a ey BY P. GRAY MEEK. INK SLINGS. — March surely came in like a lamb. —Anyway potatoes won’t come too high, next summer, for the potato bug. —And to think they used to laugh at the country publishers who took pota- toes on subscription account. — Bellefonte has had many inti- mate sorrows this week to add to the gloom that hangs over the entire country. —A brave man would not have ve- toed the Sproul resolution to investi- gate what all had hoped would prove to be a brave man. __Vare and Shunk Brown are saved but Brumbaugh has gone into the discard. Nevertheless there has been no great sacrifice. —The Chester county prophet says winter ended yesterday, but we prefer to stick to the almanac and wait until the 21st before we break forth into rhyme of springtime. — About everything in Bellefonte but the hills is getting higher. They tell us that even one of our churches is getting so high that it is making low people feel stilted. — One important development of the European war is the fact that the women of the belligerent nations will be able to take care of the cripples of the war and that condition has never obtained before. It can hardly be said that the President is afraid of the presence of Congress in Washington. He kept it there most of the time during his first term and managed to maintain friend- ly relations with it. » Even the Emperor of Germany may be convinced, after a while, that the President of the United States means what he says. The opposite policy disappeared when an important change in the cabinet occurred. — Philipsburg seems to be taking the ride of its life along the way to publicity. The town is being persou- ally conducted by a gentleman named Green, who happens to be secretary to the Chamber of Commerce of that city, and possibly a descendant of Darius Green of the flying machine. What, with boomin real estate, catch- ing the mayor with his fingers where they ought not to have been, getting columns of publicity in the Sunday editions and haling women into court for selling cigarettes to youthful Phil- ipsburgers, here is a gentleman who must be busy as a hen with one chick- en. Perish the thought, but the day when the name Philipsburg might not size up to the growing needs of the metropolis of Rush township might not be far off and who would then dare to rise up and say that Green- ville would not be better. —The Johnstown “Democrat” is worried because State College is ask- ing for $350,000 for a new armory. The “Democrat” is such a pacific or- gan that it sees possible harm to the youth of the Commonwealth in their even knowing what an armory is. Compose yourself dear brother Bailey. The armory that is now called upon to take care of three thousand was built for five hun- dred students and while the word ar- mory does smack of militarism the writer sits here to say to you that the physical “setting up” and the discipline inculcated through the militarism at the Pennsylvania State College twenty-five years ago are even now not out-weighed by any other advantage extended during a four years’ course in that institution. Armories and drills don’t always make warriors, but they rarely fail to correct physical defects in the car- riage of young men and to teach them what discipline is. And discipline is just as necessary in the mills in Johnstown as it is in the trenches in France. —“Mother” Jones took a very sen- sible view of the food shortage in New York when she told the rioting women to go home and not to pester the Mayor or the Governor about it, as neither were responsible and neither could give them immediate relief. There is plenty of food in the country and no one need starve. Speculation has run wild, however, and stories of the fabulous sums made by munition workers during the past year have innoculated everyone with the desire to get more than he has been getting for anything he has to sell, with the result that food stuffs are being held out of the market. The two dollar man, whom a fictitious demand for labor has put in a position to earn ten dollars, has no real reason for kicking when he finds that one dollar potatoes have jumped to three dollars through the same conditions. He is simply beginning to find out that it is merely a matter of economics that high wages should make high prices and that when ten dollars is the wage it doesn’t buy much more than eighty- five cents did, when it was the wage. |SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —The Historical Commission at Harris- burg has granted the request of the Fort Antes Chapter, D. A, R., of Jersey Shore, to place a tablet to mark the site of Fort Antes. Sufficient funds have been pro- vided by the Chapter to begin the work as soon as the weather will permit. ~The Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Cor- poration has closed deals for the purchase ty, all of which adjoin its holdings. The transfers were made at a cost of about VOL. 62. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BE LLEFONTE, PA.. MARCH 2, 1917. $30,000. — Word from Philadelphia is to the effect that the Rt. Rev. Eugene A. Garvey, bishop of the Altoona diocese, who is a NO.9. Senator Penrose a Traitor. Senator Penrose made a great speech in the Senate, the other day, on the revenue bill. The ranking Repub- lican on the Finance committee of the Senate he presumably expressed the wisdom of his party upon that im- portant measure. At any rate he grew very vehement in his declara- tions to the effect that “the Democrats had shown themselves unable to raise sufficient money to run the govern- ment.” His was a sad tale of woe and it was expressed in a tearful tone of voice. Senator Penrose’s heart bleeds for his country at the earliest sign of trouble. He is essentially a patriot and never thinks of partisan- ship. It’s a great pity that his judgment isn’t as perfect as his pre- tentions. In his remarkable speech the other day Senator Penrose stated that the pending revenue measure “has gone through the usual course of consider- ation in secret Democratic caucus to which the public was not admitted. It was a usurpation of the legislative functions of the Senate by the majori- ty.” How atrocious! And Senator Penrose is the man, of all men, to re- monstrate. There has never been, in the whole world, a spectacle more im- posing, than “Satan reproving sin.” Of all the political pirates who have outraged public decency and proprie- ty, Boies Penrose is the most persist- ent and defiant. His whole life has been and is a flagrant violation of moral and political ethics. The several revenue bills enacted by the Democratic majority in Con- gress have been to meet extraordina- ry conditions and unexpected exigen- cies. The Underwood bill would have met every requirement of conditions as they existed at the time it was passed. But soon afterward the Eu- ropean war disorganized all commer- cial calculations and the bill of 1916 was enacted to meet the new condi- tions which have developed under rea- -gonable prospects of «peace to this” country. Since then conditions have again changed and enormous extra- ordinary demands upon the treasury to meet impending war expenses compel additional revenues. The pending bill is to meet these new re- quirements which could not have been forseen. In opposing this necessary measure of defense Senator Penrose is simply writing himself down a demagogue and a traitor. The contemplated pre- paredness legislation will involve an extraordinary expenditure of more than half a billion dollars. If the preparedness legislation is not en- acted, the country will be at the mer- cy of any foreign foe that chooses to attack us. Boies Penrose imagines that he can obtain partisan advan- tage by exposing the country to this humiliation while it is under a Demo- cratic administration, and he makes an insidious attack predicated on a false pretense, to compass this trea- sonable purpose. It is a crime against the country without parallel. Mr. Penrose pretends to think that an increase of tariff taxation would supply the revenues essential to meet the unusual and extraordinary ex- penses. Unless he is a fool he knows better. With the menace of ruthless submarine war in view commerce is in a state of paralysis, and practical- ly no revenues can be depended upon from customs whether the schedules be high or low. The government is confronted by these facts and cannot evade them. Boies Penrose under- stands this as well as any living man. Therefore his vicious attack upon the pending revenue bill is the output of treason in his heart. — Admiral Fiske is reported to have said that “We are a degenerate people.” This fault-finding and mis- chief making mariner may have a cor- rect understanding of himself but re- cent events have clearly proved that he is wrong in his estimate of the people of this country generally speaking. — Let us also hope that there will be no gubernatorial parade over the State at public expense next summer. With public officials paying their own gasoline bills and this item of expense lopped off the cost of the State gov- ernment will be considerably less in the future. ——Probably Penrose is as glad as Brumbaugh that an investigation has been averted. There might have been a great scattering of reputations if the reselution had been approved. | Wilson Asks Authority to Act. On Monday Wilson appeared before the Congress in joint session and asked authority “armed neutrality.” As he states | “there is such action. { reason for it at this time. Congress ‘ will adjourn, of necessity, in a few ' days. It may and probably will take | considerable time to assemble in ex- traordinary session and organize the | new Congress. But the necessity for { action may arise at any moment and it would be a crime if the government. | were not equal to any emergency. | The request of the President is to ' meet such an exigency and it should | be granted promptly and with una- | nimity. | The German Empire, drunk with ' ambition, has inaugurated a policy i for the control of the seas which not !only impairs the rights and curtails the opportunities of American com- | merce, but puts the lives of American | citizens in joepardy. Such a condi- | tion cannot be endured without sac- rificing every principle of honor and manhood. The authority to declare | war is limited to Congress and Con- | gress cannot act except while in ses- ‘sion. The present Congress expires "on the 4th of March ahd its successor cannot meet in regular session until ‘the first Monday in December. It cannot even be summoned in extra session until after the expiration of its predecessor. With a practically | even division of the mew House the | organization may be delayed for weeks. Under the circumstances there was but one thing to do and that is what the President has done. He has ask- ed for authority to meet any emergen- cy that may arise. He might have assumed the authority and been with- in the limit of precedent. But being a man of honor he has respect for the restraints of law and asked, as asked, to be legally and lawfully in- vested” with the power he may be re- quired to exercise. Of course the au- thority will be voted to him unani- mousiy. Only a traitor or a poltroon would stand out against such action i and let us hope there are neither in the American Congress. Remedies for Existing Evils. In a recent interview Hon. A. Mitchell Palmer declared his opinion that no legislative remedies will cure the evil of high prices. “I believe the situation is due to natural causes,” he says, and adds: “We are paying our price of the war in Europe.” Under the economic theory that commodity prices are governed by thelaw of sup- ply and demand, that is true. But the economic theory is based upon natural, not artificial conditions. In the event of the failure of crops and a necessary shortage of products with- out diminution in the demand, an in- creased price is inevitable. A short- age in the supply of any commodity without impairment of the demand must cause an increase of values. But there is no perceptible decrease in the volume of foodstuffs, at this time and the diminution of supply is clearly the consequence of manipula- tion by speculators. Our exports of foodstuffs this year are less than that of last year in greater ratio than the volume of last year was greater than those of this year. Of course we are paying part of the cost of the war in Europe. We are sending millions of dollars in money and vast quantities of products to feed and clothe the devastated sections of the European war zone. But that is not the princi- pal reason for the high cost of pro- visions and other necessaries here. Our suffering in that respect is as- cribable to the perversion of the laws of supply and demand. There are plenty of foodstuffs in this country to supply the reasonable demands of the people if left to the regulation of the laws of supply and demand. But human vampires are speculating in the products of the earth and the fruits of labor and na- ture and legislation ought to find a remedy for such evils. According to current reports, official and otherwise, there are thousands of bushels of po- tatoes in Pennsylvania being held for prices greater than the outrageous figures now demanded. If that be true those holding the tubers are vio- lating the laws and ought to be brought to account. If there are no remedies in law some ought to be dis- covered. Washington under similar conditions Brumbaugh Defeats Investigation. afternoon President | Governor Brumbaugh has vetoed to put the country into a condition of | ‘ i | | | | demagogy. He resisted ‘the passage | i 1 | with him in public service.” That is the Sproul resolution providing for an the veto message he declares, by quoting from a previous message on ficial acts and those of all associated palpably a false pretense and pure | of the resolution in question with all the force, legal and lawless, that he could command. He vetoed the reso- lution because he was afraid of a full exposure of his official delinquencies, and the veto message is a confession on every count . of the indictment against him. If Governor Brumbaugh had ap- proved the resolution a thorough and searching investigation of the public life of the Commonwealth might have been obtained. The Governor says: “The committee it creates would have full power to investigate all State, city, county, borough and township officials.” If that be true it was certainly comprehensive enough to cover both factions of the Republi- can party. Yet the Governor declares that he vetoes it because “it is solely a partisan, factional measure to give to an interested faction a powerful political club to compel its opponents and indeed all independent citizens, to bow a subservient knee or suffer the consequences.” The truth is that Governor Brum- baugh vetoed the resolution because he was afraid of the consequences of an investigation. It was a mistaken notion because no further exposure can do him harm. He is now in pub- lic contempt of every man, woman and child who respects integrity and pays tribute to honor and honesty. But he has saved the Vares and Shunk Brown and thus fulfilled the only ob- ligation which appeals to him. He has saved the face of the Penrose piration of his term of office when he has been thrown upon the party scrap pile, the Senator may take care of him as a lame duck. But he has side-tracked all investigation for this year. making a big fuss about the item of $350,000 for a new armory in the appropriation budget asked for The Pennsylvania State College, all be- cause the editor believes it smacks of | militarism. In condemning the re- quest the editor says: “Our recollec- tion is that State has a very large gymnasium. What’s the matter with that?” We are not so sure that State needs an armory quite as much, per- haps, as a large dancing floor, but why doesn’t it say so?” As a matter of fact the editor of the “Democrat” should recall that the armory at State is also used as a gymnasium, and the fact that a larger building is needed is not because State is going into the military business but in order to ac- commodate those students of the col- lege who are compelled to take regu- lar drills in the cadet battalion. Centre county was visited by a severe thunder and lightning storm on Monday evening with a terrific downpour of rain while it lasted. Of course old weather prophets at once predicted vey much colder weather for Tuesday but it did not come. In fact most of the past week has been somewhat like spring, and with the long hard winter we have had it has proven a very agreeable change. As an illustration of the tied up condition of freight traffic at pres- ent and the stringency of the blockade order the American Lime & Stone company on Wednesday shipped four cars of hydrated lime by express to the DuBois glass company at Du- Bois. It was absolutely necessary that the latter have the lime and the only way to be sure of getting it was to have it sent by express. The postmaster question at Blanchard has finally been settled by the appointment of Norris Harter as postmaster. The office will be moved from the Milford Gardner building into the store of the new postmaster’s father, W. I. Harter. “Hampy” Moore, of Philadel- phia, isa lonesome Congressman but he always did think he was too good to associate with others. — For high class Job Work come to the “Watchman” Office. Let’s Get Down to Bed-Rock. : From the Chicago Herald. The Federal Trade commission is : | . . . investigation of his administration. In | Ye of the | President to approve an appropriation . of $400,000 for that purpose. abundant precedent” for : the subject, that he “invites the wid- | Poses to cover every side of the food And there is abundant | est and fullest investigation of his of- | situation. t Good! Let us | going to have a real investigation. ' The country has confidence In the Federal Trade commission. Now let’s have the facts. tom—to the fundamentals—and really learn all that can be learned about the subject. The problem is legal and economic. The question of whether there are combinations in must be decided. That has hereto- fore attracted the main attention. Now it’s time to go more into the economic pa oughly. Are the people being com- pelied to pay too much for what the buy? Nobody can answer that unti he can say with reasonable approxi- mation what it costs to produce those things. . In some fields sion will find plenty of data. The packers, for instance, can tell ex- actly what it costs them to turn out their products. tion has encouraged accurate cost ac- in their case. fields are limited. fields of all the work will have to be done from the ground up. There isn’t a farmer in Illinois who knows what it costs him to put his product on the market today. There isn’t one manu- facturer in 10 who has an accurate idea of what it costs him to run his counting business. Let the trade commission start lit- erally “from the start with the farmer and find what production of everything, from eggs to wheat and cattle, means in terms of money and labor expenditure. He doesn’t know, and nobody else knows. Then let it follow the product to con- sumption. Many people assume high prices don’t start until they reach some large organization. economic standpoint they are just as liable to start at the beginning as any- Prices cannot be per- manently below the cost of production under any circumstances. is in the mood for an in- vestigation that will Muchine, moreover, and. after. the. ex: | jdsep thorough. ] x a prices that get nothing exce pt 5 bly a polician into Congress or some other job or into the newspapers. has had its fill of half-baked remedies that spring from attention to only one-half of the great problem. Let’s have an investigation that will enable the country to see it steadily and see It would be cheap at $400,- 000, or $4,000,000. where else. The country it whole. “Peace Without Victory.” From the London The old era of short, swift wars with clean and obvious decisions has gone. Germany fered casualties which are 10 times as great as the whole army with which she invaded France in 1870. If we are looking for a victory which will see the enemy flying to the walls of Ber- lin, we may just conceivably see it, but we shall have to pay for it. may preserve peace for a generation, at the price of a is a relative term, and will mean in the future, when great na- tions go to war, the being a little more ready to shed our blood to se- cure terms than pudiate them. The war has dragged on to a state when all of the belligerents begin to fail. Whatever more we ask of in a currency we can never recover. The wounds of the enemy are open to the world. That is much; and his after-realization of what he has lost for a future peace. said von der Goltz, is to point in war, know when to make peace. to consider the axiom. The English Girard, in the Public Ledger. One of the saddest things in life is an Englishman’s imitation of an American’s conversation. trate: A London newspaper prints a car- toon of President Wilson, and in the caption makes our scholarly Chief Magistrate pronounce “very” as if spelled “vurry.” ways.” I’ve heard the short range and also listened to many debates in the British Parliament. 0 I English of Macaulay and Addison, it . finds quite as good an echo in Presi- dent Wilson as it does in James Bryce, ex-Premier Asquith, Balfour, Lloyd George and the mother country. Indeed, President S a speaks English as scarcely a living Englishman can pretend the contrary “yurry” low order. —————————— Inexperienced. From the El Paso Champ Clark of chickens as a the high cost of living. Evidently who is reasonably successful Champ, in his own line, ing chickens. —— — Subscribe for the “Watchman”. ! patient in St. Joseph's hospital, Phila- delphia, has so far recovered that he will be able to leave that institution this week and will spend several weeks in Atlantic City while recuperating. — Charles Miller, aged 19 years, residing at Warriors Ridge, met death in a drown- ing accident in the big Warriors Ridge dam while fishing at that place Friday midnight. He fell from a boat on the dam, sank beneath the icy waters and beyond the aid of those who were with him. His body was recovered at an early hour Saturday morning. —A quarrel following the return of Mrs. Ida Anderson, of Connellsville, aged fifty- one years, from a meeting of the Ladies’ Aid society late Friday night, resulted in her husband, Howard Anderson, fifty- eight, killing her and committing suicide. Anderson, a former member of the city police force, fired four bullets into his It will ask the It pro- hope at last we are Let’s go to the bot- restraint ‘of trade temple, — Beckman brothers, of Johnstown, have begun the opening of a tract of coal land of 400 acres in Perry township, Jefferson % | county, which they purchased recently from Lyman Mauk and L. V. Meams. A tipple will be constructed at once, and within a month a siding to the mine from the Shawmut railroad will be laid. The tipple will have a capacity of 2,000 toms of coal daily and it is expected to be able to produce this amount by the middle of the summer. — Philip Haag, a well known resident of Troutville, was almost instantly killed on Saturday morning while engaged in cut- ting down a tree in the Grube woods, near Troutville. Mr. Hagg and a companion were engaged in cutting down a split tree. When they reached the split por- tion "of the tree instead of it falling as they intended it should, it buckled back- ward. Haag was unable to get out of the way and when the tree fell it caught him a glancing blow on the side, breaking sev- eral ribs and his back. — Fire of unknown orign destroyed the Reedsville carpet factory with the dcon- tents at an early hour Friday morning. go into it thor- the trade commis- Government atten- But these In the ‘biggest ground up.” Let it the proprietor, that stood nearby was saved from the flames only through the valiant work of the local firemen, who responded promptly with their equipment, The boiler which furnishes the steam power for the plant exploded during the most exciting period of the fire and caused From the wide territory for safety. Se # unknown origin broke out in the Clear- : field opera house and the structure is a OL | total loss. In the ‘building were locate be bet “total loss will be $100,000 building was one of the finest town, was owned by the Clearfield Opera company. The law firm of Miller and Hartswick, one of the most prominent in the county, had its offices there. G. N. Allenberger’s grocery, Rosser’s store, a Greek candy store and the Crys- tal billiard rooms. Attorneys for Dan Alexandero, charg- ed with the murder of Alfrieto Rossi in a prawl at the Naginey quarries on Sunday one week ago, will institute habeas cor- pus proceedings to secure the release of their client on bail pending a jury trial at the May term of criminal court. Testi- mony adduced at the hearing was over- whelmingly to the effect that Alexandero struck his vietim down with a rain of blows in defense of his own life after his assailant had twice pulled the trigger of a revolver concealed in the right pocket of his coat. Alexandero is the man who was captured near Potters Mills while try- ing to escape. It Nation. 1 admits having suf- We generation. Victory always Standing unmoved, displaying the same stoical calmness that has marked the attitude of Frank Alfred Wendt since his trial and conviction of the murder of Con- stable Michael McGinley, the young man at court Monday morning listened to the solemn words of Judge Baldridge, at Hol- lidaysburg, that committed him to the death chair. The crime for which he was sentenced was committed at the Slippery Race woods, near Altoona, on the after- noon of October 13, 1915, for complicity in which Alfred Wendt's brother, Walter, was convicted of murder in the second degree and committed to the western’ pen- itentiary. __A bartender at the William Penn hotel, Pittsburgh, had an acute attack of hys- teria last Friday when a fashionably dressed stranger, after ordering a cock- tail, tendered in payment a $10,000 bill. When he recovered sufficiently to speak, our enemy is to re- resources of all the it, we must pay for he has lost the prize is the best guarantee The cardinal It is well of Our President. feit, called the house detective and a policeman, who placed the stranger under arrest. For several minutes the air was gurcharged with high current, and it is likely the stranger would have been “detained” had not Assistant Manager Thomas F. Mullins, of the hotel, recogniz- ed the Croesus, who was a noted New York clubman. After explanations, the man quietly shoved nine other $10,000 bills under the bartender’s nose and then dis- appeared. The will of the late Randolph McMul-" len, of Tyrone township, was probated in the office of Register of Wills George C. Irwin, at Hollidaysburg, Saturday. It con- contained one of the most unique provis- To illus- He also says ‘“any- President speak at long range, and I've As for the topnotchers of the county. For a large slice of his estate, which is variously estimated at from $50,000 to $100,000, Mr. McMullen provides that the court shall appoint three men as trustees, one of whom shall be a Protestant minister, one a Catholic priest and the third a Jewish rabbi. Mr. McMullen ap- points the Central Trust company, of Al- toona, executor of his estate. He provides for members of his family, makes bequests to the local hospitals and a number of other institutions, then provides that the residue of his estate be placed in the hands Wilson writes and speak or write it. To is piffle of a Times. suggests the raising step toward reducing never tried rais- has neve in five annual payments, to the poor of Blair, Huntingdon and Cambria counties. Mrs. McMullen will contest the will. of eleven small tracts of mineral in east ‘A and west Carroll township, Cambria coun~ wife's breast and one through his own The handsome residence of L. M. Yoder, firemen and spectators to scatter over a —At 1 o'clock Tuesday morning fire of furniture . the bartender, believing the bill a counter- jons ever noted in the will books in that ’ of the men of the cloth, for distribution
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers