said about what the bel-
ligerents are fighting for is that both
claimed to be for a just cause.
Roosevelt is a falsifier by nature
and delights in bearing false witness.
He declares that the President repre-
sents now what the “copperheads”
represented during the war of the
rebellion. As a matter of fact those
who constantly opposed the policies
of President Lincoln and criticised
his actions during the rebellion period
were called “coperheads” and that
is precisely what Roosevelt is doing
now. Therefore the epithet applies to
him and those who aid him in his
vituperative assault upon the Presi-
dent are the “copperheads” of today.
During the war of the rebellion men
who acted as he acts now were put in
prisons and in other ways punished
for their treasonable conduct.
Of course what Roosevelt says or
does is of little consequence now.
Most people have come to understand
him and only those who shared in
his grafting operations in the past
and hope for opportunity to loot in his
company again, pay any attention to
him. General Bragg said that he
loved Grover Cleveland “for the
enemies he had made” and intelligent
people are beginning to accept Roose-
velt’s enmity as a badge of merit. His
support of Hughes cost that candidate
thousands of votes as his opposition
in the convention secured him the
nomination. Roosevelt is not only
dead, politically, but rotten and he can
neither help nor harm aspirants for
public favor in the future.
five weeks in which to accomplish it. -
NTE, PA. FEBRUARY 2, 1917.
Work in the Legislature.
i One month has elapsed since the
session and nothing has been accom-
plished. Several bills have been intro-
| duced and referred to committees and
| the Sproul resolution to investigate
| the Governor has passed the Senate
on second reading. But that is the
sum total of achievement. The Ap-
propriations committee and the
Judiciary General committee of the
House and the Appropriations com-
mittee of the Senate have been organ-
ized. It was necessary to go so far
in order to consider the Sproul reso-
lution. But so far as public interests
are concerned the record is blank.
The expenses are running along but
nothing else is moving.
Some mathematical sharp figured
out that the prayer of the Chaplain
of the House at the opening session
this year cost the treasury three or
four hundred dollars. As it was the
only session in a period of three weeks
the compensation for that time was
grouped to make the result. The sal-
aries of Senators, Representatives and
officers of the Legislature aggregates
about $6,000 a day so that it has
cost the people of Pennsylvania about
$180,000.00 for Penrose to make Gov-
ernor Brumbaugh docile enough to
eat out of Penrose’s hand. If the
Sproul resolution is passed finally
and the iniquities of the State capi-
tol are revealed, it may be worth the
money, but present signs are not
promising.
Moreover the legislative juggling
and waste is not ended according to
reports from Harrisburg. Upon re-
assembling next week a couple of
days will be spent in factional ma-
noeuvering which will be followed by
another recess of nearly a week. A
consume valuable time in talking |few days of work then will be follow-
ed by a recess until after the inaugu-
ration of the President on March 5,
1917, by which time there will be
such anxiety to pass personal bills
that any old thing can be jammed
through. In view of these facts it is
small wonder that every thoughtful
person is predicting a Democratic
Governor in 1918 and a Legislature
Democratic in both branches to sup-
port his policies.
-— Winter weather is always var-
iable, and we have had about as many
kinds of it this winter as ever, but
nobody could complain about the
balmy temperature of Sunday. It was
really like a spring day and had it not
been for the snow and ice covered
streets it would have been like a day
in early April. Of course, that is no
assurance that the backbone of the
winter is broken.
e——————————
— Those who have seen the stur-
dy troopers who have returned from
the Mexican border do not share in
the opinion that the expedition was of
no value. Every man of them is fit
for service and willing and that sort
of preparedness is of inestimable val-
ue to the country.
—— The Democrats in the Legisla-
ture are disappointed, of course, be-
cause they are not permitted to con-
duct a real investigation. But any
investigation will bring grist to their
mill so they needn’t worry.
Possibly “a guilty conscience
needs no accuser” but a threatened in-
vestigation sort of hurries up the
payment of gasoline bills of officials
who “inadvertently” took gas from
the State garage.
——————
— The Steel trust acknowledges
its most prosperous period but insists
on higher tariff taxation. This fact
creates the impression that protec-
tion is more a habit than a necessity.
—_If the expectation of peace and
order in Mexico is fulfilled Roosevelt
will have a fit. But froth is about as
useful as anything else that comes
from his mouth.
——
— Senator Cummins may be fa-
vorable to the President’s peace pro-
gram but the faint praise with which
he commends it raises a suspicion of
insincerity.
— Tt looks as if the Governor is
opposed to any kind of an investiga-
tion but even a factional inquiry is
better than none under existing cir-
cumstances.
— There will be opposition to any-
thing President Wilson does so long
as Roosevelt and Jim Beck live but it
will not be serious.
——For high class Job Work come
to the “Watchman” Office.
Money for Good Roads.
From the Philadelphia Press (Rep.)
1
The country will hardly be deceiv- | General Assembly began its present | Whi Government of the United
| States kindly appropriated $10,000,000
| for the improvement of public roads,
| that are rural post roads, in the Unit-
‘ed States. To get the money, each
i State must itself do and pay for half
{ the work on plans to be approved by
the Federal Department of Agricul-
‘ture. Under this law Pennsylvania
will receive $461,288 to be expended in
| the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918,
| What the State will add to this Fed-
i eral aid for the year named will be
| determined by the Legislature now in
| session.
The State will of course accept and
utilize the Federal money, but it
{ would be nothing less than a crime if
it allowed the liberality of Congress
to abate by one dime the regular State
appropriation for highway construc-
tion, improvement and maintenance in
Pennsylvania. Four years ago the
| State ordered the State automobile
license fees to be paid to the Highway
Department for road improvement.
The regular State appropriation for
State highways was $6,000,000 for
two years, with the weakening pro-
vision added that “the appropriation
shall include and not be in addition to
the money received from license fees.”
The State appropriation in effect was
diminished by the amount of the
license fees, and it would be just like
some cheese-paring statesman to sug-
gest this year that the State road ap-
propriation be further diminished by
the amount received from the Federal
Treasury.
The automobile license fees for the
year past exceed $2,000,000. They are
in part from motor trucks, which are
hard on the highways, and the whole
amount should be devoted to the work
of putting and keeping our highways
in first-class condition. These fees
should go to the highways in addition
to the $6,000,000 or larger appropria-
tions which the Legislature may be
willing to make for two years’ high-
way work. The Federal appropria-
tion should of course be clear gain
and devoted to post roads throughout
the State. Road improvement is an
expenditure towards which the State
should be very liberal and is bound to
be liberal if our State roads are to
compare favorably with our neigh-
bors, which at the present time they
do not de, though their improvement
is progressing and is apparent.
Governor Brumbaugh's frequent
public declarations in favor of high-
class highways throughout Pennsylva-
nia have kindled an expectation that
much will be done. The old opposition
to liberal appropriations for good
roads has died away. The State auto-
mobile license receipts increase large-
ly every year. The United States gov-
ernment adds its contribution in state
aid. The State itself should supple-
ment both this grant by a liberal ad-
ditional appropriation and exercise
its economy in other directions.
From Leslie's Weekly.
The question as to whether or not
the Jew will ever return to Palestine
is not such a burning issue as that
the Jew shall have equal rights with
other men wherever he may live. The
war has brought the latter issue to
the front, for it is seen that the time
to strike for rights will be in the per-
iod of readjustment coming with the
close of the war. The downtrodden
in all of the warring countries will
then demand justice. No people, un-
less it be the Armenians in the Turk-
ish empire, have been more wanton-
ly persecuted than the Jews. Their
strong racial solidarity enlists in the
defense of all the persecuted members
of the race the loyal support of all
fellow Jews the world over who en-
joy the blessings of freedom. In the
United States 51 national organiza-
tions with a membership of 3,000,000
are planning to call the American
Jewish congress to meet at Washing-
ton in the spring to demand equal
rights for Jews in all lands. Free
from all disabilities in the United
States, the Jews by force of character
and ability have risen to leading posi-
tions in business and the professions
and in public service. Known through-
out the world, a protest by such lead-
ers against the blind prejudice which
works such hardships to their race
will be heard with respect.
Teddy’s Helpless Rage.
From the Philadelphia Record.
How Roosevelt must gnash his teeth
over the fact that in the advancement
of Dr. Grayson President Wilson has
performed one official act which even
he lacks the unblushing effrontery to
denounce!
Treachery Most Foul.
from the Philadelphia Record.
The Governor had better look out,
or Senator Penrose will catch him
some time when he has sent his
trousers around the corner to be
pressed.
Bible Reading in Vogue.
From the Detroit Free Press.
A St. Louis paper says that St.
Louis women are making a profound
study of the Bible. That's one way
to get the Bible read; make it fash-
ionable.
A Deep-Dyed Plot.
From the Pittsburgh Post.
Then, again, there is supposed to be
malice back of the desire of some that
T. R. run in 1920. He can’t get too
many lickings for them.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
— Thomas 8S. Crownover, of Hunting-
don, has been appointed manager of the
Huntingdon reformatory.
—A change of directors and the dona-
tion of $7,000, deficiency on up-keep, are
counted on to keep Greensburg's $150,000
IY. M.C. A, zoing.
—While watching a shooting match at
Centralia, Allen Oppenhouse was shot by
one of the shooters, who slipped on ice,
discharging his gun.
—Johu HH. Shook, of Greencastle, who
died December 13, left his entire estate to
his wife for life, then to the Home for the
Aged in Chambersburg. :
—Rev. S. E. Vance, pastor of the Church
of God at Wormleysburg, is in a critical
condition following the drawing of a
tooth, an artery having been severed.
—Four engineers, sent out by the State
Highway department, are making a prelim-
inary survey of the State road between
Renovo and North Bend, and which is
stated on good authority will be completed
this year.
—One of St. Marys best known young
men mysteriously disappeared on Friday
night. He has been =acting strangely for
several days and his friends are much con-
cerned for fear he may have mct with an
accident or foul play. Every effort is being
made to locate him.
—The greatest excitement that has
stirred the people of Luthersburg for
years prevails there because of the
activities of representatives of the T. W.
Philips Gas & Oil Co., of Butler, in taking
up options upon thousands of acres of land
to the immediate south, southeast and
southwest of the town.
—The Pennsylvania Railroad company
will build at the Altoona shops, 92 all-steel
passenger cars, 225 locomotives and 2,100
freight cars for use ou the lines east of
Pittsburgh and Erie. All of these will be
used to replace other cars and locomotives
now in service, and will apply on the com-
pany's 1917 equipment program.
—As an outcome of the death by a bul-
let through the head of Charles H. Wood-
worth, of Meadville. while in the office of
Dr. H. 1.. Lewis, of Erie, last Tuesday
evening, the mother of the dead man, Mrs.
Elizabeth J. Woodworth, has sworn out a
warrant charging Lewis with the murder
of her son. Lewis is now in the county
jail. 4
—Rev. J. M. McJunkin, aged 69, secre-
tary and treasurer of the Synodical Home
Missions of the Presbyterian church of
Pennsylvania, died at his home on Monday
in Oakdale, near Pittsburgh. He had held
that office since 1890. He was born in
Washington county and was well known
throughout the State, having frequently
visited in Bellefonte.
—H. M. Rowe, an enginerr on the Middle
division of the Pennsylvania railroad, was
struck by a freight train a short distance
west of Tyrone last Friday and instantly
killed. He stepped from his engine to the
track and did not notice the approach of
an eastbound preference freight. The
train which killed Rowe continued on its
way, the crew not knowing of the acci-
dent. Rowe made his home in Altoona.
—Imputing prejudice to Federal Judge
Charles B. Witmer of middle district of
Pennsylvania in deposing Samuel Wintner,
Wilkes-Barre attorney, as a bankruptcy
trustee, Wintner on Monday asked the Su-
preme court for leave to transfer the pro-
ceedings. The Wilkes-Barre attorney 3
charged that a clique of lawyers—“a bank-
ruptey ring’—disposed of bankruptcy
cases in that jurisdiction.
—Somerset for some unknown reason
seems to have been lately placed in the
danger zone by the Wells Fargo Express
company, judging by the large and formi-
dable looking revolvers that made their
appearance strapped to the waists of the
several express drivers last Friday morn-
ing. Somerset has during the past years
been considered safe and the recent pre-
cautionary action of the express company
is causing some comment.
— Instead of remaining in the moun-
tains, the herd of thirteen elk liberated in
Blair county a year ago, nas bren making
its headquarters on the farms of FS,
Snoberger, John Baker, John Wyant and
&. T. Shaw, at Catfish, near iInllidsysburg.
The elk have trampled down ihe winter
grain and raided the hay stacks, and have
made several attacks on cattle. Iarmers
and their families are afraid of them and
have complained to the authorities.
— When Lloyd Kesslar, aged 45, return-
ed home in Johnstown about midnight
Thursday night and started a row with
his son and wife, Elmer Kesslar, aged 19,
in bed upstairs, became alarmed, grabbed
a revolver and hastened down stairs in
time to see his father strike at the mother.
Without hesitation, the young man fired
twice and his father fell to the floor, seri-
ously wounded. One bullet penetrated the
left arm, the other cut off the little finger
of the left hand. Kessler is in Memorial
hospital. The son is under arrest.
—-While piloting “St. Lousi mail,” one
of the fastest trains on the Pennsylvania
system, scheduled to stop only at terminal
points west over the Pittsburgh division,
Engineer William Kemp, of Altoona, saw
a fat little pony attached to a wagon
standing on the tracks at a grade Cross-
ing west of Johnstown. It apparently did
not intend to move. He halted the train,
jumped off, led the pony out of danger,
tied it to a telephone pole, and continued
his trip. The train arrived at Pittsburgh
on time, notwithstanding he was 10 min-
utes late leaving Altoona.
—The jury at Uniontown in the case in
which Harry Sheppard, of Dawson, sued
the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for $15,000
damages for injuries he suffered when he
was put off the train, returned a verdict
of $1,000 for the plaintiff. Mr. Sheppard
asked $5,000 for personal injuries and $10,-
000 punitive damages from the railroad
company, claiming he had been injured
by train-men when he refused to pay the
10 cents excess fare from Jacobs Creek to
Dawson. He said the ticket window in the
station was closed when he boarded the
train at Jacobs Creek October 1, 1915.
—Judge Thomas J. Baldridge, in an
opinion handed down in Blair county, de-
cided that a constable is not an employee
of the county. The case was an appeal
from the decision of the workmen's com-
pensation board, taken by Mrs. Charles RB.
Shipe, of Juniata, whose husband, a con-
stable, was murdered in Greensburg last
July, while serving a warrant. Shipe was
a former resident of Shamokin and was
buried there. The court held that a ‘“con-
stable elected by the citizens of a certain
ward of the municipality cannot be said
to be an employee of Blair county. The
county has nothing to do with his elec-
tion, nor can it remove him. At most, if
he performs any services they are casual
in character.”