BY P. GRAY MEEK INK SLINGS. — If Roosevelt isn’t careful he will be forgotten in the press of more important men and measures. —Germany is preparing to Bel-|. giumize Holland. Once more the Hun respect for the rights of neutrals and treaties of peace is revealed. —Come on, you subscribers in the 1917 class! Come on over the top with $1.50. We need to buy paper on which to print the really worth while news of Centre county. —Bellefonte will have to have slightly over four hundred separate subscribers to the third Liberty Loan if we hope to earn an honor flag. We have scarcely more than half that number now. . — General Leonard Wood thinks the war is going to last a long time and will cost a vast number of lives. But the General imagines that it wasn’t begun right. He wasn’t made “high-muck-a-muck.” —The French and naval forces played the Hobson game on the Huns at Zeebrugge and Ostend on Monday night. If they can get the subs bot- tled up the way to victory will be far less menacing and difficult than it is at present. —Some districts in Centre county _ are already away over the top in the third Liberty Loan drive, but then others are so near the bottom as to make it a doubtful matter as to whether old Centre is going to sub- scribe her allotment. _A new ruling of the fuel admin- istration contemplates the restriction of the manufacture of pleasure auto- mobiles to about twenty-five per cent. of normal. If the war continues for a period of a year or-more longer a total suspension of the manufacture of pleasure cars will not be surpris- ing. — With the clocks turned forward an hour and College commencement over we feel like we're racing on to- ward fall and more heating perplexi- ties with a speed that makes us shud- der until we reflect an instant and re- member that in reality everything 1s just as it always was; only we're try- ing to beat time. _Milesburg , Unionville and Port Matilda are the only three districts in Centre county that have won an honor flag in the third Liberty Loan campaign. The three towns have gone over the top and we honor their patri- otic citizens for having so promptly come to the substantial and profitable support of the government. _ The Germans have been at their great drive in France just a bit over "a month now and while it looked fear- “ful for the first week or so the Allied defense stiffened in time to hold it in check until reinforcements were brought up against which the Huns exhausted themselves without gain- ing any strategic advantage. — That New York broker who wants to see peace come before the nation- al Prohibition amendment is ratified evidently has in mind the thought that only by getting properly lit up can he do justice to the celebration of such 2 happy eventuality as the ending of the war. And there are many who could overlook a souse under such circum- stances. In this issue is begun the publi- cation of one hundred and one Ger- man lies that have been nailed and shown up to be part of the seditious propaganda that the Kaiser’s agents in this country have been spreading for the purpose of’ disaffecting our people. Read them in order that you may be informed as to the limit our enemies are going in their efforts to destroy our unity. __ We are advised that the country will face a coal shortage of 75,000,000 fons next winter. This community had an experience with the discom- forts of coal shortage last winter and it behooves every -person who 1s financially able to do so to at once lay in his or her entire supply for next winter. This can be done now without interfering with the needs of others because there is a plentiful supply and it will be a patriotic as well as philanthropic act on the part of those who can afford to store, for the rea- son that when the supply falls short next winter the coal then available can be procured by the less fortunate persons who are not able to buy in lots larger than a ton. Let everybody who can fill up his cellar now so that he will not be in competition with his less fortunate brother when the cold weather comes again. — Better judgment has prevailed to prevent a wasteful and unwise dem- onstration that was scheduled for Bellefonte this evening. Enthusias- tic, earnest patriotic impulses had suggested the idea on the part of some that a public cremation of all the German books in the Bellefonte public schools would symbolize the burning of the Kaiser in effigy. So- ber second thought, however, reveal- ed that such a spectacle would be on- ly a play to the galleries and the “Watchman” is proud that Belle- fonte’s proverbial good sense prevail- ed. Neither German nor any other foreign language should have a place in the regular curriculum of our pub- lic schools. They should be elective and permissible only to those who might need knowledge of them in pro- fessions for which they might be pre- paring. Burning up German books now that will surely be of value when peace comes again is spectacular but nothing more. —Mrs. John W. Reed, wife of Reed, who was for some time a resident of Clearfield, died at the home of friends in Braddock, recently. —Word was received in Curwensville early this week informing the relatives and friends of Clair Hadden, who went to Camp Lee in the recent draft, that he had died in that camp. —Mrs. Hannah Buck, an aged woman of Grazierville, near Tyrone, was burned to death Tuesday night when she dropped a STATE RIGHTS AN D FEDERAL UNION. NO. 17. SOL 0, Hypocrisy Working in Politics. Having provided for his own use a fine assortment of loaded dice, one of the several aspirants for Governor of Pennsylvania unctiously declares that “the present is no time to divert the public mind to politics.” A burglar who is interrupted in his enterprise fervently believes that the victim of his work would have been much better employed in midnight prayer than in watching his valuables. It was ever thus. The man who imagines he has a cinch on some attractive object re- sents the efforts of another to attain it and usually sets up some moral or patriotic reason against such activi- ties. This specimen of selfishness makes the Liberty Loan an excuse for his protest. . A group of office holders and like- wise patronage brokers met secretly in Washington, some time ago, and set machinery in motion to clandes- tinely nominate their servile instru- ment for Governor as the candidate of one of the great parties. About the time that the campaign for the third Liberty Loan was launched, announce- ment was made that this hand-picked candidate, recently converted to alot of new ideas, is in the field. When a wave of protest, as loud as the roar of the ocean rolled over the State and signs of opposition appeared in every section, this personally direct- ‘ed candidate reminds the public that canvassing for bond sales is the only proper employment at this time. “The public should resent the at- tempt on the part of any man or any organization to bring politics to the front during the Liberty Loan cam- paign,” says the machine politician. Yet at the time the office holders and office brokers in Washington were striving with all their might to pro- mote his interests and the Democrat- ic State organization at Harrisburg was misappropriating funds contrib- uted by friends of both candidates to deceive the public in his behalf. His protest in itself was a thinly disguis- ed and hypocritical appeal for sup- port. The Vares, of Philadelphia, may fool the rough-necks bound to them by the bonds of vice, but no man can deceive intelligent voters in that way. Tf Roosevelt’s traitorous criti- cisms ofthe President were to harm rather than help his hope for another term as President it would be hard on Roosevelt but a wholesome expres- sion of retributive justice. Mr. Schwab’s Appointment. No appointment made by the Pres- ident since the beginning of the war has been so universally endorsed as that of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, who was named as Director General of the Emergency Fleet corporation, the oth- er day. Winston Spencer Churchill, British Minister of Munitions, ex- pressed the popular sentiment of both his country and ours when he tele- graphed to Mr. Schwab, “I am de- lighted to learn of your appointment which will enable you to turn your wonderful energy and unique exper- ience to an urgent and vital task.” That is precisely the way it appealed to the average man. No other indi- vidual in the land could have served the purpose as well. The appointment of Mr. Schwab was wise for another reason, if another reason is needed. He is a Republican. For months the more bigoted partisans of that political faith in and out of Congress have been complaining that the President has not bestowed any of the favors of the administration upon Republicans. Of course that was a malignantly false statement for many other Republi- cans, including the chairman of the Republican National committee, Mr. Wilcox, former Senator Root and oth- ers have been taken into the confi- dence of the President and been hon- ored by him. But the appointment of Schwab emphasizes the non-partisan purposes of the administration and silences the tongues of treason. Mr. Churchill was not writing at random when he expressed his delight over the appointment of Mr. Schwab, moreover. These two men, opposite as the poles in experience and tem- perament, have worked together be- fore. “Remembering our work to- gether at the Admiralty at the begin- ning of the war and the way in which you surmounted every difficulty and successfully completed every under- taking,” continues the British states- man, “I feel complete confidence now.” So do millions of others who know of Mr. Schwab’s methods and his achievements. His appointment in- spires confidence and proves anew that not politics but fitness for the work influences President Wilson in selecting men. — It is said that only one-third of Canada has been “discovered,” the rest being unexplored wilderness. If that be true there is no use in crowd- ing in. the Western hemisphere. There is plenty of room. ——General Foch remains silent and inactive but he probably has good reasons for his course. | | Incapable of Self Government. Those “poor fish” who compose the voting population of Philadelphia have been practically declared “in- | capable of self-government.” The | | authorities at Washington have found | it necessary to take over the policing : of the city. The step was taken re- luctantly because it is a grave matter to thus reveal and rebuke municipal corruption and inefficiency. But there was no alternative. The municipal authorities had been importuned earn- estly to fulfill their legal and moral obligations. But they were imper- vious to reason. Drunk with power and delirious with ambition they plunged blindly into excesses until it | became necessary to intervene to save ! them from themselves. For nearly a half century the peo- ; ple of Philadelphia have been reveling , in the spoils of corrupt politics. Big business assented to the prostitution of power because the little crooks in control divided the profits of grafting | operations. The proceeds of tariff | taxation balanced the loot obtained | from municipal contracts and public | interests were freely sacrificed to both. But a third interest, the most sinister of all, intruded into the equa- tion. Traffic in vice was introduced to satiate the cupidity of this element and the government of the nation was compelled to act in self-defense. It was undermining the manhood of the country. It was destroying the mor- ale of the army and navy. . Of course this condition of affairs is only temporary and in the course of time, when decency asserts itself in the administration of the municipal government, the Federal control of the police affairs of Philadelphia will be restored to the people. But that will not come about until the voters of the city have shown themselves ca- pable of performing their obligations. The corrupt gang which governs from ash-carts and perverts the functions of administration into agencies of vice must be overthrown completely be- fore it will be safe to relinquish the control of the police to the city au- thorities. This is not a local ques- tion. It is a matter in which the whole country is concerned. The “Watchman’’ has received: from select councilman Ira D. Gar- man, of Philadelphia, a manual of the city councils of that city which con- tains much valuable information re- garding the government of the City of Brotherly Love. | { Stop German in the Public Schools There never was a substantial rea- son why the German language should be taught in the public schools of this country as part of the regular curric- ulum. The reason given was that an undertsanding of the language would be of commercial value to persons en- gaged in international trade. But every thoughtful person knows it had no such result. A thorough knowl- edge of the German tongue has been and will be helpful to those who may specially need it in the sciences, liter- ature, diplomacy and trade, but they should be able to acquire it by elective study, so that there is no oc- casion for teaching it or any other foreign language as a regular course. The idea of teaching German in the public schools of this country was conceived in Germany and advanced for a sinister purpose. It was part of the German plan of preparing for the world war which the military rulers of that country have cherished for half a century. The Kaiser never in- dulged the idea of attacking the United States as the beginning of his war for world domination. His plan was to cultivate a sympathy with and admiration for the German methods and purposes in this country so as to preserve neutrality here while he was overpowering less resourceful peo-; ples. In good time, however, his own time, he intended to levy tribute on the United States to pdy the expenses of his conquests elsewhere. But there are a great many potent reasons now why the teaching of the German language in the public schools of this country should be abandoned. One is that the methods employed by Germany in the pending war prove that the Germany of today is desti- tute of every principle of civilization and without a vestige of humanity. No wild beast of the jungle could be more cruel and heartless than the Kaiser and his advisers and such a people should be ostracised by every nation professing the spirit of chris- tian civilization. There is no occa- sion for prolonged debate or lengthy discussion of the subject. eee The Highway Department last week announced the amount of mon- ey due the different counties im the State for the improvement of town- ship roads, and the amount apportion- ed to Centre county is $14,368.08. — Probably Hindenburg is wait- ing for the encouragement of another speech from Senator Lodge or an en- couraging report from Chamberlain to hearten his men for another drive *the United States to Russia. BELLEFONTE, PA.. APRIL 26, 1918. Bamboozling Church People. On Saturday last in the Dauphin | county court at Harrisburg, witnesses testified under oath that emissaries of J. Denny O’Neil in Berks county and elsewhere had falsely certified to the legal accuracy of nominating pe- titions filed in his behalf in the office 'of the Secretary of the Common- wealth. Presumably this unlawful ' proceeding was with Mr. O’Neil’s as- sent. At least those responsible for | it were paid for the service by his au- {thority which makes him accessory i before the fact to the violation of the ‘law. The pollution of the ballot is the gravest crime against popular government. It is sapping the very foundation of the structure. On Sunday last Mr. O’Neil spoke from several pulpits in Philadelphia urging the church membership to rat- ify the operation of his agents in Reading who swore falsely to his nominating petitions. Under the shelter and patronage of the Vares, no doubt, he was appealing sto the “church vote” to join with the ballot poliutors in Berks county to elevate him to the highest office in the gift of the people of Pennsylvania. How far he succeeded in the matter is left to conjecture. The newspapers of the city, probably ashamed of the specta- cle, were silent concerning it on Mon- day morning. It wasn’t an enticing topic for consideration. . Until within a few years no aspir- ant for office had the hardihood to desecrate the pulpit and pollute the churches by this method of campaign- ing. Some partisan preachers per- verted their sacred offices by injecting politics into their sermons, but they were exceptions and generally got popular execration as their reward. But of late, under the cloak of hypoe- risy, it has become a custom for cer- tain “holien than thou” office seekers to thrust themselves into the pulpits wherever opportunity presented itself to get an extra day in their campaign work. Mr. O’Neil appears to be go- ing the limit in this direction and while his friends are working the other end he is bamboozling the church people. What Will Our Boys be When They Th Come Back. Many mothers, wives and sisters who have given sons, husbands and brothers to the country for the con- flict that rages now in the darkest hour of recorded history are asking themselves what their heroes will be when they return to the loved ones and the homes they have left. The question is one that may well be thoughtfully considered by every person who has kith or kin in the service. It is known that past wars have worked marvelous changes in the moral, the social, the tempera- mental characteristics of the men who have been engaged. But no war which history records has been fought just like this one is being fought, no gov- ernment has ever before thrown such safeguards about its men, stressed so much the necessity for sanitary sur- roundings and clean, upright living. The result of this most wholesome endeavor on the part of our army and navy heads is going to give men who have entered the service from homes that are not what they should be a different vision. They have had a taste of a manner of living which they have never known before, they have seen what sanitation, proper cooking, discipline and morality mean in their surroundings and when they come home, if it beto conditions not con-- forming with those they have been traine dto value, what will be the re- sult? It is not so much what your son, or your husband or your brother will be when he comes home as it is what you will be. If you have not kept pace with the advancement he has made and are not prepared to welcome him to a home that will be regarded by the critical eye of a man who has seen a new light we fear there will be many heart-scalds, many sadder tragedies than those of the battle fields. ——Scott may be as bad as Pen- rose pictures him but Sproul is entire- ly willing to accept him as a running mate. It is not character so much as strength that the politicians like in a candidate. ——The Bolsheviki still imagines that it has claims on property sent by The Bolsheviki ought to be taught that it has no right to anything but death. ——The question of dividing the east precinct of Ferguson township into two voting precincts is now being considered by the County Com- missioners. : ——The Department of Health of Pennsylvania has issued an honor roll of the number of its officers who have been commissioned in the medical of- ficers’ reserve corps, and on the roll appears the names of Major S. M. Huff, of Bellefonte; Lieut. J. A. Har- denbaugh, of Millheim, and Lieut. P. and repulse. H. Shelley, of Pleasant Gap. 30,000 Blood-Stained Dollars. The German-American Alliance in the language of its president has de- cided that “its usefulness is past and that it is to the best interests of all that it disband.” This decision had been reached long months ago by every true American, by everyone with any respect for the laws of de- cency or any conception of the rules governing the obligations of citizen- ship in a country in which this Al- liance has prospered and grown fat, a country whose welfare, whose very existence they have been willing, yes anxious to disregard and imperil at the nod of the arch murderer of Ber- lin. He it was who dictated their pol- icy and engineered their disloyalty and treachery. Through his accred- ited representatives, Von Bernstorff, Von Papen, Von Igel, Von Goltz, Boy-Ed, Dernburg and down through the list of murderous plotters and purchased criminals he passed on his doctrine of German kultur. And by no other agency was it re- ceived more greedily and disseminat- ed more industriously than by this same German-American Alliance. This is not a mere conjecture, an hys- terical supposition, a baseless accusa- tion such as those of cleaner minds and higher ideals are inclined to be- lieve. : The record that Von Bernstorff has left behind him, the reluctant evidence given before the Congressional com- mittee, the news columns of our daily papers for the past four years, teem- ing as they have been with a record of treason, of arson, intimidation and wholesale murder has damned this Alliance with a mass of evidence be- yond their power to refute. John Hay, then Secretary of State, in a private letter to the President wrote: “ ... the prime motive of every German-American is hostility to every country in the world, in- cluding America, which is not friendly to Germany ... ” This letter ap- peared in Harper’s Magazine of June, 1915, and was written April 23, 1903, fifteen years ago. And surely John Hay was in a position to know, and recent history has given indubitable evidence that he was right. And now this sniveling president of this traitorous Alliance considers that its “usefulness” is past! This min- ister of God, who condones and justi- fies the sinking of the Lusitania, who calls a crime that horrified all civil- ization by no worse name than a “mistake,” this whining. hepoetiis, this cornered rat suggests: thiit the ‘| Alliance’ disband and thé residue. of its funds, $30,000, be turned over to the American Red Cross! Surely the Red Cross has had abundant evidence that this country will finance it un- stintingly with = clean, American money. America is proud of its Red Cross. It stands for the whole united people and it must and will be carried on with money that has no taint of dis- loyalty and no questionable origin. Haig, with his back to the wall, fighting heroically for our civilization and our homes just as actually as for his own, faces overwhelming odds because the use of funds of the Ger- man-American Alliance has been a potent factor in hampering and de- laying preparations which should have been made three years ago. The homeless little children of devastated Belgium and France lift their maimed hands to us for help; the mothers, torn from them, outraged and work- ing in slavery, make their heart- breaking appeals for succor; our own soldiers, the best manhood in our land, they too, as God wills, will need the ministration of the Red Cross. Let it be financed with clean money which the American people will, as they have in the past, give cheerfully, unstintingly and speedily. - The German-American Alliance has abused the patience of America be- yond the breaking point. The govern- ment will attend to its disbandonment by revoking its charter. And may this traitorous Alliance be buried too deep for any hope of future resur- rection. Let it not be possible for it to have incorporated in its epitaph the repugnant fact that the residue of its funds, $30,000, was given to, and accepted by the American Red Cross. A.S. H Pittsburgh, Pa., April 14, 1918. Army Rations for All? From the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Some member of Congress whose identity is modestly hidden, appears to have proposed that members of Congress and employees of the gov- ernment be allowed to purchase sup- plies from the army commissariat in order to beat the high cost of living. The fact leaks out through rejection of the proposal as an intolerable dis- crimination between members of Con: gress and everyday citizens. Possibly the idea was suggested by reports from the army camps and can- tonments, which universally agree that, so far as eating is concerned, “home was never like this.” But, however attractive the thought of buying direct from the army com- missariat may have appeared to this member, he spoiled it by his selfish- ness. ——The War Department distinct- ly states that “tattered and faded flags are not fitting emblems for dis- play and should be reverently destroy- ed.” Is there a guilty person in Belle- fonte? —It’s all right to have the meals earlier but going to bed and getting up an hour earlier is like what Sher- man thought of war. ker lamp to the floor of her bedroom when about to retire. —James Woods, of New Castle, placed fifteen eggs under a hen and sixteen chick- ens were hatched. One of the eggs must have produced two chicks, he thinks, but he has not been able to identify the twins. —~Captain Leon F. Pitcher, of Pottsville troop, has been appointed deputy super- intendent of state police. He has been connected with the state police for years, serving with George ¥. Lumb, the acting superintendent. —Harry 8S. Specht, Sunbury’s police chief, bought a $50 Liberty bond with ten cent pieces. He has been in the habit of saving the dimes he got and on counting them was surprised to find he had accu- mulated so much. —Harry Conklin, son of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Conklin, of Clearfield, while at- tempting to board a coal train near that town late last week, had both legs cut off below the knees. Little hopes are being entertained for the boy’s recovery. —Patrick Malloy, aged 63, a well known miner of Houtzdale, was smothered to death under a fall of rock and clay that caught him in a manhole in Cartright No. 1 mine on Tuesday morning. He is sur- vived by his wife and two daughters. —Last week when the State Pardon Board met in Harrisburg it learned that it was not necesary to act upon the appli- cation of William Jenkins, of Lebanon, serving a sentence in the Eastern Peni- tentiary for assault. Jenkins died two weeks previous. —Being a soldier certainly improved Charles W. Wilt’s hiking powers for he walked from Camp Hancock, Augusta, Gas, to Cumberland, Md., and went to Holli- daysburg, his home, by train. He was ar- rested on the charge of absenting himself from camp without leave. —One of the largest verdicts ever re- turned by a jury in a civil suit in the Berks county courts was rendered in the case of Henry §S. Haltel, of Allentown, against Daniel ¥. Printz and Samuel H, Fulmer, Reading business men, in which Mr. Haltel was awarded a verdict of $24,504. —Col Harry C. Trexler, of Allentown, chief quartermaster of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, and who had charge of the equipment and subsistence of the guard during the mobilization for the war and for Mexican border service, has been retired as a brigadier general under the state law, having reached the age of 84 years, —The State Highway Department on Tuesday announced that motor vehicle li- cense receipts in Pennsylvania for 1918 ran five thousand dollars ahead of the to- tal receipts for the entire year of 1917 at the close of business on April 22, when they amounted to $3,273,444. For the en- tire year of 1917, these funds amounted to $3,268,025.50. —D. RE. Dillman, aged twenty-iive years, whose home was in Northumberland, was instantly killed on the Pennsylvania rail- road on Saturday afternoon. Dillman ram ahead to set a switch. He fell in front of the train and his neck and right shoulder were broken. The accident occurred at 4 o'clock at Mifflinburg. He leaves a wife and one child. J —Chris Kirias, an Allentown Greek, is a real “candy kid.” The Greek was sta- tioned at Camp Meade when a call came from Camp Anniston, Ala., for a man skilled in the art of making candy, which was Kirias’ old trade. He was selected. “I do not want to go to Alabama to make candy,” he protested. “I want to go to France to fight the Germans.” He will go across in the next contingent. —Mrs. Mary Hazenstaub, of Newry, who will be one hundred years old next Janu- ary, and who is a native of Bavaria, Ger- many, has purchased a $100 Liberty bond. She informed the solicitor that, as soon as she received the money for her farm which she recently sold, she would buy more. As she cannot speak English, the nego- tiations were earried on through her daughter, aged seventy-three. She hopes the Allies will win the war. —The Supreme court of Pennsylvania on Monday handed down a decision in which it reverses the finding of the Westmoreland county court in the case in which Conduc- tor Kuhn was given a verdict of $14,000 for injuries growing out of a wreck on the Ligonier Valley railroad at Wilpen three years ago. The first verdict, which was for $10,000, was reversed and the case sent back for trial. The second trial of the case resulted in a larger verdict, and this, also, is disapproved. —Harry N. Atwood, who several years ago promoted an airplane factory in Wil- liamsport, which ran only long enough to spend all the funds raised from the sale *| of stock without producing a complete airplane, has organized another company in Raleigh, N, C., called the Carolina Air- craft company. It has $500,000 capital stock and the Iron Trade Review reports it to be expecting to be in the market soon for considerable machinery. The Williamsport company still has title to numerous patents and considerable exper- imental work as far as it was developed by the directing head of the new company, particularly an engine designed for air plane service, which might be disposed of to the new concern. —Despite the efforts of the coroner of Beaver .county and Beaver college auther- ities the mystery surrounding the death of Miss Jean Katherine Baird, dean of women of sSewver college, and well known as a magazine writer, who was found dead in her room in the college dormitory Sat- urday night, is still somewhat of a mys- tery. Being unable to obtain a response from the room occupied by Miss Baird, the matron of the dormitory called the president of the college, Dr. H. D. Haskell, who with a physician forced an entrance to the room. The body of the dean was found lying across a bed. Examination by a physician showed she had been dead several hours. A search of the room re- vealed a spoon amd small bottle. An au- topsy held Sunday afternoon resulted in announcement from the county coroner that the stomach of Miss Baird had been burned by some liquid. Miss Baird went to Beaver college from Lock Haven Nor- mal school. She was about forty-five years of age. » Fe , ine a ads.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers