i Demorralic atc. BY P. GRAY MEEK INK SLINGS. —Don’t be a “crab.” “Crabbing” at everything is the bacilli that de- velopes Bolshevism. The Bolsheviki troops in Russia are just beginning to get a taste of what the American soldiers gave the Ger- mans. —The big drive for the local “Y” is on. It is a community project. If you are part of the community do your share. —Of course the ground hog saw his shadow, but, as we said last week, Spring is so near that no one cares what becomes of the weather now. —Let giving be your middle name and then show the community what’s in a name. Start giving today by making a big contribution to the “Y” drive. —Girls have proven so efficient in many positions formerly held exclu- sively by men that we fear the only way they can be dislodged is by shoot- ing Cupid’s dart at them. —The little unpleasantness that has arisen between Maj. Gen. Crowder and Gen. March is unfortunate, of course, but regular army men are trained fighters and it is right in their line to scrap. —The slacking up in industry is due almost wholly to the necessity for readjustment. Present inflated prices cannot rule indefinitely and they can only be lowered by a period of depression. —Italy’s claims at the Peace Con- ference savor very much of the ambi- tions of a distinguished Bellefonter who once enlightened his friends thus: “My Lord, boys, don’t you know I want anything I can get!” —The closeness of the vote on the dry amendment in the Pennsylvania Legislature leaves no doubt where Harrisburg stands. It would have de- feated the amendment had the neces- sary two-thirds majority not been already recorded. —Philadelphia’s Mayor has been acquitted of the charge of complicity in the Fifth ward election riots and murder in that city. That is, a jury has acquitted him, but the papers of that city view the acquittal as any- thing but a vindication. —The former Crown’ Prince of Ger- many and former Emperor Charles, of Austria-Hungary, are both report- ed to be suing for divorce. Probably they feel that since they have to work for a living they are not men enough to provide for a wife and family. —Our friends, the Republicans, are lining up a deluge of candidates to announce to the county in the spring. The leaders had everything all fixed up for certain favorites but there seems to be a disposition in many quarters to “spill the beans,” without regard to the consequences. —The little squabbles of the higher up regular army officers who are on duty in Washington are not alarming. These old fellows who are past any other than swivel-chair work still have the fighting spirit and since they couldn’t have a hand in the big job they’ve just got to have a fight among themselves. —The Legislature is being urged to increase the salary of the Governor to $18,000 a year. The right man would be worth it, but the trouble is that Pennsylvania is so overwhelmingly Republican that there is no assurance that the higher salary would always guarantee to the State an executive worth the price it would pay for the service. —Judge Baldridge, of Blair ceunty, has ruled that he has no jurisdiction in the matter of permitting licensees in that county to pay fees only for the part of the year during which they may be permitted to sell. He opines that they must either pay license for the entire year or go to the Legisla- ture for a change in the law that will permit the monthly plan. —1If, as some of the courts are de- ciding: “Intoxicating beverages are beverages that intoxicate,” are we to assume that after July 1st the strength of drinks permissible will be regulated by the capacity of the indi- vidual to carry them without effect. For the fellow with a “hollow leg” will drink all day and carry the load gracefully while the light head will take one drink and get effervescent as a soda-siphon. Under this inter- pretation the government would have to open offices everywhere for gaug- ing the capacity of the individual and then give him a license card to drink only the beverage that doesn’t intoxi- cate him. —God forbid that it ever will be so, but the person with wide vision looks into the future not without misgiv- ing. Social unrest is rocking the old world today and unless it can be soothed it is idle to think that the problem will not come right to our own doors for solution ere long. “Why have you so much, when we have so little?” is the question the Reds are asking. We all know why and they do too, but academic discus- sions don’t satisfy them and won't. Only great public movements toward the amelioration of the lonely, drab lives most of the workers lead will bring about a change of temper and that inspires our interest in the move- ment begun today to make the local “Y” an antidote for Bolshevism. Let those who can give generously. A portion of your goods given today may mean the saving of all of them some time later. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 64. BELLEFONTE. P A.. FEBRUARY 7, 1919. . President Wilson Making History. Some of the Republican Senators in Congress are deeply distressed be- cause of the fear that President Wil- son will do something in the Peace Conference that will get him disliked. They tried first to make it appear that he is not correctly expressing the sentiment of the country in his work. Then they tried to create fric- tion between the American delegates and those of Great Britain and Frane® F.ving failed in both of these sinister purposes they are now threatening to reject the treaty that is likely to be agreed on because of the dominating influence of the Amer- ican members of the conference. But they will meet with no greater success in this undertaking. President Wilson and his American colleagues in the Peace Conference are striving for an enduring peace based on full and exact justice to all concerned. They have no friends to please or enemies to punish and are entirely free of selfish or sinister pur- poses. There may be some Senators in the Congress of the United States who would vote to reject a treaty made on such terms if sober or sane enough to act upon the question of ratification. But there will not be enough of them to affect the result and they will not remain in public life long after they have committed such an act. The people of the United States are behind President Wilson | in his work in France and they will make that fact clear when the occa- sion offers. The American army in France and Flanders has accomplished much to the credit of the United States of America in the estimation of the civ- ilized world. The American navy has achieved a great deal in the same di- rection during the last couple of years. But President Wilson is mak- ing history of the right sort for the American people and whoever sets himself in opposition to his great work will be paving a way into pub- lic contempt and oblivion which can never be obliterated. Let Lodge and Knox and Smoot and Penrose howl to their heart’s content. They cannot check the tide of popular approval of the President and their efforts in that direction. are alike foolish"and fruit- less. ’ ——Life has its compensations just the same. Those who lament the ab- sence of the cup “that cheers and in- inebriates” may find comfort in the reflection that there will be less ex- cuse for pulpit mountebanks. Von Bernstorff’s Peace Views. Count von Bernstorff, who as Ger- man Ambassador in Washington or- ganized conspiracies to murder Amer- ican citizens and hired criminals to destroy American property during the early period of the late war, has un- dertaken to express an opinion as to the terms of peace. In an interview recently given in Berlin he says that’ Germany would regard as satisfacto- ry “the terms of peace laid down in President Wilson’s address to Con- gress January 8, 1918, and the princi- | ples of settlement in his subsequent | addresses.” sidering everything past and present. But after all what good are his opin- ions upon any question of public in- terest in America? So long as there was a shadow of a hope of German success in the war Bernstorff and all the other leaders of German public opinion insisted that there should be a peace that would practically make Germany the controlling force in the civilized world. The peace which Germany handed out to France at the close of the Franco-Prussian war was precise- ly of the sort that Germany handed out to Russia and Rumania in the re- cent war and they were alike cruel and inhuman. That is not the kind of peace that will be given to Ger- many but it is the kind that ought to be given to Bernstorff, the Hohenzol- lerns and the rest of the military murderers who controlled the opera- tions of the German army. Count von Bernstorff will be one of | the representatives of the German Empire in the Peace Conference. But Germany will not he permitted a voice until most of the important questions are disposed of and should not be ad- mitted to membership in the League of Nations until she has given sub- stantial proof of a purpose to act de- cently. Meantime modesty should ad- monish the count to keep quiet about the terms of peace as well as most other things concerning the war. The people of the United States are not anxious for his opinion on any sub- ject and his feint praise of President Wilson will not, reconcile them to the atrocities for which he was responsi- ble while with us. — Unless Europe quits heaping honors upon President Wilson we shall be forced to decline responsibil- ity for the future health of one Hen- ry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts. ——Great Britain has conferred the rare decoration of Knight of the Bath on General Pershing and if he runs for President it will be a hot honor. This is kind of him, con- | | Mayor Smith Acquitted. Mayor Smith, of Philadelphia, has of a charge of violating the Shern law in the primary election of 1917. The Shern law was enacted during a per- iod in which a former Mayor reveal- ed some symptoms of independence of the machine, and was intended to restrain him and other municipal offi- cials, from active party work. The evidence against Mayor Smith was overwhelming. It was proved that he had declared for one candidate for office against another and that he “would go the limit” to secure the success of his candidate. It was shown that the limit involved employ- ing New York gunmen, shooting up clubs and killing a policeman who hadn’t been put wise. But the jury returned a verdict of { not guilty and it didn’t take long to reach the conclusion. Possibly the trial began. Philadelphia “is corrupt and contented,” and not averse to ac- cepting the epithet of a fool. One of the great newspapers of the city has expressed the opinion that in view of the evidence the verdict had to be either guilty “or a monumental ass and incompetent.” Mayor Smith ac- cepted the alternative and the jury obliged him with a verdict that saved his job at the price named. Then to prove the righteousness of the ver- dict the relieved Mayor burst into tears and kissed everybody within ‘ reach associated with the defense. It is a sad as well as a sinister : spectacle for Pennsylvania to contem- | plate. The metropolis of this great | Commonwealth, a city of nearly two million inhabitants, keeps its chief | executive officer out of jail by prov- | ing his incompetence upon the motion of his own friends. Of course the ju- | ry had a humiliating part to perform in this outrage of justice. Each had | solemnly sworn to render a verdict "according to the evidence. But what is an oath among political dependents and party hacks of Philadelphia when : the official head of their machine isin | jeopardy and nobody able to tell who i might come to the reckoning next. But Pennsylvanians are learning to like it, a : pr 0 gel gar ' of Harrisburg, that the wife is boss at home is simply the judicial affir- mation of a fact which every married » woman has known from the beginning of time. ; General Crowder in Wrong. | That officers of the army should en- ! tertain different opinions even on mil- | itary subjects is natural and that con- | troversies should ensue is inevitable. ! But the disputes now being aired in ‘ some of the newspapers that are hunt- ing trouble, between Chief of Staff { March and Provost General Crowder, i would seem to be without reason. The ! Provost Marshal General achieved a wonderful work in the draft opera- tions which were entirely under his supervision. But that does not justi- fy him in setting himself in judgment or asserting his independence of the Mili- tary discipline can not be maintained in such circumstances. During the draft operations it ap- pears that General Crowder pursued his own way regardless of the opin- ions or advice of the Secretary of War and the Chief-of-Staff, both su- periors in rank and authority. He in- variably carried his propositions to the Military committees of the Sen- ate and House and was sustained by those bodies. In view of the success of his work he may have been right in most instances but insubordination is a grave matter in military affairs. The existing controversy is not, how- ever, on that point. It is a question of greater concern. It touches the fundamental principles of justice and the Military committees in Congress are not supporting the Provost Mar- shal General. Military law as practiced in the United States army is almost as ab- surd as it is antiquated. Men are punished much more severely than they ought to be for trivial offences and the Judge Advocate is an auto- crat amenable to nothing but his own caprices. The Secretary of War and the Chief-of-Staff want to modernize the practice of these courts as well as humanize them and Crowder protests with much vehemence. The National Bar Association has taken the matter up and the problem is now in course of solution. But the dispute has al- ready gone far enough to create a good deal of bitterness and to some extent at least alter the good opinion which had justly been formed of Crowder. { military authorities over him. ——Of course there will be moon- shines a’plenty but let us hope that another variety of “shines” will be less numerous. —— One part of the constitution is as valid as another and the whole is as effective as if it had been adopted all at once. ——TIt may safely be said that Nat Goodwin's last divorce is final. been acquitted, by a jury of his peers, | verdict was agreed upon before the ; | ——The decision of Judge Kunkel, : Senator Vare’s Mind is Changed. The interesting information comes from Harrisburg that State Senator Vare is now in favor of legislation that will divorce the Philadelphia po- lice from politics. Such a measure was considered during the session two years ago and defeated because Senator Vare was opposed to its pas- sage. But he has had some education- al experience since and the current of his ponderous mind has taken a dif- ferent course. Since the adjournment of the last Legislature some of his most intimate friends have been con- victed and sentenced for mixing po- lice and politics and his “guide, phil- osopher and friend,” Mayor Smith has escaped similar fate by a palpa- ble miscarriage of justice. The legislation which Senator Vare is now said to favor might have been enacted two years ago and in that event the Fifth ward outrage of Sep- tember, 1917, would have been avert- ed. There were sufficient Republican Representatives in the Legislature to compass the result if the Democratic members had been true to their party obligations. For years the Democrat- ic platforms and press had consist- ently urged such legislation. When its passage became imminent, how- ever, Senator Vare entered into a se- cret agreement with A. Mitchell Pal- mer and Vance McCormick and every Democratic member of the Legisla- ture under the control of those polit- ical hucksters voted against the meas- ure. What service or favors Palmer and McCormick received from the Vare machine in return for their perfidy has never been revealed, but presum- ably they were substantial and ap- parently Senator Vare has grown tired of the contract. Or possibly he realizes that there is no value in the combination for there is not a single Democrat in the present Legislature who takes orders from the party wreckers. But he is persuaded that his political life as well as his person- al liberty is jeopardized by the exist- ing condition and he is ready to put an end to it. How his Democratic partners feel remains to be divulged. Their escape from culpability has not heen 84 narrow, -.o= as ——The Prohibition nomination for President next year ought to be some- thing more than “an empty honor.” Big Retrenchment Ordered in Rail- road Work. Walker D. Hines, the new federal director general of railroads, issued a sweeping and far-reaching order on Tuesday demanding that an eighteen per cent. retrenchment in all kinds of railroad operation be put into effect at once, and the order was promulgat- ed on Wednesday. While there is no big reduction in the road force and various employees in Bellefonte and vicinity, such places as Tyrone and Altoona will be hard hit. In Bellefonte one man was dropped from the force at the freight station and two men were dropped from sec- tion master Quick’s gang of workmen. Joseph Kelleher, who has been sta- tioned at Lock Haven as trainmaster during the past year has been return- ed to Bellefonte as yard master and Irvin Lucas, who has been serving as yard master here has been returned to Tyrone. The order, it is also un- derstood, will lay off No. 2 work train with its entire force. Robert S. Conklin, commission- er of forestry, announces that the State will have a large supply of ex- tra fine forest tree seedlings for free distribution this spring. Any person desiring to plant forest trees may have them for the asking. The stock available is almost three years old and includes white pine, red pine, Norway spruce, European larch, ar- bor vitae, and a limited quantity of Japanese larch and white ash. Last year over two million trees were planted by private owners of forest land and already applications ‘have been received for almost a million trees for planting this spring. ——The road supervisors of Centre county will hold their annual conven- tion and banquet in Bellefonte on Tuesday, February 18th. Every su- pervisor in the county should make it a point to be present at this gath- ering. From present indications the year 1919 will witness the greatest ac- tivity in road building and improve- ment ever made in Pennsylvania and Centre county wants to get her share of it. And the only way to do it is to go right after it early in the game, and its up to the supervisors of every district in the county to make known their needs. Group six of the Pennsylvania Bankers’ association, comprising banking institutions in six counties in the Central part of the State, Centre county being included, will hold their twenty-fourth annual meting at the Commerce building, Altoona, on Lin- coln’s birthday, February 12th. There will be morning and afternoon ses- sions with a luncheon at the Logan house at one o’clock. : NO. 6. | No State Food Regulations. From the Lancaster Intelligencer. | Some member of the Legislature is prepared to introduce a bill in the Legislature providing for a State | Food Commission, the object being | “to regulate the price of food stuffs.” i What the Legislator back of the move ‘has in mind is probably laudatory, but the fellows back of him are prof- iteers; it is dollars to doughnuts. The ! food profiteers and speculators have ! done so well under “price-fixing com- ! missions” during the period of the - war, that they do not want to let go of a good thing; and they would like . to turn the trick by getting legislative action under the guise of providing a | “commission to end profiteering.” The | State has one public service commis- | sion and its acts ought to keep the public alert against ever allowing an- i other to be foisted on them. However, it is not likely that the Legislature or the Governor would stand for any such folde-rol. A State Food Commission would have control over foodstuffs raised in the State only. They would have no control over a can of tomatoes packed in Maryland, a can of peas put up in Wisconsin, or a bushel of potatoes grown in Maine. They might fix a scale of prices for Pennsylvania eggs and a storekeeper would buy Mary- land eggs and sell them as he pleas- ed. As a result, Pennsylvania food producers might find that while their prices were satisfactory, the consum- ing public was eating foods raised in other States. So a State Food Com- mission is not likely. And it will be a sorry day, for the public generally, if the profiteers suc- ceed in getting any kind of a com- , mission to regulate foodstuffs. The i American people have had their foods , regulated for two years now, and they | have had enough of it until Gabriel blows his horn. Public Compensation. From the Williamsport Sun. Senator Crow is the author of a bill raising the salary of the Governor of Pennsylvania from $10,000 to $18,000. The Senator feels that this great State should give its executive a compensa- tion more fitting with its dignity and importance, although we have long paid the Governor as high salary as any other Commonwealth. There is Hert in Senator ows Sonam, re are few positions e United “States of tore responsibility than that of the Governor of Pennsylvania and yet there are scores of executives in industry and business who could not ' afford to leave their present positions to live in the Governor's mansion at Harrisburg. Ten thousand dollars a year is a big sum but we have saddled so many customs upon our executive in the way of public entertainments and other entailments that no man can expect to spend four years in the highest public position in the State and to come up to the end of his term with a balance in the bank after hav- if his compensation during that period will cover all of his debts incurred in the same. The chief flaw in our pub- lic compensation scheme is that it lim- its the field to only those who have private incomes large enough to piece out the deficiencies. In this way we are denied the service of many tal- ented and strong men. If our Com- monwealth or our federal government lays claim to the services of good men they must expect to pay for the same in proportion to their value. Pennsylvania’s Share. Fram the Philadelphia Record. ° It has long been no secret that the Twenty-eighth Division, composed of Pennsylvania National Guardsmen, suffered heavy losses in its fierce fighting in France, and the official fig- ures now make this information pub- lic property. They show, indeed, that with the exception of two divisions of regular troops, the Pennsylvanians were harder hit than any other com- mands. For several months they were in the very thickest of the fray, in the second battle of the Marne and in the advance in the Argoone forest, and they never turned back. In such des- perate contests it was inevitable, of course, that the losses should be heavy, but it is a pleasure to know that they were not disproportionate to the results obtained. If this single division lost nearly 4000 men in those killed, missing and taken prisoner, it is safe to say that they caused still more severe casualties to the enemy. They helped to push the Hun back steadily and to bring the war to a glorious conclusion much sooner than expected. Pennsylvania is very proud of the splendid achievements of her boys in khaki and will indulge in no vain re- The Guardsmen had a long and hard training, they were led by capable of- ficers, and they put up a magnificent fight, bringing new renown to their State. The cost was high, but the end sought was accomplished. What more could a soldier ask? ——What if the groundhog did see its shadow? That will make no dif- ference at the Scenic. Manager T. Clayton Brown will go right ahead offering nightly programs of the best motion pictures to be had, and we can assure the public in general that miss a night. Open every evening at 6:40. ——Of course the “drys” will cele- brate their victory but how ? ing paid all his bills. He is fortunate . pinings over the sacrifices entailed. | they are all well worth seeing. Don’t SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —The mother and three children of the family of Ernest Neufer, of Chestnut Grove, Columbia county, died within the past week, of influenza. The husband and step-son are the only survivors of the family. —When their auto struck a boulder on the edge of the state road, at Gouldsboro, Pa., on Monday and upset, John Baker, vice president of the Richmond Underwear Co., of Scranton, was killed and A. W. Cottle, general manager of the company, seriously injured. —Within a half hour after word had been received that Private Elmer Snyder had arrived at New York after service overseas, Mr. and Mrs. Allen Snyder, of Bloomsburg, received word that another soldier son, Clark H. Snyder, died in a German hospital on July 20, while a pris- oner. —Judge William H. Ruppel, of Somer- set county, died at his home in that place Sunday night after a long illness. His term would have expired in 1922. Judge Ruppel was a Democrat and personally a temperance advocate. On the bench he administered the liquor license law with severe restrictions. —At seven o’clock Saturday evening, Mike Dezambo, a Pennsylvania Tay laborer, met instant death in .the Ridg- way yards. He was engaged in shovel- ing cinders off the pit track when an en- gine came along and ran him down. De- zambo was forty-nine years of age and r sided at Ridgway. 2 ” —Because of the almost impassable con- dition of the highway connecting Jersey Shore and Lock Haven, the motor bus line between those two towns has been discon- tinued until the road is improved. Resi- dents of that section are using this situa- tion as an argument for State aid to im- prove the highway. —His thirteenth arrest proved ‘unlucky for Vincent Scarmel, of Shamokin, who pleaded guilty to the theft of a watch from his father before Judge Cummings on Monday. Secarmel, who declared that he was a missionary, was sent to jail for a year, with the promise that another ap- pearance before the court would result in a sentence of one year for every term he had served. 2 —From Somerset county come reports that the maple sap is running just as mer- rily as it has on any warm day of spring within the last fifty years. The owners of sugar aid maple groves have been busy tapping the trees and in boiling the sap into sugar, and some of the producers de- clare that this will be a season for two crops. The output in Somerset county amounts to $50,000 annually. ‘ —More than one hundred persons were homeless Sunday as the result of a spec- tacular fire which wiped out a block im the tenement district’ overlooking Bigelow boulevard, opposite the Pennsylvania rail- road station at Pittsburgh on Saturday night. The blaze, which started in A. Walker's Sons paper box factory, destroy- ed two manufacturing plants on the bou- levard and a dozen houses on the pluff above them. The loss was estimated at $200,000. : —Private Frank Bauder, of South Wil- liamsport, does not believe the: number thirteen is unlucky. Bauder, who trained at Camp Meade, went through thirteen battles without suffering a scratch. He | registered for military duty on a Friday, the 13th, and his registration number was 1313. When he and his company left Camp Meade for their sailing port they started ! out on track No. 13. He was sent to the front in France on September 13 and was returned to a rest camp on November 13. —Awards by the Carnegie hero’ commis- sion last week recalled the brave deed of Miss Margaret Kisner, of Newberry, who on August 5, 1917, lost her life while res- cuing a girl companion from drowning in the West Branch near Nippeno Park. After having gotten her companion to the shore, Miss Kisner was stricken with heart failure, due to the exertion of her strug- gle, and fell into the deep water, drowning before help could be summoned. For her act the commission awarded her father a bronze medal and a cash payment. —Michael Koval, aged 61 years, a well known coal miner for years past employed at the Morrisdale shaft, No. 1, near Phil- ipsburg, was the victim of a terrible ac- cident Wednesday morning about ten o’clock by the explosion of a stick of dy- namite. Koval at the time was working alone and just how the accident occurred may never be known. The unfortunate man was rushed to the Cottage State hos- pital, Philipsburg, where it was found that both his eyes had been blown out, his jaw fractured and the lower part of his face terribly lacerated. His hands and arms were badly injured by the ex- plosion. —A contract for the erection of a new postoffice on the government plot at Third and Race streets, Sunbury, has been let to | A. E. Badgley, of Binghamton, N. Y,, at a | figure of $86,637, according to an announce- . ment from Washington to H. L. Purdy, | postmaster. The building is to be com- | pleted within sixteen months. The struc- | ture will be a story and a half in height, | so constructed that it will permit the ad- | dition of other stories if needed. It will be of pressed brick with brownstone and granite trimmings, 85x06 feet and facing Third street. The plot is considerably larger, so that it will be possible to lay out an attractive park about the ‘building. —George F. Swigert, aged 72 years, one of Carbondale’s most prominent men, died last week of blood poisoning which result- ed when he was bitten on October 22 by a delirious influenza patient who had escap- ed from the city hospital and entered the Swigert home by breaking through a porch window. The noise of the intruder arous- ed Swigert and when he went down stairs the man attacked him with a club. Inthe struggle, before the police arrived, Swi- gert was bitten on his right hand by the { man, who died within an hour after he was returned to the hospital. The wound on the hand failed to heal, and the infec- tion spread to the arm, which had to be amputated. . —During the influenza epidemic in Clearfield county one of the undertakers in Clearfield borough was so rushed with business that he actually failed to record two of the funerals which he conducted and would not have remembered a thing about them had it not been for the fact that the relatives of the buried persons | called at his office to pay the funeral ex- | penses. It seemed that both funerals were held on the same day and were in the same section of country. Being neighbors the families came to town on the same day to pay their bills and when they confronted the undertaker it took them some time to convince him that he was the undertaker who handled the funerals. The relatives finally proved their cases and the under- { } ——Subscribe for the “Watchman.” | taker took the money.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers