Sewell INK SLINGS. —The flood on Spring creek reach- ed its peak at two o'clock yesterday afternoon. —Next week we will observe Me- morial day. Let us be sure that we observe it and not celebrate it. —Court adjourned Wednesday night, having completed the work of a rather uninteresting session. — The signs indicate that instead of Congress re-assembling a poison gas factory has been established at Washington. —Germany is clinging to the hope that the pen of von Brockdorff-Rantz- au will prove mightier than the sword of Hindenberg. —Now that the streams are too high and muddy for fishing there are a lot of fellows who have no excuse for not catching up with their work. —How much time do you suppose Germany would have given any of the Allies to haggle over the peace terms she would have laid down had she been victorious ? — Continuous rain interference with Milesburg, in her efforts to break in- to the Red Cross league, leads us to suggest “the Ducks” as a good name for the team from our neighboring town. : —High water is causing much dis- tress in the low-lands of Centre coun- ty, but strange as it may seem the heavy rains have not washed the fields nearly as bad as might have been ex- pected. —Maj. Terry Boal’s plans for his ancestral estates in Harris township are so prodigious that we fear all the magnificent forests will have to be de- nuded to furnish eamp-fires for the veterans of the 28th who are to have open sesame there. — Bolshevism is petering out abroad for the very good reason that the il- literate fanatics who advocate it are accumulating enough sense, at least, to figure out that it avails them little to seize a business or a government that they don’t have brains enough to manage. —O0ld John Barleycorn has had a slight recovery. The President’s mes- sage urging that the ban be lifted on wines and beer has caused him to sit up and take notice. It can’t be for more than six months, however, so that there is no hope of his perma- nent revival. —Congress is in session and, being Republican in complexion, will have the time of its life until the President gets home. Then it will be different, for without enough power to pass bills over his veto it can do little but play to the grand-stand for effect on the fall elections. —The success of American aviators in making the first trans-oceanic flight will carry all the more of con- viction to the world that this great young Republic of the west has be- come its real leader. It seems to us also the beginning of the end. of all doubt as to man’s dominion of the earth, the sea and the air. —The fact that no candidate has entered the field for the Democratic nomination for prothonotary seems to be giving some of the slate makers considerable concern. There’s time yet for a good man to jump into the arena and if he is a good one there is a splendid chance that he will be nom- inated and elected to the best paying office in the court house. —Governor Sproul has gone to New York to find a man properly equipped for Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion. Of course there is nothing wrong with the idea of going outside the ‘State for a good man. But there must be something radically wrong with the native born educators since none of them have sized up to the Governor's demands for qualification for the office. —A young woman canteen worker in France, who was one of only two women, constantly in contact with from fifteen to thirty thousand dough- boys, recently told the writer that she had worked among them for exactly five months before she heard an oath or a vulgar word, and that was utter- ed by an officer. Of course the boys swore and indulged in vulgarity. No one thinks they didn’t but the refin- ing, restraining influence of a good woman needs no stronger testimonial than the incident recited above. —Hawker’s attempt to make a non- stop flight across the Atlantic was the most daring undertaking that has been recorded since air machines have come into practical use. Unhappily it was ended in disaster and the loss of the life of a gallant man. Some may call his attempt foolhardy, but we look upon it as a pure contribu- tion to science. Every great forward movement has been built on just such a sacrifice as Hawker has made and when shins are finally flying from New Foundland to the Irish coast it will be, partially so at least, because of Hawker’s initial attempt to wing the uncharted course through air. —The metamorphosis that has transformed the former teamster in- to a motor truck driver has evident- ly given him a new idea of earning capacity. When he was a teamster he kept his horses and his stable cleaned on his own time, helped throw on his own load and then helped throw it off. Now he sits leisurely behind the steering wheel while he rambles over state highways with a ton or more of crushed limestone and when he reaches his destination dozes or reads a paper while one of the road gang shovels off his load. Is it any wonder it costs eight hundred dollars a mile to keep up an ordinary macad- am highway? STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. President Wilson’s Message. From the beginning of his career in public life President Wilson’s dom- inant purpose has been the welfare of wage earners. Since his inaugura- tion as President six years ago more has been accomplished in this direc- tion than in the fifty years preceding. Logically, therefore, in his message to Congress the question of labor has the first place in importance. He urges Congress to supplement the good work along these lines already achieved by legislation that will make for a better understanding between capital and labor and without impair- ing the rights of capital will enable “the men and women who do the dai- ly labor of the world to obtain pro- gressive improvement in the condi- tions of their labor to be happier and to be served better by the communi- ties and the industries which their la- bor sustains and advances.” The President is equally anxious for the future of the soldiers of the country who have returned, are re- turning and will return from the war in Europe and renews his recommen- dation of a year ago that legislation be enacted by which “returning sol- diers may be helped to find and take up land in the hitherto undeveloped portions of the country which the Federal government has already pre- pared or readily can prepare for cul- tivation.” In the matter of taxation, always a perplexing problem, he ex- presses the hope that “it shall rest as lightly as possible on the productive resources of the country, that its rates shall be stable and that it shall be constant in its revenue-yielding pow- er.” He favors income, excess and estate tax, placing the burden where it may be most easily borne, but fa- vors protection of infant industries such as dye-stuffs and chemicals and retaliation taxes where needed. As he has always dome since the agitation of the question has become nation-wide the President favors the woman suffrage amendment of the constitution and since the necessity of conserving food to the extent re- quired in war times, no longer exists, he recommends the repeal of the act of 1918 which prohibits the manufac- ture and sale of wines and beer. He also recommends the restoration of the rail and wire service to their own- ers under conditions and “as soon as the re-transfer can be effected with- out administrative confusion” and “so soon as the change can be made with the least possible inconvenience to the public and to the owners themselves.” The perverse action of the Republican minority in the last Congress proba- bly moved him to this recommenda- tion. By defeating the necessary ap- propriation for the maintenance and operation of the railroads the public was inconvenienced and the value of the properties impaired. Of course the Republicans in both branches of Congress are greatly dis- appointed at the tone and tenor of the message. They wanted the President to be resentful because of their petty and unpatriotic treatment of him dur- ing his absence in the performance of his arduous and important labors and they hoped he would be silent on cer- tain subjects upon which they intend- ed to legislate. But he is neither re- sentful nor silent. He has taken the ground from under their feet by pro- posing the legislation in advance of their action and forever estopped them of making a false claim of in- itiating the policies upon which they expect to predicate their Presidential campaign next year. In other words Woodrow Wilson has beaten them to the point they expected to occupy and left them looking like lost “babes in the woods.” Notwithstanding the fact that the trout fishing season is over five weeks old no remarkable catches have been made in any of the trout streams of Centre county. And aside from the enthusiasm among the fishermen the first few days of the season there has been very little stir among the disci- ples of Izaak Walton. Of course, the protracted cool weather and frequent rains keep down the ardor of most of the enthusiasts, but when Old Sol be- gins to work overtime and the streams attain their customary crys- tal purity, it is very likely that the | trout streams will furnish an excuse for many men being “away from home.” An alliance between Cabot Lodge and Jim Reed may prove effec- tive for the purpose it is formed to promote but it will not create a pleas- ant perfume in the atmosphere of | Washington. Senator Penrose is too busy in Washington to spend time in Harris- burg this week. Public interests may “go hang” when his fences need re- pairs. If it be true that Mexico does not understand the Mbnroe Doctrine, she has nothing on some of the Unit- ed States Senators. — Besides the Germans under- stand that if the peace treaty is not signed Foch “will resume business at the old stand.” Germany and the Peace Terms. The report that Count von Brock- dorff-Rantzau, head of the German contingent in the peace conference at Versailles, had left the conference and would refuse to sign the treaty is no cause for worry. The cunning Count was simply “playing possum.” His purpose was to feed German vanity by fixing up a claim that the peace terms he will sign, or somebody else will sign in his place, is a “negotiated” rather than a “dictated” peace. The American and Allied representatives bition by giving the German delegates fifteen days in which to submit objec- tions to the terms. The German dele- gates have construed this courtesy as a concession. But it isn’t anything of the kind and the wily old Count is back in Paris jockeying for any kina of a concession he can get. The people of the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy are determined that the terms of peace shall be “dictated” to Germany. In the German army with the cordial ap- probation of the German people, no other terms are to be considered. Properly the terms are mild compared with those Germany has enforced up- on conquered enemies in the past and would have forced upon the United States and the Allies in the present instance if the victory had gone the other way. A pen picture of the con- ference of Versailles after the Fran- co-German war, published recently, is ample proof of that fact. Bismarck was not only intolerent but insulting to the helpless French emissaries when they set up a plea for justice tempered with mercy. Count von Brockdorff-Rantzau has returned to the conference at Versail- les and will sign the treaty as dictated or else that service will be performed by another conspicuous, if not capable, German statesman. Every thinking man in Germany understands the al- ternative. If the treaty, as it is writ- ten, is not signed within a reasonable time, the march to Berlin will be re- sumed and when the next armistice is ‘many left to justify a spirited dis- pute over. The present aspect of Austria should serve as an admonition further contention about the terms of peace. If they fail to profit .by the lesson they will pay the penalty. The House of Representatives at Harrisburg has resolved to adjourn finally on June 19th and until that time the people of Pennsylvania may live in apprehension of all sorts of legislative evils. Budget System Favored. One of the first reforms promised by the new Republican Congress is the introduction of the ‘“‘budget” sys- tem of making appropriations. That it is a wise policy may be inferred from the fact that the Democratic party in and out of Congress has been contending for it for more than a quarter of a century in the face of the resistance of the Republican ma- chine. Among the merits claimed for it is that it will abolish the odious “pork barrel,” which has been a source of graft fostered by the Re- publican party ever since the Civil war. It is also believed that it will effect a considerable decrease in pub- lic expenditures without materially diminishing efficiency in the public service. The Democratic plan for putting the system in operation is expressed in a bill prepared by the chairman of the House committee on Appropria- tions of the last Congress. It would create a “budget committee” in the cabinet with a “Director of the Bud- get” to be appointed by the President. As stated by one of the Washington newspaper correspondents, “he would | attend to the scientific and detail {work of preparing a co-ordinated statement of the governments’ expen- | ditures and recommend the ways and | means of meeting it with revenues.” ! The plan also provides for an Audit- | or General and an independent bureau ! of audit. This bureau would “advise | with the committees and help them { check up the expenditures.” i This would certainly provide effi- | cient machinery for the purpose in view. But it will hardly be accepted ‘by the Republican majority. The | gentlemen who will direct the activi- | ties of the Republican majority in the | present Congress will not consent to an appointment by the President of | any official. Neither will they agree { to any solution of the problem which | will completely eliminate graft. That | party has been sustained for nearly ! fifty years by funds stolen from the . government in one way or another, | and the present pretense of favoring | the “budget” system is essentially | false and fraudulent. It is hoped i that such false pretense will deceive | the people and that is its only present ! purpose. ! If the across-the sea flying ma- chine could be transformed into a dove of peace it might find pleasant, present and profitable employment in the neighborhood of Paris. in the conference encouraged this am- : view of the atrocities prepetrated by | made there won’t be enough of Ger- ! BELLEFONTE, PA., MAY 23, 1919. Comedy in Harrisburg. The Comedy of Errors is dragging its slow length over the stage at Har- _risburg, Governor Sproul acting as i master of ceremonies. The latest in- i formation from the scene is to the ef- fect that the Philadelphia reform bills are to be made over. Penrose is still absent, contesting with Senator Borah, of Idaho, for mastery of the Republican machine in Washington and Vare appears io be recovering i the ground lost a couple of weeks ago. At all events it is now predict- ed that Vare will have his way in the i matter of councils and contracts, | which is about all he wanted. The ! new charter will provide for a larger i body than the reformers desired but i will invest in councils the power to { make contracts. | So that all the fuss and feathers | about reform in Philadelphia have | blown off in the wind. Senator Vare | pretended an interest in other mat- | ters but it was a false pretense. He | wants control of the contracts and the new charter will give him what he wants. With a small council of : twenty-one members, chosen by the city at large, his plans might have been defeated and his power broken. | But the body, large or small, chosen | by wards will give him precisely the grip he has enjoyed in the past and he will set it to his personal advantage. In fact by a bill pending increasing the force of the bureau of Weights and Measures he will have greater opportunities than ever. He will have more patronage to trade with. Thus it has ever been. Old Nick takes care of his own and while the Philadelphia reformers were fooling away time in negotiating terms with | Vare that crafty politician gets away i with the loot. No matter what other | changes are made in the charter if | the power of making contracts is left : in the hands of his personally picked councilmen, whether they be many or few, he will get his plunder and the taxpayers may console themselves with the privilege of paying the ex- penses. The vote of last year showed | that a city-wide vote, honestly re- turned vote, might defeat Vare. But {a vote by wards will give him the i same proportion of a small body that | he has with the large, and reform to the German authorities against | Hopes will go glimmering. | —President Wilson will have a { good many. important things to at- | tend to on his return to Washington be getting rid of Postmaster General Burleson. What Investigation Will Reveal. No man in this broad land will more cordially welcome a searching and thorough investigation of the war work of the administration than Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Such an inquiry can have but one result. It will show that under the direction of our great Democratic leader this country achieved the greatest results ever registered by any people since the be- ginning of time. The whole world was amazed at the things accomplish- ed and Germany, educated to the highest point in the science of war, believed they were impossible. Even our own people, familiar with the grit and go of American manhood, had doubts of the success of the great enterprises undertaken and fulfilled. These things cost money, of course, but they brought victory and honor and glory. Lives were sacrificed and men were crippled and maimed, but justice was vindicated and humanity benefitted. Men are born to die and the usefulness of their lives is meas- ured by the work accomplished. By the death of each of the heroes who lie buried in consecrated graves in France and Flanders, civilization was advanced and the spirit of justice, liberty and right was promoted to a degree beyond parallel in the history of the world. A thorough and searching investigation of the war work of the administration of Wood- row Wilson will reveal these facts to the plain view of every honest mind. As Admiral Schley said after the destruction of the Spanish navy. in 1898, in these achicvements there is “enough glory to go around.” But a searching investigation of the war work of the administration at Wash- ington sill accomplish more. It will show thai though these great things were achieved, though greater sums of money were obtained and disburs- ed than ever known before in a sin- gle enterprise, there was no trace of corruption, no sign of venality, not even a symptom of graft. Even the sordid politicians of the Republican party, consumed with envy and prej- udice, have been unable to “point the finger of suspicion” at any of those charged by the President with the work. — In going to New York for a Superintendent of Public Instruction, Governor Sproul pays scant compli- ment to the educators of this State. —Ttaly is entitled to what is coming to her and will get it to the last farthing. But she can hardly claim the whole cheese. and one of the most perplexing will NO. 21. ‘Repeal of War Time Prohibition Rec- ommended by President Wilson. | Washington, May 20.—President Wilson, in his message to Congress | today, recommended repeal of the | war-time prohibition law—so far as | it applies to wine and beer only; an- | nounced definitely that the rail sys- | tems and telegraph and telephone : lines would be returned to private ownership; urged a revision of war | taxes, particularly to abolish the man- ufacturers’ and retail sales excesses and outlined generally a program re- specting labor. These were the “high spots” of the President’s message cabled from Paris. He again urged enactment of the woman suffrage constitutional amend- ment; recommended that the tariff laws be supplied with teeth to pro- tect American industry against for- eign attack; spoke for legislation to facilitate American enterprise through the expansion of shipping, and back- ed Secretary Lane’s program for land for returning soldiers. -Of the Paris Peace Conference and the League of Nations the President merely said it would be premature to discuss them or express a judgment. He also avoided discussion of domes- tic legislation at length because of his long absence from Washington. Congress heard a unique document; the only one of its kind ever trans- mitted across the ocean from a Pres- ident on a foreign shore. For the first time in six years it heard a Presidential message read by a read- ing clerk instead of assembling to hear the President deliver an address in person. The recommendations for the repeal of war-time prohibition and for re- turn of the rail and wire systems, while not unexpected by some, con- tained the greatest element of sur- prise and provoked the most wide- spread comment of the many tasks set before Congress by the President. In his reference to prohibition, the President did not enter extensively in- to the considerations involved. De- mobilization, he said, merely, “has progressed to such a point that it seems to me entirely safe now to re- move the ban upon the manufacture and sale of wines and ” This ban, laid several months ago to be- come effective on July 1st, could be removed, the President said, only by Congressional enactment. His recommendation regarding re- turn of the railways and wire. lines was the first authoritative declaration by the administration of future {otiey and greatly surprised many embers who had interpreted the de- velopments of the last few months to mean that Mr. Wilson eventually ‘would propose some form of perma- nent government operation.. On the contrary the directness of the Presi- dent’s declaration on that point left no doubt that he was through with any possible scheme of permanent re- tention. On tariff revision the President said the United States should have the means of properly protecting it- self when there was danger of dis- crimination against it by foreign na- tions. “Though we are as far as possible from desiring to enter upon a course of retaliation,” he said, “we must frankly face the fact that hostile leg- islation by other nations is not be- yond the range of possibilities and that it may have to be met by coun- ter legislation. “Although the United States will gladly and unhesitatingly join in the program of international disarma- ment, it will, nevertheless, be a poli- cy of obvious prudence to make cer- tain of the successful maintenance of many strong and well equipped chem- ical plants.” Torrential Rains Produce High Water. Neither the farmer nor anybody else in this section of the State can complain at the present time of any lack of rain, because we have had enough of it this week to soak the ground literally from top to bottom. And it was not a moderate, steady rain, by any means, but hard showers and torrential downpours with some thunder and lightning mixed in to give it character. The result, natur- ally, is high water everywhere. Wednesday night there was a three and 2 half foot flood in Spring creek but fortunately it did not get high enough to reach the “Watchman” of- fice press-room or do any material damage elsewhere, but from the color of the water it looked as if the plow- ed fields along the course of the stream have suffered to some extent. There has been a five to six foot flood in the Bald Eagle and most of the low lands along that stream have been flooded. Down Nittany valley Little Fishing creek was literally a boiling torrent, running away out of bounds over the low fields in the neighbor- hood of Hublersburg and on down the valley. Fishing creek was also very high and Cedar creek, in Little Nitta- ny valley had a big flood with the re- sult that the state highway from Ce- dar Springs towards Mill Hall was under water eighteen inches and it was necessary to detour travel via. the hill route. Down at Millheim the lower streets on Tuesday were all under water so that only those pedestrians equipped with hip boots could do any traveling. But the water was not quite high enough to reach the first floors of any of the buildings. Parts of Coburn were also flooded. SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE —A Hebron, Tioga county farmer, who i sold four veal calves for $117 spot cash, ; says they did not pay for the milk which i they consumed in their short lives. It i would have brought more money at fac- ! tories. i —There were only 116 men engaged in teaching in Lancaster county in the school year now ended or soon to end. The num- ber of women thus engaged is 747. This is the smallest percentage of men in the teaching body that ever was known in that county. —The Forest county bear crop is report- ed to be plentiful this year. A report from Mayburg says that when James Babb Sr., of that place, was going to work he spied a wee bear cub up in a tree which he captured and took home as a pet for his grandson. —Robert McCulloch, of Jersey Shore, bought an expensive team of big black horses last week for use on his farm near that town. They got scared the first day, ran away and dashed headlong into a trol- ley car standing on Main street and both equines were killed outright. —Officials of the Hazleton and Mahanoy division of the Lehigh Valley Railroad have received notice from the railroad ad- ministration to be economical in the use of ice in coolers in cars, stations and of- fices, owing to the scarcity of the natural ice crop the past winter and the consequent high price. —A Providence township, Lancaster county, trucker who generally puts out a lot of ground in tobacco and who has just sold his last year’s crop, will plant the same lot in lima beans this season. Last year he realized more out of the Ili- ma beans than he would had he planted the same acreage in tobacco, and he had no difficulty in disposing of his crop. —As a result of an agreement made thirty years ago that the one surviving should preach the funeral service of the other, the Rev. L. 8. Colburn. of Colum- bus, Ohio, last week had charge of the services at the funeral of the Rev. F. M. Cunningham, of Ohiopyle, Fayettte coun- ty. Mr. Cunningham was the chaplain of the Fayette county Weterans’ association. —Two men, Charles Packer, of Bald Ea- gle township, Clinton county, and Willard Bridgens, of the Bagley garage, Lock Ha- ven, with Packer's four daughters, rang- ing in age from four to seventeen years plunged into Bald Eagle creek Sunday afernoon, when Packer lost control of his automobile above Fairpoint, at a turn in the road 300 feet from where it branches off toward Beech Creek. All were rescued. —Men undoubtedly should be chloro- formed at 60, but be sure the job is thor- oughly done. A young highwayman shov- ed a gun under the nose of a man named McHale, aged 65 years, at Kane, McKean county, and demanded his money. When “Mac” got through with him, “Mac” had the revolver, a handkerchief and $5 be- longing to the marauder, and the reason ! he didn’t have his assailant’s clothes was they gave way while he was stripping _ him. ; —A car load of leather was among the merchandise saved from the Sabula tunnel fire caused by a wreck on the Pennsylva- nia railroad at that Clearfield county town. But after the car had been withdrawn from the flames the people living in the vicinity seemed to think the leather pub- lic property, and much of it disappeared. New the railroad detectives have given those appropriating the leather a few days in which to return it, and it is coming back rapidly. 3 —The other day workmen started peel- ° ing bark on a big tract of timber near Grahamton, and soon the cutting and saw- ing will begin on 14500,000 feet of original- growth pine and hemlock and a small amount of hardwood. The tract is known as the Woolridge place and was purchas- ed from Edward Woolridge, former sher- iff of Clearfield county. The Wallin-Gra- ham company, recenly organized, will op- erate and inside of a month will have a big sawmill on the tract. —The firm of Deiley Brothers, of Beth- lehem, has brought suit against the Phila- delphia & Reading Railway for a claim of $700 for loss on a carload of potatoes pur- chased at Philadelphia June 14th, 1917, and shipped to Bethlehem on the above named railroad, not arriving till June 20, and because of the delay in a spoiled con- dition. The potatoes were sold for $984, whereas if they had been shipped without delay, the plaintiff considers that they would have sold for $1,684. —Boldly confronting a burglar who was elimbing through a window at her home in North Wales, Montgomery county, shortly after midnight Saturday, Miss Lu- lu Frank, daughter of William H. Frank, told him she was going to shoot and the intruder dashed away. Miss Frank, who was unarmed, was aroused from her sleep by a noise downstairs, and she went to investigate. She saw an open window and was about to close it when the man start- ed to climb through from the ouside. —It has cost Tioga county $2,866.90 for sheep damages since January 1, 1919. This includes one hundred and fourteen sheep kiled and one hundred and twenty-nine injured. This is an extraordinarily large amount to pay out for sheep damages for so short a period. It is supposed that this is caused by dog owners not obeying the law, and. lack of diligence on the part of the constables whose duty it is to see that the dog law is properly enforced. Last year Tioga county’s sheep killing bill was over $8,000. —While crazed with drink Alexander Gangulosky, of Shamokin, drove his wife from home after hitting her with an iron bar, and then, apparently remorseful over her refusal to return, shouted good-bye to the world from the front porch of his home and fired three shots into his own body. Attracted by the shots neighbors found him unconscious with one bullet hole in his neck and two in his abdomen. That he should have the fortitude to shoot himself three times makes his rash act one of the most spectacular attempts at sui- cide ever known in that locality. He was rushed to the Shamokin hospital where it was announced that he had no chance for recovery. —The mystery attached to the destruc- tion by fire on May 13th, 1916, of the Ly- ceum theatre, Allentown, which at that time was firmly believed to have been of incendiary origin, is believed to have been cleared up by the arrest during the past three days of three alleged accomplices in the crime. Frank Emmet, proprietor of the theatre when it was destroyed and the present owner of the Regent, is accused in a written confession in the hands of the district attorney, of being the instigator and paymaster in the plot while Frank Wernett, moving picture operator, and Roy W. Middlecamp, also an operator, and both employees of Mr, Emmet at the time, are accused of being the perpetrators of the crime.