Bowral atc BY P. GRAY MEEK. INK SLINGS. Next week the Granger’s picnic. —Let there be no let-un. Are you still doing your bit? — The frost came pretty near get- ting on the pumpkin on Tuesday morning. — Plenty of $2 wheat can be bought but we have yet to hear of coal hav- ing been bought for $2. —The first year of the war is to cost us eleven billion dollars. That's going some, but Uncle Sam always was a good spender. — Remember that there are only one hundred and seven days until Christmas. Look after the shopping for that occasion early. —Anyway if the Germans do con- quer Russia they will be kept so busy keeping it conquered that the victory will avail them nothing. —$2.20 per bushel has bean fixed as the price for the 1917 wheat crcp. At this rate it will not be long until the farmers will be using Pierce-Arrows instead of Fords. — What Germany couldn’t do for the United States she has done for the Argentine. A sure sign that she real- izes that she has taken on all the trouble she cares to have. —Potatoes are selling at ninety cents the bushel in parts of Centre county and they will be lower. How easy it is to reduce the high cost of living when everybody turns in and helps a bit. —Denny O'Neil, the new State Highway Commissioner, has long been making a noise in politics like a man who could do something if the chance were given him. Now he has the chance and it’s up to him. —OQur Allies made light of Presi- dent Wilson's notes a year or so ago. Now they have concluded that they will let the last one he has written to Pope Benedict te their reply te His Holiness because they admit their in- ability to improve upon it. —Seventy thousand church bells have already been smelted into muni- tions of war in Prussia. So far as the appeal they carry to a lot of people is concerned there are seven bells in Bellefonte that might as well be melt- ed and run into bronze bushings for automobiles. —This week the other papers of Centre county will tell you who the first six men who were called for our quota to the new national army are. The “Watchman” told you who they were last week. It is always about seven days ahead when it comes to real news announcements. —One American soldier in the French foreign legion has, single- handed, captured thirty Germans. Why at that rate Uncle Sam could send his new national army over there equipped with nothing more than salt shakers and they’ll catch everything in Germany old enough to carry a gun. —The capture of the Gulf of Riga by the Germans will afford them another naval base in the Baltic. It may prove of little advantage to the captors, however, because it will soon be closed by ice and before it is open again the Germans will probably be so nearly licked that they will have no use for it. —Up to this moment we have neg- lected calling attention to the fact that “Priscilla,” the “Watchman’s” pet po- etess, is again feeling the tickle of the muse. We are hoping that she will get down to business again and supply us with a regular contribution of the same charming verse that made her so interesting a year or more ago. —There was an increase of forty per cent. in the number of cigaiettes smoked in this country last year. There were ninety cigars per capita and twenty-six millions more gallons of distilled spirits disposed of than the year previous. The States that have gone dry have evidently been driving the wet States to drink all the harder. —Both W. Harrison Walker and Edmund Blanchard seem: to be as se- rious in their desires to be the next burgess of Bellefonte as if there were a salary of $10,000.00, “s7ith pickings” attached to the office. It’s queer that neither one of them realizes that es- pecially now “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” We are all getting so foreign in our alliances and our ideas that we might force the next burgess to abdicate, just to show that the Russians and the Greeks have nothing on Bellefonte. And Harrison and Ned would both get cold feet in Siberia. —An automobile law that fines a man for drawing another vehicle be- hind his licensed automobile, when he does not pull “trailers” in a regular commercial business, is all wrong. And right here is a matter that the Hon. Harry Scott might do well to have corrected by the next Legisla- ture. Companies and individuals who operate machines with “trailers” prob- ably should be required tv secure a li- cense for the “trailer” but to require a farmer to have a license tag on his hay wagon before he can draw it over a public road with an automobile, should necessity arise, is ridiculous and the “Watchman” doesn’t believe that the law contemplated any such requirement, even though it is so con- strued by officers of the state constab- ulary. VOL. 62. Pope Benedict Will Try Again. There are rumors current that Pope Benedict has in mind another appeal for peace. The reply of President Wilson to his last note on the subject, according to gossip, encourages him to hope that expressed in a different form, his proposal might be favorably considered by the belligerent ene- mies of Germany. It is not easy to see how he has arrived at that conclu- sion. The President made it particu- larly plain that no proposition involv- ing casus belli ante will be accepta- ble to the government or people of the United States. The allies of this government have certainly given no reason to imagine that they will be of a different mind. They havea not spok- en officially but unofficially have en- dorsed the President’s position mest cordially. Neither the people nor the govern- ment of the United States are in the war for reprisals or conquest. We believe that the government «{ Great Britain is equally free from selfish or sordid purposes. France may have in mind to claim a restoration of terri- tory taken from her by Germany after the war of 1870. Italy may demand the restoration of Trieste and Greece is likely to insist on the return of ter- ritory seized by Bulgaria after the Balkan war. But the government of the United States has nothing to do with such questions. It has to do, however, with the maintenance of democracy wherever it bas been es- tablished and the restoration of con- ditions as they existed before the present war begun would defeat that result because it would ultimately es- tablish autocracy. The purposes of Pope Benedict are admirable and amiable. He wants to stop the waste of life and treasure, which is repugnant to his christian spirit and inclination. For this he is to be commended in the most gener- ous way. But it is a waste of his val- uable time and mental energy to pro- pose terms of peace unless he is com- missioned by the German people to speak for them under circumstances which will guarantee fidelity to any obligations assumed. The German autocracy is irresponsible, insincere and untrustworthy. A treaty with it would be a scrap of paper made abso- lutely valueless because it would be tainted, and no candid people can af- ford to deal with it. Therefore the benevolent head of the Catholic church may as well abandon his idea of another note. — If von Hindenburz will put his ear to the ground he may get a new idea or two as the troop trains travel from point to point in this land of liberty and abundance. Popular en- thusiasm makes a loud noise. Suspicions Greatly Strengthened. The appointment of J. Denny O’Neil to the office of Highway Commission- er strengthens, if it does not actually confirm, the suspicion that W. E. Ma- gee is to be the Brumbaugh-Vare can- didate for Governor naxt year. The vacancy in the office was created by the enforced resignation of Commis- sioner Black who refusad to play pol- itics. Mr. O'Neil will not disappoint the expectations of his masters in that respect. He plays politics consistent- ly with everything and at all times. No man in the service of the depart- ment will be permitted to escape the partisan tasks which will be imposed upon him. It will always be a case of “pring home the bacon or get out.” Mr. O'Neil will probably be a fairly efficient Highway Commissioner. But he will make all interesc; subservient to those of the party machine of which he is now an important part. He knows nothing about road construc- tion, has had no experience in the managing of such enterprises. But he isa past master in political in- trigue and manipulatin and every mile of road constructed under his administration will be made to pro- duce its quota of votes for the Brum- baugh-Vare party machire. The road beds may be wretched, the materials used in construction faulty and the ex- pense high. But the Brumbaugh- Vare faction will increase in strength throughout the State in the precise ra- tio of miles of road repaired or built. Of Mr O’Neil’s successor in the of- fice of Insurance Comm:ssioner little can be said because little is known. He has been a favored contractor in and near Philadelphia for some years and was defeated for the nomination for Auditor General mainly for the reason that many voters ceclared and believed that he would use the office to promote his personal interests as a contractor in State work. Of course he can’t do much in that direction in the office of Insurance Commissioner but may be depended up m to do the best he can. As a late distinguished Statesman said on another occasion, “he will be no dead-head in the enter- prise.” He will take care of himself. —The slackers are not the worst people in the world, though bad enough. There are also traitors. BELLEFONTE, P Cheating the Kaiser. | STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. A., SEPTEMBER 7, 1917. The German Kaiser ought to soon see that Senator LaFollette and those German sympathizers who are associ- | ated with him in the work of delaying essential war legislation can do him | little, if any, good, and that whatever money he is paying ther is wasted. The highest vote he could summon to his perfidious purpose yesterday was twenty. His first scheme was to fix the excess profit tax at seventy per | cent. and he was defeated. Then he dropped down to sixty-five, with the same result. But he delayed the pas- | sage of the measure some. By work- | ing his scheme vigorously he may consume a week or two in this way while Germany is gaining on the Rus- sian front and recuperating on the western iine of battle. We all agree that excess profits ob- tained through the war ought to pay a big share of the expenses of the war. But delay :n passing necessary war legislation is adding to the cost of the war more than the excess profits amount to. Therefore the wise policy would be to pass the pending legisla- tion promptly to prove unanimity of sentiment, and later, next year for ex- ample, enact new legislation to in- crease the tax on excess profits. There will be plenty of time to tackle the profit proposition before the war ends. If necessary the profits can be absorbed and the plants taken. The present and pressing duty, however, is to provide funds, needed immediate- ly, to pay expenses. The sooner the preparations for en- gaging actively in the war by the United States are cor:pleted, the sooner the war will be over. By & parity of reasoning the longer this work is ‘delayed the higher the cost of the war. This year it is estimated $11,000,000,000 will be our share of the expease. Next vear it will cost us vastly more. The duty is, there- fore, to stop it as soon as possible and the way to stop it is to show the world that the American peoplz are in it cor- dially and as a unit. This country will finish the fight and win the victo- ry and there is no use in delaying the process. Mr. LaFollette and his fel- low conspirators are «heating ihe Kaiser. ——The price of coal to consumers has not been reduced since the recent survey and order for decrease at the mines. But dealers who are main- taining high prices will be brought to terms before long. Error of a Southern Judge. That Southern Federal judge who declared the Congressional Child La- bor law unconstitutional because it in- fringes on the right of States to reg- ulate police powers, drew too fine a line. If the law had declared that no boy or girl under fifteen years of age shall be employed, or that no person of that age shall work more than eight hours a day, there would have been cause of complaint upon the ground stated in the judge’s opinion. But the law simply declares in sub- stance that no goods made in an es- tablishment in which persons under a stipulated age are emplcyed shall be carried under the regulations of in- terstate commerce and such legisla- tion is clearly within the right of Con- gress. Half a century ago, probably, Cen- gress would not have thought of cut- ting so closely to the line which di- vides interstate from intrastate com- merce. But since the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission one advance after another has been made until now by legislation and judicial declaration almost anything in the way of regulation is under sanction, if the commerce is from one State in- to another. Under the legislation in question a producer who sells only in the community in which his factory or mill is located, may inake his own working conditions, in the absence of State or local legislation. But if he violates the act of Congress forbid- ding the employment of operatives under a defined age, he is excluded from interstate commerce or penal- ized. Some Southern judges like some Southern Congressmen are behind the | present stage of progress and act as if | they didn’t care to catch up. The Civ- il war settled a good many questions in dispute before that event and the harnessing of electricity, the develop- ment of resources and the vast in-! crease in population since, have alte.- | ed others. The Child Labor legisla- | tion by Congress is one of the results | of these changes and a step in the di- | rection of progress which can never be revoked or annulled. A court here | and there may insist that we are still living in the atmosphere of the period before the Civil war, but their opin- jons will not check the march of prog- | ress or the advance of rivilization. i i { 1 ——Kerensky will either be a mar- | tyr to patriotism or a saviour of his country and at this distance and from this angle it is hard to determine which role he is destined te act. NO. 35. Incentive to Democratic Voters. The meager registration in cities of the third class on the two first days indicate an unusual apathy on the part of voters in that class of communities. According to the best information at- tainable less than fifty per cent. of ! voters registered during the first two | registration days in those cities. Us- ually nearly that proportion register "on the first day and more than half the remainder attend to the duty on the second day, leaving cnly a small ‘ratio to be taken care of on the last ' day, which this year will be on the 15th of this month, a week from to- morrow. The failure to register means a small vote in the cities in which the Republican majorities are great. Possibly interest in the war move- ments accounts for this indifference to qualifying on the part of the voters. Many of the voters are ia the instruc- tion camps, others have enlisted and fathers and brothers of soldiers are giving attention to matters concern- ing the welfare of their soldier friends. But whatever the cause the fact that a light vote is promised at the coming election in the cities is re- vealed and there are poo; prospects of changing the conditions. There are no State officers to elect, which might | have some influence on the situation, but judicial and local contests will be effected by the light vote and person- al interest in such contsis might have increased the registration “It’s an ill wind that blows good for nobody,” and in the meager registra- tion in the cities there is a chance for the rural voters to exercise a greater influence in the selection of officers. ‘he Democrats in the rural districts should be especially encouraged by the prospects of a smail city vote. The Republican majorities are mainly in the cities. Take away the majori- ties of that party in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the State would be close if not actually Democratic. Take away the Republican majorities in the lesser cities and several coun- ties now Republican wou'd give Dem- ocratic majorities. This should afford an incentive to Democratic voters and we hope for corresponding results. — The Pennsylvania State College will open for the 1917-18 school year on Wednesday of next week, and the college authorities state that up to the present time a Freshman class of six hundred has been enrolled. This num- ber about equals the Freshman class of the past two years and the only falling off there may be in the attend- ance at college will be those members of last year’s Junior, Sophomore and Freshman classes who may have en- listed for service in some branch of the army or gone to work in some of the industrial plants turring out ma- terial for the government, and what percentage of the usual total attend- ance this will amount to cannot be told until the final registration day. ——The hunting season opened on Saturday, September first, but the kind of game that came in season is | not likely to cause any big rush for hunters’ licenses in Centre county. The season opened for raccoon, black- birds, rail and reed birds, and while ’coons are quite plentiful in some por- tions of the county the season is yet too warm to either hunt them or eat them. The season for squirrel, quail, pheasant and woodcock will not open until October 20th this year, but it will be lawful to kill bear on and after October 15th. — Labor day in Bellefonte was a very quiet affair but it evidently proved too much for most of the Belle- fonte councilmen, as only two of them reported for the regular meeting on Monday evening, and as two members do not constitute a quorum, no meet- ing was held. Of course, there was no pressing business on the slate and as the secretary has authority to pay all labor bills and salaries it did not in- convenience anybody. — Mr. Gerard says that the Ger- mans have hated Americans intensely ever since the beginning of the war. It is a safe bet that since the Kaiser read the President’s reply to the Pope the hatred has nct diminished in one household. — The Socialist conference at Stockholm has been called off. Those concerned in the movement couldn’t find enough crazy men with money to pay expenses in the whole world to make a conference. — Probably the defective cart- ridges were the result of an unavoida- ble accident but some accidents are worse than crimes and the cause of this one ought to be unccvered. — Of course Bethman-Hollweg de- nies everything assertad by Gerard but Teutonic reputation for veracity doesn’t stand high anywhere. — We are getting onto the Ger- man idea. They yield a point in or- der to get a chance to try to get it back. Our Country is Doing Things. ' From the Lancaster Intelligencer. © When we entered the war, it was | pretty generally observed that our { weight would tell first and decisively | in the shape of products and manufac- | tures; not only food and war material | but railroad equipment and ships. There is daily evidence that the in- ! dustrial forces of this country are i making tremendous progress towards | the winning of this war. For exam- ple, there is an announcement today by the Baldwin Locomective Works that they are now employing, in their various departments, twenty-five thousand men and last week made a record of nine big locomotives a day. Only a couple of years ago, this great- est of locomotive building concerns pointed with pride to a new record of thirty locomotives in one month. The Baldwin company has been working under strong government pressure to complete an order for 764 locomotives for use abroad—presumably in France. Other plants arz being push- ed with equal vigor and it may be as- sumed that many of the engines are destined for Russia, which has been begging for locomotives. Similar conditions and achieve- ments might be reported from a great many big manufacturing plants, but all of this production must wait upon the solution of the ocean transport problem—the building of ships and their safeguarding from submarine attack. That problem also is being worked out with furious energy but due con- sideration. There are many things be- ing done that need not be talked about, for, with a little patience they will talk for themselves. This is not the time for boasting, but for doing; yet it is well to cheer ourselves with well grounded assurances that the things that ave being dome will soon begin to tell. And let it be noted that labor and big business, working together with eager unity and patriotism, are doing things. That the industrial slackers of all types are few anil are justly held contemptible. This is a supreme effort of a great industrial democra- cy, educated, alert and angressive. Wastes in Food. From the Pittsburgh Dispatch. If the wastes charged up to faults in shipping methods and temporary faults in transportation inciease in ra- tio to the additional w oe thrown upon the railroads by the extraordina- ry drafts official alertness may find in them a profitable field for watchful re- covery of values. In tbe absence of comprehensive statements covering more than local marketing and con- sumptive areas it is impossible to even estimate with accuracy what the ton- nage of waste in farm products amounts to in the national aggregate, but basing any guess upon known fig- ures for a given locality the total is certain to be enormous. Instances are not rare cf trainloads or of a number of cars of a train load- ed with farm products arriving in such an unsatisfactory condition that com- mission merchants refuse to receive them or have defective portions sort- ed out and removed because of the ex- pense. The railroads likewice refuse to make a sorting becausz the market- able remainder might not be sufficient to meet freight bills to which would be added the expense of sorting. In such cases, in some large cities, the matter then is automaticzlly present- ed to the health department if one ex- ists, and cases have been reported in which 70 per cent. of rejected ship- ments were found perfectly good and were distributed among the very poor. In these cases the farmers get noth- ing for their time, labor and seed, and the railroads get nothing for the haul- ing, which complicates the question of waste. It is possible that if all the waste and loss between producer and shipping terminals could be eliminat- ed the difference in market prices to consumers would be appreciable. Per- haps if this single item of waste were removed the lesser instances in indi- vidual kitchens would have a far less serious aspect even in a time like the present. Modern Magic in Money Making. From the Columbus Dispatch. A gentleman in Chicago testified re- cently that he had made something like $10,000,000 this year in dealing in wheat. He admitted that he had not owned a bushel of wheat; that he had never so much as seen a bushel of the grain, and he had neither asked for the delivery of a bushel nor had de- livered a bushel, Yet he “bought” millions of bushels and “sold” the same amount. He had performed no useful function; he had not assisted in growing a crop nor :istributing it. Yet he had made $10,000,000 and had the money. Somebody paid the mon- ey—somebody had to produce it through labor or service. It came out of somebody’s pocket and it did not go into the pockets of those who had grown the wheat or assisted in dis- tributing it. It is one of the marvels of civilization that such things are possible; that we have done so many wonderful things in working out re- forms and making living conditions better, but have net adjusted our af- fairs so that such practices have been rendered impossible. It does not an- swer anything to state that almost any man would have cone exactly what the Chicago man did if he had believed he could make $10,000,000. It does not refute the statement that we are still working along the very crud- est lines when we tolerate such prac- tices. : SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Two hundred thousand dollars, the largest sum of money ever distributed in wages for a two-week period by any con- cern in the history of DuBois, was paid to the men employed by the Buffalo, Roches- ter & Pittsburgh railroad on Saturday. —The Monongahela railroad has award- ed a contract to the Roberts & Schaefer company of Chicago, for the construction of a combined 500-ton concrete, three-track coaling plant, electric cinder handling plant, and a “Rand S” gravity and sand plant, all of concrete, to be erected imme- diately at Brownsville, Pa. —Two men were burned to death near Williamsport on Monday when lightning ignited a barn in which they sought shel- ter from a thunder storm. They were Ed- ward Poust, 35 years old, and George Eichenlaub, 40 years of age, both living near Hughesville. Eichenlaub’s wife was badly burned in an attempt to rescue her hfisband. —The State Highway Department has laid over for study the bids received for fourteen road contracts. On eight con- tracts there was but one bidder each and on the work in East Bethlehem township, Washington county, there were no bids. There were six bidders for work in Lack- awanna county, three for McKean, two for Dauphin, Lehigh, Butler and Cambria county work. —Harry Richardson, a West Bradford, Delaware county, farmer shot his best calf & few days ago in mistake for a ground- hog. The calf was really a heifer weigh- ing 700 pounds, but it was still following its mother at the time. Richardson was hunting for groundhogs when he noted the nose of what he supposed was that of a woodchuck protruding from a thicket and he shot with his rifle. The calf was hit and fatally wounded. —Ludwig Novadosky, a foreigner resid- ing near Ramey, was taken to the Clear- field county home on Wednesday, August 29th, in a demented condition, preparatory to being sent to the Warrea asylum. Ear- ly the next morning, in the temporary ab- sence of the nurse, Novadosky committed suicide by fastening his belt around his neck and hanging himself to a nail in the wall. He was aged 45 years and leaves a wife and four children. —Two men were drowned in their bunks aboard a dredge which sunk at the Phila- delphia navy yard on Monday. Forty- eight other workmen, employed by A. H. Taylor, a New York contractor, escaped a similar fate when they were awakened by the inrush of water and swam ashore. The dredge was used in the construction of a new drydock. A member of the contract- ing firm said the dredge was in good con- dition the night previous. —Acute shortage in the lobor market at Sunbury is being met in a1 unusual way in the building of the new $50,000 St John’s Methodist church, Rev. John H. Daugher- ty, pastor. Across the street is the Nor- thumberland county prison, with fifty idle convicts. By arrangement with Warden Barr the more trusted ones are allowed to work on the job, eating and sleeping at the jail, and in this manner the work can be pushed. The men are allowed $2.50 a day, the same as is paid to other workmen, and they have done satisfactory work, accord- ing to the boss. —-Lightning caused probably $900 worth of damages at the First Presbyterian church in Milton on Sunday afternoon. Twenty holes were knocked in the slate roof, some of them a foot in diameter, while in the steeple heavy wooden posts or uprights were tern off, as clean as though they had been broken with an axe. Some of the weather boarding was also torn off. According to Pastor Brinkema not a sign of any fire was to be found. Persons stand- ing on porches in the vicinity declare the crash was terriffic and that it sounded like two trains coming together. The damage will be repaired at once. —A week ago last Sunday Nant-y-Glo baseball players before a friendly justice paid a $2 fine for playing ball on the Sab- bath. Anti-Sunday baseball crusaders, not satisfied took the case to 'Squire Wa- ters, of Ebensburg, who held the players for court. Friday the Rev. H. M. Davies, of Nant-y-Glo, hurrying by automobile to the county seat to see that Squire Wters did his full duty, was nabbed by Burgess Knee, of Eebensburg, for speeding. The minister was fined £10 and costs. The base- ball case will be fought in ccurt, the play- ers insisting that blue law g¢dvocates went half a mile from their homes to have their Sabbath peace and quiet. —Beginning Tuesday,, September 11th, and continuing until Thursday, September 13th, the State Council, of the Junior Or- der United American Mechanics, will meet in Clearfield. Several hundred delegates from all over Pennsylvania will be in at- tendance. A large number of the members of Good Will Council expect to attend the sessions on Wednesday, September 12th. On Thursday evening, September 13th, the State officers and many of the Juniors from different parts of the State will be entertained by the local Council. Friday evening, September 14th, the Altoona Council will entertain and initiate a class of candidates. many of the Tyrone team helping with the military work. —Effective September 1st, all closed packages containing apples grown in the State must show in plain letters and fig- ures the name and address of the person by whese authority the apples were pack- ed, true name of the varietv and the mini- mum size, and numerical count of the fruit in the package. The conditions are impos- ed by the Pennsylvania Packing law which was passed by the last Legislature and are aimed to secure a uniformity in packing and prevent deception. The face or expos- ed side of the boxes shall represent the average character of fruit contained and any person violating the set in any par- ticular is liable to a fine of fifty dollars for first offense and one hundred for all sub- sequent offenses. —Righteen persons were arrested after lightning had killed two people participat- ing in a party at Ellsworth, Lancaster county, on Labor day. The merrymakers were playing games when the lightning flashed from a clear sky, and killed John Smith, of Bentleyville, and Michael Si- mon, of Maryiana, and slightly shocked the other eighteen occupants of the house. With two dead men in ther midst a num- of foreigners picked up the bodies, carried them to the rear of the yard and then call- ed upon the other persons to aid in dig- ging a grave, which was quickly done, and the bodies interred. The party games were then resumed. Meantime a nearby resident, seeing the impromptu burial, summoned Dr. A. L. Kanner, and he, with Constable James Gilmore, went to the scene and arrested all the occupants of the house.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers