ray BY P. GRAY MEEK. INK SLINGS. ~ —Don’t forget to put 3c. postage on your letters, if you want them to go through the mails without being held up for more postage. —With Miss Jane Hafer already there and Miss Bertha Laurie now on the way Bellefonte girls have ac- tually beaten our boys to service -in France. The difference between the Kaiser and the people of Germany is not as great as it seems to some folks. Even a Kaiser can’t make brutes out of kind hearted men and women. —Centre county bought Liberty Bonds to the amount of $1,206,300. This was at the rate of $27.77 for every man, woman and child in the county. At this rate all over the United States the total subscriptions would have amounted to $3,054,700,- 000. —Today we will begin to realize in a way that we can understand that we are at war, because today most of the new war taxes become operative and every luxury and many necessi- ties will be enjoyed only after we have settled with the government. Most everything but the air we breathe gathers up a few pennies to help Uncle Sam lick the Kaiser. —The National capitol went dry yesterday to stay dry until Congress changes its mind about the matter, if it ever does. No liquors, wines or beer are now for sale at the seat of our government. My, what a lot of hot coppers there must have been in Washington yesterday morning, for most of the drinkers sat up at the wake of old John Barleycorn the night before. —Let there be a great army of Centre county women to enroll in the food conservation movement. This week the cards will be distributed by the school children in every home in the county and it is to be hoped that the women will sign them promptly, name and address, so that Washing- ton will know that Centre county women are eager as we know they are to help to the limit. —Little else was to have been ex- pected, but it is very gratifying, nevertheless, to note that at the con- ference of the Suffragists of the Fif- teenth and Twenty-first Congression- al districts, which includes our own, resolutions condemning those women who under the guise of Suffrage ban- ners have been harrassing the Presi- dent by picketing the White House grounds were unanimously passed. Our Suffragists are women contend- ing for a principle by sober, sensible, convincing methods and naturally re- sent the odium that attaches to their cause through the sensational actions of a few notoriety seeking persons of the Carrie Nation and Pankhurst types. —Take no chances with suspicious characters. Inform the officers of the law at once of any person whose actions may appear suspicious to you. Our country is full of alien enemies and anything they can do to injure you will help the Kaiser that much. On Tuesday night some of them start- ed a fire in Baltimore that burned up $5,000,000 worth of munitions and food that was waiting to be shipped to our boys in France. You farmers, listen! Take no chances with tramps or other strangers who come about your place. What you have in your barns is a very little bit of the whole of America’s grain and cattle re- sources, but if it should be destroyed, the whole is reduced by just that much and nothing can be spared now. —There is likely to be a famine in pennies due to the odd prices that the new war tax makes necessary. Merchants, postmasters, caretakers of all penny slot machines and treas- urers of Sunday schools in the coun- ty should send their surplus pennies to the banks more frequently than they have been doing. Don’t keep them until you have accumulated great supplies, for while you are do- ing this some one else is at a disad- vantage for the need of them. Use your bank as a clearing house. It will be able to keep them distributed so that you will have all you need and others will have an adequate sup- ply, as well. Parents should substi- tute silver for the pennies inthe chil- dren’s savings banks and release the pennies for immediate use. There are probably plenty of pennies in each community for all its needs, but they must be kept circulating. —Don’t get it into your head that our soldiers will merely have to say Booh! at the Kaiser and he will quit. We are into a fight that might last a long time and bring us much distress and sorrow. The time to minimize the possible distress is here. Right now we should all begin to conserve in food and clothing so that what we have will last against the pinch, if it comes. Do you realize that in one drive, within the last week, the Ger- mans captured more Italians than the entire fighting force we have in France now. Eight victories of that magnitude would wipe out opposition equal to our entire regular army and the new national army that we are now training for the fight. It matters not whether they are Italians, Rus- sians, English or French soldiers who are captured. Each one who is made a prisoner and thereby a non-combat- ant makes it necessary to send a man to take his place if the Allies hope to win. VOL. 62. STATE RIGHTS AN D FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.,, NOVEMBER 2, 1917. _NO. 43. America on the Firing Line. On the day that American capital | completed the munificent contribu- tion of five billion dollars for the war against autocracy, an American soldier on the firing line in France fired the first shot for the American people in the war for democracy. On Saturday last a red-headed Yankee soldier in the first line trenches in France performed this service. It is not claimed that important conse- quences followed the event. But it was the actual dedication of Ameri- can life to the cause upon which so much depends and served notice to the world that we are in the fight and will remain in it with all the force of American energy and enthusiasm un- til the final glorious triumph is an- nounced. One shot doesn’t count for much in a world war but the shot fired last Saturday by the red-headed Yankee meant a lot to the world. There have been spiteful mischief makers prat- tling of unpreparedness and this shot was the ample refutation of every calumny that has been uttered against the administration at Washington during the nearly two years which have elapsed since the lamentable sinking of the Lusitania. From that day no opportunity for preparation for a great part in the war has been neglected. There was no precipita- tion in the operation, no hap-hazard haste. But there was intelligent and systematic effort invested in the work and the first shot on Saturday was aimed with the precision of a veteran gunner. From this time on every American citizen has a personal as well as a patriotic interest in the operations on the firing line upon whichever front the trenches happen to be. The Amer- ican people are there, through their valiant representatives in khaki, and every man of them will make “a full hand” in the hazard as well as the ex- ecution of a soldier’s life and duty. The shot fired by the red-headed Yankee on Saturday has already been heard around the world and it is still echoing in Berlin and Vienna. It will be followed by millions of others within the period that hostilities con- tinue and every shot from that source will besa message for democ- racy and a protest against autocracy. has probably got himself disliked in Vareville. He refused to forbid the town meeting ticket from running for office and thus made the success of the 50-50 buccaneers doubtful. If Ed and Bill had expected such a de- cision from the Judge he never would have been commissioned. Cordona’s Defeat Disappointing. The saddest news which has come from the theatre of war since Mar- shall Joffre checked the drive on Par- is three years ago is that which dis- closed the defeat of General Cordona on the Italian front the other day. That valiant soldier and capable Gen- eral had made such splendid progress under the greatest difficulties, that the public had come to depend upon him for a large share of the labor necessary to ultimate victory. The decided reverse, entailing the loss of a great army, therefore, came as a shock upon the public mind. It not only disappointed but actually dis- mayed the average observer. This unexpected incident may be interpreted as a final expression of the Kaiser’s malice. Realizing the in- evitable defeat of his armies and his ambitions he has determined to work as much destruction as possible. The geographical advantage which he en- joys, he may shift forces from one front to another over night, enables him to work such extraordinary inci- dents. A week would be necessary for a movement of British or French troops from the Russian or French front to the scene of activities in the Alps, but Germany is able to compass the result in a day thus surprising the world by the energy of the opera- tion. : The latest information from the Italian boundary removes some of the gloom from the prospect. The disaster was fully as bad as described in so far as the capture of prisoners and the seizure of war materials is concerned. The fact that the disas- ter is ascribable to perfidy is also a disturbing element in the equation. But the vast proportion of the Italian army is as faithful as it is courageous and unless the signs are misleading General Cordona will have his force reorganized and moving forward to victory within a brief period of time. In so far as possible he ought to and will receive the support of the allies. Capital and courage are trav- eling together in this country at this blessed moment and in the combina- tion there is admonition to the Kaiser. They talk of making Washing- ton bone dry. But that is only talk. Congress may be for that sort but Congressmen are different. | | future quarter sessions courts in Cen- — Judge Davis, of Philadelphia, | {less in this way: Very often it hap- Watch This Experiment. The Farm Bureau of the Reading | Chamber of Commerce is appealing | to the farmers of Berks county to “raise more sheep.” The matter is to be presented in bulletins and talk- ed about at Farmers’ Institutes and other gatherings in the interest of agriculture. It is pointed out that sheep may be abundantly fed on land too hilly for ordinary agricultural op- erations and that “grazing sheep re- store to the soil elements of fertili- ty.” The price of lamb and mutton is also cited as an incentive to the en- terprise and the value and beneficence of wool is an additional inducement to look in that direction for generous profits from the farm. It is an idea that deserves approval. Of course there are difficulties to be met and the Berks county farmers have not overlooked them. For ex- ample, there is the dog nuisance which is always a menace to sheep breeding. The last Legislature en- acted some sort of legislation on this subject but as the laws of the session have not been published as yet its value is left to conjecture. It may be hoped, however, that the new law will prove effective and if that expec- tation is disappointed the next Legis- | lature ought to make certain of such laws ‘as will achieve the purpose. The people of Pennsylvania cannot afford to let vicious or worthless dogs stand in the way of a useful and profitable enterprise. We need wool and mut- ton more than dogs. : If it is true that sheep may be am- ply supplied with food from stony and mountainous land unsuitable for tilling, Centre county ought to join in the Berks county movement to en- courage and multiply the industry of sheep raising. The mountains which separate the lovely and fertile valleys of this great county afford grazing era enough to feed thousands of sheep and if the farmers of the coun- ty would turn their attention to this line of agricultural product we could soon bid defiance to the piratical meat packers of the West and provide our tables, with toothsome and nutritious food at reasonable rates. Let us keep our eyes on this Berks county} . experiment. ih — Judge Quigley’s order fixing tre county at one, instead of two weeks, is exceedingly sensible. While the principal saving to the tax pay- ers will lie in the saved mileage of the jurors of the second, or civil suit, week there are many smaller items of cost that will be eliminated with the execution of the new order. Off hand it would appear that there could be no saving in the per diem allowance to jurors, but there will be, neverthe- pens that the work of the first week is closed up in the middle of a day or earlier. Then the jurors are dis- charged and given pay for the entire day. Under the new order if the criminal list should be closed up be- fore a full day has been served the civil list will be taken up immediate- ly and the tax payers will not be in the position of having paid full day’s allowance for a half day’s service. While occasions may arise when it will be necessary to keep jurors on du- ty over a Sunday the probability of such necessity is very remote, for the reason that the business of our courts is gradually becoming less in- volved and cases less numerous. Viewing the new order of things in the light of knowledge of our courts for the past ten or more years we wonder that Judge Quigley’s idea was not adopted and carried into practice long ago. ——Next Tuesday will be election day and while the only county ticket to be elected is two jury commissior- ers, the borough and township offices are just as important as county or state offices. The very foundation of our government begins at home with the selection of men to manage the municipal and township affairs. And therefore, assuming that all the can- didates are good men the “Watch- man” will take no sides but leave the matter up to the voters to select the man the majority thinks best suited for the office. Of course there is a scarcity of labor everywhere because a large pro- portion of the supply has enlisted in the war. But there need be no scarci- ty of machinery and machinery has labor skinned a mile as a produc- tive agent. — That little incursion into Italy may afford the Kaiser some satisfac- tion but it won’t have half as much effect upon the result of the war as the incursion of Haag and Petain in- to the Hindenburg line. ——High cost of booze appears to be the most potent agent of temper- ance reform and the liquor dealers are responsible for that. As has been remarked on oth- er occasions the peace which ends the war will not be made in Germany. On the Subject of Large Families. Mr. Roosevelt has been so frequent- ly quoted as an advocate of large fam- iilies, without discrimination, that we are glad to see, at last, an authentic article on the subject from his own pen. No number of arguments could ever convince us that a large family —eight or ten or more—among the poorer classes would be better than a smaller number of children carefully fed, clothed and educated and we have always been prejudiced against Mr. Roosevelt's widely-promulgated es- pousal of large families. Now, he ex- plains: that he does net countenance large families among the worthless and poverty-stricken and that he would support any measure to limit the production of the unfit but that we must first take effective measures to promote the production of the fit. From statistics gathered from vari- ous colleges, he shows that in 140 years the average college graduate of today will be represented by only three-tenths of their number and that what he terms the self-respecting American stock—eight-tenths of the whole—must' average over three chil- dren or the race will die out. Superior folks preach the doctrines of Malthus who foresaw a population increasing so rapidly that the earth could not produce a sufficiency of food; today we know that the earth could keep twice its present popula- tion in comfort if all resources were but directed to preservation instead of destruction and if there were only a reasonably fair division of the fruits of labor. In Great Britain, for ex- ample, nine-tenths of the natural wealth is distributed among about one-tenth of the population. If an aristocracy of blood, money or talent wishes to rule the world it must at least provide a sufficiency of rulers. Mr. Roosevelt points out that unless the capable,—eight-tenths—stock of Americans increases, the worthless, | poverty-stricken two-tenths will dom- inate. His suggestions for helping the financial problems growing out of larger families are given in the re- print of his article on page 2. 3 Noah H. Swayne II, so well re- membered here as the president of the Nittany Iron Co., has just been made sole commissioner to represent the soft coal jobbers of the country at Washington. He will co-operate with controller Garfield and President Wil- son in handling the distribution of soft coal supplies. He represents an association of 1400 soft coal jobbers who have an invested capital of $165,- 000,000. It is a great task, but we know that Mr. Swayne is fully equal to it. , The young people of Bellefonte are to be highly commended for the way they conducted themselves on Hallowe’en. While scores of them paraded the streets in costume and had lots of fun and a good time gen- erally no property was destroyed and no viciousness displayed by any one. The young people also hearkened to the call of the “Watchman” and re- frained from throwing corn, which is an additional credit to them. Diemer T. Pearce, sealer of weights and measures for Centre county, has requested the “Watch- man” to call the attention of farmers and dealers to the fact that the stand- ard weight of gooseberries is forty pounds to the bushel and that of on- ions fifty pounds. This correction is made because in his “Notice to Deal- ers” card the weight given for goose- berries is 48 pounds to the bushel and for onions 56 pounds. ——Another war tax that will catch the traveling public is that on railroad transportation, the tax being eight per cent. of the cost of the tick- et. That is if the ticket should cost one dollar the purchaser will have to pay $1.08; if the cost should be ten dollars the tax on same will be eighty cents, so it is plain to be seen that even traveling will be lots more ex- pensive than formerly. ——On Sunday the electric light service at Howard was changed from the old town plant to the wires of the State-Centre Electric company which have now been completed to Beech Creek. The old plant at Howard was taken over by the State-Centre com- pany and will probably be dismantled. ——The dog poisoner is abroad in Potter township, several quite valua- ble bird dogs having died recently from being fed poison by some un- known person. Efforts are being made, however, to discover the iden- tity of the individual who is placing the poison. The city steam heating plant in Lock Haven is being dismantled, which marks the end of that public utility in that city. Old weather prophets are pre- dicting nice weather during the month of November, and let us all hope they will be right. ' Mr. Roosevelt Explains His Attitude | A German-born American Speaks. { From the Johnstown Leader. Every once in a while some dis- tinguished citizen of German ances- try, but naturalized as an American, speaks in the burning words that | should be dinned into the ears of all, | native-born or naturalized. { Prof. Max F. Meyer, of the Univer- | sity of Missouri, recently the recipi- ! ent of an invitation to join one of the ! organizations with high-sounding | names whose real object is to para- i lyze the fighting arm of the American government, in replying that the invi- ! tation was an insult, said: { “I am thoroughly familiar with the present organization of the German social body and with its culmination to the present German government. I am much more familiar with it than any of your committee. I have lived in Germany 25 years. I was born there. I was educated there. I spent 19 years of my life in German educa- tional institutions from the kinder- garten to the research laboratory.” Prof. Meyer cites these things to show that he knows Germany not from the outside but from the inside as a land in which the military class is the governing class. Stating these facts, Prof. Meyer then utters this solemn warning to disloyalists in this country: “If Germany wins this war, 50 years hence its government will rule the American people. I do not want my American children to be put un- der this yolk which I esca by com- ing to America. My hope ig that the German government will be over- thrown and that the German nation, my relatives and friends, will enter an international organization for peace and justice. “But the German government, this fearful danger to our future, can be overthrown only by raising armies, not by sitting around your council ta- bles and working for the repeal of the conscription laws.” Hoover on Hogs. From the New York Evening Post. Meat products are the latest sub- ject of special concern with Mr. Hoov- er, who in an interview speaks of hogs as of equal importance with wheat and ships in ending the war, and states that the allied need of fats de- mands a reduction in our consumption of pork. His declaration’ that home consumption is outstrippin:: wo c- tion is surprising; in the fiscai year ending 1916 our slaughter of hogs reached nearly 41,000,000, or over 4,- 000,000 above the preceding year. Of meat as a whole, judged by prices and by the fact that we slaughter about 20 per cent. more animals yearly than a decade ago, we must be exporting a good deal. ’ But the decrease in the number of meat animals in France and else- where has been alarming, and though a people can obtain protein from oth- er foods, it is hard to obtain enough fats without it. The .reduction in European stocks will make meat-pro- duction in this country profitable for years after peace comes, and it is not certain that wheat-growing will be so much so when Argentina, Russia, Australia and other grain lands have access to market. Mr. Hoover speaks a word to the wise when he advises farmers to at- tend to hogs, cattle, and sheep as well as to grain. The government in its intervention in food administration has an interest in seeing production diversified, especially since Congress has let it in for a $2 guarantee on wheat, no matter how:much is raised or how soon peace comes. If there is a billion-bushel crop, and all other world-sources are reopened, Mr. Hoover estimatés the loss of the gov- ernment next year at $300,000,000 to $500,000,000. The Plight of Norway. From the Lancaster Intelligencer. The desperate .plight of Norway, “between the devil and the deep sea,” compels sympathy. We have been logically obliged to include Norway in our embargo against the European neutrals who have been supplying Germany with food and other mer- chandise brought from the United States, and yet the Norwegians are in a different case, for the land will hardly support its population. They are a sea-faring people, dependent upon commerce, yet too feeble to de- fend that commerce. In the era of the Napoleonic wars, they suffered from famine and they are threatened with it again. ; Now they complain that if they try to satisfy Germany, they will offend us, and get no food for themselves, for Germany wants only the food that ‘they get from us; while if they try to satisfy us, they will offend Germany. It is a striking example of the hard fate of a neutral and feeble nation in a world at war. But, after all, Norway has been al- most as badly treated by the Germans as she might be if they made war up- on her. A large proportion of the neutral vessels sunk without warning have been Norwegian and many lives of Norse non-combatants have been thus taken by the Germans. Norway has had a profitable war trade, but at great peril. Mr. Lorenz & Should Have a Heart. From the Springfield Union. Many persons would be willing to put up with the occasional wheatless, sweetless, meatless, heatless and eat- Joss days if some one could fix it up ith Old Prob so that we should have a reasonable number of sleetless days this winter. SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Lewistown Owls have bought the Joseph Fichthorn property on Market street for $10,000, and will alter it into a Lodge home. —The dairymen of DuBois have decid- ed to boost the price of milk. Consumers have been paying ten cents per quart for their milk during the past several months, and now the Dairymen’s association says they must pay twelve cents. —Harry P. Bigler, aged 70, a son of for- mer Governor Bigler, and a prominent manufacturer and banker of Clearfield, died early last Thursday in Atlantic City. Mr. Bigler was a brother of the late W. D. Bigler, former assistant treasurer of the United States. —Half a dozen Punxsutawney merchants who sell cider have been called to account for the large percentage of alcohol that it contains, by the agents of the dairy: and food division of the Department of Agri- culture. They say that a large portion of the beverage is too “wet.” —Ida May Hess, of Snydertown, Nor- thumberland county, is suffering from se- vere acid burns about the face and hands which she received recently when an un- known man stepped out of the darkness of an alley and threw the contents of a bottle of carbolic acid into her face! _—James Henderson, a farmer near Sun- bury, doing detective work to see why he found a cow milked dry each morning for several days, discovered a tramp lying on his back taking his breakfast first-hand. The farmer was so amazed that he allow- ed the breakfast to proceed undisturbed. —Edgar Munson, of Williamsport, has been appointed Red Cross field secretary of the Pennsylvania division, to have charge of work in Centre, Clinton, Lycom-- ing, Montour, Northumberland, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union counties. The appoint- ment was made by the Philadelphia head- quarters. : —The barn of Phineas Ohler, near Sand Patch, Somerset county, collapsed one evening’ last week about five o’clock bury- ing two children and all of his livestock. Fortunately, the children were able to ex- tricate themselves with nothing more se- rious than fright. One horse and one cow were killed. —The Centre and Clearfield Railway company, of Philipsburg, is the latest trolley company to file notice with the Public Service commission of intention to increase fare from five to seven cents. It also discontinues sale of twenty-one tick- ets for a dollar and increases express and merchandise rates. —John Snook, of Locks Mills, Bedford county, has killed and assisted to eat'a score of groundhogs this season; in addi- tion to those he has dug out twenty skunks and eight opossums. These were turned loose as the fur is poor at this sea- son, but Snook says he knows where te get them when the fur is ripe. —C. E. Ellsworth, janitor of a public school building in Greensburg, Pa. at a salary of $75 a‘month, is one of two ben- eficiaries to an estate valued at $600,000 ieft by an uncle, Robert I. Ellsworth, whe died in Washington several months ago. The nephew had neither seen nor heard from his uncle for more than forty years. —Mrs. C. M. Clement, wife of Major General Charles M. Clement, commander | of the Twenty-eighth division, Pennsylva- nia troops, of the National Army, whe is now in France, for observation, received a letter from her husband last week. In it he wrote that he was a passenger going over on the ill-fated steamer Antilles, sunk by a German U-boat while on its re- turn trip on October 19. -—A crock of gold buried by Mrs. Cnas. Taylor, of Northumberland, Pa., seven- teen years ago, was found recently by a workman who was tearing down the porch of the Taylor home. The crock contained $4,000, which will be divided among the eight children. Mrs. Taylor did not be- lieve in banks. On her death bed she tried to tell where the treasure was buried, but died before she could reveal the secret. —Adopting the slogan of the Williams- port office of the State Employment Bu- reau, ‘save the crops and win the war,” thirty-eight men from the down-river city, in charge of Harry Speaker, went te a farm near Muncy Station Sunday morn- ing, and by nightfall had cut forty acres and husked 125 bushels of corn, which the farmer had despaired of husking until the employment bureau came to the rescue. —The West Branch Knitting company, of Milton, late Saturday afternoon receiv- ed an order from the United States Navy department for 250,000 light weight under- shirts. This is the fifth contract from the government for army and navy shirts re- ceived by the company within the past few months. The total number of undershirts now contracted for by both these branch- es of the service approximates a million. —Harry Pinelli, aged 36 years, commit- - ‘ted suicide by hanging himself in his home at Northumberland on Friday. Five years ago Pinelli, accompanied by his brother, his wife and three children, came here from Australia. One year later his brother died. His wife died the next year and two children in the successive years. All passed away during the last week in October. Pinelli became despondent and melancholy as that week approached this year. —Auditor General Snyder is arranging for the appointment of auditors to repre- sent the Commonwealth and the bondsmen of Register of Wills Asher V. Stauffer, of Northampton, who committed suicide last Wednesday, so that the extent of his in- debtedness to the State can be ascertain- ed. It was declared that the amount of the money due the State might run te $40,000, $23,000 of which was in one estate. Stauffer was three years behind in his payments. —Under a woodpile in the rear of a boarding-house conducted by Rosie Salo- ni, at Washington, Pa., two police found a dozen revolvers, two barrels of whiskey, one of wine, and several thousand dollars’ worth of dress goods and wearing apparel. Local merchants have identified some of the dress goods as having been stolen from their stores and warehouses. The police were investigating the murder of Pasquale Salio when they stumbled on the woodpile loot. —Automobile thieves Friday night broke into the garage of James B. Finn, a Holli- daysburg merchant, and stole his touring car. They then motored to Roaring Springs, where they robbed the postoffice and dynamited the office safe stealing $100 in cash and stamps and Liberty Bonds to the value of $2,000. They completed the night's depredations by breaking into the general merchandise store of Casper Brothers, loading the car with goods and making their escape.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers