INK SLINGS. —Blue-birds and robins have made their first spring calls. —Don’t fail to get your income tax report in by tomorrow. The fine is heavy for delinquents. —Make your home so that your children will love it and they will not be so hungry for amusement else- where. —Bellefonte entertained a hold-up man last Saturday night, but he must have been an amateur for when the intended victim wouldn’t be held up he took to his heels in a way that in- dicated that he might be going yet. —The maiden legislative effort of the Hon. Ives Harvey died a bornin’. He had a bill giving cemetery associa- tions the right of eminent domain clear up to third reading in the House, then the Members began to take no- tice and the Hon. Ives’ first bill went to the Legislative boneyard—that al- ways finds room for the interment of such measures without the right of eminent domain. —We understand that some of the ladies to whom the “Watchman” re- ferred last week as being loose,—of course only so far as the grip they keep on their pocket books is con- cerned, have been disposed to remark that: “There are others.” Which means that they recall the wail the writer set up when he lost a perfect- ly good overcoat last fall. Ordinari- ly it might look as if we had unwit- tingly thrown a boomerang, but be that as it may if this identifies a strange overcoat hanging around your house and it is sent back here we'll look upon the item to which so much exception has been taken as one of the most profitable the “Watchman” has ever published. —If the liquor people had put the price of drinks up to their present mark a long time ago there might never have been a Prohibition move- ment. Common drunks and genteel jags constantly careening before the public eye had more to do with focus- ing public indignation on the liquor traffic than anything else and as few of either are seen now we search for the explanation and find it in the high cost of drinking and the low percent- age of kick in the drink. It takes money and a capacity for liquids quite beyond the average individual to buy and store away enough of the stuff to get any results at all and the fellow with a real “souse” today is so rare as to be almost a novelty. —The Philadelphia conference of the Methodist church is in ses- sion in Philadelphia. The work it will take up will be of very great in- terest to all of us at this time, for the proposed Rorke Sunday law will sure-. ly come in for an expression of opin- ion and we will not be surprised if some fanatics, flushed with the success of Prohibition, propose a resolution favoring an amendment ending the sale of tobacco and the manufacture of cigars and cigarettes. Ordinarily a Methodist conference is a reasona- bly sane body, but this one must tol- erate absolutely no uncertainty as to the sanity and farsightedness of its deliberations. The world can never be won to Christ by the statutes of men. It can be won by the preaching of His simple gospel of brotherly love and that gospel and Corinthians 14th and 20th should be in the minds of both clergy and laity all the while this conference deliberates. —A friend who is in a position to know informs us that in Norway, dry about four months now, all manner of substitutes have already been de- vised. After using up all the patent medicines and hair tonics in the coun- try the thirsty Norwegians got after varnishes and shellac so that there is none of either of those commodities on the market there. But necessity still maintained her reputation as be- ing the mother of invention for some one discovered that by shooting selt- zer water into powdered furnace slag that there was a distillation contain- ing as much if not more “pep” than the lightning that comes from the cac- tus plant under the name of pulque. They say one drink of the slag juice has the old regular stuff faded miles when it comes to results. It produces a twenty-four hour jag and if its vic- tim tries to sleep it off when he wakes up all he needs to do is shake his head a couple of times and it is on again for another day or so. — The Lamar report on Bolshevic activities in this country should com- mand the very serious consideration of every one. We are too prone to pass this matter up as if there need be no alarm. Our institutions, our property is in danger, very grave danger and the sooner we waken to its presence the more certain we will be of eliminating it. There are now eighty-eight recruiting stations in the United States and at least fifteen newspapers advocating “revolution and sabotage.” In nearly every in- stance revealed by Solicitor Lamar’s report the writer of inflammatory articles quoted is a person with a dis- tinctly Russian, Polish, Italian or French name, yet they are here in America trying to foment trouble by inculcating anarchistic ideas into the heads of American workers. It is high time that they be sumiaarily suppressed, either by imprisonment or by deportation and with them those political partisans who are feeding the flame these foreigners have kindled by openly criticising the government and its administrative officers. It is time for every real American to can politics until we'are sure of the safe- ty of the institutions we love. STAT E RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. _VOL. 64. BELLEFONTE, PA., MARCH 14, 1919. NO. 11. Treacherous Work of Republicans. The efforts Republican newspapers are making to justify the filibuster in | Everything Goes to the Governor. The surprising deference which the | No Danger of Defeat. There is no occasion to worry over Senators and Representatives in the | the fear that the League of Nations the Senate at the close of the session | Legislature show for the Governor is of Congress would be amusing if the | attracting popular result were less serious. It is pre- notice as well as curious comment. tended that the action was necessary | either branch of the General Assem- | bly, according to Harrisburg corres-' legislation on one hand and that it: to prevent hasty and ill considered was necessary to “show the President his place” on another. Senator Sher- man, of Illinois, is responsible for the latter reason. In the vernacular of his class he says it was “necessary to call the bluff of the President.” Asa matter of fact, however, the President had set up no bluff. He came home from Paris where his presence was greatly needed to perform official du- ties incident to the close of the ses- sion and he fulfilled his duties in the most unostentatious way. The sole and whole purpose of the filibuster was to embarrass the gov- ernment in its legitimate operations. Just as Jefferson Davis and Robert Toombs undertook to cripple the gov- pondents, until the Governor gives his approval. Every piece of legisla- ' tion is submitted to him before being . the “whole show” at the State capitol | ernment in 1861 the Republican Sena- ! tors proceeded at the close of the re- cent session of Congress. ter was invoked as a means of defeat- ing the appropriations for the support of the army and navy and for the op- eration of the railroads. Possibly those participating in the traitorous work imagined that the President would postpone his return to Paris and call an extra session of Congress to provide the funds necessary to con- duct the departments of the govern- ment affected. That would have been a famous victory for perfidy, a grand achievement in the line of treason. If either branch of the new Con- gress had a Democratic majority the Republican Senators would have no desire for an extra session. The first Monday of December, the time fixed by law nearly a hundred years ago, would have been early enough for the assembling. But through a blunder, which is now well nigh universally re- gretted, Republican majorities were returned in both chambers, and the traitorous leaders of the Republican party imagined that it would serve as to their sinister purposes. to defeat the League of Nations, not because it is wrong but for the reason that President Wilson is largely re- sponsible for it and an extra session The filibus- read in place and unless he assents it is buried or presented merely for the | i will fail because a considerable num- ber of Senators have declared they will Nothing is done in | vote against it. A considerable num- ber of Senators said most vehement- ly that they wouldn’t vote for the rev- enue bill. Quite a number of them made speeches against the bill to ap- propriate a hundred million dollars for the relief of the sufferers in Bel- - gium and other devastated sections of purpose of being stifled in committee. ; i it was supported unanimously or near- As a matter of fact the Governor is and in justice to him it must be said that thus far it has not turned his head in the least. Of course this complete surrender to the Governor is flattering to his vanity and it is creditable to him that he has not lost his head over it. Every recent Governor has met the same conditions in some measure and at least one or two of them were car- ried off their feet by the laudation. Brumbaugh, for example, actually be- lieved that he was as great a man as Bill Vare painted him and in that fact lay the cause of his complete failure as Governor. Sproul has not even re- vealed a symptom of the weakness thus far but it is hard to tell what the future will disclose. Constant drop- ping wears a stone away and persist- ent flattery may overcome the stolid- ity of our Governor. Governor Sproul is a man of wide experience and has long been famil- iar with the ins and outs of politics. He knows as well as any other man in Harrisburg the reasons for the ad- ulation that is being heaped upon him. The Legislators are fishing for the spoils of office and are ready for any form of servility that promises to produce the result. It is possible that he will not fall for the game of the office brokers because he knows from experience, the dearest of all teach- ers, that there is no sincerity in the friendship that is paraded as the price of favors desired and expected. Twen- ty years in the State Senate is a lib- “eral education in political intrigue. a whip to force the President to yield | They want | ——It can’t be said that the Butler- Westmoreland Congressional election was a straw.indicating the course of _ the wind. It was a whole strawstack of Congress now could accomplish that result. Mitchell Palmer may hold on to the office he holds because he doesn’t want Joe Guffey to succeed him. Palmer knows that making Guf- fey National committeeman will de- stroy the Palmer-Donnelly-McCormick faction but Guffey has a strangle hold on Palmer and the rest is plain. Reason Against Charter Revision. In a statement issued by the Phila- delphia charter committee the other day the reason for opposition to the proposed charter revision is clearly revealed. It is shown that within the twenty years from 1898 to 1918 the city paid out of its treasury to the Vare brothers the vast sum of $14,- 784,681. This is at the rate of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars a year and the chances are that in view of the public temper at present any new charter for Philadelphia would cut off this generous flow of gold into the Vare coffers. Senator Vare being the undisputed and not too easy boss of Philadelphia he is not likely to con- sent to such a surgical operation. The Mayor of Philadelphia has also a considerable interest in the preser- vation of the present system of gov- ernment for that community of polit- ical slaves. Through the medium of the same statement the public is in- formed that Mayor Smith’s business as the agent of a New York bonding company has increased within the three years he has been in office from about a million and a half of dollars to the enormcus total of nearly nine millions. Of course it would be im- possible for the Mayor to bleed the city to that extent under any other charter than that now in operation and Mayor Smith is working it to the limit. He is opposed to charter revis- ion except upon plans made by him- self. It may safely be predicted that there will be no charter revision for Philadelphia during the present ses- sion of the Legislature which might impair Senator Vare’s drag on the city treasury or the Mayor’s monopo- ly of the bonding of municipal officials and contractors. It is fine to be May- or of a big city in any circumstances but infinitely finer to be Mayor of a city which is governed by a system that enables the Chief Magistrate to loot the public to his heart’s content. The Vares and tie Mayor are against real charter revision for Philadelphia and we betray no secrets in stating that nothing will be done in that line to which they are opposed. Mr. Debs had his fling and en- joyed it no doubt immensely and he will have plenty of time to think it over now that the Supreme court has affirmed the sentence of the lower tri- bunal giving him ten years. in a hurricane heading to the exter- mination of the Republican machine. Wise Exercise of Liberality. Most Pennsylvanians will cordially . endorse the plans of the State author- I ities to make a proposed memorial bridge at Harrisburg, the finest struc- ture of its kind in the world. A less pretentious structure would fail of the purpose this bridge is intended to ful- fill. It is to be an enduring memorial of the thousands of Pennsylvania’s sons who died in France and Flan- ders for the cause of liberty and hu- manity. It is to be a monument of the supreme sacrifice freely made by the flower. of the manhood of the State. No cheap edifice could serve that purpose. Only the finest product of the best talent of the country is adequate and it is gratifying to learn that such a plan will be employed. The proposed bridge is intended to round up and complete the State park in the capitol city surrounding the magnificent building which has devel- oped out of scandal and graft into one of the most magnificent public buildings in the country. The east front of the park abuts on the right of way of the Pennsylvania railroad and the bridge will cover the tracks and open up a delightful section of the city to the free use of the public. It is not a local affair. It is'a matter of state-wide importance and nation- wide significance. The beginning of a movement to make beauty and utili- ty work together happily and harmo- niously in the service of the public. This magnificent memorial will cost a vast sum of money but Pennsylva- nia can well afford to spend all that is necessary in such a cause. It will be an ornament the beauty of which will radiate a wholesome influence to the ends of the earth. Moreover it will work a memorial improvement which is sadly needed. Such monuments as have been erected in the past in hon- or of the merits and achievements of our citizens are frequently hideous caricatures and rarely of any asthet- ic value. The structure contemplated to honor the memory of our heroic dead of the late world war will be as useful as it will be ornamental and will set a type for all others to emu- late. ——Of course the radicals will ob- ject but it may safely be said that William Howard Taft is nearer to the Republican nomination for President in 1920 than any man in sight. —1TIt may be all right to take all the traffic will bear as a rule but in levying indemnity on Germany it would be well to fix the sum within the limit of money in sight. ——The Senators who are opposing the League of Nations may be able to live it down but they will have a long period of uncertainty to go through. Europe. But when the vote was taken ly so and the opposition hadn’t even | nerve enough to call for a record vote. | sary to the future peace and prosper- The League of Nations is as neces- ity of the world as the defeat of Ger- many was to the elimination of autoc- racy. Without such an agreement the strong nations would be overrunning and destroying the weak nations be- fore the ink on the peace protocol was dry. The “balance of power” method of preserving peace has proved not only futile but actually mischievous and the only alternative is the League and the only feasible scheme for such an organization is that which has been at least tentatively agreed upon by the peace conference based upon the plans of President Wilson. Of course the Republican Senators begrudge Woodrow Wilson the glory which will naturally and necessarily attach to him through the adoption of his covenant and its successful opera- tion. And they will talk freely and furiously against it. But they won’t vote to defeat it. Even the stupidest of them knows that the man who votes against that beneficent measure will be everlastingly flayed by the people | The Baying of the Houn’ Dog. : I'rom the Lancaster Intelligencer. i One of the chief opponents of the League of Nations is Senator Reed, of | Missouri, Democrat. Senator Reed is {hard to understand because he has i been opposed to everything that was t opposed to Germany since the great ! war began. There are a great many : Germans in Missouri, but there are not . enough anti-Americans among them | surely to make it worth while for this "high official to be their spokesman in | season and out. Hence the only con- { clusion to be reached in the premises | about the Reed opposition to every- | thing the best thought of the nation i and the Administration stands for, is that itis the baying of the Houn’ i Dog. Hearken back to the days—those hot summer days—in 1912 when the Houn’ Dog was baying to the tune of “You gotta quit kickin’ my dog aroun’ ” in Baltimore. Reed was in the saddle and his Houn’ Dog tune was catching. He had weathered the storm of adversity and his candidate had secured a majority in a memora- ble convention. But rules and regu- lations provided that a majority was not enough and then Reed hitched up with Tammany and any interests which he thought would put Champ Clark over as the Democratic candi- date for President. When the Sena- tor from Missouri did this, he lost his candidate’s ablest champion, William J. Bryan, and out of the melee, came Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, champion of idealism and a world’s peace. Reed was undone on the summit of victory and he cannot forget. Champ Clark, not always politic, seemingly forgot, and he played his part well and truly as Speaker of the House in momentous times. But Senator Reed, his campaign manager,—well he sim- ply won't forget. He has taken up of the United States without respect to creed or political alliance. country wants no more wars and de- | feating the League is inviting war and ! actually compelling bloodshed and | misery. ——Senator Lodge has one advan- tage over most men. He can change his mind whenever party exigencies | require it. . i reliable : sources - that This | | his militaristic crowd. The Paull in Fixing Prices. | crats lost a U. S. Senator in the last the cudgels against the Administra- tion and he is far more useful to the Republicans than any of their Sena- tors, for attacks by Republican Sena- tors are taken with a grain of salt by the least of us, while attacks by sim- { ilar party men, are given attention in i a serious vein. : i Senator Reed today is fighting the League of Nations as he fought every other move to throttle the Raiger and emo- election in Missouri and it is charged We. have. the ignweleome informa: : that it was the Reed workers in con- the | gosted districts who turned the trick. e that as it may, the Reed mi.acks Fuel Administrator of the government ; are the baying of the Houn’ Dog, has consented to another considera- ble increase in the price of anthracite : coal. There can be no possible excuse for this. Reports from all sections of | the anthracite coal region indicate | that mines are being shut down and hours of labor diminished in order to prevent surplusage in stocks of coal. Surplus stocks would necessarily bring reduction in prices or criminal collusion in price fixing. Abundance of supply makes competition for mar- ket inevitable and declining prices the usual result. For some time the coal supply and price question has been under inves- tigation and the evidence shows that over charges have been the rule. It has been clearly proved that freight rates on coal are much higher than upon any other marketable commodi- ty. This is another feature of the conspiracy to keep prices up for the high rates of freight are charged up to the consumer as part of the cost of production. Fortunately the winter has been mild and the consumption of fuel held to a minimum. But if the temperature this year had been the same as last thousands of people would have suffered beyond descrip- tion. Government control of production and service is justified only when it results in keeping prices down. Dur- ing the war there is mo telling to what altitude food prices would have gone if the profiteers had not been held in check by government control. But the government control of fuel and such utilities as telegraph and telephone service has failed to im- prove the service or keep down prices. There is something wrong about this and grave faults somewhere. Possi- bly it is inefficient administration or it may have some other cause. But in any event increase in the cost of coal and telephone service is without reason. The Centre county commission- ers last Thursday filed a complaint before the Public Service Commission regarding the dangerous condition of the crossings on the Lewisburg and Tyrone branch of the Pennsylvania railroad at Lemont and Oak Hall Both are grade crossings and so lo- cated that their approach is a menace to the traveling public. Weather prophets throughout the State are now predicting a mild month of March and an unusually ear- ly spring, with no killing frosts. Senator Vare thinks he is re- former énough to reform Philadelphia and if his kind of reform is wanted he is right. The Legislature is getting ready for an early adjournment and nobody objects. —In one week the first day of harking back to the days of 1912. i Crystallizing. From the Stars and Stripes. The plan of the League of Nations, laid this week at the door of the world is the greatest gift that has been offered to humanity since Cain spilled the first blood outside the fields of Eden. They were high words which were written on the banners of America’s citizen army that sent the khaki le- gion into battle. No boastful talk of planting a flag on foreign soil, no threat of far-flung frontiers, no prom- ise of booty in new provinces or spoil from the strong-boxes of defeated Kings. The men that jammed the transports’ holds, that crowded the box cars, that marched up against machine gun and shrapnel, were told that they were making the world— not America, nor East Orange, nor California, but the world—safe for democracy in a war against war. Through the dirt and sweat of the endless hikes, the mud, the shell-fire, there was not much talk of policies. Tt was just, “We're here because we're here.” Then one day in the morning it was over. No more big guns, no more gas, no more top to go over—just waiting. And some of us sat in the billets and began to think. We saw the gaps in the ranks, the battalion that could as- semble only a handful, the section that left the echelon full and came back half a dozen strong. And some of us began to wonder ifs and whys. “I see everywhere men in the Amer- ican uniform,” said President Wilson, Saturday, (January 25). “Those men came into this war after we had ut- tered our purposes. They came as crusaders, not merely to win a war, but to win a cause.” ; And now we know that it is true that the high words written on our banners have been copied into the book of the world’s conscience—‘‘inter- national co-operation to insure the fulfillment of accepted obligations,” to end forever the hazarding of right to the blind fortunes of might. The men who fought and fell and the wom- en who sacrificed—the founders of the League of Nations—have won. An Expensive Habit. rom the Louisville Courier-Journal. Habit is second nature. Why did our short-sighted parents, when breakfast bacon was twenty cents a pound, let us get into the habit of eat- ing the stuff? Peace Assured. From the Springfield Republican. Representatives of nine circuses are meeting in Chicago to plan next sea- son’s campaign. Any remaining doubt that peace is here may be dis- missed. Can Fill Some Orders, Anyhow. From the Des Moines Register. If the League of Nations cannot prevent war, it can at least guaran- tee that those insisting on war will spring will be here. get all they want. | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE ! —The salary of Federal Judge C. B. | Witmer has been increased from $6000 to : $7500 a year. —The first outbreaks of smallpox to be reported for some time have been announc- {ed -by the State Department of Health. Four cases have been found at Carbondale, two being nurses in an emergency hos- | pital. The disease has also appeared at St Marys. —One of the largest awards yet made in the first district bureau of working men’s compensation, has been given by Referee Jacob Snyder, in Jefferson county. In the case of Assunta Sarelli against the Corbet Coal company and fhe Ocean Acci-« dent and Guarantee company, the award to the widow was $6100.31. —John Kreider, of Kratzerville, regain- ed his sight recently after being blind for seven years. He had been struck in one eye by a chip while cutting wood. The eye had to be removed and the sight of the other member was lost. Recently, while standing at a window, he suddenly realized he could see. His vision has completely returned. —Over four hundred camp sites have been granted by the State Forestry Com- mission for summer outing, fishing and hunting camps for clubs. associations, schools and individuals on state lands. The number has increased rapidly in the last few years. The use of the sites is given for ten years subject to certain reg- ulations as to use of fire and firearms. —P. M. Sharpless, the millionaire man- ufacturer of Chester county, slandered Dr. Bayard Kane, of West Chester, and twelve good men and true, sitting in judgment, said in their verdict the doctor shall re- ceive $8,000. Millionaires should be more careful in speaking of their fellow-citizens. The verdict in this case was the largest ever given for slander in the Chester coun- ty courts. —Marvin Mayes, sheriff of Jefferson county, has been notified by the Pitts- burgh police bureau that Paulino Polic- ischio has been arrested there, charged with the murder of Tony Guilino, at Par- due, November 7, 1918. Policischio disap- peared after the death of Guilino, which a coroner’s jury decided was caused by ac- cidental discharge of a gun held by Pol- icischio and the latter, at the time of his arrest, did not know that he had been ex- onerated. —According to the will of the late M. Kay Watkins, of Mt. Carmel, which has been probated at the office of the regis- ter and recorder, Northumberland county, the Odd Fellows’ orphanage, east of Sun- bury, will receive the sum of $1000. The deceased also bequeathed $6000 for a new Methodist parsonage and $5000 for a fund for the establishment of a suitable home for Mt. Carmel boys. He also willed large sums to other church and charitable in- stitutions. —J. A. Goon, proprietor of the Wood- and hotel, in Clearfield county, has been placed under $1,500 bail to answer a charge of manslaughter at the next term of crim- inal court in that county. He was arrest- ed last week on a warrant taken out by the district attorney, which alleges that Goon ejected. Albert Reposi from his hotel on January 27th, and then struck Reposi, causing him to fall on the concrete side- walk in such a way that his skull was fractured and death ensued several days later. —The office of commissioner of Potter county does not seem to be a healthy job. August Noelk died in office. H. J. Theis, who was appointed to fill out the unex- pired term of the deceased, who has filled three years of his elective term, has re- signed because of ill-health, and Judge Hock has appointed Philip J. Meine, of Galeton, who is asking for the Democrat- ic nomination for the office in Potter coun- ty. It would have been fairer to all can- didates to have appointed some one not an aspirant for the office. —In an opinion that will be of interest in every county in the State, Judge White- head, of Lycoming county, decided against James A. Applegate, who sued to recover $545 for 109 days’ work as clerk to the board of County Auditors. The County Commissioners opposed payment of the claim on the ground that a clerk was unnecessary and the court sustains this contention, admitting the plaintiff ‘was honestly employed” and “faithfully and well performed his labors; but it must not be forgotten that these labors were the la- bors or work for the doing of which the County Auditors were elected.” -—While on his way to the electric rail- way station in Scranton to take a car for Clark’s Summit and the Hillside Home, on Monday morning, Harry Congdon, 32 years old, of that city, dropped into the postoffice and called for mail. He was giv- en a letter from an aunt in Syracuse, N. Y., which apprised him that he had come into about $1000 willed by a relative who died recently, When Congdon received the unexpected fortune he had twelve cents in his pocket and a one-way ticket to the poor-house. The same letter which noti- fied him of his good luck also contained an invitation to go to Syracuse and make his home with his aunt. He left for Syra- cuse on Tuesday instead of going to the poor-house. — Misses Irene Bauman, Kathryn King and Ruth Packer, three Lockport girls, pupils of the Tock Haven High school, fell into the river Saturday afternoon, near the Lockport shore, while crossing the stream in a row-boat, and at least two of the girls would likely have been drowned but for the timely efforts of William Bau- man. The girls were being rowed to the north side by Lloyd Bauman. When near- ing the shore the girls stood up in the boat. which tilted, and they were thrown into the water, which is quite deep at that point. One of the number managed to reach shore, but the other two were going down for the third time when Bauman, hearing the cries of the girls, ran from his home, and, plunging into the river, saved them. — Walter D. Hines, Director General of Railroads, is defendant in a unique law- suit entered in the Blair county court, in which Mrs. Cora A. Kuhn, widow of Peter Kuhn, seeks to recover $2400 awarded her after her husband had been killed, but which was not paid becatise the railroad authorities contended she had no claim. Kuhn was employed as a freight brake- man by the Pennsylvania Railroad and while on his first trip on a train between Altoona and Blairsville, became mentally deranged and was locked in a cabin car by the conductor. He escaped, wandered on the tracks and was killed. The railroad’s claim adjustor allowed the widow $2400 damages, but the Pennsy’s legal depart- ment disapproved. It is held in the bill that Kuhn's mental trouble was due to the motion of the train and his death there- fore was an accident due to the nature of his employment.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers